Shelf Awareness for Wednesday, March 27, 2024


Del Rey Books: The Seventh Veil of Salome by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

Dial Press: Whoever You Are, Honey by Olivia Gatwood

Pantheon Books: The Volcano Daughters by Gina María Balibrera

Peachtree Publishers: Leo and the Pink Marker by Mariyka Foster

Wednesday Books: Castle of the Cursed by Romina Garber

Overlook Press: How It Works Out by Myriam LaCroix

Charlesbridge Publishing: If Lin Can: How Jeremy Lin Inspired Asian Americans to Shoot for the Stars by Richard Ho, illustrated by Huynh Kim Liên and Phùng Nguyên Quang

Shadow Mountain: The Orchids of Ashthorne Hall (Proper Romance Victorian) by Rebecca Anderson

Quotation of the Day

'So Grateful for Everything Independent Bookstores Do for All of Us Who Love Books'

"I feel so lucky to have an abundance of wonderful independent bookstores where I live (Brooklyn, N.Y.). The challenge is trying to spread my patronage around to support all of them!... I love knowing that every one of these stores is staffed with people who love books as much as I do, and that they can give me great recommendations in my favorite genres and introduce me to new things I might never have come across on my own. I love the programs and community events they hold in their spaces, and I love the way they feel like a vibrant and powerful stronghold against the various forces out there that want to reduce books to 'products' and algorithms and a one-size-fits-all mentality.... Knowing that booksellers across the country are excited about our new book is a huge honor, and I am so grateful for everything independent bookstores do for all of us who love books."

--Michelle Knudsen, author of Luigi, The Spider Who Wanted to Be a Kitten, illustrated by Kevin Hawkes (Candlewick), the #1 March/April Kids' Indie Next List pick, in a q&a with Bookselling This Week

HarperOne: Amphibious Soul: Finding the Wild in a Tame World by Craig Foster


News

AAP Sales: Up 0.4% in 2023; Down 2.5% in December

Total net book sales in 2023 in the U.S. inched up 0.4%, to $12.57 billion, compared to 2022, representing sales of 1,225 publishers and distributed clients as reported to the Association of American Publishers. In December, total net book sales slipped 2.5%, to $920.7 million.

For the year, trade revenue fell 0.3%, to $8.9 billion. Sales of trade hardcovers rose 0.4%, to $3.3 billion; paperbacks fell 2%, to $3.1 billion; mass market fell 22.9%, to $140 million; and special bindings were up 2.2%, to $210 million. For the year, e-book sales rose 0.6%, to $1 billion; digital audio rose 14.9%, to $864 million; and physical audio fell 16.2%, to $12.9 million.

Sales by category in 2023 compared to 2022:


Park Street Press: An Autobiography of Trauma: A Healing Journey by Peter A Levine


Penguin Random House 2023 Sales Up 7.3%, Profit Flat

 

Revenue for Penguin Random House globally in 2023 rose 7.3%, to €4.5 billion (about $4.92 billion), while operating EBITDA was essentially flat, down 0.3%, to €664 million ($720 million), parent company Bertelsmann reported. Overall, Bertelsmann revenue in 2023 slipped 0.4%, to €20.2 billion ($21.9 billion), while group profit rose 18.2%, to €1.3 billion ($1.4 billion).

In the overview of its many operations, Bertelsmann said that one of the year's biggest bestsellers was PRH's Spare by Prince Harry, which sold more than three million copies in the U.S. and six million copies worldwide by PRH and affiliated publishers. It also noted that during 2023 PRH had increased its stake in Sourcebooks to 53% and acquired the publishing assets of Callisto Media, "both among the fastest-growing publishers in the U.S."

Nihar Malaviya

In a letter to PRH employees worldwide, CEO Nihar Malaviya observed that "revenues were up substantially, driven by many publishing successes--both frontlist and backlist--as well as by various mergers and acquisitions we made across our territories. At the heart of our success are our books." He called Spare "a truly global publication."

Malaviya said that profits were flat because of "the ongoing increases in many of our costs. We have taken many actions to combat these increases and to stabilize our cost structure in most of the countries in which we operate. I know that some of these actions were very difficult, and I would like to thank all of you for your hard work as you implemented these changes while continuing to focus on our books and authors during these times. All our initiatives put us on solid footing, and we are now in the best possible position we can be to continue investing in our authors and employees. I am confident about our collective future."

He continued: "I am really excited about our incredible publishing lineup for 2024 and impressed by the creative ways in which teams are approaching the marketplace. I firmly believe that there are many different paths to success in publishing and that together we have created the best environment for various publishing homes and creative visions to thrive. We see this by our internal growth, as new imprints launch and existing imprints expand.... Every voice we publish offers readers entertainment, inspiration, and a source of truth. By reflecting on past experiences and offering insight into new ones, books have the power to bring us together--a power I think the world needs more of."


G.P. Putnam's Sons: Take Me Home by Melanie Sweeney


Bel Canto Books, Long Beach, Calif., Opens Standalone Location 

Bel Canto Books had a soft opening on March 21 of its first standalone bookshop, at 2106 E. Fourth St. in Long Beach, Calif., the Hi-Lo reported. The store had been one of the vendors that operated within the Hangout collective, which closed at the end of the year, but owner Jhoanna Belfer "has returned for a new chapter on Retro Row, and this time, with its own brick-and-mortar," highlighting books by writers of color and other historically marginalized communities. 

Jhoanna Belfer outside the new Bel Canto Books.

"Being able to open our own brick-and-mortar store on Long Beach's iconic Retro Row is amazing," said Belfer, who had announced earlier she would take over the former Relics film lab, just a few doors down from the Hangout. "We're so thrilled to be part of the bookstore renaissance on 4th Street, joining fellow indies Page Against the Machine, Casita Books and Kitchen Lingo Books."

A grand opening celebration is set for Independent Bookstore Day on April 27. Giveaways, local vendors, pop-up vendors and more will be part of the big celebration. A crowdfunding page has been created to help build the new space.

"We can't wait to welcome the community into our new home, with dedicated spaces for children's books, fiction and narrative nonfiction, and all the stationery goodies a book nerd could want," Belfer said.

Bel Canto also plans to maintain bookstore locations inside Steel Cup and KUBO LB, a collaborative collective workspace.


Shelf Life Books, Richmond, Va., Staff Unionizes

Shelf Life Books employees (from left) Smokey Powers, Neda Massalha, Athena Palmer, James de la Rama.

The staff of Shelf Life Books, Richmond, Va., has decided to form a union, and after all five booksellers signed union authorization cards, management chose voluntarily to recognize the union. Negotiations with management on a contract will begin later this week, the union said.

The union is affiliated with United Food & Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 400, which represents 35,000 workers in the grocery, retail, health care, food processing, service, and other businesses in Maryland, Virginia, Washington, D.C., West Virginia, Ohio, Kentucky, and Tennessee.

The workers' organizing committee said: "We're proud to be the first booksellers in Richmond to unionize. As we look forward to negotiating our first union contract, we won't be starting from scratch thanks to the work of our union siblings at Politics and Prose and Solid State Books, who have negotiated groundbreaking contracts that inspired us to unionize in the first place."

Shelf Life co-owner Berkley McDaniel told Richmond BizSense that the store welcomes the union, saying, "We want Shelf Life Books to radiate positive energy, both internally among staff and externally in the community. We look forward to working through the union to create the best possible environment for upholding our values."

Shelf Life Books was originally a used bookstore called Chop Suey. In 2021, the store was bought by Chris and Berkley McDaniel, who changed its name a year ago. It has one level of new books and five rooms of used books.


RISE Bookselling Conference: Children's Books Inclusivity; Author Manu Causse; The Portuguese Book Market

At a Sunday morning panel at the RISE Bookselling Conference taking place in Lisbon, Portugal, this week, booksellers from the U.K., Canada, and Spain discussed their experiences curating diverse and inclusive selections of children's books. Iris Hunscheid, the owner of two bookstores in Germany, moderated the discussion.

Aimée Felone, co-director and founder of Round Table Books in London, England, recalled that about five years ago, the conversation about inclusivity in publishing was beginning to get "very loud," and following George Floyd's murder in 2020, publishers rushed to acquire and publish Black voices. But four years later, the conversation about inclusivity is a "whisper," and the intention that seemed so widespread in publishing in 2020 and 2021 has all but "disappeared."

Felone noted that the publishers who were always committed to publishing diverse voices are still doing so, but finding representative titles from the big houses has become "difficult again." While the situation is broadly better than it was, "huge gaps" still remain for certain topics and age groups, and booksellers "still have to hunt."

Panelists (from left) Iris Hunscheid, Aimée Felone, Anjula Gogia, Ana Maria Stanescu

Anjula Gogia, manager and events coordinator at Another Story Bookshop in Toronto, Canada, said there were certainly "more offerings" available today than there used to be, but it's not always clear if these new children's titles are "own voices" or not. And while there have been advances with picture books and YA books specifically, she and her team "see a gap with chapter books." Very few are written by people of color, and there are "almost none" about queer topics.

Ana Maria Stanescu, co-owner of KosmoKids in Madrid, Spain, said she and her team, who are all teachers, source books first based on what customers need, and then "books that we like." There is very high demand for children's titles about neurodiversity, as well as titles about nontraditional families. She added that historically there has been hesitance and reluctance in Spain when it comes to diversity and inclusion, but "every day it's getting easier" for people to understand the importance of including "nontraditional things."

Asked about book bans, Gogia said the situation in Canada is not as drastic as in the U.S., but it is "growing" and the "backlash is coming." She mentioned the Waterloo Catholic District School Board in Ontario, which last year was revealed to have "shadow banned" children's books that feature LBGTQ characters or discuss related subjects. It is only a "very vocal" minority that is fighting for things like this, she explained, but the danger is that they are campaigning to be trustees on school boards.

Felone, meanwhile, said that in the U.K., book banning has not reached a "vocal level," but there are individual teachers and schools increasingly deciding to not engage with diverse books. Stanescu said the situation was much the same in Spain.

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Manu Causse

During Sunday's afternoon keynote, author Manu Causse appeared in conversation with Raluca Selejan, co-owner of La Două Bufniţe in Timisoara, Romania. Causse discussed his lifelong love of bookshops, which he called his "home"; his career as a writer; and his experience of having his YA novel Bien Trop Petit (Way Too Small) banned in France.

Causse explained that the book had initially been marked as suitable for ages 15 and up, but a government committee reviewed it and ruled it to be unsuitable for anyone under the age of 18, meaning that booksellers had to check the IDs of anyone buying it. Causse noted that the ban effectively shined a "spotlight" on the book, and its sales increased by more than tenfold. Publishers, booksellers, and other authors also roundly criticized the ban.

In the keynote's q&a portion, a French bookseller commented that she and her colleagues were "shocked" to hear the news of the ban. She was dismayed that a "smartly written" book was banned while titles that have actually harmful messages remain on display tables and can be purchased by anyone. She remarked that Bien Trop Petit was originally in the shop's youth section, but after the ban, they were "obliged" to move it about two tables away.

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Rosa Azevedo and Pedro Sobral

With a population of just over 10 million, Portugal is a relatively small book market. It publishes many titles in translation and is steadily shifting from a tradition of buying books as gifts--that aren't necessarily read--to a true reading culture, as outlined at a Sunday session featuring Pedro Sobral, president of APEL, the Portuguese publishers and booksellers association, and Rosa Azevedo, head of ReLI, the independent booksellers association.

In 2022, the Portuguese book market had sales of 175 million euros (about $190 million), which more than made up for the substantial sales drop at the beginning of the pandemic, when severe lockdowns hurt the book business in Portugal. Sobral called the sales growth "a big surprise," in part because in the decade before the pandemic book sales grew only about 1% a year.

There are nearly 300 publishers in Portugal, publishing books "in every segment you can imagination," making for "very diverse" offerings. Booksellers include four large chains, nine "multiproduct" retailers, independents, and a variety of supermarkets, which are still important for book sales. Readers overwhelming prefer printed books, and a vast majority shop at least sometimes in bricks-and-mortar stores.

Recent studies have shown that traditionally Portuguese book buyers often buy books as gifts. A study of purchasing habits showed that in 2022, 62% of Portuguese bought books but 61% of the population had not read a book that year. As Sobral said, "Reading habits have been low." However, a positive effect of the pandemic has been to boost reading for its own sake, leading more people, especially younger people, to read and begin creating "a new reading culture."

Azevedo noted that her independent bookshop association has some 60 members, and that while independent bookshops face a range of challenges--discounting by competitors, unfavorable terms, a lack of government support, and a slow economy, among them--indies are "no longer a small slice of the market." In much the same way as in the U.S., many new indie bookshops are opening. They tend to be small and have very particular focuses that reflect the passions and interests of their owners.

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At the end of the conference yesterday, it was announced that next year's conference will take place in Riga, Latvia, March 23 and 24. --Alex Mutter and John Mutter


Beloved Books, Linden, Mich., Has New Owner, 19

Beloved Books, a new and used bookstore in Linden, Mich., has a new owner, WNEM reported. Nineteen-year-old Olivia Porter, who previously worked at a library in Linden, purchased the bookstore from the store's previous owner for $1.

"One day I was just working in the library right behind," Porter recalled, "and I learned that the bookstore was going to be shutting down and the lady there was going to retire after 21 years. I was heartbroken. I grew up going to this bookstore."

Porter told ABC12 that she started talking to the previous owner about taking it over last July. At one point, she was "very hesitant" about doing it, but decided to take the plunge. Since buying the store, Porter has been hosting children's storytimes and movie nights, and she plans to increase those community events going forward.

She told WNEM: "A lot of my books, you can't find them anymore. I love the selection I have."


Belle Books in Oklahoma City Launches Crowdfunding Campaign

Belle Books Boutique & More in Oklahoma City, Okla., has launched a crowdfunding campaign to help keep the bookstore in business, Fox25 reported.

Owner Courtney Strickland, who opened the bookstore and boutique in 2020, is looking to raise $10,000 through a GoFundMe campaign. Strickland told Fox25 that last year was a struggle, and while she has been applying for other sources of funding, nothing has materialized.

"So I've reached out to the community for help," she said, because "there are some passionate people out there like me that love bookstores, and... that want to see small businesses like mine succeed and so that I can continue to pour into the community."

In addition to carrying an all-ages selection of books by Black authors, Strickland sells clothes and other nonbook items. She also distributes free books to community members, and has so far given away roughly 600 books through a partnership with literacy and education nonprofit Youth First. Every child who enters the store receives a book, and going forward Strickland hopes to expand her offering of literacy and community programs.

On Sunday, April 7, Strickland will host a benefit concert to help raise funds for the bookstore. "There's a lot I would like to do, but I can't do it without the community's help."


MacIntosh Books + Paper Reopening in Sanibel, Fla.

Congratulations to MacIntosh Books + Paper, Sanibel, Fla. After the bookstore's location and most of its inventory was destroyed in September 2022 by Hurricane Ian, it reopened temporarily with several other businesses in nearby Fort Myers for a year. The store has been rebuilding on Sanibel Island, however, at a new location in Heart of the Islands shopping center, and is now open for business as it continues construction, with a full opening planned for the fall, reported the Santiva Chronicle.

(photo: SanCap Chamber of Commerce)

"I'm thrilled to bring it back to Sanibel after Hurricane Ian and usher it into its next evolution," said Rebecca Binkowski, who purchased MacIntosh in 2017. "It is the very definition of a community bookstore. It feels amazing to be home and part of the recovery. We heal through sharing our stories and listening to one another. Every business that opens creates a safe space for learning more about what we need from one another to get back to 'normal.' We're giving each other hope, and hope is everything!"

John Lai, SanCap Chamber president and CEO, said, "What would Sanibel Island be without a bookshop? And Rebecca is the ideal of the community's independent, small-business model. The island seemed incomplete without the MacIntosh tradition and Rebecca and her ready willingness to participate in events and celebrations to support the community."

Binkowski thanked the Chamber for its help, saying, "The chamber meetings were such an essential way to connect with others in the business community while we were in Fort Myers. John and the board checked on us, offered us tools to get the word out about our interim location, and helped keep our spirits up. I'm grateful for their support."

Current hours are 9:30 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday-Friday, 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturday, and 11 a.m.-3 p.m. Sunday.


Rapper Donates Year's Rent to Chicago's Da Book Joint

A generous donation has secured the immediate future for Da Book Joint, a Black-family-owned bookshop in Washington Park, Chicago, Ill. Block Club Chicago reported that owners Verlean Singletary and Courtney Woods weren't sure if their bookstore would survive into 2024, but "the mother and daughter team have been buoyed by an outpouring of community love, an appearance on the Today show [along with a book donation from Scholastic] and--most recently--a donation from South Side rapper Vic Mensa that will keep the lights on for a year."

Vic Mensa presenting the donation to Da Book Joint.

Mensa presented Singletary and Woods with a $7,200 check through his cannabis line, 93 Boyz. The money will pay the bookstore's rent at the Boxville marketplace through April 2025. 

"We didn't know about the donation until he came in and he talked to us," Singletary said. "I don't even think I can put into words how excited and incredibly grateful I'm feeling at this time."

With a year's rent covered, the owners said they can shift focus to expanding Da Book Joint's inventory into new genres while offering neighbors more literacy programs, and help the bookshop continue a monthly "books and brunch" initiative, where children can get catered breakfast and a book for $5, Woods added.

The store also plans to expand its lineup of kid-focused book clubs and start a Bronzeville Bucks program, which would reward local elementary school students for completing book reports with gift certificates to use at neighborhood businesses, she said.

"When he presented us the rent check, there were a lot of feelings of excitement and relief--it was definitely one of those moments where we really felt seen in our mission," Woods noted. "It really took the stress off of having [to handle] our biggest expense, which is rent.... We are able to be a lot more flexible. We have so many plans in the works, and we feel like we can definitely connect to our community a lot more by having that big bill of rent alleviated."

In an Instagram post, Mensa said, in part: "After meeting Verlean and Courtney we really felt like our values and mission were so aligned that we wanted to do something to help them come into this year with more stability. Sooooo we decided to cut a check for a year of their rent! Not to mention buy a lot of books. Next gift you buy for a friend, graduation, or just personal, consider taking a break from online shopping and pulling up to Da Book Joint."

