"To imagine my great-grandmother seeing where we still are now breaks my heart. But at the same time, this is also a monster we've fought," said Celeste Headlee, author of Freedom's Daughters: How a Generation of Black Women Resisted Oppression Through Literacy and Education (Flatiron Books, Oct.), during the opening breakfast at New Voices New Rooms 2026 in Baltimore, Md., Monday morning.

The keynote, entitled "We Will Not Be Silenced: Black Women Shaping Our Narrative," featured Headlee; Afia Atakora, author of Strivers (Random House, Feb. 2027); Nicole Dennis-Benn, author of Black Gold (Random House, Jan. 2027); and Soyica Diggs Colbert, author of Freedom's Gate: Maya Angelou, Lorraine Hansberry, Abbey Lincoln, Miriam Makeba, and Nina Simone Live at the New York Nightclub that Shaped the Civil Rights Movement (W.W. Norton, Oct.). Hannah Oliver Depp, owner of Loyalty Bookstores, Washington, D.C., moderated the discussion.

From left: moderator Hannah Oliver Depp, with authors Afia Atakora, Soyica Diggs Colbert, Nicole Dennis-Benn, and Celeste Headlee. (photo: SP Rankin)

"We actually know how to fight this and we have won some of these battles," continued Headlee, whose book is about the largely forgotten generation of Black women who lived during Reconstruction and built schools, created health-care clinics, and grappled with the question of what it really means to be free. She was inspired to write the book because her great-grandfather, one of the first African American classical composers in the U.S., credited his success to his own mother, one of the women of Reconstruction. "It's not like we don't know how to do this. It's not like we don't recognize this monster. We know who this is and we can look back to our ancestors and say okay, how do we do this."

Atakora described her novel Strivers as a Great Gatsby-esque murder mystery set during the Harlem Renaissance. It tells the story of Nadine, a queer woman and a reluctant member of Harlem's Black elite, who rebels against expectations and decides to open her own speakeasy. But on the speakeasy's opening night, she finds her lover dead on the doorstep, and she makes the impulsive decision to hide the body. 

In the 1920s, noted Atakora, the Great Migration was taking place, and in Harlem different strata of Black society were coming together and mixing. There were Black millionaires whose families had been in Harlem for generations, along with immigrants from the Caribbean as well as people moving from the South, and there was a question of "what it is to be Black in public." She was interested in the question of identity and assimilation, and the fact that during that era being on stage offered an outlet, especially to Black women, where they could be "strange, you could be profane, you could be surprising, to a point." 

Faye, the main character of Black Gold, is a descendant of the Maroons, a community of former slaves who lived in Jamaica's Blue Mountains and were the first in the country's history to win their freedom, explained Dennis-Benn. When Faye's mother is forced to sell the family's home in the Blue Mountains after falling ill, Faye turns to modeling to help her family and support her own independence. Along the way, Faye tries to carve her own path while learning more about the complicated history of her own family and of the Maroons.

A major question explored in the novel is that of "myth versus history" and the liberation that occurs when people "willingly face the facts" and don't turn away from history. Remarking that the Maroons are "sacred" in Jamaica, Dennis-Benn said she "froze a little bit" when she first started writing the novel. She was concerned, among other things, that the inclusion of queer women in the story of the Maroons would be controversial but, she said, "we have existed, we've always existed as queer women," and she had to push forward. The best advice she got, Dennis-Benn continued, was to put the research to the side "and just write."

Diggs Colbert called Freedom's Gate "part group biography, part story of a place," with the place being a nightclub called the Village Gate that once operated on Bleecker St. in New York City, and the group being the Black women who congregated and performed there that included Maya Angelou, Nina Simone, Lorraine Hansbury, Miriam Makeba, and Abbey Lincoln. There, these young women "gathered, plotted and planned" and "incubated their political selves" before becoming the stars people know them as today.

