Andrea Fleck-Nisbet

Andrea Fleck-Nisbet is joining the Independent Book Publishers Association as CEO, effective November 1. She succeeds Angela Bole, CEO for the last nine years, who announced in June she would resign to become CEO of Firebrand Group, effective February 1, 2023. Bole will continue with IBPA until the end of November to help with the transition.

Fleck-Nisbet most recently was the founding v-p and publisher at Harper Horizon, a nonfiction imprint of HarperCollins, with headquarters in Nashville, Tenn. Before that, she was the director of content acquisition for Ingram Content Group and earlier worked at Workman Publishing for 15 years in special markets, sales and digital marketing, including three years as executive director of digital strategy and operations.

"There has never been a more exciting time to be part of independent publishing," Fleck-Nisbet said. "Advances in consumer platforms, printing technology, distribution services and data management tools have allowed independent publishers to reach more readers, build stronger communities, and develop sustainable business practices outside of traditional publishing models.

"Continued consolidation within corporate publishing threatens to further stagnate innovation and accessibility, just when fresh perspectives and new models are most needed. No group is better poised to democratize book publishing than independent publishers, and no organization is better positioned to support them in that endeavor than IBPA."

IBPA board chair Karen Pavlicin of Elva Resa Publishing called Fleck-Nesbit "a strategic thought-leader who will build on IBPA's strong foundation and move us forward in innovative ways. Her breadth of experience working with publishers of all sizes and business models, with a long history of supporting DEI initiatives and making data-driven decisions, will enhance opportunities across IBPA's membership and the industry. I'm excited for both Andrea and Angela as they move forward in their new positions."

Molly's Bookstore, a general-interest bookstore with titles for all ages, is coming to Melrose, Mass., next month, Patch.com reported.

Owners Andrea Iriarte Dent and Brett Reed are getting ready to open the bookstore at 667-669 Main Street. The bookstore will span two floors, with children's books and an event space on the lower level and adult books on the second level.

Iriarte Dent, who moved to the U.S. from Guatemala about 12 years ago, told Patch that she recalls being in a Latino reading group and having trouble finding books the group wanted to read. She plans to make sure that the store's inventory is diverse and that Molly's Bookstore fosters an inclusive environment through things like book clubs and other community events.

"The community needs a bookstore," she said of Melrose, where she and her husband have lived for the past four years. "This community is right for it."

Owning a bookstore has been a lifelong dream for Iriarte Dent, and she noted that due to limited commercial real estate options in downtown Melrose, she and Reed had to jump at the first opportunity: "We had to go from zero to hero at 200 miles an hour."

Renovations are underway and the owners are in the "final sprint" before opening, with a planned opening day of November 19. She added that the Melrose community has shown immense support for the bookstore.

Two independent bookstores in Sanibel, Fla., that were hard-hit by Hurricane Ian on September 29 have been providing updates on social media about their recovery efforts.

"It's been a long (almost) month," Rebecca Binkowski, owner of MacIntosh Books + Paper, posted on Facebook Sunday. "Today we finished cleaning out our space so that Benchmark Construction can begin assessing the damage and formulating a plan. We have so many people to thank for their beautiful words of encouragement and support. It's been a wild, emotional ride and our community is stronger than ever. It will all be ok."

Earlier this month, Binkowski had paid tribute to the cleaning crew: "My amazing daughter, Ava and two-thirds of what she affectionately calls my Old Lady Posse, Kim and Lisa. These ladies are my rocks. My ride or dies and I can't thank them enough for helping me sort my treasures and wipe my tears. It was a lot. I took photos but I won't post them. I'd prefer that you remember how beautiful our bookshop was. I know that we will make it beautiful again, together. That's all for now. I'm absolutely wiped out and most definitely grateful I almost forgot, there's a snuggly shot of Mr. Brady, too."

On October 15, Gene's Books posted on Facebook: "The devastation of Hurricane Ian is not to be minimized, but we have hope for the future of Gene's Books. A few members of our team have been on-island and assessed the damage to our stores firsthand, and although we cannot say we have great news, we can say with certainty that we do not intend to give up on what we love. No matter how long it takes, no matter where we end up, our allegiance is to you, our loyal and amazing customers, and we will not let you down. In the coming days as we continue to meet with our Gene's Books family, we will be posting more frequent updates as we crystalize our plans going forward. Everyone stay safe, and thank you for your continued love and support. We WILL be back, and we'll be better than ever."

