Pecantown Books & Brews, a general-interest bookstore with a full-service cafe and bar, opened last Friday in downtown Seguin, Tex., in a historic arts-and-crafts bungalow dating back to the 1940s. 

Store owner Tess Coody-Anders and her husband, Keith Anders, carry new titles for all ages, with books in Spanish and English and a particular focus on Texana local and regional history. The shop has a "really beautiful" room devoted to young reader titles, from picture books through YA, and for adult books, there is a strong emphasis on literary fiction, especially work from lesser-known or debut authors.

"We felt like our baseline for the community was to be a general-interest bookstore," Coody-Anders said, noting that eventually the store will add a "carefully curated" used section. "We're really trying to uncover and promote less-expected titles."

Coody-Anders has made an effort to source as many nonbook items from local makers as possible. There are literary-themed candles hand-poured by a local artisan, T-shirts with designs by local artists, houseplants and planters from a local nursery, and upcycled housewares made locally out of Topo Chico mineral water bottles.

That commitment to sourcing locally extends to Pecantown's cafe and bar. Coody-Anders has a farm-to-table approach to the food, with red wines, white wines, roses and sparkling wines from Texas wineries and local craft beers on tap. The cafe's food menu includes panini, salads and charcuterie boards.

"We heard from the community that they wanted more diversity in dining options," Coody-Anders recalled. There has been a "resurgence" of breweries and wineries in the area, and she and her husband felt that "combining the small wine bar with more artisan food and craft beer with books was a way to promote all of those elements."

Coody-Anders started a book club well before the store's official opening, which met at various places around town. The store's first official event was hosting the book club in-store. Upcoming are Pride events run in conjunction with a local college and events tied to the town's large 4th of July parade.

Prior to opening Pecantown Books & Brew, Coody-Anders had no experience in bookselling. While she has been an "avid collector and reader of books" for a long time, she was most recently the v-p of strategy for a small liberal arts college and before that worked in the healthcare industry. Owning a bookstore had "always been on the list," with Coody-Anders and her husband vaguely expecting to do it "one day."

The Covid-19 pandemic, she explained, afforded them the opportunity to reflect more about "what our priorities are." They wanted to do something that would help "enhance the quality of life" for their community, with Coody-Anders likening the idea to  "sweeping our own front porch." They decided there was "no time like the present."

They kept an eye out for retail spaces in downtown Seguin, expecting that they would eventually choose one of a few "more traditional retail spaces" that they anticipated becoming available. Then, in October 2021, a home in Seguin's historic district became available; it included a yard and parking in front and would give Coody-Anders and her husband the opportunity to expand their plans for the store.

Renovations were extensive, including foundational, structural and aesthetic work. The 1,500-square-foot interior, Coody-Anders said, was all but stripped down. She noted that before the store officially opened, some people said the town couldn't support a bookstore and told them they needed to open in a neighboring community instead.

However, she and her husband did their research and "felt the community could and would support us," and so far that's held true. Since opening on June 4, the store's book sales have overperformed their projections, and there has been an "outpouring of support." YA books and children's titles have sold well and, for adults, social sciences and horror have flown off the shelf. Coody-Anders remarked, laughing: "That probably speaks volumes about where we are right now as a society."

She added that she was extremely appreciative of the advice and support she received from other independent booksellers. "I've found the community of booksellers to be one of the most generous and supportive communities I've ever experienced in my professional career." Coming from the worlds of higher education and healthcare, she'd thought she'd worked in cooperative communities, but "booksellers are a breed apart." --Alex Mutter

Tom and Marcia Vanderford, owners and founders of Vanderford's Books & Office Products in Sandpoint, Idaho, have decided to retire and are putting the 45-year-old store up for sale. 

The store, established in 1978, is a general-interest bookstore with a particular emphasis on children's books, regional titles and maps of the Idaho Panhandle. Vanderford's also carries a full line of office products with delivery service, and there are also nonbook offerings such as art supplies, greeting cards, journals, toys, games and jigsaw puzzles.

The Vanderfords noted that Sandpoint has seen "unprecedented growth" in recent years after being "discovered again" due to its beauty and recreational opportunities. There is a vibrant arts scene in town that is "attracting much new talent" to the region.

