"Then the pandemic happened and they did disappear. Local businesses went out of business like crazy. And suddenly people said, Oh, you were actually right. This is actually important. We do have to support local businesses. Because we're going to get screwed. We're going to have nothing but Walmarts and Amazon....

"Since our biggest competitor is not Harvard Book Store down the street from us or Belmont Books in the next town, but Amazon, that helped independents. Look, our numbers are still tiny, we're still a tiny percentage of the market.... I'm not saying Jeff Bezos is quaking in his boots because of independent bookstores. But I do think that one thing the pandemic did is make people hate Amazon a little bit more. And the alternative to Amazon, when you're talking about books, is indie bookstores."

Art dealer and gallerist Harper Levine "is expanding his empire" with a new Harper's Books location, which opened recently in Manhattan at 504 West 22nd Street in Chelsea, Time Out reported, adding, "Functioning as both a purveyor of tomes and a showroom, the new space takes over two levels and specializes in rare printings and art books." In addition to his first bookshop in East Hampton, Levine manages a network of art galleries across New York and Los Angeles. 

The opening coincided with the return of Printed Matter's NY Art Book Fair after a three-year, pandemic-induced hiatus. The celebration was held over the former Dia building at 548 West 22nd Street, "just steps away from the new Harper's bookshop and art gallery Harper's Chelsea," Time Out wrote. 

Levine said that "opening a bookstore in New York, my hometown, has been a lifelong dream of mine. I can't wait to see how the new shop interacts with our existing galleries on the same block. My career has been built around the relationship between books and art, so this next venture is the culmination of over 25 years exploring these goals."

He added that "in the early years when I roamed the world looking for material, I could have never predicted where those journeys would lead. This new chapter on 22nd Street is the most exciting journey yet."

After debuting as an online and pop-up store roughly two years ago, Verb Bookstore will open a bricks-and-mortar store in Jonesboro, Ark., later this fall. 

Sari Harlow in front of Verb Bookstore's future location.

Owner Sari Harlow reported that the bookstore will be in a temporary 500-square-foot space for the holiday season and early 2023 before moving into its long-term 1,700-square-foot home next year. Both locations are in Jonesboro's Gee Street District, which Harlow described as in the midst of a revitalization.

The temporary space, Harlow continued, is next door to Story Coffee House, a popular coffee shop with which Verb Bookstore has already partnered a number of times. Verb Bookstore sells new books for all ages, with a "little bit of everything" included in the inventory. The store's sideline offerings, meanwhile, include things like wine glasses and loose leaf teas as well as stationery and store-branded sweatshirts.

Harlow explained that in fall 2020, after she had decided to start a bookstore of her own, an independent bookstore about 30 miles north of Jonesboro closed. She bought that bookstore's inventory, allowing her to start the pop-up with a "store's worth of inventory." Over time she's filled in that selection with new titles based on customer and community feedback.

Verb pop-up

"Our goal is to be a hub of books and book culture here in northeast Arkansas," Harlow said, adding that she sees her role as a provider of "books and goodies" for the community. In posts on the bookstore's social media pages, she frequently refers to herself as the "book fairy." She continued: "I'm not here to judge anyone's book tastes or dictate anything. I'm here to serve my community and customers."

Verb Bookstore has already started hosting events and book clubs and forming partnerships with businesses across Jonesboro. In the future, Harlow plans to host more community events, including author signings, book releases and other things that "bring people together around a love of books."

Asked about the store's long-term home, Harlow said the building was originally built in the mid-20th century as an auto dealership. It "has a lot of character," with curved walls and a "ton of windows." She plans to turn it into a "beautiful, dreamy bookstore" filled with natural light. The space is still being renovated, and Harlow hopes to move in in early 2023.

Opening a bricks-and-mortar store, Harlow recalled, has been in the back of her and her husband's minds ever since they launched Verb Bookstore, but they didn't think it would come about so soon. Their initial plan was to go from an online store and pop-up shop to a bookmobile, and though they did turn an Airstream travel trailer into a mobile bookshop they call Vera, emphasis has shifted to the bricks-and-mortar store.

