"Our booksellers are the past, present, and future of bookselling. We have to make it sustainable as a career and business. We cannot do this alone; it is going to take all of our partners. [And] we have to keep this fact in mind as the essential center: The bookstore is the booksellers."

Neil Strong

Neil Strong has been named chief operating officer of Macmillan Publishers, effective January 2. He will oversee the fulfillment centers in the U.S. and U.K. as well as the teams involved in platform and development, publishing operations and technology, machine learning, facilities and real estate, business systems, and inventory management. He was most recently v-p of supply chain and customer service at Barnes & Noble and earlier was v-p of e-commerce. Before that, he worked at Target, focusing on opening shipping centers and small-format stores.

Jon Yaged, CEO, Macmillan Publishers, called Strong "a multifaceted executive with a long history of success. His varied background in supply chain, customer service, e-commerce and retail will be invaluable as we continue to grow and expand our business. Neil's passion for promoting teamwork, collaboration, and individual development, combined with his ability to foster positive culture makes him the ideal choice for our next COO."

Just a few months after opening in Ormond Beach, Fla., Fern and Fable Books has moved to a new, larger location, the Observer reported.

The new and used bookstore now resides at 51 W. Granada Blvd., in a 1,200-square-foot space that is about four times the size of the bookstore's original home at 600 S. Yonge St., in the Palm Plaza.

Dunlop told the Observer that in the previous location, the store was "bursting at the seams." She was hosting storytime sessions in the parking lot, and the store's book club had too many members to meet in-store. Dunlop explained that while she always figured the original location would be temporary, she had no idea the store would outgrow it so quickly.

"It was such a joy and a perfect space to get started and learn," she said. "We were nervous and unsure of how the community would respond, and everyone blew us away."

Dunlop discovered the space on Granada Blvd. roughly a month after the bookstore opened. It was a perfect fit, and although she thought she wouldn't be able to complete the move until early 2024, she and her family were able to reopen in the new space by December 1. Going forward, she'll make use of the additional space to continue expanding the bookstore's offerings.

"The way that our community has shown us their support really allowed us and provided us the opportunity to get here," Dunlop added.

After facing closure earlier this year, the Dusty Bookshelf in Manhattan, Kan., is staying open for the time being, KMAN reported.

In July, store owner Diane Meredith announced that the new and used bookstore would likely close its Manhattan location (there is another in Lawrence, Kan.) next spring due to a significant rent increase. Now, while the store's rent will still increase next year, it will not be as severe, allowing the Dusty Bookshelf to remain in Manhattan for at least another year.

Meredith noted that she was actually packing books to take from the Manhattan store to the Lawrence store when she received a call from her landlord and learned the news. This will give her more time to figure out a long-term plan for the bookstore, which first opened in Manhattan's Aggieville district in 1985.

Michael Bishop, who "wrote many stories that inhabit the borderlands between science fiction and mainstream, drawing on influences as diverse as Ray Bradbury and Jorge Luis Borges, Thomas M. Disch and Philip K Dick, Dylan Thomas and Tolstoy, but also reaching back as far as the Greek historian Herodotus for inspiration," died on November 13, the Guardian reported. He was 78. 

"The common element in his work was a desire to explore the human spirit," the Guardian noted, citing early examples "set in vivid alien and alienating faraway worlds," like his debut novel, A Funeral for the Eyes of Fire (1975, revised as Eyes of Fire, 1980), and In Transfigurations (1979).

Bishop introduced the Urban Nucleus of Atlanta, a domed city that represented an alternate, isolated U.S., and chronicled its century-long history through A Little Knowledge (1977) and Catacomb Years (1979), the two books revised and combined in The City and the Cygnets (2019). 

His novelette The Quickening (1981) won a Nebula Award, and he received a second for the novel No Enemy but Time (1982). Other works include Ancient of Days (1985); Who Made Stevie Crye? (1984); Unicorn Mountain (1988); Count Geiger's Blues (1992); and Joel-Brock the Brave and the Valorous Smalls (2016). He collaborated with the British science fiction writer Ian Watson on the novel Under Heaven's Bridge (1981), and with Paul Di Filippo for two crime novels, Would It Kill You to Smile? (1998) and Muskrat Courage (2000), under the name Philip Lawson. He also published two volumes of poetry, an essay collection, and two story collections.

Bishop's own favorite from among his novels was Brittle Innings (1994), "a homage to both Mary Shelley and baseball in which a promising young player joins a Georgia team and meets their star, the statuesque and grotesque Jumbo Henry Clerval, an enigma revealed to be the immortal creation of Dr. Frankenstein," the Guardian wrote. 

