Wyrd, a bookstore in Edgewater, Md., that held its soft opening last month, will host a grand opening celebration this Saturday, December 2. The shop, located at 135 Mitchells Chance Rd. in the Main Street at South River Colony shopping center, sells new and used books as well as gifts, and features an on-site cafe serving tea and coffee, the Edgewater-Davidsonville Patch reported.

Owner AmyLea Murphy said the bookshop's name is an old English term meaning fate or destiny. In a Facebook post, Main Street at South River Colony noted that Murphy "fosters a love for books and community, aiming to create a gathering place for meaningful connections and shared experiences."

The bookshop's website notes: "Our purpose at Wyrd is to build bridges between hearts and kindle the light of genuine connections. We celebrate the instances when time slows down, allowing us to truly savor the beauty of this remarkable journey we all share. The ordinary becomes extraordinary in these moments, and it is in their embrace that we find our truest selves."

On Monday, Jeannine A. Cook, owner of Harriett's Bookshop, Philadelphia, Pa., "surveyed the damage wrought by last week's unexpected floodwaters in her Fishtown store's basement," the Inquirer reported. The damage included her entire inventory of used books, as well as boxes of branded T-shirts. 

Despite the Thanksgiving Day flood, Cook expressed her gratitude: "I just wanted to say thank you to all who came out. The unlikeliest people came together and helped us with such simple acts of help. They seem small but had a major impact on the community.... They helped to remove the trash, they cleaned up, they helped us with the smell and they helped us get the water out. Whatever they could do to be helpful, they did."

Cook was able to open Harriett's on Black Friday and Small Business Saturday, "humidifiers humming in the background. Shoppers meandered in and out of the shop on Cyber Monday," the Inquirer noted. "Despite the chilly air, Cook set up an outdoor display and rang customers up inside--with the front and back doors open. By Saturday, she'd salvaged a little more. On Monday, things were almost back to normal."

The basement is ruined, but Cook is relieved she kept the books she planned to put on display on the main floor. Her goal is to get the basement as close to ready as she can by December 16 for Joyathon, a 24-hour children's book drive Harriett's is hosting with singer Denise King and founder of the virtual Museum of Black Joy, Andrea Walls. The books will be donated to the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.

"It's pretty special when you can be somewhere where you weren't born and raised, and people still come out for you," Cook said. "Things always have a way of working out in perfect order. And for that, I'm grateful."

The Wandering Jellyfish Bookshop, which opened in 2021 in Niwot, Colo., will close December 9. The Left Hand Valley Courier reported that the children's bookstore "has been a warm, welcoming place for community members and authors alike. It showcased local authors and diverse perspectives, and catered to young readers and those young at heart. The owners cited a failure to meet financial goals as leading to the closing."

Store manager Alison Kane said that since the closure announcement, there has been an outpouring of support from local authors and community members. "Many reached out with concern for the staff, asking what was next for them, and many simply came to express their sadness about the shop closing," the Courier noted.

"So many have come in person, called and left voicemails and sent wonderful e-mails describing the incredible impact we have had on their family, and getting their kids excited about reading," said Kane. "I have also heard that many kids and teens viewed the bookshop as a safe space where they could come on bad days and know they would be welcomed by smiling faces. TWJ was my dream job and I will always cherish my time here. Niwot is an amazing town and I feel lucky to have been a part of and positively impacted the community here."

All December events and preorder campaigns organized by TWJ have been taken over by Second Star to the Right Books in Denver. Kane will also move to Second Star.

In 2023, more children who received free school meals said they did not have a book of their own compared to the year before (12.4% in 2023 vs 9.7% in 2022), according to a recent study by the U.K.'s National Literacy Trust, which noted that book ownership is "associated with better reading performance. Indeed, a 2023 study found it was one of the top three predictors of children's reading performance."

The cost-of-living crisis has a direct impact on families' ability to support reading at home, with 36.1% of parents who were struggling financially saying they were buying fewer books for their children in early 2023, the NLT said. Among other findings:

• 92.9% of children and young people 8-18 said they had a book of their own at home.
• 80.8% of children ages 5-8 said they had a book of their own at home.
• 5.8% of 8- to 18-year-olds who did not receive free school meals said they did not have a book of their own. 