Mensa's fans have reached out and donated to the bookstore, while online platforms have spread the word about Da Book Joint's existence. "We did receive that boost of promotion, publicity and love," Singletary said. "We're honored that is helping us continue on with everything we want to do for our community."


BISG to Honor Ingram's Phil Ollila, Walter Mosley, and Scribd at Annual Meeting

At its annual meeting, to be held April 12 in New York City, the Book Industry Study Group is honoring Phil Ollila, chief commercial and content officer of Ingram Content Group, author Walter Mosley, and digital retailer Scribd.

Phil Ollila

Ollila will receive the Sally Dedecker Award for Lifetime Service, which recognizes an individual who has made a positive impact on the book publishing industry. BISG commented: "Throughout his career, first at the Borders Group, and then at the Ingram Content Group (where he is celebrating his 20th anniversary), Phil has earned a reputation for serving the industry as a trusted partner known for his willingness to listen to all points of view while navigating the complexities of publishing and supply chain challenges."

Walter Mosley will receive the Industry Champion Award, which honors an individual whose efforts have advanced the publishing industry as a whole. BISG said, "Best known as the award-winning author of more than 60 works of fiction and nonfiction, including the bestselling series featuring private detective Easy Rawlins, he is also the founder of the Publishing Certificate Program at the City University of New York. His efforts to broaden participation in the industry--particularly by writers of color--led BISG's board to select Mosley for this honor."

Scribd will receive the Industry Innovator Award, which recognizes an organization or individual who boldly reimagines what publishing is and can be. BISG commented: "Since its founding in 2007, Scribd has deftly evolved from a digital platform for hosting and sharing files, to a branded reader, to a global subscription business with more than 1 million customers. Born digital, Scribd has consistently participated with BISG and other partners in the industry on matters of digital content, including standards for taxonomy and communication, in order to serve consumers, creators, publishers, and others in the supply chain."

BISG executive director Brian O'Leary said that the three honorees "were chosen for their creativity and lasting contributions to the industry. They also embody a certain generosity of spirit that has strengthened the book industry. Each recipient has worked to improve not just their own situation, but also to make lasting changes that benefit others."

For more information on BISG's annual meeting, click here.


Craig Popelars Joins Milkweed Editions as V-P, Sales & Marketing

Craig Popelars

Craig Popelars has joined Milkweed Editions in the newly created role of v-p, sales & marketing. He was formerly publisher of Tin House Books, which he joined in 2019, and earlier was associate publisher of Algonquin Books, where he worked for 25 years. During his career, Popelars has helped launch and promote many bestselling and critically acclaimed works by authors such as Morgan Talty, Hanif Abdurraqib, Ross Gay, and Julia Alvarez.

Daniel Slager, publisher and CEO of Milkweed, said, "We are thrilled to welcome Craig to the Milkweed team. We've had some wind in our sails in the marketplace over the last few years, and we are all very excited to build on it."

Popelars commented, "I've admired Milkweed's storied publishing program ever since I wrote my very first bookstore shelf-talker for Larry Watson's Montana 1948 way back in 1993. I'm both honored and excited to join an indie program that's dedicated to publishing such important, engaging, and inspiring books and authors."


Ga.'s Avid Bookshop Sues County Jail over Mail Policy

Avid Bookshop, Athens, Ga., has filed a lawsuit in federal court charging that the Gwinnett County Jail's mail policy, which bars Avid from mailing books to jail residents, violates its First Amendment Rights. Gwinnett County has a population of about one million and is just northeast of Atlanta.

In May 2023, Avid said, it was approached by customers who requested that Avid mail books to an individual in the Gwinnett County Jail. The jail rejected Avid's book shipments, saying that Avid was not an "authorized retailer," which the store calls "a murky descriptor that the Jail has interpreted to preclude brick-and-mortar bookstores, such as Avid, from communicating with Gwinnett County Jail inmates by sending them books."

The jail's "authorized retailer" policy gives the jail complete discretion to decide who can mail books to jail residents, Avid continued. "This is because the policy has no criteria for designating who is an 'authorized retailer,' and no process for becoming an 'authorized retailer.' There is also no way to appeal being denied 'authorized retailer' status."

Luis Correa, operations manager at Avid, commented: "The jail's vague policies harm independent booksellers, especially small businesses like Avid Bookshop who are dedicated to bookselling as an expression of our values of progress and community. Incarcerated people have a right to books and we as independent booksellers should be able share our love of reading with them through the books we recommend and sell ourselves. What these policies amount to is unmitigated government censorship."

Philomena Polefrone, advocacy associate manager of the American Booksellers Association, added: "The decision to exclude independent bookstores from the right to send books to prisons while permitting big box retailers and Amazon is unfair and baseless. Independent bookstores must, at the very least, be given a transparent set of policies and allowed due process to become authorized vendors."

Moira Marquis, PEN America's Freewrite project senior manager, said, "Lists of approved vendors are unconstitutional prior restraints on freedom of speech. Any publisher, bookstore or other book distributor should be allowed to send books to detained and incarcerated people in accordance with the 'publisher only' rule upheld by the United States Supreme Court in Bell v. Wolfish, 441 U.S. 520, 550-51 (1979). Allowing some publishers and vendors to send books to incarcerated people while excluding others, violates publishers' rights to free speech and equal protection as guaranteed by the First and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution."


LIT Bookbar Opens in Richmond, Tex.

LIT Bookbar, a bookstore and cocktail bar, opened earlier this month in Richmond, Tex., Houston Public Media reported.

Located at 611 Jackson St., Suite B, the shop carries a general-interest inventory of new titles and serves a variety of cocktails. Owner Jillian Reed told HPM she was inspired to open a bookstore and bar because of a book club she joined during the pandemic. "I just kind of had the thought--'everybody needs this, not just moms in a specific neighborhood,' " Reed recalled.

Book clubs are a big part of Reed's event plans, as are open mics, silent reading clubs, and more. Reed held a grand opening celebration for the bookstore on March 7, and since then, Reed and her team have been "absolutely shocked" and "grateful" for the enthusiasm the store has received.

Reed added that she was "excited about the future because I have found this community of people that have a similar goal."


True Leaves Bookshop, Princeton, Ill., Moving to Larger Location

True Leaves Bookshop, which opened last October in Princeton, Ill., is moving to a new, larger location, ShawLocal.com reported. The new site for the store is the former Sash Stalter Matson building on Park Avenue West, which is being revitalized by the Bureau County History Center in partnership with the store. From 1913 to 2007, the building was the home of the Princeton Public Library, also known as the Matson Public Library. The building was donated to the History Center in 2013.

True Leaves' future home.

True Leaves co-owner Matthew Adams said, "We are beyond excited to bring True Leaves, Bureau County's only bookshop, to the historic Sash Stalter Matson building. So many folks have shared fond memories of time spent at the Matson Public Library and we hope to honor those experiences by what we bring to the community."

True Leaves will rent the main floor and plans to move into the space in June. Co-owner Angela Adams said the move will allow the business to expand its offerings and host events, including open mics, poetry slams, and book signings. "We're eager to become a gathering place for the community," she said.

Lex Poppens, executive director of the Bureau County Historical Society, commented: "We couldn't be more excited to reopen the building. We've been working hard to give it a new purpose. Having a bookshop as a tenant makes perfect sense." The store will add some History Center products to its mix of new and used books, cards, stationery, stickers, planners, calendars, and journals.

True Leaves will continue in business at its current location until it moves.


The Rabbit hOle Opens in North Kansas City, Mo.

The Rabbit hOle, an immersive museum experience dedicated to children's literature, opened March 12 in a 150,000-square-foot building at 919 E 14th Ave. in North Kansas City, Mo. The Pitch reported that the project comes from the former owners of the Reading Reptile, Deb Pettid and Pete Cowdin, "who started dreaming up the Rabbit hOle in 2015. That dream became more solid in 2018, when they bought the building, and has continued to build through pop-ups in the Crossroads," all leading to the nonprofit museum's debut.  

Emily Hane, development manager, said a lot of thought went into curating the various exhibits: "I think that's going to be a key element, ensuring we are finding creators of different backgrounds. The history of children's literature is not particularly diverse.... Everyone deserves to have a book by someone who looks like them."

Although many features aren't fully open yet, they will be available either by the April 27 grand opening or later in the year. 

The museum takes inspiration from the art-driven City Museum in St. Louis, the Pitch wrote, adding that eventually, "the idea is for the Rabbit hOle to expand not only to the upper floors of its building but through the roof, just like City Museum. Fundraising will dictate the pace of any expansions." Two dozen artists are permanently on staff to craft and repair the exhibits. The challenge for them is to find ways to shift two-dimensional art into 3-D.

"Anything we make has to look exactly like the book we're replicating, so it's a big challenge for artists," Hane said, adding: "We believe children deserve a place that is beautiful and that is built to celebrate children's culture. And if they see something that is beautiful and interesting and it inspires them to pick up a book that they might not pick up otherwise, then we've really done our job. But most of all, we just want people to have fun."

After a successful opening day, the Rabbit hOle posted on Facebook: "Thanks to the more than 900 people who made our first day so special! Seeing people experience and explore everything has been a delight. Over and over again we've watched people of all ages pick up the books for each exhibit and READ."


Piebald Shark Books, Fort Wayne, Ind., Establishes Long-Term Pop-Up

Piebald Shark Books, a mobile bookstore founded in 2023, has established a long-term pop-up at a new brewery in Fort Wayne, Ind., Wane15 reported.

The pop-up resides in the merchandise section of Chapman's Brewing Company's new location in the Electric Works development. Per the arrangement, Piebald Shark proprietors Nick Tash and Sarah Suraci keep 100% of the profits from the books they sell at the brewery. Their selection emphasizes titles "you maybe wouldn't find at a big box book retailer," such as "unusual art books" and "neglected classics" from around the world.

Tash told Wane15 that the reception to Piebald Shark has been "very positive," and the brewery pop-up will allow them to "get our name out there in a bigger way, specially in an environment like Electric Works where there's a lot of people coming through and looking for new things."

Tash and Suraci will continue to hold other pop-up appearances while the Electric Works pop-up is in residence, and eventually would like to open a bricks-and-mortar store of their own.

"Fort Wayne has a lot of great bookstores," Tash said, "but there is something missing, and that is a local, independent bookstore selling new books."


Amor Towles New Binc Ambassador

Author Amor Towles will be the ambassador for the Book Industry Charitable (Binc) Foundation for the next year, succeeding inaugural ambassador Ann Patchett. In this role, Towles will help "to raise awareness and support for the only nonprofit in the country committed to assisting booksellers in need."

Towles is the author of Rules of Civility, A Gentleman in Moscow, and The Lincoln Highway, and his short stories have appeared in the Paris Review, Granta, British Vogue, and Audible Originals. Later this month an eight-hour miniseries of A Gentleman in Moscow starring Ewan McGregor will air on Showtime and Paramount+, and his new book, Table for Two: Fictions, a collection of six short stories and a novella, will be published by Viking on April 2.

Towles said, "When Ann Patchett asked me to takeover for her as Binc Ambassador, I didn't hesitate. Booksellers are unsung heroes of American cultural life and Binc provides them with a unique source of support when they need it the most."

Patchett commented: "Amor Towles is the perfect person to step in as Ambassador of Binc. Booksellers love him, publishers love him. He's a natural diplomat, as well as being a wonderful writer and a very nice guy. I plan to stick around and be helpful to Amor in any way I can. Binc's mission is so important."

Binc executive director Pam French praised both ambassadors for helping "to ensure we can continue to serve as the safety net for booksellers and comic retailers in hard times. Catastrophes come in all shapes and sizes every day of the year, and Binc is proud to help ensure stores remain open and booksellers can continue handselling all the books they believe in. Thank you for your years of service to Binc, Ann, and welcome, Amor."


Suzanne Herz Returning to PRH as Publisher, John Grisham

Suzanne Herz is rejoining Penguin Random House as publisher, John Grisham, effective April 15. She will oversee the company's publishing strategy for the John Grisham brand, which will now be part of the sales and corporate marketing departments. Herz and Grisham have worked together on nearly 40 of his titles. The company has published at least one Grisham title a year; since his debut with The Firm in 1991, more than 400 million of his books have been sold worldwide.

Suzanne Herz

Herz started her career in the Putnam publicity department and held a variety of leadership positions at the company for three decades, most recently as executive v-p, publishing director of Doubleday and publisher of Vintage & Anchor Books. Last year she had accepted PRH's voluntary separation offer and left the company in December, but agreed to act as a consultant, overseeing Grisham's frontlist and backlist in coordination with Doubleday.

Grisham will continue to be published under the Doubleday colophon, and his central publishing support and sales teams remain in place. His next book, his 50th, is Camino Ghosts, which Doubleday is publishing in May.

In related news, Lauren Weber is being promoted to executive director, brand development. She currently oversees the day-to-day Grisham marketing activities, brand partnerships, newsletters, and social channels. She joined the company in 2012 as Herz's assistant.


Schuler Books Relocating, Expanding Okemos, Mich., Store

Schuler Books will relocate and expand its Okemos, Mich., bookstore, located in the Meridian Mall at 1982 W. Grand River Avenue. Schuler Books also operates bookstores in Grand Rapids, Ann Arbor, and West Bloomfield.

When Bed Bath & Beyond, which was directly across the hall, moved out, the bookstore's owners were approached by mall management with an opportunity to move into the vacated space.

The new location is a larger space, allowing for expansion of the bookstore, cafe, and the addition of a dedicated event area similar to that of the Grand Rapids location. Construction will take several months, with an anticipated move-in and opening sometime in the second half of 2024.

"We are delighted to further expand our roots in Okemos, and look forward to serving our customers in our current space until we complete the transition to our new store," Schuler Books said in a statement. "We thank the Okemos and Lansing area community for supporting our mission of connecting people with books over the past 34 years. It's due to their patronage that our independent bookstore continues to grow and thrive.


Binc Launches New Scholarship for Aspiring Writer-booksellers

The Book Industry Charitable Foundation has announced the Susan Kamil Scholarship for Emerging Writers, a new $10,000 scholarship, to be given to five booksellers or comic retailers, that will provide aspiring writer-booksellers the financial support to focus on a full-length manuscript. The scholarship was established by Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter and author Charles Duhigg and his wife, Liz Alter, a professor of biology at California State University Monterey Bay. Binc is administering the scholarship.

Any writer working on a full-length manuscript, graphic novel, or comic who is currently employed at a physical book or comic store in the U.S. and has been for a minimum of three months is eligible. The application period began March 25 and runs through April 7. To learn more about eligibility and apply, click here

Kamil was executive v-p and publisher of Random House when she died in 2019. Her publishing career, spanning more than 40 years, began in the 1970s working in the children's book division of Macmillan. Over those years she was known for recognizing new literary voices and introducing them to the public.

"She so loved writers," said Duhigg. "It was never about what was best for Susan, but about how she could help an author find their voice and their story--and then share that story with readers. She devoted her life to this business, and I hope she would be happy to know that she continues to inspire emerging writers and support their careers."

He added: "I've been lucky to meet many booksellers over the years and have always been struck by their passion and enthusiasm for getting books in the hands of readers. I wanted to give back to this great community of book lovers, and know from friends of booksellers and store owners that many are writers themselves. I hope this helps someone who loves to write and is working on a draft; that it gives them a boost and helps to push them over the finish line."

The panel of judges deciding the first five scholarships are Chriscynethia Floyd, v-p and publisher of Our Daily Bread Publishing; Lillian Li, author of Number One Chinese Restaurant and Bad Asians (2025); Lindsay Lynch, author of Do Tell and a book buyer for Parnassus Books, Nashville, Tenn.; and Jonathan Putnam, author of the Lincoln & Speed Mystery series. 

"We are so grateful for Charles' and Liz's support," said Binc executive director Pam French. "Their generosity has the power to change the lives of booksellers and comic retailers who also have a passion to write and create. I look forward to reading more stories from book people."


Chicago's Bookie's Bookstore Faces Uncertain Future

Bookie's bookstore, the only indie in the Beverly neighborhood on Chicago's Far Southwest Side, is facing an uncertain future due to declining sales. Block Club Chicago reported that last week, owner Keith Lewis posted a photo on social media "detailing the last three months of Bookie's book sales, all of which were well below the number he says the store needs to sell [2,485] each month for Bookie's to stay open in Beverly."

"A bookstore that's one of the only bookstores in a neighborhood should never be empty," he said "And we're empty a lot. A lot. I mean, there are times when there's nobody for hours." He described the social media post as "a little visual reminder that nothing should be taken for granted. We're consistently lagging behind our monthly necessity, and only you can help."

Lewis added that if the trend continues like this, he is not sure Bookie's will make it, but he is fighting to keep the doors open. Bookie's has been in Beverly for 35 years. 

"The thing about having a bookstore in this neighborhood is that it's not as walkable as a lot of North Side neighborhoods. There aren't tourists coming down here, for the most part," he said. "So we rely utterly on the business provided by people shopping, and it's just so much competition."

Some days when looking at his empty bookstore, Lewis said he can see an end to his tenure as a bookseller: "The truth is, a smarter person than me would have closed down years ago. [But] I wouldn't live in a neighborhood without a bookstore. I really won't."


Lanora Jennings on the Bookseller Oral History Project: The Bookseller Listener Is In

Lanora Jennings at Winter Institute

Lanora Jennings is director of the Bookseller Oral History Project, which has begun collecting interviews with current and former booksellers about their historical experiences, insights, and perspectives, and will be a part of a new archive on the history of bookselling at the University of Iowa Libraries Special Collections and Archive. Here she talks about the powerful stories she's heard so far.

When I was a bookseller, I often would think of the Charlie Brown comic in which Lucy would open her booth: "Psychiatric Help, 5¢. The Doctor is In." Customers, brows furrowed, would pull me aside: "We just had to say goodbye to our dog. Do you have any books for our kids?" "I just found out I have cancer. What can I read that will take me to another world?" "My grandmother is in hospice. Do you have anything I can read out loud that would comfort her?" Part of the power of books is that they are medicine for the soul. And part of booksellers' job is prescribing the right book. This interaction requires a bookseller to create a space where their customer feels safe, and to be an active and empathetic listener.

