"Independent bookstores are often the first place that young people discover the magic of reading, and censorship of any kind has no place in this process. On behalf of our member stores in Massachusetts, the New England Independent Booksellers Association stands with our regional and national partners in supporting An Act Regarding Free Expression."

Periwinkle and Prose romance bookstore will host its grand opening weekend this coming Saturday and Sunday, August 22 and 23, at 106 N. Market St. in Frederick, Md. The festivities will include book signings by local authors, a giveaway, and local vendor pop-ups, including permanent jewelry, candles, and baked goods.

Amber Trinkle (l.) and Sara Belasco

Founders Sara Belasco and Amber Trinkle said that the new bookshop "will be a welcoming and inclusive space for all romance readers, where they can browse a curated selection of romance books while connecting with other readers who share their interests."

As a queer-owned bookstore, Periwinkle & Prose is committed to carrying books from diverse voices that represent the Frederick community. "Every reader should be able to access a book that they can see themselves in and accurately portray their unique lived experiences," Belasco said. "And just as importantly, readers should be able to find books where characters they relate to get to experience happily ever afters." 

Noting that Periwinkle & Prose strives to create a cozy, interactive space that will add to the Frederick community, Trinkle said book clubs, craft nights, and book-themed events will give readers a chance to engage with others in person over their love of reading: "Frederick is an amazing and supportive community. We want Periwinkle & Prose to add to this by being more than a bookstore. By creating a home for romance readers, the store will be a space where they can unplug from technology and form friendships."

New Book Joy in Brookfield, Ill., officially moved to its 3741 Prairie Ave. storefront in May, "after starting as part of the Brookfield Shops' first retail incubation cohort," the Riverside-Brookfield Landmark reported. Mandy Genge is the sole operator of the Brookfield location, while co-owners Connie Obrochta and Therese Tanski run the New Book Joy store in the Edgebrook neighborhood on the Northwest Side of Chicago.

Genge said she connects readers from all over the area with their next read: "I call it 'book matchmaking.' " She has taught high school English for two decades, and said she uses her background in education to encourage "empowerment through books and conversations through books."  

In addition to books in various genres, New Book Joy stocks a large selection of children's titles. Genge said she is "really intentional" about stocking books for all sorts of developmental periods and potential topics.   

The shop's collection "is extensively curated; Genge said she has read around 80% of the books she stocks, which makes the matchmaking process so specific," Riverside-Brookfield Landmark noted.

Karen Judge, a fellow teacher at Morton West high school, often stops by the shop while walking her dog and recently attended the bookstore's "Back to School" event, where community members could browse, chat, and enjoy drinks. "There's so much fun stuff here," Judge said, joking the store is "more dangerous now, because they just got a liquor license and they're doing a happy hour sit and read."  

Genge "hosts such events regularly, including book clubs, book swaps, and book slams, where people recommend books to one another," Riverside-Brookfield Landmark added. Genge hopes to attract readers of all ages and backgrounds through her community events.

Sourcebooks is expanding its already very strong romance program, adding new editorial leadership and roles across editorial, marketing, and author brand development while accelerating initiatives in reader intelligence, discoverability, and new publishing models.

Sourcebooks CEO Dominique Raccah explained, "The romance market is changing at an extraordinary speed. More books, more voices, more platforms, and more ways for readers to discover what they love also means it's harder than ever for any individual author to break through. Our goal, as always, is to work with our authors to create what's next for their readers and their careers. That's why we're investing so significantly in talent, reader intelligence, brand building, marketing innovation, and new publishing models. We're thrilled to be number one in romance now, but what excites us most is how much opportunity lies ahead for our authors."

Sourcebooks senior v-p and publishing director Jennifer Gonzalez added, "Our goal is to create lasting careers for romance authors at every stage. That means exceptional editorial talent and deep category expertise, but it also means connecting everything we do from acquisition and positioning to launch, audience growth, backlist development, and brand building. We're investing across the entire author journey."

