Help with speaker recommendations for N00b

[Bunt]

I know this must get old for some of you pros but please indulge me....

Room is 20X22 with sloping 10 ft to 15 ft ceiling from right to left facing two recessed built in bookshelves on either side of a 5' fireplace. The front of the shelves are 2 ft back from the front of the fireplace on both sides and about 4 ft wide by 10 ft tall.

Receiver is the Pioneer VSX-915 which is 110 watts per channel and I have a PV700 Boston Acoustics 200 W 12" subwoofer.

I'm not looking for much more than background music for the area but appreciate good sound nonetheless. I've looked at several threads and received some good advice that I should try for a front port speaker. Energy, NHT, KEF, Axiom and Tweak City's WAF-1 have all come up. I can use one of the shelves or the top of shelf for speaker placement. I can spend $300 to $500 for a pair but prefer the bottom range.

Please let me know your thoughts.