When people ask her if the Village Gate was a Black club, Diggs Colbert said, she usually responds by saying "it was a Black club when they were there." Part of the book's thesis, she said, is that "places are not static," and they become what they are because of the people in them. She said she also tries to puncture the idea that fame and success meant these women had to be alone and apart. While they did struggle with loneliness at times, they were also "surrounded by people who supported them." They relied on a "whole cadre" of people, and that community was a key part of what made them great. --Alex Mutter

At News Corp., parent company of HarperCollins, net sales in the fourth quarter ended June 30 rose 11%, to $2.34 billion, and net income more than doubled, to $230 million. For the fiscal year, revenues rose 7%, to $9.03 billion, and net income rose 15%, to $743 million. News Corp. said that the sales increase was "driven by higher revenues at the digital real estate services, Dow Jones and book publishing segments, the company's core growth engines."

In the fourth quarter, book publishing revenue jumped 15%, to $566 million, and in the fiscal year, book publishing was up 6%, to $2.288 billion. Book publishing EBITDA rose 14%, to $57 million, in the quarter and for the fiscal year dropped 3%, to $287 million.

News Corp. attributed book publishing's 15% revenue gain in the fourth quarter to a variety of factors, including a strong frontlist, higher backlist sales, "strength in general books, the U.K., and children's publishing," as well as an increase in audiobook and digital book sales. Digital sales represented 24% of consumer revenue, and backlist represented 60% of consumer sales, down from 65% in the same period a year earlier because frontlist had "robust" results.

The full fiscal year revenue gain of 6% in book publishing benefited in part from acquisitions but also from higher printed and digital book sales and "strong performance from Rachel Reid's Game Changers titles and strength in Christian publishing."

As has been the case recently, News Corp. CEO Robert Thomson discussed AI and pirating in unusually colorful, un-corporate language. He said in part, "Much of the world is being reshaped by artificial intelligence, but artificial intelligence itself is only as useful and only as trustworthy as the quality of its inputs. We believe that makes News Corp. an absolutely critical participant in the emerging AI ecosystem. Without our journalists, our authors, our data, our brands and our professional expertise, users would be drowning in a slimy sea of AI slop.

"We have trusted content relationships with OpenAI and Meta, and are in advanced discussions with several other companies. However, under our woo and sue approach, we are taking aggressive action against those who pilfer and profit from our work. We will pursue those pilferers, and companies that are clients of these crass kleptomaniacs should know they are patently in possession of stolen goods."

Angela Baggetta has been named publisher of Columbia Global Reports, effective September 8. She has worked in book publishing for almost three decades, including in-house publicity roles at Basic Books and the publisher formerly known as Doubleday-Broadway.

Angele Baggetta (credit: Jennifer Mullowney)

She was managing director of Goldberg-McDuffie Communications until 2017 and has spent the last nine years running Angela Baggetta Communications, a literary publicity firm specializing in public relations campaigns for authors of serious nonfiction books. 

Nicholas Lemann, director of CGR, a nonprofit publishing imprint of Columbia University, said that Baggetta's "combination of deep experience in book publishing, her long-standing relationships in the media, and her enthusiasm for the books we publish make her the perfect champion for our venture."

Baggetta said, "As someone who has admired CGR's books since the press's debut in 2016, I'm delighted to be joining the team. Their mission to publish short, factual, and timely books by some of the best writers working in journalism and thought leadership is a recipe for success. I'm honored to help bring these types of books into the world."

Derek Johns, publisher turned agent to literary stars such as Sebastian Barry, Linda Grant, Rohinton Mistry, and Andrew O'Hagan, has died, the Bookseller reported. He was 78. Johns was also the author of the novels Wintering, Wakening, and The Billy Palmer Chronicles, as well as Ariel, a literary biography of another of his clients, travel writer Jan Morris.

He began his career as a bookseller at Hampstead's High Hill Bookshop, "which for decades was a center of literary London thanks to its charismatic owner Ian Norrie (Johns would write the Guardian obituary for Norrie when the bookseller passed away in 2009)," the Bookseller noted. Johns later moved to New York to work as an editor for Random House. He returned to London in positions that included managing director of the Bodley Head and Granta.

