"It was a harrowing week for us two years ago when the superstorm hit Mystic and flooded Bank Square Books. Two years later, sales are up, our expansion continues to delight customers with our spacious aisles and bright displays, and plans are in the works for our involvement in a new bookstore in Westerly. We've come a long way. Thanks for all your support these last two years and always!"

Michelle Meyering

Michelle Meyering has been named executive director of PEN Center USA, effective November 1, succeeding Adam Somers, who has held the position since 2004. Meyering was director of programs and events for the organization, "where she has been a particularly energetic and engaged member of the Los Angeles literary community," Jacket Copy reported. She is also the founding editor of the literary journal The Rattling Wall.

"I've obviously played a very public role for PEN in terms of programming," she said. "I'll maintain oversight of that." Meyering added that her primary task as the nonprofit's executive director will be to manage the organization's fundraising: "The goal for the last five years was to be more visible in L.A. The next five years are about financial stability."

Board chair Marvin Putnam commented: "In this time of ever-increasing challenges to writers' and all Americans' free speech rights, PEN Center USA's mission has never been more vital or necessary. To have someone as talented and battle-tested as Michelle Meyering onboard is a testament to PEN Center USA's increased necessity and stature. We are very lucky to have her."

Kobo has added Marvel comic books to its digital reading platform. The illustrated e-books can be viewed on Kobo devices as well as free reading apps for most tablets and smartphones.

"For more than 75 years, Marvel has been transporting comic fans to exciting new galaxies," said Santiago Melo, merchandiser, Kobo. "Tackling big issues with larger than life characters, these stories continue to be a constant source of enrichment in our popular culture and we couldn't be happier to welcome them to the Kobo family."

David Gabriel, senior v-p, sales & marketing for Marvel Entertainment, said the company "is excited about our partnership with Kobo and happy to have the opportunity to provide fans, new and existing, another great way to experience our legendary content."

Galway Kinnell, "who was recognized with both a Pulitzer Prize and an American Book Award for a body of poetry that pushed deep into the heart of human experience in the decades after World War II," died Tuesday, the New York Times reported. He was 87. His many books include Selected Poems, The Book of Nightmares and When One Has Lived a Long Time Alone.

A former Vermont Poet Laureate, "Galway wasn't afraid to explore the full range of emotion in his poems," Major Jackson, poet and University of Vermont professor, told the Burlington Free Press. "He expressed terror, he expresses profound awe at human existence, and regret. You can hear all of it in his work. It would be limiting for us to confine him merely as a protest poet or a poet of the heart or a Romantic poet. Maybe that's part of his allure, that he captures the full range of human emotions."

From his poem "Another Night in the Ruins":

How many nights must it take
one such as me to learn
that we aren't, after all, made
from that bird that flies out of its ashes,   
that for us
as we go up in flames, our one work
is
to open ourselves, to be
the flames?

With less than a month to go until Thanksgiving, independent booksellers around the country are making plans for Saturday, November 29--which is both Small Business Saturday and Indies First Day--plus the recently launched Upstream. (For more information about the latter two programs, including some publisher holiday order specials, click here.) Booksellers are also looking forward to the holiday selling season.

"We were new and we were still trying to figure out our holiday season," said Hilary Lowe, co-owner of Literati Bookstore in Ann Arbor, Mich., which opened last year and is expanding into new, added space upstairs this fall. "But we knew we wanted to do it this year. We want to make a splash."

Lowe has yet to finalize which authors will be at the store on November 29, but is working with several local authors and illustrators. And although she has not specifically acted upon Daniel Handler's call for the Upstream program, the store already has similar relationships with a variety of local writers and artists. "We try to make sure that they [authors and illustrators] have a long-term relationship with us, whether that's doing a launch event here or telling people to shop here for the holidays," Lowe said. "I think a lot of authors are already doing that. Hopefully Upstream will make sure that that continues."

Tom Lowenburg, co-owner of Octavia Books in New Orleans, La., reported that he was still finalizing authors, but hoped to build off last year's Indies First festivities. "We had eight or nine last year," Lowenburg said. "We might go higher than that--we've already got a pretty good start."

Lowenburg expects the holidays to be "very busy." Despite having one less weekend between Thanksgiving and Christmas than usual, "I think in the long run that's not going to matter that much. Small Business Saturday is the beginning, not the goal. Kind of a way to get the season launched and get it on the right track. To get people thinking about books as a special kind of gift, and about getting them locally."

