"Every store I've visited on book tour has its own unique culture, but at every one I have felt at home. All the booksellers felt like old friends, and all their customers, too. In those stores, readers have waited patiently in line for me to sign their books. They have grasped my hands and told me their own stories of love and loss, their own stories of heart-lifting encounters with nature, believing I would understand. I always do. Whether a bookstore is in Tennessee or Pennsylvania, Georgia or New York, Alabama or Illinois, the people I meet there are family....

"Neighborhood bookshops will always be focused on people, and their true currency will always be human relationships. They can only trust that readers and writers will continue to value and support them, too, no matter what happens in the giant mall across the street."

DIESEL, a bookstore is opening a new location this fall, in Carmel Valley, Calif., in northern San Diego. The roughly 2,200-square-foot store is on track to open November 1 in the Collection, a new retail expansion at the Del Mar Highlands Town Center. 

Since opening their first DIESEL stores in Emeryville and Oakland in northern California in 1989, owners John Evans and Alison Reid have had several stores in the Bay Area and Southern California. At the moment, the only DIESEL location is the Brentwood store in Los Angeles, which just received a new coat of paint in honor of DIESEL's 30th anniversary.

Matt Duquès and Diana Bellonby have purchased Penn Book Center in Philadelphia, Pa., and will keep the nearly 60-year-old store open. 

Earlier this year, the store's previous owners Ashley Montague and Michael Row announced that they could no longer afford to stay in business and would have to close the store at the end of the current academic year. Almost immediately, University of Pennsylvania faculty and students rallied around the bookstore, with English professor Chi-ming Yang launching a campaign to save it.

Following rallies and a petition that garnered more than 5,000 signatures, UPenn, the store's landlord, extended the bookstore's lease through the summer to give Montague and Row more time to figure out ways to keep the store in business.

"We felt terrible about closing," said Michael Row, "and we are so grateful to the many people who organized to save this wonderful institution--to Penn faculty and students, to our customers, to the Penn real estate folks, and especially to Matt and Diana."

Penn Book Center owners Diana Bellonby and Matthew Duques

Duquès and Bellonby, who are both academics and are married, were already in the process of moving to Philadelphia, with the intention of opening a bookstore of their own, when they heard about Penn Book Center's plight, Billy Penn reported.

The new owners signed the lease for the storefront on August 26, and will officially take over on September 1. Over the past few months, Bellonby and Duquès have been talking to local writers, students and university faculty about what they want to see from the bookstore. They have changes in mind, including minor renovations to improve browsing and make the bookstore more of a community space, as well as a name change.

"Matt and Diana are the perfect people to build on the legacy of the Penn Book Center," said Ashley Montague. "As academics, they understand what makes the Penn Book Center unique, but they also have the vision to make it a viable business."

Montague, Row, Duquès and Bellonby will all be on hand on Friday, September 6, for a "meet the new owners" celebration.

Amazon plans to open a 1.3 million-square-foot fulfillment center in West Jordan, Utah. Alicia Boler Davis, Amazon's v-p of global customer fulfillment, said, "Utah has a talented workforce, and we are very excited to grow employment beyond the more than 2,000 associates already serving customers in the state."

Governor Gary R. Herbert commented: "As the 'Crossroads of the West,' Utah is the perfect place for companies in the distribution, fulfillment, and logistics industries to enjoy great success. This is another example of the strength of Utah's economy and the high quality of life we enjoy."

Amazon recently held a grand opening for its first fulfillment center in the state, located in Salt Lake City, which "came after the state agreed to $5.6 million in tax breaks," the Tribune reported, adding that the "even larger" West Jordan facility "was developed under the code name 'Lonestar,' and city officials approved $1.6 million in incentives for it last week."

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Last week, Amazon opened its largest campus building globally in the south Indian city of Hyderabad "as it prepares for a furious expansion and battle with nemesis Walmart Inc. in one of the world's fastest-growing retail markets," Bloomberg reported.

"E-commerce is so small in India relative to the total consumption, less than 3%," said Amit Agarwal, Amazon's country manager for India. "This facility will build services globally."

The new campus is the company's first owned building outside of the U.S., spanning 1.8 million square feet of office space to accommodate 15,000 workers. John Schoettler, v-p of Amazon's global real estate & facilities, noted: "The largest buildings in Seattle house about 5,000 employees."