After sharing two photos on October 20 showing "what a difference a hurricane can make," Gene's Books has continued to chronicle the challenges faced in several posts, noting last weekend: "These pictures are devastating to share, but you all have a right to see what we have been grappling with for what has been, incredibly, almost a month now. This is our mystery cottage. The first thing you see when you walk into Gene's Books. You can see the storm surge line, the mold growing on the ceiling. All of these books bloated with water, never to be cherished in the hands of a reader.

"In short, we are heartbroken. We're hurting so bad. For the employees, this was our happy place. We were family. This was our home, and now we're lost. Ian came through and took away the thing we loved most. As the person running this account, it's hard for me to find words to describe to you the pain that we feel--but, then again, I don't have to. I see it in your comments, and in all the lovely messages you send. You are hurting just as bad as we are, and all we can do is feel this hurt together, and hope to move forward into the future. Thank you for everything. Thank you, thank you, thank you."

Red Emma's, the employee-owned bookstore and coffeehouse in Baltimore, Md., has soft-opened in its new home in the city's Waverly neighborhood, the Baltimore Fishbowl reported.

The store closed last winter to move from its previous home at 1225 Cathedral St. in Midtown to 3128 Greenmount Ave. The Red Emma's team had hoped to open in the summer, but the permitting process took much longer than expected, and Baltimore City Council member Odette Ramos even had to step in to help the store open.

"Occupancy permit, traders license, health license, the whole nine yards," the team wrote on Facebook. "Come for the food and stay for the events.... It's been a lonely nine months without you and we can't wait to welcome you into our new home.”

For the time being, Red Emma's is operating out of the basement at 3128 Greenmount while work continues on an adjacent building at 415 East 32nd St. Eventually Red Emma's will encompass both buildings and be a multi-level community coffeehouse, bookstore and social center.

Red Emma's purchased the two buildings with the help of Central Baltimore Partnership, Central Baltimore Future Fund, the Baltimore Roundtable for Economic Democracy and Seed Commons. Per the Fishbowl, the project represents "an investment in the Waverly area of approximately $1.6 million."

White Whale Bookstore, Pittsburgh, Pa., is now a Mindful Brewing Co. outpost, "serving their beer in our cafe daily from noon on (we still close at 7, unless there's an event)," the bookshop posted on Instagram recently. To launch this new chapter, White Whale hosted a First Pour with Mindful event last weekend, during which customers could buy a book and get a $1 beer.

The partnership between Mindful and White Whale began in 2021 when bookstore co-owners Jill and Adlai Yeomans "purchased the adjacent storefront to include more retail space and a cafe that serves coffee and pastries, including gluten-free goodies," Pittsburgh magazine reported. Mindful co-owner Dustin Jones grew up in the neighborhood, where his family has lived for more than three generations. 

Zack Woods, marketing director and event coordinator for Mindful, said the two businesses are planning a collaboration beer that will be released in early 2023 and available only in the Bloomfield neighborhood, also known as Little Italy. 

The White Whale team has full control over which products they offer from the brewery's full lineup, but they will work together to consider seasonality and what options may work best for the Little Italy location, Pittsburgh wrote.

"The White Whale Bookstore, cafe and taproom is a community staple and we will, of course, be working with the team to book both public and private events that suit the space and reflect our collaborative goals," Woods added. 

Singer Margo Price stopped at Prairie Lights Books in Iowa City, Iowa, to sing a couple songs and talk about and sign her new memoir, Maybe We'll Make It (University of Texas Press). Pictured from left: events coordinator Kathleen Johnson, Margo Price and Jan Weissmiller, bookstore owner.

Egypt Otis, owner of Comma Bookstore & Social Hub, Flint, Mich., made a guest appearance in a recent commercial tied to a hit Marvel movie. On Facebook, Otis posted: "So excited to finally share some HUGE news! I am so grateful to be representing and featured in Mastercard's partnership with Marvel and the iconic Black Panther: Wakanda Forever commercial spotlighting my businesses through their Strivers Initiative. To serve as the face of possibility for aspiring Black women and young girls makes me feel like a superhero of sorts--just for living my truth. Mastercard's Strivers Initiative has provided me the resources and platform to help my business thrive and further empower our community, which to me is truly priceless.

"Thank you to everyone who played a role into making this happen! Especially Mastercard, Marvel and the production team! I’m very grateful for the impact this has had on my city."