This past month, I've been listening to booksellers. During Winter Institute, 27 booksellers sat down to record their stories. Since then, I have conducted 10 more interviews with many more scheduled. My motivation for this project was an academic one: to create an archive that preserved the history and culture of bookselling told by the booksellers themselves. What I did not anticipate was how much booksellers needed to tell their stories. Booksellers listen to their customers, but who listens to them?

During the very first recording, my throat constricted, and the tears just started flowing. The young woman told a powerful story of how she is honoring the legacy of her mother through her store. I thought, "Wow! What an incredible start... but they all won't be like that." I hit play on the next one. And the next one. And then I had to stop. I just couldn't handle any more that day.

It's been a month, and I've listened to only half of the stories. I am savoring them, letting them sit with me while my own emotions process what I have heard. I've sobbed and laughed; I've cheered and been frustrated. There are threads that connect each story. I hear in all the booksellers' voices a deep love and respect for the power of books to create community. Many speak with such authentic passion and even awe at this vocation they have dedicated themselves to. But there is also an undertone of a deep sense of responsibility... to their staff, their communities, their representation of the ideas on their shelves. Their bookseller origin stories varied widely yet all found themselves at home in a community of other booksellers.

I am deeply grateful for every bookseller that sat down in front of that microphone and shared their stories with such candor and grace. The work that booksellers do is often underappreciated and unacknowledged. Once the world hears their stories, that will not be the case for long. Listening to these voices clearly reveals booksellers as the heroes they really are. For all booksellers and former booksellers reading this: my microphone is ready. The bookseller listener is IN.

Soon, I will begin to post these stories on the website for everyone to hear. In the meantime, I will leave you with a few anonymous (for now) quotes:

"All along in my career, bookselling was always kind of that mainstay, but I didn't picture it as my career until I had a mentor who really, to me, is the exemplar of what a bookseller is, just truly devoted to representation on the shelf, to the written word, to helping people find themselves in a story, to continuing to be creative and engaging with not just the readers and the shoppers, but the people who work there."

"I became a bookseller because it's a place of people and books and that alchemy between them. And I think that's a very unique place to be in the structure of life, of written words, the alchemic intersection between ideas and people and that ability to megaphone things, but also that ability to listen and read what a person might need and then have a treasure trove in your brain of all the potential books that might speak to it or touch it or hold whatever they need."

"And for us, just the way in which some communities are considered food deserts, we feel that communities without bookstores are considered knowledge deserts. So, we are based in... a historically black community that for a long time didn't have any bookstores in it. And we wanted to be right in the epicenter of what we felt was a knowledge desert... and to be able to bring knowledge to folks because that is as important of a source of feeding as food is. That is what was needed... knowledge is as needed as food."

"There's a lot of moments that have impacted me and made me feel proud about the work we're doing. And that's why I say I'm a book activist, because I know the inertia and the change that I've helped. And I didn't know I was doing that, but the impact made that difference, and I didn't even know. So, I'm very grateful and thankful that I'm in this industry because it is making a change for the next generation."


At PRH, Valerie Van Delft Retiring; Tracey Presley, Alison Martin Promoted

At Penguin Random House, Valerie Van Delft, senior v-p of logistics, is retiring in August.

In a memo to staff, Annette Danek, executive v-p, chief supply chain officer, at PRH, who has worked with Van Delft for more than 25 years, called her "a born problem solver, one who understands the big picture and small details of our business, using them to create a strategy and to deploy tactics to ease difficulties.

Val Van Delft

"Valerie's full immersion in our distribution operations is matched by her leadership of and collaboration with her co-workers. When anyone is experiencing personal issues or loss, she is always first to make a comforting call, first to be at their side, with compassion for the circumstances of life. A passionate advocate for all her staff, her great personal strengths have been integral to our employee-focused culture.

"Valerie's leaving will profoundly affect all of us. However, it almost goes without saying, that in her unwavering and encompassing way of keeping operations ready for anything that comes, she has mentored some amazing colleagues, who will step up with no detail untaught or undone, to fill her responsibilities and duties--which we will announce separately.

"Nevertheless, her knowledge, influence, her infectious laughter, which like her presence, is always welcome, and will be deeply missed.  Please join me in wishing Valerie the most wonderful retirement anyone can experience. She shares our passion for books, and the joy of reading them. May she have many great reads, and many great years to enjoy them all."

---

Tracey Presley

In related news, Tracey Presley has been promoted to senior v-p of global transportation and logistics. Danek said, in part, "These past 23 years, Tracey has been widely acknowledged by everyone at Penguin Random House, and by our business partners, as the must-go-to global-services in-house transportation expert. A genuine professional with a gift for creative and cost-effective solutions, his painstaking, win-win approach to negotiations with our domestic and international carriers has translated to significant cost savings and efficiencies for us across the board."

She added that Presley "has been and will continue to be a great advisor to me as we formally begin the work required to build out a new operational hub for the U.S. business in the U.K., for further global reach in the E.U."

Alison Martin is being promoted to senior v-p of customer solutions, analytics, projects, and strategy, effective April 1.


River & Hill Books Coming to Rome, Ga.

River & Hill Books will open this spring at 412 Broad St. in downtown Rome, Ga. The News Tribune reported that "when Claire McWhorter and her husband, Seth, decided to de-camp from Atlanta and return home to Rome with their new baby girl, she wasn't exactly sure what she would do. But she knew she wanted to help her community grow."

"I've always loved a good bookstore," she said. "And as a lifelong reader, I wanted to do something to help my community."

River & Hill Books is planning to host a grand opening April 5, though the bookshop may be welcoming customers in before the end of March. 

McWhorter is aiming for an eclectic set of offerings--something to appeal to everyone: "Well, we're going to have a huge children's book section. But we're still going to be pretty general interest, but with a good biography and cookbook selection."

Noting that she has always loved independent bookstores, especially when looking for a recommendation for a new author, McWhorter said, "Looking through the 'staff picks' is still one of my favorite things to do. And providing a great book recommendation for a friend makes me happy."

She added: "We're hoping to have book signings when perhaps local authors can come and do a reading and sign some books. And we're also hoping to have a book club and children's book readings on Saturdays."


B&N Opening New Stores in Meriden, Conn., & Gainesville, Fla., Today

Barnes & Noble will open its new Meriden, Conn., bookstore today, March 20, with author Liv Constantine cutting the ribbon and signing copies of her books. The store is located in the Townline Square Annex at 533 S. Broad St. 

Also today, B&N is launching a new bookstore in Butler Plaza at 3728 SW Archer Rd., Gainesville, Fla., with author Ginny Myers Sain hosting a ribbon-cutting ceremony and book signing at the grand opening celebration. The store will also feature an updated B&N Café.

"In 2013, in the depths of the dark years for booksellers, Gainesville lost its Barnes & Noble," the company noted. "Now that real bookstores are thriving, it is with great pride that Barnes & Noble returns to Gainesville. We are opening beautiful new bookstores and could not be more pleased to return to Butler Plaza."


Obituary Note: Vernor Vinge 

Author and professor of mathematics Vernor Vinge, who "was noted for introducing the technological singularity concept (AKA the Singularity) and known for his gripping hard science fiction," died March 20, Locus magazine reported. He was 79.

His first published work of science fiction was "Apartness" in 1965. Other notable short fiction includes "Bookworm, Run!" (1966) and "The Peddler's Apprentice," which was written with his wife, Joan D. Vinge (1975). He also published two Hugo Award-winning novellas: Fast Times at Fairmont High (2001) and The Cookie Monster (2003).  

Vinge’s debut novel, Grimm's World, was published in 1969. A Fire Upon the Deep (1992), the first book in the Zones of Thought series, won the Hugo Award, while the second title in the series, A Deepness in the Sky (1999), took the Hugo Award, John W. Campbell Memorial Award, and Prometheus Award. The Children of the Sky (2011) was the third novel in the series. Other notable books include Hugo Award winner Rainbows End (2006). 

His nonfiction work included the 1993 paper "The Coming Technological Singularity: How to Survive in the Post-Human Era," which introduced the concept and greatly influenced post-singularity SF, Locus noted.

In a Facebook post, author David Brin wrote, in part: "A titan in the literary genre that explores a limitless range of potential destinies, Vernor enthralled millions with tales of plausible tomorrows, made all the more vivid by his polymath masteries of language, drama, characters and the implications of science.... Accused by some of a grievous sin--that of 'optimism'--Vernor gave us peerless legends that often depicted human success at overcoming problems... those right in front of us... while posing new ones! New dilemmas that may lie just ahead of our myopic gaze." 


Obituary Note: Lyn Hejinian

Lyn Hejinian, a "central figure in the Language poetry movement of the 1970s and '80s who channeled the seismic social changes and avant-garde artistic climate of the 1960s into work that was both richly lyrical and groundbreaking in its experimentalism," died on February 24, the New York Times reported. She was 82.

Language poetry, also known as Language writing, was largely centered in the San Francisco Bay Area and New York City. Hejinian, who lived on 80 rural acres in Mendocino County, Calif., "helped to seed the movement in 1976, when she acquired a manual letterpress and started Tuumba Press, a showcase for similarly inclined poets including Rae Armantrout, Carla Harryman, Ron Silliman and Charles Bernstein," the Times noted. 

"These poems are as much about how they make meaning as what they mean," said Bernstein, a professor emeritus of English at the University of Pennsylvania who co-edited the newsletter L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E during the movement's early years. "Often the poems evaded any direct message in favor of an attention to the language of the poem and its sonic rhythms."

Influenced by the revolutionary spirit of the antiwar, civil rights, and feminist movements of the 1960s, Hejinian and other aligned poets sought to overturn the social order at the literary level by exploring the open text--a literary work that allows for a multiplicity of points of view and meanings.

She savored her place among the literary mavericks. "We attended and participated in poetry readings that took place two or three or sometimes four times a week, talked until late at night at bars, launched literary journals, hosted radio shows, curated readings and lecture series," she said in a 2020 interview published by the University of California, Berkeley, where she served on the English department faculty for two decades starting in 2001. "We had very little respect for official academia, which, in turn, had very little respect for us."

In 1980, she published her best-known work, My Life, a book-length prose poem written when she was 37 that included 37 sections, each composed of 37 sentences. (When she turned 45, she expanded its structure to 45.) 

"Lyn was experimental not in the sense that her work is austere or especially hard to appreciate, but because her work plays with form and pushes against the borders of genre," Armantrout noted. "It contains snippets of narrative, philosophical meditations, and Whitman-like catalogs in a unique and engaging combination that points to a world without limits."

In 1982, Hejinian and poet Barrett Watten started Poetics Journal, which for 16 years published book-length volumes featuring the work of Language writers like Bruce Andrews, Kit Robinson, and Leslie Scalapino. In 1980s, she made several trips to the Soviet Union and learned Russian, eventually translating Arkadii Dragomoshchenko, a prominent Russian Language poet, who became a close friend.

Her own work continued to evolve, with her later output becoming "looser and wilder," Armantrout said, including her book-length poem The Fatalist (2003), which probed the mysteries of fate and chance. Pulitzer Prize-winning poet John Ashbery called The Fatalist "breathtaking," citing the line "That's what fate is: whatever's happened."

In 2003, Hejinian published the 10-part work My Life in the Nineties, in which she wrote that "everyone is out of place in a comedy."

"We are all clowns," she said in an interview with the Poetry Foundation. "And we feel that. There's some pathos lurking in the disjunct between who one feels oneself to be and who one feels others think one is, or between just treatment and unjust treatment, or within different social and economic contexts.... The gap between laughter and weeping is often a tiny one."


Obituary Note: Laurent de Brunhoff

French artist Laurent de Brunhoff, "who nurtured his father's creation, a beloved, very Gallic and very civilized elephant named Babar, for nearly seven decades," died March 23, the New York Times reported. He was 98. Babar was born one night in 1930 when Laurent, then five, and his four-year-old brother, Mathieu, "were having trouble sleeping. Their mother, Cécile de Brunhoff, a pianist and music teacher, began to spin a tale about an orphaned baby elephant who flees the jungle and runs to Paris, which is conveniently located nearby."

Enthralled by the story, they told it to their father, artist Jean de Brunhoff, the next morning and he began to sketch the little elephant, whom he named Babar. Histoire de Babar (The Story of Babar), an illustrated picture book in which Babar's escapade is recounted in Jean de Brunhoff's script, was published in 1931. Six more picture books followed before he died in 1937, when he was 37 and Laurent was 12.

The last two books were only partly colored at the time of his father's death, and Laurent de Brunhoff finished them. Trained to be a painter, he decided at 21 to carry on the adventures of Babar.

His first book, Babar's Cousin: That Rascal Arthur, was published in 1946, and de Brunhoff went on to write and illustrate more than 45 additional Babar books. "For the first few years, many readers didn't realize that he was not the original author, so completely had he realized Babar's world and his essence--his quiet morality and equanimity," the Times noted.

"Babar, c'est moi," de Brunhoff often said. The stories have sold millions of copies. The last title, Babar's Guide to Paris, was published in 2017.

Charles de Gaulle was a fan, noting that the Babar books promoted "a certain idea of France." So was Maurice Sendak, though he said that for years he was traumatized by Babar's origin story: the brutal murder of his mother by a hunter. "That sublimely happy babyhood lost, after only two full pages," Sendak wrote in the introduction to Babar's Family Album (1981), a reissue of six titles, including Jean de Brunhoff's original.

Among the criticisms of the works was the charge that Babar "was an avatar of sexism, colonialism, capitalism and racism. Two early works were particularly offensive: Jean de Brunhoff's The Travels of Babar (1934) and Laurent de Brunhoff's Babar's Picnic (1949) both depicted 'savages' drawn in the cruel style of their times, as cartoon images of Africans," the Times wrote. During the late 1960s, when Toni Morrison, then a young editor at Random House, Babar's publisher, objected to the imagery in Babar's Picnic, de Brunhoff asked that it be taken out of print. He also excised racist scenes from The Travels of Babar when that title was included in Babar's Family Album.

For Laurent, the idea and the images came first, after which he began to sketch and paint what that might look like. When he married his second wife, Phyllis Rose, a professor emerita of English at Wesleyan University, they often collaborated on the text.

In 1987, de Brunhoff sold the rights to license his elephant to businessman Clifford Ross, who then sold those rights to a Canadian company, Nelvana Ltd., with the understanding that Ross would continue to be involved in the conception of future products. What followed was what Times described as "an elephantine array" of Babar-abilia--including Babar pajamas and slippers, wallpaper and wrapping paper, perfume, fruit drinks, backpacks, blankets and bibs. There was also Babar: The Movie (1989), as well as a TV series.

"Babar and I both enjoy a friendly family life," de Brunhoff wrote in 1987. "We take the same care to avoid over-dramatization of the events or situations that do arise. If we take the correct, efficient steps, we both believe that a happy end will come. When writing a book, my intention is to entertain, not give a 'message.' But still one can, of course, say there is a message in the Babar books, a message of nonviolence."


Obituary Note: Frans de Waal

Frans de Waal, who "used his study of the inner lives of animals to build a powerful case that apes think, feel, strategize, pass down culture and act on moral sentiments," died March 14, the New York Times reported. He was 75.

A psychologist at Emory University in Atlanta and a research scientist at the school's Yerkes National Primate Research Center, de Waal "objected to the common usage of the word 'instinct.' He saw the behavior of all sentient creatures, from crows to persons, existing on the same broad continuum of evolutionary adaptation," the Times noted, adding that the "ambition and clarity of his thought, his skills as a storyteller and his prolific output made him an exceptionally popular figure for a primatologist--or a serious scientist of any kind."

He published 13 books, and at his death was writing another on how our thinking about animals has evolved over time. John Glusman, v-p and executive editor of W.W. Norton & Co., said the company plans to release it next year.

Two of de Waal's works, Are We Smart Enough to Know How Smart Animals Are? (2016) and Mama's Last Hug: Animal Emotions and What They Tell Us About Ourselves (2019), were bestsellers. The novelists Claire Messud and Sigrid Nunez both told the Times that they liked his writing. Major philosophers, including Christine Korsgaard and Peter Singer, wrote long, considered responses to his ideas.

Many of de Waal's animal anecdotes were moving, the Times noted, citing his writing about a bonobo named Kuni, who once picked up an injured starling, climbed a tree, spread the bird's wings and then released it, enabling it to fly. "She tailored her assistance to the specific situation of an animal totally different from herself," he wrote in Our Inner Ape: A Leading Primatologist Explains Why We Are Who We Are (2005).

His other books include The Age of Empathy: Nature's Lessons for a Kinder Society (2009), The Bonobo and the Atheist: In Search of Humanism Among the Primates (2013), and Different: Gender Through the Eyes of a Primatologist

"It's difficult to sum up the enormity of Frans de Waal's impact, both globally and here at Emory," said Lynne Nygaard, chair of Emory's Department of Psychology. "He was an extraordinarily deep thinker who could also think broadly, making insights that cut across disciplines. He was always ready to participate in an intellectual discussion."

In 2014, de Waal observed: "One thing that I've seen often in my career is claims of human uniqueness that fall away and are never heard from again.We always end up overestimating the complexity of what we do. That's how you can sum up my career: I've brought apes a little closer to humans but I've also brought humans down a bit."


RISE Bookselling Conference: Selling Foreign-Language Books; Authors Bart Moeyaert, Natasha Brown

On Monday at the RISE Booksellers Conference in Lisbon, Portugal, booksellers from Guatemala, Switzerland, and Bulgaria discussed how they curate foreign-language books in their bookstores. The session was moderated by Oana Dobosi of La Doua Bufnite bookstore in Timisoara, Romania.

At SOPHOS bookstore, Guatemala City, Guatemala, 85% of book sales are in Spanish while another 15% are in English, according to owner Philippe Hunziker. Just as the store aims to make the overall selection representative of a general bookstore, so it aims to do the same with the 4,000 English-language titles it stocks. These include new releases and English-language books about Guatemala, a very strong section.

From l.: Oana Dobosi, Philippe Hunziker, Desislava Grozdanova, and Hanspeter Vogt.

