[words] in Maplewood, N.J.

[words] Bookstore, Maplewood, N.J., plans to open a second location, in nearby Livingston, this spring. The indie bookseller will be part of LifeTown, a state-of-the-art 53,000-square-foot facility opening under the auspices of the Friendship Circle that aims "to redefine the recreational and educational landscape" for individuals with special needs.

[words] Bookstore at LifeTown will be located in Life Village, a simulated town square with street lights, traffic lights, sidewalks and shops that aims to give each individual the tools he or she might need to live up to his or her potential. Like the Maplewood main branch, which opened in 2009, the new store's goal is to become a community literary hub and provide vocational training for individuals on the autism spectrum. Initially, the store will offer a selection of bestsellers, Judaica, children's books and a large collection of titles focusing on special needs.

"We have served our neighboring communities of Livingston, Millburn/Short Hills and West Orange for nine years, and we hope that our LifeTown location will enhance our ability to do so," said owner Jonah Zimiles. "In the long-term, we hope to bring author events to LifeTown, which will provide us with another location for large offsite events."

Tsunami Books, Eugene, Ore., which had launched an ambitious fundraising effort to come up with $302,000 by January 15 in order to sign a new long-term lease and stave off closure, was able to raise more than $100,000 in less than a week to reach its goal, KEZI reported, noting that the "community rallied together, with close to 1,000 people donating to the cause."

"Just thank you to the community for being what it is. There is a reason many of us come to Eugene, Oregon and this is one of them," said owner Scott Landfield, adding that he was overjoyed and humbled by the experience. He has plans to expand the bookstore.

With Winter Institute 13 kicking off next week in Memphis, Tenn., Shelf Awareness has reached out to booksellers from around the country to hear their picks for exciting, upcoming books for the winter and spring. Today's fiction list features seven novels and two short story collections that booksellers have read and loved. Lists of nonfiction and young adult and children's books will follow over the next few days.

Due out February 6 from Algonquin Books, An American Marriage is the fourth novel from writer Tayari Jones. In it Jones tells the story of newlywed couple Celestial and Roy, whose happy, promising lives are torn apart after Roy is arrested for a crime that Celestial knows he did not commit. Angela Maria Spring, owner of Duende District Bookstore in Washington, D.C., said that American Marriage establishes Jones as a "literary force to be reckoned with," and praised Jones's "seamless prose" and "taut writing and pacing." Casey Coonerty Protti, owner of Bookshop Santa Cruz in Santa Cruz, Calif., admired the way that Jones weaved the "undercurrents of something powerful and important to talk about" within "an amazing story."

After a widowed surgeon learns that he doesn't have very long left to live, he decides to undertake a final road trip with his adult son, who has Down's Syndrome. While the set-up for Jesse Ball's upcoming novel Census (March 6, Ecco) may seem normal enough at first glance, it quickly becomes strange: the father and son are traveling from Town A to Town Z in order to carry out a mysterious, possibly sinister census sanctioned by an equally mysterious government agency. Kat Leache, bookseller at Novel in Memphis, Tenn., called the story's conclusion "almost unbearably moving," and said this "elegiac puzzle" of a story won't be "leaving my headspace anytime soon."

Set in Washington, D.C., Speak No Evil is the long-awaited next novel from Uzodinma Iweala, who debuted in 2005 with Beasts of No Nation. In Speak No Evil, Niru, the son of conservative Nigerian immigrants, is a star student athlete at a prestigious private school in D.C. Only Meredith, Niru's best friend and the daughter of Washington insiders, knows that Niru is queer. One day Niru's father discovers his secret, and devastating consequences quickly follow. Angela Maria Spring of Duende District Bookstore said that Iweala "delivers on every count" with this novel about "the bonds, and limitations, of friendship, family and culture." Look for it March 6 from HarperCollins.