Remodeling and maintaining the Airstream, Harlow continued, took longer than expected, and she and her husband faced the choice of spending their weekends working on it or "getting out in the community" and doing conventional pop-up appearances. At the same time, the demand for a bricks-and-mortar store in Jonesboro was immense.

Prior to 2020, there was a Barnes & Noble in a local mall. In late March 2020, shortly after the start of the Covid-19 pandemic and right around when Harlow chose to pursue her bookstore dream, an EF4 tornado struck Jonesboro and hit the mall. The B&N was "wiped out," and the bookstore getting "nader'd" left a huge hole in the community.

The community's response to Verb Bookstore has been "overwhelming in the best way," Harlow said. Last week she posted on Facebook about opening the bricks-and-mortar space, and very quickly the post got more than 600 likes and was shared more than 500 times, including by the local news.

People are "absolutely ecstatic" to hear about the plans, Harlow added. Jonesboro is "craving" the connection and community that Verb Bookstore aims to provide. "It's been incredible to see everyone come together." --Alex Mutter

Although the Frankfurt Book Fair was physically smaller than ever--as at so many book world events this year--there was relief and joy that people were meeting again in person; for many it was the first time since 2019, the last pre-pandemic Frankfurt Book Fair. More than 4,000 exhibitors from more than 90 countries had stands, the literary center was sold out, and the fair said there were 93,000 trade visitors and another 87,000 members of the public. (The first two days of the fair were restricted to the trade, and the last three were open to the public as well.)

This year Ukraine was a major topic, and fair organizers provided extensive support to Ukrainian book industry representatives, who had a popular stand representing 40 publishers. Extensive programming both highlighted the problems that have followed Russia's invasion of Ukraine and promoted Ukrainian literature. President Volodymyr Zelensky addressed the fair via video from Kyiv, and his wife, Olena Zelenska, made several appearances at the fair, including one in conversation with Elke Büdenbender, wife of German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier.

Other notable guests included King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia of Spain, who helped open the fair officially. Spain was the guest country this year and had one of the largest contingents of publishers and authors at the fair.

Unlike previous years, there were no Russian exhibitors at this year's fair. As fair president and CEO Juergen Boos said, "We decided not to deal with the Russian government."

Karin Schmidt-Friderichs, Mohsin Hamid and Juergen Boos at the opening press conference.

Many speakers spoke of "dark times" and how books and the book industry can fight "the ever deeper fissures that exist between political, cultural and ideological positions," as Karin Schmidt-Friderichs, chair of the Börsenverein, the German book industry association, put it. She said, too, that "in these uncertain times," publishers and booksellers want to provide "a comprehensive selection of literature, nonfiction and scientific and technical information" to help promote international understanding.

Boos and Schmidt-Friderichs emphasized the importance of the fair itself in counteracting negative trends. Schmidt-Friderichs called the fair a place for "peaceful, democratic exchanges." Boos noted that the "personal encounters" taking place among attendees from around the world are more important than ever. "People speak differently with each other when they are face to face," he said, adding, "We firmly believe that the book industry can provide the necessary understanding, whether by translating literature from one language to another, by demonstrating global solidarity with book industry professionals in exile, or by facilitating the international networking that takes place here."

The fair also highlighted translators and translations as well as "translation as a communicative act," all reflected in its official theme, "Translate. Transfer. Transform" and the creation of the first International Translation Centre at the fair. Author Mohsin Hamid emphasized the importance of translation at the opening press conference, saying, "at least half the books that have mattered most to me were written in languages I could not read myself. Without translators, I would have been half the reader that I am." He continued, "Without translators, I would be a fraction of the writer that I am.... Translators are profoundly vital. In the world today, a world of rising xenophobia and nativism, a world preoccupied with the construction of walls, translators made windows and doors."