Special orders often come faster from the U.S. than regular shipments from Spanish-language suppliers in Spain, Mexico, and Argentina (there are no book distributors in Guatemala), so while some customers prefer Spanish, they often buy English-language titles instead, especially copies of business books that appear in English before a Spanish translation. Other English-language customers are as varied as the store's Spanish-language customers and include parents who want their children to read in English and "the nostalgic reader" who read English in school and wants to pick it up again.

SOPHOS usually places special orders with Ingram weekly while it places orders from a variety of publishers weekly, monthly, and sometimes every three months. Because books are imported and can't be returned, SOPHOS is careful about quantities, preferring to reorder than make large initial orders on titles. (Hunziker noted that when reading book catalogs, "the reader and bookseller in you wants to order everything," so it's important to set and keep to a budget.) In 2011, SOPHOS arranged to print a Spanish-language title in Guatemala rather than import it (after its original English-language edition did extremely well). That led the store to create its own publishing house, which has published nearly 40 titles in the past dozen years.

The Fox Book Cafe in Sofia, Bulgaria, is a relatively small bookstore with a large selection of children's titles and about half its stock in English, according to Desislava Grozdanova. The most popular English-language titles tend to be the kinds of books not usually translated or published originally in Bulgarian, including graphic novels and manga as well as LGBTQ+ books. "Authentic English literature" is also popular, and sometimes visitors to Bulgaria "buy fiction for the plane ride back."

Fox began buying from distributors in Bulgaria, but Grozdanova has made connections with English-language publishers--mainly in the U.K. because delivery is easier--and it allows the store to "pick our own books and not rely on someone having certain stock." She works with sales reps and wholesalers and goes to the major international book fairs, including London, Frankfurt, and Bologna.

Grozdanova called budgeting the most challenging part of curating English-language books. Fox booksellers feel comfortable buying English-language titles since they're all fluent in English. ("I most enjoy picking books I really like," she said. "It gives me a sense of freedom.")

LibRomania, Bern, Switzerland, was founded in 1986 by a Spanish-language teacher and originally specialized in Spanish-language books, according to Hanspeter Vogt. The store has since expanded to include German, French, Italian, and English and is a university bookshop, too. LibRomania supplies books to schools in a variety of languages and serves as a distributor of Spanish-language titles to other Swiss bookstores. About half of its customers are native speakers of the titles they buy, and many of the others are either foreign-language teachers or students of Spanish and English.

The biggest problem for LibRomania in buying books from abroad stems from Switzerland not being a member of the European Union, resulting in all kinds of taxes and paperwork, Vogt said. LibRomania works with an international book service and has a warehouse in France, where it picks up titles weekly. For English-language books it works mostly with U.K. publishers and wholesalers, not so much those in the U.S., because the British have gotten "better and better with books." LibRomania buys some books in small quantities from around the world, and Vogt noted that it's "easier to get books from China than from Brazil or Mexico."

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Bart Moeyaert

Monday morning's author keynote featured Bart Moeyaert, the popular Belgian author whose work includes prose and poetry, songwriting, illustrations, and more. Although he was the 2019 winner of the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award, which honors children's and YA authors, illustrators, and others, Moeyaert doesn't consider himself "just" a children's book writer and illustrator and dislikes the traditional view that "small books without illustrations" are for adults, and "large books with illustrations" are for children. He commented: "When someone asks me if I am a children's book writer or poet, I say, 'No.' I always say something different. I think that's the way to change the world: Be stubborn."

Interviewed by Jan Peter Prenger, chief buyer of Libris Blz and chairman of the advisory board of the Dutch Booksellers Association, Moeyaert talked about the importance of his upbringing and family in his writing. (Being the youngest of seven boys made for an unusual childhood.) "I stick to my family," he said, noting that his parents died recently ("death is something with all of us"). Luckily, he continued, his parents' different approaches to life helped make him the creative person that he is. His mother had deep emotional intelligence and gave him the freedom to be his own person while his father was "severe," believing things had to be done in a single, logical way. "Putting those two together gave me everything I needed."

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Natasha Brown

Another author keynote featured Natasha Brown, whose debut novel, Assembly, was published in 2021 and was shortlisted for the Folio Prize, the Goldsmiths Prize, and the Orwell Prize for Fiction. In addition, she was named one of Granta's Best Young British Novelists and one of the Observer's Best Debut Novelists.

Acknowledging her work in financial services, her studies in math, and love of "data points," Brown gave an amusing and highly detailed statistical analysis and overview of something that is quite personal for someone whose first novel appeared recently: "the problem of second novels." With graphs and charts and a laser pointer, she outlined trends in intervals between first and second novels of relatively recent authors, the long gaps between some famous authors' first and second novels, and noted that among authors who essentially wrote only one novel are Nora Ephron (Heartburn), Ralph Ellison (Invisible Man), Oscar Wilde (The Picture of Dorian Gray), Emily Brontë (Wuthering Heights), and Harper Lee (To Kill a Mockingbird).

Natasha Brown's most important data point: her own second novel, Universality, will be published in March 2025. --John Mutter


RISE Bookselling Conference: Green Bookselling

A Monday morning panel at the RISE Bookselling Conference in Lisbon, Portugal, earlier this week focused on sustainable bookselling, with panelists from Germany, Slovakia, and France discussing the steps they've taken to make their stores more sustainable.

Maria Hamrefors, chairwoman of the Swedish Booksellers Association, served as moderator, while Svenja Esch, owner of Lesumer Lesezeit in Bremen, Germany, Anna Porubcová, head of sustainability for Slovakian book chain Martinus Bookshop, and Mathilde Charrier, a bookseller in Paris and member of the Association pour l'écologie du livre (Association for Ecology of the Book), made up the panel.

Esch explained how her 50-square-meter (approximately 540 square feet) store was chosen to be a "blueprint" store for a program by the Börsenverein, the German association of booksellers, publishers, and distributors, to become climate neutral.

The process began around November 2021, with a visit from an outside consultant who assessed the bookstore's carbon emissions, factoring in heating, lighting, electricity usage, computer systems, and more. She noted that for the purposes of this program, the carbon footprint of the individual books she carries was not counted. There was a lot of "heated discussion" around that in the beginning, Esch recalled, but they decided not to include those supply-chain emissions in the shop's footprint and instead focus on things booksellers could more directly control.

Lesumer Lesezeit

That initial assessment revealed that Esch's bookstore had a footprint of about 15 tons of carbon, and since the program began, Esch has been able to reduce that footprint by about half. As a renter, Esch cannot control things like putting in solar panels or completely overhauling the building's heating system. Instead, she has taken "a million little steps" toward sustainability, including putting in new, energy efficient lighting, and installing thermostats that can automatically switch off the heat. She recalled being "astonished" by just how much heating contributed to the store's footprint, and she noted that even small steps in that regard can make an impact.

As a place to start, she suggested that if possible, booksellers find a consultant or outside expert to assess their store's emissions. Without that knowledge, it is hard to know what areas need the most improvement. Esch also touched on compensating, or off-setting, carbon emissions. She supports a number of carbon compensation programs in her area and said she chose those because she knows what work they're doing and can understand that her support is having an impact.

Esch hopes soon to get her store's emissions down to about three tons of carbon, and called it a "game changer" that her building was recently purchased by a new owner interested in sustainable improvements like solar panels. She also referred to her store's return rate of a little over 5% as a "soft spot," and she plans to make reducing returns her "next big project."

Porubcová explained that she is responsible for implementing sustainable solutions for a bookstore chain that has 17 bricks-and-mortar locations in Slovakia and one in Czechia, as well as an online store. Martinus has about 250 full-time employees, and part of Porubcová's work is preparing the chain for Environmental, Social and Corporate Governance reporting, which will become mandatory in the European Union for companies of that size and larger.

In terms of the practical improvements that Martinus has made, Porubcová called a lot of them "low-hanging fruit," though she did highlight three particular initiatives. The first was measuring the company's carbon emissions, with scope 3 emissions, including supply-chain emissions, being by far the hardest to measure accurately. The bookstore also started selling secondhand books, and while it was done in the interest of sustainability, Porubcová cautioned that they do not yet have hard data on the climate benefits of selling used books compared to new books. Martinus has also implemented solutions for energy optimization, but those were mostly the result of an energy crisis rather than the environment.

Porubcová said the most important thing for her, and anyone else trying to implement sustainable solutions in large companies, is having management on their side. In her case, it "took some time," but gradually they became "more and more on board." She also agreed with Esch on the value of having outside experts accurately assess emissions. And for returns, she reported that her company's returns rate was about 14% in 2019, which combines the rates for both the bricks-and-mortar stores and the online store. When separated, she said, the rate for the bricks-and-mortar stores is much higher than the online store.

Charrier recalled that when she began her career as a bookseller some four years ago, she was "shocked" to see so many "not very sustainable practices," particularly returns. She felt she "didn't want to do my job like this," and wrote an article about bookselling and unsustainable practices. That led her to meeting others interested in ecology and sustainability and eventually to the founding of the Association pour l'écologie du livre and the publication of a manifesto providing a "systemic vision of ecology" in the field of books.

Last December, the association put out a call urging booksellers in France and Belgium to stop ordering new books for their stores. The call was intended as a radical way to start a conversation about the "overproduction" inherent to the book market. It was an "excuse" to talk about some of the systemic problems in the industry, and while she said the campaign was "not perfect," neither is the current system.

Charrier said her bookstore still orders new titles from small and independent publishers, as it is "important to defend them," but tries to order no more than twice per week. She and her colleagues have found that most customers are "completely okay to wait" once they understand the reasons for it.

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During the 2024 conference, RISE Bookselling and the EIBF released a new study on sustainability in the bookselling sector. Based on visits and interviews with booksellers from 50 bookstores across 15 countries, the study identifies practical steps booksellers can take toward sustainability. It can be downloaded here. --Alex Mutter


Obituary Note: Dan Wakefield

Dan Wakefield

Dan Wakefield, "a protean and prolific journalist, novelist, screenwriter, critic and essayist who explored subjects as diverse as life in New York City in the 1950s, the American civil rights movement, the wounds that war inflicts on individuals and society, and, not least, his personal journey from religious faith to atheism and back again," died March 13, the New York Times reported. He was 91.

His death was confirmed by Will Higgins, who from 2016 to 2017 hosted a public radio show with Wakefield, Uncle Dan's Story Hour, on which Wakefield told stories about his life and career from the Red Key Tavern, an old bar in Indianapolis, his hometown. 

Wakefield, who published more than 20 books, found acclaim before he was 27 with the publication his first, Island in the City: The World of Spanish Harlem (1959). His next book, Revolt in the South (1962), explored resistance to the civil rights movement in the old Confederacy. 

In 1970, his first novel, Going All the Way, was nominated for a National Book Award, drawing praise from critics and major writers, including Gay Talese and Kurt Vonnegut. Wakefield's other novels include Starting Over (1973), Home Free (1977), Under the Apple Tree (1982), and Selling Out (1985).

In Returning: A Spiritual Journey (1988), he recounted using alcohol and drugs to fight off a "sense of blank, nameless pain in the pit of my very being." The next year, in an essay in the Times, he wrote that his way back to belief was marked by logic--he recalled a physicist asking, "Why is there something rather than nothing?"--as well as contemplation.

Wakefield lived his final years in Indianapolis, having moved back there in 2011 after living in Miami for 17 years as a writer in residence at Florida International University. He was still writing and at 90 published a biography for young adults, Kurt Vonnegut: The Making of a Writer.

"What is incredible about Dan is the experiences he had in his writing life and the number of people he called a friend, from Kurt Vonnegut to James Baldwin," Ken Bennett, his attorney, told the Indianapolis Star. "All these literary giants, he associated with them. He's written a number of books, both fiction and nonfiction, used as important refence tools for folks."

Asked to define his philosophy of life, Wakefield quoted Philo, the ancient philosopher of Alexandria, Egypt: "Be kind, for everyone you know is fighting a great battle." As for his life beyond writing, reading and reflecting, he said, "No golf, no horseshoes, no stamp-collecting, no hobbies.... No regrets."


Notes

Chalkboard: Rainy Day Books

Rainy Day Books, Fairway, Kan., "rings in spring with new chalk art!" The bookshop shared a photo of its sidewalk chalkboard message: "Reading makes the mind grow."


Image of the Day: Wroblewski and Friends

David Wroblewski, author of The Story of Edgar Sawtelle and the forthcoming novel Familiaris (Blackstone, June 4), posed at Charlotte, N.C.'s Park Road Books with owner Sally Brewster and bookstore dog Yoni.

Image of the Day: Chelsea Clinton Visits Book Passage

Book Passage at the San Franciso Ferry building hosted a Women's History Month event with Chelsea Clinton. The event featured a meet & greet, photo opportunity, and signing for Clinton's children's book series She Persisted (Philomel). Pictured: Clinton (fourth from left) with Book Passage staffers.


Image of the Day: Isabella Kamal's Launch at Banter Bookshop

Banter Bookshop in Fremont, Calif., had a great turnout to celebrate the release of debut novelist Isabella Kamal's (center, in dress) historical romance, The Temple of Persephone (Blackstone). 


Image of the Day: Ripped Bodice LA Hosts Christina Hwang Dudley

Christina Hwang Dudley celebrated the launch of her romance novel Pride and Preston Lin (Third State Books)--a contemporary AAPI take on Jane Austen's Pride & Prejudice--at The Ripped Bodice in Los Angeles, Calif. Dudley (far right, in blue dress) was in conversation with author Suzanne Park. Dudley's launch week tour also included stops at Books, Inc., in Palo Alto and Third Place Books in Seattle. (photo: Stephanie Lim, CEO and co-founder of Third State Books)

Bookseller Cat: Hoagy at Keaton & Lloyd Bookshop

"Only in [Central New York] you'll experience all four seasons in a week. We decided it's a cozy hygge kind of day so we're building a dollhouse in this cold weather! Gotta say Hoagy fits the bill perfectly for the aesthetic of this kit we have at shop. Also we have other cute dollhouse kits you gotta check out so if you're braving the weather come visit us (with a warm beverage along preferably)," Keaton & Lloyd Bookshop, Rome, N.Y., posted on Facebook.


Cool Idea of the Day: Miniature Bookshop

"Ever wonder what booksellers do when they're not reading? One of them creates miniature bookshops! Handmade by Polly, and now sitting in our window. Be sure to take a look next time you're in the store... the detail is amazing!" Hickory Stick Bookshop, Washington Depot, Conn., posted on Facebook. 


Sales Floor Display: Zenith Bookstore

Zenith Bookstore, Duluth, Minn., shared a photo of the shop's "These books changed us!" sales floor display on Instagram, noting: "Zenith booksellers were asked to pick a book(s) 'that is important to you or changed your life is some way.' Check out our new store display to see what we came up with!"


Chalkboard: Black Rock Books

"A good book is like a hug" was the sidewalk chalkboard message in front of Black Rock Books, Bridgeport, Conn., which noted on Instagram: "Spring might have thrown us for a loop with the chill last night, but it's a bright sunny day today! Stop by to pick up goodies for Easter baskets. Maybe a hug a book while you're at it." 


S&S to Sell and Distribute Library Tales Publishing

Simon & Schuster is handling worldwide sales and distribution for Library Tales Publishing.

Established in 2011, Library Tales Publishing aims "to spark a universal love for reading by producing books that cater to everyone. They firmly believe in the transformative power of books--their ability to take us to magical realms, shape our perspectives, and serve as steadfast companions through life's varied experiences."


Personnel Changes at RBmedia; Podium

Michael Paull has joined RBmedia as CEO and a member of the board of directors. He was formerly president of Disney's direct to consumer businesses and earlier held senior roles at Amazon Digital Video and Digital Music, Sony Music Entertainment, and Sony Pictures Entertainment. He succeeds Tom MacIsaac, who will continue with the company as a senior advisor.

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Shannon Frost has been named director, growth marketing, at Podium.


Personnel Changes at IPG; Scribner

At IPG:

Tashina Richardson has been promoted from supply chain manager to senior manager, supply chain.

Travis Hale has been promoted from inside sales representative to trade sales representative, central.

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Georgia Brainard has been promoted to publicist at Scribner.


Personnel Changes at Chronicle Books

At Chronicle Books:

Jessica Tackett has been promoted to senior marketing manager.

Janice Yi has been promoted to social media manager.

Gabriella Frenes has been promoted to social media coordinator.

Reg Lim has been promoted to marketing coordinator.

Sophia Fox is becoming independent specialty sales assistant.


Personnel Changes at Penguin Young Readers

Jenna Smith has been promoted to publicist at Penguin Young Readers. She was formerly associate publicist.


S&S to Sell and Distribute Rising Action Publishing

Simon & Schuster is handling worldwide sales and distribution for Rising Action Publishing, effective June 1.

Founded in 2020 by Tina Beier and Alexandria Brown, Rising Action Publishing is a Canadian publisher committed to publishing "a collection of unputdownable page-turners across many genres, delivering emotion-filled delight."


Personnel Changes at Broadside PR

Kate Lloyd has joined Broadside PR as a literary publicist. She began her career at Viking/Penguin Books before moving to Scribner, where she was the long-time deputy director of publicity. Lloyd has worked as an independent publicist since 2021, specializing in literary fiction, memoir, and narrative nonfiction.


Personnel Changes at DAW Books

Laura Fitzgerald has joined DAW Books as marketing and publicity manager. They previously worked at Tor, Orbit, Redhook, and Yen Press.



Media and Movies

Media Heat: Amanda Gorman on Colbert's Late Show

Tomorrow:
CBS Mornings: Minda Dentler, author of The Girl Who Figured It Out: The Inspiring True Story of Wheelchair Athlete Minda Dentler Becoming an Ironman World Champion (Sourcebooks Explore, $18.99, 9781728276533).

Jennifer Hudson Show: Jamie Kern Lima, author of Worthy: How to Believe You Are Enough and Transform Your Life (Hay House, $27, 9781401977603).

Drew Barrymore Show: Melanie Brown, author of Brutally Honest (Quadrille Publishing, $14.99, 9781837831562).

Late Show with Stephen Colbert: Amanda Gorman, author of Call Us What We Carry: Poems (Viking, $17.99, 9780593465080).


