It doesn't seem possible to sort by more than one field at once - e.g. to sort by author, and then by release date. To do this for one author, you have to search for, and then sort the search result by date. But this sort doesn't stick when you return to the main collection.
It seems you can't make an alphabetical list by author, and then sort by date leaving the author sort intact. This would be an immensely useful feature.
Multiple Sort
Sorting
Sorry, you're right, this works in 3.3, although it doesn't work at all in 3.1. I had gone back to 3.1 because the iSight was working fine with 3.1 but was producing at least 4 false readings for every positive with 3.3. I happily did my 300 books with 3.1 and the iSight worked smoothly.