In the seventh month of data reflecting public health measures taken to fight the Covid-19 pandemic, including the closure of many bookstores for a time and limited access since then, in September sales at bookstores dropped 27.7%, to $609 million, compared to September 2019, according to preliminary Census Bureau estimates.

April and May had the largest drops in sales this year, down 65.3% and 59.9%, respectively, reflecting the first wave of the pandemic. Since then, bookstore sales have been down in a range between 24.7% and 35.4%. During the first nine months of the year, bookstore sales fell 30.1%, to $4.5 billion.

Total retail sales in September rose 7.6%, to $546.7 billion. During the first nine months of the year, total retail sales fell 0.7%, to $4.5 trillion.

Note: under Census Bureau definitions, the bookstore category consists of "establishments primarily engaged in retailing new books." The Bureau also added this unusual caution: "Due to recent events surrounding COVID-19, many businesses are operating on a limited capacity or have ceased operations completely. The Census Bureau has monitored response and data quality and determined estimates in this release meet publication standards."

"RoPoBoCo holiday pop-up almost ready. Come visit us for the next six weeks at Newport on the Levee," Roebling Point Books & Coffee, Covington, Ky., posted on Facebook last Friday, in anticipation of Saturday's opening of its holiday season pop-up.

Roebling Point Books is one of several retailers participating in Newport on the Levee's Exchange Market, the River City News reported, adding that the market "will play host to a variety of live music and festive experiences that complement the seasonal events happening throughout the Levee, such as cookie decorating workshops, holiday-themed fitness classes, Santa experiences and more."

The Exchange Market described Roebling Point Books as "a community-minded, cozy book shop known for celebrating local vibes and the positive impact a good book can have on one's soul and culture. Guests are invited to discover Roebling's carefully considered selection of books, which are perfect gifts and stocking stuffers for family and friends."

Regan (Noppenberger) Thomas of North American Properties, which owns the Levee, called the market "a lively, one-stop-shop for the community to experience the best collection of local products--all while immersed in a vibrant holiday setting. As we look to fill the final few spots, we're confident the market's eclectic mix of vendors will come together to introduce a new retail experience for the community during the most magical time of the year."

In Maryville, Tenn., Southland Books & Cafe has resumed normal operations, reported owner Lisa Misosky--but normal "for the age of Covid." All of the store's staff members are back, save one, and masks are required for staff and all patrons, unless they are seated at a table in the cafe. Southland Books combines a predominantly used bookstore with a cafe and bar/event space, along with another portion of the building called The Dungeon, which is the "video game, movie and horror arm of the business."

While the cafe has reopened with reduced seating, bar seating is closed and the bar itself has scaled back hours. The cafe has emphasized take-out over dining-in, and they've created Family Dinner nights for pick-up. Four days each week the restaurant creates a different family meal, which customers can pick up between 4 p.m. and 6 p.m. as long as they place their orders by 2:30 that afternoon.

During the pandemic, Misosky and her team essentially created their own farmer's market. When the pandemic began, people in the area couldn't get bread, so Southland started a drive-thru market three mornings a week during the initial shutdown, where they sold their own bread, chicken salad, pimento cheese and more. This market allowed the store to pay its mortgage and literally kept the store's lights on, Misosky said. Eventually she invited some friends to join the market, and it took off.

In July, after partnering with the local library and the Friends of the Library association (of which Misosky is the vice-president), the market moved to the library lawn, where it became a community market. Covid safety measures are in place and 5% of the proceeds go to the Friends of the Library. The market will continue as long as the community continues to support it, and Misosky said they've raised more than $2,000 for the Friends of the Library since July.

With all of these new initiatives, Misosky added, Southland's sales are "not that far off from last year." The Family Dinners and community markets have been huge, and the store is doing "loads" of special-order book sales. On the subject of holiday buying, Misosky said she's been stocking up on plenty of non-book items like puzzles, tarot cards and anything related to Frank Herbert.

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In Rockford, Mich., Epilogue Books has resumed normal operations, though owners Valerie and Patrick Burkholder have modified store hours and put a number of safety protocols in place. Masks are required and hand sanitizer is available, and the Epilogue Books team cleans countertops and other high-touch areas frequently. Very few customers have refused to comply with wearing masks, although sometimes staff members do have to remind people to wear them correctly.

Over the past four months the store has actually seen a significant increase in sales. There have been many first-time customers, Valerie Burkholder reported, and in general "people really seem to be focused on buying local and supporting small businesses." The community appears to have gotten the message that shopping local now is more important than ever if they want main street to survive. It's also helped Burkholder and her team recognize how important the store has become to the community in only two and a half years of being there.

