Total net book sales in April in the U.S. fell 7.6%, to $732.3 million, compared to April 2022, representing sales of 1,238 publishers and distributed clients as reported to the Association of American Publishers. For the first third of the year, total net book sales are barely up, 0.9%, to $3.89 billion.

In April, higher ed again had the biggest (and almost only) sales gain, up 32.8%, to $80.9 million. Trade sales fell 11.2%, to $605.7 million, with adult categories showing some of the biggest losses (see below). In trade, hardcovers fell 9.2%, to $218.1 million, paperbacks were down 16.3%, to $208.9 million, mass market dropped 10.7%, to $12.7 million, and special bindings slipped 2.8%, to $12.3 million. E-book sales fell 14.1%, to $71.9 million.

Sales by category in April 2023 compared to April 2022:

Bookeater, a cafe and bookstore selling new and used titles, has opened in Rochester, N.Y., the Democrat & Chronicle reported.

Co-owners Chad Ellis and Peter Mastrodonato opened Bookeater in Rochester's South Wedge neighborhood roughly a month ago. The store, which is located at 836 S. Clinton Ave., spans two floors, with the cafe on the first floor and most of the book inventory on the second.

Bookeater carries around 500 new titles, mostly in paperback, with a variety of genres represented. There is also a small collection of used books curated by Archivist Books, a Black-owned mobile bookstore based in Rochester. While Bookeater has yet to host events, the owners plan to have book signings as well as movie nights in the store's backyard. They're also considering a take-out supper club.

Ellis told the Democrat & Chronicle that the inventory is "growing steadily but slowly," and as a whole the store has not quite "fulfilled what we had in mind or what we envisioned, but we're on the right track."

The cafe, meanwhile, features plenty of sandwiches and wraps, ranging from breakfast sandwiches to banh mi wraps, along with salads and fresh fruit. Beverage options include coffee and espresso drinks, bubble tea, fresh juice, and more.

Mastrodonato, who is head chef of the cafe, noted that he's working on adding more vegan options. "I want to give people what they want. I'm trying to be very responsive to the customers, especially at the beginning, before we nail down a menu."

Rediscovered Books, Boise, Idaho, is planning to close its Caldwell location, which opened in 2019 as the company's third store, "after four years of losing money," the Idaho Statesman reported, adding that the decision came after attempts to improve business over the last year proved unsuccessful. The company's two Boise stores--Rediscovered Books downtown and Once and Future Books on State Street--will remain open.

Bruce DeLaney, co-owner of the business with his wife, Laura DeLaney, said that faced with a dearth of customers in downtown Caldwell, the store will shut down after a closing sale slated to begin in July. "We have a lot of regulars here," he noted. "There's gonna be some tears, on our part and possibly on their part as well." The bookstore's final day in operation hasn't been set yet. 

In a message to customers posted on Rediscovered Books' website, the DeLaneys wrote, in part: "We've been challenged by many circumstances outside of our control, and we have tried everything we can to make it work. After much careful consideration we believe the only path forward is to close the Caldwell location. 

"Caldwell is a beautiful and unique community that we have treasured being a part of since November, 2019. During this time we have met and worked with many wonderful people. Readers of all types including book club members, members of the LGBTQ community, teachers and school communities, librarians, parents and children have welcomed us and become part of our Rediscovered Books community. We are grateful for all the new connections we have made. We believe that Caldwell deserves a bookstore like ours. However, our belief is not enough to create a reality in which we can continue as we have."

The DeLaneys, who are planning to have pop-up shops, book and wine events, and school projects and expect to be physically in Caldwell every month, added: "We will still find ways to stay connected with you, and when the time is right, we hope to come back."

The Caldwell bookstore "is known for opposing recent book bans made by Idaho school boards," the Statesman wrote. "Last year, when the Nampa school board removed 23 books from school libraries for perceived sexual content, Rediscovered's Boise store set up a display of those books.... The store also created a Web page with resources to help people fight book bans." (Laura DeLaney also spoke in detail this year at both the Winter Institute and Children's Institute about how the store has dealt with book bannings. See our coverage here and here.)

