Paul Yamazaki

Congratulations to Paul Yamazaki, principal buyer and legendary bookseller at City Lights Booksellers & Publishers in San Francisco, Calif., winner of this year's Stand UP Award from the Association of University Presses (AUP). The award, which honors "those who through their words and actions have supported, championed, and celebrated the university press community and mission," will be presented during the American Booksellers Association's Winter Institute in February in Minneapolis, Minn. The announcement was timed to coincide with University Press Week (November 9-13).

AUPresses executive director Peter Berkery said, "This year's UP Week theme--Power UP--is particularly apt when thinking about Paul's unflagging support for university presses and their authors. Collaborative and creative partnerships with Paul and so many other indie booksellers definitely enable university presses to amplify their authors' voices to inform our current moment and shape our future." 

ABA CEO Allison Hill commented, "Throughout his career, Paul has been a tireless champion of university presses. He's supported them at City Lights and shared his contagious enthusiasm with generations of independent booksellers across the country, including me. Paul's generosity has multiplied his impact, ensuring that many more readers have discovered the wonderful books these presses publish. I'm thrilled to see Paul's support, passion, and influence honored with the AUPresses Stand UP Award, and I know I'm joined in celebrating by independent booksellers everywhere and everyone at ABA."

John Sherer, Spangler Family Director of the University of North Carolina Press, who nominated Yamazaki for the award, said, "I know of few booksellers who have consistently supported university press books as Paul has. Not just in his vocal advocacy, which has been admirable. But in his commitment to investing precious inventory dollars in carrying our books. Like us, he knows it sometimes takes a little longer to find the right reader. But he finds them because he's cultivated a community where those readers know they will be rewarded."

Yamazaki has been with City Lights since 1970 and has been principal buyer for more than 40 years. In 2023, he received the Literarian Award for Outstanding Service to the American Literary Community from the National Book Foundation. He's also served on the board of directors of several literary and community arts organizations, including the Community of Literary Magazines and Presses.

Yamazaki said, "I am deeply honored to accept this award on behalf of myself and my dedicated colleagues at City Lights Booksellers & Publishers. University presses are central to what City Lights considers its responsibility to the reading community. I share this award with the dedicated publisher sales representatives, past and present, whose deep knowledge of the titles under consideration, combined with their understanding of individual bookstores, has been essential to building strong and enduring relationships between City Lights and university presses."

The Fictional Fern opened a bricks-and-mortar location last weekend in Merrill, Wis., WJFW reported. 

Located at 2801 E. Main St., Suite 5, the Fictional Fern sells new and used titles for all ages, along with a variety of bookish goods and merchandise. Prior to opening the bricks-and-mortar store, the Fictional Fern was a mobile bookstore called Booked. 

Owner Jessica Golisch told WJFW that when the store opened for the first time Saturday morning, there was a line of customers waiting outside. Throughout the day she saw  customers who had frequented the mobile bookstore as well as brand-new faces.

"A lot of people miss having a bookstore in Merrill," Golisch said. "There hasn't been one in years. And so a lot of people commented that they're so excited to see one back here in Merrill. I think the community really needs that."

Golisch added that when she started the mobile bookstore, she always planned on opening a bricks-and-mortar location, but it came about sooner than she expected. When the "perfect little space" became available, she couldn't pass up the opportunity.

The bookstore is open Thursdays through Sundays.

Fort Mill Bookshop, a general-interest, all-ages bookstore, opened last month in Fort Mill, S.C., the Post and Courier reported.

Located at 108 Springs St., Fort Mill Bookshop carries both new and used titles, along with puzzles and board games. The store's first big event was a release party for Sarah J. Maas's A Court of Splintered Harmony, and going forward owner Lauren Randar plans to host author signings, book clubs, and other events.

"I've always wanted to own a bookshop," Randar told the Post and Courier. "Supposedly, there's never been a bookshop in Fort Mill. I just want to offer it to the community."