For Indies First, Andrea Avantaggio, co-owner of Maria's Bookshop in Durango, Colo., plans to have eight authors in the store, including Chuck Greaves (Hush Money) and Scott Graham (Canyon Sacrifice). Last year, the store was unable to "pull it together," Avantaggio said, but looks forward to participating this November. She and her staff are also considering special sales on particular books on Small Business Saturday, but nothing is quite finalized yet.

"It feels like it's going to be a strong one," Avantaggio said, about the holiday season. "We had a really strong summer, and the fall is still going gangbusters. I feel like if my gut is any good, it will be a good season for us."

At Blue Willow Bookshop in Houston, Tex., owner Valerie Koehler has signed up two authors to work at the store for Indies First, and has signed on five authors for Upstream. In addition to the visiting authors, Koehler plans to have some treats, thank yous and giveaways for customers, but does not intend to run any sales.

"In the past I've found that sales really haven't been the draw," Koehler explained. "People love it when they get free things, when they get special attention, but in our store, discounts aren't the big thing."

This October, Koehler said, has been "killer," and she has very high expectations for the holidays. "So far it has not disappointed," she remarked.

On Small Business Saturday, two local authors, Rachel Guido deVries, a poet and children's book author, and Mike McCrobie, a journalist and nonfiction author, will stop at the river's end bookstore in Oswego, N.Y., for Indies First. After that, said co-owner Bill Reilly, an all-female vocal ensemble called Concinnity will perform in store.

"We're totally committed to the concept [of Indies First] and very excited about it," said Reilly. "Last year Frank Cammuso and Laurie Halse Anderson were here. It was hugely successful. We didn't want to go back to the same authors again, and we don't have a tremendous number within easy driving range. So we decided to embrace some very local authors."

Reilly also expects holiday sales to be up. "Right now I'm telling everyone that books are stronger than ever for us. July, August, September and October were all up over last year," he explained. "We're feeling really great about this."

Bookpeople of Moscow in Moscow, Idaho, will host authors "all day long," with N.D. Wilson (The Dragon's Tooth), Daniel Orozco ("Orientation"), Alexandra Teague (Mortal Geography) and Brandon Schrand (Works Cited: An Alphabetical Odyssey of Mayhem and Misbehavior) already confirmed. Last year, Kim Barnes (A Country Called Home) and Robert Wrigley (Anatomy of Melancholy & Other Poems) visited the store, and Carol Spurling, the store's owner, hopes to bring them back again as well. "They had a great time last year," she said.

This will be the third holiday season for Bookpeople of Moscow, and Spurling has high hopes for it. "The second Christmas was busier than the first, and I expect this year to be busier too," she said. "Things have been increasing for us steadily. Our visibility is increasing."

At University Book Store in Seattle, Wash., the Indies First festivities will be a little different: according to Eileen Harte, the store's events coordinator, UBS plans a day full of traditional author events instead of having authors working as booksellers. Kazu Kibuishi, author of the Amulet series, will the start the day off at 11. Then, at noon, the store will host a full YA panel, with six or seven young adult authors. Sherman Alexie will stop by around lunchtime, and a sci-fi panel follows at 2 p.m. The store will finish the day with a launch party for a local author at 4 p.m.

For last year's Indie First Day, many authors acted as booksellers at UBS, and though it was lively, the staff did not get the interactions it wanted. "It was kind of hard to get them all out to mingle with customers," Harte explained. "There were a lot of different personalities--some were less outgoing. We were thinking, this year, let's do a bunch of mini-events. Then it became, let's do big events, all day long."

As far as general holiday sales go, University Book Store is expecting a better season than last year. Said Harte: "We're optimistic. Very, very optimistic." --Alex Mutter

[Editor's note: Shelf Awareness will have more reporting on the holiday season over the next two months.]

Magers & Quinn Booksellers in Minneapolis celebrated Halloween early with a scary story reading Tuesday evening. Authors Katherine Howe, Benjamin Percy and Wendy K. Webb talked witches, werewolves and ghosts.

Pictured (from l.): events coordinator Ann Mayhew, Benjamin Percy, Katherine Howe, Wendy K. Webb, author Frank Bures (who attended the event), and sales & outreach coordinator Pamela Klinger-Horn.