The percentage-point gap in book ownership between children and young people who receive free meals and their peers who do not (6.6%) is now at its largest in a decade, the Literacy Trust reported, adding: "Acknowledging the associations between book ownership and reading enjoyment, attainment and longer-term outcomes, it is essential that support for book ownership should be targeted at groups with the most to benefit, including children and young people from lower-income backgrounds."

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The International Publishers Association confirmed the results of online elections and decisions about membership applications during the organization's virtual general assembly this month. New IPA executive, membership, and freedom to publish committee members were named, along with nine new IPA member associations, including:

Provisional members
Bangladesh Publishers & Booksellers Association
Bulgarian Book Association
Cámara Costarricense del Libro
Book Publishers Association of Malawi
Book Development Association of the Philippines
Publishers Association of Tanzania
Cámara Uruguaya del Libro

Patron members 
Bologna Children's Book Fair
Philippine Book Publishing Development Federation

IPA president Karine Pansa commented: "It is wonderful to see so many publishers' associations applying for IPA membership and recognizing the value that IPA brings to the international publishing community. Congratulations to all of them for their successful applications. We can't wait to start working together."

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Australian bookstore chain QBD Books has named its 2023 Books of the Year, chosen by QBD's "team of literary enthusiasts and buyers, who lovingly compare hundreds of engaging books, before the deserving winners are separated into three categories--fiction, nonfiction, and children's. 

This year's winning titles are Lola in the Mirror by Trent Dalton (fiction), Be Useful: Seven Tools for Life by Arnold Schwarzenegger (nonfiction), and Once There Was by Kiyash Monsef (children's).

QBD Books CEO Nick Croydon said that "our three Books of the Year are typically titles that have not been selected as Book of the Month--instead, we look at the calendar year, and select winning titles that have sold well or that have resonated with our readers, which we then spotlight throughout the month of December."

In other news, QBD will open its 88th retail store, in Melbourne's eastern suburb of Forest Hill on December 9.  

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Tokyo's new Azabudai Hills Mori JP Tower--now the tallest building in Japan--features an Ogaki Bookstore branch, "designed to make the actual process of shopping for books as pleasant and enjoyable as possible, providing an elegant atmosphere you can't get just from clicking on samples and order buttons on an online bookseller's website," Sora News 24 reported. 

In addition to reading lounges with views that look down into the central garden of the Azabudai Hills complex, "the coolest place of all to sit and peruse some reading material" is Slow Page, a bar/cafe located inside the bookstore, Sora News 24 noted. --Robert Gray

Betty Rollin, a network news correspondent "who described intensely personal life passages in two memoirs--First, You Cry, about being diagnosed with breast cancer and having a mastectomy, and Last Wish, in which she revealed that she had helped her pain-ravaged mother end her life," died November 7, the New York Times reported. She was 87.

Ellen Marson, a close friend who disclosed the death to the Times, said the cause was voluntary assisted suicide at Pegasos in Switzerland: "Betty recently told a few close friends she was going to do this. True to form, she was resolute in her decision; Betty made it clear she did not want to hear our objections to her plan.... She felt she didn't have much more to contribute."

Rollin belonged to Compassion & Choices, an advocacy group that supports expanding access to end-of-life medicine, and had been a board member of the Death with Dignity National Center for nearly 20 years.

Rollin attended Sarah Lawrence College, where she focused on acting. After graduating in 1957, she studied acting with Sanford Meisner and Lee Strasberg, along with working in regional theatrical productions.

She also wrote the first two of her seven books, I Thee Wed (1961) and Mothers Are Funnier Than Children (1964), the latter of which was published soon after she was hired as an editor and writer at Vogue magazine. She joined Look magazine as a senior editor and writer in 1966 and stayed until it folded in 1971. Rollin then went to work for NBC News in the early 1970s and stayed until 1982, when she left for a two-year stint as a correspondent for the ABC News program Nightline.

In First, You Cry (1976), Rollin wrote candidly about her delayed cancer diagnosis, her mastectomy, a divorce and the love affair that followed it, and her acceptance that her life did not end with the loss of a breast. The book was adapted into a CBS television movie in 1978, starring Mary Tyler Moore.

