"We may be headed into the nominally sleepy month of July--a time for a pause and a deep breath, when the very air encourages us to slow down--but recent national and international events are weighing on many of us. How do you take care of yourself, and of the people you love, when the world feels heavy? Sometimes books can help us find what we need, whether we're looking for solace; or to share in anger; or for distraction in the form of some expert storytelling, or a beautifully-crafted sentence; or just looking to find the funny wherever possible. Books can also be a precious source of quiet-brain time and of deep focus amidst news and connectedness that can leave us feeling tired and jangled. We hope that you can find the time to read something that nourishes you this July."

Ingram is launching wholesaling operations in the U.K., the Bookseller reported. It joins Gardners, which has been the main book wholesaler in the country since the closing of Bertrams in 2020.

David Taylor, senior v-p of Ingram Content Group UK, told the Bookseller, "We're pleased to be able to confirm to the British book trade that Ingram is establishing a U.K.-based wholesale offer for books for any title that we can supply from our Milton Keynes operations. We will launch the full service in September 2022. Booksellers who already use Ingram Wholesale from our U.S. base will be able to order using our ipage or EDI ordering systems."

Taylor also said, "We have already had many conversations with publishers, distributors, and booksellers as we build and test our model and we're very happy with the response thus far."

Ingram has had a range of operations in the U.K., including print on demand and international distribution facilities.

After a "security incident" on Saturday, June 25, that resulted in Macmillan closing its offices and its ordering and shipment systems, the company's warehouse has resumed "core operations, including order processing, shipping, and receiving," Macmillan announced yesterday. It said that "additional resources are being dedicated to quickly work through the backlog of orders submitted while our systems were down and we do not anticipate the need to move any on-sale dates at this time."

The security incident involved Macmillan's servers and internal system and also affected Macmillan's U.K. operations.

Sarah Gorham (l.) and Kristen Renee Miller

Sarah Gorham, founder of Sarabande Books, plans to retire, effective December 31, after 29 years with the company. She will be succeeded by longtime Sarabande editor Kristen Renee Miller as executive director and editor-in-chief. Miller joined Sarabande in 2014 as the director of programming and development, and was promoted to editor in 2017.

Gorham founded Sarabande in 1994 "with the mission of championing exceptional poetry, short fiction, and literary nonfiction. At a time when such genres were still on the margins, Gorham was a true pioneer; her lifelong work of cultivating a home for these works set a precedent that the larger houses would follow," the company noted. Under her leadership, Sarabande published nearly 300 titles and, in 2013, received the inaugural Small Press Publishers Award given by the Association of Writers and Writing Programs. 

"These 29 years have been extraordinary, and I really look forward to this new chapter of my literary life," said Gorham. "I will begin serving as an editorial advisor and board member to Sarabande, and I will also have the time to focus more intently on my own writing. I am proud to hand the reins to Kristen Renee Miller, who has been my mentee for the past eight years." 

Miller commented: "Sarah's enduring legacy is the home she has made at Sarabande for writers of poetry, short fiction, and essay. She set a precedent within the industry to value and cultivate these genres. I'm proud to have been Sarah's partner in this work over the last eight years and honored to step into her role as director." 

Sarabande's catalogue includes such notable authors as Sandra Cisneros, James Tate, Mary Ruefle, Frank Bidart, Yusef Komunyakaa, Lydia Davis, Louise Glück, Joan Silber, Robert Pinsky and Rick Barot. The publisher's authors have been recipients of the Pulitzer Prize, the Nobel Prize, the National Book Critics Circle Award, the National Jewish Book Award, Lambda Literary awards, the Story Prize Spotlight Award and many PEN/American honors. 

A Virginia Beach Circuit Court hearing has been set to determine whether Maia Kobabe's Gender Queer and Sarah J. Maas's A Court of Mist and Fury are obscene, the Virginian-Pilot reported.

The hearing, which is scheduled for the end of August, comes after two Virginia Republicans, Tommy Altman and his attorney Tim Anderson, who serves in the Virginia House of Delegates, filed a motion for a temporary restraining order that would prevent Barnes & Noble from selling the books to minors without parental consent. Altman and Anderson claim the books are obscene and should not be distributed to children. Gender Queer was removed from school libraries in Virginia Beach in May.

B&N, along with the books' publishers and authors, seek to have the case dismissed, arguing that "neither book is obscene under state and constitutional law." Independent bookstores, including Prince Books in Norfolk, Va., and Read Books in Virginia Beach, have shown their support, along with librarians, publishers, authors and others throughout the industry.