Johns became an agent in 1992, joining AP Watt, which he ran with Caradoc King until they sold the business to United Agents in 2012. He retired a year after the sale, telling the Bookseller at the time that "my years with AP Watt have been the happiest of my career" while vowing "to remain in the world of writers and writing, but in different ways." From 2003 to 2006, Johns was president of the Association of Authors Agents.

In addition to writing books, he was on the advisory committee of the Booker Prize, trustee of English PEN, and patron of the Queen's Park Book Festival. The Bookseller noted that Johns also continued to consult on his former clients, working this year in association with Matthew Marland at RCW to sell Sebastian Barry's latest novel, The Newer World, to Faber.  

This past week, Shelf Awareness sent our monthly pre-order e-blast to nearly 950,000 of the country's best book readers. The e-blast went to 947,864 customers of 279 participating independent bookstores. 

The mailing features 11 upcoming titles selected by Shelf Awareness editors and a sponsored title. 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 last Wednesday of each month; the next will go out on Wednesday, August 26. Stores interested in learning more can visit our program registration page or contact our partner program team via e-mail.

For a sample of the July pre-order e-blast, see this one from A New Chapter, Lewisburg, W.Va.

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

American Hagwon by Min Jin Lee (Cardinal)
Hollywood, Ending by John Green (Dutton)
Exit Party by Emily St. John Mandel (Knopf)
Stitched by Eli McCann (Torrey House Press)
Dodge City by Patrick DeWitt (Ecco)
The Strangers by Naomi Alderman (Little, Brown)
Live Laugh Love: The Secret History of White Christian Women and the World They Made by Kristin Kobes Du Mez (Liveright)
Ply by Hernan Diaz (Riverhead)
Actually, Nevermind: Essays by Taylor Tomlinson (Gallery)
Siren by Tomi Adeyemi (Henry Holt Books for Young Readers)
The Velvet Knife by Maureen Johnson (HarperCollins)

Celadon hosted a pre-launch book party celebrating author Raphael Montes and his thriller The Secret Dinner in New York City; attendees included media and book influencers. The Secret Dinner is a bestseller in Brazil and will be published in English for the first time on August 18. Pictured: Montes (in red) with Celadon staff, including his editor Ryan Doherty, v-p, editor-in-chief (next to the author, in maroon), and Celadon senior v-p and associate publisher Rachel Chou (in taupe dress).

Reese Witherspoon's Book Club has named The Wild Beneath by Kelly Anderson (Park Row) as its August pick. The book's pub date was Tuesday.

The Club wrote that The Wild Beneath is "for fans of Wild Dark Shore and Broken Country" and is "an unforgettable story exploring love, family, belonging, and the secrets that lie just beneath the surface. Set against the breathtaking backdrop of the Pacific Northwest, The Wild Beneath follows Annie, a young woman caught between two worlds--the ocean and the land, the future she imagined and the unexpected path that changes everything. We're so excited to share this unforgettable story with our community and can't wait to read along with you this month." 

And Reese herself called The Wild Beneath "officially a read anywhere kind of book!"

Click here to see the latest Independent Press Top 40, the weekly bestseller list celebrating the bestselling 40 fiction and 40 nonfiction titles from independent publishers, as sold by independent bookstores across the country. The list is sponsored by the Independent Publishers Caucus and the American Booksellers Association.

This week's debut fiction titles:

27. The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion: Vol. 6 by Beth Brower (Rhysdon Press)
30. The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion: Vol. 8 by Beth Brower (Rhysdon Press)
36. The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion: Vol. 7 by Beth Brower (Rhysdon Press) 

This week's debut nonfiction titles:

29. The Midnight Special: The Secret Prison History of American Music by Colin Asher (W. W. Norton)
31. How to Defend Books and Why: Book Bans and How We Fight Them by Danny Caine (Microcosm Publishing)
36. Capital From Zero: Reading Marx in the Age of Climate Catastrophe by Kohei Saito (Astra House)

Milo Michels, Robert Sindelar, and Spencer Ruchti

At Third Place Books, Seattle, Wash., Spencer Ruchti is stepping down as author events manager on September 10 to go to graduate school, and Milo Michels, currently assistant events manager, is being promoted to author events manager. Michels was earlier a buyer and events coordinator at Seattle’s University Book Store and a bookseller at Boulder Book Store, Boulder, Colo.