British author Sara Sheridan, whose latest novel is England Expects, loves bookshops. "Everywhere I go I try to hunt out local bookshops," she wrote on the U.K.'s Books Are My Bag website. "Some are quite magical--almost as if the selection has been tailored for me. I'm a story adventurer always on the lookout for a book that will give me that intoxicating experience of removing me from the real world and sucking me between its pages....
 
"Still, what I like most about bookshops are the differences between them.... This makes it difficult to pick my top ten favorite things in bookshops. Quite apart from anything else it's difficult to restrict the list and ironically not all of my favorite things have much to do with books, per se, but here I go:

1. A comfortable chair to curl up in.
2. Somewhere to wander--shelves that go round corners or up stairs.
3. The prospect of a cup of tea...
4. ...and a scone.
5. A relaxed atmosphere...
6. ...in which you can ask for recommendations or discuss something you've found.
7. An unexpected section by which I mean shelves of books that have been curated by the shop--art books or Italian cookery books or a fan section for an unusual genre. I discovered Elizabeth Jane Howard's work this way--a joy.
8. The smell of printed paper and hardback covers.
9. A ticking clock. I have fond memories of being lulled in a second hand Wigtown bookshop by a ticking clock. It was raining outside and I spent the afternoon browsing around corners and coming across a chair now and then. The clock felt like a heartbeat and I came away with some very special finds.
10. Last but not least, the clever and inspiring people behind the counter--those at the crossroads of our reading lives who give their time and will chat with kindness. Thank you for all the stories you have directed my way without judgment. That, without doubt, is the most important thing.

Hachette Book Group has moved; its new address is 1290 Avenue of the Americas (between 51st and 52nd Sts.), New York, N.Y. 10104. Phone numbers (and the Grand Central Publishing name) remain the same.

At Simon & Schuster:

Jennifer Grojean has been promoted to director, national accounts for special markets, working with specialty retailers, specialty wholesalers, business-to-business network accounts and educational wholesalers.  She was previously senior manager, national accounts, special markets.
Bianca Johnson has been promoted to manager, adult custom & proprietary sales. She was previously assistant manager.
Alex Maurer is joining the company as manager, children's custom & proprietary sales.

---

Juliana Horbachevsky has joined Abrams as publicist, primarily working on cookbooks and pop-culture titles. She was formerly an associate publicist at Gallery Books.

Us: A Novel by David Nicholls (Harper), a title that was longlisted for the Man Booker Prize this year.

Tomorrow on Access Hollywood: Sadie Robertson, co-author of Live Original: How the Duck Commander Teen Keeps It Real and Stays True to Her Values (Howard Books, $22.99, 9781476777801).

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Tomorrow night on HBO's Real Time with Bill Maher: Wesley K. Clark, author of Don't Wait for the Next War: A Strategy for American Growth and Global Leadership (PublicAffairs, $26.99, 9781610394338).

FX has released a teaser trailer for the sixth season of Justified, based on Elmore Leonard's short story "Fire in the Hole." The TV series inspired Leonard to return to his characters in the 2012 novel Raylan. Entertainment Weekly reported that while the new season, which airs in January, includes the addition of Sam Elliott and Garret Dillahunt to the cast, "the first teaser puts the focus firmly on Timothy Olyphant's Raylan and Walton Goggins's Boyd."

---

Grady Hendrix's novel Horrorstör (Quirk), "designed in the format of a furniture catalog (parallels with Ikea are inevitable)," has been acquired by the Jackal Group, a co-venture between Fox Networks Group and Gail Berman (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel), for development as a TV series, Deadline.com reported.

"Horrorstör tells a compelling, old-fashioned horror story but against a contemporary and relatable backdrop," said Berman. "This is truly a property that is meant to come to life in live action, and I am excited to be a part of it."

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, November 1
12 p.m.  Book TV interviews authors and visits literary sites in Colorado Springs, Colo. (Re-airs Sunday at 9:45 a.m.)

1:15 p.m. Karima Bennoune, author of Your Fatwa Does Not Apply Here: Untold Stories from the Fight Against Muslim Fundamentalism (Norton, $27.95, 9780393081589), at the Texas Book Festival.

4:15 p.m. Rick Perlstein, author of The Invisible Bridge: The Fall of Nixon and the Rise of Reagan (Simon & Schuster, $37.50, 9781476782416).

7 p.m. Steven Johnson, author of How We Got to Now: Six Innovations That Made the Modern World (Riverhead, $30, 9781594632969), at Powell's Books in Portland, Ore.

