Yellow Bird Books has opened at 34 S. Stolp Ave. in downtown Aurora, Ill., in the historic Keystone Building, which "has undergone a recent renovation turning the one-time offices on the upper floors into apartments," the Beacon-News reported. 

Owner Karen Nicholas, who worked as a teacher for 20 years, had harbored a secret dream to open a bookstore. "I never actually thought I would do it, but the circumstances were right," she said. "I've (lived) in Aurora for 15 years, and I always wanted to live in a town with an independent bookstore. It's important to try to create the community you want to live in.... Surprisingly, I get a lot of younger people. A lot of young people who live in the apartments down here."

Nicholas, who has long supported downtown merchants, added that her business has been brisk when the Paramount Theatre has shows, and on nights when downtown has events, including First Fridays and markets. Many families of students at the neighboring Paramount School of the Arts browse the store while waiting for their children, as do workers in the other stores downtown. 

The store's inventory is curated "to reflect an emphasis on the arts, science, history, science fiction and fantasy, education and social issues," according to its website. The selection "also reflects the kind of diversity Aurora boasts, something that drew Nicholas, her husband, Karl, and their son to the city from Waukegan in 2009," the Beacon-News noted. 

"One of the reasons we chose Aurora was the diversity," she said. "I want to reflect that in the store. And I always ask people, what would you like to see."

The storefront's large display window is another feature that Nicholas said makes the space a "super location. It's so much fun dreaming up ideas for it." 

Sparrow Books, a general-interest bookstore with titles for all ages, has opened in Clarion, Pa., the Courier Express reported.

Owner Sarah Cummings officially opened the bookstore late last month. Currently she sells all new titles for children, teens, and adults, though she does plan to add used books in the future. There is a strong emphasis on local and regional authors, and Cummings wants to make the shop as accessible as possible. To that end, a membership program allows customers to buy a book and then trade it in for another.

While the store is open for business, work is still being done on the space. When it's completed, Cummings will turn the space's back room into a reading room and event space. Her plans for the latter include writing workshops, author events, open mics, and more.

"We really want to be another place in town where people can come and hang out and connect with other community members," Cummings told the Courier Express. "I really want this to be a welcoming, inclusive space for people--to go into a bookstore and be met with different titles, things you might not know existed, different ideas. I want it to be a space where they can feel comfortable and excited to find new things.”

An avid reader, Cummings has dreamed of opening a bookstore of her own for a long time. The storefront at 623 Main St. is actually the second space in which she's tried to open her store. In January, she and Eric Krouse leased a different space on Main St., next to a sandwich shop. In April, a fire destroyed the sandwich shop and severely damaged many of the surrounding buildings. She and Krouse were still early in the opening process, and most of their losses were bookshelves.

They were briefly at a loss about what to do, until the owner of an arts and crafts store on Main St. told Cummings he was closing his store and the space would soon be available. Once they were able to move in, they began painting, reflooring, and installing bookshelves.

Per the Courier Express, it is the first bookstore to come to downtown Clarion in more than a decade.

At Avalon, longtime v-p and publisher Bill Newlin is retiring in June 2024 and will be succeeded by v-p and associate publisher Jaimee Callaway.

Bill Newlin

Newlin has been publisher of Moon since 1991 and became publisher of Avalon in 1999 when Moon merged with Rick Steves.

In announcing the changes, Kristin Kiser, senior v-p and publisher of the Running Press Group at Hachette Book Group, said that "it was Bill's vision that helped Rick grow his guidebook business into the category-leading program it is today, encompassing comprehensive country and city guidebooks as well as many other formats" and that during the pandemic, Newlin "led his team through a difficult period for travel publishing. The work he and his team did throughout the years to strengthen and grow Moon meant that Moon;s domestic travel titles, including U.S.A. National Parks and other titles focusing on road trips, hiking and outdoor activities, were a bright spot during a hard time. And now that people are traveling overseas again, Moon's international titles are selling well."

She added, "Bill has driven improvements throughout the years that make Avalon an industry leader with meticulously-researched, user-friendly guidebooks. And his devotion to travel runs deep. He is an avid collector of rare and historical guidebooks. He is a friend and competitor with other guidebook publishers. His knowledge of the scope and history of guidebook publishing is profound. We wish Bill the best as he continues to travel the world, we hope (and expect) with Moon and Rick Steves books in hand."