'Winter Is Coming'
In much of the book industry and in many countries, there was a noticeable similarity of reports on the current state of the book world. Many publishers and booksellers happily reported surviving--and even thriving--during the Covid pandemic, and improving ways of doing business that will continue into the future. But most everyone is anxious about what might happen in the next year or two. A phrase repeated quite a few times: "Winter is coming."

In many countries, the culprits are the same: high rates of inflation, soaring energy costs, difficulty finding employees, paper shortages, occasional, continuing supply chain disruptions and more.

In Germany, Schmidt-Friderichs said, booksellers are expecting energy costs this winter to rise by up to 300%. At the same time, sales for the first nine months of the year in bookstores are down 8.7% compared to 2019. Book sales overall in Germany have fallen in each of the last five months through September and are down 2% for the year compared to 2019. In addition, in the past year, book publishers had to pay on average 50% more for the printing and production of books; in the coming year, they expect to pay another 20%-30%.

As she put it, "The book sector has proved remarkably resilient over the past two years. However, the unstable world and market situation present it with new major challenges." She called for help from the government in a variety of ways, including direct financial support and support to promote reading to consumers.

Charlie Redmayne

Speaking at Publishing Perspectives' Executive Talk event, hosted by Porter Anderson, Charlie Redmayne, CEO of HarperCollins UK, outlined similar cost pressures. After a "record year" in 2021, when putting the annual budget together in January, the company had estimated energy costs--which are especially important in connection with its 750,000-square-foot warehouse in Scotland--would increase 70%. "They've actually gone up 250%," he said. Other costs are rising, too, including paper, printing and freight. The company is "making sure to mitigate against those costs as much as possible [but] it's going to be tough." He said companies shouldn't have "knee-jerk reactions" and should have begun planning some time ago. "You need to be cutting your cloth accordingly throughout," he continued. "You need to always be looking to see how you maximize your revenues and also make sure that your cost basis is fit for purpose." He observed that in the last major recession of 2008-2009, the publishers who cut a lot of staff were the slowest to recover, and cautioned publishers from making major layoffs.

Redmayne noted the concern that consumer discretionary income may be squeezed during a recession, resulting in fewer book purchases, but said that book prices "have been incredibly cheap a very, very long time," making books an "incredibly good value." Another positive trend: more men and boys were reading during the pandemic and audiobooks continue to attract more and more males and younger people. "I don't care how people consume our authors' content," he said. "For me, the most important thing is that they do and that they pay for it." --John Mutter

Roger Welsch

Roger Welsch, a writer and storyteller who was best known for his biweekly "Postcards from Nebraska" segments on CBS Sunday Morning, died on September 30, the New York Times reported. He was 85. Welsch "was more than a raconteur. He was a noted scholar of American folklore and the settler culture of the Great Plains. In his popular anthropology classes at the University of Nebraska, he impressed upon his students the deeper truths lying within tall tales, urban legends and family lore."

He wrote more than 40 books, including Everything I Know About Women I Learned from My Tractor (2002); Why I'm an Only Child and Other Slightly Naughty Plains Folktales (2016); The Reluctant Pilgrim: A Skeptic's Journey into Native Mysteries (2015); Weed 'Em and Reap (2006); Busted Tractors and Rusty Knuckles: Norwegian Torque Wrench Techniques and Other Fine Points of Tractor Restoration (1997); Diggin' In and Piggin' Out: The Truth About Food and Men (1997); and Uncle Smoke Stories: Four Fires in the Big Belly Lodge of the Nehawka (1994). 

Welsch treasured the history of the hardscrabble immigrants who had moved to the state after the Civil War, including his German grandparents, but "he also recognized that white settlers had merely been guests of the Pawnee, Omaha and Oglala, whom they pushed aside. He took the Pawnees' side against the Nebraska State Historical Society in their demands that the government repatriate Native American remains, a battle they ultimately won," the Times noted. Welsch and his wife also deeded their 60-acre property to the Pawnee Nation in exchange for a lifelong tenancy, "an act of generosity that inspired other nearby white landowners to do the same."