Opening the Caldwell store in November 2019, just before the Covid-19 pandemic hit, did not help matters. Bruce DeLaney told the Statesman that about a year ago, they started to consider closing as an option even as they tried to improve business with advertising as well as changing the hours and product selection. 

"You make decisions when you're in business with two things," he added. "You make decisions with your head, you make decisions with your heart. And the numbers of the Caldwell location just don't add up." 

Barnes & Noble has pushed back the opening of a new store in East Cobb, Ga., the East Cobb News reported.

After originally planning on a summer opening, B&N is now eyeing a mid-October debut for the new location, which will be in a 15,000-square-foot space that previously housed a Bed Bath & Beyond. It will have a cafe and is one of B&N's smaller concepts. A B&N spokesperson told the East Cobb News that renovations are "moving along nicely."

Saskia Hamilton

Saskia Hamilton, an award-winning poet "who also shed new light on the tumultuous relationship between the poet Robert Lowell and the writer Elizabeth Hardwick with a 2019 book compiling their letters and those of their friends," died June 7, the New York Times reported. She was 56. 

Hamilton joined the English department at Barnard College in 2002 and was made a vice-provost in 2018. In a tribute posted on Barnard's website, Linda A. Bell, provost and dean of the faculty, praised her as "a cherished colleague, offering her kindness, energy, and intellect to all those in her orbit. An accomplished poet and editor, she used beautiful words to limn grief and loss, and so it is a particular challenge for me to describe my sadness at her death."

In one of the poems in Hamilton's forthcoming collection, All Souls, she wrote of her work as an editor, describing how she "spent the hours that season/ in a basement library magnifying/ Bishop's hand ten times to read the word/ 'tidal.' " Bell observed that this "evocative image captures Saskia's approach to all of her work and relationships; she brought attention and care to others' ideas, and she made certain that she understood their words." Her other poetry collections include As for Dream (2001), Corridor (2014), and This Hour (2017)

Hamilton "was also acclaimed for illuminating the work and lives of other writers, especially Mr. Lowell," the Times noted. In 2005, she published The Letters of Robert Lowell, and three years later released Words in Air: The Complete Correspondence Between Elizabeth Bishop and Robert Lowell, which she edited with Thomas Travisano. It covered 30 years of correspondence between the two Pulitzer-winning poets. Her most discussed book was The Dolphin Letters, 1970-1979: Elizabeth Hardwick, Robert Lowell, and Their Circle, which used letters to explore a controversial element of Lowell's career. 

Her honors include an American Academy of Arts and Letters Award, the Poetry Foundation's Pegasus Award for Poetry Criticism, and the Modern Language Association's Morton N. Cohen Award.

In her tribute to Hamilton, Bell wrote: "Words are inadequate to capture our love for her in life and our sadness at her passing. We will think of her often as we continue to feel the space left by her passing."

Congratulations to Elliott Bay Book Company, Seattle, Wash., which turns 50 next week.

The store's celebration begins next Thursday, June 29, with a conversation on "Queer Books & Bookselling," featuring two local book people who have been central to making bookstores a central part of "building and sustaining community" in Seattle and the store's Capitol Hill neighborhood: Michael Coy, best known for Bailey-Coy Books, and Karen Maeda Allman, a key part of the Red and Black Bookstore Collective. The contributions and stories of Barbara Bailey of Bailey-Coy and Ron Whittaker of Beyond the Closet will also be discussed.

On Saturday, July 1, Elliott Bay will host a 50th Anniversary Family Day Celebration from 1-4 p.m. that will feature local authors, treats, and more, with story time readings every hour with Toni Yuly (with a donut social), George Shannon, and Jessixa Bagley. The anniversary celebration includes an artists series and a Filson tote collaboration.

Murf Hall, Tracy Taylor, and Joey Burgess

Last year, the store was purchased by Elliott Bay's longtime general manager, Tracy Taylor, along with married team Murf Hall and Joey Burgess, of Burgess Hall Group.

Taylor said, "While we have had the pleasure of hosting some of the world's preeminent writers, from its inception, our reading series has sought to feature diverse, lesser-known, new, famous, infamous, and sometimes controversial writers. Cohosting events with other community partners has been fundamental to the series and helped to put writers and readers together throughout the Seattle area to ensure that new, interesting, and diverse voices continue to be published and translated."

