"It's an amazing industry to be a part of, and now we really all support one another all across the country. It's really cool because when you own a business, sometimes you start to feel a little overwhelmed and isolated. I really love knowing that I have this huge group of people across the country who are going through the same things and trying to make a successful business out of an industry that some people say is old-school."

Keely Malone shows off the keys outside Ink Drinkers' future home.

Ink Drinkers Anonymous, which began as an online bookseller last June, is expanding into a physical location in the Historic Rose Court building at 125 East Charles St. in downtown Muncie, Ind., with a goal "to bring something new and different to the community," Ball State Daily reported. The grand opening is scheduled for March 17.

"Owning a bookstore in general started out as a dream of mine since I was five years old," said owner Keely Malone. "I've been obsessed with books, libraries and bookstores basically my whole life.... I kind of evaluated what the stores have here in Muncie and was like, 'What can I bring that we don't necessarily have in our bookstores here?' And that was diversity. Authors of different races, backgrounds, ethnicities, nationalities. So that became the focus with the BIPOC, the self-published authors and the local Hoosier authors."

Malone, who has been remodeling the space, described community support as overwhelming: "So far, they have been very open and very helpful in not only supporting me but getting the word out about the bookstore. [They've also been] getting involved and helping get everything together. I have a really good outlook on what the future has with working with the community."

Heather Perry of the H Ahindman & Co-Salon, which is also located in the complex, said: "I'm really excited to have a bookstore downtown. It seems like a really long time since we've had an independent bookstore. I love books. I imagine I'll be spending a lot of time in the bookstore."

The Professional Booksellers School is offering a class in bookstore finances designed to educate on the day-to-day and long-term finance-related needs of an independent bookstore. The class will considering both high-level financial topics, such as taxes and accounting, and deep dives into financial reporting and strategy. A mix of webinars, handouts and assignments will be used to guide students toward creating financial systems and strategies for real-time applications. This course is geared to store owners and/or managers who handle finances on a day-to-day basis and is for educational purposes only, meaning no certification is earned for this course.

The course has 15 classes, on Mondays, starting on March 27 and ending on July 24. Start time is 5 p.m. Eastern.

Registration opens Monday, February 27, at 1 p.m. Eastern. Only 20 students will be accepted; just one person per store. The fee is $400.

Marianne Mantell, who helped launch the audiobook industry as a co-founder of Caedmon Records, one of the only record companies of its time owned by women, died January 22. She was 93. The Washington Post reported that after she graduated from Hunter College, where she had studied ancient Greek and immersed herself in poetry, Mantell worked as a freelancer for record companies, writing liner notes and translating opera libretti. In 1951 "she tried to persuade her boss of the untapped audience for spoken-word recordings, full-length poetry albums intended for literate listeners as well as lapsed readers. He mocked the idea, then dismissed it."

The following year Mantell met with her college classmate Barbara Holdridge, who was also disenchanted by her job at a publishing house, and their discussion of poet Dylan Thomas's recent piece, "In the White Giant's Thigh," sparked the idea of recording him. 

"Over the next few weeks, the friends scrounged together about $1,500 to launch Caedmon Records, widely considered the first major label to specialize in spoken-word literary recordings. Its name honored one of the first Old English poets, a 7th century cowherd who was said to have waked up from a dream with the gift of verse and song," the Post wrote.

Mantell and Holdridge persuaded Thomas to sign a record deal and brought him to Steinway Hall, where he recorded several of his best-known pieces. To fill the B side of the record, they also recorded a largely forgotten Christmas story he had published in Harper's Bazaar. The resulting album, A Child's Christmas in Wales and Five Poems, "served as the foundation of their company, selling more than 400,000 copies by 1960 and emerging as a Yuletide favorite with its lilting remembrance of presents, music, snowball fights and log fires. In 2008, it was selected for the National Recording Registry," the Post noted. 