Store dog Tommy is ready for the holidays.

The store was able to launch a Bookshop.org page shortly after shutdowns began, and online sales were crucial for the six weeks during which the store was closed to the public. Bookshop sales have continued, she added, even after the physical store reopened for browsing. During the shutdown, Epilogue also began trying out "book talk sessions" on Facebook Live. Those were well attended and the store will continue to do them, as they were well-received and fun for staff and customers. The store's two monthly book clubs are held on Zoom now, and Burkholder and her team have found success on that platform. While total attendance has dropped a little bit, she noted, new participants have been able to join in easily.

For the holidays, Epilogue Books did not buy large amounts. Burkholder noted that for sidelines like puzzles and candles, which have sold well consistently, they've been ordering direct from the vendors. For books, they've been focusing on what they can source from Ingram. Burkholder explained that they had planned to do more direct orders with publishers this year, but with Covid cases rising in Michigan and the potential for another shutdown looming, they "didn't want to overbuy." --Alex Mutter

River Oaks Bookstore, Houston, Tex., will close at the end of December after 47 years in business. Jeanne Jard, who was one of the original founders in 1974, still helps out at the bookshop, but had passed on daily operations to her son Michael Jones and his wife, Josie. The Chronicle reported that when novel coronavirus hit this year, the bookshop "started delivering books and doing curbside pickup to protect its older clientele, among the highest risk for Covid-19. The owners knew the shop's days were numbered, but the pandemic has forced its final chapter."

In a Facebook post Saturday, events coordinator Whitney Andrews Corson explained what the institution has meant to her: "For the last seven years, I have been beyond lucky to be an employee of River Oaks Bookstore. More than just a job, the Bookstore--and helping to run it--became not only a passion and a calling, but a family and a second home to me as well. The pride and joy I feel for the work I do, for this place and these people, is immense....

"What I really want to say, is this: I am grateful. So. Very. Grateful.... I am grateful for the chance to work for people like Michael and Josie and Jeanne. For all that they have taught me about books and people: about running a small business and the importance of community. I am grateful for the trust they have had in me; for the chances they have allowed me to take. For letting my family become a part of theirs. I am grateful for the wonderful people I get to work with every day, they have become so much more than coworkers. I am grateful for all the customers, readers, authors, and members of this community that have also welcomed me into their lives and onto their bookshelves. I have not taken their trust, kindness, and friendship lightly.

"To all of these people--a bookstore is only as good as the people that love it. All of you have loved us so very well. This Bookstore is not just an 'indie bookstore,' not just a small business. It is both of these things, of course, but more, too. It is a part of this community. It will remain forever a part of the history of this city."

The Booksellers Association Conference and Gardners Trade Show has been rescheduled again and will take place September 12-13, 2021, at Jurys Inn Hotel and Conference Centre, Hinckley Island, the Bookseller reported. Because of the Covid-19 pandemic, this year's conference had previously been shifted from September to November, and then postponed again to next spring, but following discussions both internally and with members, the BA opted for next fall.

"We are delighted to announce the dates for next year's BA Conference," said BA managing director Meryl Halls. "It has been a difficult year for booksellers, who have had to adapt to changing circumstances and restrictions, and we look forward to coming together with our members at the conference next September to celebrate their incredible hard work, creativity and perseverance."

Nigel Wyman, sales and marketing director at Gardners, added: "We have very much missed being able to gather with our bookseller friends this year, so next year will be all the more special and a true celebration of resilience. We will be working towards a packed show, with more publishers than ever before!"

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Taiwanese bookstore chain Eslite will open its first outlet in Southeast Asia, in Malaysia's capital, Kuala Lumpur, in 2022. The 6,600-square-meter (about 71,000 square foot) store will be located at the Starhill luxury gallery, developed by the YTL Corporation. For its latest project, Eslite "emphasized the close cultural links between Malaysia and Taiwan.... The fact that Malaysia is one of the five top export destinations for Taiwanese books also played a part in Eslite's decision to pick the country for the start of its Southeast Asian expansion plans," Taiwan News reported.

In a virtual ceremony this week, Joseph Yeoh, YTL land & development v-p, and Eslite Group chairperson Mercy Wu signed a tenancy agreement for the partnership, which will see the opening of the store that will take up the entire Level 1 of the Starhill, Malaysia Tatler noted.

Wu, daughter of Eslite Group founder the late Robert C.Y. Wu, commented: "We are excited about embarking on this journey in Kuala Lumpur, as Malaysians have been Taiwan's top tourist segment from Southeast Asia for 10 consecutive years and are strong supporters of our stores in Taiwan. My father once said, 'Eslite's ultimate concern is people, and the most beautiful scenery of a city is its people.' Together with the people of Malaysia, we'll create new possibilities. We hope that with longterm careful planning and development, this new store will become a beacon for cultural exchange in Southeast Asia."