"Only in folklore, curiously, is there a wider reliability," he wrote in Great Plains Quarterly in 2001. "An individual may tell any story he wishes or knows, but a widely told and known narrative--folklore--is under the constant pressure of communal memory, still fallible but with an internal mechanism of constancy and accuracy the popular or high culture story can never enjoy."

Virginia Highland Books, Atlanta, Ga., shared a photo of its Halloween-themed sidewalk chalkboard and its seasonally appropriate message: "Reading is in our Bones."

"We could not *not* jump on this trend. Shoutout to the work friends that make work a ~time~!" the Salt Eaters Bookshop, Inglewood, Calif., noted in sharing a "work friends" video on Instagram.

IPG is handling distribution of print titles by Cardinal Rule Press, which was founded in 2016 by Maria Dismondy and publishes children's literature that "educates and empowers kids and their communities through meaningful messages and diverse stories." Its imprints include Violet Street Press, which focuses on nonfiction for teachers, parents and caregivers that highlights inclusivity, character building, and personal and professional development; and new acquisition Bucket Filler Books, best known for children's titles by Carol McCloud.

Mary Marotta is joining Candlewick Press as senior v-p, sales, North America, effective November 21. She was most recently senior v-p, group sales director for Knopf Doubleday and senior v-p, North America for DK Publishing. Before that, Marotta spent nearly a decade at Simon & Schuster, where her positions included deputy publisher for the children's division and v-p/director of children's sales. Earlier, she worked in both sales and marketing roles at Scholastic, William Morrow, and Bantam Doubleday Dell.

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David Kass is joining Avid Reader Press as senior director of publicity, effective November 1. For the past 16 years, he has worked at Hilsinger Mendelson, most recently as v-p and executive director of publicity, where he has worked on many Avid Reader Press titles. Earlier he was director of publicity at Teen People magazine and worked at Rogers and Cowan.

Making the Rounds by Patricia Grayhall (She Writes Press).

Today:
Good Morning America: Sam Heughan, author of Waypoints: My Scottish Journey (Voracious, $29, 9780316495530).

Also on GMA: Kardea Brown, author of The Way Home: A Celebration of Sea Islands Food and Family with over 100 Recipes (Amistad, $34.99, 9780063085602).

CBS Mornings: Bob Woodward, author/narrator of The Trump Tapes: Bob Woodward's Twenty Interviews with President Donald Trump (Simon & Schuster Audio Originals, $24.99, 9781797124735).

Drew Barrymore Show: Jennette McCurdy, author of I'm Glad My Mom Died (Simon & Schuster, $27.99, 9781982185824).

Late Show with Stephen Colbert: Ina Garten, author of Go-To Dinners: A Barefoot Contessa Cookbook (Clarkson Potter, $35, 9781984822789).

Tomorrow:
Good Morning America: Shonda Rhimes and Betsy Beers, authors of Inside Bridgerton (Scribner/Marysue Rucci Books, $45, 9781668001073).

Also on GMA: Brian Johnson, author of The Lives of Brian: A Memoir (Dey Street, $29.99, 9780063046382), and Renée Alsarraf, author of Sit, Stay, Heal: What Dogs Can Teach Us About Living Well (HarperOne, $27.99, 9780063215221).

Today Show: Diane Kruger, author of A Name From the Sky (mineditionUS/Astra Books For Young Readers, $18.99, 9781662650918).

Also on Today: Clint Hill, co-author of My Travels with Mrs. Kennedy (Gallery Books, $35, 9781982181116).

Drew Barrymore Show: Phil Rosenthal, co-author of Somebody Feed Phil the Book: Untold Stories, Behind-the-Scenes Photos and Favorite Recipes (S&S/Simon Element, $32.50, 9781982170998).