Caedmon Records, which now operates as the HarperCollins imprint Caedmon Audio, subsequently recorded many of the world's most renowned writers, including W.H. Auden, T.S. Eliot, William Faulkner, Robert Frost, Lorraine Hansberry, Ezra Pound and Eudora Welty. 

"Caedmon proved that spoken-word recordings could be both culturally significant and commercially viable," said Matthew Rubery, who chronicled the company's history as part of his 2016 book The Untold Story of the Talking Book. He added that the label "succeeded in making 'highbrow' literature accessible to a mass audience," with a special appeal for listeners "who yearned for a more immediate and intimate connection with authors."

By 1966, Caedmon had $14 million in annual sales and occupied an entire floor in a Manhattan office building. The company's releases included readings of Broadway plays, texts by African American writers such as Langston Hughes, and a set of Shakespeare's collected works. The staff included recording engineer Peter Bartók, a son of composer Béla Bartók, and a young Mike Nichols. A promising artist named Andy Warhol provided the cover art for a Tennessee Williams record, while playwright and screenwriter Howard Sackler served as the company's dramatic director.

In the early 1970s, Mantell and Holdridge sold their company to the Raytheon-owned publishing firm D.C. Heath. Holdridge started a small press, and Mantell joined her husband in running Films for the Humanities and Sciences, later known as the Films Media Group, a distributor of educational documentaries.

Last year, we ran thousands of ads across all of our publications--so we know a thing or two about great book marketing!

Join us next Wednesday, February 15, at 12 p.m. Eastern, or Thursday, February 16, at 3 p.m. Eastern, for a virtual session celebrating the best ads in the Shelf for 2022.

We'll go over all the Shelf's offerings, highlight our highest-performing and most innovative Shelf Awareness ads from last year, and break down what's so special about them. Join us as we geek out on stats, ah-ha at clever creative, and praise badass publishing colleagues who will take home the top honors.

Registration is open to all publisher marketing and ad/promo folks, as well as independent booksellers. To register for the Wednesday session, click here. To register for the Thursday session, click here.

If you're unable to attend either session, contact Matt Baldacci to get all the marketing goodness you missed.

Caseen Gaines signs copies of When Broadway Was Black (Sourcebooks; previously published in hardcover as Footnotes) at The Drama Bookshop in New York City ahead of its publication on Tuesday, February 7.

Tomorrow, February 11, Third Place Books, with three stores in the Seattle, Wash., area, will donate 20% of all sales to earthquake relief efforts in Turkey and Syria. The bookseller noted that proceeds "will go to the White Helmets (also known as the Syria Civil Defence). Where public services no longer function, these humanitarian volunteers risk their lives to help those in need regardless of their religion or politics. Known for their distinctive headwear, the rescue workers operate in the most dangerous place on earth and have saved more than 100,000 lives over the past five years.

"Over 3,000 White Helmet volunteers are currently on the ground in the earthquake-ravaged region searching for survivors, pulling victims from collapsed buildings, and transporting hundreds of injured people to hospitals in freezing snow and rain. Third Place Books will be donating 20% of sales from all three stores as well as online sales."

Oprah's Book Club recommended Baldwin & Co. bookstore, New Orleans, La., in an Instagram post earlier this week, noting: "If you're looking for a few more titles to add to your TBR and you happen to be heading to New Orleans, check out @baldwinandcompany, a black-owned independent bookstore & coffee shop Inspired by James Baldwin. Located in the city's historic Marigny neighborhood, this bookstore considers itself a center for intellectual discovery and a supportive environment for all members of the community, 'Through the power of books, we are increasing individuals' ability to improve their lives and achieve economic independence.' "

"It wasn't just the coffee that had the café and book shop Baldwin & Co. buzzing on Tuesday," NOLA.com reported. "That morning, the neighborhood business picked up a high-profile endorsement from the Oprah's Book Club, the much-followed reading club from Oprah Winfrey."