Alma Katsu, author of the Taker Trilogy, returns on March 6 with The Hunger, a retelling of the Donner Party's disastrous expedition tinged with supernatural horror. As the Donner Party proceeds slowly westward and things continue to go increasingly, terribly wrong, some of the pioneers become convinced that simple misfortune is not enough to explain their plight--there must be something evil in their midst. Macon Wilson, bookseller at Novel, recommended The Hunger, saying he "ate it up in a matter of days." Available from Putnam.

In Varina, Charles Frazier's first novel since 2011, the author returns to the 19th century to tell the story of a woman named Varina Howell. While still a teenager, Varina marries a much older man by the name of Jefferson Davis, and as her husband becomes an increasingly powerful political figure, Varina finds herself in the very heart of the Confederacy and the Civil War. When the Confederacy begins to collapse, Varina flees Richmond, Va., with her children in tow. Cheryl Mesler of Burke's Book Store in Memphis, Tenn., recommended Varina. Available from Ecco on April 3.

During her freshman year of college, Greer Kadetsky meets Faith Frank, a 63-year-old icon of the feminist movement, and to Greer's utter surprise, Faith offers to take Greer under her wing and help her make something of her passion and ambition. So begins Meg Wolitzer's new novel The Female Persuasion, which Emma Straub, author and owner of Books Are Magic in Brooklyn, N.Y., called "the book so many of us need right now--an escapist novel about feminism," adding that Wolitzer is "going to get shot out of a cannon this year, in a good way." Casey Coonerty Protti of Santa Cruz Bookshop, meanwhile, praised the way Wolitzer combines an "examination of where women are now" with a literary coming-of-age story. Arriving from Riverhead on April 3.

On April 24, New Directions will publish Yoko Tawada's new novel, The Emissary, translated from the Japanese by Margaret Mitsutani. In the wake of a catastrophic disaster, Japan has sequestered itself from the rest of the world and the country's entire population, save for the elderly, are left weak and virtually unable to fend for themselves. Yoshiro, an old man, is left to care for his infirm, but strangely wise, grandson Mumei. Despite the dystopian-sounding premise, the novel is funny and playful, and Sara Balabanlilar, marketing manager at Brazos Bookstore in Houston, Tex., called this "gorgeous speculative novel" her favorite read of the year and one she "can't wait to share in 2018."

The penultimate title on today's list is You Think It, I'll Say It, a new short story collection from author Curtis Sittenfeld. Arriving from Random House on April 24, You Think It, I'll Say It features 10 short stories that explore class, gender roles, relationships and more in modern America. One story tells of a suburban mother who daydreams about the demise of an old friend's lifestyle business, while another follows a lawyer who is thrown off balance by the reappearance of a high school bully. Emma Straub of Books Are Magic marveled at Sittenfeld being "as good at the short form as she is at the long," saying that "every last one" of the stories in You Think It, I'll Say It are "total zingers."

And last but not least, writer Jamel Brinkley makes his debut on May 1 with the publication of the short story collection A Lucky Man (Graywolf Press). The collection's nine stories, which examine race, class and the experiences of black men and boys, include accounts of a young boy from the Bronx coming face-to-face with privilege when he goes swimming in a backyard pool in the suburbs; a teenager trying to watch out for his younger brother during J'Ouvert, an all-night street party; two brothers struggling to understand their family history while at a capoeira conference; and much more. Alyson Jones Turner and the team at Source Booksellers in Detroit, Mich., recommended A Lucky Man, calling this short story collection "delightful." --Alex Mutter

PEN America is honoring Stephen King with its Literary Service Award at its annual literary gala in New York City on May 22. The award is given to "a critically-acclaimed writer whose body of work helps us understand and interpret the human condition, engendering empathy and imagination in even the darkest hours."

Stephen King

King was cited as "an impassioned advocate of freedom of expression, literacy, and access to information, which he and his wife Tabitha support through their philanthropy. King's Haven Foundation also provides unique and generous support to writers and other freelancers in the arts who have suffered personal hardship. His outspoken defense against encroachments on free speech and pointed public criticism of policies that infringe on this and other rights have resulted in his being blocked by President Trump on Twitter."