Congratulations to Interabang Books, Dallas, Texas, which is celebrating its fifth anniversary on Saturday, July 16, with an all-day, in-store party from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m.

Owner Nancy Perot said, "We invite the community to come out for this year's birthday celebration of bookselling, an event that is an especially happy day at Interabang every summer. These five years have been a wonderful journey, and our entire family of booksellers is looking forward to celebrating the anniversary with our friends."

Partner Lori Feathers added, "Our knowledgeable booksellers will be on-hand to tell customers about some of our favorite books and to make curated recommendations to satisfy any reader's interests and tastes."

Festivities include a 4 p.m. appearance by Michael Reynolds, editor-in-chief of Europa Editions, who will talk about publishing Elena Ferrante and other Europa authors, including the publisher's most anticipated fall titles; a 10:30 a.m. Saturday Story Time with free boxes of Animal Crackers and balloons; and a performance at 5 p.m. by classical guitarist James Gabriano as Interabang serves wine and beer.

The store will also offer Interabang Books pencils to each customer and a birthday bookmark with every book purchase. In addition, the store will feature an anniversary display that Carlos Guajardo, Interabang's inventory manager, said, "recalls some of our most meaningful and impactful titles of the last five years that we feel best represent the spirit of what Interabang's uniquely curated selection is all about."

The downside of life
Except death, books can't be read
For the first time twice.
--Olive, age 10

Children's Book World, Los Angeles, Calif., shared a photo of Olive's leaf poem in a Facebook post, noting: "Say hello to our Poet Tree, featuring wise words and quirky quips from our favorite budding poets! Drop by to read a few leaves or plant one of your own today."

Alex Kanenwisher, book buyer at Costco, has selected The It Girl by Ruth Ware (Gallery/Scout Press, $28.99, 9781982155261) as the pick for July. In Costco Connection, which goes to many of the warehouse club's members, Kanenwisher writes:

"Friendships forged when we're young often have an intensity all their own. Ruth Ware's latest novel, The It Girl, begins with that kind of relationship.

"When they meet at Oxford, Hannah is quickly pulled into the orbit of vivacious, clever--and sometimes vicious--April. By the end of their first term, they've formed a close friend group with four others. By the end of their second term, April is dead. Who really killed her, and how long can some secrets stay buried?"

At Simon & Schuster:

Susannah Lawrence, previously director of publicity at Akashic Books, has joined the company as corporate communications associate.

Will Plunkett has been promoted to associate manager, digital & online sales.

Theresa Brown has joined the company's digital & online sales team as sales coordinator.

Five-Part Invention by Andrea J. Buchanan (Pegasus Books).

Today:
NPR's Here & Now: Ed Yong, author of An Immense World: How Animal Senses Reveal the Hidden Realms Around Us (Random House, $30, 9780593133231).

Tomorrow:
Drew Barrymore Show repeat: Billy Porter, author of Unprotected: A Memoir (Abrams, $28, 9781419746192).

Book TV airs on C-Span 2 this weekend from 8 a.m. Saturday to 8 a.m. Monday and focuses on political and historical books as well as the book industry. The following are highlights for this coming weekend. For more information, go to Book TV's website.

Saturday, July 9
10 a.m. Andrew Denson, author of Monuments to Absence: Cherokee Removal and the Contest over Southern Memory (University of North Carolina Press, $29.95, 9781469630830). (Re-airs Sunday at 10 p.m.)

6 p.m. Kevin Waite, author of West of Slavery: The Southern Dream of a Transcontinental Empire (University of North Carolina Press, $29.95, 9781469663197). (Re-airs Sunday at 6 a.m.)

7 p.m. Adam M. Sowards, author of Making America's Public Lands: The Contested History of Conservation on Federal Lands (Rowman & Littlefield, $36, 9781442246959). (Re-airs Sunday at 7 a.m.)

Sunday, July 10
9:05 a.m. Julie Pace and Darlene Superville, authors of Jill: A Biography of the First Lady (Little, Brown, $29, 9780316377508). (Re-airs Sunday at 9:05 p.m.)

10 a.m. Betsy DeVos, author of Hostages No More: The Fight for Education Freedom and the Future of the American Child (Center Street, $29, 9781546002017). (Re-airs Sunday at 10 p.m.)

5:30 p.m. Bo Seo, author of Good Arguments: How Debate Teaches Us to Listen and Be Heard (‎Penguin Press, $28, 9780593299517). (Re-airs Monday at 5:30 a.m.)

