An opening ceremony was held last Friday for Huxley and Hiro Booksellers at 419 North Market St., Wilmington, Del. "Thank you all for coming to see us and sharing your pictures, we are humbled by the love Wilmington has shown us," the bookstore's founders, Claire van den Broek and Ryan Eanes, posted on Facebook. Among the speakers was Mayor Mike Purzycki.

Downtown Wilmington has been without a bookseller since the 2018 closing of the Ninth Street Book Shop. Delaware Business Now reported that the new bookshop's owners "conceded that their store won't be able to fill the void left by Ninth Street completely but hope to add to the growing number of attractions in downtown."

On the bookstore's website, the founders noted that not only was Ninth Street Book Shop "a much-beloved local institution, but its loss came at just as the Market Street corridor was beginning to enter a period of cultural renaissance, rapid growth, and dramatic revitalization. We miss Jack and Gemma Buckley's beloved shop, and could never replace it fully, but we do hope to help fill the gap that its closure left behind.

"That's one of the major reasons why we began developing a plan for Huxley & Hiro in late 2019. We had hoped to open the store by 2020, but COVID-19 came along, and our timeline was delayed--but not deterred!"

The Wanderlust Bookstore hosted a grand opening celebration on Saturday at 115 N. Fillmore St., Corinth, Miss. "Thank you so much to everyone that came out today!" owner Ashley Bowen posted on Facebook. "I was so overwhelmed at all the people being so happy that we now have a bookstore in our small little town. I appreciate all your comments and for making this first day an unforgettable one. I hope to continue to give everyone a good atmosphere and fun books for years to come!!"

Before the event, Bowen told the Daily Journal that, as a voracious reader from an early age, her love for books had led to her desire to work at a library, but those plans changed as she discovered there weren't many opportunities available. This did not, however, deter her plan to work with and around books.

"My husband and I decided that we needed to open a bookstore because we didn't have one," she said. "Books-A-Million is gone; Spice of Life is gone; so we saw this as a perfect place to open one.... These are overstock books, which means they've been previously sitting on shelves or have been somewhere else like a backroom that didn't get put out, didn't sell well, things like that. Instead of going back to the publishers, they allow you to buy them, and you can sell them at discount prices."

New releases are also included in the inventory. The shop's biggest categories are mysteries and romance novels. "I also found out once I started this, I started getting messages from people who had book clubs, so I do have a section here for book club classics," said Bowen

She explained the origin of the shop's name: "With my husband being in the military, we traveled a lot, and it got to where we loved hiking and loved roaming around and looking at places," she said. "We wanted to incorporate where we've been all these years. I saw the word 'wanderlust' and it clicked; it all felt perfect."

The Wanderlust Bookstore occupies about 900 square feet in the front part of the building, with an as yet unopened back section that adds about the same amount of space.

"Eventually I'd like to expand the back," Bowen said. "I'd love to have a place where we could bring in authors for a book signing and have a whole section devoted to local authors who really want to get their books out there and have an opportunity to do that here."

After more than 60 years in business, Spanish-language bookstore Librería Girón in Chicago, Ill., is closing permanently, CBS News reported.

Store owner Patricia Girón García, daughter of founders Julio and Ada Girón, will keep the business at 3547 W. 26th St. open until December 31. She told CBS that she decided to close the bookstore due to difficulties presented by the economy as well as the digital transition.

"I love books," Girón García said. "I'm always going to love books, but not as a business. I'm going to find myself."

She noted that when her parents founded the bookstore, "it was very hard to find Spanish books, magazines. So people enjoyed that. It reminded them of home." Librería Girón also carried plenty of educational materials and self help books, and it eventually grew to have nine locations and an online catalog.

"Since my mom was a teacher, she wanted to educate," Girón García recalled. "So she started buying books, ordering books from Spain, from Mexico, and little by little, we started having a lot of merchandise."

Girón García called the bookstore her "second home," pointing out that she is 58 years old and has been going to the bookstore since she was eight.

"Love your books, and learn to read and keep on reading," she told CBS. "Have the passion to keep on reading."