PEN America president Andrew Solomon commented: "No stranger to the dark side, Stephen King has inspired us to stand up to sinister forces through his rich prose, his generous philanthropy, and his outspoken defense of free expression. Stephen has fearlessly used his bully pulpit as one of our country's best-loved writers to speak out about the mounting threats to free expression and democracy that are endemic to our times. His vivid storytelling reaches across boundaries to captivate multitudes of readers, young and old, in this country and worldwide, across the political spectrum. He helps us all to confront our demons--whether a dancing clown or a tweeting president."

Carolyn Reidy

PEN America has also named as its annual Publisher Honoree Carolyn Reidy, president and CEO of Simon & Schuster. The organization said that "under her leadership, Simon & Schuster has published many acclaimed and award-winning works of lasting cultural significance, has greatly expanded its publishing activities in international territories, and has been an industry leader in finding new audiences through digital capabilities. Reidy has led Simon & Schuster to make substantial progress in creating a more diverse workforce and in publishing a wider range of voices that is more truly reflective of our culture today. Reidy also serves on the boards of directors of the Association of American Publishers and the National Book Foundation, and, as a former long-serving board member of Literacy Partners, has provided vital support to literacy programs to engender a new generation of readers and writers."

PEN America executive director Suzanne Nossel commented: "The only woman among the top ranks of publishing CEOs, Carolyn Reidy is an icon for a generation of women in the publishing industry, known for her passion, professionalism, forcefulness, and business acumen. Her singular focus on keeping books at the forefront of our national conversation has fortified the power of literature to shape democratic and humane values."

Margaret Atwood, Junot Díaz, Lauren Graham, John Irving, Bill T. Jones, Devon Kennard, Gayle King, Diane Lane, George R.R. Martin and Lesley Stahl are among the impressive list of authors, celebrities and notable figures who will participate in PBS's The Great American Read, an eight-part TV series and nationwide campaign exploring "the power of books and the joy of reading through the lens of America's 100 best-loved novels, as voted on by the public." PBS will also partner with literary organizations and its nearly 350 member stations nationwide to extend the series' reach.

The ambitious initiative launches with a two-hour special event May 22, at 8 p.m. on PBS stations (check local listings). Over the course of 15 weeks this summer, viewers can read and vote on favorite works of fiction. The series then returns in the fall with additional episodes exploring the nominated books through themes like "Heroes," "Villains & Monsters," "Who Am I?," "What We Do for Love," "Other Worlds," and will conclude with a finale and countdown to "America's Best-Loved Book." The list of 100 titles, chosen from a demographically representative national survey conducted by YouGov, will be made available to the public prior to the launch episode in May.

The Great American Read is supported by an extensive multi-platform digital and social media campaign "designed to inspire Americans to read, vote and share their personal connections to titles on the top 100 list and beyond over the course of the summer," PBS noted. Additionally, working with member stations and partners, PBS will develop resources and materials to extend the campaign and encourage summer reading activities.

"From exploring the nature of good and evil to discovering a world far away from our own, books have the power to transform, to inspire and to stay with you long after the final page has been turned," said Beth Hoppe, PBS chief programming executive & general manager, general audience programming. She added that the initiative "encourages a multi-generational dialogue about literacy in America through this search to identify America's best-loved novel."

Jane Root, founder and CEO of production company Nutopia, which is partnering with PBS on the initiative, commented: "America's love affair with books is the perfect jumping-off point for this innovative series celebrating the power of reading. We are most excited to see how this series will inspire new conversations celebrating American diversity through a literary lens."

On Thursday, the second part of the American Booksellers Association's Winter 2017-2018 Kids' Next List was delivered to more than a third of a million of the country's best book readers, going to 367,024 customers of 112 participating bookstores.

The e-newsletter, powered by Shelf Awareness, features winter Kids' Next List titles, with bookseller quotes and "buy now" buttons that lead directly to the purchase page for the title on the sending store's website. The newsletter, which is branded with each store's logo, also includes an interview (from Bookselling This Week) with the author whose book was chosen by booksellers as the number-one Kids' Next List pick, in this case Melissa Albert, author of The Hazel Wood (Flatiron Books).

