The Love Potion Library, a romance-focused bookstore and cafe, made its debut in San Francisco, Calif., on April 25, the San Francisco Standard reported.

Located at 284 Noe St. in the Castro, Love Potion Library carries a wide array of romance and romance adjacent titles, with books categorized both by relevant tropes and sub-genres. The cafe side of the business serves tea from a local tea shop as well as locally-sourced pastries, and it is licensed for beer and wine. The store's event plans include book clubs, game and trivia nights, and both queer and straight speed-dating events.

Prior to opening the Love Potion Library, store owner Veena Patel worked in alternative energy for nearly 10 years. She left that job in early 2025, telling the Standard: "I realized it wasn't something I enjoyed doing, being behind my computer all day. I just felt really lonely." A life-long romance reader, Patel opened the bookstore with the help of her husband, Varun Dutta, who is a software engineer and sometimes works the register at the bookstore.

The store's reception since its debut on Independent Bookstore Day has been fantastic, the Standard noted, with certain titles selling out within days of opening and a Heated Rivalry trivia night bringing in almost 50 customers with a substantial waitlist. According to the Standard, it is San Francisco's only romance-focused bookstore.

Trigger Warning Book Bus hosted a ribbon cutting celebration recently in Waukee, Iowa, after which owner Becky Vandermark made a stop at Local 5 News to talk about her venture. The mobile bookshop is located inside a 22-passenger shuttle bus that has been transformed into a romance bookstore. 

"I wanted to do something different, and I thought I need something like a food truck and a bookstore... and here's the book lists," said Vandermark, whose day job is serving as a Waukee police officer. "I'm just excited to share my love of reading with people. I think everybody to use a little bit more love in their life."

The store's website notes: "The interior is moody, intimate, and unapologetically romantic. Low, warm lighting casts a seductive glow over shelves filled with stories of desire, danger, and devotion. Neon script softly illuminates the floral textures and rich tones creating a space that feels private, tempting--almost forbidden. Every inch whispers: stay awhile. The bus will hold approximately 600 romance novels available for purchase."

In March, Vandermark told the Des Moines Register that she began her love of reading as a U.S. Marine: "No matter what country I was in, no matter what was going on, I was always able to just escape into a book." She particularly enjoys romance novels, a way for her to "escape reality," and likes the appeal to "our human need to feel accepted, to feel loved."

This ultimately led to purchasing and renovating the bus. "This was a retirement home shuttle bus before it was this," Vandermark said, noting that the mobile bookshop's name is an homage to her law enforcement background and an acknowledgment of the explicit content of the books she plans to offer. She plans to sell in the Des Moines metro area at events and rent the bus for parties.

The Chapter & Co. has reopened in a new, smaller space in New Braunfels, Tex., Culture Map San Antonio reported.

The Chapter & Co., which first opened in New Braunfels in October 2024, now resides at 215 W. San Antonio St. The new space is within walking distance of the old and located inside Staunch Traditional Outfitters. The bookstore's inventory is still focused on romance and fantasy titles, though the selection is more limited. Aside from books, the Chapter & Co. continues to carry bookish merch and have a small cafe, which serves matcha, coffee, and other drinks.

Co-owners and sisters Lilliana Brabham and Laura Hickman announced the move in January, and initially believed they would have to be out of the store's former space by the end of the month. However, the moving process took longer than expected and the store remained in its previous home until April. It officially reopened the first weekend of May.

"We worked our tails off this week and were able to pull off opening today!" the owners wrote on Instagram. "We have all new book selections, merchandise, and matcha!"

Rebecca Sinclair

Rebecca Sinclair, chief brand officer at Penguin Random House UK, was named president of the Publishers Association, effective May 6. She succeeds Mandy Hill, managing director of academic at Cambridge University Press & Assessment, who remains an officer of the PA. Steven Inchcoombe, president of Research at Springer Nature, is now the PA's v-p and treasurer. 

"The Publishers Association's role is to create the conditions in which writers, creators, researchers and publishers can flourish," Sinclair said. 

PA CEO Dan Conway commented: "I'm hugely looking forward to continuing to work with Rebecca over the coming year. Rebecca Sinclair is someone who inspires all around her and she will be a brilliant advocate for the publishing industry at this crucial time." 

In addition, the following new appointments to the PA's council were announced: Mary Cannam, CEO at Faber; Kathleen Farrar, managing director of group sales and marketing at Bloomsbury; and Julian Wilson, sales and marketing director at IOP Publishing.

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Debbie James, the new president of the Booksellers Association of the U.K. & Ireland and owner of Kibworth Books in Leicestershire, spoke with the Bookseller about this "critical moment for bookshops." Among her observations: 

"I'm an independent bookseller, but now as the president of the BA I represent all booksellers, not just indies but chains, radical bookshops, specialist bookshops, genre bookshops, children's bookshops, everyone who is a member of the BA. I've heard perspectives from all of those bookshops and booksellers regarding change, and the most live issue and a potential existential threat to high street bookselling is business rates....

