"I love my indie bookstores. My favorites here in Baltimore are Charm City Books and Greedy Reads! I think indies are the most important players in the book world right now.

"Especially with all the book banning, corporate bookstores might feel the need to play it safe in terms of what they stock. Indie bookstores are doing the critical work of maintaining our communities, uplifting marginalized voices, and doing the tough work--the important work. They're never just a bookstore. They're a community center of education and resources. I also work a lot with East City Bookshop for my pre-order campaigns. They're down in D.C. and they're phenomenal. The work they do is incredible.

"As for me and for my career, I always get such a surge of joy when I see my books stocked at indies because it feels so intentional. It feels personal. If I introduce myself to the bookseller, they'll point out exactly which staff member recommended that book. It's a real community. It feels like you read a book, you liked it, and you want to share it with your neighbor. I love being a part of it."

Alice's Haunted Little Bookshop, Mystic, Conn., will open a second store this spring in Broadway at the Beach at 1325 Celebrity Circle, Myrtle Beach, S.C. Sun News reported that the bookshop is "inspired by the 18th century Victorian era and focuses on dark and horror books, as well as books that have been forgotten." Construction is underway and a May opening is expected. 

Ellie Greenberg, CEO and founder of Wonderlosity, which specializes in immersive retailing, said Alice's Haunted Little Bookshop "focuses on dark, horror, and forgotten books, such as Edgar Allan Poe and Stephen King.... Visitors can expect to see Edgar Allan Poe, who welcomes visitors into the shop."

While the theme's focus is scary, Greenberg noted that the shop is family-friendly and features a kids' section. Sun News wrote that "visitors also can expect interactive portraits hanging on the shop's walls. Greenberg hopes to add to the experience by having the portraits talk to customers, even offering opinions about what books to buy."

"Opening at Broadway at the Beach was a "non-brainer for us," she said, adding that Wonderlosity is also planning on opening The Cloak and Wand, a wizarding and potions bar, at the outdoor shopping and entertainment center sometime toward the end of May or early June; as well as one other brand, unspecified brand at Broadway at the Beach in 2027. 

"So far it's been an amazing experience," Greenberg said, adding that other Alice's Haunted Little Bookshop locations are expected to launch elsewhere this year. 

This coming Wednesday, March 11, Barnes & Noble will officially open its new bookstore at 1557 W. New Haven Ave. in Melbourne, Fla. Local author Christy Swift is cutting the ribbon and signing copies of her romance novel Hollywood Hookup (Forever). The 21,000-square-foot store and cafe in the Shoppes of West Melbourne is less than half a mile away from B&N's previous Melbourne bookstore.

"In this stretch of the Florida coastline alone, we have new stores just opened in Port St. Lucie and Tequesta, and now we move the old Melbourne bookstore into a beautiful new home," B&N said. "These new bookstores are proving extraordinarily successful and demonstrate the enduring popularity of a great bookstore."

Bill Krause will retire as publisher of Llewellyn Worldwide on June 30 after a 21-year career "that helped shape the growth trajectory of the independent mind-body-spirit publisher," the company said.

Bill Krause

Krause joined Llewellyn in 2005 as acquisitions manager and associate publisher and was promoted to publisher in 2007. In 2011, he assumed executive oversight of sales, marketing, and publicity. During his leadership, the company added, Llewellyn expanded its product mix, strengthened national and international distribution partnerships, and increased sales across core publishing categories, including books, tarot and oracle decks, calendars, and almanacs.

Sandra Weschcke, president and secretary/treasurer of Llewellyn Worldwide, said, "Bill has encouraged and inspired us in many ways and has been an important part of our daily lives. Along with his acquisitions team, Bill has worked with numerous authors, bringing Llewellyn many of our very best-selling books. He has collaborated closely with sales, marketing, and publicity to develop new ideas and expand our reach. He has been an invaluable member of the Executive Committee, sharing not only his business insight but also his friendship. We will all miss him."