"We feel that independent bookstores are essential to the health of any community," the owners wrote. "Books are the gateway to understanding, through both fiction and nonfiction--fostering consideration of other points of view and ways of being. A place where all are welcome.

"This is a perfect opportunity for someone looking for a life that involves books, business and being an integral part of a growing community. We look forward to meeting with people who are seriously interested in carrying on this tradition for the future of this wonderful town."

Interested parties should contact the owners via e-mail at tvanford@aol.com.

At Indigo Books & Music, revenue in the fourth quarter ended April 2 rose 10.9%, to C$220.7 million (about US$174.1 million) and the net loss dropped by nearly half, to C$23.4 million (US$18.5 million).

In the fiscal year ended April 2, Indigo's revenues rose 17.4%, to C$1.06 billion (US$836 million), and net earnings were C$3.3 million (US$2.6 million), compared to a net loss of $C57.9 million (US$45.7 million) in the previous fiscal year ended April 3, 2021.

Concerning the fourth quarter, Indigo said sales were the highest ever for the period in Indigo's history, largely because of "strong omnichannel sales." In addition, "improved pricing strategies strengthened merchandise margins despite inflationary and fuel cost pressures experienced in the period."

For the fiscal year, Indigo noted that sales and earnings were better than the three previous years' results and were achieved "amidst challenging operational and market conditions that included rolling store closures in the company's first quarter and the re-emergence of severe pandemic conditions from the Omicron wave during its seasonally important third quarter."

As with sales in the fourth quarter, sales for the full year were attributable in large part to "the success of Indigo's omnichannel business, with the first good push of recovery delivered by the company's retail channel and an ecommerce business that nearly doubled since the onset of the pandemic.... Demonstrating evolving omnichannel behaviours, Indigo's digital platforms are also increasingly where customers begin product discovery, bolstering in-store conversion."

Online sales in the fiscal year dropped 13.1%, to C$321.7 million (US$253.8 million) as in-person shopping rebounded, but online sales were still 98% above fiscal year 2020. In a conference call with stock analysts, CFO Craig Loudon said that online sales have become an "integral pillar" of the company's long-term growth strategy.

Sales in the core book business rose 8%, "fueled by the popularity of reading on TikTok," leading Indigo to partner with Canada TikTok to provide book-related content. Customers also had a "strong reception" to Indigo's expanding general merchandise "with assortment expansion driving sales growth at or above 30% for its lifestyle and baby categories. Indigo's proprietary brands also delivered outstanding sales, with OUI (home) and NÓTATM (paper) together generating over a quarter of the total revenue growth to last year, demonstrating the value of the company's exclusive brand portfolio in its long-term strategy."

CEO Heather Reisman commented: "As a business, we were relentlessly focused on evolving and driving performance--which together with Canadians' affinity for the Indigo brand--yielded the beginning of improved results. This Covid period though challenging, has spurred creative thinking and we are energized by the opportunities ahead of us."

Henry Staunton is retiring from the board of WH Smith after nine years as chairman and will be succeeded by Annette Court as a non-executive director and chair designate, the Bookseller reported. Court joins the board effective September 1 and will succeed Staunton on December 1.

Simon Emeny, senior independent director, said that Court "has a proven track record as a chair of a publicly quoted company and brings a wealth of experience from her board appointments and has a strong background in financial services and technology."

He added: "On behalf of the board, I would like to thank Henry for the outstanding contribution he has made to the success of WH Smith. He has successfully guided the company through an exceptional period of growth and helped it overcome the impact of the pandemic. We wish him well in the future." 

CEO Carl Cowling also expressed gratitude for Staunton's "wise counsel, guidance and support during my tenure as CEO. Henry has played a key role in contributing to the company's success and I would like to wish him well for the future. I am very much looking forward to working with Annette as we continue to expand the scale and footprint of the business and benefit from the many exciting opportunities that lie ahead of us." 