Media Heat: Saul Perlmutter on Here & Now

Today:
NPR's Here & Now: Saul Perlmutter, co-author of Third Millennium Thinking: Creating Sense in a World of Nonsense (Little, Brown Spark, $30, 9780316438100).

Tomorrow:
Good Morning America: Kathryn M. Ireland, author of A Life in Design: Celebrating 30 Years of Interiors (CICO Books, $50, 9781800652774).

Sherri Shepherd Show: Melanie Brown, author of Brutally Honest (Quadrille Publishing, $14.99, 9781837831562).

Tamron Hall: Rebecca Quin, author of Becky Lynch: The Man: Not Your Average Average Girl (Gallery, $28.99, 9781982157258).

The View: Coleman Hughes, author of The End of Race Politics: Arguments for a Colorblind America (Thesis, $30, 9780593332450).

Jennifer Hudson Show: Jenn Drummond, author of BreakProof: 7 Strategies to Build Resilience and Achieve Your Life Goals (Mango, $29.99, 9781684814350).

Kelly Clarkson Show: Alice Randall, author of My Black Country: A Journey Through Country Music's Black Past, Present, and Future (Atria/Black Privilege Publishing, $28.99, 9781668018408).

Late Show with Stephen Colbert: Fareed Zakaria, author of Age of Revolutions: Progress and Backlash from 1600 to the Present (W.W. Norton, $29.99, 9780393239232).


Media Heat: Stephen Breyer on CBS Mornings, Colbert's Late Show

Today:
CBS Mornings: former Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer, author of Reading the Constitution: Why I Chose Pragmatism, Not Textualism (Simon & Schuster, $32, 9781668021538). He will also appear on the Late Show with Stephen Colbert.

Today Show: Sky Brown, author of The Life-Changing Magic of Skateboarding: A Beginner's Guide with Olympic Medalist Sky Brown (Magic Cat, $14.99, 9781419773402).

The View: Melanie Brown, author of Brutally Honest (Quadrille Publishing, $14.99, 9781837831562). She will also appear tomorrow on Tamron Hall.

Tomorrow:
Good Morning America: Gisele Bündchen, author of Nourish: Simple Recipes to Empower Your Body and Feed Your Soul (Clarkson Potter, $35, 9780593580486). She will also appear on the Kelly Clarkson Show.

Also on GMA: Jonathan Haidt, author of The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness (Penguin Press, $30, 9780593655030).

Today Show: Laura Vitale, co-author of At My Italian Table: Family Recipes from My Cucina to Yours (Clarkson Potter, $32.50, 9780593579862).

Also on Today: Rebecca Quin, author of Becky Lynch: The Man: Not Your Average Average Girl (Gallery, $28.99, 9781982157258).

Also on Today: Cristina Henriquez, author of The Great Divide: A Novel (Ecco, $30, 9780063291324).

Sherri Shepherd Show: Carleigh Bodrug, author of PlantYou: Scrappy Cooking: 140+ Plant-Based Zero-Waste Recipes That Are Good for You, Your Wallet, and the Planet (Hachette Go, $32, 9780306832420).

Drew Barrymore Show: Hoda Kotb, author of Hope Is a Rainbow (Flamingo Books, $19.99, 9780593624128).


Media Heat: Kara Swisher on Real Time with Bill Maher

Tomorrow:
Good Morning America: Kate Bowler, author of Have a Beautiful, Terrible Day!: Daily Meditations for the Ups, Downs & In-Betweens (Convergent Books, $26, 9780593727676).

Drew Barrymore Show: Molly Baz, author of More Is More: Get Loose in the Kitchen (Clarkson Potter, $35, 9780593578841).

HBO's Real Time with Bill Maher: Kara Swisher, author of Burn Book: A Tech Love Story (Simon & Schuster, $30, 9781982163891).


Media Heat: Catherine Coldstream on Fresh Air

Today:
Fresh Air: Catherine Coldstream, author of Cloistered: My Years as a Nun (St. Martin's Press, $30, 9781250323514).

Tomorrow:
CBS Mornings: Mia Armstrong, author of I Am a Masterpiece! (Random House Books for Young Readers, $19.99, 9780593567975).

The View: Gisele Bündchen, author of Nourish: Simple Recipes to Empower Your Body and Feed Your Soul (Clarkson Potter, $35, 9780593580486).


Media Heat: Christine Blasey Ford on Fresh Air

Today:
Fresh Air: Christine Blasey Ford, author of One Way Back: A Memoir (St. Martin's Press, $29, 9781250289650).

Tomorrow:
The View: José Andrés, author of Zaytinya: Delicious Mediterranean Dishes from Greece, Turkey, and Lebanon (Ecco, $45, 9780063327900). He will also appear on Bravo's Watch What Happens Live.


TV: Earth Abides

MGM+ has greenlit an adaptation of the 1949 sci-fi novel Earth Abides by George R. Stewart. Deadline reported that the six-episode limited series, starring Alexander Ludwig (Vikings), will begin production in Vancouver, B.C., on April 8 and is slated to premiere on the streamer in late 2024.

Created by showrunner Todd Komarnicki (Sully), the series comes from MGM+ Studios and executive producers Kearie Peak and Lighthouse Productions' Michael Phillips and Juliana Maio.

"It's very special to reintroduce Earth Abides to fans of George Stewart's seminal work of science fiction, as well as to a new generation," said Michael Wright, head of MGM+. "The story's messages of humanity, hope, and compassion are as relevant today as they were nearly a century ago."

Komarnicki added: "The themes illuminated by George Stewart 75 years ago could not be more meaningful and timelier for the world we are living in today. Despite the chaos and division that greets us every morning in the news, the truth remains that the way forward for society is through unity, compassion, forgiveness, understanding, and grace."


TV: Under the Bridge

A trailer has been released for the Hulu series Under the Bridge, based on Rebecca Godfrey's 2005 book. Entertainment Weekly reported that the project, from writer/creator Quinn Shephard and showrunner Samir Mehta, stars Oscar nominee Lily Gladstone (Killers of the Flower Moon) and Emmy nominee Riley Keough (Daisy Jones and the Six). Under the Bridge premieres on Hulu April 17.

"Neither of us wanted to make yet another classic murder mystery," Mehta said. "We really wanted to find a way to elevate the genre and do something new with it.... It was a crime book that didn't feel like a crime book. There was a real gentleness and femininity to the way that the story was told. I felt like it offered a lot of space to tell a story both about Reena, but also about childhood and the stories of the other teenagers."

In addition to Godfrey and Under the Bridge, the team also worked with murder victim Reena Virk's (Vritika Gupta) father Manjit Virk to option the rights to his memoir about the incident, 2008's Reena: A Father's Story. Ezra Faroque Khan plays Manjit in the Hulu series, which also weaves in flashbacks to the family's life before their daughter's death.


On Stage: Left on Tenth

Five-time Tony winner Susan Stroman will direct the Broadway premiere of Left on Tenth, based on Delia Ephron's bestselling 2022 memoir, Playbill reported. The upcoming production co-stars Emmy winner Julianna Margulies as Delia and Golden Globe winner Peter Gallagher as Peter. Daryl Roth is producing the play, which will open in the fall. 

"I am grateful and thrilled to be working with these champions of theatre--Susan Stroman and Daryl Roth," said Ephron. "Left on Tenth is about a perilous and wondrous time of my life. We invite you to join our team of warriors and become believers yourselves."

Roth commented: "When Delia first spoke to me about her manuscript of Left on Tenth, I felt that her story would make a magnificent play. It is heartfelt, deeply personal yet universal, and full of hope. But it is also a classic romantic comedy for a certain generation, showing us that we can all be blessed with a second chance at life and love."


Movies: Harold and the Purple Crayon

The official trailer has been released for Sony's Harold and the Purple Crayon, a live-action film adaptation of the beloved 1955 children's book by Crockett Johnson, Variety reported. Directed by Carlos Saldanha (Ice Age, Rio), the movie stars Zachary Levi, Zooey Deschanel, Lil Rel Howery, Ravi Patel, Camille Guaty, Tanya Reynolds, and Pete Gardner.
 
Noting that the property has had a long history of development, Variety wrote that Wild Things Productions attempted to get the film adaptation off the ground in 1992. "Previously, acclaimed animation director Henry Selick was attached to helm the project with a screenplay from Michael Tolkin, though progress fizzled out when Selick left to direct James and the Giant Peach. Spike Jonze was subsequently brought in to direct the film, which was to be a mix of live-action and animation, with David O. Russell helping with rewrites. The Jonze-led production never came to fruition as he left the project two months before principal photography began. Sony began developing the current iteration of the film in 2010."

Sony Pictures is set to release the film theatrically on August 2.


This Weekend on Book TV: The Savannah Book Festival

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.

Saturday, March 23
9:30 a.m. Steve Drummond, author of The Watchdog: How the Truman Committee Battled Corruption and Helped Win World War Two (Hanover Square Press, $32.99, 9781335449504). (Re-airs Saturday at 9:30 p.m.)

2 p.m. Edda L. Fields-Black, author of COMBEE: Harriet Tubman, the Combahee River Raid, and Black Freedom during the Civil War (Oxford University Press, $39.99, 9780197552797).

3:05 p.m. Mark Kelley, author of An Uncommon Woman: The Life of Lydia Hamilton Smith (Penn State University Press, $24.95, 9780271096759).

Sunday, March 24
8:55 a.m. Jacob Heilbrunn, author of America Last: The Right's Century-Long Romance with Foreign Dictators (Liveright, $28.99, 9781324094661). (Re-airs Sunday at 8:55 p.m.)

9:55 a.m. Teresa Ghilarducci, author of Work, Retire, Repeat: The Uncertainty of Retirement in the New Economy (University of Chicago Press, $25, ‎ 9780226831466). (Re-airs Sunday at 9:55 p.m.)

10:55 a.m. Anna Motz, author of If Love Could Kill: The Myths and Truths of Women Who Commit Violence (Knopf, $30, 9780593534151). (Re-airs Sunday at 10:55 p.m.)

12 p.m. Jason Puskar, author of The Switch: An Off and On History of Digital Humans (University of Minnesota Press, $34.95, 9781517915407), at Boswell Book Company in Milwaukee, Wis. (Re-airs Monday at 12 a.m.)

2 p.m. to 7:15 p.m. Coverage of the 2024 Savannah Book Festival in Savannah, Ga. Highlights include:

  • 2 p.m. Liza Mundy, author of The Sisterhood: The Secret History of Women at the CIA (Crown, $32.50, 9780593238172).
  • 2:50 p.m. Michael L. Thurmond, author of James Oglethorpe, Father of Georgia: A Founder's Journey from Slave Trader to Abolitionist (University of Georgia Press, $29.95, 9780820366043).
  • 3:30 p.m. Victor Luckerson, author of Built from the Fire: The Epic Story of Tulsa's Greenwood District, America's Black Wall Street (Random House, $30, 9780593134375).
  • 4:05 p.m. Dayton Duncan, co-author of Blood Memory: The Tragic Decline and Improbable Resurrection of the American Buffalo (Knopf, $40, 9780593537343).
  • 4:51 p.m. Amy Kurzweil, author of Artificial: A Love Story (Catapult, $38, 9781948226387).
  • 5:41 p.m. Adam Lazarus, author of The Wingmen: The Unlikely, Unusual, Unbreakable Friendship Between John Glenn and Ted Williams (‎Citadel, $29, 9780806542508).
  • 6:24 p.m. James L. Swanson, author of The Deerfield Massacre: A Surprise Attack, a Forced March, and the Fight for Survival in Early America (Scribner, $30, 9781501108167).

TV: The Good Daughter

Peacock has picked up The Good Daughter, a limited series based on the 2017 bestselling novel by Karin Slaughter, who will write all episodes and executive produce, Deadline reported. Starring Jessica Biel (Candy, The Sinner), the project is from Fifth Season and Bruna Papandrea's Made Up Stories. 

The Good Daughter reunites Papandrea's company with Slaughter after they collaborated on the Netflix limited series adaptation of her novel Pieces of Her. Papandrea, Steve Hutensky, and Casey Haver executive produce for Fifth Season-based Made Up Stories (Big Little Lies, Anatomy of a Scandal); Biel and Michelle Purple exec produce for Iron Ocean.


TV: Palm Royale

Palm Royale, loosely based on Juliet McDaniel's 2018 novel Mr. and Mrs. American Pie, will make its debut globally on March 20 on Apple TV+ with the first three episodes, followed by new episodes every Wednesday through May 8. 

Starring and executive produced by Kristen Wiig, the series features a strong ensemble cast that includes Laura Dern, Allison Janney, Ricky Martin, Josh Lucas, Leslie Bibb, Amber Chardae Robinson, Mindy Cohn, Julia Duffy, and Kaia Gerber. Bruce Dern and Carol Burnett guest star. 

The logline for the project: "Palm Royale is a true underdog story that follows Maxine Simmons (Wiig) as she endeavors to break into Palm Beach high society. As Maxine attempts to cross that impermeable line between the haves and the have-nots, Palm Royale asks the same question that still baffles us today: 'How much of yourself are you willing to sacrifice to get what someone else has?' Set during the powder keg year of 1969, Palm Royale is a testament to every outsider fighting for their chance to truly belong."

Produced by Apple Studios, the project is written, executive produced and showrun by Abe Sylvia for Aunt Sylvia's Moving Picture Company, executive produced by Laura Dern and Jayme Lemons for Jaywalker Pictures, Wiig, Katie O'Connell Marsh, Tate Taylor and John Norris for Wyolah Films, Sharr White, and Sheri Holman and Boat Rocker and Rock Shaink Jr. The series is directed by Taylor, Sylvia, Claire Scanlon, and Stephanie Laing.


Books & Authors

Awards: Dylan Thomas Shortlist; Sami Rohr Finalists

The shortlist has been selected for the £20,000 (about $25,600) Swansea University Dylan Thomas Prize, which honors "exceptional literary talent" by people under 39 around the world who write fiction in all its forms, including poetry, novels, short stories, and drama. The winner will be announced at a ceremony held in Swansea on May 16, following International Dylan Thomas Day on May 14. The shortlist:

A Spell of Good Things by Ayòbámi Adébáyò (novel, Nigeria)
Small Worlds by Caleb Azumah Nelson (novel, U.K./Ghana)
The Glutton by A.K. Blakemore (novel, England, U.K.)
Bright Fear by Mary Jean Chan (poetry collection, Hong Kong)
Local Fires by Joshua Jones (short story collection, Wales, U.K.)
Biography of X by Catherine Lacey (novel, U.S.)

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Finalists have been selected for the $100,000 Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish Literature, which honors "an emerging writer who demonstrates the potential for continuing contribution to the world of Jewish literature" and is given in association with the National Library of Israel. The awards are made in fiction and nonfiction in alternating years. This year's focus is nonfiction, and the finalists are:

Jeremy Eichler for Time's Echo: The Second World War, the Holocaust, and the Music of Remembrance (Knopf)
Michael Frank for One Hundred Saturdays: Stella Levi and the Search for the Lost World (Avid Reader Press/S&S)
Oren Kessler for Palestine 1936: The Great Revolt and the Roots of the Middle East Conflict (Rowman & Littlefield)
Natalie Livingstone for The Women of Rothschild: The Untold Story of the World's Most Famous Dynasty (St. Martin's Press)

The winner will be announced in April.


Awards: Story Prize Winner; Dublin Literary Shortlist

The Hive and the Honey by Paul Yoon (Marysue Rucci Books) has won the 20th annual Story Prize. Yoon receives $20,000, and the authors of the two finalists--Wednesday's Child by Yiyun Li (Farrar, Straus and Giroux) and Other Minds and Other Stories by Bennett Sims (Two Dollar Radio)--each receive $5,000.

Story Prize director Larry Dark and founder Julie Lindsey selected the three finalists, and three judges--critic and writer Merve Emre, librarian Allison Escoto, and writer Tania James--made the final choice. The judges commented: "The Hive and the Honey is a collection of astonishing breadth, offering a panoramic portrait of Korean diaspora, of lives rescued from the margins of history. These characters reveal themselves most acutely through intimate gestures, moments that infuse the ordinary with lasting wonder and could only be achieved by a writer as patient, curious, and masterful as Paul Yoon.

"The genius of the collection lies in its steadiness of style--Yoon's prose is quiet and fine and, at times, painfully precise--and its variety of genre. Domestic realism sits alongside folk tales, ghost stories, and imperial histories. The present is haunted by the past, and the past is violently and beautifully summoned in the present."

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A shortlist has been released for the €100,000 (about $108,425) Dublin Literary Award, which is sponsored by Dublin City Council to honor a single work of fiction published in English. Nominations are chosen by librarians and readers from a network of libraries around the world. 

The winner will be named May 23, as part of the International Literature Festival Dublin. If the winning book has been translated, the author receives €75,000 (about $81,320) and the translator receives €25,000 (about $27,105). This year's shortlisted titles are: 

Old God's Time by Sebastian Barry 
Haven by Emma Donoghue
If I Survive You  by Jonathan Escoffery 
The Sleeping Car Porter  by Suzette Mayr
Solenoid by Mircea Cărtărescu, translated by Sean Cotter
Praiseworthy (And Other Stories) by Alexis Wright


Awards: Zalaznick American History Winner; Griffin Poetry Longlist

King: A Life by Jonathan Eig (Farrar, Straus and Giroux) has won the $50,000 New-York Historical Society's Barbara and David Zalaznick Book Prize in American History.

The Society commented: "Vividly written and exhaustively researched, King: A Life is the first major biography in decades of the civil rights icon Martin Luther King Jr.--and the first to include recently declassified FBI files. In this revelatory new portrait of the preacher and activist who shook the world, the bestselling biographer gives an intimate view of the courageous and often emotionally troubled human being who demanded peaceful protest for his movement but was rarely at peace with himself. Eig casts fresh light on the King family's origins as well as MLK's complex relationships with his wife, father, and fellow activists. As he follows MLK from the classroom to the pulpit to the streets of Birmingham, Selma, and Memphis, Eig dramatically re-creates the journey of a man who recast American race relations and became our only modern-day founding father--as well as the nation's most mourned martyr."

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A longlist has been released for the 2024 Griffin Poetry Prize. Judges Albert F. Moritz (Canada), Jan Wagner (Germany), and Anne Waldman (U.S.) each read 592 books of poetry, including 49 translations from 22 languages, submitted by 235 publishers from 14 countries.

