"We put a lot of thought into the design and feel of both our physical and online stores to make them attractive to our customers. While you might not control the size of your store, you do control the quality of your customer service and professionalism and your relationships with authors, publishers, vendors, and other businesses, as well as the types of books you sell.

"I spend a lot of time thinking about how to make sure everyone who steps into this store has an exceptional experience. Our staff is not only very knowledgeable about books but has also developed a deeper relationship with the community we serve. As a community-owned bookstore, we hold that as our guiding principle.

"No one cares how big or small your bookstore is if it is a poorly run business! In essence, it's not about the physical size of your bookstore; it's what's going on inside the store that matters."

The Cursed Page Bookstore, specializing in gothic horror and dark academia, has opened for a soft launch at 559 Main St. in Sturbridge, Mass. Housed in a historic former mill, the Cursed Page aims to be more than a retail space; it is a gathering place for readers, writers, makers, and curious minds, according to owner Amy Black. As the bookshop grows, it will host craft workshops, writing events, seminars, author signings, and book clubs. A grand opening celebration will be held later this year.

Black brings more than 30 years of experience in bookselling, store leadership, author programming, and large-scale literary events to the new venture. Her career includes management roles with Wesleyan RJ Julia Bookstore in Middletown, Conn., and Barnes & Noble, alongside work on BookExpo, BookCon, and New York Comic Con. Dedicated to connecting readers with stories and community, Black's goal is to craft an atmospheric haven for those drawn to gothic fiction, dark academia, folklore, and the strange beauty of the unknown.

"The Cursed Page is my love letter to the book industry, which has been my home and shaped my life for more than three decades," she said. "Books have never been just objects on a shelf to me. They are doors and windows into other worlds, other lives, and ourselves. They help us feel seen, think differently, and discover something new. I wanted to create a shop where readers can wander in, follow their curiosity, and find a story that stays with them."

Beyond its collection of gothic and dark fiction, the Cursed Page features curated nonfiction including folklore, science and nature, gardening, cooking, and crafts. The store also offers thematic board games, puzzles, and journals. For those looking to bring the shop's unusual home, "Inner Sanctum" subscription boxes are available through the website.

Mac's Backs, a new and used bookstore in Cleveland, Ohio, will move across the street to a new storefront this fall at 1807 Coventry Rd. in Cleveland Heights. It has operated at its current location, 1820 Coventry Rd., for 33 years, Cleveland magazine reported, adding that this marks the store's fourth move in the Coventry Village neighborhood since opening in 1982.

Owner Suzanne DeGaetano began considering the possibilities about a year ago, when the building where her store is moving to became available. "While her home of the past three decades holds novel memories, she realized it couldn't realistically support the business's needs as it continued to grow," Cleveland magazine wrote.

"We're going to be celebrating our 50th anniversary in a few years," DeGaetano said. "We decided that it's our best chance of being a successful store, you know, 50 more years from now.... I love the intimate feel of [the current space], but it's not handicap-accessible or ADA compliant. We just felt we needed a bigger space on one floor."

The move comes primarily to create more of a gathering space and to expand the children's books and poetry collections. "We want a new generation of booksellers to be able to thrive," DeGaetano said. "We think that this (move) gave us the best opportunity for that. We'll double our event space and be able to offer more to the community."

She added that the store's neighborly ties won't be lost with the relocation: "There's a true sidewalk culture here, where people meet and greet each other on the street and feel comfortable. It has all the ingredients of a welcoming neighborhood. That's what attracted us here, and that's what keeps us here. I want to be part of this neighborhood and see it succeed."

Classic Bookshop in Palm Beach, Fla., is closing this week after 49 years in business, the Palm Beach Post reported. The bookstore's last day of operation was June 10. Owner Jeffrey Jacobus, who purchased the store in 1992, is packing up remaining merchandise in advance of having to vacate the storefront at 310 S. County Rd. by June 15. He plans to move out today or Saturday, depending on how the packing goes.