Another homage was Philip K. Dick Is Dead, Alas, originally published as The Secret Ascension (1987) but later reprinted under Bishop's preferred title, in which Dick's sci-fi novels are suppressed by President Nixon.

The Guardian noted that as the Star Wars films, beginning in 1977, "gave a juvenile form of science-fiction ascendancy, Bishop turned from off-world settings to paleoanthropological topics," telling Nick Gevers for the InfinityPlus website in 2000: "Rightly or wrongly, I wanted to reclaim [science fiction], at least in some of its literary manifestations, as a legitimate medium in which to examine age-old human concerns."

Four Kensington mystery authors visited The Poisoned Pen Bookstore, Scottsdale, Ariz., for a "KensiCon" event. Pictured, l.-r.: Dianne Freeman (A Newlywed's Guide to Fortune and Murder), Maddie Day (Murder Uncorked), John Charles, Poisoned Pen event moderator, Carlene O’Connor (Some of Us Are Looking), and Rosemary Simpson (Murder Wears a Hidden Face).

Titus

"We are still hiring for a part-time position and taking resumes. However! We also have a new bookseller we'd like to officially introduce to you!" Subterranean Books, St. Louis, Mo., posted on Facebook. "Meet Titus, Subby's new bookstore dog. He's tiny, friendly, and ready to greet you!

"As some of our older customers will remember, we dearly miss our old bookstore dog, Teddy, but now Titus is ready to take the reins and continue to spread the love of books. Stop by and say hi on a weekday. As you see he's eager to do some UPS receiving! And he's managed to negotiate weekends off already, too. Woof."

Delaney Heisterkamp has joined Sourcebooks as a marketing & social media associate.

Ultrarunning for Normal People: Life Lessons Learned On and Off the Trail by Sid Garza-Hillman (Blue Star Press).

Today:
Fresh Air: Kenan Thompson, author of When I Was Your Age: Life Lessons, Funny Stories & Questionable Parenting Advice from a Professional Clown (Harper, $30, 9780063348066).

Tomorrow:
Jennifer Hudson Show: Matthew McConaughey, author of Just Because (Viking Books for Young Readers, $19.99, 9780593622032).

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 9
5 p.m. Nelson Lichtenstein, author of A Fabulous Failure: The Clinton Presidency and the Transformation of American Capitalism (Princeton University Press, $39.95, 9780691245508). (Re-airs Sunday at 5 a.m.)

Sunday, December 10
9:10 a.m. Kashmir Hill, author of Your Face Belongs to Us: A Secretive Startup's Quest to End Privacy as We Know It (‎Random House, $28.99, 9780593448564). (Re-airs Sunday at 9:10 p.m.)

10 a.m. Jeff Horwitz, author of Broken Code: Inside Facebook and the Fight to Expose Its Harmful Secrets (‎Doubleday, $35, 9780385549189). (Re-airs Sunday at 10 p.m.)

2 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. Coverage of the Southern Festival of Books, which took place in October in Nashville, Tenn. Highlights include:

• 2 p.m. Timothy Egan, author of A Fever in the Heartland: The Ku Klux Klan's Plot to Take Over America, and the Woman Who Stopped Them.
• 2:41 p.m. Kat Calvin, author of American Identity in Crisis: Notes from an Accidental Activist.
• 3:34 p.m. Lynn Melnick, author of I've Had to Think Up a Way to Survive: On Trauma, Persistence, and Dolly Parton, and Alice Carrière, author of Everything/Nothing/Someone: A Memoir.
• 4:26 p.m. W. Fitzhugh Brundage, author of A New History of the American South, and Charles Reagan Wilson, author of The Southern Way of Life: Meanings of Culture and Civilization in the American South.
• 5:16 p.m. Joel Ebert and Erik Schelzig, authors of Welcome to Capitol Hill: Fifty Years of Scandal in Tennessee Politics.
• 6:03 p.m. Jay Wellons, author of All That Moves Us: A Pediatric Neurosurgeon, His Young Patients, and Their Stories of Grace and Resilience.

7:30 p.m. A discussion with Adam Levy, publisher of Transit Books.

Poets & Writers is giving the 2024 Barnes & Noble Writers for Writers Award to Laurie Halse Anderson, Roxane Gay, and Nikole Hannah-Jones, and the Champion for Writers award to Mitchell Kaplan, owner of Books & Books in south Florida.

Literary agent Eric Simonoff, who chaired the selection committee of current and former Poets & Writers board members, said, "We are thrilled to recognize three acclaimed authors who have shown dedication and fortitude in rebuffing attempts to ban books and silence authors. Their powerful and righteous voices have made enormous contributions to advancing freedom of expression--which is fundamental both to a thriving literary culture and a thriving democracy. We're equally pleased to recognize Mitchell Kaplan, who has been on the forefront of this issue as a bookseller, literary organizer, and advocate. It is essential that people of principle--like Laurie, Roxane, Nikole, and Mitch--stand up to protect the rights and freedoms we all treasure. Poets & Writers is proud to honor them for doing so."

