Moravian Book Shop in Bethlehem, Pa., hosted a ribbon cutting and grand reopening celebration on Wednesday, September 9 as it continues operations under the direction of nearby Moravian University. WFMZ reported that the college had announced earlier this year that it "would end its management agreement with Barnes & Noble in June and bring in ANC Consulting to come up with a new operational and financial model that would let the school run the store on its own terms."

In his remarks at the reopening festivities, university president Bryon Grigsby said the shop represents a promise to the community that ideas will always have a place to live on Main Street: "In 1745, Bishop (Augustus) Spangenberg asked an innkeeper named Samuel Powell to keep that promise. This morning, 281 years later, we're renewing it." 

In 2018, the Moravian Church recognized it could no longer run the store and the university (then still Moravian College) agreed to assume ownership, establishing its student bookstore in the space and bringing in Barnes & Noble Collegiate to handle the day-to-day operations. Grigsby expressed gratitude to B&N, noting that the company took a shop that was losing money and turned it into one that paid its own way.

"The school will now have the flexibility to really reach out to local artists and vendors to showcase their products," said Angelina Carvalhal, founder of ANC Consulting. "There's going to be a lot of community events, working with the community and local artists to bring their product into the store. More flexibility.... This is a great opportunity for the bookstore to find its own identity, to connect with the community in a really authentic way where patrons can actually see themselves within the assortment." 

Grigsby added: "The best way to honor 281 years of history is to keep adding new voices to it, not just preserve the old ones under glass. That's the assignment for this next chapter: a shop that serves a Moravian freshman buying their first book and a visitor from Saxony buying a Moravian star to take home under the same roof, on the same Main Street where Samuel Powell started all of this in 1745." 

After getting its start as a pop-up store, Bohemian Bookshop will open a bricks-and-mortar storefront in Denton, Tex., this fall, Community Impact reported.

The bricks-and-mortar store, at 525 Bryan St., will carry a selection of new books emphasizing small presses, cult classics, backlist titles, and authors from historically marginalized communities. In addition to books, owner Peyton Barfield will carry stickers, pins, branded bags, and other merchandise. Her plans for events include author readings, book clubs, writing groups, and art classes.

"Now that we're working on opening our storefront, most of our energy is focused there but we will still likely do pop-ups on special occasions," Barfield told Community Impact. 

Barfield first started selling books online in 2021. In 2025, she began making pop-up appearances at coffee shops, markets, and other locations, mostly in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. She also made a few appearances in Houston and Austin.

Barfield is aiming for a fall 2026 opening.

Spellbound Sisters Bookstore & Cafe will move to a new location this weekend in Boardman, Ohio, WFMJ reported.

The new and used bookstore and cafe will be moving from its original home at 7095 Lockwood Blvd. to 224 Boardman-Canfield Rd. Owner Caroline Kishton has a grand reopening celebration set for tomorrow, September 12; customers will be entered to win a $100 gift card. 

"We're now right in the middle of Boardman, with a new space ready for all the books, coffee, events, conversations, creativity, and wonderfully weird little moments that make Spellbound Sisters feel like home," Kishton wrote in a Facebook post announcing the reopening celebration.

Kishton opened Spellbound Sisters in 2024. In addition to books, the store carries puzzles, crystals, coloring books, games, and more. At the time, Kishton noted that she named the store for her two daughters. "It's essentially a legacy I want to pass down to them... they're five and seven and love to read," she said. "So it was one of those things that just kind of rolled into something that, eventually, it'll be theirs, but they're going to be here all the time because they love books."

The American Booksellers Association has named Finn Butterfield as the new associate manager, free expression & advocacy, effective September 21. Butterfield has been at ABA for the past six years as an IndieCommerce support specialist. Before that, they were a bookseller at Towne Center Books, Pleasanton, Calif., from 2017 to 2020.

Finn Butterfield

"Since Finn started at ABA they've been someone I've counted on for honest communication and a commitment to making our work more equitable," said ABA CEO Allison Hill. "I've been struck by the ways Finn has been an advocate in their personal life and their consistent commitment to helping independent bookstores through support and education. In their interviews with the ABA team for this position it was clear they had given a lot of thought to ABFE's work and would bring fresh ideas and energy to the position. We look forward to working with them in their new role."