Randar was already a small business owner before opening Fort Mill Bookshop, having launched a graphic design company called Tied & Two six years ago. She decided to open a bookstore after moving Tied & Two to a new location and seeing the opportunity for a bookstore near Fort Mill's main street. 

Randar is also the founder of the Downtown Co-Op of Fort Mill, an association of local business owners and other community members looking to improve downtown Fort Mill. She plans to draw from her experience opening Fort Mill Bookshop to help create a small business toolkit for other business owners to use when opening in town.

In the months ahead, Randar plans to host a grand opening celebration for the bookstore.

B&N at Sunset Place, Miami

Barnes & Noble will close stores in Miami, Fla., and Aurora, Colo., early next year and relocate one of its Tucson, Ariz., stores.

The B&N store in the Shops at Sunset Place in South Miami, Fla., will close permanently on January 13, 2027. It has been in operation since 1999. The company attributed the closure to the end of its lease and the planned redevelopment of the shopping center in which it resides. After the closure, four B&N locations will remain in the Miami area.

The B&N in the Aurora City Place shopping center in Aurora, Colo., will close permanently on January 13, 2027, as its lease comes to an end. The store opened in 2003. The company has opened three new stores in Colorado in the past two years, and in 2024 purchased Tattered Cover Book Store.

The Tucson B&N located at 7235 N. LaCholla Blvd. on the city's west side will be relocating to the newly constructed Uptown Plaza shopping center. The store's last day of business at 7235 N. LaCholla Blvd. will be January 13, 2027. It is expected to reopen in its new space shortly thereafter. Last month, B&N relocated a store on Tucson's east side to a new location.

Gary Fisketjon, "whose discovery and cultivation of an army of literary talents, including Jay McInerney, Bret Easton Ellis, Donna Tartt, and Cormac McCarthy, earned him a reputation as one of the greatest literary editors of his generation," died November 7, the New York Times reported. He was 72.

Gary Fisketjon (photo: Jane Wexler)

Fisketjon was a young editor at Random House in the early 1980s when he emerged as a champion of young, urban writers like McInerney, whose debut novel Bright Lights, Big City was successfully published through Fisketjon's imprint, Vintage Contemporaries, allowing him to take risks on new authors and to resurrect the careers of respected writers like Raymond Carver and Thomas McGuane.

Fisketjon "developed a reputation for methodical editing and close personal relationships with his writers. Armed with a green pen, he would go slowly, reading just five pages an hour, covering each with a spider web of notes, suggestions and cuts," the Times noted.

"Editing's just a more relentless and specific form of reading in which you read a book more closely than any sane person would ever think of doing," he wrote in the Washington Post in 2023.

McInerney said, "Gary always respected the basic premise, the basic architecture. He didn't try to make a book different, but just make it the best version of itself."

A "born literary showman," Fisketjon was adept at marketing, the Times wrote, adding that "to celebrate a new book from another of his authors, Richard Ford, he rented out the Palladium, one of the era's hottest night clubs." 

From the mid-1980s on, Fisketjon attended the Frankfurt Book Fair. Morgan Entrekin, CEO of Grove/Atlantic and a longtime friend, said, "Gary's sort of imprimatur and passion for a book would carry over, and there would be 10 or 15 publishers from around the world who would line up to to want to acquire the rights." 

In 1990, after a four-year stint at the Atlantic Monthly Press, Fisketjon became an editor-at-large at Knopf, where he expanded his range to include established writers like McCarthy as well as international authors like Martin Amis and Haruki Murakami. He also continued to seek out promising new talent.

"I don't know how many new writers' work I look at over the course of a year but hundreds and hundreds and hundreds," he told Chapter 16, a literary website, in 2013. "And ninety-nine times out of a hundred you're going to say, 'Thanks, not for me.' When you can actually say, 'Yes, this is for me,' it's quite a wonderful feeling."