Among the changes in romance at Sourcebooks:

Lauren Burniac has joined the company as v-p, editorial director of romance. She was formerly was at Disney Publishing Worldwide, where she led global editorial, franchise, and intellectual property development for brands like Disney Princess and was editorial & brand director for Rick Riordan.

Rebecca Kuss has joined the company as senior editor, romance. She was formerly executive editor at Simon & Schuster Children's, where she acquired for the Simon Pulse imprint.

Lauren Kelliher has joined the company as editor, romance.

Holly Ingraham has been promoted to assistant editorial director, romance.

Allie Roche has been promoted to senior editor, romance, where she will also serve as editorial lead for Cosmo Reads.

Gretchen Stelter has been promoted to senior developmental editor, romance.

In addition, in order to provide romance authors with brand strategies, Sourcebooks is creating coordinated, multi-year strategies that bring editorial, marketing, publicity, sales, rights, creative, and audience intelligence together around the growth of each author. The goal is to build not just successful books, but enduring careers and expanding readerships. As a result:

Madison Nankervis has been promoted to the newly created role of associate director of author brand development and publishing strategy.

Katie Stutz has been promoted to associate director of marketing, romance, where she will serve as a strategic marketing lead for romance and continue to execute major campaigns.

And because audio is so important for romance readers--romance is tied as the second highest selling genre in audio overall--Sourcebooks has built a dedicated audio team, and recently hired Jennifer Eschrich as senior director of audio acquisitions. The company has a new audio publishing model designed to integrate audio more fully into an author's overall publishing and brand strategy.

Mary de Rachewiltz, an American poet and translator who was the daughter of Ezra Pound and the violinist Olga Rudge, died July 24. She was 101. Though raised in Italy by foster parents, she frequently visited her father as a child. Rachewiltz married the Egyptologist Boris de Rachewiltz in 1946--the same year her father was deported to the U.S. to stand trial for treason. 

Her autobiography Discretions was published in 1971; reissued as a paperback by New Directions (1975); and again in 2005 as Ezra Pound, Father and Teacher: Discretions, with a new afterword by the author. 

She also published several books of poems in Italian and English. Rachewiltz translated several of her father's works, including The Cantos. She served for years as curator of the Ezra Pound Archives at the Beinecke Library at Yale University, and lived for much of her life in the Schloss Brunnenburg castle, which she and her husband worked to restore.

In a tribute, New Directions said it "mourns the passing of Mary de Rachewiltz--beloved poet, translator, memoirist, and devoted steward of the work of her father, Ezra Pound. We celebrate her vision as well as her legacy of steadfast care and share the sorrow of her family and friends."

"She herself minimized the anti-Allied and virulently antisemitic propaganda Pound broadcast on Italian radio during World War II, which led to his indictment for treason in the United States and his confinement for over a decade in a Washington mental hospital after he was found unfit to stand trial," the New York Times noted in her obituary.

"The charge was fascism and antisemitism," de Rachewiltz told the newspaper La Stampa in 1986. "For an American citizen, this shouldn't be a crime. As Pound said, free speech without free speech on the radio is worthless."

For years, she worked on a complete translation of Pound's The Cantos, which was published in 1985. She continued to write her own poetry and helped edit Ezra Pound to His Parents: Letters 1895-1929 (2011). She also established the Ezra Pound Center for Literature at Brunnenburg.

From her poem "Roses":

Because I do not know
             because I do not know how
to plant roses by the spring
now dry, let my tears fill the fountain
where waters no longer flow,
and sing to the poet who broke
the mold (and ate red tulips
when sitting among stiff bores).

Publishers Marketplace has published Buzz Books Romance 2026, a free e-book sneak peek at 29 titles by established and emerging writers in adult, new adult, and young adult romance.

The book will be celebrated today, Buzz Books Official Day, on social media and the Buzz Books Official Substack, with interviews of romance authors and industry insiders and book giveaways.