For a sample of the newsletter, see this one from Page 158 Books, Wake Forest, N.C.

The New Atlantic Independent Booksellers Association hosted booksellers in the Philadelphia area at a dinner for Bob Drury and Tom Clavin's Valley Forge (S&S, November 2018) at Al Dar Bistro in Bala Cynwyd. Pictured, front row: (l.-r.) Lynn Rosen, An Open Book Bookstore; Elliott bat Tzedek, Big Blue Marble. Second row: Evan Schwartz, An Open Book Bookstore; Ellen Trachtenberg, Narberth Bookstore; Jennifer Woodfin, Big Blue Marble; Anmiryam Budner & Emily Hornbeck, Main Point Books. Third row: PK Sindwani & Indira Sindwani, Town Book Center Cafe & Wine Bar; Todd Dickinson, Aaron's Books; Nathan Halter, Lahaska Bookshop; Tim Hepp, S&S. Fourth row: Bob Drury & his wife, Denise; Kathy Morrison & Tom Morrison, Newtown Bookshop. Photo by NAIBA executive director Eileen Dengler.

Sourcebooks has launched the "Love Your Library Like a Carnegie" campaign, which will give grant money to two nominated libraries and is inspired by the support librarians have given to Carnegie's Maid by Marie Benedict. The novel, which was selected as a January 2018 LibraryReads pick, tells the story of a brilliant woman who may have spurred Andrew Carnegie's transformation into a legendary philanthropist.

"Andrew Carnegie gave away $350 million to charities during the last several years of his life. Most of us can't commit to that much--but that shouldn't stop us from celebrating our libraries," said Margaret Coffee, national accounts manager for school & libraries at Sourcebooks. "Libraries are central to their communities and have enormous impact on readers' lives. Benedict's story and Andrew Carnegie's generosity has inspired us to create a campaign that will not only give back, but hopefully create some excitement and fun around that experience."

Anyone can nominate a favorite library here. Sourcebooks will award the two winning libraries $2,000 each. In addition, one voter will receive a $100 gift card, and 10 others will get a signed edition of Marie Benedict's first book, The Other Einstein. Voting is underway and runs until March 19, when the winning libraries will be announced.

Showcasing "17 bookstore cats worth road tripping for," Fodor's wrote: "There are plenty of reasons to plan road trips, but there aren't any cuter itineraries than one full of America's bookstore cats. Independent bookshops across the nation employ kitties as greeters, lap-warmers, creative directors, and social media mavens, combining two of the world's favorite joys: books and cats!"

Effective today, Rachel Chou is joining Celadon Books as associate publisher, where she will lead the marketing and publicity departments and work closely with the Macmillan sales group and other marketing support departments. She was formerly general manager and chief content officer for Open Road Integrated Media. Earlier she worked at HarperCollins as v-p of product development and operations, at Scholastic as director of enterprise website services and as director of communications at the School at Columbia University.

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KJ Grow has been promoted to v-p, sales and marketing, at Shambhala Publications. She joined the company in 2015 and earlier worked at Random House, Simon & Schuster, Penguin and Graywolf Press.

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Nadia Almahdi has joined Bonnier Publishing USA as marketing manager for Little Bee Books and Sizzle Press. She was formerly marketing manager at Bookspan.

The Perpetual Summer by Adam Phillips (Prospect Park Books), the second in the Chuck Restic mystery series.

Today:
Fresh Air: Jeanne Lenzer, author of The Danger Within Us: America's Untested, Unregulated Medical Device Industry and One Man's Battle to Survive It (Little, Brown, $28, 9780316343763).

Tomorrow:
The Opposition with Jordan Klepper: David Cay Johnston, author of It's Even Worse Than You Think: What the Trump Administration Is Doing to America (Simon & Schuster, $28, 9781501174162).