Jacobus told the Palm Beach Post he was unable to discuss the reasons for the closure, but the newspaper noted that other businesses in the area and throughout Palm Beach have relocated or closed recently due to "rising operating costs, seasonal challenges, and lease uncertainty."

Jacobus added that he is not sure what the future holds for the bookstore and whether it will reopen in a new space. "Everything's still up in the air. Nobody's come up with an answer yet."

He went on to describe the closure as bittersweet, saying: "I've got a lot of people trying to help me get into another spot. But just to leave this--there's so many people. We went through four generations of families in this spot. It's a little hard to deal with."

Classic Bookshop's closure comes only a short while after the closure of Palm Beach Book Store in late April. Per the Palm Beach Post, this leaves the community without a general-interest bookstore, though there is the luxury book boutique Assouline and a rare and antiquarian store called Raptis Rare Books.

After its debut as a pop-up late last year, Homestead Books & Co. has launched a mobile bookstore based in Clinton, British Columbia, the 100 Mile House Free Press reported.

The bookstore, built out of a 7' by 14' trailer, made its inaugural appearance on June 6 at the Old Road Music Festival in Clinton. Owner Katie Bolster carries general-interest titles for all ages along with a selection of gift items made by local artisans. 

Some of her future stops include the opening of a local coffee shop, the South Cariboo Garlic Festival later in the summer, and the Green Lake Community Center. She intends to adjust her book inventory based on customer feedback and hopes to collaborate with local businesses for regular pop-up appearances. She would also like to hold special events like book fairs, for both children and adults. 

Bolster told the 100 Mile House Free Press she's always wanted to open a bookstore, but having a full-time job and a family made it difficult. While researching the subject of opening a bookstore, she came across the idea of a mobile bookstore and "really loved" the concept. And while fixing up and remodeling a "blank slate" of a trailer, she got started with pop-up appearances, book deliveries, and specialty orders.

"I want to create a space that feels inviting and community-like and encourages reading," Bolster said. "A lot of families are encouraging kids to go back to reading rather than watch things on screen. 

"I'm really excited to see what the future holds. I like the idea of having a project I can do on the weekends and in the evenings, so I’ll see where it goes."

Robert Coles, a Pulitzer Prize-winning author, "a child psychiatrist by training and a storyteller by inclination whose scores of books and articles transported readers into the minds of children, opening new vistas on issues as varied as race relations and moral reasoning," died June 4, the New York Times reported. He was 97.

A professor at Harvard University, Coles "eschewed ideologies and psychiatric orthodoxies, visiting the homes of children--first in the American South and then around the world--to listen intently to what they, their parents and others had to say. He returned again and again, sometimes for months or even years, building the trust that underpinned his work," the Times wrote. 

His five-volume book series, Children of Crisis, was published between 1967 and 1977; Volumes 2 and 3 won a Pulitzer Prize in 1973. Although some criticized his approach as scattershot and unscientific, sociologist David Riesman observed in a 1972 interview with Time magazine that the effect of Cole's work was to obliterate stereotypes, to demonstrate that "policemen are not pigs, white Southerners are not rednecks, and Blacks are not all suffering in exotic misery.... What he is saying is 'People are more complicated, more varied, more interesting, have more resiliency and more survivability than you might think. I listen to them! You listen to them! Please listen! Again and again!' "

Coles offered proof "that hope is alive," Kenneth Clark, the psychologist whose insights contributed to the Supreme Court outlawing the racial segregation of schools in 1954, told the New York Times Magazine in 1978: "I don't know if he's one of the 10 just men required to keep this world spinning around.... You can't judge him by normal standards any more than you could Martin Luther King; they are men possessed."

Coles acknowledged a sense of "moral anxiety" as a white man writing about those with a less privileged existence, telling the Times in 1997: "I work with very vulnerable people, and yet I'm not very vulnerable myself. It makes me uncomfortable, seeing the disparities between the world I document and the world I inhabit."

He also wrote books about Bruce Springsteen and Walker Percy as well as novels, children's books, and poetry. He was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship in 1981, the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1998, and the National Humanities Medal in 2001.