David Grogan, director, free expression, advocacy & public policy for ABA, commented: "I am happy to have Finn join the advocacy team. Finn's deep understanding of our member community and unwavering dedication to independent booksellers makes them an invaluable addition. I look forward to seeing the positive impact Finn will undoubtedly have in this new role."

"I am incredibly excited to be a part of the advocacy team and eager to get to work," Butterfield said. "Reading has always been so integral to my being and that has been fostered by indie bookstores and the community they create. Literacy, the right to read, and free expression has and always will be a passion that is personal and of the utmost importance to me. Books have helped shape me into the person I am today and continue to be a source of education, entertainment, escapism, and enlightenment that I vehemently believe everyone should have equal access to."

After their start date in the new position, Butterfield can be contacted by ABA members for support regarding harassment, free expression, and any advocacy questions at abfe@bookweb.org.

Edward Field, "one of the most accomplished American poets of the postwar era, whose award-winning work--characterized by everyday language and an openly gay landscape--was forged by nearly a century of living in bohemian New York," died September 6, the New York Times reported. He was 102.

Field's connection to poetry was sparked when, as a newly enlisted 18-year-old soldier boarding a troop train during World War II, a Red Cross worker gave him a bag that contained a toothbrush, a comb, a candy bar, and a poetry anthology. "I was on that train for three days. I read it over and over. I knew immediately that I was going to be a poet," he said in a 2022 interview. 

Field wrote 12 books of poetry and edited two anthologies, A Geography of Poets (1979) and A New Geography of Poets (1992). His many honors included the Prix de Rome, the Lambda Literary Award, the Shelley Memorial Award, and the W.H. Auden Prize.

In 2011, British editor and writer Diana Athill published Letters to a Friend, an epistolary chronicle of her 30-year friendship with Field. "The whole point of poetry for me is subject matter," he told her. "Saying what I have to say, saying what has never been said before, what's not polite to say."

During the war, Field met Coman Leavenworth, the first published poet he had ever encountered. Leavenworth "introduced him to the work of contemporary poets who were writing about same-sex desire at a time when homosexuality was illegal on both sides of the Atlantic and most gay writing was coded or underground," the Times wrote. By the time Field published his debut collection, Stand Up, Friend, with Me (1963), he was a writer open about his own sexuality.

After the war, he returned to New York University on the G.I. Bill and met other young writers, including Susan Sontag and Cynthia Ozick, as well as Alfred Chester, a literary critic and novelist who died under mysterious circumstances in 1971. Field became the keeper of his legacy, successfully lobbying publishers to reprint Chester's work. He also paid homage to Chester in his memoir, The Man Who Would Marry Susan Sontag and Other Intimate Portraits of the Bohemian Era (2005). 

Field moved to Paris in 1948 for two years, meeting other expatriate American writers like James Baldwin and Robert Friend, and publishing work regularly in literary magazines. He returned to New York in 1950 and by the mid-1950s had met poet Frank O'Hara, with whom he had a brief love affair.

"Frank O'Hara showed me the way," Field wrote for outhistory.org. The Times noted that O'Hara's "ability to write easily and unselfconsciously as a gay man gave Field the courage to follow his instincts and loosen up with his own writing. The result was a breakthrough in his poetry."

Stand Up, Friend, with Me received the Lamont Poetry Prize from the Academy of American Poets. By the early 1970s, Field had become a successful poet, able to support himself through public readings and freelance writing.

The love of Field's life was Neil Derrick, a novelist "who published bodice-rippers such as Sticky Fingers (1970) under the pseudonyms Eleanor Bartlett and Bruce Elliot. They met in 1959, while they were both working in a typing pool at an advertising agency," the Times noted. In 1971, Derrick was diagnosed with a brain tumor and Field became his caregiver. They collaborated on several Bruce Elliot novels, including The Potency Clinic (1978) and Village (1982, republished as The Villagers in 1999), which became an unexpected bestseller.

A longtime resident of Westbeth Artists Housing, a community for artists and arts organizations in the West Village, Field continued to write and publish through his 80s.

At Porter Square Books in Cambridge, Mass., Betty Cayouette (l.), author of I Kissed Her First (Saturday Books), interviewed co-authors Jilly Gagnon (center) and Lana Harper (r.) about their first collaborative novel, Cards on the Table (Bantam Books).

Cristina Iannarino

The winner of the 2026 Book Publishers Representatives of New England Handseller of the Year Award goes to Cristina Iannarino of Books on the Square, Providence, R.I.