Burgess said, "We are an independent bookstore in the best sense of the term. Meaning we're truly interdependent with our community and our customers. Most of all, we are sustained by the support, curiosity, and enthusiasm for reading that our readers constantly demonstrate to us."

Hall said, "With two young children at home, Joey and I honed in on the kids' section quite a bit. We're thrilled to bring back the beloved story time readings and unveil a new structure in the children's section at our upcoming Family Day Celebration."

Accolades include:

Peter Aaron, former owner of Elliott Bay Book Company: "I had the privilege for 23 years of participating in the bookstore's stewardship. And now, in the hands of its current talented and dynamic owners, the bookstore is achieving heights of success heretofore unknown. Over these 50 years many gifted and dedicated booksellers have made community with readers, writers and publishing professionals to engender and sustain what has become a haven for the written word."

Barbara Kingsolver: "One of my homes away from home. Thank you, Elliott Bay!"

Pico Iyer: "Still the most enlightened and civilized space in the writers' and readers' world. Thank you for keeping us all alive! Hope you may flourish."

Terry Tempest Williams: "Thank you for the generosity of this place, your care and the readers, including myself who view Elliott Bay as a bastion of free thought ideas and love. XOX"

Senator Patty Murray: "I can't believe it has been half a century since Elliott Bay first opened its doors in Seattle. As anyone who has been there knows, Elliott Bay is so much more than just a bookstore. It's a place to gather, to read, to hear from authors, and take part in other incredible events. They're a staple of our community and one of the first places I tell people about when they visit Seattle. I can't wait to see what the next 50 years will bring!"

Effective October 1, Independent Publishers Group will handle exclusive sales and distribution of Oxford University Press's children's fiction titles in North America.

The agreement marks the first time there will be a direct sales channel into the U.S. for the Oxford Children's fiction list. In recent years, Oxford Children's has become well known for publishing first chapter books. Many of Oxford children's young fiction series will be part of the selection launched and distributed by IPG.

Amanda R. Livingston has joined the future of agency, a new book marketing and publishing consulting agency, as assistant marketing manager, and will manage full book marketing campaigns, author social media, and advanced author marketing strategy. She was formerly a marketer at HarperCollins and began her career at Simon & Schuster in education and library marketing and worked in corporate communications at Scholastic.

LSD Worldpeace, art by Joe Roberts, text by Myla DalBesio and Matthew Ronay (Anthology Editions).

Tomorrow:
Good Morning America: Sean Hayes, co-author of Time Out (Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, $18.99, 9781534492622).

Rachael Ray: Verveine Oringer and Ken Oringer, authors of Cooking with My Dad, the Chef (America's Test Kitchen Kids, $22.99, 9781954210356).

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, June 24
9:30 a.m. Peter Shinkle, author of Uniting America: How FDR and Henry Stimson Brought Democrats and Republicans Together to Win World War II (St. Martin's Press, $32.50, 9781250762528). (Re-airs Saturday at 9:30 p.m.)

3:30 p.m. Erika Bolstad, author of Windfall: The Prairie Woman Who Lost Her Way and the Great-Granddaughter Who Found Her (‎Sourcebooks, $26.99, 9781728246932).

4:30 p.m. Bettina Aptheker, author of Communists in Closets: Queering the History 1930s-1990s (Routledge, $48.95, 9781032035840).

Sunday, June 25
8 a.m. Stephen Vladeck, author of The Shadow Docket: How the Supreme Court Uses Stealth Rulings to Amass Power and Undermine the Republic (Basic Books, $30, 9781541602632). (Re-airs Sunday at 8 p.m.)

9:05 a.m. Robert Moffit, author of Modernizing Medicare: Harnessing the Power of Consumer Choice and Market Competition (Johns Hopkins University Press, $69.95, 9781421446028). (Re-airs Sunday at 9:05 p.m.)

10:05 a.m. Rebecca Grant, author of Birth: Three Mothers, Nine Months, and Pregnancy in America (‎Avid Reader Press, $28.99, 9781982170424). (Re-airs Sunday at 10:05 p.m.)

