The Catapult Book Group, which includes imprints Catapult, Counterpoint Press, Soft Skull Press, and the recently acquired Hawthorne Books & Literary Arts, is being sold and will cease operations at the end of the month.

In a statement (via Publishers Lunch), the Catapult Workers Collective, which voted to join UAW Local 2110 by an "overwhelming majority" in June, said the sale includes the company's assets only, adding that it was also notified that "continued employment with the prospective buyer is not an option." 

Catapult is a publishing collective created by the founders of Electric Literature and Black Balloon Publishing. Operating within Unlikely Collaborators, the nonprofit founded by Elizabeth R. Koch, Catapult's authors have received major recognition, including an International Booker Prize, an Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction, a National Book Critics Circle Award, and several National Book Award finalists.

Author Gina Frangello told the Los Angeles Times that she had never experienced the intimate publishing experience she had with Counterpoint, specifically Dan Smetanka, the editorial director and senior v-p of Catapult. "As someone who has been in indie publishing culture since the '90s, Catapult was a holdout of an old world," she said. "Dan ran things the way they used to, in the storied, fabled days of publishing before everything went corporate."

Meredith Maran, author of more than a dozen books including a novel (A Theory of Small Earthquakes) published by Counterpoint in 2012, told the Times: "Counterpoint, its imprints, and its beating heart, Dan Smetanka, have been (I cannot bring myself to say 'were') the stuff of legends. True legends.... Counterpoint humanized publishing, revered its authors, honored and will live on in its books."

Author Tod Goldberg added: "Since their founding, Counterpoint has published books that matter, has taken chances on authors and topics that others wouldn't, and have been celebrated for this strident independence with wide critical acclaim and commercial success.... Counterpoint took big risks and found big rewards. I'm confident that whomever the buyer is (and I've not been told, so y'all can stop texting me...) will keep these great writers in print while also continuing to publish new work from them, but what's lost here is not merely a publishing house, but a culture of excellence, of risk taking, plus a dash of punk rock."

Ichabod's Books & Scares, a horror-focused bookstore, opened in Hamilton, Ontario, earlier this month, the Hamilton Spectator reported.

The bookstore, which carries horror, science fiction, mystery, dark fantasy, and "all things wonderfully strange," resides at 17 John St. N. There are book options ranging from tame to intense, as well as a selection of children's titles. Other offerings include  locally sourced gifts and merchandise.

Before opening the bricks-and-mortar store, owner Lyndsay Zahachewsky and her husband, Steve, opened an online general-interest bookstore in 2022. After a few years, they decided to open a physical bookstore and focus on a genre dear to their hearts.

Lyndsay Zahachewsky told the Hamilton Spectator that she is an avid reader of "darker literature," and the desire to open a horror-focused store came in part from "going into major book retailers and being met with a horror section that was only one shelf with the majority of books being offered by Stephen King." Noting that although King is one of her "absolute faves," she said she always wanted to see a wider variety of horror authors on shelves.

Zahachewsky added that it "fills my heart" when other horror enthusiasts thank her for opening the bookstore and creating a space for them.

Ichabod's will host a grand opening celebration tomorrow, October 24, featuring signings with authors Nick Cutter (The Troop) and Andrew F. Sullivan (The Marigold) as well as raffles, giveaways, discounts, and tarot readings.

Lakeside owners Brian Thomas and I'Ching Chan-Thomas

Lakeside Books, a nonprofit bookstore in Waconia, Minn, held a grand opening celebration on October 2, the Patriot reported.

Located at 9 W. 1st St., Lakeside Books carries a general-interest selection of new and used titles for all ages. The space features seating, a coffee corner, and a dedicated children's area, and the store's event plans include author readings, book clubs, storytime sessions, and more. Proceeds from the bookstore will go toward supporting local causes.

Owners Brian Thomas and I'Ching Chan-Thomas announced their plans to open Lakeside Books last summer and had expected to have the bookstore open by the end of the year. Renovations and remodeling took much longer than expected, but the couple was able to host a grand opening and ribbon cutting earlier this month.

Thomas, a theologian and professor, previously managed a bookstore in Virginia, while Chan-Thomas has worked in corporate marketing and communications and currently has a leadership role at a nonprofit. 

While working on the renovations, the owners gathered a collection of around 15,000 books. Some 9,000 of those books, along with some shelving, came from Jerry and Pam Chamberlain, retiring owners of Bookshelves & Coffeecups in New Ulm, Minn. Thomas noted that the store currently has about 7,000 books on the shelves, with the rest waiting in storage.