Next Monday, March 16, at 8 p.m. Eastern, Books Across Borders, in partnership with the United States Board on Books for Young People, will host Outstanding International Children's Books: A Celebration for Booksellers, Librarians, & Readers, a free virtual event highlighting the 2026 USBBY Outstanding International Books list.

The webinar will provide insight into exceptional international titles for children and young adults, published in 2025 and originating from around the world. At a time when booksellers and librarians are seeking titles that expand global perspectives and reflect the lived experiences of young people across cultures, this event offers a curated and timely resource.

The event will be moderated by Michael Reynolds of Europa Editions and feature presentations by Susan Polos, president of USBBY; Jackie Garcia-Morales of the Storytellers Foundation; Laura Simeon of Kirkus Reviews; and Riky Stock of Frankfurter Buchmesse. There will also be an international children's book trivia contest, and a gift card for the winner.

Registration is free and open to booksellers, librarians, educators, publishers, and readers.

António Lobo Antunes, "a prolific Portuguese novelist whose multilayered narratives dissecting the faultlines of Portuguese society made him a literary giant in his native country and further afield," died March 5, the New York Times reported. He was 83. His death was announced on social media by Portuguese Prime Minister Luís Montenegro and by his publisher, Dom Quixote.

Antunes published more than 30 novels and collections of writings in which he "charted Portugal's halting emergence from the crippling dictatorship of Dr. António de Oliveira Salazar from 1932 to 1968, and its failed colonial wars in Africa," the Times noted, adding that his "work as a doctor provided him a lens through which he explored the battered psychology of his diminished nation."

His many honors included the Jerusalem Prize in 2005 and the Camões Prize, Portugal's highest literary honor, in 2007.

Elephant Memory and South of Nowhere, his first two novels, were released in 1979 and brought him acclaim in Portugal and abroad. His experiments with form and language were praised by critics. Harold Bloom described him as ''one of the living writers who will matter most,'' and George Steiner called him ''a novelist of the very first rank,'' comparing him with Joseph Conrad and William Faulkner.

Antunes's other books include Fado Alexandrino (1983); The Inquisitors' Manual (1996); and What Can I Do When Everything's on Fire? (2001).

Noting that in the English-language world, Antunes's works remain obscure, the Times wrote that Richard Zenith, one of his translators, had observed in the Times Literary Supplement in 1997 that all four of his translated novels were by then out of print in Britain, adding in an interview: ''Anglo-Saxon literature really likes a good story. English doesn't put up as easily with ambiguity. Latin literature revels in it.'' 

''I don't want people to 'read' my novels,'' Antunes told Maria-Luisa Blanco, who published a book of conversations with him in 2001. ''I want people to live them, to 'catch' them, the way you would catch an illness.'' 

Among his last published works was Until Stones Become Lighter Than Water (2016), which explored, in experimental prose, the aftershocks of the Angolan War. Describing Antunes as "an author who practiced psychiatry," the Times wrote that "he wanted his writing to mirror the vagaries of the human mind."

Warwick's, La Jolla, Calif., hosted Lauren Groff, author of The Vaster Wilds and Florida, who discussed and signed her new collection, Brawler (Riverhead). She was in conversation with Jason Blitman, host and producer of the podcast Gays Reading. Pictured: (l.-r.) Jason Blitman, Lauren Groff, Warwick's director of events Julie Slavinsky, and book cover-coordinated booksellers Irene, Cris, and Isabella.

"The teeniest weeniest bit of snow--even Buster ventured outside," Split Rock Books, Cold Spring, N.Y., posted on Instagram. "Feel free to send your kids down with their pockets full of allowance money. I'll even school them on scooping a litter box at no extra charge."

Allison Gomez has joined Sourcebooks as regional indie sales manager--South.

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Shaun Manning has joined Princeton University Press as Midwest sales representative, managing accounts in Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, North Dakota, Nebraska, Ohio, South Dakota, and Wisconsin. Manning was most recently sales manager for University of Michigan Press, as well as co-owner and principal buyer for Booksweet bookstore in Ann Arbor, Mich.