HBO has released the first teaser for its adaptation of Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451, which will air this spring. The Verge reported that the video "highlights the most vivid part of the novel, showing a burning copy of Crime and Punishment that's dropped onto a pile of other controversial books, which is set on fire by a firefighter wielding a flamethrower."

Michael B. Jordan (Creed) and Michael Shannon (Man of Steel) star as Montag and his superior Captain Beatty, respectively. Director Ramin Bahrani (Man Push Cart, Chop Shop) told critics during the Television Critics Association winter press tour that Bradbury's novel is pressingly relevant this year, but the movie isn't designed as an anti-Trump film. "I don't want to focus so much on [Trump] because I don't want to excuse the 30, 40 years prior to that. He's just an exaggeration of it now."

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Catch-22, a "high-profile limited series" based on the Joseph Heller novel, has landed at Hulu, Deadline reported, adding that the streaming service closed a deal for a six-episode straight-to-series order. George Clooney stars and co-directs (with Grant Heslov) the project, which is written by Luke Davies and David Michôd. Clooney and Heslov executive produce via Smokehouse Pictures alongside Davies and Michôd, as well as Anonymous Content's Richard Brown and Steve Golin. Filming is slated to begin early this year.

Finalists were announced for the 2018 RBC Taylor Prize for literary nonfiction, which recognizes a book that "best combines a superb command of the English language, an elegance of style, and a subtlety of thought and perception." The award consists of CA$30,000 (about US$24,190) and a crystal trophy for the winning author, and CA$5,000 (about US$4,031) for each of the remaining finalists. The winner will be unveiled in Toronto February 26.

The Charles Taylor Foundation and RBC will also present an Emerging Writers Award. Shortly after the announcement of the RBC Taylor Prize, the winner will name their choice of emerging author to receive this CA$10,000 (about US$8,060) award. This year's RBC Taylor Prize shortlisted titles are:

Island of the Blue Foxes: Disaster and Triumph on Bering's Great Voyage to Alaska by Stephen R. Bown
Yardwork: A Biography of an Urban Place by Daniel Coleman
Life on the Ground Floor: Letters from the Edge of Emergency Medicine by James Maskalyk
Seven Fallen Feathers: Racism, Death, and Hard Truths in a Northern City by Tanya Talaga
In the Name of Humanity by Max Wallace

photo: Luca Dipierro

Leni Zumas is the author of the novel Red Clocks (just published by Little, Brown), as well as Farewell Navigator: Stories (Open City) and The Listeners (Tin House), which was a finalist for the Oregon Book Award. She lives in Portland, Ore., and teaches in the MFA program at Portland State University.

On your nightstand now:

The Optimistic Decade by Heather Abel; Living a Feminist Life by Sara Ahmed; I Am the Brother of XX by Fleur Jaeggy, translated by Gini Alhadeff; The Little Edges by Fred Moten; Enfermario by Gabriela Torres Olivares, translated by Jennifer Donovan; Bone Light by Orlando White; and Farther Traveler by Ronaldo V. Wilson.

Favorite book when you were a child:

The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth George Speare. This book had it all--rival sisters, witchhunts, a nautical love interest. (Close second: The Wolves of Willoughby Chase by Joan Aiken.)

Your top five authors:

May I add a few extra? James Baldwin, Roland Barthes, Anne Carson, Clarice Lispector, Audre Lorde, Grace Paley, W.G. Sebald, Frank Stanford, Joy Williams, Virginia Woolf.

Book you've faked reading:

Finnegans Wake by James Joyce. I wish I had a less predictable answer.

Book you're an evangelist for:

John Keene's Counternarratives: a breath-stoppingly brilliant fiction collection that reimagines and reclaims the suppressed histories of the Americas.

Book you've bought for the cover:

Edward Carey's Observatory Mansions, a glorious novel I may never have come across if its cover (black with chalk-white scratchings) had not been so beguiling.