Baldwin & Co. was also highlighted in the New York Times' "36 Hours in New Orleans" feature, which noted: "Mornings might be the best time to enjoy a walk in the French Quarter and the Faubourg Marigny, the Quarter's more reserved sister neighborhood just next door.... End up at Baldwin & Co., a Black-owned bookstore in the Marigny that opens early (it's also a coffee shop), and showcases Black authors--from Dick Gregory, the comic and activist, to the New Orleans fiction master Maurice Carlos Ruffin to the vegan comfort-food entrepreneur Pinky Cole. Even on Sunday mornings, the place can feel like an old-school literary salon, with customers passionately debating and discussing current events."

Wesleyan RJ Julia Bookstore, Middletown, Conn.: "Ever just become one with the books? Ashley stepped out from behind our social media accounts to catch up on some new reads in the fiction shelves! Comment your favorite section of the bookstore below."

At the American Booksellers Association:

Cassie Youngstrom has been named education project coordinator. Before joining the ABA, she taught high school special education in New York City for seven years.

Cedar Fields has been named member relations and registration coordinator. Before joining the ABA, they were a bookseller at Changing Hands Bookstore, Phoenix, Ariz., and a manager at Literati Bookstore, Ann Arbor, Mich.

Zoe Perzo has been named content coordinator. Before joining the ABA, she worked as a librarian.

The Peach Seed by Anita Gail Jones (Holt), written and produced by the author and directed by D'Adonis Moquette.

Netflix has set a March 23 premiere date and released a teaser trailer and first-look images for The Night Agent, based on Matthew Quirk's 2019 novel, Deadline reported. Created and showrun by Shawn Ryan (S.W.A.T., The Shield), the 10-episode series stars Gabriel Basso, Luciane Buchanan, Hong Chau, Sarah Desjardins, Fola Evans-Akingbola, Eve Harlow, Enrique Murciano Phoenix Raei and DB Woodside.  

Deadline noted that when Ryan "announced that he was adapting the show in late 2020, he was discussing some of the favorite books he'd read that lockdown year. He listed The Night Agent in the category of 'Books I Read, Decided to Adapt for Television and May Have Already Finished Writing the Pilot Episode.' Netflix ordered The Night Agent to series seven months later."

An 18-title shortlist in three categories has been released for the 2023 Waterstones Children's Book Prize, chosen by booksellers working for the chain, the Bookseller reported. Category winners receive £2,000 (about $2,425), then vie for the overall title of Waterstones Children's Book of the Year 2023 and an extra £3,000 (about $3,635). Winners will be announced March 30. Check out the complete shortlist here.

Waterstones head children's buyer Florentyna Martin said: "Books have the magical power to aid personal development in safe, supportive spaces, whether readers are exploring on the page or visiting a bookshop. With the rise in mental health topics in children's books, and studies showing the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic and social media on young people's wellbeing, it is notable that we see reflections on mental health and identity on the shortlists. Our booksellers have chosen a list of exceptional new writing that offers something for everyone."

photo: Kate Sweeney

Sarah Iles Johnston spent much of her childhood reading Greek myths and now spends her professional life researching and teaching them as the College of Arts and Sciences Distinguished Professor of Religion and Classics at Ohio State University. In Gods and Mortals: Ancient Greek Myths for Modern Readers (Princeton University Press), she retells the myths in a fresh way that remains true to the ancient sources. Illustrator Tristan Johnston, her son, created 15 drawings, two maps and a jacket for the book. She's now working on a book about why many readers love supernatural horror fiction.

Handsell readers your book in 25 words or less:

It's a vibrant retelling of both famous myths and some that will be new to readers, crafted by someone who knows the ancient sources.

On your nightstand now:

V.E. Schwab's The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue (which I am half-reading, half-listening to as I drive), Isabel Colegate's The Shooting Party, Kate Atkinson's Shrines of Gaiety, and The Complete Saki, which is always, always good.