The End of My Life Is Killing Me by Annabelle Gurwitch (Zibby Publishing).

Today:
Good Morning America: Viola Davis and James Patterson, authors of Judge Stone: A Novel (Little, Brown, $32, 9780316579834). They will also appear today on the View.

Also on GMA: Jalen Hurts, author of Better Than a Touchdown (Flamingo Books, $19.99, 9798217040308). He will also appear tomorrow on CBS Mornings and Today.

Today: Kathie Lee Gifford, co-author of Nero and Paul: How the Gospel of Grace Defeated the Ruler of Rome (Thomas Nelson, $29.99, 9781400336661).

Fresh Air: Rhae Lynn Barnes, author of Darkology: Blackface and the American Way of Entertainment (Liveright, $39.99, 9781631496349).

Watch What Happens Live: Christina Applegate, author of You with the Sad Eyes: A Memoir (Little, Brown, $32, 9780316594929).

Tomorrow:
Good Morning America: Liza Minnelli, author of Kids, Wait Till You Hear This! (Grand Central, $36, 9781538773666).

Also on GMA: Valerie Bertinelli, author of Getting Naked: The Quiet Work of Becoming Perfectly Imperfect (Harper Wave, $29.99, 9780063429086). She will also appear on the Drew Barrymore Show.

Also on GMA: Robin Arzon, author of Eat to Hustle: 75 High-Protein Plant-Based Recipes (Voracious, $35, 9780316594271).

Today: Phil and Lily Rosenthal, authors of Just Try It! Someplace New! (Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, $19.99, 9781665942652).

Also on Today: Amy Jo Burns, author of Wait for Me: A Novel (Celadon, $28.99, 9781250399304).

The Kelly Clarkson Show: Corinne Bailey Rae, author of Put Your Records On (Rocky Pond Books, $18.99, 9780593533024).

Music Box Films has released an official trailer for François Ozon's updated adaptation of The Stranger by Albert Camus, the Film Stage reported, noting that the director is "following in the footsteps of Luchino Visconti," who directed the classic 1967 Italian film.  

The cast includes Benjamin Voisin, Rebecca Marder, Pierre Lottin, Denis Lavant, and Swann Arlaud. The film is premiering at the New York during Film at Lincoln Center's Rendez-Vous with French Cinema (March 5-15), and will be released beginning April 3.

The finalists have been selected for the 2026 Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards, dedicated to "literature that contributes to our understanding of race and our appreciation of the rich diversity of human cultures" and sponsored by the Cleveland Foundation. Winners in the four categories--fiction, nonfiction, memoir, and poetry--each will receive $30,000. The winners will be announced April 15. See the 11 finalists here.

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A shortlist has been released for the Athenaeum of Philadelphia Literary Award, which recognizes "books of outstanding literary merit by Philadelphia area authors, as well as books whose subject matter focuses on the city of Philadelphia." The winners, who will be named April 13, receive $1,000 and an invitation to give a public lecture. There is no fiction shortlist because one title "emerged as the clear winner in fiction." This year's shortlisted nonfiction titles are:

Age of Choice: A History of Freedom in Modern Life by Sophia Rosenfeld (Princeton University Press)
Born in Flames: The Business of Arson and the Remaking of the American City by Bench Ansfield (W. W. Norton)
Grave Dealings: Body Snatching in Philadelphia, 1762-1883 by Tim Dewysockie (Brookline Books)
The Maverick's Museum: Albert Barnes and His American Dream by Blake Gopnik (Ecco)
The Pursuit of Liberty: How Hamilton vs. Jefferson Ignited the Lasting Battle over Power in America by Jeffrey Rosen (Simon & Schuster)

Alexandra Oliva explores the tangled bonds between mothers and daughters, and the implications of generational cycles, in her thought-provoking third novel, The Radiant Dark.

