Jacey Stanbro

Jacey Stanbro plans to open Aslan's Square, a bookstore, coffee shop and gift shop, at 224 Second Ave. NE in Dyersville, Iowa. Noting that construction in the building began recently, with a summer opening planned, the Telegraph Herald reported that Stanbro "wanted to open a business that had a community-focused atmosphere in which customers can meet new people. She said the business will have the capacity to seat about 50 at a time."

"This is my first (business) venture," Stanbro said. "It's a dream come true to do it.... We're doing more cozy vibes. It will be a place to go where people can work, but there will also be a kids zone. It'll be more aimed at families.... I wanted people to have a place they can go where they can have their hands on a book and escape reality."

In addition to books of all genres, including a used book section, Aslan's Square will offer coffee, tea and baked goods. Stanbro said she will announce the coffee vendor at a later time, as well as the local baker that will make the treats. 

Aslan's Square will feature events, including painting nights and author readings. She added that she will partner with Fuse, a restaurant and bar in the same building, on wine-and-cheese nights as well: "I'm most excited to mingle with the community and see the growth in Dyersville." 

Cori Smith, the owner of BLK + BRWN in Kansas City, Mo., has launched a crowdfunding campaign to help her recover from a cyber attack that wiped the bookstore's website. The Kansas City Star reported that Smith is asking for $8,000 to help rebuild her website and web platform, invest in cyber security software and recoup lost wages from the website being down. As of this morning the campaign had already raised more than $8,700.

On March 15, Smith's website was hacked and ransomed for bitcoin, which erased all of Smith's information and content. The hacker had access to Smith's business e-mail, bank accounts and credit cards, and kept the bookstore's domain hostage until last week, all while trying to buy other domains.

"I cannot express how frustrated and deeply personally violated I have felt during this ordeal," Smith wrote on the crowdfunding campaign's page. "I sell books and never imagined this being something that would happen to me because of that."

BLK + BRWN debuted as an online bookstore a month before opening as a bricks-and-mortar store on Juneteenth 2021. The website featured an inventory of more than 600 titles and a variety of nonbook products, and served as a hub for a number of community programs.

Smith added that she wasn't sure if this attack was related to an earlier cyber attack during Black History Month, or if it was simply random. "But, I believe that the community we care for and love will not let us fail and BLK + BRWN. will continue to do what we do best--and that's amplify Black and Brown storytelling. We will not be silenced or go away quietly. Our stories matter, and that is what we know!"

CYCO, a Yiddish bookstore and publishing house that has operated in New York City since 1938, has managed to stave off closure thanks to community support and a crowdfunding campaign that raised more than $62,000, Patch.com reported.

CYCO, pronounced "Tsiko" and short for Central Yiddish Cultural Organization, has bounced around New York City since its opening but has resided in Long Island City in Queens since 2010. Last fall, the bookstore's fate became uncertain after the nonprofit Atran Foundation announced that it would cut off its funding for CYCO, and by January CYCO had enough money only to keep it open through March.

Hy Wolfe, CYCO's director for the past 23 years, began searching for new benefactors while Rosza Daniel Lang/Levitsky, a longtime store patron, worked with writer Molly Crabapple to create a crowdfunding campaign. Launched in February, the campaign has so far raised $62,352 from more than 660 donors.

The funds from the campaign will not only cover the cost of rent for the next full year but also allow CYCO to run additional cultural programming like acting workshops, dance classes and printmaking lessons. Going forward, the organization also intends to switch from being volunteer-based to paid.

"We're at a point in time today where Yiddish is on the upswing," Wolfe told Patch. "To fund a book center and not close a book center down is one of the elements of the foundation of a language."

Hazel Broadfoot

Hazel Broadfoot, owner of Village Books in Dulwich, has been named the new president of the Booksellers Association of the U.K. & Ireland, succeeding Andy Rossiter of Rossiter Books, who has stepped down after serving his two-year term. Broadfoot, who has been v-p for the BA since 2020, will be supported in her role by new v-p Debbie James of Kibworth Books. Fleur Sinclair of Sevenoaks Books continues as v-p alongside James. Broadfoot and James took on their new positions effective April 5.