BPRNE wrote: "Cristina is the resident manager of an expanded, more adventurous kids department at Books on the Square. It is a fun section, with a lot of parent support; and it is much livelier than ever. She is also a whiz at selling kids books. Her knowledge of the children's section is outstanding, but what she is especially strong at, is in getting the right book in the hands of the customer. Not an easy or simple task when one is dealing with children's books. When it comes to hand selling a favorite book of hers, nobody can match her energy and enthusiasm for that special book. And no one can rival Cristina for her outgoing nature, friendliness, and positivity. It’s a joy to watch her work and a joy to work with her."

Iannarino will receive the award at next week's NEIBA Fall Conference Awards Banquet, on September 16, in Newton, Mass.

Chaucer's Books in Santa Barbara, Calif., paid tribute to one of the shop's veteran booksellers on social media: "Thank you Barb. Chaucer's Books wouldn't be what it is today without you. Retiring after 31 years. Thanks to all the folks that stopped in, customers, previous staff, friends. Every person in the first two pics is someone Barb hired. We wouldn't be here without her. Fact."

A few days earlier, the bookstore had posted: "She's been at the store since 1995.... And she's finally decided she's done laboring with us and it's time to leave the joint. If there is someone at the store you've liked over the last 25 years, thank Barb for hiring them. If you like mysteries, you can thank Barb for being the master shelver and recommender for decades. If you like no nonsense, dry wit, you'd like Barb. This lady is leaving some big shoes behind. Her last day is Wednesday, come wish her well (she'll sort of hate it, but also appreciate it)."

"Fetch a book and settle in. We have a new staff member here at Interabang Books, and he's quite handsome. Meet Lori's new puppy, Rugby!" Interabang Books in Dallas, Tex., posted. "When Rugby isn't helping his mom read books for @thebigbookproject or @acrossthepondbooks or @rofcusa, he's working hard at being cute. We hope you'll come visit him soon, although he's already bigger than he was when we took this photo. Rugby will be here occasionally supporting his mom and all things Interabang Books."

At Sourcebooks:

Cara Nesi has been promoted to associate sales director, inside sales.

BrocheAroe Fabian has been promoted to associate marketing director, indies.

Tomorrow:
Good Morning America: Chloe Benjamin, author of Under Story (Putnam, $32, 9780593545218).

Netflix has greenlighted Lonesome Dove, a limited series based on Larry McMurtry's classic novel. Deadline reported that the indie studio Teton Ridge Entertainment "had previously announced acquisition of the rights to the Lonesome Dove literary franchise for film and television. It brought in Kazan and Stuart to write the adaptation and took the package out in late April. By early May, in a very competitive situation, Lonesome Dove had landed at Netflix with a straight-to-series order." 

The project is envisioned as an ongoing series. Lonesome Dove was previously adapted as a hit 1989 CBS miniseries, starring Robert Duvall and Tommy Lee Jones. It won a Peabody, seven Emmys, and two Golden Globes. Subsequent books in the Lonesome Dove series were also adapted into miniseries. 

Kazan and Stuart were co-showrunners for Netflix's upcoming East of Eden series, based on John Steinbeck's novel and written by Kazan. Starring Florence Pugh, that project premieres October 1. 

"After our singular experience on East of Eden, we are thrilled to be teaming with Netflix again, along with Teton Ridge Entertainment, to bring Larry McMurtry's western classic to life," Kazan and Stuart said in a statement. "We come to this material with love and respect, and can't wait to hit the trail with Gus and Call and the rest of these beloved characters. Yee-haw."

Jinny Howe, Netflix head of scripted series, U.S., Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, said, "Lonesome Dove is one of the great American stories, and there was no question we wanted to follow Zoe and Jeb wherever they went next. After East of Eden, we know exactly what they're capable of--the depth of character, the sweep of place, the emotional precision. This material deserves that level of care. In their hands, it's going to be something extraordinary. We're excited to partner with Teton Ridge to bring this legendary story to life."