The awards will be presented at Poets & Writers' gala on March 26, 2024, in New York City. Nihar Malaviya, CEO of Penguin Random House, chair of the event, said: "We are proud to continue our support of Poets & Writers, and delighted to shine a light on writers and others in our industry who are fighting to preserve the right to read and be read, a core value at Penguin Random House."

---

We Are a Haunting by Tyriek White (Astra House) has won the $15,000 2023 First Novel Prize from the Center for Fiction.

Organizers said that "We Are a Haunting follows three generations of a working class family and their inherited ghosts: a story of hope and transformation. In 1980s Brooklyn, Key is a doula serving the Black women of her East New York neighborhood. She lives, like her mother, among the departed and learns to speak to and for them. Her untimely death leaves behind her mother, Audrey, who is on the verge of losing the public housing apartment they once shared and her son, Colly, who soon learns that he too has inherited this sacred gift and begins to slip into the liminal space between the living and the dead on his journey to self-realization."

Selected new titles appearing next Tuesday, December 12:

Death in the Dark Woods by Annelise Ryan (Berkley, $27, 9780593441602) continues the Monster Hunter paranormal mystery series.

The Academy by David Poyer (St. Martin's Press, $29, 9781250273086) is the 22nd and final book in the Dan Lenson naval thriller series.

Aliens: Bishop by T.R. Napper (Titan Books, $24.95, 9781803364513) continues the story of the android Bishop from the film Aliens.

I Didn't Know I Needed This: The New Rules for Flirting, Feeling, and Finding Yourself by Eli Rallo (Harvest, $24.99, 9780063298460) gives dating advice from a TikTok star.

The Savage Storm: The Battle for Italy 1943 by James Holland (Atlantic Monthly Press, $32, 9780802161604) explores the first months of the Allied invasion of Italy during World War II.

Curepedia: An A-Z of The Cure by Simon Price (Dey Street, $40, 9780063068643) is an encyclopedic biography of Robert Smith and The Cure.

Single at Heart: The Power, Freedom, and Heart-Filling Joy of Single Life by Bella DePaulo (Apollo Publishers, $26.99, 9781954641280) advocates being single.

Hippos Remain Calm by Sandra Boynton (Boynton Bookworks/Little Simon, $18.99, 9781665938532) is a picture book follow-up to Hippos Go Berserk 45 years after its original publication.

Dragonboy and the 100 Hearts by Fabio Napoleoni (Little, Brown, $18.99, 9780316462211) is the third picture book in the Dragonboy series featuring a dragon-pajamaed boy and his stuffed-animal friends.

Paperbacks:
How to Raise the Perfect Dog: Everything You Need to Know from Puppyhood to Adolescence and Beyond: A Puppy Training and Dog Training Book by Adam Spivey (Rodale, $15.99, 9780593797099).

It's Just Fucking Meditation: How to Find Yourself, Calm Your Anxiety and Manifest the Life of Your Dreams by Bryan Holub (Page Street, $23.99, 9781645678328).

Housebroke by Jaci Burton (Berkley, $17, 9780593439593).

Vegan Baking Made Simple: The Ultimate Resource for Indulgent Cakes, Cookies, Cheesecakes & More by Saloni Mehta (Page Street, $22.99, 9781645678700).

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 House of Doors: A Novel by Tan Twan Eng (Bloomsbury, $28.99, 9781639731930). "A lovely historical novel set in a 1920s British colony in Penang. Somerset Maugham appears as a house guest who spins his friends' lives into a tale for his book. There's forbidden love, unhappy marriage--now I want to read Maugham's work!" --Susan Taylor, Book House of Stuyvesant Plaza, Albany, N.Y.

A Power Unbound: A Novel by Freya Marske (Tor, $28.99, 9781250788955). "In the culminating tale of my favorite fantasy romance trilogy, Freya Marske does it all: a darkly romantic enemies-to-lovers story, a compelling magical adventure, and beautifully queer found family. I want everyone to read these books!" --Kira Apple, Charis Books & More, Atlanta, Ga.

Paperback
We All Want Impossible Things: A Novel by Catherine Newman (Harper Perennial, $17.99, 9780063230927). "Catherine Newman's writing brings poignancy, humor, insight, and joy to events both mundane and profound. For those who've lost a close friend or loved one in recent years, as so many of us have, this book is particularly meaningful." --Liz Whitelam, Whitelam Books, Reading, Mass.