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The latest edition of the European & International Booksellers Federation's Newsflash featured two items on consumer reading habits: 

An article published by KVB Boekwerk examined the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the reading behavior of the Dutch. According to the platform's research, in 2020 and 2021, at the height of the pandemic, the share of Dutch people who read in their free time rose from 65% to 75%. The increased number of readers is most notable among the younger age groups (15-44 years) and can be attributed to lockdowns, which made other cultural activities less accessible.

A survey conducted by the French National Book Centre (Centre national du livre) revealed that 81% of French people aged between 7 to 25 years read for leisure. The Culture Pass, which was launched last year to facilitate young people's access to cultural activities, has also helped increase the levels of readership among the young French. Nevertheless, CNL pointed out a noticeable drop in leisure reading among teenagers, especially boys. How to bring young people back to reading? Experts agree that books must be "unschooled" and reading should become a social, contemporary activity. 

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Christie's will host First Editions, Second Thoughts: An Auction to Benefit English PEN, from June 28 to July 12, featuring more than 80 annotated first edition books by internationally renowned writers. Art works from contemporary artists are also included in the auction. FEST is raising funds to support English PEN's work defending free expression and campaign for writers who are at risk. 

English PEN president Philippe Sands commented: "It is thrilling to embark on a First Editions, Second Thoughts auction with Christie's. I am truly delighted to join such illustrious names with an annotated edition of East West Street, whose focus on international crimes assumes particular resonance in the face of the crime of aggression that is being perpetrated by Russia against Ukraine. Here, in the U.K., and around the world, the rule of law is more important than ever, as intolerance, division, and threats to freedom of expression are on the rise. Today, the work of English PEN is more important and relevant than ever, and this wonderful auction will help in its vital work."

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For sale: Australian indie Mary Who? Bookshop in Townsville, Queensland, which posted on Facebook: "As you may or may not know, Mary is on the market! Our efforts to promote the sale have been some what half-hearted--but now we're serious... it's time! So this is your chance to finally put that long held dream of owning a bookshop into reality. And not just any bookshop!" Check out the listing here. --Robert Gray

The University of Illinois Chicago has partnered with Follett Higher Education, which will now operate the UIC Bookstore's physical locations, online bookstore and pop-up events at the UIC School of Law. 

"UIC has decided to partner with Follett Higher Education to manage and operate its campus bookstore operations due to our shared commitment towards student success," said associate vice chancellor of student affairs Alexandre da Silva. "The UIC community has gained a strategic partner that will lead innovation in both physical stores and e-commerce while supporting UIC's vision of access and affordability in course material while enhancing the UIC's fan experience, community engagement and UIC brand affinity."

Yu and Me Books in New York City hosted a packed crowd for the launch of XiXi Tian's debut YA novel, This Place Is Still Beautiful (Balzer + Bray). Pictured: (l.-r.) Tian; her editor Alessandra Balzer, v-p and co-publisher of Balzer + Bray; associate editor Caitlin Johnson; agent Wendi Gu of Sanford J. Greenburger Associates; and marketing associate Shannon Cox.

"Happy Pride Month!! We'll be celebrating in all of our stores," Posman Books, which has locations in New York, Boston, Atlanta and Pittsburgh, noted in sharing a pic on Instagram of one of the bookseller's sidewalk chalkboard signs.

Alex Kanenwisher, book buyer at Costco, has selected By Her Own Design: A Novel of Ann Lowe, Fashion Designer to the Social Register by Piper Huguley (‎Morrow, $16.99, 9780063059740) as the pick for June. In Costco Connection, which goes to many of the warehouse club's members, Kanenwisher writes:

"Clothing is all around us, literally, but fashion is something special. And the people who create fashion are often so much more than their designs. Take, for example, Ann Lowe, the first Black fashion designer of note.

"This work of historical fiction shares how the granddaughter of slaves went on to create the wedding dress worn by Jacqueline Kennedy, née Bouvier, and had other notable clients."

At the Johns Hopkins University Press Books Division:

Rachel Miller, previously sales manager at Island Press, is joining the press as sales manager.

Gioia Milano, previously director of education, exhibitions and programs for the Italian Cultural Center of Baltimore, is joining the press as marketing specialist.

Onyeka and the Academy of the Sun by Tolá Okogwu (McElderry Books/Simon & Schuster Children's).