6:30 p.m. David Von Drehle, author of The Book of Charlie: Wisdom from the Remarkable American Life of a 109-Year-Old Man (‎Simon & Schuster, $26, 9781476773926).

7:30 p.m. A discussion on the publishing industry supply chain with Book Industry Study Group executive director Brian O'Leary.

Robert Macfarlane has won the inaugural C$75,000 (about US$57,000) Weston International Award, honoring "career achievement of an international author whose body of nonfiction work, written in English or widely available in translation, has advanced our understanding of the world." The award is sponsored by the Hilary and Galen Weston Foundation and administered by the Writers' Trust of Canada.

The jury said, "Robert Macfarlane is an inspired explorer of natural, cultural, and literary landscapes. Whether taking us across the Inylchek glacier in Kyrgyzstan, into a city buried beneath the streets of Paris, or along a country lane in Scotland, Macfarlane conveys the exhilaration of venturing into the unknown, which is always, somehow, just around the corner.

"In prose as pure and flowing as a mountain stream, he draws on history, science, mythology, biography, and his own travels to interrogate the forces that shape human relationships to place. Macfarlane's words evoke a panoply of emotions--from awe and wonder to exultation and trepidation, as we walk alongside him--gently drawing us into new ways of seeing and imagining. The result is a body of immersive nonfiction that proves the world is more complicated and mysterious, more fraught and beautiful, the longer we look at it."

Selected new titles appearing next Tuesday, June 27:

Palazzo: A Novel by Danielle Steel (Delacorte, $28.99, 9781984821898) follows the young heir of an Italian leather company.

Dead Man's Wake: A Novel by Paul Doiron (Minotaur, $29, 9781250864390) is the 14th mystery with Maine Game Warden Investigator Mike Bowditch.

The First Ladies by Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray (Berkley, $28, 9780593440285) is a novel about Eleanor Roosevelt and civil rights activist Mary McLeod Bethune.

The Seven Year Slip by Ashley Poston (Berkley, $27, 9780593638842) is a time travel romance starring a book publicist.

Hiss Me Deadly by Miranda James (Berkley, $27, 9780593199497) is the 15th Cat in the Stacks mystery.

White House by the Sea: A Century of the Kennedys at Hyannis Port by Kate Storey (Scribner, $30, 9781982159184) explores the Kennedy Cape Cod compound.

Ultra-Processed People: The Science Behind the Food That Isn't Food by Chris van Tulleken (W.W. Norton, $30, 9781324036722) investigates the food-like junk found in modern diets.

Through the Wilderness: My Journey of Redemption and Healing in the American Wild by Brad Orsted (St. Martin's Press, $29, 9781250284693) chronicles a restorative stay at Yellowstone National Park.

Pizza and Taco: Dare to Be Scared! by Stephen Shaskan (Random House Graphic, $10.99, 9780593481288) is a creepy, Halloweeny graphic chapter book featuring the beloved Pizza and Taco.

Monstrous by Sarah Myer (First Second, $17.99, 9781250268808) is a YA graphic novel about transracial adoption.

Paperbacks:
How to Work with (Almost) Anyone: Five Questions for Building the Best Possible Relationships by Michael Bungay Stanier (Page Two, $17.95, 9781774582657).

What Happens After Midnight by K.L. Walther (Sourcebooks Fire, $11.99, 9781728263137).

Hidden Beneath (A Maine Clambake Mystery Book 11) by Barbara Ross (Kensington, $8.99, 9781496735713).

Misfortune Cookie: A Noodle Shop Mystery by Vivien Chien (St. Martin's Paperbacks, $8.99, 9781250782632).

Will They or Won't They: A Novel by Ava Wilder (Dell, $17, 9780593358979).

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

Hardcover
Ink Blood Sister Scribe: A Novel by Emma Törzs (Morrow, $30, 9780063253469). "There is magic of all kinds on each page of Ink Blood Sister Scribe: grisly body horror magic; romantic, confectionary fairy tale magic; and the binding, consuming magic of family and what it means to belong. I am still under its spell!" --Sarah Jackson, The Book & Cover, Chattanooga, Tenn.