Her mother had ovarian cancer and died in 1983, an episode recounted in Rollin's bestselling book Last Wish (1985). When her mother said she was ready to die, Rollin and her husband "found a sympathetic doctor who suggested that her mother take a combination of drugs that would lead to death," the Times wrote, adding that Rollin "had ignored her lawyer's advice not to tell the story. 'I figured it was worth it,' she said in an interview last year with the Kunhardt Film Foundation, adding, 'I mean, I certainly didn't want to go to prison.' "

Last Wish was also turned into a TV movie, on ABC in 1992, with Patty Duke portraying Rollin and Maureen Stapleton as her mother.

Rollin told the Philadelphia Inquirer in 1976 that she felt she had no choice but to be as open as possible when she was writing about her breast cancer: "I do not enjoy the fact that everyone who's read my book knows everything intimate in my life. But I think it's important for people to tell the truth. It makes you feel better to get it out, and I think it makes other people feel better, too."

Book Passage partnered with the Curran Theater in San Francisco to present Henry Winkler in conversation with D'Arcy Carden. The two discussed their careers, their friendship, and Winkler's memoir Being Henry: The Fonz... and Beyond (Celadon). Pictured backstage: (from l.) Book Passage staff members Zack Dubuc, Luisa Smith, and Karen West with Winkler and Carden.

Inkwell Books & Threads, Rockton, Ill., shared a pic of the shop's sidewalk chalkboard message: "Want to become ridiculously attached to people who don’t exist and then mourn their untimely deaths and terrible decisions? Right this way."

White River Books, Carbondale, Colo., shared a photo of one of its sales floor displays, noting: "Cold winter mornings, and holiday picture books are hitting the shelves."

Finder's Creatures #2: Alarm at the Farm! written and illustrated by P. Knuckle Jones (Penguin Workshop).

Tomorrow:
Good Morning America: Chad Veach, author of Help! I Work with People: Getting Good at Influence, Leadership, and People Skills (Bethany House, $16.99, 9780764236143).

Today Show: Nicole LePera, author of How to Be the Love You Seek: Break Cycles, Find Peace, and Heal Your Relationships (Harper Wave, $32, 9780063267749).

Live with Kelly and Mark: Patrick Stewart, author of Making It So: A Memoir (Gallery Books, $35, 9781982167738).

The Talk: Tiffani Thiessen, author of Here We Go Again: Recipes and Inspiration to Level Up Your Leftovers (Worthy Books, $32, 9781546002765).

A trailer has been released for the new Netflix series Boy Swallows Universe. Based on Australian author Trent Dalton's novel, the adaptation premieres January 11. Netflix's description: "A lost father, a mute brother, a recovering addict mum, a heroin dealer for a stepfather, and a notorious criminal for a babysitter. Eli Bell is just trying to follow his heart and understand what it means to become a good man, but fate keeps throwing obstacles in his way."

Boy Swallows Universe stars Felix Cameron, Phoebe Tonkin, Simon Baker, Travis Fimmel, Bryan Brown, Lee Tiger Halley, Anthony LaPaglia, Deborah Mailman, and Sophie Wilde. John Collee is the screenwriter, working with directors Bharat Nalluri, Jocelyn Moorhouse, and Kim Mordaunt.

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, December 2
3:25 p.m. Lydia Moland, author of Lydia Maria Child: A Radical American Life (‎University of Chicago Press, $35, 9780226715711). (Re-airs Sunday at 3:25 a.m.)

5:55 p.m. Marc C. Johson, author of Mansfield and Dirksen: Bipartisan Giants of the Senate (University of Oklahoma Press, $29.95, 9780806192697). (Re-airs Sunday at 5:55 a.m.)

Sunday, December 3
8 a.m. Heather Cox Richardson, author of Democracy Awakening: Notes on the State of America (Viking, $30, 9780593652961). (Re-airs Sunday at 8 p.m.)

9 a.m. Maria Ressa, author of How to Stand Up to a Dictator: The Fight for Our Future (Harper Perennial, $19.99, 9780063257528). (Re-airs Sunday at 9 p.m.)

10 a.m. Jennifer Burns, author of Milton Friedman: The Last Conservative (‎Farrar, Straus and Giroux, $35, 9780374601140). (Re-airs Sunday at 10 p.m.)