In the 1970s, he had enrolled at the University of San Francisco before transferring for his sophomore year to Williams College in Williamstown, Mass., where he befriended McInerney. Fisketjon graduated with a degree in philosophy and history in 1975. The Times noted that he eventually "enrolled in the Radcliffe Publishing Course, a boot camp for editors in Boston (renamed, it is now at Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism in New York). He met Mr. Entrekin on his first day; students were seated in alphabetical order."

After a year working at William Morrow, Fisketjon was hired as an assistant to Jason Epstein, the editor in chief of Random House, in 1978. He became an editor in 1980, and the first book he acquired was Gilbert Sorrentino's Aberration of Starlight (1980), a finalist for the Pen/Faulkner Award the next year.

His career timing was perfect. "In a way, there was a missing generation in publishing," he told the Nashville Scene. "Companies were looking around, saying, 'We're all old; we should get some young people.' "

"While the various stages in the publication process are all interesting, my favorite is the editing," he told Vice in 2007, "getting into the DNA of the book by reading it so closely, figuring out where it works best and where it might be improved, but mostly to understand what makes it so good."

Knopf fired Fisketjon in 2019, citing a "breach of company policy." The publisher did not reveal details. The Times wrote that he "got sober, and after several years as a freelance editor, joined County Highway, a publication focused on rural America, and its books imprint, Panamerica, as its literary editor.

David Samuels, the editor of County Highway, said he had created Panamerica with an editor like Fisketjon in mind: "He was the most important editor of American fiction in the last 50 years. The idea that Gary was available to us was a no-brainer."

Sarah Gilmartin, the Dublin author of Dinner Party, the Indie Next pick Service, and Little Vanities (March 2, 2027), visited bookstores in Chicago and Boston with Pushkin Press sales and marketing director David Goldberg. She joined a group of Boston-area booksellers for a celebratory dinner: (from left) Andrea Iriarte Dent, owner, Molly's Bookstore; Toyoko Kumasaka, bookstore operations manager, Beacon Hill Books; Frankie Karnedy, Pushkin Press; Christina Pascucci-Ciampa, owner, All She Wrote Books; Nick Petrulakis, general manager, Newtonville Books; David Goldberg; Sarah Gilmartin; Geoffrey Raywood, bookstore manager, Trident Booksellers and Café; Lauren Tiedemann, co-owner, Book Ends; Sam Kass, co-owner, Norwich Bookstore, and Brad Lennon, buying and inventory manager at Harvard Bookstore.

The two most popular books in October at Reading Group Choices were Sophie, Standing There by Meg Mason (Harper) and Buckeye by Patrick Ryan (Random House Trade Paperbacks).

Leviathan Bookstore, St. Louis, Mo., along with Clements, a nearby speakeasy located inside a historic locksmith shop, hosted a tribute to the Edmund Fitzgerald on the 51st anniversary of its sinking, featuring dramatic readings, specialty cocktails, a rousing singalong, and a selection of books for sale about shipwrecks. Leviathan owner James Crossley (at right, with author John Joseph Ryan) reported that "the centerpiece title, the night's bestseller by far, was The Gales of November by John U. Bacon from Liveright Publishing, newly out in paperback."

Click here to see the latest Independent Press Top 40, the weekly bestseller list celebrating the bestselling 40 fiction and 40 nonfiction titles from independent publishers, as sold by independent bookstores across the country. The list is sponsored by the Independent Publishers Caucus and the American Booksellers Association.