A collaboration between theatre ensemble Elevator Repair Service and Symphony Space in New York City will bring James Joyce's Ulysses to life for the novel's 100th anniversary with Elevator Repair Service Takes on Bloomsday, set for June 16 in the Peter Jay Sharp Theatre, Playbill reported. The ERS staging will be directed by John Collins.

The production features a cast of ERS ensemble member--Dee Beasnael, Kate Benson, Maggie Hoffman, Vin Knight, Scott Shepherd, Christopher-Rashee Stevenson, and Stephanie Weeks--who will perform a selection from each of the novel's 18 episodes in less than two hours, "embracing the text's iconic mash-up of styles. Using the format of an academic panel discussion-turned-wild theatrical embodiment, the piece is designed to reflect the literary impact of the novel, as well as its notorious content," Playbill wrote.

Apple TV+  has released a trailer for the limited drama series Black Bird, a true-crime psychological thriller adapted from the memoir In with the Devil: A Fallen Hero, A Serial Killer and A Dangerous Bargain for Redemption by James Keene and Hillel Levin. IndieWire reported that the project is being developed, written and executive-produced by author Dennis Lehane. Apple TV+ premieres the first two episodes on July 8, with one following each week through August 5. 

The late actor Ray Liotta, who died last month, is part of an ensemble cast that includes Taron Egerton, Paul Walter Hauser, Greg Kinnear and Sepideh Moafi. The first three episodes are directed by Academy Award nominee Michaël R. Roskam (Bullhead, The Drop), who also serves as executive producer.

Finalists have been announced for the AKO Caine Prize for African Writing, which is presented "for a short story by an African writer published in English, whether they reside in Africa or elsewhere." The winner, who will be named July 18, receives £10,000 (about $12,535), with the other four shortlisted writers getting £500 (about $625) each. This year's shortlisted writers are:

Joshua Chizoma (Nigeria) for "Collector of Memories" (Afritondo)
Hannah Giorgis (Ethiopa) for "A Double-Edged Inheritance" (Addis Ababa Noir)
Nana-Ama Danquah (Ghana) for "When a Man Loves a Woman" (Accra Noir)
Idza Luhumyo (Kenya) for "Five Years Next Sunday" (Disruption)
Billie McTernan (Ghana) for "The Labadi Sunshine Bar" (Accra Noir)

U.S. independent press Akashic Books has three shortlisted stories, which were previously published in the Akashic Noir original anthology series. Nana-Ama Danquah was the editor for Accra Noir, the anthology in which her and McTernan's story feature. Cassava Republic Press are the U.K. and Commonwealth publishers of the Akashic Noir series.

photo: Nick Koenig

Abby Jame is the art director for Teenage Euthanasia on Adult Swim and the creator of The Fae, also on Adult Swim. She has drawn and/or written for the New Yorker, Sony, Cartoon Network and more. She has published several comics and is developing an animated series. In Heart Shaped Tears (Silver Sprocket), Jame draws inspiration from her teenage experience, exploring themes like optimistic nihilism through the lens of girlhood.

Handsell readers your book in 25 words or less:

It's Bart Simpson's Guide to Life x Confessions of an Heiress with Gary Larson as a bratty girl. It'll make your suicidal teenage daughter smile. 

On your nightstand now: 

Sweet Days of Discipline by Fleur Jaeggy. Also The Dirt by Tommy Lee, a book about the secrets of Mötley Crüe, but I haven't opened it yet.

Favorite book when you were a child:

Les Misérables by Victor Hugo. I loved the play because I love the girl characters. Cosette, the little girl in rags who sings about there being no floors to sweep in her "Castle on a Cloud." Eponine, obsessing over her crush with her song "On My Own." I love creating comedy, but most of the media that I consume is pretty dark. I find it more genuine and comforting. 

Your top five authors:

Gillian Flynn, Fyodor Dostoevsky, William Gibson, Elizabeth Wurtzel and Vladimir Nabokov. I need a variety of girlish angst and dark secrets, sturdy philosophy, sinister prose and the exciting world of cyberpunk futurism.

