Net sales at Amazon in the third quarter ended September 30 rose 13%, to $143.1 billion, and net income more than tripled, to $9.9 billion. Operating income overall jumped more than fourfold, to $11.2 billion. North American sales rose 11%, to $87.9 million, and North American operating income was $4.3 billion, compared to an operating loss of $400 million in the same quarter in 2022. International sales rose 16%, to $32.1 billion (without favorable currency exchange rates, international sales were up 11%), and the international operating loss was $100 million, compared to an operating loss of $2.5 billion in the same period a year earlier. Sales in AWS, Amazon's cloud division, rose 12%, and its operating income was almost $7 billion, and the company said AI will be a major element in its growth in the future.

Sales and income were above analysts' estimates, leading to a jump in Amazon's share price of more than 5%, to about $123, after the market closed yesterday.

Amazon CEO Andy Jassy commented in part: "We had a strong third quarter as our cost to serve and speed of delivery in our stores business took another step forward, our AWS growth continued to stabilize, our advertising revenue grew robustly, and overall operating income and free cash flow rose significantly. The benefits of moving from a single national fulfillment network in the U.S. to eight distinct regions are exceeding our optimistic expectations, and perhaps most importantly, putting us on pace to deliver the fastest delivery speeds for Prime customers in our 29-year history. The AWS team continues to innovate and deliver at a rapid clip, particularly in generative AI."

The Wall Street Journal noted, "Amazon has been trying to engineer a rebound in its core e-commerce business following a slowdown after pandemic-induced heights. The company has reined in costs across its North America business, slashing roughly 27,000 corporate jobs and streamlining its operations following a cost-cutting review.... It has also said it saved costs through an overhaul of its delivery operations meant to place packages closer to customers."

Andrew Lipsman, an e-commerce researcher at Insider Intelligence, told the Journal, "Amazon has gone through a slog of tough quarters, a lot which were driven by headwinds as a result of inflation, and that has eased."

Amazon noted that it will hire "250,000 full-time, part-time, and seasonal employees in the U.S. this holiday season," and its "new average hourly wage for customer fulfillment and delivery roles" is more than $20.50 per hour.

Amazon predicted that net sales in the fourth quarter should grow 7%-12%, to between $160 billion and $167 billion. Operating income should be between $7 billion and $11 billion, compared to $2.7 billion in the fourth quarter last year.

Stanza Books, an indie bookstore located at 508 Main St. in the historic East End of Beacon, N.Y., will have its soft opening in early November before hosting an official launch party on November 11, during the city's Second Saturday Art Walk.

Qwners Mark Harris and Andrea Talarico.

Co-owners and writers Andrea Jade Talarico and Mark Harris will sell new books in a variety of categories, including genre fiction and nonfiction for children through adults. They also plan to host in-store book clubs and salon-style events, as well as larger community events through partnerships with historic Beacon venues in the future. 

The reconfigured space on Main Street will reflect the owners extensive experience in retail management and intentional design, with specially designated areas tailored to the consumer footpath.

"The store's name, Stanza, carries several meanings," said Talarico, who will serve as managing partner. "We know it as a verse in a poem, but it comes from the Italian word for 'a stopping place or room.' Our store will offer a similar journey, where 'rooms' will be gestured at in the design: a study full of stationery, greeting cards and gifts; a salon bursting with literature and fiction; and a library stacked high with books on history, philosophy and other works which explore the human condition."

Talarico's background includes more than 20 years of bookstore and stationery experience, having worked at the flagship New York City stores for both McNally Jackson and WORD as well as owning her own new and used bookstore in Scranton, Pa. She most recently served as senior customer experience and partnerships lead for luxury stationery atelier Baronfig, whose goods will be prominently displayed at Stanza.

Harris has a career in experience strategy and storytelling, thanks in part to his portfolio working with world-class museums and Fortune 500 companies, including HBO, Netflix, Amazon, New York Life, and Cinemax. His consulting company supports organizations through immersive and interactive design. Harris has also written several full-cast audiodrama series, including Séance and Goddess, and a forthcoming novel, Hekate's Return.