BA managing director Meryl Halls commented, "An experienced bookseller and dedicated advocate for bookshops, we could not have chosen a better candidate to take over from Andy Rossiter, who has tirelessly helped the BA and its members through such a challenging period. We know that Hazel will continue this important work as we all begin to look ahead to a post-pandemic world. We are also very pleased to have Debbie James join us as vice president, working alongside Fleur Sinclair to support Hazel as she begins her term as president and to champion all our members and the wider high street."

Andy Rossiter

Broadfoot commented: "The book industry has emerged from the pandemic in vigorous health, in no small part due to the adroitness, creativity and passion of booksellers in continuing to connect readers with books. Andy Rossiter has done a fantastic job as president, working incredibly hard with the team at the BA to help physical bookshops not only to survive, but to flourish. I am so excited to work with the team at the BA to help this brilliant band of booksellers on the next steps. Priorities will include the expansion of our skills and training resources to foster ever-increasing professionalism, active projects to stimulate broader diversity in our numbers, and continuing to strengthen relationships between booksellers, publishers and writers. (I also have a personal passion to communicate more widely the extraordinary good value for money that physical books represent.) With the number of physical bookshops firmly on the rise, it's a very exciting time to be a bookseller, and I'm thrilled to follow in the footsteps of so many of my personal bookselling heroes."

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During the London Book Fair, Bookshop.org and the Booksellers Association announced the winners of the New Futures program, an initiative to promote the opening of independent bookshops in underrepresented communities across the U.K. New Futures received 32 applications from individuals who identified as Black and other marginalized ethnicities, LGBTQIA+, working class, physically disabled, neurodiverse, sufferers of mental health issues and those with learning disabilities, among others. The New Futures winners are:
 
The Otaku Project--Scott Hulme (Cardiff, Wales): "It's so exciting to be a part of this change for good. The course has made me see how possible my ambition is, as well as the work it's going to take to realise it. It's broken down barriers, given me a huge amount of confidence and knowledge, and I feel I am on my way."
Olive's Book Club--Emily Rose Clifton (Newcastle, Tyne and Wear): "As a New Future winner, I now have a greater set of tools and contacts to enable me to finally create my physical dream bookshop, a community driven, educational and safe space for the North East. I am beyond thrilled."
The PRIM Bookstore--K. Bailey Obazee (Stratford, London): "My vision is to create a space that is more than just a bookstore, it's a haven, a place of learning, networking and coming together. A space where my community feels welcome, all the time! The PRIM Bookstore is for all of us a reminder that we can thrive, we can imagine and have better for ourselves--and now New Futures will be a part of PRIM's origin story!"
In addition, the judges selected as highly commended: Jacaranda Books--Valerie Brandes (Brent, London).

Bookshop.org will provide support through its platform and social channels to help the winners open. Upon opening, they will receive BA memberships and a suite of supported services. 

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The Swedish Children's Book Institute reported that last year, the publication of children's and YA titles in the country increased for the first time in three years. The European & International Booksellers Federation's Newsflash noted that "the number of print titles published in 2021 was 2,204, 167 more than in the previous year. This marks an increase of 8% and a break of a three-year negative trend. According to the publishers, the Covid-19 pandemic likely plays a contributing role in the development."

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EIBF's Newsflash also reported that in an interview with Börsenblatt, psychologist Stephan Grünewald "shared his insights on how the Covid-19 pandemic followed by the Russian military invasion of Ukraine impacted the mental state and the purchasing habits of the public. According to Grünewald, people are experiencing powerlessness and a crisis of meaning, a so-called 'melancovid,' and they are likely to turn to books as a place of refuge, a comforting counterpoint to the harsh reality. However, in order for the book trade to thrive, readers need to once again embrace shopping as a social activity." --Robert Gray

Jack Higgins

British author Henry Patterson, who wrote 85 novels, predominantly thrillers and in the espionage genre under the pseudonym Jack Higgins, died April 9, the Guardian reported. He was 92. Patterson sold more than 250 million copies worldwide and his books were translated into 60 languages.

He was best known for his World War II thriller The Eagle Has Landed, which was published in 1975, sold more than 50 million copies and was adapted into a British film of the same name starring Sir Michael Caine, Donald Sutherland, Jenny Agutter and Robert Duvall.