"We're a week out from Halloween!" Carmichael's Bookstore, Louisville, Ky., posted on Instagram along with a photo of its front window displays, adding: "We have spooky season displays at all our stores filled with a great mix of books, so you're certain to find something that is at just the right level of scare your mood calls for."

Cocoon by Zhang Yueran, translated from the Chinese by Jeremy Tiang (World Editions).

Today:
Fresh Air: David Rothkopf, author of American Resistance: The Inside Story of How the Deep State Saved the Nation (PublicAffairs, $29, 9781541700635).

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

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

Jimmy Kimmel Live: Quentin Tarantino, author of Cinema Speculation (Harper, $35, 9780063112582).

Late Late Show with James Corden: Yuval Noah Harari, author of Unstoppable Us: Volume One: How Humans Took Over the World (Bright Matter Books, $24.99, 9780593643464).

A premiere date has been set for the new TV project based on Elena Ferrante's novel The Lying Life of Adults, translated into English by Ann Goldstein and published by Europa Editions in 2020. Produced by Fandango, the six-episode series will debut January 4, 2023, on Netflix 

The series is directed by Edoardo De Angelis and stars Valeria Golino in the role of Vittoria, and newcomer Giordana Marengo as Giovanna. Alessandro Preziosi (Medici) plays Giovanna's father, Andrea, while Pina Turco (Gomorrah, the series) plays her mother, Nella. The series is written by Ferrante, Laura Paolucci, Francesco Piccolo, and De Angelis.

The logline for The Lying Life of Adults reads: "The search for a new face, after the happy one of childhood, oscillates between two consanguineous Naples which, however, fear and hate each other: the Naples above, which has given itself a fine mask, and the one below, which pretends to be excessive, trivial. Giovanna oscillates between high and low, now tumbling, now climbing, bewildered by the fact that, up or down, the city seems without answer and without escape."

Finalists have been announced for the 2022 Cundill History Prize, which honors "the best history writing in English" and is administered by McGill University in Montreal, Canada. The winner, to be named December 1, receives US$75,000 and the two runners up US$10,000. This year's finalists are:

Cuba: An American History by Ada Ferrer (Scribner)
All That She Carried: The Journey of Ashley's Sack, a Black Family Keepsake by Tiya Miles (Random House)
Collapse: The Fall of the Soviet Union by Vladislav Zubok (Yale University Press)

photo: Beowulf Sheehan

Born and raised in Los Angeles, Ryan Lee Wong lived for two years at the Ancestral Heart Zen Temple, and currently lives in Brooklyn, N.Y., where he serves as administrative director of the Brooklyn Zen Center. Previously, he was program director for the Asian American Writers' Workshop and managing director of New York City's Kundiman. He has organized exhibitions and written extensively on the Asian American movements of the 1970s. Wong's debut novel, Which Side Are You On (Catapult), offers an addition to conversations about searching for ways to build relationships and create solidarity amidst global racial tension.

Handsell readers your book in 25 words or less:

In this era of violence and collapse, how do we live with pleasure and connection? Reed, the protagonist, finds answers through conversations with his mother.

On your nightstand now:

This year, I'm focusing on books by women. I have Joanna Macy's World as Lover, World as Self, which was one of the first to cross Buddhism with modern environmentalism; Jamaica Kincaid's See Now Then, which a friend told me is one of the great revenge novels; I just started Larissa Pham's Pop Song, which makes me long to find the nearest Agnes Martin; and I just finished my friend Jenny Tinghui Zhang's Four Treasures of the Sky, which breaks new emotional ground for both Chinese America and the western.

Favorite book when you were a child:

The Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin. I'm still haunted by the way Ged's greatest enemy is his own shadow, and how an arrogant mistake in his youth marks him for the rest of his life.   

Your top five authors:

John Berger, V.S. Naipaul, Grace Paley, Toni Morrison, Leo Tolstoy. A word on Tolstoy: I read Anna Karenina while living at a Zen temple and became fascinated by his conversion after finishing that novel. He denounced all his earlier works and focused instead on writing religious texts and becoming vegetarian and exchanging letters with Gandhi. And it's hard not to see Levin's turn in the last pages of Anna Karenina as Tolstoy's own experience--it's the closest description of spiritual awakening I've seen.

Book you've faked reading:

I've never finished Ulysses, and yet its melancholy and prose have influenced my writing deeply. I'd like to finish it one day, but I'm not sure I have to.

