In December, bookstore sales rose 1.9%, to $1.15 billion, compared to December 2021, according to preliminary Census Bureau estimates. By comparison to pre-pandemic times, bookstore sales in December were 10% higher than in December 2019. For all of 2022, bookstore sales rose 6.2%, to $8.993 billion compared to 2021, and rose 0.7% compared to 2019.

Total retail sales in December rose 5.1%, to $748.2 billion, compared to December 2021. For 2022, total retail sales climbed 9.1%, to $8,121 billion.

Note: under Census Bureau definitions, the bookstore category consists of "establishments primarily engaged in retailing new books." The Bureau also added this unusual caution concerning the effect of Covid-19: "The Census Bureau continues to monitor response and data quality and has determined that estimates in this release meet publication standards."

PM Press, an independent book publisher specializing in radical literature, has purchased Autumn Leaves bookstore in Ithaca, N.Y., and plans to start offering more new books along with the shop's extensive used book inventory, the Ithaca Voice reported. In addition, Angry Mom Records, which has long been housed in the basement, will occupy the second floor of the building.

PM Press founder Ramsey Kanaan said the strategy with Autumn Leaves is to augment what the store already does well: "Fundamentally, we're enhancing and improving on what's already here rather than there being a radical--pun intended--shift in the contents."

Liz Kitney, a book buyer who has worked at Autumn Leaves for more than a decade, plans to continue her role under PM Press's management, curating what she calls a "discovery element.... People want the book they've been looking for to appear before them and they didn't even know what they were looking for." 

Besides carrying more new books alongside used books, PM Press plans to stock more scholarly literature in sections like history and philosophy and PM Press titles. "While Kanaan said that the publishing company doesn't try to 'hide our politics,' he added that a good bookstore, and good politics, should be a place where the open exchange of ideas is facilitated," the Ithaca Voice wrote.

"The logic of good politics is to be as encouraging and as inclusive as possible," said Kanaan. "We do not want to put people off, by saying, 'I don't agree with you, so bugger off.' Autumn Leaves is a fantastic used bookstore. It will remain a fantastic general used bookstore." 

Carmichael's Kids in Louisville, Ky., reopened yesterday following a one-month closure, the Courier Journal reported.

The children's bookstore, which closed on January 15 due to extensive water damage, officially reopened Wednesday morning at 10 a.m. and has returned to normal business hours.

"We won't lie: it's been a hard month having our doors closed, dealing with repairs and not getting to see your smiling faces," read the bookstore's reopening announcement. "Our community reaching out and sharing with us how much the store means to them has definitely helped lift our spirits. We just can't wait to see you."

Local news reported that the flooding was caused by a broken main sewer line, and at the time Carmichael's co-owners Kelly Estep and Miranda Blankenship stated: "The beautiful and historic neighborhoods we are located in also, at times, come with infrastructure that needs updating and we are temporarily closed while the issues with water damage are solved.... We assure you that the closure is, in no way, permanent."

Carmichael's was founded in Louisville in 1978, and Carmichael's Kids opened in the Highlands in 2014.

Sistah Scifi in Oakland, Calif., has launched two vending machines featuring speculative fiction written by Black and Indigenous authors, Boing Boing reported.

The first vending machine, located in Oaklandia Cafe x Bakery in downtown Oakland, went live last week and a second opened soon after in the coffee shop Mixed in Mill Creek, Wash. The two vending machines feature titles like Who Fears Death by Nnedi Okorafor, Mae Among the Stars by Roda Ahmed and Stasia Burrington and The Memory Librarian by Janelle Monae.

The book vending machines have been supported by a crowdfunding campaign launched by Sistah Scifi founder Isis Asare and her team. The campaign has so far raised more than $15,000 and Sistah Scifi plans to launch at least two other vending machines in Black-owned cafes around the country. 

The network of book-vending machines aims to help fulfill Sistah Scifi's goal of doubling "the number of Black and Indigenous speculative fiction writers on the New York Times Bestseller List."