The 14-title longlist has been released for the C$100,000 (about US$72,320) Giller Prize, which honors "the best Canadian novel, graphic novel or short story collection published in English." The finalists, who will be unveiled October 5, receive C$10,000 (about US$7,230) each. The winner will be named November 16. This year's longlisted titles are:

The Winter Witch by Jennifer Chevalier 
Dodge City by Patrick deWitt
The Golden Boy by Patricia Finn 
Wild People Quiet by Tara Gereaux 
The Unravelling of Ou by Hollay Ghadery 
Eliza Sunshine by Michelle Good 
Your Breath in Charcoal by Nicholas Herring 
The Small Ones by Nazanine Hozar
The Novice by Wayne Johnston
Daphnis and Chloe by Colin McAdam
Cleo Dang Would Rather Be Dead by Mai Nguyen
Riverwork by Lisa Robertson
Good People by Patmeena Sabit 
At Sea in a Sieve by Cordelia Strube 

For the first time in prize history, the longlist was selected by a pan-Canadian jury panel of independent booksellers representing all five regions of Canada.

photo: Alek Aguirre

Ann Aguirre is the author of numerous bestselling adult and YA novels. She volunteers regularly and is enrolled in graduate school for clinical mental health counseling. The Hocus Pocus Handbook (Sourcebooks Casablanca, September 1, 2026) features a sunshine-shadow slow burn, an unforgettable found family, and a world lush with wildcraft magic. It's a cozy fae fantasy romance perfect for fans of Heather Fawcett's Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries and T. Kingfisher.

On your nightstand now:

My reading is quite eclectic these days. I'm reading Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor E. Frankl for grad school, and I suspect that text requires no introduction from me. Incredibly powerful. I have The Deep by Alma Katsu playing whenever I'm in a vehicle. Alma's books make me feel like I'm swimming through deep water and struggling to catch my breath. I am also reading The Fallen Fruit by Shawntelle Madison, and she's both a good friend and a tremendously talented writer. The Fallen Fruit is tender, clever, brilliant, and heartfelt, and I am nibbling the story rather than devouring it to make it last longer.

Favorite book when you were a child:

Oh gosh. Picking just one will be tough, as I was a voracious reader. But it has to be A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle. That book opened the door to so many possibilities because Meg was allowed to be who she was. She didn't need to be smaller or quieter or less than herself to make friends and go on adventures. That book means a great deal to me, even to this day.

Your top five authors:

Since I tend to be a mood reader, it depends. But writers I return to include Kate Elliott, Skyla Dawn Cameron, Beverly Jenkins, Sharon Shinn, and Courtney Milan. Those are listed in no particular order; I mentioned them as I thought of them. Kate Elliott offers something to love for all fantasy readers. I am obsessed with the Waverly Jones mystery series by Skyla Dawn Cameron. Beverly Jenkins has so many gorgeous romances, but most people are drawn in by Indigo and stay for the sparkling backlist. As for Sharon Shinn, I'll talk about her more in a bit. Finally, Courtney Milan writes historical romances that are lush and addictive.

Book you've faked reading:

I have a degree in English literature, which means it would be more fruitful to ask what books by old white men that I did not fake reading. But seriously, I couldn't finish a darn thing by Thomas Hardy. I was supposed to read multiple books, including Tess of the d'Urbervilles. Even the synopsis for that one aggravates me.

Book you're an evangelist for:

First, some backstory: A long while ago, I boldly proclaimed, "I do not like vampire stories." People would name titles and I would shake my head. "Read it. Not for me." Famous vampires. Funny vampires. Scary vampires. Sexy vampires. None of them sparkled in my eyes. Then one reader finally recommended a book I hadn't read. Sunshine by Robin McKinley. I could write an entire post about this book. I inhaled it and desperately wanted more. After that, I discovered more vampire books that I could enjoy, but Sunshine was the gateway novel. Now imagine me in reader forums: Think you don't like vampire stories? Try Sunshine!

Book you've bought for the cover:

Lovely covers work. If a book has sufficient dazzle, I want to put a physical copy on my shelf. The last two books to wow me in that regard were Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries by Heather Fawcett and The Crescent Moon Tearoom by Stacy Sivinski. Both of these books exude a delicate prettiness and cozy charm, and they're both on my mantel right now.

Book you hid from your parents:

Anything with sex in it, including multiple library books by Judy Blume; Wifey and Forever spring to mind. I had to dig deep for this next one, but my best friend and I also acquired a movie tie-in novel for a film called Little Darlings by Sonia Pilcer. We read the story long before we were allowed to watch R-rated movies.