This week's debut fiction titles:

15. Mona's Eyes by Thomas Schlesser (Europa Editions)
27. The Naughty List Agreement: Advent Romance by Katherine Garbera (One More Chapter)
36. Lightwing (Book 2 in the Crown of Hearts & Chaos series) by Caroline Peckham, Susanne Valenti (King's Hollow) 

This week's debut nonfiction titles:

7. Dispatches from Rural America: Sixteen Essays by Wendell Berry (Counterpoint)
14. I Can't Stop Thinking About Horses and Sex by Lisa Hanawalt (Drawn and Quarterly)
36. What If Anger Is the Answer?: A Harvard Marine's Guide to Shaping Aggression by Mike LeBlanc (Matt Holt Books)
40. The Unsettling of America (50th Anniversary Edition): Culture and Agriculture by Wendell Berry (Counterpoint)

At Bloomsbury Academic and Professional:

Lenny Allen has been promoted to senior v-p, global sales and marketing.

Michelle Kelly has been promoted to v-p, global marketing.

---

At Gallery Books:

Kell Wilson has been promoted to deputy marketing director.

Emma Skeels has been promoted to assistant marketing director.

Cassidy Graham has been promoted to marketing coordinator.

Abby DeGasperis has been promoted to associate publicist.

Tomorrow:
Good Morning America: Doug Baldinger and Louise Story, co-editors of America Obscura: An Explorer's Guide to the Hidden Wonders of the United States (Ten Speed Press, $40, 9780593836668).

Also on GMA: Jamie Hess, co-author of The Gratitude Shift: An A-to-Z Guide to Reset Your Mindset & Transform Your Life (Rock Point, $25, 9781577158134).

The View: Emma Grede, author of Start With Yourself: A New Vision for Work & Life (Avid Reader Press, $30, 9781668085486).

Book TV airs on C-Span 2 this weekend from 8 a.m. Saturday to 8 a.m. Monday and focuses on political and historical books as well as the book industry. The following are highlights for this coming weekend. For more information, go to Book TV's website.

Sunday, November 15
8 a.m. Robert Thorson, author of The Walden Experiments: The Science of Henry David Thoreau (Princeton University Press, $27.95, 9780691265384). (Re-airs Sunday at 11:30 p.m.)

9 a.m. Tania Lombrozo, author of Why We Ask Why: The Science of Explanation and the Human Drive to Understand (Ecco, $30, 9780063395008), at Labyrinth Books in Princeton, N.J.

12:30 to 7 p.m. Coverage of the 2026 Brooklyn Book Festival, which took place in late September. Highlights include:

• 12:30 p.m. A discussion on the role of the media in American society with Manoush Zomorodi, author of Body Electric: The Hidden Health Costs of the Digital Age and New Science to Reclaim Your Well-Being; Ian Bogost, author of The Small Stuff: How to Lead a More Gratifying Life; and Bruce Feiler, author of A Time to Gather: How Ritual Created the World--and How It Can Save Us.
• 1:14 p.m. A discussion on the state of the American economy and democracy with A. Mechele Dickerson, author of Middle-Class New Deal: Restoring Upward Mobility and the American Dream; and Hélène Landemore, author of Politics Without Politicians: The Case for Citizen Rule.
• 1:57 p.m. A discussion on exploring family history with Rachel Aviv, author of You Won't Get Free of It: Stories of Mothers and Daughters; Tom Junod, author of In the Days of My Youth I Was Told What It Means to Be a Man: A Memoir; and Ed Park, author of Three Tenses: A Transmission from the Nineties.
• 2:42 p.m. A discussion on income inequality in the United States with Ben Tarnoff, co-author of Muskism: A Guide for the Perplexed; Kim Phillips-Fein, author of Country of Lords: Neo-Aristocrats, Social Darwinists, Tech Utopians, and the Long Fight against Equality in America; and Derrick Palmer, author of Handbook for the Revolution: Building a More Perfect Union for the Twenty-First Century.
• 3:26 p.m. A discussion on science and nature with Beronda L. Montgomery, author of When Trees Testify: Science, Wisdom, History, and America's Black Botanical Legacy; Chanda Prescod-Weinstein, author of The Edge of Space-Time: Particles, Poetry, and the Cosmic Dream Boogie; and Nathan H. Lents, author of Human Errors: A Panorama of Our Glitches, from Pointless Bones to Broken Genes.
• 4:58 p.m. A discussion on protest movements with Julia Angwin and Ami Fields-Meyer, authors of On Courage: How to Be a Dissident in an Age of Fear; Jelani Cobb, author of Three or More Is a Riot: Notes on How We Got Here: 2012-2025; Anand Gopal, author of Days of Love and Rage: A Story of Ordinary People Forging a Revolution.
• 5:44 p.m. Ibram X. Kendi, author of Chain of Ideas: The Origins of Our Authoritarian Age.