"It's all about bringing in customers and moving books out of the front door and moving in new books from the back," Thomas told the Patriot.

Per the Patriot, Lakeside Books is the first bookstore to open in Waconia for more than 20 years.

Outpost Books, selling both new and used titles, hosted its grand opening last month at 1010½ Fair Oaks Ave. in South Pasadena, Calif. At the time, owner Nicole Novembrino posted on social media: "Thanks for the warm welcome! Outpost Books' grand opening this past weekend was something else! The South Pasadena community and book lovers from all around really showed up. We're so happy to be here and are excited to be part of the neighborhood."

Inside the new bookstore, "custom corral doors open to a mural of a desert sunset," LAist reported. "Hand-drawn signs guide you to each genre. Novembrino selects the books herself, from bestsellers to history books, including those that honor Route 66--which Fair Oaks is part of. Some of the used books come from a local retirement home. The stickers for sale are for causes she supports such as keeping national parks public. A donation box to keep wild horses and burros free sits by the cash register."

"I wanted it to feel obviously cozy [like] a bookstore," but also "like a trading post, where you just stop along the road, and there's stuff everywhere," said Novembrino, who picked South Pasadena because the area didn't have a bookstore. She is aware how difficult it is to run a small business, noting that a nearby toy store had said a rent hike could lead to the shop shutting down. "That's the one thing when you own a business is making rent. I hope not to feel that fear, but it's a very real thing."

On opening day she was shocked to see a long line out the door, adding: "I've gotten thank-yous for opening. They're just excited to have a bookstore. I wasn't expecting that."

Novembrino is "still settling into the dream of finally running a bookshop," LAist noted. "As for her second dream, that's opening up a donkey rescue."

The Wuthering Raven in Troup, Tex., has reopened on a limited basis in its new, larger location, the Tyler Morning Telegraph reported.

Owner Kaylei Kinard has relocated the bookstore from its original, 500-square-foot space at 400 W. Calvert St. to a much larger space at 116 W. Duval St. and added a cafe serving coffee drinks, pastries, and other beverages, with a full menu to come in the weeks ahead. In its original home, the bookstore had a heavily curated selection focusing on fiction; Kinard plans to expand those offerings going forward. The new space also has room for events.

Kinard opened the Wuthering Raven in April. The name is an homage to Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë as well as the Edgar Allan Poe poem "The Raven."

John Iliffe, "a historian of Africa whose intensively researched work focused on the struggles of ordinary citizens, influencing generations of scholars and students," died August 20, the New York Times reported. He was 87.

For decades, Iliffe "put in long hours in sweltering African archives for books that covered wars, nation-building, demography, disease, leaders, and the poor. Fellow historians of the continent revered him because he placed the African at the center of his books. Not the king, the dictator or the guerrilla chief, but the African citizen, existing in the world's most hostile physical environment and fighting to preserve his or her dignity," the Times wrote.

In six major books, including The African Poor: A History (1987); Africans: The History of a Continent (1995, revised edition 2017), and Honor in African History (2005), he cataloged the ways in which "suffering has been a central part of the African experience, whether it arose from the harsh struggle with nature or the cruelty of men," as he wrote in Africans.

Colleagues called Iliffe an old-fashioned scholar, interested in people and facts, not theory, and in filling hundreds of shoe boxes with index cards. "He had a tremendous capacity to find his way through complex subjects and bring out the humanity of the African actors," said Derek Peterson, a historian of Africa at the University of Michigan. "He took on a whole range of subjects and he always put Africans at the center of the story, even when they failed." Peterson added that Iliffe admired ordinary Africans, "the commoners, not the kings."

Iliffe earned his undergraduate and Ph.D. degrees from Peterhouse College, Cambridge, in 1961 and 1965, with a thesis on colonial German East Africa. He then taught at the University College of Dar es Salaam in newly independent Tanzania, becoming part of what was later celebrated as the "Dar es Salaam School of African History," a group of academics, caught up in idealistic nation-building, who worked to produce an anticolonial narrative of the recent African past, the Times noted.

Returning to Cambridge in 1971, he became a fellow at St. Johns College, and remained there for the next 55 years, producing his first major book, A Modern History of Tanganyika (1979).