His study of children began with Ruby Bridges, the first Black student at a New Orleans elementary school, "whose poise in the face of racism moved him deeply," the Times noted. She would be a central theme running through his career, inspiring him to write about children's moral and spiritual lives. They also collaborated on a children's book, The Story of Ruby Bridges, illustrated by George Ford (1995).

When Bridges grew up, she told Coles it was time for him to write Women of Crisis to accompany his earlier series. Coles and his wife, Jane Hallowell Coles, co-wrote the two-volume women's study, which was published in 1978 and 1980. 

Earth, Wind & Fire percussionist and vocalist Ralph Johnson (l.) and Touré discussed Johnson's new book, Rhythm & Fire: A Life in Harmony with Earth, Wind & Fire (Diversion Books), at Barnes & Noble Union Square in New York City.

When Michigan's Kent District Library decided to bring in author Kristin Hannah for an event, it planned to host it at a local high school and partnered with Books and Mortar, Grand Rapids, as the official bookseller. After all 1,200 tickets were claimed within 15 minutes and another 4,000 people joined a wait list, the library started looking for a larger venue. The event ended up at the Van Andel Arena, all 10,000 seats were claimed within days, and the library called in an additional local bookseller, Schuler Books, to help.

Bookselling teams: Books & Mortar (top) and Schuler Books

Elizabeth Bosscher, Schuler marketing manager, said: "It was such a special opportunity to get to work alongside a fellow bookstore to provide the best experience possible to these thousands of readers. We can't think of another industry where two competitors can co-exist at the same event so collaboratively. Our staff at the event said multiple times that the experience was nothing short of magical--a true celebration of books and gathering of community around a common love. One staff member talked to a reader who had flown in from Denver for the event."

The 90-minute program--which the Kent District Library called "one of the largest library events in history"--featured a q&a with Kristin Hannah and her best friend and fellow author Megan Chance, moderated by librarian Jake Huber. You can watch the conversation here.

"Let's see how tall our booksellers are compared to Wemby." BookPeople in Austin, Tex., shared an Instagram Reel highlighting a sales floor display honoring 7'4" San Antonio Spurs star player Victor Wembanyama, whose reading habits are well documented. "What rhymes with Wemby's book picks? SPURS IN SIX! Check out our newest display WEMBY RECOMMENDS next time you're in-store and see how you compare to him height-wise.⁠"

"Be hot. Read books. Go Knicks!" That was the timely sidewalk chalkboard message in front of Black Spring Books in Brooklyn, N.Y.

---

And the Cranford Bookstore in Cranford, N.J., offered up some "bookstore love for @nyknicks" with this sidewalk chalkboard message:

My TBR is long!
Iced coffee keeps me alive!
Reading is fun!
KNICKS IN 5!!!

"Nothing like a vacation, and nothing like coming back home to this place," Skylark Bookshop in Columbia, Mo., posted on Facebook.

Today:
Fresh Air remembers Marjane Satrapi, the author of Persepolis and other works, who died last week.

A trailer has been released for the film adaptation of Daniel Kraus's 2023 novel Whalefall. Entertainment Weekly reported that Austin Abrams plays a man "who goes diving off the central coast of California in search of his dad's remains. Once swallowed by a sperm whale, he's left with just one hour of oxygen in his tank. Under these dire circumstances, he realized that his father's hard-earned lessons might finally pay off." The movie opens October 16.

Directed by Underwater writer Brian Duffield, Whalefall teams Abrams with Josh Brolin. The two headlined last year's Oscar-winner Weapons. The cast also includes Elisabeth Shue (The Boys), John Ortiz (Fast & Furious), Jane Levy (Evil Dead), and Emily Rudd (Fear Street).