The day culminates with the Buzz Books Official Romance 2026 panel, which takes place virtually this evening, 7-8:15 p.m. Eastern. The panel will feature five authors in conversation with their editors, hosted by Publishers Marketplace COO Mary Ann Naples. The participants: 

Sara Jafari with Bria Ragin on Heavensent & Hellbent (Delacorte, August 11)
Wanda Hellmund with Sarah Blumenstock on Our Dark Incantations (Ace, October 20)
Mina Zafri with Julie Constantine on Zahra, Unapologetic (Podium, December 8)
Beth Revis with Mary Altman on Dragon of the Deep (Sourcebooks Casablanca, January 2h, 2027)
Julia Whelan with Elizabeth May on Casanova LLC (Kensington, March 30, 2027)

Register here to view the panel.

This past week, Shelf Awareness sent our Kids & YA Pre-Order E-Blast to more than 355,000 of the country's best book readers. The e-blast went to 358,372 customers of 82 participating independent bookstores.

The mailing features four upcoming titles selected by Shelf Awareness editors and three advertised titles, one of which is a sponsored feature. Customers can buy these books via "pre-order" buttons that lead directly to the purchase page for the title on each sending store's website. A key feature is that bookstore partners can easily change title selections to best reflect the tastes of their customers and can customize the mailing with links, images, and promotional copy of their own.

The pre-order e-blasts are sent the second Wednesday of each month; the next will go out on Wednesday, September 9. This is a free service for indies. Stores interested in learning more can visit our program registration page or contact our partner program team via e-mail.

Ad spots are also available in the Kids & YA Pre-Order E-Blast. For more information contact sales@shelf-awareness.com for details.

For a sample of the August Kids & YA Pre-Order E-Blast, see this one from Midsummer Books, Philadelphia, Pa.

The titles highlighted in the pre-order e-blast were:

Fight or Flight (Diary of a Wimpy Kid #21) by Jeff Kinney (Amulet)
This Is a Door by Daniel Nayeri (Stonefruit Studio)
Help! I'm Being Eaten by a Bear! by Neil Sharpson, illus. by Dan Santat (Dial)
Everything New Again by Renée Watson (Bloomsbury YA)

Browseabout Books in Rehoboth Beach, Del., hosted a meet & greet with former First Lady Jill Biden for her memoir, View from the East Wing (Gallery Books). More than 300 people attended, and the bookstore donated $5 from the sale of every ticket to Humane Animal Partners. Pictured: Biden (center) with Browseabout staffers. 

Posted on social media by Love's Sweet Arrow in Tinley Park, Ill.: "Last week in our store Noe asked Marissa to marry him (she said yes)! Join all of us at LSA in congratulating them!"

"Can you hear it?" asked Excelsior Bay Books in Excelsior, Minn., referring to the message on the shop's sidewalk chalkboard, which read: "Thank goodness it's you!! There's a book in here that's been SCREAMING your name! (Please take it home so we can have some peace and quiet!)."

Early Man Was a Woman: Reclaiming Prehistory by Ulli Lust, translate by Elisabeth Lauffer (The Experiment).

Tomorrow:
CBS Mornings: Julian Shapiro-Barnum, author of How to Grow Up Without Becoming a Grown-Up: Big Lessons from Little Kids (Penguin Life, $29, 9780593832974).

Bleiberg Entertainment will be selling worldwide rights at the Toronto International Film Festival market to People of the Book, based on the historical novel by Geraldine Brooks. Deadline reported that the project, directed by Michael Haussman (Edge of the World), recently wrapped filming in the Valencia region of Spain, including at Ciudad de la Luz in Alicante, and in Trieste and Venice in Italy.

People of the Book "tracks the creation and survival of a sacred religious artifact across 500 years, weaving back and forth between a series of interconnected chapters that span across several centuries and countries including pre and post inquisition Spain, 17th century Venice, Nazi-occupied Bosnia and a contemporary narrative focusing on an Iraqi refugee family's harrowing escape journey from ISIS-held Mosul to safety in Europe."

