@chaley,
I'm thrilled with the new beta!
Cover View: The Cover view Portrait 65% ratio setting is perfect for me - more books & less background. Even when I choose 'Portrait distort' the actual distortion appears negligible (for my covers), plus it has the added benefit of all thumbnails being a uniform size. BTW a small suggestion, the word 'distort' sounds a bit negative, perhaps 'stretch' or 'stretch-to-fit' sounds less of a bad thing (of course many believe it is A Very Bad Thing
) If you do add a 3rd option perhaps 75% would be good for those, like DoctorOhh, who have taken a lot of time over the years to make covers look good for their 3:4 ereaders.
The choice of wood colours is great. I'll pick the dark grey for myself but there should be something for everyone there.
Keeping place when switching between Cover and List works as well as I will ever need.
First Letter grouping: I like it! I'm glad you sceptics have seen the light
Customising for each group field would be perfect but I think the 80/20 rule probably applies here.
One thing I did notice is that if you choose 'Title' it always groups by FL no matter whether the box is ticked or not. But perhaps this is deliberate?
Thanks to all for your service with a smile. Luckily we can't see the gritted teeth each time one of us says 'I've had this really great idea...'