Favorite book when you were a child:

Gods, Heroes and Men of Ancient Greece by W.H.D. Rouse, which was first published in 1934 as a text for British schoolboys. For my 10th birthday, I wanted my own copy of D'Aulaires' Book of Greek Myths, but my father bought me Rouse instead, because he thought D'Aulaires' dumbed things down. I grew to love Rouse. His slightly antiquated verbiage charmed me, and he provided some information that children's books had blushingly omitted, such as the fact that Aphrodite sprang from blood that was spilled when the god Cronus overthrew his father.

Your top five authors:

A.S. Byatt. I especially like The Children's Book, which explores the pleasures, but also the dangers, of immersing oneself in fictional worlds.

Shirley Jackson. The Haunting of Hill House is the best supernatural horror novel of the 20th century.

Alexander McCall Smith. He's one of the wittiest writers I've ever read (which says a lot, given my next entry). I also love the fact that his stories demonstrate the way that small kindnesses can change the lives of both those who receive them and those who perform them.  

P.G. Wodehouse. I've been besotted with him since I first stumbled across Pigs Have Wings when I was 20. Indeed, I named my younger son, Pelham, in his honor.

The unknown Greek poet who composed the Homeric "Hymn to Demeter" in the sixth century BCE. This is the earliest surviving narration of how Persephone was raped by Hades and what her mother, Demeter, did about it. The staging of the scenes and the vivid language enthrall me, whether I'm reading the Hymn in Greek or in English.

Book you've faked reading:

There are books I'm embarrassed to say I've never finished (such as Moby-Dick), but I'm a bad liar and don't even try to pretend.

Book you're an evangelist for:

Piranesi by Susanna Clarke (2020). I am utterly in awe of this book and recommend it constantly. But once I get past the words "you have to read it," I become tongue-tied, because it's hard to describe Piranesi without ruining its pleasures. Let's just say that if you've ever wondered what it would be like to inhabit your favorite fantasy book, you'd better read this.

Book you've bought for the cover:

44 Scotland Street by Alexander McCall Smith. I was making an airport connection and needed something for the next flight. I'd never read anything by McCall Smith before, but the jacket illustration by Iain McIntosh--a stylized Georgian apartment house with various domestic scenes peeking through the windows--called to me. So I bought it, read it and was hooked on the author.

Book you hid from your parents:

My parents never made me feel I had to hide books. When I was a teenager, I was fascinated by contemporary witchcraft and bought a copy of Stewart Farrar's What Witches Do: A Modern Coven Revealed (1971), which includes photos of nude coven members (modestly nude, but still nude) performing rituals. I wonder what my parents thought of it.

Book that changed your life:

It wasn't a book: it was the reading list in the Greek mythology course that I took as a freshman. When I read the ancient works from which modern anthologies of myths are drawn, I was shocked by the brutal, petty nature of the gods. I finally learned the exact source of that paternal blood from which Aphrodite was born, for instance: Cronus had castrated his father. This and other unpleasant surprises put me off myths for about a year. Eventually, I returned. But the relationship was on a whole different footing.

Favorite line from a book:

I have many favorite scenes, such as E.F. Benson's description of how Elizabeth Mapp deviously acquires the recipe for lobster à la Riseholme (Mapp and Lucia, 1931), but few lines stick in my mind. One that does is from Aeschylus's Agamemnon: "Sing sorrow, sorrow: but good win out in the end," as Richmond Lattimore translates it. The members of the chorus say this when they learn that Agamemnon is returning from the Trojan War. They know that his wife will murder him and that horrors will unfold in the aftermath, but they try to stay positive. Two plays later, things do get better.

Five books you'll never part with:

It's easier to talk about two that I've thrown away. Stephen King's Pet Sematary and Peter Straub's Ghost Story frightened me so much that I didn't want to glimpse even the titles on their spines, so into the garbage they went. Years later, when I started working on supernatural horror fiction, I had to buy new copies and read them. They still frighten me, but now I think I know why. Stay tuned.