This coming Friday, November 3, 1-2 p.m. Eastern, ReadingGroupGuides.com will host its 12 1/2 annual Book Group Speed Dating Event--virtually. Representatives from seven publishers will share selections via video to give booksellers, librarians, and book group leaders an inside look at new and upcoming titles that book groups will want to know about and discuss. E-galleys will be available for selected titles from Edelweiss and/or NetGalley, as well as print galleys. Leave-behinds will be made available in PowerPoint and Excel formats.

Participating publishers include Hachette Book Group, Harlequin Trade Publishing, Random House Publishing Group, Simon & Schuster, Soho Press, Sourcebooks, and W.W. Norton.

Advance signup is required and can be done here.

Henry Berliner (photo: Joseph Szalay)

Longtime bookseller Henry Berliner died last Wednesday at age 73.

Berliner was the owner for many years of the Foundry Bookstore, New Haven, Conn., which opened in 1974 and closed in 2003. In an interview with Bookselling This Week after he shut the store, Berliner, who started at the Foundry as a clerk in 1975, said that the store hit its peak in 1993, but then competitive pressures from "bookstore chains, supermarkets, price clubs, and the Internet" affected sales.

The Foundry was a 1,200-square-foot, general-interest store near the Yale University campus. Still, as Berliner, put it, the Foundry was not a college bookstore. "The undergraduates usually go to other bookstores," he said. "Our customers are faculty and graduate students.... We're more of a community bookstore."

He added: "For years we got by on word of mouth. That doesn't work as well anymore. It's been 29 years, and it's enough. We were a very good bookstore."

Berliner was beloved by fellow booksellers and reps in New England. As Brian Heller wrote concerning his days as a Penguin rep, "I would always make him my first appointment of the season because I learned a lot about my list from him. I received innumerable great book recommendations from him, too. He kept in touch with me for decades (often to ask for a book, but just as often just to complain about the Mets)."

Larry Dorfman, author and sales manager at Apollo Publishers, remembered what made Berliner special: "His knowledge of books that was vast, the ease with which he smiled, his gentility, and that when you left his presence, you always felt better about the world."

For the release of Britney Spears's memoir, The Woman in Me (Gallery Books), Subtext Books in St. Paul, Minn., hosted a conversation between (l.) Kara Nesvig, author of The Britney Spears Oracle, and Chris Stedman (IRL, Faitheist), host of the Britney-themed podcast Unread. (photo: Eric Best)

"Pippi is getting ready for Halloween with her favorite books! Thank you to Grace for making Pippi the cutest witch!" Once Upon a Time Bookstore, Montrose, Calif., posted on Facebook.

Vandana Patel has joined Abrams as chief financial officer. Most recently, she was CFO at Topix Media Lab, a publisher of women's lifestyle, celebrity, and health content as well as cooking, young adult, and adult nonfiction titles. Earlier, she held v-p of finance roles at Time Inc. and News Group.

The Secret: A Jack Reacher Novel by Lee Child and Andrew Child (Delacorte Press).

Today:
Good Morning America: Henry Winkler, author of Being Henry: The Fonz... and Beyond (Celadon, $30, 9781250888099). He will also appear today on the View and the Late Show with Stephen Colbert.

Today Show: Erin French, author of Big Heart Little Stove: Bringing Home Meals & Moments from The Lost Kitchen (Celadon, $38, 9781250832313).

Fresh Air: Tanisha C. Ford, author of Our Secret Society: Mollie Moon and the Glamour, Money, and Power Behind the Civil Rights Movement (Amistad, $32.99, 9780063115712).

Tomorrow:
CBS Mornings: Caster Semenya, author of The Race to Be Myself: A Memoir (W. W. Norton, $30, 9781324035770).

Good Morning America: Richard Blais, co-author of Plant Forward: 100 Bold Recipes for a Mostly Healthy Lifestyle (Victory Belt Publishing, $39.95, 9781628601350).

Drew Barrymore Show: Ree Drummond, author of The Pioneer Woman Cooks--Dinner's Ready!: 112 Fast and Fabulous Recipes for Slightly Impatient Home Cooks (Morrow, $32.50, 9780062962843).

Christy Cashman and Emmy and Golden Globe-winning actress Jane Seymour are teaming up to co-produce a film adaptation of Cashman's novel The Truth About Horses, "a triumphant story about the fierce spirit of a young woman facing down life's unexpected challenges, a devastating loss, and the search for her place in the world."