"Throughout the space at Stanza, there will be moments of story and interaction: bits of history, listening stations, and more," Harris said. "Our vision is that the bookstore will function not simply as a space for commercial interaction, but an oasis in which you can learn something new--for free--in unique and fun ways. "

Along with the bookstore, Talarico and Harris have also launched an indie press called Sacred Consort Media, which seeks to publish books that keep alive the spirit of magic and the divine in the world: magical realism, literary fantasy, essay, poetry, and more. Their first publication will be Harris's novel Hekate's Return. 

Whimsy & Wild Emporium, Bryan, Tex., which opened in the summer of 2022, is closing. In a Facebook post yesterday, owner Lindsey Terry posted: "With heavy heart and much prayer we have decided to close our doors. We love this community and you will still see Us collaborating with other places in our community. We would like to sell everything by Sunday. So please come shop and everything is for sale. And I absolutely mean everything. Come make me a deal on furniture or whatever you can find. Thank you for the past year and a half. Please come shop and enjoy the no lights festivities with us."

In a post last week, Terry had explained that the "economy is tough and I have battled it all year trying to stay afloat. I never want to make this post but I know so many businesses are struggling and some have already closed. I would love love to make it longer and push through. But we need help. Rent is way past due and we are now headed into possible eviction. We have tried everything to bring more money in and we have tapped every resource we can think of."

The bookstore had previously launched a fundraising campaign and an appeal to the community in hopes of staving off closure. Terry had written: "I just don't want to see Whimsy & Wild not succeed. It has been a safe place for so many already. Thank you so much for your continued support. We love being a part of Bryan."

Super Thursday titles at Waterstones.

U.K. booksellers reported a "particularly strong" range of titles and good foot traffic for this year's Super Thursday on October 12. The Bookseller reported that the traditional day in the annual publishing calendar when fall's biggest books are released marked the smallest release schedule since 2008, but booksellers said they had "all hands on deck" in preparation, with "buoyant" sales as customers began their shopping ahead of the holiday season.

"The start to autumn trading has been encouraging at Waterstones, helped by stronger publishing than last year over the last few weeks," said Eva Von Reuss, publisher liaison and PR manager at Waterstones. "Super Thursday saw some pleasing footfall."

Hazel Broadfoot, owner of the indie Village Books in Dulwich and president of the Booksellers Association, said her shop had a "hugely busy week" and that the "selection of titles is particularly strong this year.... It helps that books--and especially children's books--are such brilliant value in comparison with almost anything else you can spend a leisure pound on. Children's has so many great titles."

Michale Lacey, bookshop and community manager at Dead Ink Bookshop in Liverpool, noted that this year was an improvement over 2022, with "a nice little spike in sales" on Super Thursday. 

Jack Clark, owner of the Portobello Bookshop in Edinburgh, Scotland, said Super Thursday saw a much higher than normal footfall, with numerous customers popping by to pick up some long-anticipated reads.

"Super Thursday translates to Flex-Your-Muscles Week for bookshops as we frantically try to receive, open, goods in and shelf books during normal opening hours," said Jo Coldwell, manager of Red Lion Books in Colchester. "We are nothing if not book detectives and we managed to tie everything up. We are now preparing to display them beautifully and sell them."

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The French Academy has warned that the future of the Bouquinistes, the legendary booksellers along the banks of the River Seine in Paris, could be under threat if their stalls are moved for the 2024 Olympics opening ceremony. Inside the Games reported that the matter "was discussed at the first session of the French Academy to be chaired by its new permanent secretary Amin Maalouf, during which they called for guarantees and compensation to be put in place."