Jaimee Callaway

Callaway has been with Hachette/Perseus for 15 years. She started in the Perseus sales department supporting B&N and selling to BN.com, and later moved into central marketing. In 2016, she joined Avalon as marketing director and was promoted to associate publisher in 2020.

Kiser called Callaway "a passionate advocate for the Rick Steves and Moon brands. Jaimee's attention to detail and ability to articulate goals and create plans has made her an indispensable part of the Avalon team, and her energy, enthusiasm, and calm presence make her a joy to work with."

Barnes & Noble's new store in Bridgehampton, N.Y., will open with a ribbon cutting ceremony at 10 a.m. this morning. 

Located at 2044 Montauk Highway, the Bridgehampton store is one of 10 new B&N shops to open this month alone. More than 30 have opened in 2023 and the retailer has some 50 openings planned for next year.

Store manager Sarah deQuillfeldt, who has been a B&N bookseller for 12 years, said, "Opening new bookstores is one of the most exciting parts of my job. It is wonderful to get a chance to connect with the community and deliver a vibrant, local bookstore. This is a truly unique location in the Hamptons, and I am positive that our store will become an important and special place here."

Larry Hughes, longtime head of William Morrow, died on November 14 at age 98.

His publishing career began in the mail room at Pocket Books, where over 10 years he rose to become senior editor. In 1960, he became a v-p at William Morrow. From 1965 to 1985, he was Morrow's president and CEO. During that time, Morrow published such bestselling authors as Sidney Sheldon, Morris West, Joseph Wambaugh, John Irving, Ken Follett, Saul Bellow, and Margaret Truman. From 1985 to 1988, Hughes was president and CEO of the Hearst Trade Book Group, until he became editor-at-large and group adviser.

Hughes was also involved with a range of organizations, libraries, and schools. He served on the board of governors of Yale University Press and on the board of directors of the National Book Foundation. He was also a trustee of the Pequot Library in Southport, Conn., and for 37 years was trustee and lifetime trustee of the Morgan Library & Museum in New York City. A fierce advocate for the freedom to publish, he was a member of the Helsinki Watch Committee and he worked closely with PEN America.

He will be remembered for his sense of humor, generosity, storytelling, and his love of golf.

Stacey Colino (l.) and Jen Golbeck (r.) signed copies of their new book, The Purest Bond: Understanding the Human-Canine Connection (Atria), at Books & Books Key West, in Key West, Fla. (photo: Alex Brandon)

"The glow of holiday lights is just magical inside our store at closing time! Good night books--we will see you tomorrow for one last 10% off everything in store!!" Novel Bay Booksellers, Sturgeon Bay, Wis., posted on Facebook.

Betty's Books, Webster Groves, Mo., posted photos of the shop's festive season window art on Instagram, noting: "The hugest of thanks to one of the BB crew members, @katieschaeferillustration for turning our windows into a winter wonderland of comics fun!!! We're beyond thrilled with how it turned out, if you can't tell from Betty's candid jumping-for-joy shot. Swipe for some behind-the-scenes paint content, and swing by to see it in person!!"

Sarah Bonamino has been promoted to senior publicity manager at Blackstone Publishing.

Quiet Voice, Awesome Power: Connect with Spirit, Enlist Divine Help, and Live Your Most Potent Life by Amanda R. Edwards (Apollo Publishers).

Today:
Fresh Air: Tim Alberta, author of The Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory: American Evangelicals in an Age of Extremism (Harper, $35, 9780063226883).

Tomorrow:
Good Morning America: Kate DiCamillo, author of The Puppets of Spelhorst (Candlewick Press, $17.99, 9781536216752).

The View: Brian Stelter, author of Network of Lies: The Epic Saga of Fox News, Donald Trump, and the Battle for American Democracy (Atria/One Signal, $30, 9781668046906).

Wild Nest Pictures, headed by actor Tom Brittney (Grantchester) and actor-writer Oliver Powell (Devs), has secured screen rights to Jon Ransom's novel, The Whale Tattoo. Deadline reported they are developing the adaptation, with Ransom set to write the script and Brittney eyeing the project as his film directorial debut. The debut novel won a Polari Prize last week. 