In the fall, Ruchti will study policy and public administration at the University of Washington's Daniel J. Evans School. He joined the company in 2021 and has worked at bookstores for nearly a decade. During his time at Third Place Books, Ruchti guided the store's event series through the Covid-19 pandemic and navigated the return to in-person events after 19 months of virtual programming from 2020 to 2021. (He also wrote an excellent report for Shelf Awareness on his experience in 2024 as a Books Across Borders fellow at the Frankfurt Book Fair.)

Third Place Books co-owner and managing partner Robert Sindelar said, "Coming out of the pandemic, I could not have wished for a better partner in reimagining and rebuilding our author program than Spencer Ruchti. He has been a true literary steward to not only Third Place Books but the entire Seattle book community. Our author events program has never been more diverse, robust, and vibrant than it is today. We will all miss Spencer dearly but are thrilled that we have someone as immensely capable and infectiously enthusiastic as Milo Michels to continue building on the impressive foundation Spencer built." 

In 2025, Third Place Books drew more than 21,000 attendees to author events, a 45% increase year-over-year. Third Place Books, which has three locations, hosts nearly 300 author events annually.

Terry Borzumato-Greenberg

Terry Borzumato-Greenberg has joined TvS Media Group as v-p, school and library marketing. She has more than 40 years of experience in children's book marketing and publicity, and most recently was v-p at Holiday House from 2005 to 2025, continuing through the Candlewick/Holiday House/Peachtree partnership.

Today:
Fresh Air: Claire Vaye Watkins, author of Yellow Pine: A Novel (Riverhead, $29, 9798217045020).

Tomorrow:
Good Morning America: Codie Sanchez, author of Own or Be Owned: Build a Business So Good It Doesn't Need You (Contrarian Thinking Press, $30, 9798995891802).

Kelly Clarkson Show repeat: Alex Aster, author of Starside: A Novel (Avon, $32, 9780063479791).

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, August 8 
2:06 p.m. Wesley Moody, author of Hero of Fort Sumter: The Extraordinary Life of Robert Anderson (University of Oklahoma Press, $36.95, 9780806195407).

Sunday, August 9
12:50 p.m. Matthew Spalding, author of The Making of the American Mind: The Story of our Declaration of Independence (Encounter, $32.99, 9781641774871).

Fierceland by Omar Musa has won the A$60,000 (about US$42,300) 2026 Miles Franklin Literary Award, which recognizes a novel of "the highest literary merit" that presents "Australian life in any of its phases." Perpetual is trustee for the award.

Judges called Fierceland "a tour de force set against the backdrop of the destruction of Borneo's rainforests. Cleared to make way for palm oil plantations, this pulsing forest world is the moral centre of Fierceland and Musa's rhythmic prose hums its defiance. In the human drama, siblings Harun and Rozana gradually realise that even in Sydney and Los Angeles, they cannot outrun the fraught legacy of their father, a palm-oil baron in Sabah. As it charts a journey of personal and planetary redemption, Fierceland refashions the venerable, vernacular hikayat traditions of Malay storytelling into new Australian idioms."

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

Hardcover
Hot Girl Murder Club: A Novel by Ashley Winstead (Minotaur, $29, 9781250401212). "If you're into detectives and the underbelly of the Hollywood elite, this is a fun dual timeline thriller that keeps you hooked. Winstead's prose is top-notch, and it helps bring the settings and characters to life." --Jeff Morse, Partners in Crime Bookshop, Chicago, Ill.

Man Overboard!: A Novel by Kathleen Rooney (Gallery, $27, 9781668212387). "Kick Kilpatrick is in his early 30s, treading water (metaphorically). Alone in open water after going overboard on a cruise, he's at the mercy of sting rays, sharks, and his own mind while treading water (literally) to stay alive. A beach read like you've never seen before." --Laurel Rhame, Phoenix Books, Essex Junction, Vt.