"The French Academy has shown itself to be very concerned about the threats weighing on the future of second-hand booksellers on the banks of the Seine, who for centuries have constituted an important element of the cultural heritage of our country," a statement said. "If dismantling measures were to be decided in the run-up to the Olympic Games, we ask the competent authorities to make a commitment now to put the emblematic boxes of books back in their place, identically, as soon as the end of the Games, and to compensate second-hand booksellers for the damage suffered."

The Council of Paris has approved the move of the stalls and Paris Chief Prefect of Police Laurent Nunez held a meeting with the council and the booksellers in an attempt to resolve the dispute. 

"We are not closed to having dialogue, but at the moment our position is to be against the move," Pascal Corseaux, Second Hand Booksellers Association v-p, added. "We are well aware that all of this is extremely fragile and when it comes to going back it will be very, very difficult."

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BookNet Canada's 5 Questions series interviewed Milena Raschpichler, buyer and manager at Wendel's Bookstore & Café, Fort Langley, B.C. Among the highlights:

What attracted you to bookselling?
Many years ago, when my daughters were very young, I would escape for a few hours to our local library. It was a quiet refuge for me and it felt as if I was entering a church every time I walked through the doors. A few years later, I applied at my favorite local bookstore for a part time position. It has been my privilege to have been an independent bookseller for the past 33 years. It is honorable profession. I believe I have the bestest job in the world. My employer allows me to love and care for this store as if it were my own. I hope that if you are reading these words, you feel much the same way about your store and your position in it."

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"The bloke who writes our blackboards is on holiday. Here's a flower." That was the sidewalk chalkboard message outside Bert's Books, Swindon, U.K., which noted on Facebook: "If you look carefully, you can just see the Christmas lights on the ground that the council are starting to put up. Merry Christmas, we're open." --Robert Gray

British author and illustrator Tony Husband, "who created almost four decades' worth of Private Eye cartoons as well as several books for Little, Brown," died October 18, the Bookseller reported. He was 73. In a statement, the publisher said, "Tony was best known as a cartoonist, poking fun at both the domestic and the political, in newspapers, and in every single issue of Private Eye for an astonishing 38 years, where his ongoing 'Yobs' strip was a firm favorite." 

Husband was also one of the contributing editors of Oink! comic in the 1980s, and wrote for the children's TV series Round the Bend from 1989 to 1991. He published a number of collections of cartoons in book form during his career. Little, Brown's association with him goes back to the 1980s, with books for Sphere like Animal Husbandry; Use Your Head; Bye, Bye Cruel World; and The Kids Are All Right. 

In 2014, his book Take Care, Son launched a new aspect of his career and he became known as a spokesperson for dementia awareness. "The book told the tale of his father's battle with vascular dementia and this deeply moving and relatable take on the disease led to Tony being invited to speak regularly to dementia charities and action groups, and he was always keen to contribute new artwork that could be used in fund-raising calendars, or to raise awareness in many other media," Little, Brown said.

His tale about dementia, Joe's Journey, was adapted into a short film in 2021, and in United (in 2022), he compiled real-life stories about people living with dementia and their carers. Take Care, Son was followed by From a Dark Place, which dealt with his son Paul's recovery from heroin addiction, and was co-written with Paul.

Tony Husband also illustrated other books for the Robinson list: Teenage Depression; Am I Depressed and What Can I Do About It?; After…; and United. "For the last two books, he insisted on only being credited as illustrator even though his artistic skill and ability to condense a bigger tale into pithy, visually impactful moments of emotion, was crucial to the writing of those books," Little, Brown said. 

Robinson editorial director Andrew McAleer commented: "Tony was uniquely able to treat quite heavy subjects--dementia, depression, addiction, child abuse--with a light touch that made his books humorous and optimistic, making you laugh at the same time they made you cry.... He was able to bring out the best in humanity in his drawings and also rail against the cruelty he saw in the world with cutting political cartoons that highlighted bigotry, ignorance and inequality. He will be sorely missed."