Book you've faked reading:

Dune. I actually did read Dune three times. But I pretended to like it to impress my boyfriend at the time. It impresses a lot of boys, but it's honestly kind of boring. Nothing really sexy happens in it. 

Book you're an evangelist for:

The Mists of Avalon. (Sorry.) I love the way the Arthurian legend is told through the female perspective. I love fantasy and priestesses and princesses. And there is sex in it. 

Book you've bought for the cover:

The first one that comes to mind is Princess Lockup. It was sitting in the lobby of my apartment and had a tiara and gun on the cover. Obviously, I took it. 

Book you hid from your parents:

The 120 Days of Sodom. Just kidding, I think I got in trouble for reading YM magazine.

Book that changed your life:

The Game of Thrones novels by George R.R. Martin definitely changed my life. I was so inspired by Daenerys Targaryen that I literally decided to go back to art school, and two years later I'm working on an Adult Swim series. That was my version of Westeros.

Favorite line from a book:

"Hell is other people." --from No Exit by Jean-Paul Sartre 

Five books you'll never part with:

Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn, Adventure Time: The Art of Ooo by Chris McDonnell, The 48 Laws of Power by Robert Greene, My Year of Rest and Relaxation by Ottessa Moshfegh and The Art of War by Sun Tzu.

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

The Gossip Girl series by Cecily von Ziegesar. I love the books so much more than the [TV] series. They're very dark.

One of the most notorious crimes of the Internet Age took place in Waukesha, Wis., on May 31, 2014, when two 12-year-old girls stabbed a third girl 19 times, in order to appease a fictional ghoul they had become obsessed with online. As the victim recovered in a hospital and the assailants awaited trial, the media went viral with what was soon fearsomely misconstrued as the "Slenderman killings." But in the wildly unsettling Slenderman: Online Obsession, Mental Illness, and the Violent Crime of Two Midwestern Girls, Kathleen Hale, who originally covered the case for Vice, finds more to fear in a criminal justice system that is eager to try children in adult court, with adult sentences and a cavalier attitude toward evidence of mental illness and juvenile brain development.

The Slenderman case can seem impenetrably bizarre, but Hale nimbly documents the numerous contributing factors to the online legends, the crime and its judicial outcome. A dauntless reporter, she obtained legal documents and transcripts, despite Wisconsin's expensive and "hostile" records-request practices; conducted "countless" interviews with Morgan Geyser, one of the defendants, about her memories as well as her experiences with childhood-onset schizophrenia; and interviewed Geyser's family and mental health experts. Moreover, Hale is originally from Wisconsin, providing her well-developed true-crime narrative with an insider's take on social and cultural norms that fostered the communication breakdown among authority figures who might have tuned into the suspicious circumstances before a crime could be committed.

Never one to accept villainous characterizations at face value, Hale (Kathleen Hale Is a Crazy Stalker) painstakingly peels back the sensationalized layers of Morgan's case. What she uncovers is a deeply American and profoundly Christian rigidity in thinking about crime and punishment. She notes that Wisconsin "began prosecuting children as adults in response to a mid-1990s phenomenon known as the 'superpredator,' a term coined by Christian fundamentalist John Dilulio Jr., then a political science professor at Princeton University." Still sticky with residue from the Satanic Panic of that same era, the superpredator became "the grown-up's version of Slenderman: a terrifying evil that did not actually exist." The horror show, then, spins madly onward as Morgan's mental illness is first ignored and then leveraged against her.

Slenderman is careful not to minimize the seriousness of the crime in question: two girls nearly killed another. Instead, Hale builds a poignant rebuttal to one lawyer's repeated assertion that "there is only one victim in this case." Hale's capacity for empathy may be disagreeable to some, but her steady narrative vision brings clarity to a thoroughly upsetting situation. --Dave Wheeler, associate editor, Shelf Awareness

Shelf Talker: The reporter who originally covered the bizarre Slenderman case for Vice dives more deeply into its aftermath, with chilling results.

The final BookExpo.

Once upon a time, I wrote a pre-BookExpo America column in which I said that the show was as much about anticipation as participation. I'd been writing pre-BEA columns since 2005. Year after year, yet another BEA/BEx show loomed until... quite suddenly in 2020, it didn't ("There's No Hotel ABA in Zoomlandia").