Book you hid from your parents:

Go Ask Alice by Anonymous. Drugs, sex, drugs, rape, more drugs! I checked this out from my middle-school library multiple times. I thought it was the actual diary of a girl who had died of an overdose, only to learn (much later) that its author was a middle-aged therapist who wrote fake diaries of "troubled teens."

Book that changed your life:

The Spectacle of the Body by Noy Holland. This collection, Holland's first, was like no book I'd read before. Dizzying and dazzling, troublesome, askew. I was lucky enough to study with her at UMass Amherst. Her mentorship, like her fiction itself, has been an enduring gift.

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

I'd love to feel again the shocked delight of stumbling into Halldór Laxness's Independent People, a strange, gorgeous, hilarious epic about Icelandic farmers.

Favorite books in translation:

Visitation by Jenny Erpenbeck, translated by Susan Bernofsky; Inner China by Eva Sjödin, translated by Jennifer Hayashida; Out by Natsuo Kirino, translated by Stephen Snyder; So Long a Letter by Mariama Bâ, translated by Modupé Bodé-Thomas; The Rings of Saturn by W.G. Sebald, translated by Michael Hulse; The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge by Rainer Maria Rilke, translated by Stephen Mitchell; and all of Elena Ferrante's novels, translated by Ann Goldstein.

Favorite line from a book:

"Happiness? I never saw a dumber word..." --from The Hour of the Star by Clarice Lispector.

Jen Wang's graphic novel The Prince and the Dressmaker immerses readers in an aristocratic "Paris, at the dawn of the modern age," full of dazzling high fashion and high-stakes romance.

Frances is employed as a seamstress. She and her coworkers are swamped, busy redesigning and creating new dresses for the prince's ball the next evening. A woman comes in, desperate to buy a dress for her daughter--"She absolutely ruined her gown last night by going riding in the woods!"--and Frances is put on the job. "Would the lady like her dress identical to the old one or completely new?" Frances asks Lady Sophia Rohan, the daughter of the client. "You know what," the annoyed young woman responds, "just make it ghastly. Make me look like the devil's wench."

Frances works all evening, until inspiration strikes. A series of three panels shows Lady Sophia's surprised, excited response to seeing the dress for the first time. A quick cut to the ball, and Lady Sophia struts in, looking not unlike an 18th-century version of Natalie Portman's character in Black Swan, feathers and all. The court is scandalized. But the prince....

Prince Sebastian has a secret. Sixteen and heir to the throne, Sebastian knows he must marry soon and take on the responsibilities of the monarchy. He also knows that "[i]f anybody found out the prince wore dresses, it would ruin the whole family," but he feels the most comfortable, the most himself, when dressed in women's clothing. Prince Sebastian sees Lady Sophia's extraordinary gown and hires Frances to be his secret personal seamstress and designer.

And so, Frances begins covertly designing for Prince Sebastian. The more she works, the more she grows and develops her own style, enthusiastic about this chance and hoping it will lead her to "someday be a great designer." Prince Sebastian, in turn, grows more confident and begins to step out in Frances's gowns under the pseudonym Lady Crystallia. Crystallia becomes a trendsetter with her avant-garde couture, which should mean big things for Frances. But no one can know that Prince Sebastian is Lady Crystallia--Sebastian insists that Frances's connection to him must be kept secret at all costs, including her hoped-for future in high fashion.

Jen Wang's (In Real Life) first solo endeavor for young readers is downright charming, depicting two teens finding themselves and their paths in a patriarchal and heteronormative world. Frances and Prince Sebastian's growing relationship is treated with great care, as are the problems each of them faces. Wang's illustrations are expressive and full of movement, the panels of the novel moving the story swiftly along as the characters break free from their borders and commandeer half and full pages for themselves. The Prince and the Dressmaker is a gentle, sweet-without-the-saccharine graphic novel for middle grade readers that depicts the great happiness and love that can come with self-acceptance. --Siân Gaetano, children's and YA editor, Shelf Awareness

Shelf Talker: A seamstress finds her vision and a young prince gains confidence in himself when the prince hires the seamstress to design his dresses.