8 p.m. Brett McGurk, author of Brink: Inside the Race to Free the October 7th Hostages (Crown, $31, 9798217399796).

9 p.m. Carlos Gutierrez, author of Sheer Will: Learning to Lead When There Is No Path (St. Martin's Press, $29, 9781250381163).

9:30 p.m. David Hume Kennerly, author of In the Room: 60 Years on the Front Lines of History (Rizzoli, $55, 9780847877133).

10:30 p.m. Gary Sinise, author of Graceful Warrior: The True Story of a Son, a Father, and a Family Who Carried Each Other Through (Thomas Nelson, $29.99, 9781400208159).

The Racetracks of America: From the Pre-Civil War Days to the 21st Century edited by Brien Bouyea (The National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame in partnership with Keeneland Library) has won the $10,000 2025 Dr. Tony Ryan Book Award, which honors "excellence in thoroughbred racing literature."

Organizers described the book as a "beautifully illustrated coffee table book [that] includes more than 70 essays from 35 journalists and authors covering historical and ongoing tracks, some grouped by racing circuit, from coast to coast, south Florida to Seattle, bullrings to Belmont. The book is extensively illustrated, with upwards of 600 photos, paintings, programs, officials' badges and memorabilia. Author and historian Brien Bouyea, the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame's communications director, had the formidable job of editing the 440-page tome, creative director Chris Mangini pored through more than 2,000 images and artifacts, and multiple Eclipse Award winner Jay Hovdey wrote the foreword. Keeneland Library director Roda Ferraro and her team of curators and researchers scoured their archives and those of sister historical societies and collectors across the country to find the best images and artifacts to illustrate the book and provide support to essay authors."

Dr. Maryjean Wall, one of the judges, said, "The broad scope of The Racetracks of America makes it a winner on that merit alone. But when readers open this book they will discover an unexpected bonus in the refined writing, the keepsake photos, and the thoughtful presentation of what collectively amounts to one of the greatest stories ever told. Horse racing has been waiting a long time for such a book."

Selected new titles appearing next Tuesday, November 17:

Birth of the Witch by Nora Roberts (St. Martin's Press, $30, 9781250431363) is book one in the Coven of Three trilogy.

Celebration: A Novel by Danielle Steel (Delacorte, $29, 9780593973332) follows a photographer in her 60s with two adult daughters.

Murmuration by TJ Klune (Tor Books, $29.99, 9781250462428) is paranormal romance set in what appears to be an idyllic 1950s town.

The Sensualist: Adventures in Pure Pleasure by Gary Shteyngart (Random House, $29, 9798217155378) is a collection of humorous personal essays.

The Last Emperor of China: Twilight of the Forbidden City by Paul French (St. Martin's Press, $31, 9781250373465) explores the final years of the Manchu Dynasty.

Promise Me, America by Joe Biden (Little, Brown, $42, 9780316598484) is a memoir by the 46th president of the United States.

Tiger's Mouth: A Novel by Lucy Tan (Ballantine, $29.99, 9798217301089) follows two young men who become both friends and rivals during a tech company internship.

All the Little Secrets: A Novel by May Cobb (Sourcebooks Landmark, $28.99, 9781464239205) is a sequel to the thriller All the Little Houses.

Deadlock by Chloe Gong (McElderry, $22.99, 9781665960168) is the second book in the dystopian Strangeloom trilogy.