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Scotland's First Minister Nicola Sturgeon announced that 11 areas in the country are being moved to tier four restrictions due to increases in Covid-19 infection rates, meaning all non-essential shops have to close, effective November 20 and lasting until December 11, the Bookseller reported.

Far from the Madding Crowd

Sally Pattle, manager of Far from the Madding Crowd bookshop in Linlithgow, West Lothian, one of the affected regions, said, "Of course, there is scant information for businesses as is par for the course, so we're trying to forge ahead with plans for click and collect and constantly changing window displays, plus a marketing campaign to let people know we're not closed, we are here for everything bar browsing.... Hopefully we'll make it through this year, but as I have no idea when tier four restrictions will be lifted, I honestly don't know. At another time, I'd like to ask why the Scottish government thinks it's appropriate to make these pronouncements with no prior consultation with business organizations, or the courtesy of letting us know what's going on." --Robert Gray

William B. Eerdmans Jr.

William B. Eerdmans Jr., who led the Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company for more than 50 years, died last Friday at the age of 97.

When he was 13, Eerdmans began working at the company, which his father founded in 1911. In 1963, he succeeded his father as president and led the company for decades. During that time, the company broadened its list beyond scholarly titles, publishing books on race, gender and social issues, as well as titles on ecumenical and interfaith dialogue.

"Not for Bill the idea that publishing should cater to the latest trends. The point was to lead, not follow. Bill's command of his field was impressive and his singular publishing achievements were many and great," said Jon Pott, the company's editor-in-chief. "But it was Bill the deeply committed but high-spirited publishing personality who somehow counted for most, in the books and authors he directly pursued and in the heady oxygen he provided for the rest of us. He knew his work, but he also thoroughly relished it, from restaurant idea to finished book, from dizzying first authorial encounter to plunk of the final product on his overburdened desk."

In 2014, Eerdman's wife, Anita Eerdman, took over as president and publisher of the company. She said: "Bill loved joking around, and sometimes you could almost see the wheels turning in his head as he tried to come up with the perfect clever phase for the moment. Yet he also took his work very seriously. Until the last few years, most evenings would find him with an Eerdmans book or a potential Eerdmans book in his lap, even on vacations! He was responsible for some very important books and series that we published over the years, and our longtime interest in religious perspectives on important political and cultural issues grew out of his own personal concern about those issues.”

"Thanks, Obama. (And Sean the Mailman)," Literati Bookstore, Ann Arbor, Mich., posted on Facebook yesterday to celebrate the release of Barack Obama's highly anticipated A Promised Land.

Green Apple Books, San Francisco, Calif., has introduced a new spin on signature bookshop swag, tweeting yesterday:

"So @strandbookstore has its tote bags.
@Powells has its own scent.
@ThirdPlaceBooks has its baseball caps.
Now it's Green Apple's turn...."

(Spoiler: it's a swim cap.)

British graphic novel publisher SelfMadeHero has launched #DrawYourBookshop, a social media campaign described as "a call-out for all artists to support our bookshops during lockdown with a quick sketch, drawing, or masterpiece of their local favorite store. With theatres dark, concert venues closed, cinemas silenced, and galleries shut during lockdown, it is time to re-brand our bookshops as an essential service, and recognize the existential crisis they are facing. Now more than ever before, in the delayed run-up to Christmas, bookshops need to be seen and celebrated on social media, through all possible means--and the most possible means is through the unique combination of word, image, and print that is comics art.

"At the same time, #DrawYourBookshop also gives the chance for artists to make their work known to the people who might one day publish it, for a reader who doesn’t yet know they love it, and who will one day find it in one of the bookshops we must now do everything we can to save. So if you’re a first-time doodler-cartoonist or a dedicated artist--whether it’s a quaint second-hand bookshop or part of a coffee-fragrant chain you want to celebrate--Draw Your Bookshop--and help save the greatest ever human invention: The Book!"

Diamond Comic Distributors will exclusively distribute Mad Cave Studios to comic book specialty markets worldwide, and Diamond Book Distributors will exclusively distribute Mad Cave Studios's new releases to the North American book market.

Founded by Mark London in 2014, Mad Cave Studios, Miami, Fla., is a comic book and graphic novel publisher "driven by madness and committed to providing quality entertainment with a fresh take in an array of genres," it said, and "supports the underrepresented and writing stories that resonate with unapologetically authentic audiences." Titles range from horror and fantasy to sci-fi and adventure.