"I was blown away by this inspiring story of Reese, a young girl who overcomes significant trauma. I am looking forward to collaborating with Christy on bringing Reese's story to life on screen," said Seymour.

Cashman added, "Jane's early support for the book--including her generous blurb and exuberant presence at several events and media interviews--has been immensely helpful. I am so grateful to Jane for her kindness, dedication, and expertise--and I can't wait for where this collaboration will take us."

Arboreality by Rebecca Campbell (Stelliform Press) has won the $25,000 2023 Ursula K. Le Guin Prize for Fiction, which is "given to a writer for a single book-length work of imaginative fiction."

Organizers said, "In looping, linked stories that travel through generations, Campbell explores the effects of climate change on one slice of British Columbia: what might happen as the planet changes, and how regular people might remake their homes by growing together and reconsidering other, gentler ways to live in a drastically reshaped world."

Judges said, "Arboreality is a eulogy for the world as we know it. Rebecca Campbell's extraordinary, deeply felt book explores the difficulties of the long hard project of survival. There are no heroes or villains here--only people making brave, difficult choices, out of hope and love for their community, for art, knowledge, and beauty. Arboreality imagines things that we haven't yet considered about what can and will go wrong with our gardens, libraries, and archives if we don't act now (maybe even if we do). In her masterful and profoundly ethical stories, Campbell asks us what might be saved, what must be saved, and what it will take to do so."

LibraryReads, the nationwide library staff-picks list, offers the top 10 November titles public library staff across the country love:

Top Pick
Bookshops & Bonedust by Travis Baldree (Tor, $17.99, 9781250886101). "In this worthy prequel to Legends & Lattes, a young Viv is laid up in the quiet town of Murk after her enthusiastic inexperience leads to a serious injury. She gradually assembles a group of friends including a swear-happy bookshop owner, a mercenary turned baker, and an irrepressible Gallina, eager to join Rackham's Raiders. Murk doesn't stay quiet for long with Viv around, and there's plenty of coziness in the bookshop, eating delicious baked goods, and flirting with a new friend." --Lauren Abner, Kentucky Dept. for Libraries & Archives, Ky.

The Future by Naomi Alderman (Simon & Schuster, $28.99, 9781668025680). "What would happen if three companies (think Amazon, Facebook, and Twitter), were removed from the world and their money put to saving the planet and all of the people on it? Alderman once again places the reader in a world that is falling apart, run by greedy billionaires who don't care what damage they do as long as they keep making more money. Look into The Future and get an idea of how that might go." --Linda Quinn, LibraryReads Ambassador

Day: A Novel by Michael Cunningham (Random House, $28, 9780399591341). "This intimate and almost claustrophobic book follows a family on the same day in three different years: April 5th of 2019, 2020, and 2021. The story is about endings, beginnings, aging, relationships, and the impact of Covid-19. A lyrical novel, with deft prose and a focus on the internal lives of the characters. Cunningham has a gift of providing just enough detail to engage readers without weighing the prose down." --Chad Cunningham, Monroe County Library System, N.Y.

Good Girls Don't Die by Christina Henry (Berkley, $17, 9780593638194). "Celia finds herself trapped in someone else's life. Allie's birthday trip turns into a slasher fest in a cabin in the woods. Maggie is kidnapped and made to play a dangerous dystopian maze game. All three women find themselves in situations reminiscent of their favorite horror fiction, and are fighting to survive. What is really happening, and is it possible to make it out alive? A thrilling page turner." --Candice Machata, North Kingstown Free Library, R.I.

Plot Twist: A Novel by Erin La Rosa (Canary Street Press, $18.99, 9781335458117). "Romance writer Sophie has the hots for her landlord, former indie movie star Dash. He's stand-offish, but that's because he's harboring a secret crush on her. Their paths collide when, hungover, she barfs on him. Readers will be charmed by this sexy, low-stakes romance as the relatable characters slowly build themselves up to reach for each other." --Jennifer Rusche, William Jeanes Memorial Library, Lafayette Hill, Pa.

Class: A Memoir of Motherhood, Hunger, and Higher Education by Stephanie Land (Atria/One Signal, $28, 9781982151393). "Life after Maid is where Class begins, and takes us to the heart of systemic inequity that exists in this country. Unflinchingly honest and gripping, this is a memoir that is either relatable, pivotal, and/or eye opening. It will change readers." --Jesica Sweedler DeHart, Neill Public Library, Pullman, Wash.