"In tandem with that existential threat, it's important to talk about the innovation, which seems to me to be really fecund right now. Take genre bookshops popping up with different specialisms like romantasy, romance, spicy books, manga. That is representative of creative entrepreneurs trend-spotting from the get-go, who are passionate and doing something about it, setting up bricks-and-mortar spaces and making them fly."

Reflecting on outgoing BA president Fleur Sinclair's legacy, James noted that Sinclair's "relationship with specific contacts at publishers has done wonders for the general relationship between booksellers and publishers" and "representation has become baked into the Booksellers Association.... It's a priori; taken as read that it is a trade association that must represent all protected characteristics, and people representing all protected characteristics, in turn, must feel like bookselling is an open-door industry for them."

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The inaugural Aotearoa New Zealand Children's Book Week will be held August 15-21, Books+Publishing reported. "The goal is to celebrate Aotearoa NZ children's books and increase the amount that kids read," according to Read NZ Te Pou Muramura, which is asking groups who want to be involved to register interest in the event and "submit ideas, make suggestions for resources, and learn about the kinds of things taking place.... Our budgets are modest but our dreams are big--and hey, every event has to start, somewhere, right?"

The Mātātuhi Foundation is an event supporter of the week, while Booksellers Aotearoa New Zealand will publish the Children's Book Week reading guide, a 16-page catalogue, "full to the brim with the very best kids' books currently on the market."

The shortlist for New Zealand Book Awards for Children and Young Adults is due to be announced on June 10, with a winner named August 19 during the book-week period.

Author Colleen Cambridge (center, in black patterned dress) visited Four Seasons Books in Shepherdstown, W.Va., for a cocktail hour book party for her novel In the Spirit of French Murder (Kensington). (photo: Meagan Faraone)

The Fine Art of Lying by Alexandra Andrews (‎‎Harper) is the May pick for Reese's Book Club, which described the book this way: "For Clare Bast, art carried her out of a predictable life in upstate New York and into the polished world of Manhattan's Upper East Side. But behind the glossy facade, things aren't as perfect as they appear. When her fascination with a famous painting and the seductive art dealer who owns it spirals into a shocking theft and murder, Clare suddenly finds herself the prime suspect. Thrust into the treacherous art world, filled with unscrupulous dealers and international criminals, she’ll have to untangle the truth fast if she wants to clear her name."

Reese said: "This book feels like a secret I'm not supposed to share…but it's too good not to!"

Brianna Yamashita

Brianna Yamashita is joining Basic Books as senior marketing director. Previously, Yamashita led the marketing department at Scribner as executive marketing director, strategizing campaigns for a range of authors, from Stephen King and Anthony Doerr to Dr. Siddhartha Mukherjee and MSNBC's Jen Psaki.

The two most popular books in April at Reading Group Choices were Mad Mabel by Sally Hepworth (St. Martin's Press) and Meet the Newmans by Jennifer Niven (Flatiron Books).

Today:
Fresh Air: Joanna Stern, author of I Am Not a Robot: My Year Using AI to Do (Almost) Everything (Harper, $32, 9780063446618).

Tomorrow:
CBS Mornings: Josh Tyrangiel, author of AI for Good: How Real People Are Using Artificial Intelligence to Fix Things That Matter (Simon & Schuster, $28, 9781668082508).

Today: Martha Stewart, author of The Martha Way: Essential Principles for Mastering Home and Living (Harvest, $37.50, 9780063323308).

Also on Today: Haley Sacks, author of Future Rich Person: The New Rules for Building Wealth (Ballantine, $30, 9798217090907).

Sherri Shepherd Show: Deborah Roberts, author of Sisters Loved and Treasured: Stories of Unbreakable Bonds (Hyperion Avenue, $26.99, 9781368115810).

Florence Pugh (Dune franchise) will star in and produce The Midnight Library, based on Matt Haig's bestselling novel and directed by Garth Davis. Deadline reported that Pugh will play Nora Seed, "who finds herself in a library between life and death with the chance to experience all the potential lives she could have lived."

The screenplay is by Laura Wade (Rivals) and Nick Payne (We Live in Time). Studiocanal and Blueprint Pictures are behind the project, which the former is launching for the Cannes market, Deadline noted. Haig will executive produce. The project is set to enter pre-production this fall with shooting to begin early next year. 

"I am so happy that Nora's story is in such great hands, and that her myriad possibilities will be vividly reawakened by the absolute perfect team. And I can't wait for people to see my book reimagined for the big screen," Haig said.  