12 p.m. Live In-Depth q&a with John Yoo, author of, among other things, Defender in Chief: Donald Trump's Fight for Presidential Power (All Points Books, $29.99, 9781250269577). (Re-airs Monday at 12 a.m.)

4:45 p.m. Coverage of the 74th annual National Book Awards in New York City on November 15.

An all-American six-book shortlist has been unveiled for the 2023 Diagram Prize for the Oddest Book Title of the Year, the Bookseller reported. The award was conceived in 1978 by Trevor Bounford and Bruce Robertson, co-founders of publishing solutions firm the Diagram Group, as a way to avoid boredom at the Frankfurt Book Fair. The winning title is chosen by members of the public via an online vote, and a winner announced December 8. This year's shortlisted titles are:

The 12 Days of Christmas: The Outlaw Carol that Wouldn't Die by Harry Rand 
Backvalley Ferrets: A Rewilding of the Colorado Plateau by Lawrence Lenhart 
Danger Sound Klaxon! The Horn That Changed History by Matthew F Jordan 
Dry Humping: A Guide to Dating, Relating, and Hooking Up Without the Booze by Tawny Lara 
I Fart in Your General Direction: Flatulence in Popular Culture by Don H. Corrigan 
The Queerness of Water: Troubled Ecologies in the Eighteenth Century by Jeremy Chow 

There is no prize for the winning author or publisher, but traditionally a "passable bottle of claret" is given to the nominator of the winning entry. 

Selected new titles appearing next Tuesday, December 5:

Quantum Body: The New Science of Living a Longer, Healthier, More Vital Life by Deepak Chopra, Jack Tuszynsk and Brian Fertig (Harmony, $24, 9780593579985) merges medicine and spirituality.

Everywhere an Oink Oink: An Embittered, Dyspeptic, and Accurate Report of Forty Years in Hollywood by David Mamet (Simon & Schuster, $27.99, 9781668026311) is the memoir of the playwright, screenwriter and director.

Oath and Honor: A Memoir and a Warning by Liz Cheney (Little, Brown, $32.50, 9780316572064) is the memoir of a Republican Trump critic.

Manner of Death by Robin Cook (Putnam, $29, 9780593713891) is a medical thriller involving murders staged as suicides.

The Lost Tomb: And Other Real-Life Stories of Bones, Burials, and Murder by Douglas Preston (Grand Central, $30, 9781538741221) includes a foreword by David Grann.

The Other Mothers by Katherine Faulkner (Gallery, $28.99, 9781668024782) is a domestic thriller set in a rich London neighborhood.

The End of the World Is a Cul de Sac: Stories by Louise Kennedy (Riverhead, $28, 9780593540923) contains short stories about Irish women.

Murder Crossed Her Mind by Stephen Spotswood (Doubleday, $27, 9780385549288) is the fourth Pentecost and Parker mystery.

Hell Divers XI: Renegades by Nicholas Sansbury Smith (Blackstone, $26.99, 9798212386654) continues the post-apocalyptic thriller series.

Mercy Watson Is Missing! by Kate DiCamillo, illus. by Chris Van Dusen (Candlewick, $16.99, 9781536210231), is the seventh and final book in the beloved early reader series about a buttered toast-eating pig.

The Ruined by Renée Ahdieh (Putnam, $19.99, 9781984812643) is the fourth and concluding book in the YA Beautiful Quartet series.

Paperbacks:
Fear of Flying: 50th Anniversary Edition by Erica Jong (Berkley, $18, 9780451209436).

Raiders of the Lost Heart by Jo Segura (Berkley, $16.99, 9780593547465).

This Spells Love: A Novel by Kate Robb (Dial Press, $18, 9780593596531).

Technically Yours by Denise Williams (Berkley, $17, 9780593437216).

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

Hardcover
The Madstone: A Novel by Elizabeth Crook (Little, Brown, $29, 9780316564342). "A literary Western about a young mother, her son, and the man charged with getting them across Texas while fleeing vengeful outlaws. Beautifully written with great characters, this is sure to please fans of Paulette Jiles or Larry McMurtry." --Cody Morrison, Square Books, Oxford, Miss.