In a small Adirondacks town in 1980, new mother Carol is stunned and thrilled to hear that a strange flickering of light in the sky indicates a strong possibility of intelligent life on another planet, 11 light-years away from Earth. As she struggles to care for her newborn son, Michael, Carol becomes fascinated by odd transmissions from a planet known as Ross 128 b, eventually coming to believe the Rossians' messages have spiritual implications. Many years later, Carol's daughter, Rosanna, will grow up to become a scientist whose work deals with transport and communication to other planets. The prospect of contact with interstellar beings, and the implications for life on planet Earth, powerfully shapes the lives of Carol and her children, even after she divorces their father and moves away.

Oliva (Forget Me Not; The Last One) draws her characters with sharp, keen-eyed compassion, examining Carol's lingering trauma from her abusive childhood, and the ways it influences her fierce, often misguided love for her children. Michael, a peacemaker drawn to a life outdoors, spends his young adulthood wandering the country, searching for something he can't quite define. Meanwhile, Rosanna--prickly, analytical, driven--earns a spot at Yale and fights to carve out a place for herself in academia, while holding her mother at arm's length. During her graduate-student years in Arizona, Ro's work on a later Rossian transmission proves more vital than anyone imagines. And, years later, when a scandal involving the Rossians--and Ro's professional mentor--erupts in 2018, it brings Carol and her children back to those early days of first contact, with implications for all their futures.

Oliva sensitively guides her characters apart and back together, detailing different facets of each person at different pivotal moments in their lives. Carol's deep involvement with a spiritual guru whose message is focused on light is only one way Oliva relates her narrative back to its title again and again. The light of knowledge, of spiritual guidance, of scientific clarity, of life-sustaining love--all these forms of light illuminate the darkness in Oliva's novel, and her characters must grapple with the insights (strange, life-changing, sometimes unwelcome) that the light brings.

Tender, thought-provoking, and quietly luminous, The Radiant Dark asks how we relate to our fellow beings (interstellar or otherwise) and highlights the ways the past echoes through the present and shapes the future. --Katie Noah Gibson, blogger at Cakes, Tea and Dreams

Shelf Talker: Alexandra Oliva's thought-provoking third novel examines the complex bond between a mother and her children against the backdrop of communication with a distant planet.

The bestselling Libro.fm audiobooks at independent bookstores during February:

Fiction
1. The Correspondent by Virginia Evans (Penguin Random House Audio Publishing Group)
2. Theo of Golden by Allen Levi (Simon Maverick)
3. My Husband's Wife by Alice Feeney (Macmillan Audio)
4. Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë (Penguin Books Ltd)
5. Operation Bounce House by Matt Dinniman (Penguin Random House Audio Publishing Group)
6. Heated Rivalry by Rachel Reid (Tantor Media)
7. Alchemised by Sen Lin Yu (Penguin Random House Audio Publishing Group)
8. And Now, Back to You by B.K. Borison (Penguin Random House Audio Publishing Group)
9. Wild Dark Shore by Charlotte McConaghy (Macmillan Audio)
10. Half His Age by Jennette McCurdy (Penguin Random House Audio Publishing Group) 

Nonfiction
1. Everything Is Tuberculosis by John Green (Penguin Random House Audio Publishing Group)
2. Black AF History by Michael Harriot (Dey Street Books)
3. A People's History of the United States by Howard Zinn (Harper)
4. Nobody's Girl by Virginia Roberts Giuffre (Penguin Random House Audio Publishing Group)
5. Strangers by Belle Burden (Penguin Random House Audio Publishing Group)
6. Enshittification by Cory Doctorow (Macmillan Audio)
7. One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This by Omar El Akkad (Penguin Random House Audio Publishing Group)
8. A Hymn to Life by Gisèle Pelicot (Penguin Random House Audio Publishing Group)
9. Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer (Tantor Media)
10. A World Appears by Michael Pollan (Penguin Random House Audio Publishing Group)