Home of the Brave edited by Dave Isay, adapted by Sarah Thomson, illus. by Sharon De La Cruz (Philomel, $12.99, 9780593622551) is the first graphic novel compilation from the nonprofit StoryCorps discussing "the American experience."

How to Survive a Murder Investigation: A True Story of Death and Danger in the Ozarks by Catherine Townsend (Ballantine, $32, 9780593599105) looks at a private investigator/podcast host's involvement in a cold case.

The Big Book of Dinner: Recipes and Rules (and How to Break Them) by Melissa Clark (Clarkson Potter, $50, 9780593580363) contains 175 recipes with 150 tested variations. 

Paperbacks:
Alma Vampires by Elena Armas (Berkley, $20, 9798217189755).

On the Calculation of Volume (Book V) by Solvej Balle, trans. by Jennifer Russell and Sophia Hersi Smith (New Directions, $16.95, 9780811240383).

Baby Queen: A Novel by Ty Landers (Harper Perennial, $19.99, 9780063512290).

The Monster Hunter's Librarian by Lauren Connolly (Berkley, $20, 9798217188987).

From last week's Indie bestseller lists, available at IndieBound.org, here are the recommended titles, which are also Indie Next Great Reads:

Hardcover
Fear Less: Poetry in Perilous Times by Tracy K. Smith (W.W. Norton, $24, 9781324050988). "Smith's close readings of favored poems made me want to immediately read more, write more, live more. She reminded me how much depth is in a line, how much space is in a breath, the way that a poem cracks open for both reader and writer." --Michelle Cavalier, Cavalier House Books, Denham Springs, La.

The Brightness: A Novel by Chad Harbach (Little, Brown, $32, 9780316455695). "Nuanced and layered, The Brightness is a perfect book to sink into and lose yourself in. Whether you're a reader remembering those exhilarating and confusing college years or going through it now, this novel will resonate." --Debra Ginsberg, DIESEL, A Bookstore, Santa Monica, Calif.

Paperback
Upstate: A Novel by Kim van Alkemade (Morrow Paperbacks, $19.99, 9780063438033). "This tender novel follows Audrey--a new widow desperate for a fresh start--as she moves to a small upstate New York town to repair a crumbling farmhouse and take over the long neglected antiquarian bookshop tucked into its barn. Audrey discovers the store's history and the sapphic love story behind its founding." --Rachel Person, Northshire Bookstore, Saratoga Springs, N.Y.

Ages 4-8
Duel by Shawn Harris (Neal Porter Books, $19.99, 9780823458738). "Shawn Harris continues to push picture books to new heights of form and function, all while delighting us with the unexpected--in this case, transforming a medieval duel into a modern call to unity." --Melissa LaSalle, Old Town Books, Alexandria, Va.

Ages 8-12
An Octopus Named Houdini by Zana Fraillon, illus. by Corinna Luyken (Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, $17.99, 9798347114757). "Houdini is a beautiful story of escape, confinement, and connection told through the ancient wisdom of an octopus. Kids and adults alike will enjoy the playfulness of the characters and the thoughtfulness of the writing." --Andrew Preston, CoffeeTree Books, Morehead, Ky.

Ages 13+ (Indies Introduce)
The Queen of the Spirit Woods by Sharon Choe (Atheneum Books for Young Readers, $19.99, 9798347106462). "This rich fantasy grounded in Korean history has all the good bits--secrets, deadly politics, ghosts, gods, and a healthy dose of handsome noblemen with major parental issues." --Angela Whited, Red Balloon Bookshop, St. Paul, Minn.

[Many thanks to IndieBound and the ABA!]

In her cleverly plotted contemporary mystery satire, The Driver's Seat, debut author Abigail Abbas conjures a remote, picturesque setting: an estate in the Scottish Highlands complete with a castle, an orangery, a glass-walled house on the loch, and a mysterious, beautiful marchioness who is not all she seems.