Yesterday was National Dog Day, and many indie bookstores couldn't resist showcasing canine booksellers on social media, including:

At Ripped Bodice

The Ripped Bodice, Los Angeles, Calif.: "A very happy #NationalDogDay to all the good dogs out there, especially those helping run small businesses you're the true backbone of America."

McIntyre's Books, Pittsboro, N.C.: "We love it when dogs come to visit McIntyre's! This is our friend Dany posing with Harvey the Hare. Dany belongs to our friend Carlie Sorosiak and for #InternationalDogDay Dany has taken over the @walkerbooksus Twitter!"

Scout at Kramerbooks

Kramerbooks & Afterwords Café, Washington, D.C.: " 'Outside of a dog, a book is a man's best friend. Inside of a dog it's too dark to read.' Stop by the bookstore or cafe patio with the pups!"

Avid Bookshop, Athens, Ga.: "On this National Dog Day we'd like to introduce Dolly Parton, operations director Rachel's new pup.... #petsofavid"

Love's Sweet Arrow, Tinley Park, Ill.: "Happy #NationalDogDay to these littles!"

Book + Bottle, St. Petersburg, Fla.: "Happy #nationaldogday from these two cuties!!"

Posman Books at Rockefeller Center, New York City: "The best therapist has fur and four legs! Happy National Dog Day!"

Bonny at Eagle Eye

Eagle Eye Book Shop, Decatur, Ga.: "Bonny says happy National Dog Day!"

Hooray for Books!, Alexandria, Va.: "It's National #Dog Day! Celebrate with 10% off all purchases of $25 or more, plus free treats for all #dogs who visit the #bookstore!"

The Book Loft, Solvang, Calif.: "Maybe instead of taking hundreds of pics of your pup for #nationaldogday you should swing by to grab some of these amazing art supplies we just got in and draw or paint your furry pal."

R.J. Julia Booksellers, Madison, Conn., posted a photo on Facebook yesterday of its front entrance bathed in sunbeams, noting: "The doors are open and books are waiting for you! What did you read over the weekend?"

The Frankfurt Book Fair New York has selected A Man in Love by Martin Walser, translated by David Dollenmayer (Arcade, $25.99, 9781628728736) as its August Book of the Month.

The organization described the book this way: "Johann Wolfgang von Goethe is so famous his servant auctions off snippets of his hair and children and adults recite from his many works by memory. When he was a young poet, his first novel, a story of love and romantic fervor ending in suicide, was an international blockbuster that set off a wave of self-inflicted deaths across Europe. Now seventy-three, sought after and busy with scientific pursuits and responsibilities to the Grand Duke, he has fallen in love with a nineteen-year-old, Ulrike von Levetzov."

Martin Walser was born in 1927 on Lake Constance in Germany, near where he lives now. He is the author of many short stories, plays and novels, all of which are bestsellers in Germany. Walser has won the Georg Büchner Award, the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade and the Nietszche Prize for his life's work.

David Dollenmayer is a translator and former professor of German at the Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Worcester, Mass. He won the 2008 Helen and Kurt Wolff Translator's Prize and the 2010 Translation Prize of the Austrian Cultural Forum in New York.

Effective September 3, Jeff Carroll is joining Macmillan as executive v-p, marketing and consumer strategy. He has more than 15 years of experience in marketing and digital strategy. Most recently, he led marketing efforts at Radio.com in the app and podcasting space. Earlier he was v-p, digital partnerships & strategy, at Viacom and directed integrated marketing and brand campaigns for NBC Sports, Late Night, and News at NBCUniversal.

Pretty Guilty Women by Gina Lamanna (Sourcebooks Landmark).

Tomorrow:
Live with Kelly and Ryan: Ellie Kemper, author of My Squirrel Days: Tales from the Star of Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt and The Office (Scribner, $17, 9781501163357).

The View repeat: Linsey Davis, author of One Big Heart: A Celebration of Being More Alike than Different (Zonderkidz, $17.99, 9780310767855).

Late Show with Stephen Colbert repeat: Ash Carter, author of Inside the Five-Sided Box: Lessons from a Lifetime of Leadership in the Pentagon (Dutton, $30, 9781524743918).

Fox Searchlight Pictures has acquired the North American distribution rights to Armando Iannucci's The Personal History of David Copperfield, "a display of early enthusiasm and faith in the satirist's latest film two weeks before its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival," IndieWire reported. The film, based on the Charles Dickens novel, stars Dev Patel in the titular role.