The shortlist will be announced April 17 and a winner named June 5 at the Griffin Poetry Prize Readings in Toronto. The winner receives C$130,000 (about US$96,115), while the other shortlisted authors each get C$10,000 (about US$7,395). Check out this year's longlisted titles here


Awards: National Book Critics Circle, Wingate Literary Winners

Winners of the National Book Critics Circle Awards were announced last night during a ceremony in New York City. NBCC president Heather Scott Partington said,"We celebrate your imagination, your fearlessness, and your persistence. Your words are essential, particularly in this time of division and censorship." This year's NBCC Award recipients are:

Autobiography: How to Say Babylon: A Memoir by Safiya Sinclair (Simon & Schuster)
Biography: Winnie and Nelson: Portrait of a Marriage by Jonny Steinberg (Knopf)
Criticism: Deadpan: The Aesthetics of Black Inexpression by Tina Post (NYU Press)
Fiction: I Am Homeless if This Is Not My Home by Lorrie Moore (Knopf)
Nonfiction: Were Once a Family: A Story of Love, Death, and Child Removal in America by Roxanna Asgarian (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
Poetry: Phantom Pain Wings by Kim Hyesoon, translated by Don Mee Choi (New Directions)
The Gregg Barrios Prize for Book in Translation: Maureen Freely's translation of Cold Nights of Childhood by Tezer Özlü (Transit Books)
The John Leonard Prize: Waiting to Be Arrested at Night: A Uyghur Poet's Memoir of China's Genocide by Tahir Hamut Izgil, translated by Joshua L. Freeman (Penguin Press)
NBCC Service Award: Marion Winik
The Nona Balakian Citation for Excellence in Reviewing: Becca Rothfeld
Toni Morrison Achievement Award: American Library Association
The Ivan Sandrof Lifetime Achievement Award: Judy Blume

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Elizabeth McCracken won the £4,000 (about $5,060) Wingate Literary Prize, which honors "the best book, fiction or nonfiction, to translate the idea of Jewishness to the general reader," for The Hero of This Book.

The judges said: "In a timely and timeless fashion, McCracken's powerful writing lets you be privy to secrets you just want to shout about. A thoroughly involving read that wrestles with memory, illness, place and identity, The Hero of This Book is moving in every sense."


Attainment: New Titles Out Next Week

Selected new titles appearing next Tuesday, March 26:

Lost Man's Lane: A Novel by Scott Carson (Atria/Emily Bestler, $28.99, 9781982191450) is a supernatural thriller about a teenager interning for a private investigator.

What Happened to Nina?: A Thriller by Dervla McTiernan (Morrow, $30, 9780063042254) is a mystery about a missing woman, her boyfriend, and their combative families.

A Great Country: A Novel by Shilpi Somaya Gowda (Mariner, $30, 9780063324343) follows two generations of an immigrant family living in a California gated community.

The Angel of Indian Lake by Stephen Graham Jones (Saga Press, $28.99, 9781668011669) concludes the Indian Lake horror trilogy.

The Truth about the Devlins by Lisa Scottoline (Putnam, $29.95, 9780525539704) is a domestic thriller about a family of lawyers.

Stitches by Hirokatsu Kihara and Junji Ito (VIZ Media, $18, 9781974736560) combines spooky short stories with the art of horror manga master Junji Ito.

The Last Zookeeper by Aaron Becker (Candlewick, $18.99, 9781536227680) is a wordless sci-fi picture book about a futuristic Noah's Ark.

Bubbly Beautiful Kitty-Corn by Shannon Hale, illus. by LeUyen Pham (Abrams, $19.99, 9781419768774) is the fourth picture book about the kitty and the unicorn who are both Kitty-Corns.

There's Always This Year: On Basketball and Ascension by Hanif Abdurraqib (Random House, $32, 9780593448793) is the newest book by the cultural critic, essayist, and poet.

On Giving Up by Adam Phillips (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, $26, 9780374614140) is a psychoanalyst's analysis of when and what to give up.

H Is for Hope: Climate Change from A to Z by Elizabeth Kolbert (Ten Speed Press, $24.99, 9781984863522) is an illustrated collection of 26 essays about climate change.

Nourish: Simple Recipes to Empower Your Body and Feed Your Soul by Gisele Bündchen (Clarkson Potter, $35, 9780593580486) is a cookbook featuring 100 healthy recipes.

The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness by Jonathan Haidt (Penguin Press, $30, 9780593655030) explores how phones and constant digital connection have impacted childhood.

Nuclear War: A Scenario by Annie Jacobsen (Dutton, $30, 9780593476093) chronicles how a modern nuclear exchange might occur.

Paperbacks:
Studies at the School by the Sea: The Fourth School by the Sea Novel by Jenny Colgan (Avon, $18.99, 9780063141858).

Starlit Secrets by Sherryl Woods (Mira, $9.99, 9780778369530).

The Good, the Bad, and the Aunties by Jesse Q. Sutanto (Berkley, $18, 9780593546222).

Up Island Harbor by Jean Stone (Kensington, $17.95, 9781496743008).

A Governess's Guide to Passion and Peril by Manda Collins (Forever, $16.99, 9781538725603).

The Other Side of Disappearing by Kate Clayborn (Kensington, $17.95, 9781496737311).


Awards: Republic of Consciousness U.S. & Canada Winner

Lojman by Ebru Ojen, translated by Aron Aji and Selin Gökçesu (City Lights Publishers) has won the second annual Republic of Consciousness Prize, U.S. and Canada, designed to celebrate "the commitment of independent presses to fiction of exceptional literary merit."

Prize founder and jury chair Lori Feathers said: "On behalf of the prize jury, I congratulate City Lights Publishers, author Ebru Ojen, and translators Aron Aji and Selin Gökçesu for this arresting novel set in Turkish Kurdistan. We believe that Lojman and its journey to North American readers exemplifies the passion, vision, and risk-taking for which the Prize was founded. It is our hope that this recognition will bring new readers to Ms. Ojen's work and foster City Lights' commitment to surprising and original fiction."

A total of $35,000 will be distributed to the presses, authors, and translators named as finalists for the prize. Each press included in the longlist will receive $2,000. The five shortlisted books will be awarded an additional $3,000 each, split equally between the publisher and author, or publisher, author, and translator, where applicable.


Reading with... Garrard Conley

photo: Brandon Taylor

Garrard Conley is the author of the memoir Boy Erased, as well as the creator and co-producer of the podcast UnErased: The History of Conversion Therapy in America. His work has been published by the New York Times, Oxford American, Time, and Virginia Quarterly Review, among others. Conley is a graduate of Brooklyn College's MFA program, where he was a Truman Capote Fellow specializing in fiction. He is an assistant professor of creative writing at Kennesaw State University. His debut novel, All the World Beside (Riverhead, March 26, 2024), is the story of two men in love and caught between the demands of their families and societal pressures in 18th-century Puritan New England.

Handsell readers your book in 25 words or less:

Queer Scarlet Letter with over 500 sources for research.

On your nightstand now:

An ARC of Exhibit by R.O. Kwon, whose sharp language is a joy, along with Miranda July's new novel, All Fours, which had me reeling from joy and laughter to extreme existential crisis. I'm also reading and very much enjoying The Charioteer by Mary Renault, which somehow kept off my radar until this year--it's the gay war novel I didn't know I needed.

Favorite book when you were a child:

Any of the Fear Street books by R.L. Stine. I read these way too early and they've always held a fascination for me. Campy fun.

Your top five authors:

George Eliot, Leo Tolstoy, James Baldwin, Flannery O'Connor, Kazuo Ishiguro. This is way too hard. Maybe top 20 authors would make more sense, because I can't rank these geniuses.

Book you've faked reading:

War and Peace, though never Anna Karenina, which I've read more than once.

Book you're an evangelist for:

The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne. I think the novel is remarkable for its prose style, its moral power, and for the fact that this man somehow knew how to write about adultery from a woman's perspective despite being a bit of a conservative. The book is a marvel.

Book you've bought for the cover:

Recently, Silver Nitrate by Silvia Moreno-Garcia. A stunning red cover I immediately knew would go well with the blues I use in my living room. I was right.

Book you hid from your parents:

I never had to hide my books, because no one in my small Arkansan town took an interest in books. However, I did often thumb through Edmund White's books in Barnes & Noble, and I was certainly careful to carry any gay books from the gay section to another section to read.

Book that changed your life:

One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez. I read it right after graduating college, and it made me realize how insane it was that very few of my literature classes taught any books that weren't American or British.

Favorite line from a book:

"The unendurable is the beginning of the curve of joy." From Nightwood by Djuna Barnes. I used it as the epigraph for my new novel.

Five books you'll never part with:

Anna Karenina and The Scarlet Letter, of course, but also any collected Shakespeare, the Library of America collected works of Flannery O'Connor, and Baldwin's Go Tell It on the Mountain.

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

Fathers & Sons by Turgenev. I loved the world of that book. It's one of those rare perfect books.


Awards: Waterstones Children's Book Winner

Greenwild: The World Behind the Door by Pari Thomson, illustrated by Elisa Paganelli won the overall 2024 Waterstones Children's Book Prize, as well as the young readers book category. The awards are voted for by booksellers, with category winners receiving £2,000 (about $2,525), and the overall winner getting an additional £3,000 (about $3,790).

Bea Carvalho, Waterstones head of books, commented: "Pari Thomson's debut enchanted our booksellers with its sweeping escapism and standard-setting lyrical worldbuilding. At once a fast-paced adventure story and a heartfelt entreaty to care for the natural world, Greenwild is a timeless fantasy tale of friendship, mystery, and the magic and beauty to be found in nature. We are extremely proud to present this wonderful debut as the 20th winner of the Waterstones Children's Book Prize: we cannot wait to see what Pari Thomson does next."

Other category winners were The Search for the Giant Arctic Jellyfish by Chloe Savage (illustrated book) and Thieves' Gambit by Kayvion Lewis (older readers).


Top Library Recommended Titles for April

LibraryReads, the nationwide library staff-picks list, offers the top 10 April titles public library staff across the country love:

Top Pick
The Husbands: A Novel by Holly Gramazio (Doubleday, $29, 9780385550611). "Lauren, who's single, comes home to find that not only is she married, but she doesn't recognize her husband. She discovers that by sending a husband to the attic, she can replace him with a new model--and there seems to be a never-ending supply. The quirky nature of the book, humorous writing, charming characters and the unbelievable situation will have readers completely engrossed." --Douglas Beatty, Baltimore County Public Library, Md.

The Rule Book: A Novel by Sarah Adams (‎Dell, $18, 9780593723678). "Nora lands her first client as a sports agent, and it happens to be her ex-boyfriend from college. Derek, a tight end pro football player, needs all the help he can get to revive his career. Upbeat and engaging, this sports romance book is breezy with fun characters and plenty of heart." --Andrienne Cruz, Azusa City Library, Calif.

Happy Medium by Sarah Adler (Berkley, $18, 9780593547816). "A medium reluctantly visits a goat farm to exorcise a ghost, and even though she's a fake... the ghost is not. This is a story full of sweet love and friendship--and found family--with plenty of heat arising between the main characters. A very enjoyable romance with humor, cute animals, and deeper self-examination leading to rich relationships." --Di Herald, LibraryReads Ambassador, Colo.

Ghost Station by S.A. Barnes (Tor Nightfire, $27.99, 9781250884923). "This unsettling space horror novel follows Dr. Ophelia Bray as she is assigned to a crew exploring a deserted planet with ruins from an ancient civilization. Soon it's apparent that something suspicious happened to the previous crew and, even earlier, to the ancient society. Mystery, murder, and secrets keep the reader intrigued and guessing the outcome." --Kristin Skinner, Flat River Community Library, Mich.

The Fellowship of Puzzlemakers: A Novel by Samuel Burr (Doubleday, $29, 9780593470091). "Baby Clayton is left on the steps of a puzzlemakers' society. Pippa, the society's founder, finds and raises him. When she passes away, Clayton, untethered, longs to solve the mystery of his abandonment. Pippa has created a special puzzle for Clayton to find out the secrets of life and discover his origins. Readers will absolutely love this fun, quirky tale." --Claire Talbot, Greece Public Library, N.Y.

To Gaze Upon Wicked Gods by Molly X. Chang (Del Rey, $30, 9780593722244). "After a Roman prince discovers Ruying's death power, he uses her sister's addiction to make a deal with Ruying. He needs her to assassinate someone at the top of the food chain, and in return her family will live. The cost of unusual magic, trust issues, attraction to the enemy, and constant action carry this novel." --Kimberly McGee, Lake Travis Community Library, Tex.

Late Bloomer: A Novel by Mazey Eddings (St. Martin's Griffin, $18, 9781250847089). "This sapphic romance is based on an adorable but outlandish scenario, where Opal accidentally buys Pepper's inheritance (a flower farm). The way they manage their insecurities and neurodiversity and communicate with tenderness is spectacular. Readers will love seeing them grow as they navigate their relationship." --Danielle Aronowitz, South Plainfield Public Library, N.J.

Extinction: A Novel by Douglas Preston (Forge Books, $29.99, 9780765317704). "When newlyweds are attacked at Erebus Resort, investigator Frankie Cash and Sheriff Colcord team up to find the killers. There is more going on than meets the eye as the killers carry out more blatant attacks at this unique location featuring resurrected dinosaur species, including a family of woolly mammoths. An interesting concept with loads of science." --Judy G. Sebastian, Eastham Public Library, Mass.

Home Is Where the Bodies Are by Jeneva Rose (Blackstone, $27.99, 9798212182843). "When three estranged siblings reunite after the death of their mother, things are bound to be tense. As they decide to revisit their childhood with a few home videos, the last thing they'd expect to see is their father carrying a dead body. But there's no denying the evidence. Readers looking for complex family dynamics and hidden secrets will devour this one." --Judy G. Sebastian, Eastham Public Library, Mass.

Table for Two: Fictions by Amor Towles (Viking, $32, 9780593296370). "Towles's literary fiction never disappoints. In this collection of short stories and a novella, readers will be entranced by his use of sophisticated and smart language to convey aspects of the human condition. Highly recommended for book clubs and lovers of short stories." --Julie Klein, The Bryant Library, Roslyn, N.Y.


Reading with... Eric Rickstad

photo: Kevin Jantzer

Eric Rickstad is the author of the Canaan Crime series, which includes The Names of Dead Girls, The Silent Girls, and Lie in Wait. His novel I Am Not Who You Think I Am was a New York Times Thriller of the Year, and his debut, Reap, was a New York Times Noteworthy Novel. He lives in Vermont with his wife, son, and daughter, and writes all his first drafts with a pencil in notebooks, often while in the woods. His new novel, Lilith (just out from Blackstone Publishing) strikes straight at the wounded heart of America.

Handsell readers your book in 25 words or less:

A mother whose son suffers traumatic injuries in a school shooting has had enough of cowardly men in power and strikes back. Hard.

On your nightstand now:

From Doon with Death by Ruth Rendell. A classic. What a debut.

The Morning Star by Karl Ove Knausgaard. A slow, deliberate burn that I love. I appreciate the exploration of what we know and what we believe.

Every Man for Himself and God Against All: A Memoir by Werner Herzog. Sublime telling of the life of one of the most creative, adventurous, and singular filmmakers of all time. It is all I hoped, and more.

Favorite book when you were a child:

Danny, Champion of the World by Roald Dahl. God, how I loved the adventure of this boy and his father, living in the caravan and poaching pheasants from the wealthy estate by putting sleeping powder in raisins. All of Dahl's wit, humor, social skewering and imagination are on full display.

Your top five authors:

It changes weekly. Right now.

Ted Chiang. His short stories are impeccable.

Werner Herzog. The man can write, too.

Annie Proulx. That humor. That eye. That empathy. That language.

Ray Bradbury. Prescient and human and humane. What a tale teller.

Toni Morrison. She could have written Sula and called it a career. She did not. Novel after novel. Sorely missed.

Book you've faked reading:

I haven't faked reading a book. But I've enjoyed immensely avoiding zeitgeist books and authors other readers try to foist on me.

Book you're an evangelist for:

The Stories of Breece D'J Pancake by Breece Pancake.

Book you've bought for the cover:

Hmmm. Not sure. But I can say that I love the cover of Rachel Howzell Hall's newest, The Last One. What a beauty.

Book you hid from your parents:

I never had to do that, fortunately. My mom was a big storyteller and reader.

Book that changed your life:

Roald Dahl's books. They woke me up to possibilities.

Lord of the Flies. Oh, Piggy. You didn't deserve that.

Favorite line from a book:

"Once there were brook trout in the streams in the mountains." --from The Road by Cormac McCarthy

Devastating.

Five books you'll never part with:

I've parted with all of my favorite books because I cannot help but give them away to share my enthusiasm for them. But five I keep buying again and again:

Sula, Toni Morrison
Something Wicked This Way Comes, Ray Bradbury
Jesus' Son, Denis Johnson
Poe's Short Stories, Edgar Allan Poe
Lord of the Flies, William Golding

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

Danny, Champion of the World.


IndieBound: Other Indie Favorites

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

Hardcover
The Hidden Life of Cecily Larson: A Novel by Ellen Baker (Mariner, $28, 9780063351196). "Rich, vibrant and full of atmosphere, The Hidden Life of Cecily Larson drew me in from the first page. An intricately layered portrait of family, identity, and survival. Cecily will steal your heart!" --Maxwell Gregory, Madison Street Books, Chicago, Ill.

Sun of Blood and Ruin by Mariely Lares (Harper Voyager, $30, 9780063254312). "A fast-paced fantasy filled with shapeshifting, sorcery, and epic battles. Lares weaves together a rich world from Mesoamerican history and mythology, alongside a thoughtful exploration of mestiza identity and finding a place in the world." --Elena Jove, Left Bank Books, St. Louis, Mo.

Paperback
Time's Undoing: A Novel by Cheryl A. Head (Dutton, $18, 9780593471845). "Time's Undoing is a first-rate story of racial injustice and redemption. Based on the author's family history, this dual timeline story chronicles a Black man's death in 1929 and his great-granddaughter's efforts to uncover the truth in 2019." --Trish Brown, One More Page Books, Arlington, Va.