Cambridge colleague John Lonsdale said, "African history owes John a staggering debt in his sheer curiosity, his extraordinary appetite for grueling hard work, his courage in publishing in so many areas of others' expertise." 

City Lit Books, Chicago, Ill., hosted "hometown heroes" Joan Cusack and John Cusack. The siblings were in conversation about John's debut graphic novel, Momo (Mad Cave Studios), illustrated by Ignacio Noé.  

Congratulations to Print: A Bookstore in Portland, Maine, which is celebrating its 10th anniversary this year "and we are pulling out all the stops," the bookseller noted in its latest e-newsletter. "In classic Print tradition, we will be commemorating our birthday with our biggest sale of the year" on November 21 and 22. 

To kick things off, on Friday, November 20, Print will host a party to benefit I'm Your Neighbor Books. "Since 2012, I'm Your Neighbor Books has been increasing access to and engagement with Immigrant and New Generation children's literature through creating mobile Welcoming Libraries, distributing Rapid Response Book Boxes, and ensuring culturally important children's literature is accessible through libraries and schools. It is our honor to be able to help in continuing their important work in our community in Portland and throughout the U.S.," the bookstore noted, adding: "But that's not all! Stay tuned over the coming weeks for more information on new merchandise, special prints, music, community partnerships and more!"

"Congrats to Kristen, winner of the 30-Second Snail Sweep, awarded after our birthday weekend. She had a fantastic team cheering her on, and she took home a nice stack of books from all around the bookstore!" Snail on the Wall bookstore in Huntsville, Ala., posted.

"Cheesepuff was informed that The Book Barn would be changing its winter schedule. After careful consideration, he agreed to chair the meeting. Literally," Book Barn in Niantic, Conn., posted, adding: "This change will help keep The Book Barn thriving through the winter months, and we're grateful to everyone who continues to support us. Cheesepuff has already approved the new arrangement, though we suspect his main interest is the chair."

"Come catch our sunniest hour, discover your next read, and snag a warm corner for a bit of reading! Open all week for your sun catching needs," Shared Stories bookstore in Caldwell, Idaho, posted. 

The lead roles in the upcoming Fourth Wing TV series, based on Rebecca Yarros's bestselling Empyrean book series, have been cast. Deadline reported that Esther McGregor is playing the role of Violet Sorrengail and Emilio Sakraya will be Xaden Riorson.

"I'm so grateful to our producing and casting team for conducting a thorough, worldwide search to find Violet and Xaden," said Yarros. "It will be incredibly exciting to see these talented actors, Esther and Emilio, bring our beloved characters to life on screen."

"Few stories have inspired the kind of passionate, worldwide fandom that Rebecca Yarros has built with Fourth Wing, and we know just how much Violet and Xaden mean to readers," added Peter Friedlander, head of global television, Amazon MGM Studios. "Esther and Emilio are rare and exceptional talents who bring something truly special to these iconic roles."

Meredith Averill is the project's showrunner and executive producer. Lisa Joy directs the series premiere, and exec produces with Averill, Yarros, Jordan, and others.

Barnes & Noble has selected 16 finalists for its 2026 Book of the Year, the titles B&N booksellers "find truly outstanding and in which they have felt the most pride in recommending to readers." The finalists, which include f six novels, seven nonfiction books and three books for young readers, will be voted on by all B&N booksellers and the winner named on November 12. This year's finalists are:

Strangers: A Memoir of Marriage by Belle Burden
Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke
Sleeping Beauties: Why Good Ideas Go Dormant and How They Wake Up by David Byrne
This Vast Enterprise: A New History of Lewis and Clark by Craig Fehrman
Whale Harbor by Mary Beth Keane
London Falling: A Mysterious Death in a Gilded City and Family's Search for Truth by Patrick Radden Keefe
Partita by Barbara Kingsolver
The Book of Birds: A Field Guide to Wonder and Loss by Robert Macfarlane and Jackie Morris
Redwood: The Untold Story of the Cold War's Most Extraordinary Spy by Ben Macintyre
This Is a Door by Daniel Nayeri
Land by Maggie O'Farrell
Is This a Plum? A Peek-Through Picture Book by Dan Ojari and Finn Ojari
Ottolenghi Simple Too: A Cookbook by Yotam Ottolenghi
The Calamity Club by Kathryn Stockett
The Unlikely Tale of Chase and Finnegan by Jasmine Warga
Cool Machine by Colson Whitehead

B&N CEO James Daunt commented: "This has been another wonderful year of publishing, and a great year for booksellers. The success of real bookstores, these inspiring physical places in which readers get so much pleasure, is a tremendous affirmation of the power of individual curation and the triumph of personal recommendation. Booksellers enjoy nothing more than to sell the books they love and, each year, first a shortlist and ultimately a winner is selected for the book of the year. Happily, there is not much science involved: booksellers vote, any which way they care--and care they do--and we find ourselves with another shortlist of excellent books."