The 12-title longlist for the £5,000 (about $6,135) Gordon Burn Prize, honoring "the year's boldest and most exciting fiction and nonfiction," has been selected. A shortlist will be released in August and the winner named October 13 at the Durham Book Festival. This year's longlisted titles are:

About a Son by David Whitehouse
Aftermath by Preti Taneja
Case Study by Graeme Macrae Burnet
Companion Piece by Ali Smith
Constructing a Nervous System by Margo Jefferson
Free: Coming of Age at the End of History by Lea Ypi
Keeping the House by Tice Cin
Oxblood by Tom Benn
The Perfect Golden Circle by Benjamin Myers
Scary Monsters by Michelle de Kretser
Wayward by Vashti Bunyan
Your Show by Ashley Hickson-Lovence

Selected new titles appearing next Tuesday, July 12:

Chrysalis: A Thriller by Lincoln Child (Doubleday, $29, 9780385543675) is the sixth book starring investigator Jeremy Logan.

The Best Is Yet to Come: A Novel by Debbie Macomber (Ballantine, $28, 9781984818843) is a romance about two people connecting through a rescue dog.

What Moves the Dead by T. Kingfisher (Tor Nightfire, $19.99, 9781250830753) is a retelling of Edgar Allan Poe's "The Fall of the House of Usher."

Dark Objects: A Novel by Simon Toyne (Morrow, $27.99, 9780062329790) is a psychological thriller about a forensics expert whose book may have helped a killer hide their crime.

Turn Up the Ocean: Poems by Tony Hoagland (Graywolf Press, $15.99, 9781644450925) is the final collection of the poet who died in 2018.

Tanqueray by Brandon Stanton and Stephanie Johnson (St. Martin's Press, $24.99, 9781250278272) profiles a woman featured in Humans of New York.

Strength in Numbers: How Polls Work and Why We Need Them by G. Elliott Morris (Norton, $28.95, 9780393866971) explores modern political polling.

Crying in the Bathroom: A Memoir by Erika L. Sánchez (Viking, $27, 9780593296936) is a memoir by the daughter of Mexican immigrants.

Booked Graphic Novel by Kwame Alexander, illus. by Dawud Anyabwile (Clarion, $24.99, 9780358161813) is the graphic novel adaptation follow-up to the Newbery Medal-winning The Crossover.

Llama Rocks the Cradle of Chaos by Jonathan Stutzman, illus. by Heather Fox (Henry Holt and Co., $18.99, 9781250776761) is the third book in a picture book series that follows a time-traveling llama.

Paperbacks:
They Drown Our Daughters by Katrina Monroe (Poisoned Pen Press, $16.99, 9781728248202).

Blue Sky Kingdom: An Epic Family Journey to the Heart of the Himalaya by Bruce Kirkby (Pegasus, $17.95, 9781643139517).

Wonderlands: Essays on the Life of Literature by Charles Baxter (Graywolf Press, $16.99, 9781644450918).

Living Planet: The Web of Life on Earth by David Attenborough (William Collins, $18.99, 9780008477868).

Double Plum: Plum Lovin' and Plum Lucky by Janet Evanovich (St. Martin's Griffin, $11.99, 9781250858320).

From last week's Indie bestseller lists, available at IndieBound.org, here are the recommended titles, which are also Indie Next Great Reads:

Hardcover
Yerba Buena: A Novel by Nina LaCour (Flatiron, $26.99, 9781250810465). "This book stole my breath away. Raw and intimate, it follows the lives of two women through heartbreak, loss, and adolescent uncertainty as they weave in and out of each other's lives. I wanted to hug this book to my chest when I finished." --Margaret Hansen, Brick & Mortar Books, Redmond, Wash.

Nora Goes Off Script: A Novel by Annabel Monaghan (Putnam, $27, 9780593420034). "This breezy, well-written novel found me at a time when I really, really needed it. It's hard to get the tone right with kids in books, but Annabel Monaghan nailed it. I was rooting for Nora and thoroughly enjoyed my time with her!" --Chelsea Bauer, Union Avenue Books, Knoxville, Tenn.

Paperback
The Other Black Girl: A Novel by Zakiya Dalila Harris (Atria, $17, 9781982160142). "Two Black women in the cutthroat publishing industry try to determine if they are friends or enemies. A literary fiction tale with a side of suspense, this expertly woven critique on society will keep readers on the edge of their seats." --Kirsten Wilson, The Snail on the Wall, Huntsville, Ala.

For Ages 4 to 8
Kapaemahu by Hinaleimoana Wong-Kalu, Dean Hamer and Joe Wilson, illus. by Daniel Sousa (Kokila, $17.99, 9780593530061). "This extraordinary book recounts the arrival of four healers to Waikiki centuries ago and the stone monuments that represent them. Colonization attempted to bury the stones, but now readers all over the world can learn of their power and origins." --Andrew King, Secret Garden Bookshop, Seattle, Wash.