Paperback
The Very Definition of Love by Sophia Benoit (Slowburn, $19, 9781638933557). "This was such a refreshing take on historical romance from a brilliant new voice in the genre. I stayed up all night to finish this. I look forward to more from Benoit, hopefully with the rest of the Bancroft sisters." --Sami Melaragno, Riverstone Books, Pittsburgh, Pa.

Ages 4-8
Mac & Cheese: The Origin Story by Michael L. Benner, illus. by Alison Hawkins (Orchard Books, $19.99, 9781546140764). "Mac & Cheese: The Origin Story is already one of my favorite picture books of the year. This book has super cute illustrations and perfect puns that will keep you laughing with every page! A sweet and fun read you will definitely want to gobble up." --Mallory Clark, Square Books, Oxford, Miss.

Ages 8-12
Wolf's Belly by John August, illus. by Simón Estrada (Roaring Brook Press, $23.99, 9781250875228). "The artwork is gorgeous and the story is fantastic. So many interwoven fables/fairy tales are present, and the messaging is perfect without being heavy-handed!" --Laura Sharp, Literally, A Bookshop, Gilbert, Ariz.

Ages 13+ (Indies Introduce)
Flickerstate by F.A. Davidson (Sourcebooks Fire, $18.99, 9781464266195). "What would you do if you could influence the future? Flickerstate is a delightful boarding school modern day magical story that wrestles with questions of power, corruption, unity, friendship, and a fight for the greater good!" --Elizabeth Bosscher, Schuler Books, Grand Rapids, Mich.

[Many thanks to IndieBound and the ABA!]

With God, Human, Animal, Machine, Meghan O'Gieblyn emerged as the rare tech writer willing to explore the intersections of religion, humanity, and artificial intelligence. In Will and Attention, she continues in that vein, this time turning her keen intelligence and earnest exploration on herself and the two devastating relapses in her life. "There are a million ways to sabotage one's life," she explains, "but I could not seem to come up with anything more original than the things that had ruined my life before: alcohol and institutional religion."

Sober for 11 years, O'Gieblyn did not see the danger in secretly attending Mass despite having long renounced the evangelical faith in which she was raised. She merely recognized the spiritual longing that the rituals of the church seemed to answer: "I knew only that I had to kneel before a beautiful object, to be swallowed up by darkness, to forget myself." When her husband found out, however, he pushed her to see the deception as "addict behavior," a prescient warning that O'Gieblyn was powerless to heed as she turned her questioning mind away from religion and toward what at first felt like merely "idle fantasies" of drinking in a bar. Those hypotheticals eventually shifted into reality, and it wasn't merely "what people in recovery communities charitably call a 'slip.' I drank for almost a year in secret." After she was finally discovered, initial relief turned quickly to dismay as she was forced to renegotiate all the truths she had built her sobriety upon.

O'Gieblyn explores the ideas of philosopher Simone Weil, building her book around a passage she tacked above her writing desk: "We have to try to cure our faults by attention and not by will." Divided into two sections mirroring her title, Will and Attention takes readers on an intellectual journey as O'Gieblyn attempts to reconfigure the narratives of her life and her recovery, to master her divided will and conflicting desires. "I would not be writing this if I did not harbor some hope that the reconciliation that has long eluded me in life might be worked out here--that the self that cannot be made whole in reality might become so on the page." O'Gieblyn succeeds, telling her story with stunning clarity, cutting easily through complex concepts and draping every scene in color, light, and motion. A moving and astute examination of addiction, longing, and grace, Will and Attention is deeply worthy of readers' attention. --Sara Beth West, freelance reviewer and librarian

Shelf Talker: A moving and intelligent examination of addiction, longing, and grace, Will and Attention is a recovery memoir worthy of readers' attention.

I have written for many years about the highs and lows, the glory and the grind, of being a frontline bookseller. Maybe because I'm in a summer state of mind recently, I've been paying more attention to bookshop social media posts that reflect how, on some days, the quiet ones, the goal is just having a nice day at work... surrounded by lots of great books and good colleagues. Here's a sampling from one of my my recent virtual bookshop tours of the summer vibe: 

Staff Shout-outs
Red Balloon Bookshop, St. Paul, Minn.: "Here's to 29 years of Bookseller Barb keeping Red Balloon well-stocked in awesome books and our cookbook section curated with amazing finds. Thank you, Barb!!!"