HarperCollins CEO Charlie Redmayne said: "I've been a fan of Jack Higgins for longer than I can remember. He was a classic thriller writer: instinctive, tough, relentless. The Eagle Has Landed and his other Liam Devlin books, his later Sean Dillon series, and so many others were and remain absolutely unputdownable. Being part of his publishing for even part of his career has been a privilege--his passing marks the end of an era."

Patterson received a £75 (about $98) advance for his first novel, Sad Wind from the Sea, in 1959. Jonathan Lloyd, his literary agent and president of Curtis Brown, said he was at Collins Publishers when it received the manuscript of The Eagle Has Landed, and everyone there knew it would become a classic.

"Forty years later, Curtis Brown became his agent," Lloyd noted, "and it was thrilling to work again with Harry, and I look forward now to working with his wife, Denise, and daughter, Hannah, and the family on preserving and promoting his extraordinary legacy."

The Bookseller reported that from 1959 and 1974 his output was "prodigious," publishing as many as three or four books a year. In the late 1960s, he began publishing under his pen name Jack Higgins, with the first of his many bestsellers, The Savage Day and A Prayer for the Dying, coming out in the early 1970s. Other titles include Comes the Dark Stranger, Hell Is Too Crowded and To Catch a King. Patterson's final book, The Midnight Bell, was published in 2017. 

Alida Miranda-Wolff (r.), CEO of Ethos and author of Cultures of Belonging: Building Inclusive Organizations that Last (HarperCollins Leadership), celebrated the launch of her book at the Poetry Foundation in Chicago with a reading and an interview with Michelle T. Boone, president of the Poetry Foundation. Books were sold by 51st Ward Books.

"Maria and Vincent's love story began with a shared obsession with The Lord of the Rings and started a new chapter this week in the Rare Book Room," Powell's Books, Portland, Ore., posted on Instagram. " 'We came into Powell's on a rainy Monday morning... knowing that books and their stories have made and continue to make a mark on who we are as people' said Maria. 'As we stood there, surrounded by antique tomes, reading our vows that were littered with lines from the LOTR movies, we were overwhelmed with just how right it felt, how lucky we were. We even grabbed a fellow Powell's browser to be our second witness! Thank you for sharing your space and for giving us a once-in-a-lifetime memory that will forever be cherished.' Congratulations on your marriage! We are honored to be part of your story. Elen síla lúmenn' omentielvo."

At Sourcebooks:

Cristina Arreola has been promoted to senior marketing manager.

Allison Lewis has been promoted to assistant digital marketing manager.

Morgan Vogt has been promoted to assistant digital marketing manager.

Amy Jackson has been promoted to senior marketing associate.

Kelsey Kulp has been promoted to assistant digital marketing coordinator.

Alex Derdall has been promoted to digital marketing specialist.

Tracing Time: Seasons of Rock Art on the Colorado Plateau by Craig Childs (Torrey House Press).

Today:
Fresh Air: David McSwane, author of Pandemic, Inc.: Chasing the Capitalists and Thieves Who Got Rich While We Got Sick (Atria/One Signal, $28, 9781982177744).

NPR's Here & Now: Julian E. Zelizer, editor of The Presidency of Donald J. Trump: A First Historical Assessment (Princeton University Press, $27.95, 9780691228945).

Tomorrow:
CBS Mornings: Alice Walker, author of Gathering Blossoms Under Fire: The Journals of Alice Walker, 1965-2000 (Simon & Schuster, $32.50, 9781476773155).

Also on CBS Mornings: Scott Kelly, author of Ready for Launch: An Astronaut's Lessons for Success on Earth (Crown Books for Young Readers, $17.99, 9781524764326)

Ellen: Tiffany Haddish, co-author of Layla, the Last Black Unicorn (HarperCollins, $18.99, 9780063113879).

The View: Julia Haart, author of Brazen: My Unorthodox Journey from Long Sleeves to Lingerie (Crown, $28.99, 9780593239162).

The animated film Nimona, "scrapped following the shutdown of Blue Sky Studios amid Disney's acquisition of Fox, has landed at Netflix," Deadline reported, adding that Chloë Grace Moretz (Mother/Android), Riz Ahmed (Sound of Metal) and Eugene Lee Yang (Spring Bloom) are set to star. 