For Ages 8 to 12
Onyeka and the Academy of the Sun by Tọlá Okogwu (Margaret K. McElderry, $17.99, 9781665912617). "This is the book I wish I had when I was in grade school--a British Nigerian girl discovers her Afro hair contains psychokinetic powers and travels to a magical school in Nigeria! Could we ask for anything more brilliant? No!" --Isabella Ogbolumani, Buffalo Street Books, Ithaca, N.Y.

For Teen Readers: An Indies Introduce Title
This Place is Still Beautiful by XiXi Tian (Balzer + Bray, $18.99, 9780063086029). "This is one of the most phenomenal debuts I've ever read. After a hate crime is committed in their home, two very different Chinese American sisters have to deal with this incident without tearing their family apart. I was blown away by this story!" --Joseline Diaz, Kepler's Books, Menlo Park, Calif.

[Many thanks to IndieBound and the ABA!]

Animals tell their most harrowing, intimate and transformative experiences in What We Fed to the Manticore, a vivid, imaginative story collection from debut author Talia Lakshmi Kolluri that challenges readers to accept complexity and nuance in the inner lives of other animals.

"They say that life in the Sundarbans revolves around two things: the tide and the tigers. We are not the tide. We are the tigers." So begins the tale of the tiger narrator in the collection's title story, in which a manticore moves into the territory of a few starving tigers and begins to eat humans, a line the tigers agreed not to cross. In "The Good Donkey," the titular animal lets his beloved owner paint stripes on his hide so he can play the zebra in an attempt to reopen a zoo in war-torn Gaza City. A dog at a Kenyan nature conservancy tries to defend his dearest friend, a rhinoceros, at a terrible cost in "May God Forever Bless the Rhino Keepers." Kolluri takes readers inside the intricate musical world of whales in "The Open Ocean Is an Endless Desert," and lets a polar bear tell its species' creation story in "The Dog Star Is the Brightest Star in the Sky." A total of nine furred, feathered or finned first-person protagonists bare their hearts, fears and quests for survival in locations around the globe, many struggling to make sense of a world forever changed by that most mystifying species, the human.

Kolluri's prose reads like a beautiful song as it soars over the savannah and under the sea. She has a gift for writing realistic beliefs and behaviors for her animal characters while translating their lives in ways that demonstrate what they have in common with her readers. "A living thing is born, it moves through the world, and then it dies. For this story, it's less about the telling and more about the retelling," says the tiger, neatly distilling the basic narrative arc of every living creature. Plenty of tragedy befalls the animals, much of it manmade. However, they also experience moments of great beauty as well, such as falling in love with a mate, forming an unlikely friendship, or discovering their life's purpose. This collection serves as an impassioned reminder that humanity shares the planet with a wondrous array of other species whose inner landscapes and struggles may be more knowable than they appear. --Jaclyn Fulwood, blogger at Infinite Reads

Shelf Talker: Talia Lakshmi Kolluri's spellbinding prose illuminates the triumphs and tragedies of nine animal protagonists from their own viewpoints.

The bestselling Libro.fm audiobooks at independent bookstores during June:

Fiction
1. Book Lovers by Emily Henry (Penguin Random House Audio)
2. Ada Twist and the Perilous Pants by Andrea Beaty (Dreamscape Media)
3. Rosie Revere and the Raucous Riveters by Andrea Beaty (Dreamscape Media)
4. Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus (Penguin Random House Audio)
5. Sofia Valdez and the Vanishing Vote by Andrea Beaty (Dreamscape Media)
6. The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid (Simon & Schuster Audio)
7. Sofia Valdez, Future Prez by Andrea Beaty (Dreamscape Media)
8. My Father's Dragon by Ruth Stiles Gannett (Dreamscape Media)
9. Six Thousand Doughnuts by Thomas Tosi (Dooney Press)
10. Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt (HarperAudio)

Nonfiction
1. Happy-Go-Lucky by David Sedaris (Hachette Audio)
2. Ain't I a Woman by bell hooks (Tantor Media)
3. Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner (Penguin Random House Audio)
4. How to Keep House While Drowning by KC Davis (Simon & Schuster Audio)
5. Finding Me by Viola Davis (HarperAudio)
6. In the Dream House by Carmen Maria Machado (HighBridge)
7. Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer (Tantor Media)
8. The Anthropocene Reviewed by John Green (Penguin Random House Audio)
9. An Immense World by Ed Yong (Penguin Random House Audio)
10. Atomic Habits by James Clear (Penguin Random House Audio)