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

I can't think of any; I discover new things each time I reread my favorites. I am reading C.S. Lewis's Narnia books, Elizabeth Enright's Melendy books and Robert McCloskey's Homer Price books to my grandchildren and enjoying things I never saw as a child.

Smart, humane and just a bit quirky, The Best Strangers in the World: Stories from a Life Spent Listening is exactly the kind of memoir one would expect from Ari Shapiro, veteran NPR correspondent and host of the network's iconic evening news program All Things Considered. In an episodic collection of pieces, including two "musical interludes," Shapiro blends highlights of his two decades at NPR with personal stories, all intended to illuminate his goal of "seeking out ways to help people listen to one another."

After an initial rejection for an NPR internship following his graduation from Yale, Shapiro was fortunate enough to land one with longtime legal correspondent Nina Totenberg, who became a valued mentor. A few years later, he began a steady rise at the network, moving from covering the Justice Department to the White House to a position as an international correspondent based in London and then to his current job in 2015. Without minimizing the importance of the encounters with political leaders that were an essential part of his work in these roles, he argues that "news organizations often make a mistake by valorizing those bone-dry interviews over flesh-and-blood stories of culture, emotion, and personal experience."

Shapiro's moving description of his coverage of the Pulse nightclub shooting in 2016 illustrates his point and ties together some of the book's colorful threads. At the end of his junior year at a suburban Portland, Ore., high school, he describes how he made a flamboyant exit from the closet, and he tells of his annual spring visits to a gathering in the woods of Tennessee of "radical faeries" he considers "my tribe." In his account of the shooting's aftermath, he reveals how he brought a "unique set of experiences to this particular story," writing about his own presence at the nightclub a dozen years earlier and of reconnecting with one of the bartenders he met there.

On a lighter note, many fans of Shapiro's journalism may not be aware of his side gigs--as a singer with the genre-bending multilingual band Pink Martini, a role that landed him on stage at the Hollywood Bowl, and as a collaborator in a cabaret show with Broadway and TV star Alan Cumming. He displays his self-deprecating humor in a chapter entitled "You Can't See Schvitz on the Radio" that chronicles his problem with excessive sweating.

Shapiro says he's reluctant to pick any interviews as his "favorites," but in the concluding chapter of The Best Strangers in the World he does single out ones he'd done with a volunteer holiday decorator in the Obama White House, a freedom fighter in Zimbabwe and a transgender activist in Indonesia. The eclectic quality of those stories paints a vivid picture of his wide-ranging career and will leave readers and listeners eager to hear the many stories to come. --Harvey Freedenberg, freelance reviewer

Shelf Talker: Longtime NPR correspondent and host Ari Shapiro shares informative, touching and humorous stories from his radio career.

It's not an origin story, but in 2013 Shelf Awareness ran a "Cool Idea of the Day" item about a paper-covered books display at Malaprop's Bookstore, Asheville, N.C., with a sign reading: "Blind Date with a Bookseller (or their favorite books, anyway. It's almost the same thing). We love you. We want you to ride off into the sunset with the book of your dreams. But we also want you to enjoy the pleasant surprises of life.... If you're brave and true, step forward. pick one that calls to you. Embrace the sweaty-palmed anticipation of the unknown."

I'm sure this wasn't the first Blind Date with a Book moment in history, but it was definitely a harbinger of things to come, as just a few months later we highlighted other indie bookstores offering them in Valentine's Day promotions. 

At Gibson's Bookstore

In this week's bookshop newsletter, Gibson's Bookstore, Concord, N.H., wrote: "If you like to live life on the edge and trust our booksellers implicitly, you should stop in and peruse our Blind Date with a Book Display! At any given time, this display has up to 12 different paperbacks chosen by our booksellers, wrapped up in mysterious little parcels with vague yet extremely specific blurbs written on the outside. 