Ages 3 to 7
The Wild by Yuval Zommer (Doubleday, $18.99, 9780593708989). "This curious tale personifies earth as a living being resembling a coyote--first appreciated by the people who live on it, and then has too much taken from it until it is sick. A tale of child activism that offers a hopeful ending." --Jess Iverson, Booked, Evanston, Ill.

Ages 8 to 12
Free Period by Ali Terese (Scholastic, $17.99, 9781338835830). "Two goofy pranksters broke the final straw with the principal, who assigns them to a school improvement group run by their enemy! They notice that there are no period products in the school. Can the group change the school board's mind? Read to find out!" --Julie Beckers, Loganberry Books, Shaker Heights, Ohio

Teen Readers
Skater Boy by Anthony Nerada (Soho Teen, $18.99, 9781641295345). "Skater Boy is a thoughtful and honest coming-of-age romance, centering a lot on the idea of who we are, and who we want to be--and how to navigate it, as simple and complicated as it can all be." --Andrew King, Secret Garden Bookshop, Seattle, Wash.

[Many thanks to IndieBound and the ABA!]


Reading with... Victoria Aveyard

photo: Lucas Passmore

Victoria Aveyard was born and raised in East Longmeadow, Mass., a small town known only for the worst traffic rotary in the continental United States. She currently splits her time between the East and West coasts. As an author and screenwriter, she uses her career as an excuse to read too many books and watch too many movies. She is the author of the Red Queen and Realm Breaker series, the final installment of which, Fate Breaker, was recently published by HarperTeen.

Handsell readers your book in 25 words or less:

When the typical heroes fail, the ragtag B team steps up to save the world. It's Lord of the Rings meets Guardians of the Galaxy.

On your nightstand now:

My nightstand pile is a mix of currently reading (for pleasure or research) and to be read.

I'm working my way through Fairy Tale by Stephen King, and I find myself extremely anxious over the fate of an old German shepherd. I can handle pretty much anything in text, but dogs in danger really test me.

I also have a pair of books I'm reading for research right now: Black Flags, Blue Waters by Eric Jay Dolin and Sea of Faith by Stephen O'Shea.

As for the TBR: What the River Knows by Isabel Ibañez, Legendborn by Tracy Deonn, and Divine Rivals by Rebecca Ross are all waiting in the wings!

Favorite book when you were a child:

The first book to really grip me was Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine. I must have read it a dozen times when I was seven or eight, and it never got old. I was enamored with the world and the characters, as well as the concept of falling into a book. I was also deeply obsessed with the Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis. Obviously, I started with The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (I had a beautiful, illustrated edition), but my favorite novel in the series is The Horse and His Boy. It's the only installment entirely grounded within the magical world, so to speak, and gave us, I think, the biggest view of the realm. Not to mention one my favorite female characters, Aravis Tarkheena, who I idolized when I was little.

Your top five authors:

Obviously, this is not set in stone, but these came to mind quickly. I am forever indebted to J.R.R. Tolkien and George R.R. Martin for the inspiration I've leeched out of their work, as well as Stephen King, who continues to boggle my mind. I'm also endlessly jealous of Megan Whalen Turner, who can somehow balance being both exceedingly intelligent and impossibly entertaining. I am also eagerly awaiting the next Katherine Arden novel!

Book you've faked reading:

Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton. It was a summer reading assignment in school, and something about being forced to read a book always made me angry. It wasn't the book's fault my teacher assigned it, but I hated it all the same. And now my own books are on some summer reading lists, so I don't blame anyone if they hate my books on sight, either.

Book you're an evangelist for:

The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden, as well as her entire Winternight series. I was late to join the craze, and it was absolutely one of the best reading experiences of the last decade. This is always my recommendation when someone is looking for a fantasy series. More recently, I've also been passing around my copy of Bright Young Women by Jessica Knoll. It isn't often you find a book that is both important and engaging, but Jessica Knoll knocked it out of the park.

Book you've bought for the cover:

Circe by Madeline Miller as well as A Thousand Ships and Stone Blind by Natalie Haynes. I've been a sucker for Greek mythology since D'Aulaires' Book of Greek Myths sucked me in as a child, and I love the evocative symbolism and artful simplicity currently trending in mythology retellings.

Book you hid from your parents:

Technically every book I read before going to college. I was absolutely scolded for reading at the dinner table or when caught reading under the covers well after bedtime. But neither of my parents were very curious about the content of what I was reading. I did hide quite a lot of fan fiction, both what I was reading and writing myself, largely because, at least when I was growing up, I was very embarrassed about it and had no idea how to explain what fan fiction was without sounding like an absolute loser. I'm very glad fan fiction is now a point of pride in the reading community.

Book that changed your life:

I would be lying if I didn't say The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien. It shifted my entire being and opened my eyes not just to what I loved, but to what I had to do with my life. Unfortunately, my first copy fell apart, but I lugged that brick around for all of seventh grade. She earned a good death.

Favorite line from a book:

"I feel that as long as the Shire lies behind, safe and comfortable, I shall find wandering more bearable: I shall know that somewhere there is a firm foothold, even if my feet cannot stand there again." --The Fellowship of the Ring, J.R.R. Tolkien

This quote has stuck with me through the years, both for its poignancy and tragedy. So much of my favorite works circle around the concept of a fading world or disappearing age, the idea that something you hold is already slipping through your fingers. I feel like that a lot, so I take comfort in Frodo's words--the good thing still exists, even if it no longer exists for you.

Five books you'll never part with:

I'm getting repetitive, but I have an illustrated edition of The Lord of the Rings that I bought with all my birthday money when I was 13. It has lovely illustrations by Alan Lee, and I've taken it with me for over 20 years now. I also have a George R.R. Martin signed edition of A Dance with Dragons that I waited several hours in line for. It was the first book signing I ever attended. I also have my lovely collection of Tolkien universe reference books that I've had since middle school, including my very battered Atlas of Middle-Earth. My mom also has my old copies of the Maisie books by Aileen Paterson, a Scottish children's book series I read growing up. My granny used to send them over to us from Scotland, along with annuals of The Broons and Oor Wullie, both by R.D. Low and Dudley D. Watkins. I'm very sentimental about those as well--they're Scottish comics from the newspapers, going back to before World War II, and written in Scots! I used to read them all the time as a kid and didn't even realize I was technically reading another language. 

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

I can't say I would enjoy having my heart ripped out by George R.R. Martin's A Storm of Swords, but that would certainly be an experience. Probably Megan Whalen Turner's Queen's Thief series. Or I wish I had read Tamora Pierce's Alanna books when I was in middle school, instead of as an adult. They were fantastic, but I can't imagine my obsession if I got them when I was 12.


Awards: Publishing Triangle Finalists

Finalists have been chosen for the 36th annual Publishing Triangle Awards, honoring the best LGBTQ+ books published in 2023. See the many finalists here. Winners in the nine categories will be announced on Thursday, April 17, at a ceremony at the New School in New York City.

In addition, Kris Kleindienst, owner of Left Bank Books, St. Louis, Mo., will receive the 2024 Michele Karlsberg Leadership Award, which honors contributions to LGBTQ literature by those who are not primarily writers. Karlsberg praised Kleindienst's "unwavering dedication to the world of literature and social justice is an inspiration to us all. For five decades, her commitment to fostering community through the power of books has left an indelible mark on both the literary landscape and the hearts of those she serves. Kris embodies the spirit of resilience, integrity, and compassion, and her legacy at Left Bank Books stands as a testament to her profound impact. Here's to 50 years of enriching minds and empowering voices--a remarkable milestone achieved with grace, passion, and unwavering devotion."

Dorothy Allison will receive the $3,000 Bill Whitehead Award for Lifetime Achievement, which celebrates the recipient's lifetime of work and commitment to fostering queer culture. Allison is the author of numerous books, including Bastard Out of Carolina. David Groff, coordinator of the Whitehead Award selection committee, said: "As we discussed several worthy nominees for this award, the members of the committee kept coming back to Dorothy Allison. Her selection as the recipient of the award is a reflection not only of her consistent literary excellence, but of the important role she has played in the queer literary community."
 
Hilary Zaid is the winner of the Publishing Triangle's Betty Berzon Emerging Writer Award, given to an LGBTQ writer who has published at least one book but not more than two. She is the author of two books: Forget I Told You This: A Novel and Paper Is White. The Berzon Award judges noted that "Zaid impresses with the variety of her writing--her two novels are fiction, but in different genres, and she has published both nonfiction and short fiction," adding that they also commend her dedication to mentoring developing writers.

This year's Torchbearer Award, which is given to organizations or individuals "who strive to awaken, encourage, and support a love of reading, or to stimulate an interest in and an appreciation of LGBTQ literature" will be presented to Emily Drabinski, president of the American Library Association. Carol Rosenfeld, chair of the Publishing Triangle, said, "Today, literature is under attack, and libraries are our first line of defense. Emily Drabinski's leadership of the American Library Association and her fearlessness in standing up for the marginalized in our society are inspiring. She is truly worthy of receiving this award."


Book Review

Children's Review: Being Home

Being Home by Traci Sorell, illus. by Michaela Goade (Kokila, $18.99 hardcover, 32p., ages 4-8, 9781984816030, May 7, 2024)

Family and finding one's own rhythms lie at the heart of this striking new picture book by two-time Sibert Medal honoree Traci Sorell (Mascot) and Caldecott Medalist Michaela Goade (We Are Water Protectors). The collaboration, much like its dynamic characters, moves with a compelling, powerful beat.

A Cherokee child lives with their etsi (mother) in a city where "cars rush" and "crowds collect." Etsi says this is not their rhythm, so they are moving to the Cherokee Nation Reservation. The pair are excited to be leaving a place where, as more houses are built, "fewer animal relatives visit" and "family is too far away." With a "see you later, house" and a "gotta go, swing," the exuberant child and Etsi pack up the car and head home. The drive is long ("Are we there yet?") but the destination promises to be sweet--"singing,/ shell shaking,/ storytelling,/ stickball playing,/ all offer different beats" than the ones in the city they leave behind.

Indeed, when the child and Etsi arrive, family surrounds them, hugging and helping them to unpack. The child finds animal relatives, a new swing, and plenty of wonders to explore on ancestral land, including "room to run, ride, or roll along" and the "cool and constant" creek. Now, there are "no more busy streets" and "no more faraway family." The child and Etsi are "close enough to gather, eat,/ laugh, dance, and share" with their people--the wonderful "rhythm of being home."

Sorell's poetic text focuses on the deeply felt reasons that drive the child and their etsi's move from city to reservation. The author beautifully expresses core themes of family and the importance of full self-realization on ancestral land; in doing so, she echoes the oh-so-important rhythms which animate her characters. Goade's mixed-media art is at once delicate and strong, with spirited, sparkling colors and a keen sense of motion that reinforces the text's rhythm and energy. A jaunty pink is prominently featured while deep greens, blues, and browns ground the images. Well-placed spreads from the child's perspective help keep this picture book focused on its young protagonist, and the child's naïve-style art adornments and handwritten words are sprinkled throughout, providing even more variety and vigor to the scenario. Alive with movement, Being Home is an exceptional offering, emphasizing the inherent rhythms and motions of life. --Lynn Becker, reviewer, blogger, and children's book author

Shelf Talker: Family and finding one's own rhythms lie at the heart of Being Home, a glorious picture book which, much like its dynamic characters, moves to a strong beat.


Review: A Good Life

A Good Life by Virginie Grimaldi, trans. by Hildegarde Serle (Europa Editions, $28 hardcover, 288p., 9798889660248, May 28, 2024)

In the novel A Good Life, French author Virginie Grimaldi delivers a sensitive, familial love story about the unrivaled, transformative bond of sisterhood.

The book is set in the beautiful Basque countryside, where the adult Delorme sisters, Emma and Agathe, are reunited after a five-year estrangement. The two are forced to come together to spend one last summer vacation at the home of their beloved--now deceased--paternal grandmother, Mima. The seaside dwelling--about to be sold--holds dear memories that have anchored the sisters throughout their lives, despite their differences.

Emma, the older sister by five years, is a practical wife and mother, now approaching her 40s. Obstinate Emma resented her sister when she was first born--"My sister was born this morning. She's ugly... Daddy asks me if I'm pleased, I say no." However, the responsible, protective, and exceedingly reliable Emma has spent her life looking out for and worrying about Agathe--a still-single vegetarian; an impetuous free spirit who can be disorderly, snarky, and unhinged. Agathe suffers from panic attacks that were spurred on in early childhood by the divorce of the girls' parents.

During the week shared at Mima's house for the last time, the Delorme sisters relive and revisit bygone stories. Very short, evocative chapters render slice-of-life remembrances that take readers through episodes that defined and shaped the women's childhoods and teenage years--and probe stories of family and other loves and losses sustained into adulthood. These enlightening scenes are contrasted against Emma and Agathe and their lives in the present. They come to discover how Mima and the "good times" they shared via her influence at the Basque house every summer served to calm and steady them through the storms of life--the most notable being their grappling with personal bereavement over their father's absence and the contention manifested in their mother's subsequent emotional instability. The deep challenges that befall the family mark the women's identities, personalities, and coping methods. Tensions build in the narrative as Emma and Agathe ultimately confront each other and tend to the wounds that drove them apart.

Grimaldi's concise prose, translated by Hildegarde Serle, is striking and vivid, painting a sympathetic portrait of the enduring bond of sisterhood. Readers will fall under the spell of a compassionately revealed story that blends poignancy and humor in depicting the transcendental nature of familial love and forgiveness. --Kathleen Gerard, blogger at Reading Between the Lines

Shelf Talker: An evocative, powerful love story about two adult sisters forced to reconcile their lives at their grandmother's seaside home in the Basque Country.


Review: April May June July

April May June July by Alison B. Hart (Graydon House, $28.99 hardcover, 352p., 9781525804274, May 14, 2024)

It's impossible to read Alison B. Hart's April May June July and not think of what Tolstoy wrote about unhappy families: they are all unhappy in their own ways. In Hart's beautifully crafted novel, the "Barber sadness" is a particular unhappiness born in tragedy: the disappearance of patriarch Frank Barber after he and three Iraqi associates were kidnapped in Iraq, where he worked as a civilian contractor.

Ten years after the kidnapping, "the length of his absence was its own sort of answer to the question any news?" And yet his four children--April, May, June, and July--are unable to put aside hope that he may someday reappear, a hope that soaks into their unhappiness as adults, "the way hope felt indistinguishable from despair." April throws herself into work and raising her children, but with a side of extramarital affairs. May disappears into herself, pulling away from friends and family alike. June remakes herself as Juniper, a star soccer player and rising coach, but struggles with alcohol. And July, the youngest and only son, tries to find his footing in college and his unrequited feelings for his roommate.

When the four estranged siblings are thrown back together in a series of celebratory events leading up to Juniper's wedding, the "contrails of tragedy" follow them into every encounter. And when April thinks she spots her father on a vacation in Dubrovnik, of all places, every hope--for Frank's life, yes, but even just for answers to the questions surrounding his disappearance--comes rushing back to the surface of their lives.

In her acknowledgements, Hart (The Work Wife) notes that a kernel of this novel came from her desire to understand more about the recent history of Iraq, "a place that's been in the headlines throughout my life... but that I felt I understood only opaquely." This weaves through the threads of the Barber siblings' lives, each indelibly shaped by the politics of the United States' involvement in Iraq, despite living thousands of miles away. Hart invites readers to grapple with an understanding of the larger geopolitical forces at play ("the realization that your life of relative safety was purchased through violence"), even as the Barber siblings deal with their own individual grief, hope, and desperate search for answers. April May June July is part family saga, part missing persons case, part political thriller; a captivating and important novel that reveals just how personal the political is--and vice versa. --Kerry McHugh, freelance writer

Shelf Talker: April May June July is part family saga, part missing persons case, part political thriller, a captivating and important novel revealing just how personal the political is--and vice versa.


Review: Lies and Weddings

Lies and Weddings by Kevin Kwan (Doubleday, $29 hardcover, 448p., 9780385546294, May 21, 2024)

In the romantic comedy Lies and Weddings, Kevin Kwan (Crazy Rich Asians) delivers another sly, hilarious comedy of manners about the high class, the low class, and the rich with no class.

Hong Kong native Arabella, the Countess of Greshamsbury, is a former model and current luxury hotel mogul who persevered against the racist backlash that greeted her marriage to the British Earl of Greshamsbury to become an icon. Now she is finally embarking on the grandest campaign of her life, marrying off her three gorgeous adult children to rich minor European royals of her choosing and cementing "[h]er legacy as the matriarch of her own royal dynasty."

Unfortunately, her eldest daughter's wedding to a minor European prince slash microdosing coach does not come off without a hitch. The couple's extravagant Hawaiian wedding is thrown for a loop when a volcanic fissure opens in the middle of the ceremony site. Turning the fissure into a feature only goes so far, because another shadow falls over the proceedings. Namely, a hot mic broadcasts a confession of love from Arabella's son, international heartthrob Rufus Gresham, to beautiful, down-to-earth doctor Eden Tong.

Eden is a childhood friend of the Gresham siblings, the daughter of their family doctor, and the last person Arabella has in mind as a future daughter-in-law. The revelation that the Earldom of Greshamsbury has run financially dry further complicates matters and puts even greater pressure on Rufus to marry well. What follows is a class-driven comedy of errors to make Jane Austen proud, complete with a pregnancy mix-up, misguided matchmaking, a debauched heir, and romantic connections that readers likely won't expect.

Kwan dishes out another juicy, satire-tinged romp about the lives of the opulent class with aplomb. The characters behave to the standard his fans have come to expect, dressing in couture from epically curated closets, globetrotting with the casual air of someone walking into the next room, and dealing out deadly insults in only the poshest, politest tones. The third-person omniscient narrative voice follows each character's movements with the chattiness of a gossip columnist. It creates enough remove to emphasize the untouchable nature of the fantastically wealthy even as it invites laughter at their eccentricities. Readers hungry for an escapist tale with a soupçon of social criticism and a dash of true love overcoming obstacles should find Lies and Weddings a delicious diversion. --Jaclyn Fulwood, blogger at Infinite Reads

Shelf Talker: Crazy Rich Asians author Kevin Kwan returns to form in this dishy, hilarious comedy of errors about the lives and loves of the obscenely rich.