More than 300 fans showed up to meet popular YouTuber Max Miller, author of Tasting History (Simon Element/S&S), at Bookends & Beginnings, Evanston, Ill. Pictured: the store's event staff (l. to r.) Jackie Mann, Jeff Garrett, owner Nina Barrett, Max Miller, Chloe Fulton, events manager Kate Harding, and floor manager Lotte Dunnell.

Congratulations to Bedlam Book Cafe in Worcester, Mass., which is celebrating its fifth anniversary next month.

The bookstore has a party planned for November 2 that will include free cake, a display of love letters to the bookstore, and a free book with the purchase of four others, per Patch.com.

Store owner Nicole DiCello opened the bookstore, which sells new and used titles, in Worcester in 2018. Wrote DiCello: "When I had the idea to start this bookstore/café, no one was more surprised than me when it took off. The fact that I'm still here, through three major construction projects that began my first year in business all within one block of me, followed by a global pandemic in years two and three, is beyond gratifying. I feel incredibly humbled and honored that Bedlam has been embraced by this community."

"Do you like mysteries? Come in and solve The Case of Why You Don't Have Enough Books!" That was the sidewalk chalkboard message outside Four Pines Bookstore, Bemidji, Minn., which noted on Facebook: "The fall season is here and so is mystery season.... Thanks for the chalkboard inspiration @curiousiguana. They always have the funnest signs!"

Cindy Murray has been named v-p, senior director of publicity, marketing and brand strategy for the Harmony Rodale imprints at the Random House Publishing Group. Most recently, she was the publicity and marketing director for Convergent and Christian Publishing at the Random House Publishing Group. Murray began her career in publicity at Ballantine Books, working her way up and across the expanding Random House Publishing Group over the years.

My Grandfather's Song by Phung Nguyen Quang and Huynh Kim Lien (Make Me a World).

In connection with the release of The Pigeon Tunnel, a documentary by Errol Morris on the late John le Carré, today Fresh Air is re-airing Terry Gross's interviews with le Carré from 1989 and 2017, in which he discusses his work as a spy and as a spy novelist.

A trailer has been released for Occupied City, Steve McQueen's documentary that premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in May. "Informed" by the book Atlas of an Occupied City (Amsterdam 1940-1945) by Dutch historian and filmmaker Bianca Stigter, the film has a runtime of over four hours and "goes square by square and street by street in present-day Amsterdam, tracing where the occupying German forces committed atrocities against the local Jewish population," Deadline reported. 

The narration is voiced by actress Melanie Hyams and written by Stigter, McQueen's wife. Occupied City is produced by Floor Onrust, McQueen, Anna Smith-Tenser, and Stigter. Regency Enterprises, A24 and Film4 will release the doc in U.S. theaters on Christmas Day. 

McQueen was born in the U.K. but makes his home in Amsterdam. In an interview with Deadline just before the Cannes premiere of Occupied City, he said, "When I first came to Amsterdam--not living in an occupied country growing up in London--what was very strange for me was walking around and seeing all these places that had this history behind it, which had to do with the Nazification of the Netherlands. Walking down a street and seeing a little statue and finding out that this is where 15 people were gathered up and executed because someone had assassinated a German soldier was quite shocking for me. So, therefore, the approach [of the film] had to happen somehow in the now."

The Canada Council for the Arts has announced finalists for this year's Governor General's Literary Awards, which "celebrate works published in Canada, in both official languages, across seven categories, and include books for readers of all ages."

Category winners, who will be named November 8, receive C$25,000 (about US$18,100). The publisher of each winning book receives C$3,000 (US$2,170) to support promotional activities, and finalists each receive C$1,000 (US$725). A complete list of finalists is available here.

