I "chatted" with Sony support a couple of days ago, and the solution was to go into System Preferences and UNBLOCK the eBook Library software (there were 2 processes on my Mac, eBookLibrary and eBookLibrary Launcher) from connecting to the Internet behind my firewall. Despite the fact that I did this, the application still asks me for permission to connect, so not sure if I unblocked everything that needed to be unblocked (I do use Stealth mode in OSX).
I reinstalled the app (trashing only the fsk folder) and it has been working since. The Sony rep claimed this was a new issue, but I knew better

I liberally cited the MobileRead forum for his information...
Thanks for the help...R.