8 p.m. Louise Shelley, author of Dirty Entanglements: Corruption, Crime, and Terrorism (Cambridge University Press, $29.99, 9781107689305).

9 p.m. Norman Lear, author of Even This I Get to Experience (Penguin Press, $32.95, 9781594205729), at Politics and Prose Bookstore in Washington, D.C.

10 p.m. James McPherson, author of Embattled Rebel: Jefferson Davis as Commander in Chief (Penguin Press, $32.95, 9781594204975). (Re-airs Sunday at 9 p.m. and Monday at 3 a.m.)

11 p.m. Lucinda Franks, author of Timeless: Love, Morgenthau, and Me (Sarah Crichton Books, $28, 9780374280802).


Sunday, November 2
12:15 a.m. Peter Duffy, author of Double Agent: The First Hero of World War II and How the FBI Outwitted and Destroyed a Nazi Spy Ring (Scribner, $28, 9781451667950).

12 p.m. Live In Depth q&a with author and former publisher Michael Korda. E-mail questions from this page. (Re-airs Monday at 12 a.m.)

3 p.m. Tom McMillan, author of Flight 93: The Story, the Aftermath, and the Legacy of American Courage on 9/11 (Globe Pequot Press, $25.95, 9780762795222).

6:15 p.m. Clarence Page, author of Culture Worrier: Reflections on Race, Politics and Social Change (Agate Bolden, $17, 9781932841923).

7:30 p.m. Walter Isaacson, author of The Innovators: How a Group of Hackers, Geniuses, and Geeks Created the Digital Revolution (Simon & Schuster, $35, 9781476708690).

10 p.m. Rebecca Frankel, author of War Dogs: Tales of Canine Heroism, History, and Love (Palgrave Macmillan, $26, 9781137279682).

11 p.m. James Patterson addresses a meeting of New York City middle-school principals on the importance of independent reading in schools.

On Tuesday night in New York City, Carol Brown Janeway, v-p and senior editor at Knopf, was presented with the 2014 Ottaway Award for the Promotion of International Literature, sponsored by Words Without Borders. Presenting the award, Luiz Schwarcz, founder and CEO of Companhia das Letras, said: "Carol is one of the greatest editors and translators to work in publishing. Through her hands, readers have had access to works of literature from many countries. One of the main reasons for the existence of literature is to make us travel to other selves, times and places. The role Carol occupies in today's publishing world is central to international literary culture." In accepting the award, Janeway spoke about the critical role publishers play not only in bringing new literary voices from other languages to new readers, but in helping writers who struggle in difficult circumstances in their countries bear witness to their lives and the lives of others. Pictured: Janeway with James Ottaway, first chair of Words Without Borders, for whom the award is named.

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

Hardcovers
Love Me Back: A Novel by Merritt Tierce (Doubleday, $23.95, 9780385538077). "Not for the faint of heart or for those who need redemptive tales, Love Me Back is the story of Marie, a very smart, hard-working, but self-destructive young woman waitressing at a high-end restaurant in Dallas. In spare prose, Tierce brings the reader inside the world of the service industry and inside the head of a 20-something who makes many bad choices. Drugs, alcohol, casual sex, rundown apartments--these are the everyday things of Marie's existence. Tierce skillfully draws the reader into this world with a story that is eye opening, sometimes shocking, but never dull. Recommended!" --Ellen Burns, Books on the Common, Ridgefield, Conn.

Good Grief: Life in a Tiny Vermont Village by Ellen Stimson (Countryman Press, $23.95, 9781581572551). "After reading Stimson's earlier book, Mud Season, I knew I wanted to at least be Facebook friends with her. Now that I've read Good Grief, I wish she were my next door neighbor because everyone needs fun, witty people like her in their lives. Stimson's new memoir hits all the high points for readers--it is witty, philosophical, laugh-out-loud funny, and totally relatable. Laugh along with her at the mundane and not-so-mundane situations that can flare up unexpectedly in life." --Sue Roegge, Chapter2Books, Hudson, Wis.

Paperback
Dept. of Speculation: A Novel by Jenny Offill (Vintage, $15, 9780345806871). "I found myself gasping at the sheer beauty and conciseness of Offill's sentences. This book can be devoured in two hours, or you can languish in it over many sittings (or both). It's about love and loneliness and grief and joy and fidelity and beauty and depression and mania and motherhood and writing. The shifting points of view were subtle yet profound, and, despite the darkness and sadness of the story, when I closed the book, I was left more alert and attentive, more alive. Highly recommended." --Janet Geddis, Avid Bookshop, Athens, Ga.