Book that changed your life:

Earlier, I promised to talk more about Sharon Shinn. I encountered The Shape-Changer's Wife in the basement of a gaming shop in Muncie, Ind. I spent my last few dollars buying it and loved it so much that I even read her bio. I saw that Shinn was a woman living in the Midwest. Nothing about her background made me think she was already famous or had connections prior to selling her book. Before, I had been told "you have to know people" or "only famous people get book deals." Seeing her book made me believe I could do it too. I became a huge fan and bought everything she published as I wrote my own material. When I finally sold my first book in 2007, I marshaled my courage and e-mailed her.

Readers, she blurbed me.

Favorite line from a book:

I was a precocious reader, and Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë was my first classic--at the age of eight. That year, I also read multiple titles by Charles Dickens and Alexandre Dumas, who was, I confess, a little grim for young Ann. I read with a pocket dictionary nearby, earnestly looking up unfamiliar words, and it was one of the best things I have ever done for my brain. For that reason alone, I must quote Jane Eyre, because I was so wildly impressed with Jane's fierce spirit: "I am no bird; and no net ensnares me: I am a free human being with an independent will, which I now exert to leave you."

Five books you'll never part with:

Four signed books by Sharon Shinn: Royal Airs, Troubled Waters, Unquiet Land, and Jeweled Fire. These have personal notes inscribed and they mean the world to me. As I mentioned before, I was a fan first and then we became colleagues. Now, decades on, I consider her a friend as well, and I feel so lucky to have received the benefit of her wisdom and generosity. The other title is less personal but no less invaluable for other reasons. My updated copy of Merriam-Webster's dictionary remains as critical to me today as it was when I was eight.

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

This is a great question! As a kid, I was so enthralled by The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams, and I wish I could return to that moment and experience the wonder all over again.

Book that made you realize writing is a job:

In elementary school, I won a writing competition and went to regionals, where I met Shel Silverstein. He read to us from Where the Sidewalk Ends, and it occurred to me that he probably got paid to write that book. He might even be getting paid to read to us. Which meant writing was a job, a job that I could do also. From that moment on, I never wanted to do anything else.

Botany of Madness is a daring debut novel from a promising new literary voice, Germany's Leon Engler. In the psychology and creative writing lecturer's dark comedy, a Munich psychologist finds that his most challenging case study is that of his own family.

This autofiction-inflected novel opens in a Vienna storage unit, with the unnamed narrator sifting through boxes of his mother's junk. The clutter and paperwork are all that was left after she was evicted from her apartment and the family valuables and mementos were accidentally incinerated. When he starts working at a psychiatric hospital, he realizes the importance of listening and asking questions, even if there are no answers. With his family's material past gone, it's now up to him to re-create it in words.

It's a potentially solemn rundown of hereditary mental illnesses and dependencies: "My family tree seems struck by almost every plague to be found in the psychiatric bible." His maternal grandmother was bipolar and alcoholic and made 12 suicide attempts. Her daughter, determined to be optimistic, unlike her mother, still succumbed to alcoholism. The two were in and out of psychiatric clinics for detox and depression treatment. The narrator's father was depressed, too; a manual laborer always dreaming of escape to Laos or Spain. Both parents were frequently kicked out, starting with the remote homestead where the narrator was born. It's as if internal turmoil translated into instability, leading them to change places, jobs, and partners often. The title refers to Carl Linnaeus and Emil Kraepelin, botanists who also created taxonomies of mental illness. The narrator knows, though, that diagnoses, including his informal ones of "nomadic foolishness" and "pathological homesickness," don't tell the whole story--for patients or for relatives.

Engler's wry humor and animated prose ("First sentence of the family rules: Life is suffering") more than counterbalance the bleakness of the content. The novel moves freely among vignettes from the family's past and present, the narrator's work, and his research in the home library inherited from his late neighbor (with quotes from Freud, Nietzsche et al. identified in footnotes). As he ponders the future--"I am scared of not going mad because it is a rite of passage in my family" --he accepts life's paradoxes and frees himself of the responsibility to rescue his "dearest wicked" parents. Quirky and bittersweet, Botany of Madness is just right for Christian Kracht and Katharina Volckmer fans. --Rebecca Foster, freelance reviewer, proofreader, and blogger at Bookish Beck

Shelf Talker: In Leon Engler's phenomenal, darkly comic debut novel, a psychologist undertakes a journey into memory and theory in an attempt to understand generations of mental illness in his family tree.