Killingly: A Novel by Katharine Beutner (Soho Crime, $27.95, 9781641294379). "From the very first page, there's this amazing creepy vibe that envelops the reader. Katharine Beutner has written a stunning historical mystery, based on a true missing person case. Killingly hits all the high notes!" --Jayne Rowsam, Mystery to Me, Madison, Wis.

Paperback
Chef's Choice: A Novel by TJ Alexander (Atria/Emily Bestler Books, $17.99, 9781982189105). "The perfect fake dating book does exist, and it is Chef's Choice. I absolutely loved their banter throughout. This book has the perfect balance of humor and heart." --Laura Kendall, Second Flight Books, Lafayette, Ind.

For Ages 4 to 8
Big by Vashti Harrison (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, $19.99, 9780316353229). "A gentle and loving book about what it means to be big. Harrison's stunning art style perfectly encapsulates all the beautiful roundness of being a child, and encourages love and warmth for yourself if you are navigating the world as big." --Tildy Lutts, Belmont Books, Belmont, Mass.

For Ages 8 to 12
Squire & Knight by Scott Chantler (First Second, $14.99, 9781250249340). "I loved this middle grade graphic novel about a young squire and a dragon that is destroying the town. Can't wait for it to come out and to hand it to all the kids I know." --Elizabeth Schieber, Rainy Day Books, Fairway, Kan.

For Teen Readers: An Indies Introduce Title
Where You See Yourself by Claire Forrest (Scholastic Press, $19.99, 9781338813838). "An utterly engrossing, fun senior year novel told through the eyes of a spunky teenager fighting for disability rights. I rooted for Effie to find her voice, to get the guy, and to go for the future that would make her happy." --Earl Dizon, Green Bean Books, Portland, Ore.

[Many thanks to IndieBound and the ABA!]

On the opening page of her enchanting memoir, The Long Field: Wales and the Presence of Absence, a Memoir, Pamela Petro (Travels in an Old Tongue) confesses that, until age 23, hearing the word "Wales" conjured a picture of the seagoing mammal, not the "colonized country clinging to a rocky, western bump on the island of Great Britain." But beginning in 1983, when she stepped foot in the land known in its native language as Cymru to pursue a master's degree, she developed a deep affinity for its landscape, people, culture, and, above all, spirit. And she shares that generously here.

The Long Field is so multifaceted that it resists easy categorization. It contains elements of conventional travel writing, like Petro's account of her reluctant ascent of Snowdon, the highest point in the British Isles outside the Scottish Highlands; her well-informed excursions into Welsh culture, including the King Arthur legend; and bits of Wales's tragic history, like the disastrous coal miners' strike of 1984-85, reflecting its centuries-long exploitation at the hands of England. She also delights in introducing some of the tongue-twisting complexities of the Welsh language, as she describes her halting steps toward conversing in a tongue that features place names like Llanystumdwy and Llanfihangel Abercywyn.

At its heart, Petro's memoir is a profound exploration of an emotional state associated with the Welsh word hiraeth. Literally translated as a "long field," the word, as Petro interrogates it with both scholarly detachment and an intensely personal engagement, summons what she calls "the acute presence of absence." More than mere nostalgia or homesickness, it's shorthand for an almost mystical connection to "the unattainable things that we sense but can't have, the irretrievable ones beyond place or time that sadden, motivate, inspire, and mark us."

Hiraeth also serves in this context as an entry point for disparate and candid reflections on her childhood in the suburb of Verona, N.J.; her challenges in coming to terms with her sexuality; and, specifically, her relationship of more than 40 years with her partner, Marguerite. In short, she writes, the term "broke open the dispassionate book I'd been writing to make room for a passionate one, to make room for me."

After four decades of an intense immersion in Welsh life, Petro has come to feel that she and the country "have been braided together through our yearnings for all we lack, all we've loved and lost or wish fiercely to yet become." Readers who have traveled to Wales will relish her ability to summon that experience with a profoundly observant eye and prose that, at times, possesses an almost poetic quality. And it won't be surprising if those who've never had the pleasure of visiting this distinctive land will be struck by the urge to do so after reading her thoughtful, evocative memoir. --Harvey Freedenberg, freelance reviewer

Shelf Talker: Forty years after her first encounter with Wales, Pamela Petro has written a memoir that's a love letter to the distinctive country and the spirit it engenders in her.