CCA director and CEO Michelle Chawla said: "Announcing the 2023 Governor General's Literary Awards finalists is exciting for everyone involved because we get to celebrate and help draw attention to some of this year's most remarkable literary works. On behalf of the Canada Council for the Arts, I congratulate this year's 70 finalists and I also thank the broader community of authors, illustrators, translators, publishers, booksellers, librarians and readers, whose combined enthusiasm for books contributes to the growing vitality and diversity of literature in Canada."

photo: Angie Hodapp

David R. Slayton grew up in Guthrie, Okla., where finding fantasy novels was pretty challenging and finding fantasy novels with diverse characters was downright impossible. Now he lives in Denver, Colo., and writes the books he always wanted to read. His debut, White Trash Warlock, was a finalist for the Colorado Book Award. In 2015, Slayton founded Trick or Read, an initiative to distribute books, along with candy, to children on Halloween and to uplift lesser-known authors or those from marginalized backgrounds. Slayton is a regular speaker and panelist at fan cons and writing conferences. The epic fantasy Dark Moon, Shallow Sea (Blackstone Publishing, October 31, 2023) is the first in a series.

Handsell readers your book in 25 words or less:

It finds love and hope in a moonless world drowning in ghosts. The dark high fantasy of my heart. I hope it haunts you too.

On your nightstand now:

Helen Corcoran's Daughter of Winter and Twilight. She has such a way with language. It's a brilliant follow-up to Queen of Coin and Whispers, which I think far too few people have read.

I was also fortunate enough to get an early copy of Kosoko Jackson's The Forest Demands Its Due. So creepy and bloody. So good.

Favorite book when you were a child:

I became deeply obsessed with the lore of the Lord of the Rings and the spirit of exploration and adventure in Star Trek novels by authors like David Mack. You'll find that mix in Dark Moon, Shallow Sea. I try to capture a go-forth-and-discover feeling set in a world with myths and ruins that peek out of the ground like the bones of dead gods.

Your top five authors:

Shaun David Hutchinson. He marries high-concept and deep, personal issues so well.

Gail Carriger. Her books are like a warm blanket and a cup of tea on a winter morning, and she always makes me smile.

Cale Dietrich writes everything from rom-coms to slasher horror. I think he captures the feeling of teen want like no one else. He's on auto-buy.

Terry Pratchett is like an old friend. His death had me crying in the early morning. I revisit his work any time I'm sad.

Barbara Ann Wright. She's the queen of sapphic SFF. She has so many worlds and genre hops with drama or humor--but always with romance.

Book you've faked reading:

A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce. It was assigned in one of my final classes in my English degree. Sorry, Dr. Farkus, but after Ulysses I just could not take any more Joyce. I barely managed to read enough to get an A on my paper.

Book you're an evangelist for:

Ursula K. Le Guin's A Wizard of Earthsea. This book made me want to write fantasy. It made me see how you can construct a deep, rich world and imbue it with magic and meaning without using 200,000 words. It's amazing what she accomplishes and brings alive in so little space.

Book you've bought for the cover:

Tad Williams's Stone of Farewell. I remember seeing the mass-market paperback and needing to read that book, to learn the story of the guy on the cover. I put it off until my grandmother died, and the books in the Green Angel Tower series really helped me escape and process my grief. My grandmother was a huge reader and encouraged me to write and be my authentic self. Losing her was like losing a guiding light. I'll always be grateful to Tad Williams for those books and for the way that epic fantasy can transport us somewhere else in harder times.

Book you hid from your parents:

Anything with magic. It was banned in our house, so I had to read in secret, late at night when my mother was asleep. I'm still a bit of an insomniac and night child, and that's probably why my main character, Raef, cherishes books and secret knowledge the way that he does.

Book that changed your life:

Lynn Flewelling's Luck in the Shadows was the first time I saw myself reflected in fantasy: a gay main character who didn't die tragically and got to live as a hero. I still have my battered paperback.

Favorite line from a book:

"It was freezing in the churchyard, even before the dead arrived." --The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater. What an amazing line to open chapter one!

Five books you'll never part with:

Gail Carriger's Soulless. It's my favorite love story and an annual comfort read.

Terry Pratchett's Witches Abroad. It's like a dear old friend. I'm still learning from and laughing at it decades later.