"Mad Cave is truly excited to be partnering up with Diamond Books in an effort to establish ourselves in the book market and continue expanding in the direct market," Mad Cave Studios publisher Chris Fernandez said.

Mad Cave Studios CEO & CCO Mark London added: "Our true goal here is to offer graphic novels and comics that thrill and excite; for the youth that thinks differently today. We are publishing for those not afraid to be independent, who find freedom in the unexpected, and who will always fight to be the true versions of themselves."

Minus One by Doris Iarovici (University of Wisconsin Press).

Tomorrow:
Today Show: Ta-Nehisi Coates, author of The Water Dancer: A Novel (One World, $18, 9780399590610).

Drew Barrymore Show: David Sedaris, author of The Best of Me (Little, Brown, $30, 9780316628242).

Watch What Happens Live: Michael J. Fox, author of No Time Like the Future: An Optimist Considers Mortality (Flatiron, $27.99, 9781250265616).

Starz has optioned the rights to Alison Weir's 1999 biography Eleanor of Aquitaine: A Life and 2010 novel Captive Queen for a drama from writer Susie Conklin (A Discovery of Witches, Cranford) and Playground Entertainment, Deadline reported. The project will be the first in a series inspired by "extraordinary women of history." Conklin will adapt and serve as an executive producer, alongside Scott Huff and David Stern for Playground Entertainment.

"This slate of series will focus on lesser known but undeniably exceptional female historical figures while continuing the exploration of fierce characters in history," said Christina Davis, president of programming for Starz. "Alison Weir's novels are the perfect jumping off point for this collection of series from Playground, who are known for their sophisticated storytelling."

Conklin added: "I'm thrilled at the opportunity to bring Eleanor's story to life--the drama and adventures she experienced are truly epic. I'm also captivated at how a woman who lived over 800 years ago can be so strikingly modern. She's determined to live her life on her own terms, and the way she goes about that are extraordinary."

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Koh-i-Noor: The History of the World's Most Infamous Diamond by William Dalrymple and Anita Anand has been optioned for a TV drama series adaptation by 185 Carat Films, Deadline reported.

Producers Koel Purie Rinchet, Raquel Carreras and Kamayani Punia, who are currently interviewing potential show-runners and writers, said: "This famous and cursed diamond wreaked untold devastation as it was viciously ripped from one royal hand to another," the producers said. "It has ended up in its final home, the Tower of London, after being gruesomely wrested from the hands of its last owner, a nine-year-old Maharaja. The international TV and Web space has never witnessed a historical story of this magnitude, where bloodshed, love, sex, intrigue, beauty and cruelty all come together to create a layered narrative. This story, rooted in South Asia and traversing countries like Afghanistan and Iran, has a unique international appeal. It is a timely story of greed, power and appropriation regardless of cost."

The American Library Association revealed the shortlist for the Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence in Fiction and Nonfiction. The two medal winners, who each receive $5,000, will be named February 4 and honored along with the other finalists at the Reference and User Services Association's Book and Media Awards event, which will take place online. This year's shortlisted titles are:

Fiction
A Burning by Megha Majumdar (Knopf)
Deacon King Kong by James McBride (Riverhead)
Homeland Elegies by Ayad Akhtar (Little, Brown)

Nonfiction
Fathoms: The World in the Whale by Rebecca Giggs (S&S)
Just Us: An American Conversation by Claudia Rankine (Graywolf Press)
Memorial Drive: A Daughter's Memoir by Natasha Trethewey (Ecco)

Kara Lee Corthron is the author of The Truth of Right Now, winner of the Parents' Choice Gold Award. Her plays, including What Are You Worth?, Welcome to Fear City, AliceGraceAnon and Holly Down in Heaven, have been performed across the U.S., and she's a multiyear MacDowell Fellow and a resident playwright at New Dramatists. She also writes for the TV drama-thrillers You, The Flight Attendant and M. Night Shyamalan's Servant. Her sophomore YA novel, Daughters of Jubilation (Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers), is available now.

On your nightstand:

Clap When You Land by Elizabeth Acevedo and so far it's beautiful and haunting.

Favorite book when you were a child:

Are You There, God? It's Me, Margaret by Judy Blume. The first time I read it, I was way too young to fully understand what was going on, but it was the first book that I didn't want to put down and didn't want to finish. I desperately wanted to be a member of the Pre-Teen Sensations.

Your top five authors:

Narrowing the list down to five is not easy, but I'll go with James Baldwin, Octavia Butler, Shirley Jackson, Katherine Mansfield and Toni Morrison and I'll try not to feel guilty later about all the authors that didn't make the cut.