Review: Exhibit

Exhibit by R.O. Kwon (Riverhead Books, $28 hardcover, 224p., 9780593190029, May 21, 2024)

R.O. Kwon's second novel, Exhibit, is a searing study of art, desire, and bodily and intellectual freedom. Northern California photographer Jin Han earned notoriety for her triptychs depicting "religious people in states of worship." Given her lapsed Christian faith and her inclusion of self-portraits copying her subjects' poses, she has received hate mail and a boycott. This causes Jin to question her own motives: "did I, by reviving what I grieved, risk indulging in tragic kitsch?" Interspersed in the narrative are anguished letters to a God she no longer believes in ("Dear made-up Lord, I lived in pursuit of You...").

Doubt divides Jin from her devout parents in Seoul, while sexual needs drive her and her husband, Philip, apart. In the opening scene, Jin is immediately drawn to fellow Korean American Lidija Jung, an injured ballet dancer, at a party. Lidija shares Jin's interest in BDSM, which Philip is reluctant to explore. Moreover, Philip has decided he wants a baby, but Jin prefers to remain childfree. Little surprise, then, that Jin becomes increasingly intimate with Lidija, her muse. A new project even showcases the bruises and blood from their encounters. Soon, Jin is called back to Korea when her mother is hospitalized--an incident Jin's vestigial religious mindset leads her to interpret as punishment.

The BDSM theme connects to Kwon's co-edited anthology, Kink. There's also a tie-in to Kwon's debut novel: Jin attended Edwards College, and through photographs imagined extremist Phoebe Lin's life had she not joined the Jejah cult, responsible for multiple bombings in The Incendiaries. Here, too, flame metaphors are rife. "I had to kill this longing. If I didn't, I'd light my life on fire," Jin resolves early on.

Kwon's sentences are like grenades, carefully wrought and concentrated with meaning: "Lidija, netted, pulled in from pelagic depths. Split-tailed prize, bold skin flaring. In altering light, she blurred. Iris flesh, injured leg tall." Staccato phrasing and poetic vocabulary allow Kwon to pack much into this intense novel's short length, including chapters that tell the life story of a kisaeng (courtesan) who now, as a ghost, inspires--and perhaps curses--both Lidija and Jin. Though the prose threatens to overwhelm a somewhat familiar plot, the focus on art and independence, as well as the bisexual representation, make this stand out. It's ideal reading for fans of Melissa Broder, Teju Cole, and Brandon Taylor. --Rebecca Foster, freelance reviewer, proofreader and blogger at Bookish Beck

Shelf Talker: In R.O. Kwon's bold second novel, a Korean American photographer depicts her loss of faith, as well as her bisexuality and attraction to BDSM, through her art.


YA Review: Thirsty

Thirsty: A Novel by Jas Hammonds (Roaring Brook Press, $19.99 hardcover, 336p., ages 13-up, 9781250816597, May 14, 2024)

Jas Hammonds, winner of the 2023 Coretta Scott King John Steptoe New Talent Award for We Deserve Monuments, delivers another exceptional work of YA contemporary fiction in their scintillating sophomore title, Thirsty, about a young woman desperate to be seen and valued.

Eighteen-year-old Blake, girlfriend Ella, and friend Annetta are spending the summer pledging the Serena Society, which is, as Annetta puts it, "a club for powerful, badass women of color." Entrance seems a foregone conclusion for Ella and Annetta, whose mothers are Serena alumnae. Blake, though, isn't as sure about her own acceptance; she's the daughter of a Black pilot and a white night-shift 7-Eleven employee and the first in her family to go to college. Additionally, both Ella and Annetta grew up around women of color, an experience "different from everything [Blake has] ever known"--her white mother never even learned how to style her hair.

So, if the partying of the Serena girls is as "next level" as Blake has heard, she will work harder to impress the beautiful Serena Society president and "Big Lesbian on Campus," Roxanne Garcia. Blake knows how to be the life of the party--"Arrive looking fine as hell.... Keep up with the heaviest drinker in the room"--and hopes she'll get in by leaning into her "wild" reputation. But she gets sloppier with every party. Ella begins sending Blake home, while Ella stays and parties with Roxanne. Annetta confronts Blake about her drinking, but Ella thinks their friend is overreacting. Meanwhile, Blake--conflicted, anxious, and depressed--doesn't know what to do. So she keeps drinking.

Hammonds depicts alcoholism with spectacular accuracy, including the heady, dizzying, warm rush of the first few drinks. In the beginning, drinking gives Blake "That Feeling": "swollen lips, invincibility, sexiness, power." As she gets drunk, though, her thoughts become disjointed, the writing staccato. Intense hangxiety makes Blake's physical and emotional state spiral, even as her "end result looks like nothing but up": cocktail parties, country-club dinners, and a "fine ass girlfriend." While the conclusion feels a bit long on the romantic story and short on the recovery, Thirsty is accessible, energetic, and never over-burdened by the heft of the issues Hammonds deftly covers. Hammonds crafts with care, giving time and space to the many facets of Blake's identity while highlighting a kind of addiction story that is rarely told. Thirsty is as effervescent as it is weighty. --Siân Gaetano, children's and YA editor, Shelf Awareness

Shelf Talker: A CSK John Steptoe New Talent Award winner delivers a scintillating sophomore title about a young woman desperate to be seen and valued.


Review: Cactus Country: A Boyhood Memoir

Cactus Country: A Boyhood Memoir by Zoë Bossiere (Abrams Press, $27 hardcover, 272p., 9781419773181, May 21, 2024)

Memoirist Zoë Bossiere writes, "I see a lone, barefooted boy with short blond hair walking along the road in Cactus Country... looking for something despite feeling uncertain it could ever be found." At age 11, Bossiere moved with their parents to a trailer park on the outskirts of Tucson, Ariz. Before leaving Virginia, Zoë gets a short haircut "like a boy's." "I'd thought I might need to go by a new name to pass as a boy in Tucson. But it quickly became apparent I was the only Zoë most people I encountered had ever met... so I kept it." Cactus Country: A Boyhood Memoir tells of living as a boy in the desert, struggling with gender, class, and a shortage of options for self-expression, and eventually taking a great leap in leaving for a wider world.

Although Bossiere's father introduced them as a daughter, they were on the whole able to make a fresh start in Cactus Country, inhabiting a long-held dream of boyhood. The version of masculinity they found in the desert is characterized by stoicism, camaraderie, and violence, as they learned from the trailer park's revolving cast of boys and men how to perform toughness through acts of cruelty and self-defense. Especially as their body entered puberty, Bossiere struggled with gender expression in a world where they never encountered the concept of transgender, and the only queer role model they met insisted on a gender binary and harbored suspicions about bisexuality. Bossiere for a spell accepted the feminine identity assigned by the outside world, without settling into a self-identity that felt right. After a troubled childhood and young adulthood, it was by studying creative writing that they eventually saw a way out of the Tucson area and into new spaces, geographic and otherwise, including the concept of genderfluidity.

Cactus Country is a wise and wonderfully crafted memoir, treating its characters and subjects with compassion in the face of assaults, addictions, dysfunction, and violence. The desert and Bossiere's experiences there are stark and severe but also include earnest attempts at connection. They must leave Cactus Country to grow and to find their truest self, but it's only by returning in memory that their journey begins to feel whole. After a childhood as harsh as the desert sun, they write tenderly about place and a past "where broken boys with sunburned faces could be beautiful, kings worthy of inheriting the place they called their home. A place where a Cactus Country boy would always be a Cactus Country boy."

Gorgeously written, thoughtful, and tough, this memoir of gender and a hardscrabble coming-of-age in the American Southwest excels at nuance. --Julia Kastner, librarian and blogger at pagesofjulia

Shelf Talker: This hard-edged, incisive memoir of gender-fluidity in a desert trailer park offers an essential perspective.


Deeper Understanding

Robert Gray: Stopping by the Nibbies' Indie Bookshops of the Year

The British Book Awards (the Nibbies) recently named nine regional and country winners for this year's Independent Bookshop of the Year, selected by the judges from 77 finalists. Sponsored by Gardners, the prize celebrates bookshops that "continue to support local communities with creative, specialist and community-centered activities." 

These select booksellers are now in contention for the overall Independent Bookshop of the Year Award, which will be announced May 13 at the BBA ceremony in London. The overall winner also competes for Book Retailer of the Year.

Thinking about those nine shops, each with its own personality and mission, supported by a unique community, prompted me embark on a brief virtual tour to see how they reacted to the good news. Here's a bit of what I found in my travels:

"Thrilled to be named 'Best Independent Bookshop in Wales' for the 5th time!" noted 2020 overall winner Book-ish, which has a shop in Crickhowell and during the past year held a successful crowdfunder to open a second store in nearby Abergavenny.
 
East England winner Kett's Books, Wymondham, posted: "We don't apply every year, because we often feel that our achievements are very apparent to the people they matter to--but it's been such a big year, with so many people pulling together, we want to shout nationally about how customers, volunteers, friends and staff have created and developed a really special bookshop in Wymondham."
 
The Secret Bookshelf, Carrickfergus, which is the first bookshop in Northern Ireland to win the regional title, wrote: "Oh wow, wow, wow! We are bookstore of the year for the island of Ireland, and we are stunned. Thank you to all of you for your support (and craic!)--well done to all the Ireland finalists.... Stunned. We need a coffee.... Stunned here! And, most of all, to our fab customers!"
 
Brick Lane Bookshop, winner in the London region and the oldest bookshop among the regional winners, posted: "For those of you who don't know, this year Brick Lane Bookshop is celebrating its twentieth anniversary of being on Brick Lane. But before that, other versions of the shop could be found throughout East London since 1978! One constant throughout these iterations has been pillar-of-the-community and owner of Brick Lane Bookshop, Denise Jones. After being named London's Independent Bookshop of the Year, we thought it would be good to see some of Denise's favorite books."

"Eeeeeee!" That was the reaction of Midlands winner the Poetry Pharmacy, launched five years ago by "Emergency Poet" Deborah Alma, who "prescribes poetry and other beautiful books to anyone who walks through their doors, taking pride in being the first in the world to do so."

The Book Nook in Stewarton, the Scotland winner, wrote: "I have been absolutely overwhelmed with all the lovely messages of congratulations on The Book Nook's win that I have received over the past few days! I am trying to thank everyone individually, but have not been able to keep up completely yet. So if I haven't thanked you personally, please know how much all the messages are appreciated and enjoyed by myself and my team.... We look forward to welcoming you to our award-winning bookshop!"

"WE ONLY FLIPPIN WON! The Northern part anyway--it's the only important bit anyway!" That was the reaction at Wave of Nostalgia in Haworth, the North England winner. The shop also shared celebration videos

South-West England winner FOLDE, Shaftesbury, which focuses on nature writing, posted: "When we first started our business, we always knew we wanted to do things our own way, and to champion nature and how we engage with it. More than that, we wanted to be a place for conversation and community. To be recognized by our industry for what we do is an amazing endorsement. Thank you to everyone who supports us--we appreciate you all."  

Pigeon Books in Southsea, which opened as the first Covid lockdown hit and won the South-East England region, noted: "We've had a bit of time (and a few glasses of wine) to try and process the news, and to be honest we're still not quite convinced that it's real--to be included in such an excellent shortlist of established bookshops is an absolute privilege and an unbelievable honor. At least we know that at the very least, we now get a trip to the actual #britishbookawards ceremony in London in May--and who knows, possibly the chance of the actual big prize itself? All we know is that getting this far is an incredible boost to our little shop and yet again reminds us of why we do what we do--and thank you yet again for all your support and kind words as always!"

Noting that this has been among the most competitive Independent Bookshop of the Year judging processes since the award was conceived, Tom Tivnan, the Bookseller's managing editor, said, "Indie bookshops across the U.K. and Ireland are thriving and have met the very difficult recent trading conditions with creativity and cutting-edge innovation. What is truly cheering is that we see this in new shops that have popped up since the pandemic to venerable stores which have been trading for decades. In the last few years I have been calling this period an indie bookshop renaissance, but I think we have gone beyond that, we are in the golden age."

--Robert Gray, contributing editor

Among Friends: Steve Zacharius on the Roots of Kensington, Mass Market Publishing

Among the many contributors to Among Friends: An Illustrated Oral History of American Book Publishing & Bookselling in the 20th Century, published last fall by Two Trees Press and distributed by Ingram Content Group, is Steve Zacharius, president and CEO of Kensington Publishing. Here we reproduce his contribution, which focuses on how Kensington grew and the old mass market side of the book industry.

My grandparents, like most people back then, didn't even know what being a publisher meant. But my father, Walter Zacharius, wanted to own a newspaper. He got his start in sales for Macfadden, publisher of magazines including True Confessions, and then for Ace Books.

As a young teen, I worked two summers in the mailroom of Lancer Books, which Walter started with partner Irwin Stein in 1961. They published paperback mass market titles, including Mario Puzo's pre-Godfather novel The Fortunate Pilgrim, and the '60s classic Candy by Terry Southern, a bawdy romp about a wide-eyed hippie girl that was initially banned from stores and libraries. Other titles include Conan the Barbarian in early Manga and the very successful The Man From O.R.G.Y., a sexy takeoff on The Man From U.N.C.L.E. There must have been ten books in that series by Ted Marx, and each one had a print run of about a million copies. I was impressed when my father published the first U.S. book on the Beatles, with a photo insert, but more so that he did men's magazines like Swank and Gallery. He used to think his night table was a good place to hide them from me.

Walter was quite the storyteller. He knew every one of the 800 or so wholesalers at that time, their spouses and their kids' names. He was the consummate salesman who wouldn't take no for an answer. I remember him telling me how tough some of the wholesalers were. When he worked for Macfadden, he was sent out to collect money and had a gun pointed at him on a table. My dad was a scrawny six-foot Jewish kid from Brooklyn but he had no fear. He took the gun and spun it around so it was facing the wholesaler and said, "Now we can talk."

Walter was the ultimate marketeer. Lancer didn't offer big author advances, but he spent money on cover artwork by Frank Frazetta and other well-known artists as well as on clever marketing campaigns. In 1973, the public company filed for bankruptcy after a four-year lawsuit with his distributor, and in 1974 he started Zebra. The following year he formed Kensington Publishing Corporation with his friend, the editor Roberta Bender Grossman. She became president and publisher at a time when few women held that title, and held shares in the company. Kensington's mission was to publish historical romances because its competitor Harlequin was then publishing only contemporary romances.

Walter kept commissioning cover art to make books by first-time authors stand out on the racks. The Italian illustrators Pino Daeni and Franco Accornero received $6,000 per painting for one-time use on the cover, but their work really made the books pop. (Those paintings by Pino now sell for $35,000.) Mass market was in its prime and books by first-time authors were published in hundreds of thousands of copies per title. Walter's motto was "Cash is king," and the company had to keep putting out new books and bigger distributions to increase the gross while returns would come back. He had no fear of the giant publishing companies and always wanted to outsmart them at a fraction of the cost. When Bantam was publishing Lee Iacocca's autobiography, Walter happened to find a previously published biography of Iacocca and released it at the same time as Bantam's blockbuster. They both hit the New York Times list, but Kensington's had probably only cost about $2,500 for the manuscript.

Covers remained the chief marketing tool. Zebra Books, the primary imprint, was the first company to use a hologram on a cover, for a horror title by Rick Hautala called Moondeath. Of course, sales went through the roof. Zebra later created a series of romances called Lovegrams, all featuring a hologram, and covers made from a lenticular plastic lens for a three-dimensional moving image effect. No one realized at the time that these covers could not be stripped for returns, which was the normal process to get credit for returned books. However, the book went on to have a huge sell-through.

In the mid-1970s, I began working at Jules Kroll Associates, the world's leading investigator of white-collar crime, looking for payoffs to purchasing agents who bought printing. It was legal research as I planned to return to law school, but once I started making money, that idea went out the window. I learned about the printing business and took classes in manufacturing. At 25, I became director of manufacturing at Rolling Stone magazine when it moved from San Francisco to New York City. I was the youngest person on the business side, and it was exciting to work with so many writers who became big-time journalists. After a few years, I left to start my own promotional printing company for all of the big book publishers.

In 1992, Kensington, publisher of Zebra Books and Pinnacle Books, was still largely a mass market house, but my dad was looking for an exit strategy. Sadly, Roberta passed away from cancer right when he began negotiations with potential buyers for the company. He asked me to join him in these meetings. He had considered Roberta, who was much younger than him, almost like a daughter, and was in great emotional distress about her death. After protracted negotiations, both parties walked away from the table. My father said, "Steve, I'm not getting any younger. Do you want to come join me?"

In 1993, I sold my printing company to a friend and started at Kensington as vice president and general manager. Now my son Adam Zacharius holds those titles, and I am president and CEO.


The Bestsellers

Top-Selling Self-Published Titles

The bestselling self-published books last week as compiled by IndieReader.com:

1. A Touch of Chaos by Scarlett St. Clair
2. The Teacher by Freida McFadden
3. Twisted Love by Ana Huang
4. The Dead Guy Next Door by Lucy Score
5. Never Lie by Freida McFadden
6. Where's Molly by H.D. Carlton
7. Ask for Andrea by Noelle West Ihli
8. Storms and Secrets by Claire Kingsley
9. Haunting Adeline by H.D. Carlton
10. The Reason I Married Him by Meghan Quinn

[Many thanks to IndieReader.com!]


Top-Selling Self-Published Titles

The bestselling self-published books last week as compiled by IndieReader.com:

1. The Teacher by Freida McFadden
2. Twisted Love by Ana Huang
3. Where's Molly by H.D. Carlton
4. Never Lie by Freida McFadden
5. King of Wrath by Ana Huang
6. My Dark Desire by Parker S. Huntington and L.J Shen
7. The Unwanted Wife by L. Steele
8. Ask for Andrea by Noelle West Ihli
9. Haunting Adeline by H.D. Carlton
10. The Reason I Married Him by Meghan Quinn

[Many thanks to IndieReader.com!]


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