"Browsing the display you might find 'John Tucker Must Die, with bisexual witches' or 'Lesbian necromancers in space' or 'Exiled witch on house arrest for turning her narcissistic, internet-troll, gun-loving, beer-drinking, ex-coworker into a talking cat.' We'll be honest, sometimes the formal publisher marketing lets a book down. We strive to fix that." 

At Sweet Home Books, Wetumpka, Ala.

Americans are expected to spend $25.9 billion on Valentine's Day this year, and while flowers, candy and the other usual suspects will harvest the majority of those sales, my recent unofficial social media survey found that an impressive number of indie booksellers are also highlighting the pleasures of the bookish unknown for readers. Here's a Blind Date with a Book Valentine's Day sampler: 

Werner Books, Erie, Pa.: "We avid readers know books make the best date--they won't judge you, they don't care what you're wearing when you read them, you can walk away from them at any time, and when you're done you can pass them along to someone else with no hard feelings. What better reason to go on a blind date with a book?"

Blue House Books, Kenosha, Wis.: "THIS WEEKEND head to 6th Ave A for two of our favorite shopping events: Blind Date with a Book at Blue House Books. Blind Date with a Plant at Equinox botanical boutique. It's the perfect Valentine's weekend!"

The Bookies Bookstore, Denver, Colo.: "Happy almost Valentines! We've got blind dates for y'all--with options for all ages and genre preferences." 

A Novel Idea, Philadelphia, Pa.: "Love is in the air in the form of gift wrapped mystery books! Come by the shop this weekend to go on the best blind date ever! We will have a table filled with mystery gift wrapped books with clues to help you find your perfect match." 

The Poisoned Pen Bookstore, Scottsdale, Ariz.: "Grab a Blind Date with a Book in time for Valentine's Day."

At Zenith Bookstore

Zenith Bookstore, Duluth, Minn.: "Love is in the air, and Blind Date With A Book is back! Get a hand-wrapped book, curated by your loving Zenith booksellers, and tagged with intriguing clues. Includes a bar of delicious artisan chocolate from Minnesota chocolatier @tcchocolate. Who knows, you may just find the perfect match!"

Turning Page Bookshop, Goose Creek, S.C.: "Hey Cutie, want to read me to dinner for Valentine's Day? Surely you do?"

Afterwords Books, Edwardsville, Ill.: "Blind date with a book and tea makes an excellent gift! Available in adult or young adult fiction titles, each blind date includes a hardcover book, a sample of @simpsonvailtea literary tea and a cute bookmark."

At A Likely Story

A Likely Story Bookstore, Sykesville, Md.: "Look what's back!! A favorite. Come and get your blind date with a book... you should never judge a book by its cover."

Thunder Road Books, Spring Lake, N.J.: "Get them what they really want for Valentine's Day... a really good book! Blind Date with a Book is back at Thunder Road Books and we got all the genres covered!"

Blacksburg Books, Blacksburg, Va.: "A big pile of blind date books that we're working on for the Y'allentine's Book Fair on February 11 over at @moonhollowbrewing! Drinks from Moon Hollow, a dessert pop up by @yourdessertbarva and food by @lawingsva--sounds like a perfect pre-Valentines date!"

Comma, a Bookshop, Minneapolis, Minn.: "Have you ever had a blind date with a book? You pick a book that's already wrapped, with just a few clues, and take it home! (Any guesses what the book in the video is?)"

At 2 Dandelions Bookshop

2 Dandelions Bookshop, Brighton, Mich.: "Back by popular demand... it's Blind Date with a Book! All books are only $10--will you find your perfect match? These make great gifts as well... get them before they're gone!"

Femme Fire Books, Jacksonville, Fla.: "Decided to switch things up a bit with our Blind Date With A Books! We have a new wrap design.... I hope y'all like it." 

As Gibson's Bookstore noted in its newsletter: "Our booksellers have entirely too much fun writing the blurbs for these books, and our customers have just as much fun picking out their next read! (Every time we hear a laugh coming from the display area, our hearts grow three sizes.) Stop in and check it out for yourself!"