The protagonist is Emma, a sleep-deprived mother whose narration is delivered with deadpan humor. Abbas displays exquisite mastery over Emma's feelings of inadequacy as a new parent. Acutely aware of her shortcomings, Emma mothers her six-month-old baby "like everyone is watching, all the time" and tries to contain the intrusive thoughts in her "hazardous brain cave." Lacking confidence, she tolerates her husband James's condescension and her business partner's betrayal and nibbles on "special chocolate" at night to calm her nerves.

Emma accepts a job as a marchioness's chauffeur in a bid to escape "easily triggered" James and his "evil beacon" of a mother, Hilary. She and her baby flee their cramped West London flat for a gray brick cottage on the edge of the marchioness's estate in Perthshire, Scotland. There, Emma meets Mark, the "hostile and a bit frightening" estate manager, and she engages a child-minder named Shona. (In a hilarious twist, Shona is also the local cabbie, and she's seen around town with Emma's baby happily in tow.) Unfortunately, thanks to a private detective hired by James, running away is harder than Emma hoped.

The marquess is in a coma, and Emma's purported role is to drive the marchioness in their old Volvo limousine to the hospital for regular visits. It seems straightforward enough, but her employer is more interested in visiting a fortune teller than her husband. A beguiling aura of glamour and menace surrounds Emma's unpredictable boss, whose spectacles make her eyeballs look "enormous, like peeled and painted lychees." A party the marchioness throws at their second house on Loch Tay, where "the alchemy of water and mountain" captivates Emma, ends with a devastating fire on the estate, and shortly thereafter, the noblewoman disappears.

Abbas's heroine soon realizes something is terribly wrong at the castle, too, and her baby might be in danger as the marchioness's true identity comes into focus. That's when the raw maternal instincts she once doubted kick into high gear in an action-packed, nail-biting finale, with Emma finding herself, for the first time ever, in the driver's seat of her life. Readers will not soon forget the immensely entertaining The Driver's Seat or Abbas's fearless heroine. --Shahina Piyarali

Shelf Talker: A new mother fleeing her marriage takes a job as a chauffeur for a beautiful, mysterious marchioness at a Scottish castle in this contemporary mystery satire by a debut author.

Once upon a time, my wife and I went to a movie theater. It was a Halloween afternoon not so long ago. We saw the new film Wicker, which we both liked very, very much. The end.

Well, not quite. As you probably know by now, Wicker the film was written and directed by Alex Huston Fischer & Eleanor Wilson. It was inspired by Ursula Wills's quite different short story (Tordotcom, e-book or audiobook) and made for a relatively modest $10 million or so by Black Bear, an indie studio. When the racy first trailer appeared in August, the film quickly gathered anticipatory momentum that continued through its October 23 U.S. release date.  

Here's the movie's official synopsis: "On the outskirts of a village by the sea, lives a Fisherwoman; smelly, single and perpetually ridiculed. One day, fed up with her stuffy, small-minded neighbors, she commissions herself a husband to be made from wicker. In an otherwise conservative town, this unconventional romance sparks outrage, jealousy and chaos."

Men in the village are named for their professions (the Tailor, the Butcher) and women for their husband's profession (the Shoemaker's Wife, the Bottlewasher's Wife). The only characters with their own monikers are the Fisherwoman, played by Olivia Colman, and the Wicker Husband (Alexander Skarsgård), who is created by the mysterious Basketmaker (Peter Dinklage).

Not only has the movie inspired companies like Ikea and Homegoods to rethink their basket departments, it has also prompted headlines like "How Olivia Colman Starrer Wicker Went from Unpublished Short Story to a Big-Screen Feminist Romantasy"; " 'Screams on the level of a Taylor Swift concert': horny romp Wicker gets the 4DX treatment"; "What does Olivia Colman's hot sex with a basket tell us about heteropessimism?"; and "Alexander Skarsgard And Olivia Colman's Romantic Fantasy Movie Is A Sleeper Box Office Hit." By independent film standards, it's a runaway success already. 