West Heart Kill: A Novel by Dann McDorman (Knopf, $28, 9780593537572). "A fun locked-room murder mystery in the spirit of our favorite detective stories like Murder, She Wrote. West Heart Kill puts a new spin on the genre. Dann McDorman's debut arrives at the whodunit delightfully. I eagerly await his next one." --Rebekah Rine, Watermark Books & Café, Wichita, Kan.

Paperback
Winter Solstice: An Essay by Nina MacLaughlin (Black Sparrow Press, $14.95, 9781574232578). "This book surpassed my expectations. The imagery evoked left me yearning for that magical season when the earth invites us to go inward. Winter Solstice is a beautiful meditation on slowing down and appreciating life's simple pleasures." --Pat Rudebusch, Orinda Books, Orinda, Calif.

Ages 4 to 8
Granny Rex by Kurtis Scaletta, illus. by Nik Henderson (Abrams, $18.99, 9781951836665). "A tiny chickadee complains about being small, which opens a big conversation about bird ancestors. Extremely good read-aloud potential here, both for the silly jokes and the dino and bird noises. I can't wait to share this with kids." --Clare Doornbos, Mr. Mopps' Children's Books, Berkeley, Calif.

Ages 8 to 12
Sir Callie and the Dragon's Roost by Esme Symes-Smith (Labyrinth Road, $17.99, 9780593485811). "This sequel packs a punch! When Helston proves it's not ready to change, Callie, Willow, Elowen, and Edwyn must flee to save their lives. Symes-Smith will have readers itching to rally behind Callie and the world they wish to fight for." --Vaughn Lachenauer, Main Point Books, Wayne, Pa.

Teen Readers
Bittersweet in the Hollow by Kate Pearsall (Putnam, $18.99, 9780593531020). "I was hooked on the premise of a murder mystery linked to Mothman. I didn't expect how quickly I'd fall in love with the language that just drips with magic, the cast of amazing witchy women on every page, and the intricately woven story." --Jacey Anderson, Rediscovered Books, Boise, Idaho

[Many thanks to IndieBound and the ABA!]

In The Road from Belhaven, Margot Livesey eloquently traces the fictional life of Lizzie Craig, a girl from eastern Scotland in the late 1880s. Lizzie struggles to navigate a life detoured with challenges and disappointments that draw her away--physically, emotionally, and spiritually--from the safe and familiar.

After her parents die when she's a year old, Lizzie is raised by her loving, hardscrabble grandparents at Belhaven Farm--located inland, in the part of Scotland called "the Kingdom of Fife." Lizzie is just a toddler when she starts to have premonitions--secret visions she calls "pictures" that reveal future events that often confuse and frighten her. Sometimes these intuitions involve "ordinary things: her grandmother choosing which hen to kill; a cow stuck in the mud by the river." But other times, they prophesize harrowing actions and accidents over which she has no control. Or does she?

Lizzie is a lonely, responsible child--happiest on the farm, doing chores and being around animals. When her grandfather hires help for the farm, Lizzie and her 13-year-old world begin to open like a chrysalis, exposing her to new adventures and experiences. This includes her learning for the first time that she has an older sister, Kate, who was sent to live with her paternal grandparents after their parents died. Circumstances change so that 16-year-old Kate now comes to live at Belhaven.

The sisters, disparate in personality, struggle to adjust to one another, but in time they find ways to bond. When Lizzie learns that her sister, being the oldest, will, in all likelihood inherit Belhaven Farm with her husband someday, Lizzie makes life choices that are dictated by that knowledge. At the age of 14, Lizzie falls in love. Much to the dismay of her grandparents, she eventually chases after her love interest, becoming a caretaker and moving from rural Belhaven to the city of Glasgow, where her life takes heart-wrenching twists and turns. Is there any way Lizzie can harness her powers of perception in order to change the course of her own life and destiny?

Compassionately drawn and emotionally charged, Margot Livesey's (The Boy in the Field; Mercury) novel maps the tenderest places of the human heart and soul and once again displays her indelible grasp on the human condition. --Kathleen Gerard, blogger at Reading Between the Lines

Shelf Talker: Margot Livesey draws a poignant, beautiful portrait of the romantic twists and turns that define the life of a perceptively sensitive Scottish woman in the 19th century.