The Talk: Kelly Ripa, author of Live Wire: Long-Winded Short Stories (Dey Street, $28.99, 9780063073302).

Late Show with Stephen Colbert: George R.R. Martin, co-author of The Rise of the Dragon: An Illustrated History of the Targaryen Dynasty, Volume One (Ten Speed Press, $60, 9781984859259).

Late Night with Seth Meyers repeat: Grant Morrison, author of Luda: A Novel (Del Rey, $28, 9780593355305).

Damian Lewis (Billions, Homeland, Wolf Hall) will star in The Radleys, based on Matt Haig's 2010 novel. Deadline reported that Euros Lyn (Heartstopper) is directing the film, which will be produced by Debbie Gray (Good Luck to You Leo Grande) through Genesius Pictures with Cornerstone Films handling worldwide sales. 

The Radleys is based on a script by British Comedy Award winner Jo Brand and written by Talitha Stevenson. Lewis is executive producing via his production company Ginger Biscuit Entertainment. 

Winners have been named for the Diverse Book Awards 2022, the annual prize celebrating "outstanding inclusive books by authors and publishers based in the U.K. and Ireland," the Bookseller reported. 

The children's book category winner was Me, My Dad and the End of the Rainbow by Benjamin Dean, illustrated by Sandhya Prabhat, with second place going to Hey You! An Empowering Celebration of Growing Up Black by Dapo Adeola and others; and third to The Very Merry Murder Club, edited by Robin Stevens and Serena Patel.

In the YA category, Skin of the Sea by Natasha Bowen won, followed by Ace of Spades by Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé and You're the One That I Want by Simon James Green.

The adult category was won by Kia Abdullah's Next of Kin, with second place going to His Only Wife by Peace Adzo Medie and third to Open Water by Caleb Azumah Nelson.

In her second adult romance, Astrid Parker Doesn't Fail, Ashley Herring Blake expertly employs humor and angst to set two lost women on a rocky path to happily ever after. After a devastating divorce and a memorable incident in which she might have set fire to one of her custom-made cabinets while on a job, Jordan Everwood returns home at the request of her twin brother to be lead carpenter on the renovation of their family's ancestral home, the Everwood Inn. To boost her similarly floundering interior design business, Astrid Parker signs on as lead designer for an episode of Innside America.

Astrid Parker Doesn't Fail opens the morning of the first day of filming with a meet-disaster. Jordan accidentally spills coffee all over Astrid's immaculate ivory dress at a coffee shop, an omen of things to come. Astrid's overreaction turns into a horribly awkward moment when they see each other on set and realize they'll have to work together on a project with high stakes for both of them. Astrid has a modern design planned for the inn--luxe but lacking personality--while Jordan has decades of memories of the historic building and soon makes her own plans more suited to the inn's character.

If love and hate are opposite sides of the same coin, the two women soon flip it, even though neither of them is sure if Astrid is queer. "What the hell was she thinking? She wasn't going there even if Astrid ended up as queer as a glitter-covered unicorn." This book is funny, with lots of situational humor and wisecracking friends, but it's Blake's (Delilah Green Doesn't Care) insightful depiction of Astrid's self-discovery that will make this book resonate with queer readers. Stifled by her overbearing mother's heteronormative expectations, Astrid has dated--and just broken an engagement with--only the most boring of men. She isn't ready to give herself a label, but the moment when Astrid declares her feelings to Jordan is a revelation in more ways than one.

Both women are at inflection points personally and professionally, and the author adeptly balances their individual and romantic arcs. It's not all about Astrid; Jordan heals emotionally and both of them step into their own dazzling professional futures. For fans of renovation shows, found family, stolen kisses and the occasional crude joke, Astrid Parker Doesn't Fail is a literary success. --Suzanne Krohn, librarian and freelance reviewer

Shelf Talker: A carpenter and an interior designer renovate their way to happily ever after in this funny and insightful queer romance.