Winners of the 36th annual Reading the West Book Awards, sponsored by the Mountains & Plains Independent Booksellers Association and chosen by booksellers and readers, have been named. Videos of each author accepting their award can be viewed here. This year's winners:

Fiction: Lone Dog Road by Kent Nerburn (New World Library)
Debut fiction: Penitence by Kristin Koval (Celadon Books)
Poetry: Dream of the Bird Tattoo: Poems and Sueñitos by Juan J. Morales (University of New Mexico Press)
General nonfiction: The Way Out: A True Story of Survival in the Heart of the Rockies by Devon O'Neil (HarperOne)
Memoir/biography: The Way Around: A Field Guide to Going Nowhere by Nicholas Triolo (Milkweed Editions)
Picture book: Painting Wonder: How Pauline Baynes Illustrated the Worlds of C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien by Katie Wray Schon (Waxwing Books)
Young reader/middle grade: Three Blue Hearts by Lynne Kelly (Delacorte Press)
YA/teen: Legendary Frybread Drive-In: Intertribal Stories edited by Cynthia Leitich Smith (Heartdrum)

photo: Robin Christian

Naomi Ishiguro is the author of The Rainshadow Orphans (Saga Press/S&S, May 26, 2026), the first in an anime-inspired fantasy trilogy set within a mythical archipelago. She has previously had two books published in the U.K., a novel called Common Ground and the story collection Escape Routes. Ishiguro is a graduate of the University of East Anglia's M.F.A. creative writing program, and has worked as a high school English teacher and a freelance creative writing teacher. She also spent two lovely years in her early 20s as a bookseller and bibliotherapist at Mr B's Emporium of Reading Delights in Bath, England.

Handsell readers your book in 25 words or less:

An anime-inspired epic fantasy adventure about found family and solidarity, featuring martial arts battles, magical sun spirits, dragons, bubble tea, and a cat called Mochi.

On your nightstand now:

Kamizen by William Yamaguchi Dobson (illustrated by Sawa), a beautiful, heartfelt middle-grade adventure filled with Japanese yōkai stories and deep wisdom about intergenerational memory.

Favorite book when you were a child:

I was always a huge fan of Terry Pratchett's Discworld series. It would be hard to pick one, as I've always thought of them as all being part of one vast project. As a child, maybe my favourite was Mort? I love how much of a rich celebration of humanity and everyday human life the Discworld books are, and it felt so delightful to me, especially as a child, that the strangely relatable character of Death could be a part of this. It seemed to make everything about life feel kinder and less frightening.

Your top five authors:

This shifts all the time, but at the moment I'd say...

Scott Lynch, for the incredible narrative dexterity and wonderful characters of his Gentleman Bastard sequence.

Katherine Rundell, for the delight she takes in language, the dastardly glee of her children's stories, and her joyous knowledge of John Donne.

Nina Mingya Powles, for her gorgeous and thoughtful essays and poetry about cross-cultural identities, and building something beautiful out of what could be a profound sense of cultural dislocation.

Laini Taylor, for the joy her characters take in life's sweetness even in dark times.

Hua Hsu, for his stunning memoir, Stay True, one of the best and most heartfelt explorations of the urge and struggle to capture life, memory, and other people in narrative that I've ever read.

Book you've faked reading:

I never do this! Not out of virtue, but because firstly, what would be the point? I know I'm never going to have a meaningful conversation based on this kind of premise. Also I'm a terrible liar, so I know it would always come back to bite me.

Book you're an evangelist for:

A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin. I came to this incredibly late and was staggered by how essential a tale it feels, in terms of the wisdom it holds in the matter of navigating life in all its light and shadow, and the relationships human beings might seek to build both with one another and with the natural world.

Book you've bought for the cover:

Iron Widow by Xiran Jay Zhao. I also had a great time reading it. I love a bit of unhinged female rage combined with giant robot vs. monster battles. Who doesn't? So the cover definitely did not disappoint.

Book you hid from your parents:

I probably didn't let them know the full extent of just how much Terry Pratchett I was reading, at the expense of everything else. They also enjoy Terry Pratchett but would probably have wanted me to have more of a varied reading diet!