Book you're an evangelist for:

Karen Tei Yamashita's I Hotel: it's a daunting, 700-plus-page epic on the Asian American arts and activism that quite literally produced me. My parents met during that movement in the 1970s, and are connected to many of the people whose stories inspired the novel. Every time I picked it up and started reading, I had the thought, "I can't believe someone did this for us."

Book you've bought for the cover:

James Baldwin's If Beale Street Could Talk, because of the full-page author photo on the back in which Baldwin looks coy and wise.

Book you hid from your parents:

My grandmother, who was a librarian, bought me Adrian Tomine's Shortcomings when I was in high school. It shocked me with its discussions of sex and race and self-hatred, and I was too shy to ask her if she actually read it.

Book that changed your life:

The Wretched of the Earth by Frantz Fanon. In college, it was one of those books that served as a kind of password, a signal that you were becoming a different kind of person. I read it and didn't understand a thing. Each time I revisit it, I learn something new, and my life has more or less been centered on asking what decolonization--body, mind, and land--means.

Favorite line from a book:

The first sentences of Grace Paley's "Immigrant Story" encapsulate the entire weight of history that I feel. Paley was a Jewish woman from the Bronx born almost 70 years before me, a Chinese Korean boy from L.A., but it's as if she were pointing right at me:

"Jack asked me, Isn't it a terrible thing to grow up in the shadow of another person's sorrow?
I suppose so, I answered. As you know, I grew up in the summer sunlight of upward mobility. This leached out a lot of that dark ancestral grief."

Five books you'll never part with:

The Autobiography of Malcolm X: As Told to Alex Haley, one of the great chronicles of becoming; Rose by Li-Young Lee, his first and maybe most intimate collection; my signed copy of I Hotel (see above); Ruth Ozeki's A Tale for the Time Being, which introduced me to Dogen and Soto Zen; and Dogen's Shobogenzo, his treasury of Zen teachings and a guide to living. I read the thousand pages of the Shobogenzo also while living at the Zen temple, where we had a morning study period. The book came alive to me--I saw that we were still sailing in the ship that Dogen designed. He has breathtaking, poetic passages about time and Buddha nature, and also passages where he lays out rules for using the toilet and how to fold your robes. For him, the transcendent and mundane were inseparable. 

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

Virginia Woolf's To the Lighthouse: I'll never forget my awe at how she jumps through time in the second section.

Polar Bear wisely and effectively brings climate change into focus while closely following one family of polar bears as they struggle to survive in a harsh, warming climate.

It's "April in the Arctic" and "temperatures barely nudge above freezing" when a mother polar bear and her two cubs emerge from their den beneath the snow. Mother has survived on stored fat for five months, gestating and then nursing her young, and now she's hungry and ready to hunt. Day by day, she teaches her cubs about the world outside their den, until it's time to travel "home to the ice" along a trail she used with her own mother, the same one "her cubs will take when they are grown."

The trip is long and dangerous, but the family finally arrives at "ice-covered Hudson Bay." Mother hunts while babies watch and learn. Weeks pass as the bear family gorges and gains weight, but they're in a race against time to fatten up before "summer's lean months." When the ice has melted, "seals are almost impossible to catch in open water," and this year "too much ice is melting too soon." The odds of survival are difficult in the best of times, as "only one in ten hunts succeed," and now the ice, so necessary for these bears "to hunt and eat and survive," is being depleted by warming temperatures in the Arctic.

Polar Bear is yet another wondrous collaboration from the Sibert Medal-winning team of Candace Fleming and Eric Rohmann (Honeybee). Fleming masterfully builds suspense, and her text will have readers rooting hard for this family of bears as they struggle to find food and grapple with climate change. Her lovely, lilting prose accompanies Caldecott Medalist Rohmann's breathtaking oil illustrations, which include an effective double gatefold showing the struggling bears adrift after ice melts too early. Back matter explains how polar bears have adapted to their arctic climate and brings home the need to keep climate change at bay, including a section on how readers can help.

Polar Bear, with text both informative and lyrical and achingly beautiful illustration, issues a hopeful call to action. The young bears survive two seasons of hardship and hunting with their mother and are eventually old enough to separate and "walk on, alone, beneath the Arctic sky, along familiar paths, at home on the ice." --Lynn Becker, reviewer, blogger, and children's book author

Shelf Talker: Polar Bear uses text both informative and lyrical and achingly beautiful illustrations to follow a mother and her cubs as they struggle to survive in a beautiful, harsh and warming climate.