The adaptation of ND Stevenson's graphic novel, now being directed by Nick Bruno and Troy Quane (Spies in Disguise), will debut on the streamer in 2023. Netflix partnered with Annapurna Pictures on Nimona when production began early last year. Roy Lee, Karen Ryan and Julie Zackary are producing, with Robert L. Baird, Megan Ellison and Andrew Millstein exec producing, and DNEG handling animation.

Celebrating the project's revival, Stevenson tweeted: "Nimona's always been a spunky little story that just wouldn't stop. She's a fighter... but she's also got some really awesome people fighting for her. I am excited out of my mind to announce that THE NIMONA MOVIE IS ALIVE... coming at you in 2023 from Annapurna and Netflix."

The shortlist has been chosen for the 2022 Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction. The winner of the £25,000 (about $32,515) prize will be announced on June 17 during the Borders Book Festival. The shortlist:

Rose Nicolson by Andrew Greig
News of the Dead by James Robertson
Fortune by Amanda Smyth
The Magician by Colm Tóibín

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A longlist has been released for the £10,000 (about $13,070) Royal Society of Literature Ondaatje Prize, which is awarded annually to "an outstanding work of fiction, nonfiction or poetry that best evokes the spirit of a place." The shortlist will be announced April 20 and a winner named May 4. Check out the complete RSL Ondaatje Prize longlist here. 

An idyllic, beautifully designed and decorated lakeside house is the backdrop for The Honeymoon Cottage by Lori Foster. This heartening family saga is woven with bonds of filial loyalty, unexpected friendships and burgeoning romance.

Yardley Belanger, 31, has always called Cemetery, Ind. (population 827), home. She never knew her father; she's always lived with her aunt and her mother--who bitterly reminds Yardley, every chance she gets, that she was the result of an unplanned pregnancy.

Yardley has never had a lasting romantic relationship. Resigned to remaining single, she's become a workaholic who gives her all in serving as a wedding planner--joyfully intent on meeting every whim, wish and pleasure for couples planning their big day that is often capped by spending their honeymoon at a quaint lakeside cottage in town. In the recesses of Yardley's heart, she secretly hopes one day to have her own wedding in town, and that she and her true love will occupy the honeymoon cottage she proudly designed and decorated herself.

Travis Long, a 35-year-old carpenter, has also faced challenges in life. When he was only 20, his parents were killed in a car crash, and he assumed responsibility for his then five-year-old sister, Sheena. Ever since, he's been devoted to Sheena's upbringing, care and ensuring her well-being. With Sheena now 20 years old herself and marriage on the horizon, her big brother is intent on giving Sheena the wedding day of her dreams. When Travis solicits Yardley's services for Sheena's big day, he and Yardley are instantly attracted to each other. Can these two wounded souls build a happy ending of their own--deferring their relationship until after the wedding?

As the couple's feelings escalate, Yardley faces down her domineering, ungrateful and judgmental mother and aunt; meddling townsfolk intent on updating Cemetery (named for a local family whose last surviving relative is rigidly intent on preserving the roots of the town); a wisecracking, tell-it-like-it-is best friend and new mother who is facing marital woes; and a stray dog that wins hearts.

Foster (The Somerset Girls; The Summer of No Attachments) has crafted a warm, leisurely plotted small-town saga centered on healing relationships. The Honeymoon Cottage is a top-notch addition to Foster's prolific body of work--another ideal escape for romance readers seeking the comfort of a hopeful, life-affirming love story. --Kathleen Gerard, blogger at Reading Between the Lines

Shelf Talker: In this hopeful, heartening romance, a lakeside cottage in a small town revives the lives of two lost souls deserving of a happy ending.

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

1. Flame and Fortune (Miss Fortune Mysteries Book 22) by Jana DeLeon
2. Searching for Lilly by Susan Stoker
3. The Siege: Book Two by Kris Michaels
4. Rich Dad, Poor Dad by Robert T. Kiyosaki with Sharon L. Lechter
5. Dangerous Games by Riley Edwards
6. Last Resort by K. Bromberg
7. Alpha's Fire by Renee Rose and Lee Savino
8. Alpha's Moon by Renee Rose and Lee Savino
9. In Defence of Wealth by Derek Bullen
10. Million Dollar Identity by Various

[Many thanks to IndieReader.com!]