Book that changed your life:

The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch. Its sheer joy in high-wire narrative antics made me want to write again after a long hiatus of having basically given up on writing novels. Also, the protagonist Locke's consistent ability to fall back on his own internal resources, together with his complete lack of care for what kind of status the outside world ascribes to him, were definitely a personal inspiration too.

Favorite line from a book:

Again, this changes almost daily. What feels most meaningful will of course always shift according to what's happening in life. But at the moment it's from Le Guin's A Wizard of Earthsea: "I had forgotten how much light there is in the world, till you gave it back to me." It's such a lovely line about the grace we can unexpectedly find in other people, and in the context of the story, a reminder of how we can bring light to others even when feeling dominated by shadow ourselves.

Five books you'll never part with:

My copy of I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith. This was a foundational text of my late teens and early 20s. The story it told of a young woman making her way in love and life along with finding her voice as a writer meant a huge amount to me. I also have a series of signed books by the British nature writer Horatio Clare. I love his work so much and have been lucky enough to meet him at intervals over the years. The short messages he's written above each signature chart a little micro story of my becoming a writer, from his wishing me luck in my aspirations to welcoming me into the writer fold!

Book you most want to read again for the first time:

A Winter's Promise by Christelle Dabos. The world of this book felt so delightfully magical and utterly surprising. It's one of the few books I've read that made me immediately picture everything it described as hand-drawn animation. I know I'd have a great time rereading it anyway, but I would love to experience the sheer wonder of that first exploratory step into its universe a second time.

A book you would pass on to the next generation:

Robert Macfarlane's Is a River Alive?--for its stunningly written, insightfully researched, hopeful approach to reconfiguring humanity's relationship with the more-than-human world.

Five years after his last novel, Chang-rae Lee (On Such a Full Sea) delivers A Tender Age, a luminous bildungsroman about the ache to belong. Jeon-Gi, an empty nester with his wife and canine, finds himself "suddenly thinking about the circumstances of how our girls got our dog." Years ago, they were visiting family friends and left with a three-month-old puppy that was being abused by the family's young son. In imagining the dog's revenge on his tormentor, Jeon-Gi insists, "To dispirit a certain kind you must be malign, become as bent as your nemesis. You must shock even yourself."

From there, the narrative explores "some rough times... [that] spanned the near-year that led up to my eleventh birthday during camp in the summer of 1976, a time when I was still a mere boy and had no yearnings to grow up or know anything more." Jeon-Gi, his younger sister, Ella, and their Korean parents live 35 minutes north of New York City in "a town that was much darker-skinned and poorer than the surrounding villages and hamlets, which were and still are mostly white and wealthy." Their apartment complex is home to "legions of us new immigrants," creating a diverse community "before diverse was an operative notion." The children regularly congregate outside to play: "we were young enough--we ranged in age from eight to twelve--that the bonds felt fierce, like in a tribe." But Jeon-Gi, his name sounding too close to "chunky," is bullied by an 11-year-old girl who weaponizes his devotion to his mother; he is also provoked by a racist playmate, then relentlessly terrorized by a fellow student. Even at summer camp, Jeon-Gi can't escape being targeted: "Was there some quality I possessed that inspired kids like Kathy Croker and Joshua Messing and Tommy Reilly and an otherwise impressive Korean camper to become my tormentors, my mistreaters?" Despite good friendships and supportive counselors, amid developing his first romantic feelings, that summer Jeon-Gi's increasingly uncontainable frustration pushes toward inevitable results that reverberate through lifetimes.

Lee again explores identity and acceptance, family and relationships, racism and privilege with raw intensity and biting insight, managing to write breathtaking prose through predictable mundanity but also wrenching inhumanity. He gorgeously, empathically captures Jeon-Gi's visceral struggles as he's caught between being othered and part of "the gang" while desperately navigating between childhood innocence and "confronting adult realities." In his masterful almost-ending, Lee shrouds what exactly happened on that life-altering precipice, brilliantly inviting room for interrogation and interpretation. --Terry Hong

Shelf Talker: Chang-rae Lee dazzlingly explores a young boy's childhood amid racism, bullying, and life-altering violence.