The Manor House: A Novel by Gilly Macmillan (Morrow, $30, 9780063074385). "Childhood sweethearts Nicole and Tom win the lottery and are thrust into a life of splendor, including a dreamy glass mansion. When Tom turns up dead in the pool, Nicole doesn't know whom she can trust--was Tom's death a tragic accident or is someone trying to get a piece of the winnings? Macmillan's latest is perfectly paced suspense." --Kaite Stover, Kansas City Public Library, Mo.

A Grandmother Begins the Story by Michelle Porter (‎Algonquin, $28, 9781643755182). "A young Métis woman seeks to learn about her heritage as her mother tries to reconcile their lost years while protecting her daughter from what she perceives as the sins of her own mother. Told from the point of view of five generations of women, this is a beautiful and affecting debut." --Jennifer Winberry, Hunterdon County Library, N.J.

The Mystery Guest: A Maid Novel by Nita Prose (Ballantine, $29, 9780593356180). "When a famous author dies before he can make an important announcement about his career, Molly can't help but insert herself into the investigation. Molly and her friend Angela work to prove the author was murdered, but solving the case is not easy. Fans of the first book in this series will not be disappointed, and the ending may mean another sequel." --Cari Dubiel, Twinsburg Public Library, Twinsburg, Ohio

The Other Half by Charlotte Vassell (Anchor, $27, 9780593685945). "There's something about the sleaze hidden beneath a thick veneer of lucre that is always compelling. The posh characters here are in and out of each others' pockets (and beds). When one winds up dead beneath a hedge, a trio of outsider detectives seek out who is responsible. The mystery is tidied up nicely, with enough hanging threads to leave readers excited for more." --Krista Feick, Columbus Metropolitan Library, Ohio

Set in the coastal city of Durban, South Africa, and seasoned with an atmospheric eeriness, The Djinn Waits a Hundred Years by Shubnum Khan features a crumbling mansion on a bluff overlooking the shimmering sea, and tells the captivating stories of the residents, past and present, who call it home. Some are spectral creatures, while others lived there long ago, their ancient secrets deeply embedded in the faded splendor of its elegant rooms.

The youngest resident is also the newest. Sana Malek and her father, Bilal, are transplants from "Jo'burg," and they are accompanied by the restless ghost of Sana's twin sister, a spiteful spirit who envies Sana for being the surviving sibling. Motherless, Sana is a quiet girl on the cusp of womanhood with mismatched clothes and an overwhelming curiosity about the history of her new home. Sitting empty for many decades, the sleepy old house, named Akbar Manzil, has been haphazardly converted into apartments with unreliable electricity and damp walls, and it is in one of these that the Maleks start their new life.

Their neighbors are an eccentric bunch, including an elderly doctor with a bad leg, a parrot named Mr. Patel, and two quarreling women whose intensely competitive relationship fuels the novel's comedic scenes. Wandering the property is a djinn, the Arabic name for a spirit who can take human form. This ancient creature furtively guards the house's deserted east wing and is unsettled by Sana's late-night exploration of its dust-cloaked quarters.

The unfolding present-day drama alternates with the haunting story of the house's original inhabitants, a sugar tycoon named Akbar Ali Khan and his family. Here, the author entices her readers into the forgotten world of the charismatic Meena Begum, a poor factory worker who, against all odds, became Akbar's second wife. Theirs was a love story for the ages, a passionate union deeply resented by Akbar's rejected first wife and his dominating mother.

Shubnum Khan is a spellbinding storyteller. Her subtly spooky debut is a marvelous literary tableau, offsetting an enchanting love story amid the opulent grounds of a palatial manor (once "the grandest house on the east coast of Africa") with revelations of the mysterious tragedy that led to Akbar Manzil's abandonment. As the drama cascades toward an astonishing conclusion, past and present collide, and truths tumble forth that will alter Sana's existence, and the djinn's afterlife, forever. --Shahina Piyarali, reviewer

Shelf Talker: A crumbling old South African mansion by the sea is the setting for this subtly spooky drama about a young woman's quest to unravel the mysterious tragedy that occurred there many years ago.