The cast also includes Hugh Laurie, Peter Capaldi, Paul Whitehouse, Tilda Swinton, Ben Whishaw, Aneurin Barnard, Daisy May Cooper, Morfydd Clark, Benedict Wong, Gwendoline Christie, Anthony Welsh and Rosalind Eleazar. After its TIFF premiere, the film will open the BFI London Film Festival in October. International rights are still up for grabs, with FilmNation handling those sales.

"Armando Iannucci is a wonderfully original filmmaker and expert storyteller; he brings his irreverent and imaginative take to this iconic and beloved story," Fox Searchlight chairmen Nancy Utley and Steve Gilula said in a statement. "As for Dev, he has consistently impressed since his unforgettable breakout roles in Slumdog Millionaire and The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel."

Shortlists have been unveiled for the 2019 Ned Kelly Awards for Crime Fiction, sponsored by the Australian Crime Writers Association and celebrating the "best crime fiction and true crime writing in the country." The winners will be named September 6 during the BAD Sydney Crime Writers Festival. Check out the complete shortlists in three categories here.

Linda Geddes (Bumpology) illuminates the importance of one singular star in our human lives with Chasing the Sun: How the Science of Sunlight Shapes Our Bodies and Minds. The sun is life: allowing photosynthesis, warming the earth, providing solar power--it's no wonder humans have long worshipped it. We have "assimilated starlight into the very fabric of our beings."

People have resorted to the sun for medical purposes since early times, as well, and it is health and wellbeing that concerns Geddes in this lively, enlightening study. Circadian rhythms, her research reveals, are vital to many aspects of human life, governing blood pressure, body temperature, alertness, immune reactions, sleep cycles and quality and much more. "Almost half of our genes are under circadian control, including ones associated with every major illness investigated so far--including cancer, Alzheimer's disease, type 2 diabetes, coronary artery disease, schizophrenia and obesity." Shift work has recently been recognized as a probable carcinogen. In other words, the importance of sunlight to human existence can scarcely be overstated.

For this thoroughly researched investigation, Geddes consults history, international medicine, chronobiologists and NASA. She's learned we get far too much artificial light and too brightly at night, while daytime interior lighting in most homes and offices is not nearly bright enough to simulate the sun's power over our bodies. She also outlines light therapies for mental health issues, as well as for tuberculosis, and the special struggles and successes of populations at high latitudes, like Iceland. She speaks with fascinating people, like the man with non-24-hour sleep-wake disorder and the woman whose grandmother stuck to a strict meal schedule well into her 90s, and she visits the German "Chronocity" of Bad Kissingen, which advertises itself as "a place where internal time is as important as external time, and sleep is sacrosanct."

While helpful to those interested in seasonal affective disorder or jet lag, this journey to the sun and back will certainly expose any reader to new concerns and marvels as well. Chasing the Sun offers many sobering lessons (sunlight and sleep cycles are life-and-death issues) and helpful tips (the utility of melatonin and vitamin D, and the importance of putting down that smartphone at least 30 minutes before bedtime). Geddes's hopes for using what she's learned, however, lean toward technological advances, not a return to older ways. This is also a riveting read, filled with characters, places, anecdotes and histories sure to fascinate. Geddes brings a sense of wonder to her work that is infectious, and makes scientific and medical concepts easy to understand through simple, serviceable prose. Caution: Chasing the Sun may inspire readers to try eating by candlelight and waking with the sun. --Julia Kastner, librarian and blogger at pagesofjulia

Shelf Talker: This broad study of the sun's power over humankind, even in an age of electric lights and bright screens, is both absorbing and potentially life-changing.

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

1. Playing for Keeps by Kendall Ryan
2. Rich Dad, Poor Dad by Robert T. Kiyosaki and Sharon L. Lechter
3. The Day He Came Back by Penelope Ward
4. Starless (The Executioner Knights Book 3) by Kathryn Le Veque
5. Can't Hurt Me by David Goggins
6. Beauty and the Bayou (Boys of the Bayou Book 3) by Erin Nicholas
7. Kostya (Her Russian Protector Book 7) by Roxie Rivera
8. In Dog We Trust by Neil S. Plakcy
9. Broken Knight by L.J. Shen
10. I Hate You by Ilsa Madden-Mills

[Many thanks to IndieReader.com!]