The Simpsons Treehouse of Horror Ominous Omnibus Vol. 1: Scary Tales & Scarier Tentacles by Matt Groening, introduction by Bart Simpson (Abrams ComicArts, $39.99, 9781419737121)

I’ve always watched The Simpsons' Treehouse of Horror specials in the days leading up to Halloween. The gentle humor and familiar characters coupled with the absurdist Twilight Zone-esque premises of Treehouse episodes makes me feel like I'm watching my own family get thrown back in time or be replaced by a malevolent alien species. Pure comfort. Despite being both a Simpsons and a comics superfan, I've never thought to open a Simpsons comic until I received the Treehouse of Horror Ominous Omnibus. The packaging is what first compelled me: glow in the dark with a die-cut slipcase that features the characters we know and love getting swallowed by a Vortex. It quickly became one of my favorite books of the year. Reading these short comics felt like watching a secret season of episodes that was accidentally lost by the network. The Simpsons have become such a universal cultural language that different writers and cartoonists can all contribute to the canon in an imaginative way that still clearly has a place in the Simpsons universe. Filled with fun extras and memorable stories, the Ominous Omnibus is a major boon to Simpsons fans.

How to Handsell: The Simpsons' Treehouse of Horror: Ominous Omnibus has multiple Eisner-winning short stories, collectible trading cards and paper dolls designed by beloved Earth-invading aliens Kang and Kodos. This omnibus is a delightful addition to the series that occupies an indelible spot in the collective imagination.

Slash Them All by Antoine Maillard (Fantagraphics, $29.99, 9781683966579)

Slash Them All, wow. Reading this graphic novel felt like waking up in a John Carpenter film. This is Antoine Maillard's debut, which is hard to believe because there's such a mastery of pace, mood, and visual storytelling all in one context. This is a writer and cartoonist who knows his voice and knows how to tell the stories he’s drawn to.

Slash Them All takes place in a mostly idyllic seaside town that has several shady corners. High school students party, play video games, ditch class, and when the story starts, a few are found murdered. The creepiness of this story is found in the intense shading, the pages with no dialogue, and the genuine mystery of the story. Maillard is a cartoonist to keep your eye on.

How to Handsell: The Slasher and Film Noir genres collide in this moody mystery with exquisite storytelling. Slash Them All belongs at the center of your Halloween displays.

Hobtown Mystery Stories #1: The Case of the Missing Men (Conundrum Press, $20, 9781772620160)

Like Slash Them All, The Case of the Missing Men also shines a spotlight on the teenagers living in a seemingly idyllic but actually creepy coastal town. Unlike Slash Them All, this graphic novel is less classic horror and more a vehicle for the surrealist Lynchian camp. Stock characters--the troubled new kid, the hot-headed jock, the straight-A student--are deployed ironically in Missing Men, which allows readers to latch onto familiar tropes only long enough for them to be subverted. At the center of the novel is a Detective Club run by a group of teens. Several middle-aged men have started to go missing, including the father of one of the teens. As in The Hardy Boys or Stranger Things, the kids are compelled to investigate the bizarre events in their town against the advice of adults. Replete with secret societies, hallucinations, and unexplainable phenomena, The Case of the Missing Men is a fun variation on a beloved genre, perfect for the Fall season.

How to Handsell: This offbeat backlist title with a Nancy Drew-inspired cover features a group of industrious teens trying to uncover the mysteries below the surface of their peaceful town. This cozy series-starter will draw you in; I've already started book 2.

Creepy by Keiler Roberts and Lee Sensenbrenner (Drawn & Quarterly, $16.95, 9781770466197)

From the author of My Begging Chart, Creepy is the parable for technology overconsumption that you need to read. The message? Stay away from your screens or else a creepy lady will eat your ears.

This "children's book for adults" is in fact a perfect bedtime story for children, too. Told with a stony simplicity and paired with equally deadpan illustrations, Creepy is both a parable and an anti-parable. Of course, the consequences of the technology-centered childhood are significant and far-reaching in a way we're just beginning to understand, but Roberts and Sensenbrenner don't really aim to contend with these weighty issues. Instead, they've written a playful little book about a woman who spends all day on the hunt for her favorite meal: ears. What more could you ask for?

How to Handsell: Creepy is perfect for those in the Halloween spirit, and a good stocking stuffer for readers of all ages looking for an ironic take on the cautionary tale.