Date Me, Bryson Keller by Kevin van Whye. I love this book, especially on audio. I love what it has to say about the closet and the young-adult gay experience.

Margaret Atwood's Cat's Eye. This was my introduction to her, and I fell in utter love with this book at a young age when I really couldn't understand what she was saying. I keep rereading it and, though I understand it more and more as I age, I feel like it has mysteries I've yet to unlock.

Everything Is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer. This book made me laugh out loud in one chapter and weep in the next, which made reading it on the bus very awkward. It's so brilliant and emotive.

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

The Woman Warrior by Maxine Hong Kingston. It's so beautiful and captivating. The way she blends myth time and strong time is so evocative and dreamlike. It's truly a wonderful example of magical realism.

Your favorite nonfiction book:

The Victorian City by Judith Flanders. It's such a deep dive into research and the urban experience of the era. You'll certainly find some traces in Dark Moon, Shallow Sea.

With Invisible Woman, Katia Lief (Five Days in Summer; The Money Kill) follows a woman navigating professional life, family, friendship, and societal roles, attempting to reconnect with an old friend whose path diverged from hers decades ago. Their stories are individually compelling, as they also offer up questions relevant to the #metoo era.

Joni Ackerman had been a pioneering filmmaker in the 1980s and '90s, and her best friend and former college roommate, Val, was a promising up-and-coming actor. A secret trauma caused the two young women to grow apart; Joni married, had children, and slowly slid beneath the surface of her husband's sparkling career in television. The novel opens in 2018, when a fresh film-industry scandal emerges that sends Joni looking for her friend. Joni feels that the time has come to speak out about an old crime, but Val wishes to remain in obscurity, and Joni's husband, Paul, wants to let sleeping dogs lie. Joni wrestles with her long-lost friendship over a significant divide of time and suffering. Her marriage has been strained for years, and a recent cross-country move has left her isolated. She dives into the novels of Patricia Highsmith, in editions long ago given to her by Val, for comfort and escape, but as real life grows darker and weirder, Highsmith's gritty psychological thrillers start to feel all too close to reality.

The concerns of Invisible Woman are firmly rooted in #metoo, #timesup, and the historical and continuing challenges of women in the entertainment industry. Joni loves her daughters but grapples with what it's cost her career to become a mother: early in the novel, she's invited to appear at a film retrospective in a series called "Lost and Forgotten." She struggles with personal and family difficulties, and with alcohol. Highsmith was a strong influence on Joni's highly regarded work in film, but also threatens her tenuous grasp on reality. Readers will root for Lief's carefully crafted protagonist, even as her decisions become increasingly irrational.

Invisible Woman twists and turns, its escalating dangers alternating with fresh reveals, as momentum builds to a breaking point. Joni is compulsive, troubled, but sympathetic; Val is less central but exerts a force of her own. Characters develop quickly from disagreeable but benign to chilling and dangerous; some readers will find this atmospheric novel engaging and disturbing enough to lose sleep. A literary psychological thriller, cultural study, and heartbreaking story of friendship and loss, Joni's unforgettable story involves layers of lies and the dangers of self-sublimation. Lief chills, entertains, and challenges. --Julia Kastner, librarian and blogger at pagesofjulia

Shelf Talker: A woman troubled by old crimes and loss reaches out to an old friend, with disastrous consequences in this chilling commentary on gender in society.

Kate DiCamillo

In an airport terminal last weekend, bestselling author Kate DiCamillo was reading a book when the woman sitting next to her said, "It must be a great book if it can make you laugh like that."

"It's wonderful," DiCamillo replied. "It has made me cry, too. It's a stellar book."

"Aren't books wonderful?" the woman asked.

"I'd be lost without them." 

"I'm 87 years old. My big sister taught me to read when I was five. She gave me the keys to the kingdom. Every time I pick up a book, I think of her and send her a little prayer of gratitude."