Book you've faked reading:

Anything by Jane Austen. Whenever her books come up in conversation, I nod thoughtfully and try to remember details from movie adaptations in case I feel the need to contribute.

Book you're an evangelist for:

I've gone through phases when I became obsessed with one book or another, but the book that I've consistently recommended and gifted for years is Shirley Jackson's We Have Always Lived in the Castle. It's horror, it's drama, it's sisterhood, it's twisted girl power... this book is all good things.

Book you've bought for the cover:

Stitches by David Small, because it scared the hell outta me.

Book you hid from your parents:

Wifey, my second Judy Blume mention. I didn't exactly hide it, but I certainly didn't read it out in the open.

Book that changed your life:

The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner. Before reading this book, I didn't realize just how deep into a character's psyche an author could go and that was a revelation for me. And it put a controversial idea into my head that has remained there: when it comes to human behavior, sometimes mystery is more satisfying than clarity.

Favorite line from a book:

"I have often thought that with any luck at all I could have been born a werewolf, because the two middle fingers on both my hands are the same length, but I have had to be content with what I had." --from We Have Always Lived in the Castle.

There's also this wonderful line from The Talented Mr. Ripley about how happy Marge gets when it's time to eat that made me laugh out loud when I read it (because I know that feeling), but I couldn't find the exact quote.

Five books you'll never part with:

Are You There, God? It's Me, Margaret. I've had the same copy for about 30 years! The pages are brown and they used to be eggshell! It comes with me wherever I go.

We Have Always Lived in the Castle (based on the above, this is probably obvious).

The Sound and the Fury, because I return to it often.

Kindred by Octavia Butler. She's a never-ending source of inspiration.

No Name in the Street by James Baldwin. Baldwin is one of the few truth-tellers of the 20th century and this particular book belongs on every progressive thinker's bookshelf.

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

I really wish I could read Morrison's masterpiece Beloved for the first time with my current brain as opposed to my 19-year-old brain.

Book I wish I could have read when I was 15:

The Sun Is Also a Star by Nicola Yoon, because sometimes it is totally cool to swoon.

Sixteen of today's most skilled Indigenous children's authors join forces in this anthology of richly varied, loosely interconnected stories all centered on an intertribal powwow "where our hearts beat as one/ to the thump of the drum."

From as far away as La Conner, Wash., and Durant, Okla., kids make the trip to Ann Arbor, Mich., for the Dance for Mother Earth Powwow. They are Cree and Choctaw, Ojibwe and Navajo, Coast Salish and Cherokee. They come with parents, stepparents, foster parents, grandparents, uncles, even a bus filled with Elders. Most of them will dance at the powwow, some building on years of practice, some stepping onto the floor for the first time. Despite their disparate backgrounds, each of them finds meaning and belonging as the powwow inspires deep thought about family and culture. In "Senecavajo: Alan's Story" by Brian Young, Alan gets a push from an unlikely helper as he struggles to tell his Navajo mother that he wants to enroll as Seneca, like his father. In the follow-up "Squash Blossom Bracelet: Kevin's Story," also by Young, Alan is portrayed as an unlikely ally for the protagonist, who must tell his mother that he accidentally sold a bracelet from her booth for far less than its value. Christine Day shows the unbreakable bond and constructive honesty between sisters in "What We Know About Glaciers." Taking a slightly different tack, Rebecca Roanhorse's "Rez Dog Rules" follows Ozzie, a stray reservation dog, as he hitches a ride to the powwow to help an elderly woman's grandson earn the money she needs to repair and stay in her home.

The stories' broad assortment of family makeups, backgrounds and conflicts underscores the diversity of the Indigenous experience, proving the assertion "I don't think there's one way to be Native" in Dawn Quigley's "Joey Reads the Sky." Even so, overarching themes emerge around the importance of family, the solace of tradition and community, and growing personally through supporting others. Characters slip in and out of each other's eyesight across stories, giving the overall work a graceful feeling of connection. Backmatter includes a glossary of terms from First Nations languages used by the authors. Bookended by two poems--the gorgeous "What Is a Powwow?" by Kim Rogers and Carole Lindstrom's moving, transcendent "Circles"--this uplifting assembly affirms the vitality of Indigenous life today and offers accessible situations and characters to all young readers. --Jaclyn Fulwood, youth services manager at Main Branch, Dayton Metro Library

Shelf Talker: Sixteen outstanding Indigenous authors, including Joseph Bruchac, Rebecca Roanhorse and Traci Sorell, imagine the lives of Indigenous kids attending an intertribal powwow in this contemporary anthology.