Ages 4 to 8
Mole Is Not Alone by Maya Tatsukawa (Holt, $18.99, 9781250869647). "An adorable story about an introvert's anxiety when faced with a party invitation. The art evokes Mole's twists and turns talking themself into and out of attending, and celebrates the ways we can find joy no matter which path we take." --Shaun Manning, Booksweet, Ann Arbor, Mich.

Ages 8 to 12
Ink Girls by Marieke Nijkamp, illus. by Sylvia Bi (Greenwillow, $15.99, 9780063027107). "A young printer's maestra gets arrested for publishing the truth of a political leader's corruption. This is a powerful story of a group of young people who come together in friendship and for a greater purpose: to stand up for the truth." --Meghan Bousquet, Titcomb's Bookshop, East Sandwich, Mass.

Teen Readers
Night of the Witch by Sara Raasch and Beth Revis (Sourcebooks Fire, $18.99, 9781728272160). "Based on the German witch trials, Night of the Witch is an enthralling new fantasy told in a dual point-of-view, with a will-they-won't-they romance, sharply-paced plot, complex characters, and magic. Prepare to be absolutely enchanted." --Charlie Williams, Square Books, Oxford, Miss.

[Many thanks to IndieBound and the ABA!]

New Yorker Jordan Salama (Every Day the River Changes) always knew his Jewish family had both Arab and Argentinian roots. In his compelling second book, Stranger in the Desert, Salama traces his journey through Latin America in search of his great-grandfather, Selim Salama, a traveling salesman who left a colorful but vague legacy. Inspired by a binder bulging with stories and photos--his abuelo's handmade family archive--Salama heads to the Argentine Andes to learn more about Selim's life and possibly meet his great-grandfather's other descendants.

Salama is a thoughtful narrator, giving historical context for readers who may know little about the political, social, and economic forces that led to displaced Jews (and others) working as traveling salesmen (who came to be known as turcos) in Argentina. During his travels, Jordan sends brief e-mails to his abuelo (some of which are included here), sharing his triumphs and disappointments--since the journey contains both exciting twists and seeming dead ends.

As he travels through the Andes, Salama meets local historians; shopkeepers and restaurateurs; modern-day turcos and other travelers; and relatives both familiar and previously unknown. Though Selim Salama himself proves elusive, Jordan's quest for the "Lost Salamas," his grandfather's lost descendants, gradually fades into the background. What he does discover is something deeper and more compelling: his own soul-level connection to the land that became his ancestors', its customs and language echoed in his abuelo's house in the Hudson Valley.

Though Jordan Salama had grown up hearing fragments of Spanish and Arabic, he comes to embrace both languages during his time in South America. He also deepens his understanding of cultural rituals, snapping photos next to empty soccer stadiums and meeting a traveling salesman who peddles bombillas, the long metal straws used to sip yerba mate. By way of vivid anecdotes and thumbnail sketches of the people he meets, Salama shares the excitement, confusion and sometimes sadness of his quixotic quest--and the unexpected insights he found along the way.

Through the lens of his family's layered identity, Salama muses on being a traveler, a wanderer, a person of mixed identities in a world that prefers to sort people into tidy linguistic or cultural boxes. But like his abuelo's handwritten Historia Antigua, Salama's story is larger and messier than a simple linear narrative: its richness spans cultures, continents, languages, faiths, and generations. His narrative honors the disparate journeys of his ancestors while telling a story of his own. Readers will be left musing on their own family histories, perhaps wondering what they might discover if they were to follow a loose thread or two. --Katie Noah Gibson, blogger at Cakes, Tea and Dreams

Shelf Talker: Journalist Jordan Salama's vivid travelogue chronicles his journey through the Andes in search of stories about his Arab-Argentinian-Jewish family, especially his elusive great-grandfather.

The following were the most popular book club books during November based on votes from book club readers in more than 83,500 book clubs registered at Bookmovement.com:

1. Tom Lake by Ann Patchett (Harper)
2. Lessons in Chemistry: A Novel by Bonnie Garmus (Doubleday)
3. Hello Beautiful by Ann Napolitano (Dial Press)
4. Mad Honey: A Novel by Jodi Picoult and Jennifer Finney Boylan (Ballantine Books)
5. The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese (Grove Press)
6. Demon Copperhead: A Novel by Barbara Kingsolver (Harper)
7. Lady Tan's Circle of Women: A Novel by Lisa See (Scribner)
8. Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt (Ecco)
9. None of This Is True by Lisa Jewell (Atria Books)
10. Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin (Knopf)

Rising Stars:
The Lost Bookshop by Evie Woods (OneMoreChapter)
The First Ladies by Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray (Berkley)

[Many thanks to Bookmovement.com!]