The cast includes Ziad Bakri, Rania Ben Fattoum, Ankido Hussen, Luca Ferrini, Giorgia Sinicorni, Pasquale Esposito, and Jose Luis Ferrier. Adapted by Petter Skavlan (Kon-Tiki), the film is produced by Miriam Segal (The Infiltrator) and "marks the first project for Good Films Studios Spain, the joint venture between the Spanish government, Canadian-U.S. company Orogen Media and Segal's Good Films," Deadline noted.

"This has been one of the most challenging projects I have ever developed and produced. It has been an extraordinary journey, over many years. I am enterally grateful for the opportunity to bring this incredible, resonant, truly cinematic, epic narrative to the screen," said Segal.

A shortlist has been released for the 2026 Laurel Prize, which recognizes "the best collection of nature or environmental poetry to highlight the climate crisis and raise awareness of the challenges and potential solutions at this critical point in our planet's life." The prize was founded by Poet Laureate Simon Armitage in 2019. This year's shortlisted titles are: 

Midden Witch by Fiona Benson 
Ethnology by Cathy Galvin 
Natural History by Brandon Kilbourne
Tipping Point by Jane Lovell
The Storm's Flora by Laura Wainwright 

The winner, who will be named on September 25, receives £5,000 (about $6,770) and a four-night writing retreat in Mid Wales from prize partner Write Within. The other four finalists get £1,000 (about $1,355) each.

Chair of judges David Morley said the shortlist "grew out of a warm, lively and wonderfully engaged conversation among the judges, guided by the parameters set by the Poet Laureate. We read poems aloud to each other, hearing them come alive in the room, and above all we wanted poems with real power, poems that surprised us, moved us and made us see the world differently. The environmental and climate emergency formed an important backdrop, but what mattered was what the poets did with it, transforming subject into language, imagination and art. At their best, these poems bring together the art of nature and the nature of art, reminding us that the way we imagine the living world can change the way we live in it."

Advantage Player: A Memoir of Blackjack, Backrooms, and Beginnings is an energetic account of false starts, big wins and big losses, challenges and redemptions. Gina Fiore tells her story with momentum and feeling, so readers share the tension of high stakes.

Fiore had a troubled childhood in a troubled Italian American family plagued by poverty and questionable decisions, distanced from extended family. They moved from New York to Reno, Nev., when she was eight. She began gambling at 14 years old, visiting the casinos where her mother dealt blackjack and gambled as well. Amid emotional and economic deprivation, Fiore felt from a young age that traditional careers would not serve her. She trained as a musician but found her world most expanded inside the casino. "Nothing else in my life or especially in school piqued my interest like card counting did.... Now at twenty-two years old, and for no obvious reasons, I believed wholeheartedly that I was somebody who could do whatever she chose. With that mentality of infinite freedom I chose card counting."

Fiore's childhood was rocky, and her young adulthood involved a series of personal choices that may be viewed as self-sabotage. But her memoir is at its most riveting when she describes her work and explains the art and the science of advantage play.

Card counting is just the beginning. Fiore educates her readers about blackjack and other casino games, and the differences between card counting, hole carding, edge sorting, and other forms of play that steal the advantage. These methods of removing the house edge are not illegal on their face, but they will get a gambler kicked out, blackballed, and even assaulted; thus, Fiore argues, the theater of advantage play is as important as the count, the card spotted, the edge calculated.

Fiore methodically trained herself from books, from firsthand study, and through mentorships with more experienced players to become one of the best advantage players in the world. She built elite teams of like-minded players and eventually took millions from casinos around the United States and beyond. Fiore's memoir careens from high highs to low lows on the casino floor and in challenges with friendships, romantic and family relationships, and mental health. Advantage Player is a rocketing adventure and one woman's story of how to survive and not only make the most of the hands she's dealt but also how to influence the deal. --Julia Kastner, blogger at pagesofjulia

Shelf Talker: In games and in backrooms most readers will never see, one driven woman takes big risks to secure her place at the table in this dynamic, propulsive memoir.