"Jon is a brilliant new voice in queer literature. His writing is incredibly evocative, raw and steeped in atmosphere. We're excited to help him bring Joe's story of grief and forgiveness to life," Wild Nest said.

Ransom added: "It's an absolute dream come true. Tom and Ollie's passion for developing the novel into a film is everything a writer could wish for."

The graphic novel Your Wish Is My Command, which was written, illustrated and translated by Deena Mohamed, won the £1,000 (about $1,265) Warwick Prize for Women in Translation, which recognizes "the best eligible work of fiction, poetry, literary nonfiction, work of fiction for children or young adults, graphic novel or play text, written by a woman, translated into English by a translator (or translators) of any gender, and published by a U.K. or Irish publisher." Your Wish Is My Command was first published in Arabic in three volumes in 2017, 2019 and 2021.

The judges said this year's winner "breaks exciting new ground for this unique prize. A graphic novel self-translated from the Arabic by its author, Your Wish is My Command succeeds triumphantly as a spellbinding narrative, a visual tour de force and as a unified work of art. Deena Mohamed's wittily inventive texts and dialogues complement her virtuoso drawings in an exuberant satirical fantasia. She channels the dreams, fears and struggles of an alternative Cairo--a city of the imagination whose people share the everyday aspirations, and frustrations, of all who wish and hope around the world."

The judges also awarded a special commendation to A Line in the World by Dorthe Nors, translated from Danish by Caroline Waight. The judges commented: "Our specially commended title weaves wind and tide, experience and history, into a magical memoir of a place, a life and a culture. Dorthe Nors's A Line in the World transforms the North Sea coast of Denmark into an enchanted shoreline. Here past and present, nature and humanity, meet, in superbly evocative prose carried flawlessly into English by Caroline Waight."

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Longlists have been announced for seven of the 10 categories of the Sheikh Zayed Book Awards, organized by the Abu Dhabi Arabic Language Centre under the auspices of the Department of Culture and Tourism Abu Dhabi and showcasing Arab literature and culture. Shortlists will be announced in February 2024 and the winners in March. An award ceremony will be held during the Abu Dhabi International Book Fair 2024 in April. To see the longlists (and the newly created category of editing Arabic manuscripts), click here.

National Book Award finalist and Newbery Honoree Lisa Yee (Maizy Chen's Last Chance) plays out every awkward preteen's fantasy in the humorously charming opener to a new illustrated series, The Misfits, in which a team of nerds solve crimes. A Royal Conundrum introduces middle-grade readers to 12-year-old Olive Cobin Zang and her classmates as they work together to stop a notorious jewel thief and save their boarding school, RASCH (the Reforming Arts School). National Book Award winner and Caldecott Medalist Dan Santat (A First Time for Everything) enhances the book's charming zaniness with black-and-white art.

Olive is taken out of her current school under what seem like suspicious circumstances and is dropped off at RASCH by her jet-setting parents. After only one night at the school, she receives a note: "Report to your Conundrum in the headmaster's office." The results of this test, she learns, determine her placement at RASCH and whether she's "even RASCH material" at all. To Olive's relief, she excels. After she takes part in the "gymkhana splore" (yet another test), she and four other students are assigned to the school's super-secret No One Can Know (NOCK) unit.

After earning their places on the team, the Misfits learn that they "only take on cases where someone has been wronged or is in danger." Their first outing is just such a case. Jewel thief Bling King absconds with a prize necklace belonging to RASCH's benefactor, Dame Gloria Vanderwisp, at a RASCH fundraiser. If they don't retrieve her jewels, Dame Gloria will shut down the school. Olive and friends are determined to make sure that doesn't happen.

Yee expertly interlaces elements of spy thrillers, such as international villains and high-tech gadgetry, with the comic components of a madcap caper, like a ballet-dancing secret agent, communication devices disguised as dental retainers, and an amphibious bus called BoBu (short for "boat bus"). Her young protagonists each bring their own distinctive skills to NOCK: tech master, human fact repository, math wiz. And when the self-named Misfits solidify their bond, they realize their full potential as crime fighters and friends. Santat's trademark energetic and dynamic grayscale illustrations give readers an extra level of storytelling as they reinforce and add to Yee's text.