Internationally renowned German antiquarian bookseller Herbert Blank, who was "not only one of the last greats of the Stuttgart antiquarian book trade, but also one of the most modest," died January 23. He was 93. "It is not the personal or monetary success that is decisive, but always the passing of a book from one bibliophile to the next," he once told Gunnar Gräff, who wrote an obituary and tribute for Verband Deutscher Antiquare (translated version on the International League of Antiquarian Booksellers website)

A book collector since he as a young man, Blank's interest in the book trade was awakened in the post-war years. "At [distributor] Koch, Neff & Oetinger he gained the business know-how for his own company later on and in the export department an essential insight into the international interconnections of the book trade, before he moved to the publishing house Freies Geistesleben, where he became managing director in 1956 and held the position for 10 years," Gräff wrote. "Following his decision to become an independent bookseller in 1965, his first catalogues still covered the whole world of the humanities....

"Herbert Blank embraced the rare book trade and devoted his entire life to it. His customers, who were scattered all over the world and with whom he often shared a personal friendship, appreciated the high standards he set for himself and his books, and valued his great expertise and high quality and authenticity of his books and descriptions in the over 50 catalogues he produced over the years."

When Gräff visited Herbert Blank a few days before his death, "he talked about his books, about what he had read, what he still had planned to do and what would probably no longer be possible. He regretted the "fatigue that prevented him from working," but never complained about illness or infirmity. When I was leaving, he said a sentence that I had heard from him not for the first time: 'I am grateful for everything.' "

Oprah Winfrey has chosen Bittersweet by Susan Cain (Crown) as the first Oprah's Book Club selection of 2023. 

Winfrey said: "This book has the power to transform the way you see your life and even the world. I have started to look at my own life in the world differently."

On March 9, Winfrey will join Cain and four Oprah's Book Club readers for a discussion of the book and its themes on OprahDaily.com.

Blind Date with a Book promotions were a popular Valentine's Day activity for bookstores this year, but as the New Atlantic Independent Booksellers Association pointed out, Watchung Booksellers, Montclair, N.J., took the promotion to the next level: 

"So many of our stores are having excellent success with the blind date with a book concept. And this bookstore took it a step further, and made it look like an actual date for this social media post. I laughed out loud! Excellent work, Watchung Booksellers."

Lizzi Middleman is joining Algonquin Books as senior marketing manager. She has been senior manager, marketing & sales promotion, at Gibbs Smith.

The Tree and the River by Aaron Becker (Candlewick Press).

Tomorrow:
Good Morning America: Kate Bowler, co-author of The Lives We Actually Have: 100 Blessings for Imperfect Days (Convergent Books, $25, 9780593193709).

Drew Barrymore Show: Kristin Chenoweth, author of I'm No Philosopher, But I Got Thoughts: Mini-Meditations for Saints, Sinners, and the Rest of Us (Harper Celebrate, $22.99, 9781400228492).

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, February 18
3:05 p.m. Jonathan White, author of A House Built by Slaves: African American Visitors to the Lincoln White House (Rowman & Littlefield, $26, 9781538161807).

3:57 p.m. James Oakes, author of The Crooked Path to Abolition: Abraham Lincoln and the Antislavery Constitution (Norton, $26.95, 9781324020196).

5:52 p.m. J. Matthew Gallman, author of The Cacophony of Politics: Northern Democrats and the American Civil War (University of Virginia Press, $35, 9780813946566).

Sunday, February 19
8 a.m. Otis Moss III, author of Dancing in the Darkness: Spiritual Lessons for Thriving in Turbulent Times (Simon & Schuster, $25, 9781501177699). (Re-airs Sunday at 8 p.m.)

10 a.m. Joanna Schwartz, author of Shielded: How the Police Became Untouchable (Viking, $30, 9780593299364). (Re-airs Sunday at 10 p.m.)

2 p.m. Daniel Black, author of Black on Black: On Our Resilience and Brilliance in America (Hanover Square Press, $27.99, 9781335449382). (Re-airs Monday at 2 a.m.)

4 p.m. Cody Keenan, author of Grace: President Obama and Ten Days in the Battle for America (Mariner, $29.99, 9780358651895). (Re-airs Monday at 4 a.m.)

6:40 p.m. Kathy Lopes, author of Change the Narrative: How to Foster an Antiracist Culture in Your School (Dave Burgess Consulting, $26.95, 9781956306217). (Re-airs Monday at 6:40 a.m.)

Joy Harjo has won the 2023 Bollingen Prize for American Poetry, awarded biennially by the Yale University Library through the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library to an American poet for the best book published during the previous two years or for lifetime achievement in poetry. The judging panel honored Harjo for her book Weaving Sundown in a Scarlet Light: Fifty Poems for Fifty Years and for her lifetime achievement in and contributions to American poetry. The prize includes a cash award of $175,000.