For Ages 9 to 12
Nest by Esther Ehrlich (Wendy Lamb Books, $16.99, 9780385386074). "Set in the 1970s, this heartbreaking novel is told from the perspective of 11-year-old amateur ornithologist Naomi, known as 'Chirp.' When Chirp's mother is diagnosed with a devastating disease, each member of the family is affected differently. Chirp copes by throwing herself into her birdwatching and a friendship with a neighborhood boy who himself is no stranger to family discord. Realistic, haunting, and lovely, this is a book for parents to share with their children, for book clubs to discuss, and for teachers to read aloud." --Emily Ring, Inklings Bookshop, Yakima, Wash.

[Many thanks to IndieBound and the ABA!]

Selected new titles appearing next Tuesday, November 4:

Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow: My Life by Sophia Loren (Atria, $28, 9781476797427) is the memoir of the actress.

I Must Say: My Life As a Humble Comedy Legend by Martin Short (Harper, $26.99, 9780062309525) is the memoir of the comedian.

Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Long Haul by Jeff Kinney (Amulet Books, $13.95, 9781419711893) continues the Diary of a Wimpy Kid children's series.

Citizens Creek: A Novel by Lalita Tademy (Atria, $26, 9781476753034) follows a former slave and his family during the 19th century.

In a sensitive, absorbing story of life and love after war translated by Virginia Jewiss, Melania G. Mazzucco (Vita) examines the challenges and new beginnings a female officer finds upon returning home from service in Afghanistan.

In her 27 years of life, all Manuela Paris ever wanted to be is a soldier in the Italian army, but after finally achieving her dream, the young sergeant may see it slip away. Home from Afghanistan on disability leave after barely surviving a suicide bombing, Manuela waits in limbo for the physical and psychological exam that will tell her superiors whether she is fit to return to duty. Although her life and identity are completely tied up in her military career, Manuela now suffers from the symptoms of severe PTSD: flashbacks, vomiting, nightmares that leave her screaming all night despite the benzodiazepine drops she takes to help herself sleep.

Her mother and her older sister, Vanessa, have never understood Manuela's choices and hope that she will now give up the army, settle down and have a family like a "normal" woman. Manuela disinterestedly suffers through her sister's effort to fix her up, focused only on returning to Afghanistan, but an unexpected chemistry with a stranger who lives in the hotel across from her family's building blossoms into a love affair. Handsome Mattia, 13 years older than Manuela, is an enigma. He carries no ID, and while he assures Manuela that he's neither running away from a wife or in trouble with the law, he won't tell her where he comes from, what he does or why he always wears sunglasses in public.

The story is told in "Live" chapters, which offer a third-person view of Manuela's present, and "Homework" segments, journal entries she writes about her time in the army and Afghanistan because her therapist believes the process may help her heal. Through her homework, readers see Manuela fight to qualify as officer material, fall in love with Afghanistan despite the camel spiders and insurgents, and display a combination of sincerity and grit that makes the male soldiers under her command accept her into their brotherhood.

While her romance and the mystery of Mattia provide momentum in Manuela's present, it's the poignant, slow unraveling of her past and all that she lost that will catch readers' hearts and minds. Mazzucco isn't out to reboot G.I. Jane or create a female super-soldier. Instead, she gives us a wholly human protagonist who must and does prove herself, whose heroism is of a quiet and stern variety. For those reasons, we must agree with Manuela's younger brother that this heroine "is better than Lara Croft." --Jaclyn Fulwood, blogger at Infinite Reads

Shelf Talker: Translated from the Italian, this story of a young female veteran struggling to overcome PTSD and return to duty strikes both intellectual and emotional chords.

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

1. Stepbrother Dearest by Penelope Ward
2. I Love How You Love Me by Bella Andre
3. Down and Out by Kelley R. Martin
4. Ruin (Ruin Series Book 1) by Deborah Bladon
5. Hardwired (the Hacker Series) by Meredith Wild
6. Solo by Deborah Bladon
7. Tall, Dark and Deadly by Lisa Renee Jones
8. Sleep Tight by Rachel Abbott
9. Rose Gardner Mystery Box Set by Denise Grover Swank
10. Always on My Mind: The Sullivans by Bella Andre

[Many thanks to IndieReader.com!]