But what about post-BookExpo? There are things I miss and don't miss about the show, but I realized this week that I really feel nostalgic for the days just after. "I'm writing this while still in my New York hotel," I noted in a 2011 column. "The show has just ended. Over the next week, it will be dissected by experts worldwide analyzing the switch to midweek, the change to two floor days and an almost infinite number of other issues. For a few precious moments tonight, however, it's a pleasant blur of fresh memories. Call it BEA afterglow."

Every year, still dazed by travel, long hours, nonstop work and lack of sleep, I would quite suddenly be dropped back inside my quiet house. Maybe my luggage was unpacked. Maybe not. One certainty, however, was that those bags contained plenty of fresh ARCs, each one handpicked because I genuinely wanted to read it. 

I think the week after BookExpo gradually became my personal first week of summer. I wasn't quite back on my game yet, but the BookExpo afterglow lingered, and those fresh ARCs beckoned like a high-end beach reads list.

"My prime directive at BEA is to find the unexpected book," I wrote in a 2005 blog post for Fresh Eyes: A Bookseller's Journal, "the one that might never cross my desk otherwise. Everything else is just work. Finding the unexpected book is pleasure. Well, finding the unexpected book when it is buried under the number of books on display at BEA is also work. But I ain't complaining."

None of us has attended BookExpo since 2019, and apparently we never will again. This year, though, something was a little different, something I hadn't noticed during the last two, pandemic-tainted years. It wasn't BEx I longed for, but the post-show experience. 

Blame Facebook, which has been tossing BookExpo memories at me like beach balls for a couple of weeks, including Javits trade show floor shots, Times Square hotel room views, and even a photo I took through a bus window of the space shuttle Enterprise being loaded onto the deck of the Intrepid Museum in 2012.

These prompted me to think about summer and reading ARCS, which is just the way my mind works. Don't ask. Anyway, here's a sampling of what I found in earlier post-show columns:

2005: "BEA has been over for more than a week, but I'm still sorting through paperwork and galleys. I try as hard as I can to avoid 'loading up' when I'm at the show, but certain presses are irresistible. And while I'm likely to see galleys from the larger houses sooner or later anyway, the hunt is more challenging for small press ARCs, so I harvest them eagerly at BEA and my poor suitcases, if they could whine, would do so."

2007: "We routinely read in the future--manuscripts, catalogs, ARCs--and at BookExpo, the full utopian vision is on display. Books that will be published next fall have not failed yet; first-time authors are always promising; any book might grow up to be a bestseller.... The past is largely absent from BookExpo, except in the shadows of the remainder pavilion."

2009: "We've always known words can draw a crowd. In conversations on the show floor, at panels and seminars, certain words were used again and again. Since I'm a writer, reader and bookseller, words are what matter most, so it's probably no surprise that I seem to be clutching a few of them in my hand, like Jack's magic beans, as I recall moments from this year's BEA. Words like storytelling, authentic, content, listening. Words that book people already know and love, but whose meanings are evolving on what sometimes seems like an hourly basis. Old words that stay fiercely relevant, even as the pages upon which they reside transform in ways we've just begun to explore."

2012: "You walk into Javits Center on the first day, blink once and suddenly you're checking out of your hotel. After all the anticipation, BookExpo America happens so fast it's as much a snapshot of the book world as an exhibition. Although we tend to write and talk about the "grand gesture" of the BEA experience--author breakfasts, celebrity sightings, "big books" and parties--I'm often struck by smaller moments: the unexpected encounter, the memorable quote, the discovery of an 'under the radar' book."

The day after my last BookExpo ended in 2019, I saw Jez Butterworth's play The Ferryman, a brilliant Broadway production that New York Times theater critic Ben Brantley had praised as "a spellbinding story that is also all about storytelling." Having just spent three days among hundreds of storytellers, I found myself thinking about how myriad tales, real and imagined, weave through the lives of readers and writers.

Now it's been a week or so since yet another BookExpo was not held. I do have a healthy summer reading stack growing near my desk, but I can't help wondering about the extraordinary ARCs and stories I may have missed by not wandering the aisles at Javits Center this year.