"Through decades of restless creativity and expansive memory, Joy Harjo has produced a spellbinding body of work that unsettles new forms of language, and continually challenges the possibilities of where poetry has been and where it can still arrive," the judges said. "Weaving Sundown in a Scarlet Light recontextualizes individual poems from throughout Harjo's life in poetry, highlighting the relevance of her early poems in the present moment and demonstrating the open scope and scale of her work over historical and spiritual time."

"What an honor to be included in the ancestral field of American poets who have received the Bollingen Prize," Harjo observed. "Poetry has been my most challenging teacher and the most rewarding."

Author of more than 10 books of poetry, as well as plays, children's books, and memoirs, Harjo is an internationally renowned performer and writer of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation. She served three terms as the 23rd poet laureate of the U.S. from 2019 to 2022. Her many honors include the National Book Critics Circle Ivan Sandrof Lifetime Achievement Award, the Ruth Lilly Prize for Lifetime Achievement from the Poetry Foundation, the Academy of American Poets Wallace Stevens Award, and a Guggenheim Fellowship.

The judges added: "For Harjo, poetry is witness and song; it is kin to incantation, speaking to the past and the present at once, finding a language that vibrates with possibility of crossing the threshold of time. This poet knows that language is not a record of an event, it is an event in itself. Her work employs music to convey ideas and arguments with the shimmering power of a sacred text."

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Longlists have been released for the 2023 Yoto Carnegies, which celebrate outstanding achievement in children's writing and illustration and are judged by children's librarians, with the Shadowers' Choice Medals voted for by children and young people. A total of 31 books have been recognized this year, with 15 selected for the Yoto Carnegie Medal for Writing longlist and 18 for the Yoto Carnegie Medal for Illustration. See the complete longlists here.

Shortlists will be announced March 17 and winners named June 21 during the awards ceremony. Winners each receive £500 (about $610) worth of books to donate to their local library, a specially commissioned golden medal and a £5,000 (about $6,085) Colin Mears Award cash prize. Winners of the Shadowers' Choice Medals will also be presented at the ceremony.

Selected new titles appearing next Tuesday, February 21:

Every Man a King: A King Oliver Novel by Walter Mosley (Mulholland, $28, 9780316460217) is a mystery about a white nationalist possibly framed for murder.

We Should Not Be Friends: The Story of a Friendship by Will Schwalbe (Knopf, $29, 9780525654933) chronicles an unlikely 40-year friendship that began in college.

It's OK to Be Angry About Capitalism by Sen. Bernie Sanders and John Nichols (Crown, $28, 9780593238714) takes aim at capitalism and its current cascading failures.

I Have Some Questions for You: A Novel by Rebecca Makkai (Viking, $28, 9780593490143) follows a woman confronting an old mystery from her years at boarding school.

The Last Kingdom by Steve Berry (Grand Central, $29, 9781538720998) is the 17th thriller with Cotton Malone.

Young Forever: The Secrets to Living Your Longest, Healthiest Life by Mark Hyman (Little, Brown Spark, $29, 9780316453189) explores various longevity strategies.

The Emotional Lives of Teenagers: Raising Connected, Capable, and Compassionate Adolescents by Lisa Damour (Ballantine, $28, 9780593500019) is a guide to teenagers' emotional lives.

Agents of S.U.I.T. by John Patrick Green and Christopher Hastings, illus. by Pat Lewis (First Second, $10.99, 9781250852564) is the first volume of a new graphic novel series starring the InvestiGators' coworkers.

Whale Done by Stuart Gibbs (Simon & Schuster, $17.99, 9781534499317) is the eighth FunJungle book.

Paperbacks:
Mercy: Atlee Pine Book 4 by David Baldacci (Grand Central, $9.99, 9781538719718).

Wedding of the Season: A Novel by Lauren Edmondson (Graydon House, $18.99, 9781525899997).

Artfully Yours by Joanna Lowell (Berkley, $16.99, 9780593198322).

How We Change: (And Ten Reasons Why We Don't) by Nathan Agin (Harper Wave, $19.99, 9780062961105).