I'd noticed early on that Wicker was drawing the attention of indie booksellers, like Curious Iguana, Frederick, Md., which posted last summer: "A tisket, a tasket, a BOOK inspired the basket! Still thinking about the WICKER film trailer?"

Black Bear smartly sent lucky bookshops a life-size cutout of the Wicker Husband himself. The Ripped Bodice Bookstore, with locations in Los Angeles and Brooklyn, expressed its appreciation by saying "thank you again BLACK BEAR for our wicker husband. Who's excited for Wicker Movie ?????" And Vroman's Bookstore, Pasadena, Calif., posted: "Something Wicker-dly handsome is coming to Vroman's tomorrow! Stop in and snap a pic with your wicker husband. He's even more striking in person!"

At the Ripped Bodice

As the October release date approached, Wicker bookseller fever increased dramatically, with bookshops like the Next Chapter, A Romance Bookstore, Clio, Mich., posting "SOLD OUT. Emagine Birch Run confirmed they have Wicker this week, so we did the only logical thing: we bought out the ENTIRE theater.... If you've ever wanted to spend a Friday night watching an absolute chaotic fever dream about a man made entirely of patio furniture (yes, really), your time has come. Come get rowdy with us and watch Alexander Skarsgård strut around in a wicker suit. Tickets are strictly limited and we will sell out. (Please leave your lighters at home. Our movie boyfriend is highly flammable.)"

Many booksellers were able to offer private screening events for their customers. Slow Burn Bookstore, Nashville, Tenn., extended this invitation: "Come join us and your fellow Romance Lovers for a movie night! Monster babes I'm calling you out.... This will be a totally private advance screening of the anticipated Wicker! Tickets in bio! This event is very limited, so run."

Blue Couch Bookshop, Columbus, Ohio, celebrated "Wicker Week" with an invitation to "come shop our sentient romance display at Blue Couch Bookshop before you head to @grandviewtheater to see Wicker on the big screen this weekend! We cannot wait!"

Last Page book club

The Last Page Bookstore, Moore, Okla., "had another fun book club movie night watching Wicker! We all loved it so if you haven't seen it yet, you should!" The Plot Twist Bookbar, Denton, Tex., asked: "Was the Wicker movie everything you hoped and dreamed it would be? We know it was for us."

FMC Books, Missoula, Mont., shared a POV: "Being completely normal about Wicker Movie. Obviously. The anticipation? Unreasonable. The behavior? Questionable. The commitment to the bit? Unwavering. Join your fellow book gremlins on October 28th for our WICKER release celebration.... Come for the wicker. Stay for the absolutely unhinged company."

Blush and Burn book club

The after-effects of the bookish Wicker screenings? Blush & Burn Books, Salt Lake City, Utah, posted: "What an amazing night with the book club to see Wicker! It was so much fun and the movie was great! We are so grateful for our book club girls!" And the Rose Romance Bookstore, Mooresville, Ind., noted: "We went and saw Wicker this evening. We laughed till we cried. Five stars."

Booksellers were also celebrating the film's release with in-store events. Australian bookseller Romancing the Novel in Sydney hosted "an incredible night celebrating Wicker with our fabulous community! We all came together to decorate and spend time with our Wicker husband."

Once Upon a Bookstore, Falls River, Mass., suggested some compatible merch: "If you have seen the movie, if your people won't stop talking about the movie, please know that Book Baskets make fabulous gifts for $42. Let's continue to celebrate Wicker."

None of this marks "The End" of Wicker's tale, however. As author Wills wrote: "Some stories are just stories, but some need to be out there, like they're needed in the universe for some reason. For things to happen, or people to move forward. I think this is one of those stories.... I don't think his journey is over, yet."