Shannon DeVito, senior director of books at B&N, added: "Year after year, I'm always impressed by the efforts of our booksellers to make and sell interesting books. It's been a stellar calendar for publishing, and it's more important than ever to champion the books that made waves, from biting satire to gripping nonfiction, feel-good historical fiction and more."

Sonja Swift (photo: Marcus Lund)

Sonja Swift is an award-winning writer, poet, and environmental storyteller whose work explores the intersection of culture and the natural world. She is the author of Echo Loba, Loba Echo: Of Wisdom, Wolves and Women and Red Sky in the Morning: Of Water, Whales and Warnings (Rocky Mountain Books, October 13, 2026), which combines marine science and memoir while drawing on Indigenous knowledge and environmental history. Her work has appeared in Dark Mountain Project, Literary Hub, and Orion magazine, among other literary journals and poetry anthologies. She comes from dusty, sometimes emerald California coastal hills.

On your nightstand now:

Call Me Ishmaelle by Xiaolu Guo, a feminist retelling I just finished that complements the original well. "Elle" is a covert word in the title of my first book also.

Daughter of Mother-of-Pearl by Mandy-Suzanne Wong, essays about mollusks and awareness that are making me see in new ways, something I cherish doing.

How Iceland Changed the World by Egill Bjarnason, because I gave his parents, bookstore owners of Bókakaffið in Selfoss, a copy of my book and in trade I received this. An insightful and witty read.

Praiseworthy by Alexis Wright, after having recently finished The Swan Book and her essay "The Inward Migration in Apocalyptic Times."

A motley stack of kids' books for bedtime stories including Constellation of the Deep by Benjamin Flouw.

Favorite book when you were a child:

Picking a single book is an impossible question, so any answers I offer within such parameters are really just flashes of light off a prism. That said, of childhood, one book stands out distinctly: The Brothers Lionheart by Astrid Lindgren, who is more well known for Pippi Longstocking, which certainly played into my childhood as well.

Your top five authors:

Setting aside impossibility, here are a handful, accompanied by a book (or two):

Ursula K. Le Guin (Always Coming Home and The Word for World Is Forest) for her legendary science fiction and perceptive essays, opinion pieces, and critiques.

Layli Long Soldier (Whereas, with We on order, noting her poem "38") for her steadfast precision with language, depth of thought, and poetic resistance. I feel a sense of coherence in reading her work.

Ryszard Kapuściński (The Shadow of the Sun) for the authentic lived experiences he brought to reportage and his own unique perspective, as in the case of this book, in being the lone Polish correspondent in Africa during years of decolonization.

Galsan Tschinag (The Blue Sky and The Gray Earth) for how he vibrantly channels Tuvan oral tradition into written books. I feel lucky to have been introduced to his work via Milkweed Editions books in translation.

Leslie Marmon Silko (Ceremony, Almanac of the Dead, The Turquoise Ledge) whose writing lives on in my mind's eye long after putting her books down.

Book you've faked reading:

Herman Melville's classic Moby-Dick. But only at first, when I couldn't quite get into the verbose cadence and kept ditching it. Once I determined to finish the tome, I was grateful I did.

Book you're an evangelist for:

I'm not a good evangelist. That said, Pia Arke comes to mind. The book that introduced me to her is a trilingual reprint of her essay "Ethno-Aesthetics" in Kalaallisut, Danish, and English that my husband found a copy of when we were in Nuuk. I more or less dedicated a chapter to her in Echo Loba, Loba Echo.

Book you've bought for the cover:

The Wayfinder by Adam Johnson stood out for me on the shelf with its azure two-inch-wide spine and dust jacket glimmering with gold stars. I needed a book for a trip and was glad to find this one by happenstance.

Book you hid from your parents:

Less than a book I hid, one that I held close was The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran. This hasn't changed.