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

Hardcover
Decent People: A Novel by De'Shawn Charles Winslow (Bloomsbury, $28, 9781635575323). "Decent People captures what a horrific crime can do to a small rural community. You'll want to cheer for the characters, and you know that someone is responsible for a triple murder. How many secrets can someone hold before they break?" --Shane Mullen, Left Bank Books, St. Louis, Mo.

The Mitford Affair: A Novel by Marie Benedict (Sourcebooks Landmark, $27.99, 9781728229362). "Larger than life, the six Mitford sisters provide a page-turning historical fiction. Bound by family, torn by treason, and astoundingly controversial, this glamorous family makes for an epic story. The Mitford Affair is a sizzler." --Pamela Klinger-Horn, Valley Bookseller, Stillwater, Minn.

Paperback
The Reunion: A Novel by Kayla Olson (Atria, $17, 9781668001943). "Liv and Ransom were co-stars on one of the most successful teen shows ever. When they reunite for a reunion special, they must face the past and being in love both on and off set. A warm blanket of a book that will make you smile." --Cara Dyne-Gores, The Bookshelf, Cincinnati, Ohio

For Ages 4 to 8
The Boy Who Tried to Shrink His Name by Sandhya Parappukkaran, illus. by Michelle Pereira (Abrams, $17.99, 9781419761584). "A lot of kids will connect with this book. The illustrations are beautiful and the message is heartwarming. Growing up with a long name--and I use a four-letter version of it--this made me question: who am I shrinking my name for?" --Lupe Penn, Bookmarks, Winston-Salem, N.C.

For Ages 6 to 9
The Pancake Problem (Weenie Featuring Frank and Beans #2) by Maureen Fergus, illus. by Alexandra Bye (Tundra Books, $13.99, 9780735267947). "Ahhh, it's just as good as the first one. I will never get enough Weenie, Frank, and Beans!" --Rebecca Crosswhite, Rediscovered Books, Boise, Idaho

For Teen Readers
Begin Again by Emma Lord (Wednesday Books, $18.99, 9781250783363). "I've loved Emma Lord since Tweet Cute and she killed it with the follow up; Begin Again is just as sweet and romantic. A must read for YA fans!" --Kailey Fox, Kingfisher Bookstore, Coupeville, Wash.

[Many thanks to IndieBound and the ABA!]

Environmentalist and bird enthusiast Mya-Rose Craig chronicles her life as a bird watcher--and how it shaped her into a social justice activist by young adulthood--in her moving memoir, Birdgirl: Looking to the Skies in Search of a Better Future. As the youngest daughter of a "well-known birding family" in Britain, Craig was exposed to birdwatching--also called "twitching" in the U.K.--from a young age. She recalls twitches with her parents: trips to the garden of a retired clergyman to spy a White-crowned Sparrow, weekend jaunts to see rooks and sparrowhawks, and more far-flung adventures to South America, Antarctica and eventually all seven continents seeking ever-rarer species of birds.

Craig calls birding a "thread running through the pattern of my life," and she follows that thread across every page. The result is a memoir about birds and Craig's milestones as an ornithologist: completing a "Big Year" (an attempt to see 300+ species of birds in one year) at age nine with her parents; starting Birdgirl, the blog from which her memoir gets its title, at age 11; and, ultimately, at 17, becoming the youngest person to have seen half of the known bird species in the world. But Birdgirl is also about so much more than birds, just one of the fascinating threads in the memoir. She also weaves into the larger tapestry of her life her experiences as a young British Bangladeshi birder in a community of predominantly white males; as the daughter of a mother with a severe mental illness; and as a young woman who came to realize that the habitats of her beloved birds are increasingly endangered by climate change and human interference. "Becoming a political and environmental activist felt like a natural progression," she writes, an observation that becomes abundantly clear as Birdgirl unfolds and Craig begins to use her platform and voice to emphasize climate change, stories of Indigenous peoples and the challenges of racial equity in nature and conservation circles.

Given how much Craig has accomplished in merely two decades, Birdgirl is bound to leave readers eager to see what she might put her mind to next. But even more so, this memoir will inspire readers with an eye for nature--as well as those interested in climate change and conservation--to look to the skies, as the subtitle suggests, and find inspiration for a better future in all of the majestic beauty that surrounds us. --Kerry McHugh, freelance writer

Shelf Talker: A birder and environmental activist recalls her childhood spent birdwatching with her quirky family--and the many lessons it taught her about care for the natural world.