From your choices I would say your American (English people would have something like B&W, Kef and another) the advice is the same no matter what you are looking at though.
Find someone or where that has the speakers your looking at, and listen to them, either with the amp your going to use or better yet, with that amp and an amp that you have in the back of your mind you want to upgrade to. You want to listen too (take with you), music you like and ideally know really well, and samples of anything else your likely to use them for. Bookshelf speakers don't need to be huge, you can use a sub with them later and get your deep base when you want it.
Makes can give you an idea of the market place your buying into, some do rock or dance or classic or even folk well others AV and are not particularly aimed at music. Some have a very defined sound (company signature) which you may find you like, but remember one product gets it right for you, others even in the same range might not, you wont know until you listen, you buy when your happy and have fun finding your new purchase (its a big part of the fun of owning this kit).
If you get the right ones btw, you wont ever stop using them, I own the top of the range reference series Kef speakers now with Chord amps, and home made sources, with that setup, the cables cost more than my first set of bookshelf speakers (B&W DM602 s1's). I still love my B&W's even though all the other pairs of speakers cost 5x or more than them per pair, and I never bought another pair of B&W's because I didn't like the sound of the other speakers they make (over the kef uni Q's). I did listen to the B&W's a lot before I bought them (I had to save for them and the local HiFi store owner was very patient with me) I tried several amps, new and old music I loved and after 18 years I am still happy with the £280 ($420 ish) I spent on them, and they still sound better than some of the speakers being released today.
Don't be in a rush and go and do some listening, you may find, you save more money, or even walk away with a bargain you didn't realise existed.