There is nothing puzzling about A Royal Conundrum. It is action, adventure, and fun with a group of young underdogs worth rooting for. The Misfits are a team of heroes for the outcast in everyone. --Jen Forbus, freelancer

Shelf Talker: A Newbery Honoree and a Caldecott Medalist team up to deliver madcap humor with a satisfyingly unusual team of covert crime fighters.

Lanora Jennings

Sales rep and former bookseller Lanora Jennings says that bookselling has long been and will continue to be an institution that cultivates a community of values that can act as an underpinning for a better world.

During Heartland Fall Forum in Detroit, Danny Caine and a panel of rockstar booksellers discussed the future of bookselling, with many references to his latest book, How to Protect Bookstores and Why: The Present and Future of Bookselling. Audience members were encouraged to fill out a postcard with their own ideas, presumably to be gathered and presented as a collective vision. I left my postcard blank--3x5 inches simply wasn't enough room. I have spent the past three years researching the Past of Bookselling.

Of the many barriers women suffragists broke through, one was bookselling, and in doing so they altered the bookstore space. They brought the domestic into the commercial. Many bookstores now had comfortable chairs and curtains. Children were welcomed as customers and encouraged to touch and experience the books. They held story times, classes, public discussions, and poetry readings. Booksellers brought their circle of friends together over cocktails in the garden behind the bookstore to meet little-known authors like Robert Frost and D.H. Lawrence. They built a community around books.

In the mid 19th century, booksellers risked their stores and their lives taking a stand against the multiple waves of conservative battling "flagitious materials." They sold illegally imported copies of Joyce's Ulysses from secret back rooms. Vice societies and police raided their stores and permanently seized their inventory. Booksellers sold contested books to known "undercover" vice agents with the deliberate intention of getting arrested, pushing the issues all the way to the Supreme Court and testing the boundaries of the First and Fourteenth Amendments. The resulting decisions became precedent, shaping how we define obscene materials today. Bookselling became a political act--a challenge to authority.

When second-wave feminists became frustrated by a lack of access to materials by and for women, they were told by many publishers that there was no market for that type of book. In response, they started their own presses. To sell those books, they opened feminist bookstores. These booksellers created safe places for women and the queer community. The owners of these stores collaborated with each other across the country. They pushed back against the white, male-dominated publishing world by lobbying to bring books by women and people of color into print. They emphasized the importance of diverse representation in the books on their shelves and protested books of cultural appropriation. Proving that there was a strong market for these books, they became victims of their own success. The major publishers finally got the memo, expanding their publishing range. The major national chains put in "women's studies" sections and discounted the books. Bookselling was a platform for progressive change--a cultural and political expression of values.

When the predatory and unfair business practices of the chains and online retailers silenced the voices of so many booksellers, the remaining rallied. Fighting in both the courts and the court of public opinion, booksellers sent a message to the world. They gave fuel to the buy local movements, participated in economic studies, and spread the message that the cultural work of the bookstore in their community has significant value and that there is a significant hidden cost in discounted prices. Booksellers proved there is a big difference between a bookseller and a company that happens to sell books--spreading the idea that the true profit in bookselling is the social profit--the impact of the bookshop on the community.

Our bookseller ancestors have passed down through the generations a set of values, customs, and practices that define bookselling today. Social scientists define this as a culture. This is a culture that challenges authority, questions, and expands its political and cultural viewpoints, is open to change, and explores new ways to create community. I don't know precisely what our future looks like, but if our past informs our future, bookselling will continue to be an institution that cultivates a community of values that can act as an underpinning for a better world.

Note: Written with a nod and gratitude of the late David Schwartz of the Harry W. Schwartz Bookshops in Milwaukee, Wis. (1927-2009), who eloquently expressed these values many years ago in this way: "Bookselling is a cultural and political expression, an expression of progressive change, of challenge to oppressive authority, of a search for a community of values which can act as an underpinning of a better world. The true profit in bookselling is the social profit; the bottom line, the measure of the impact of the books on the community."