TidePool Bookshop, Worcester, Mass: "Both Kelsey and Ron have been with us for FIVE YEARS!! Can't believe how fortunate Huck and I are to have them with us here at TidePool. Much appreciation for all they do to keep things running smoothly. Thank you, thank you!"

The Haunted Bookshop, Iowa City, Iowa: "Rule of Going to Conferences 27: When you get home, nothing will look entirely familiar. Rule 28: All the disorder that crept up before you left will look unbearably obvious to you. I'll be in the back, straightening the shelves, scrubbing the floors, and generally staring around blankly, trying to remember what I thought I was doing before CABS slip-tilted my perspective on everything."

Mr. B's Emporium of Reading Delights, Bath, England: "We (not-so) recently said a sad farewell to our colleague Lottie, and have been putting off writing this ever since (because we miss her so terribly). She of the fab curls and funky jackets, Lottie's exuberant positivity, endless enthusiasm, and ability to wield Big Red (our cantankerous book-transporting contraption) like no other made her a tip-top bookseller and pal. Here she is with a big list of her best recommendations, a tour through her ten-year bookselling career.... We'll put on our best patterned garms, and continue to enthusiastically handsell them in her honor."

Newnan Book Co., Newnan, Ga.: "Behind every good bookstore are human beings who really, really, really want to help you to find a book! Quote borrowed from our friends at Libro.fm Audiobooks."

Birdie Books, Westerville, Ohio: "Back to school? Already?!?! Summer flew by!! Bookseller Daniel takes us down memory lane with some his favorite reads from school."

Act 4 Books, Perry, N.Y.: "Our new hire seems to be in need of a little more cafe training! Although, his cuteness makes up for his lack of latte skills."

Newtonville Books, Newton Centre, Mass.: "Daniella and Noa made the most adorable new sidewalk sign: s'mores pun on one side! And a BOOKISH GARDEN with WORMS on the other. (Current favorite picture book: WORM MAKES A SANDWICH.) Thanks, art team!!"

Behind the Scenes Fun
Mysterious Galaxy Books, San Diego, Calif.: "What sounds does the New Book Tuesday cart make?" And: "I didn't even add any music in. Our booksellers can just do that."

Fountain Bookshop, New York City: "Before you watch the journey unfold on the big screen, read the story that has captivated readers for thousands of years. Our Odyssey display is up, our shelves are stocked, and your next great read is waiting at the Fountain Bookshop!"

Content Books, Northfield, Minn.: "What's your audiobook listening speed? Content booksellers share their preferences (and the new audiobook listening station in the store)!"

Johnson's Literary Depot, Johnson City, Tenn.: "JLD is getting into Al. Introducing Bookseller.Al with three fine-tuned models (Madi, Andrew, Ally) trained on decades of 'have you read this?' energy. No rare books were harmed in the making of this reel."

Bristol Books & Bindery, Bristol, Conn.: "Mel is our anthro house arteest, and she's getting our window ready for... I hate to say it... 'Back to School'. Where did the time go, indeed! P.S. she totally MADE this!!! Hit her up."

Cozy Calico Books, Occoquan, Va.: "Join Checkers for a tour of the store!"

Vibes
Kindred & Co., Post Falls, Idaho: "So many quiet stories in one room, all overlapping at once."

Location, Location, Location
Storage Book & Film, Seoul, South Korea: "We've been running this bookstore in the same place since 2013. Over the years, I've heard countless comments: 'You can't run a business on top of a hill. There's not even a proper sidewalk here! Why would you rent a place like this?' Even so, the moment I first saw this space, I fell in love with it. I simply hoped that, if possible, I could keep this bookstore here for a very long time.

"That wish has stayed with me, and somehow it has carried us through more than 13 years in the demanding city of Seoul. I guess our visitors have shared that same feeling, too. We open the bookstore every single day whether it's the heat of summer or the cold of winter. We hope you'll keep making your way up the hill to visit our little bookstore."