Book that changed your life:

I pay tribute to Of Wolves and Men by Barry Lopez for motivating me to write a woman's version thereof. I read this book on a long road trip going from coastal California to the Black Hills, S.Dak. While there were other aspects to the journey, both along this particular traverse and in the wider arc of life, that led me to write the book I finally did write, reading Lopez at this time was instrumental. Of course, I've always respected his eloquence and perception, having read Arctic Dreams years prior, among other works.

Favorite line from a book:

Most recent one I wrote down: "And once the storm is over you won't remember how you made it through, how you managed to survive. You won't even be sure, in fact, whether the storm is really over. But one thing is certain. When you come out of the storm you won't be the same person who walked in. That's what this storm's all about." --Haruki Murakami, Kafka on the Shore.

The initial making of my second book, Red Sky in the Morning, began with writing about storms before I dove into the deep water and it became an ocean book. The storm is one of those metaphors I circle around.

Five books you'll never part with:

These would be special life-weathered copies, including some of the books named here.

Book you most want to read again for the first time:

Here are three...

Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi. I remember being in awe of how this epic traverses eight generations, categorically depicting how the past lives on in the present moment.

The Baron in the Trees by Italo Calvino. I'm fond of magic realism, and this was the book that introduced me to Calvino's imagination.

Ædnan by Linnea Axelsson. I remain compelled by the spartan form of this verse novel, which distills a kaleidoscopic view of intergenerational experiences enduring amidst the forces of colonization in Sápmi homelands.

Book that has resonance with your own writing:

When I picked up Poppy State by Myriam Gurba, I noticed elements that felt uniquely akin. From place (we both hail from and write about a similar part of California) to issues she reckons with (including brutal histories and land memories of this golden poppy state), but also in her particular experimentation with form. Such as incorporating non-alphanumeric keys in the text and writing prose with a poetic bent and shape, both of which I do in my own ways. She approached this book as if walking through a labyrinth. It is also a healing story. Her writing is vivid. I am especially drawn to poetic prose and a hybridity of forms.

In San Diego journalist Megan Zhang's inviting debut memoir, Eating with the Sun, food connects her with her immigrant parents and her Chinese heritage, makes her mindful of the turning of the seasons, and reveals the health-boosting properties of trademark dishes.

The book's two dozen essays correspond to the 24 distinct microseasons on the Chinese calendar, which follows the solar cycle. Nonchronological personal vignettes weave in wisdom from traditional Chinese medicine. For instance, in "Lichun | Start of Spring," Zhang relocates to Beijing in 2018 to work as a writer and host of Travelogue: Exploring Hidden China. Whereas she assumed she'd be less of an outsider than in the U.S., she still stands out, despite her proficiency in Mandarin. She and her father decide to meet in Korea to mark the New Year in a Chinatown there, with dishes that feature symbols of prosperity and spotlight the year's first spring greens. In "Jingzhe | Awakening Insects," she rediscovers beloved seasonal treats after spending Covid lockdown with her parents. Asian supermarkets were reassuringly familiar following family moves (e.g., to upstate New York) in her childhood.

The ritual of eating particular foods at certain times of year helps Zhang to feel at home and centered, even when far from family. In the summer, it's said one must "eat bitterness"--literally, with bitter melon on the menu; metaphorically, one must endure. Noodles are eaten as a reset at the solstice. Seasonal eating is also a strategy for warding off illness, to which one is vulnerable at times of transition. Zhang grew up hearing the saying "better to heal with food than with medicine." If she's feeling rundown, she hankers for her grandmother's chicken soup and her parents' cooked pears. When she comes down with a cold during filming, a colleague suggests rice porridge with ginger and scallion rather than pills.

A former senior editor at America's Test Kitchen, Zhang is as candid about her shifting "emotional weather" (overworking, phobia of death, disordered eating) as she is enthusiastic about Chinese cuisine. The chapter-closing recipes include ingredients to source from specialty grocers. Acknowledging Covid-era xenophobia, she defends Chinese resourcefulness versus the negative "eat[ing] everything" stereotype. Granted, her aunt's glutinous caterpillar soup took some adjustment, but stepping outside one's comfort zone means discovering novel flavors and textures--like braised pork trotters.

Zhang offers a delicate reminder to look to diet before pharmaceuticals, eating with the seasons to restore balance and harmony. --Rebecca Foster, freelance reviewer, proofreader, and blogger at Bookish Beck

Shelf Talker: Megan Zhang's serene foodoir presents Chinese traditional seasonal eating as a complement to modern medicine, as well as a way to honor heritage and commemorate holidays.