DiCamillo noted in her Facebook post: "I keep thinking of this: how wonderful to think of the person who taught you to read, to thank them every time you pick up a book. Thank you, Betty DiCamillo, for giving me the keys to the kingdom. And thank you, to all of you, who are giving out keys to the kingdom on a daily basis."

I love this little story, which oddly inspired me to wonder: What would it be like to be a frontline bookseller in an airport concourse indie?

Given that I haven't flown anywhere since returning from pre-Covid (or so we thought at the time) 2020 Winter Institute in Baltimore, airport concourses have gradually become a work of imagination and nostalgia for me. Not quite fictional, but less tangible somehow.

Emily St. John Mandel's novel Station Eleven comes to mind. I read it almost a decade ago, but don't recall an airport bookshop being mentioned. There was definitely a pandemic, so I tend to associate the novel with Covid (thanks in part to the 2021 miniseries). 

Mandel writes that "the entire history of being stranded in airports up to that point was also a history of eventually becoming unstranded, of boarding a plane and flying away." In Station Eleven, not so much: "The workers at the restaurants and the gift shop chased out their customers and locked down steel shutters and gates, walked away without looking back."

Was one of those imaginary airport gift shops actually an indie bookstore? If I'd been a bookseller there, would I have just shuttered the storefront and bolted (a deadly option, as it turned out) or stayed and distributed free books? I hope the latter, and in my imagination that's just what I did.

Simple Flying recently noted that of "all the shops, the airport bookstore has a magnetic appeal. As you enter, you first see a table full of the latest bestsellers. You may have even read a book review or have been told about a particular book by a friend, co-worker, or family member. Instinctively you are going to pick it up and browse through it.... By design, airport bookstores like WH Smith and Hudson News are there for people with time."

Independent bookstores have also been landing in airport concourses for a long time, often in partnership with Hudson Group.

MahoganyBooks, Washington, D.C., just partnered with The Goods @DCA near Terminal D at DCA.

Simple Flying also showcased Renaissance Books at Milwaukee's Mitchell International Airport, calling it "quite possibly the nation's only second-hand bookstore to be found inside an airport. Now over 40 years old, the bookstore continues to be a highlight for travelers and locals alike." 

For the Insider, Gabbi Shaw observed: "As any New Yorker could tell you, LaGuardia Airport used to be one of the worst places on Earth, but since it's been renovated, the experience has been significantly better. My personal favorite addition? The new branch of The Strand [in partnership with Marshall Retail Group], an NYC landmark and popular bookstore. Now, instead of sitting at the gate and fixating on my impending flight, I can get lost searching for the perfect book for my flight."

"I've never had occasion to buy anything from an airport bookstore, and yet it gives me great comfort to know they're there," John Warner wrote in a 2016 Chicago Tribune piece. "While bookstores are important to me in the broader world, I think it is the opposite for many others. Being in an airport is one of the few times nonreaders may be confronted with the memory of how pleasurable reading can be. This proximity matters. Airport stores are mini-masterpieces of display, the most broadly enticing titles as prominent as possible. 'I've heard of that one,' someone might say. 'I should check it out.' "

In 2009, author Alain de Botton was invited to be writer-in-residence at Terminal 5 in London's Heathrow Airport, an experience he chronicled in his book A Week at the Airport. Noticing that the terminal's large WH Smith bookstore did not stock his books, he sneakily sought a recommendation from the shop's manager, explaining "that I was looking for the sort of books in which a genial voice expresses emotions that the reader has long felt but never before really understood; those that convey the secret, everyday things that society at large prefers to leave unsaid; those that make one feel somehow less alone and strange." 

Curiously resisting the temptation to handsell, the manager wondered if he might prefer a magazine instead. That was nonfiction. In my imaginary new role as airport concourse indie bookseller, I'd have handsold de Botton Leonard and Hungry Paul by Ronan Hession. I know, it was published more than a decade after de Botton's not-so-innocent request, but then again I'm the one who has the imaginary keys to this kingdom.