I Regret Almost Everything by Keith McNally (Gallery Books) has won the $50,000 Gotham Book Prize, which honors the best fiction or nonfiction book that is about New York City or takes place in New York City. The award was created in 2020 by Bradley Tusk, owner of P&T Knitwear, the independent bookstore, and Howard Wolfson, who works for Bloomberg Philanthropies.

McNally is the restaurateur who founded Balthazar Restaurant, Balthazar Bakery, Pastis, Minetta Tavern, Pravda, Schiller's Liquor Bar, Morandi, Cherche Midi, Lucky Strike, Nell's, Café Luxembourg, and the Odeon. McNally is the co-author of The Balthazar Cookbook and Schiller's Liquor Bar Cocktail Collection, and the writer and director of two features, End of the Night and Far from Berlin.

In I Regret Almost Everything, McNally tells the story of his life, from his working-class roots in London to his status as one of New York City's leading restaurateurs. Along the way, McNally details his angst of being a child actor, his early restaurant days as a busboy, the instability of his two marriages and family relationships, his 1980s rise to fame with the Odeon and Nell's, his time spent writing and directing two films, his devastating stroke in 2016 and his recent Instagram notoriety. Eloquent, opinionated, and often humorous, the memoir includes stories of his friendships with New York personalities like Anna Wintour, Lorne Michaels, and others.

Tusk and Wolfson called I Regret Almost Everything "the epitome of what makes New York City so unique. It is an immigrant story. It is a cultural history. And like our city, it is a testament to resilience. McNally has long been recognized for his culinary achievements, and now having written a memoir that so masterfully captures life in New York, we are honored to award his literary achievements too with this year's Gotham Book Prize."

On the Origin of Sex: The Weird and Wonderful Science of Reproduction addresses the compelling question: What is the point of sex? Professor of biological sciences Lixing Sun (The Fairness Instinct; The Liars of Nature and the Nature of Liars) illustrates that asexual reproduction initially seems more efficient from a purely mechanical standpoint. There are no partner requirements--that is, no energy wasted on courtship rituals or competition, and the full complement of an organism's genes gets passed on to the next generations. Sexual reproduction, by contrast, is "costly," complicated, and seems to limit genetic inheritance. Part of the answer is that "sex reshuffles the genetic deck, mixing genes from the broader pool and dealing out fresh combinations with every new generation," thus avoiding the accumulating mutations in asexual reproduction that, over time, can lead to extinction.

Sun's work examines life in all its forms across the globe and is in no way confined to mammals. There are examples of fungi with thousands of distinct mating types, slime molds whose sexual architecture defies easy categorization, plants that toggle between reproductive strategies depending on environmental cues, and fish that change sex not as anomaly but as part of ordinary life. By the time Sun returns to the likely more familiar territory of vertebrates and humans, readers' conceptual vocabulary has been so thoroughly expanded that even the familiar looks new.

Some of the most striking insights concern the sheer plasticity of sexual systems found in nature. The two-sex model, which humans tend to project onto the rest of life, emerges from Sun's analysis as one particular solution to the reproductive problem, shaped by evolutionary pressures that could just as easily have produced something radically different. Temperature-dependent sex determination in reptiles, functional hermaphroditism in reef fish, parthenogenesis in vertebrates thought incapable of it, are shown to be windows into the underlying logic of reproduction itself. The cumulative effect is a profound correcting of assumptions most readers never knew they held.

Sun doesn't shy away from following science into cultural territory, showing how reductive definitions about gender reduce it to "social attributes" derived from biological sex, ignoring "other key players like morphology, physiology, genetics, hormones and neurons." Questions about the biological basis of human sex and gender are addressed with a winning combination of empirical rigor and engaging writing. Sun reports what the biology shows and what it cannot yet resolve with the confidence of a researcher who has spent his career in conversation with his subject. On the Origin of Sex: The Weird and Wonderful Science of Reproduction excels at making complex population genetics and evolutionary modeling feel both intuitive and entertaining. --Elizabeth DeNoma, executive editor, DeNoma Literary Services, Seattle, Wash.

Shelf Talker: On the Origin of Sex is a rare and spirited work poised to change not just what readers know but how they see the world.

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

1. I Who Have Never Known Men by Jacqueline Harpman
2. Good for Her by Tylor Paige
3. Possessive Enemy by Michelle Heard
4. Dungeon Crawler Carl by Matt Dinniman
5. The Better Brother by Kai Lesy
6. The Deal by Elle Kennedy
7. Boardroom Sins by Nicole Fox
8. King of Chaos by Tammy Andresen
9. Carl's Doomsday Scenario by Matt Dinniman
10. Big Witch Energy by Amanda M. Lee

[Many thanks to IndieReader.com!]