As part of its new structure as a standalone company, Simon & Schuster has formed a board of directors whose "collective experience in digital innovation, global business strategy, and deep understanding of the publishing ecosystem will be instrumental in our growth and success as an independent publisher," S&S CEO Jonathan Karp said.

Besides Karp, the board includes three executives from KKR, the private equity firm that bought S&S in August and made it a freestanding company; Madeline McIntosh, the former CEO of Penguin Random House, which tried to buy S&S; a former TikTok executive; and a former Disney executive.

The KKR board members, all of whom also serve on the board of OverDrive, which KKR owns, are:

Madeline McIntosh

V Pappas

Kareem Daniel

Richard Sarnoff, chairman of the S&S board and chairman of media at KKR. He is a former Random House and Bertelsmann executive as well as former chairman of the Association of American Publishers.

Ted Oberwager, a partner who leads the gaming, entertainment, media, and sports departments in KKR's Americas private equity business.

Chresten Knaff, director at KKR and a member of the firm's media and software industry teams.

The other directors are:

Madeline McIntosh, who, beginning in 1994, worked for Random House and Bantam Doubleday Dell for 14 years in a variety of roles, starting in new media and including publisher of the audio publishing division and senior v-p, director of adult sales. In 2008, she left Random House to be Amazon's director of Kindle content acquisition for Europe, with headquarters in Luxembourg. A year later she returned to Random House as president of sales, operations, and digital, and then was promoted several times before becoming CEO of PRH U.S. in 2018. McIntosh currently serves as president of the board of directors for Poets & Writers

V Pappas, who had a five-year tenure at TikTok, most recently as chief operating officer and earlier was global interim head and general manager for North America, Australia, and New Zealand. Before that, Pappas served as the global head of creative insights at YouTube. She currently serves on the board of trustees for the Paley Center for Media.

Kareem Daniel, who had an 18-year tenure at the Walt Disney Company, most recently as chairman of Disney Media and Entertainment Distribution. Earlier, he served as president of consumer products, games and publishing, where he led product development, licensing, e-commerce, video games, and Disney Publishing Worldwide.

The Word House will host a grand opening celebration December 9 in the Carpet Depot Building at 25 Kings Highway in Winona Lake, Ind. Ink Free News reported that last January, owner Sarah Wordhouse "moved to Winona Lake from Michigan after graduating with a degree in professional writing and spending time as an editor at Taylor University and Bettie's Pages, an indie bookstore. She visited friends here and loved how 'it was such an amazingly walkable city.' The rest is history."

Wordhouse said she grew up with books, and her mother always told her "the most important thing you can learn to do is to read. If you can read, you can do anything.... I knew I had a good last name by the time I was 10 or 11. I had gone to a Writers' Camp and one of the teachers told me that no matter what, I just had to keep my name!" 

She had intended to open a bookstore "someday as a retirement plan actually, but things just worked out sooner, a lot sooner," Wordhouse noted. "I tell people to come hang out! Students ask me if they can come do homework, and I say absolutely. The bookstore clearly welcomes people to come and stay with comfy couches and reading lamps.... I believe that you have to make things be what you want. The first step for me was to make a bookstore that I myself would want to shop at."

Grand Gesture Books, a romance-only bookstore based in Portland, Ore., has debuted as an online store while owner Katherine Morgan searches for a physical space, Axios Portland reported.

Katherine Morgan

Morgan, who has worked at Powell's Books since 2017 and currently manages the store's romance section, hopes to find a suitable space within the next six months and to open next year. Per Axios, it would be the second Black-owned bookstore in Portland.

There is a substantial romance audience in Portland, with Morgan noting that the section at Powell's is sometimes so busy she can't walk through it, and she's been inspired by the success of other romance-focused bookstores that have opened in recent years.

"If they want to read a mafia romance or a book about aliens dating, that's great," Morgan told Axios. "Wherever they find that joy, I'm not going to have anyone try to stifle it."

Major changes in sales at Penguin Random House:

Andy Dudley

Andy Dudley has been promoted to v-p, group sales director, Penguin Publishing Group, and will focus solely on this group's imprints, leading sales strategy, and developing cross-channel initiatives to maximize sales. He joined Penguin in 2007 as an author tour coordinator, and has worked in both physical storefront and digital sales. In 2016, he was named imprint sales director for Avery Tarcher Perigee, Berkley, Dutton, and Putnam. In 2019, he was promoted to v-p, imprint sales director, and shifted his imprint responsibilities to Penguin Press, Portfolio, Riverhead, Viking and Penguin Books.

PRH chief revenue officer Jaci Updike said that Dudley "has contributed to countless bestseller campaigns across a wide range of categories, and has helped launch some of our most important new voices and repeat bestsellers. He is a brilliant consensus builder, with an engaging talent for listening closely to internal stakeholders, and crafting strategies that empower his sales colleagues to develop and to execute innovative strategies for sales growth. His leadership style is perfectly suited to the highly diverse and autonomous imprints of Penguin, and his keen ability to identify bestseller potential in the early stages of publication planning will now help the entire array of Penguin imprints deliver future sales growth."

In a related shift, Jennifer Trzaska, v-p, imprint sales director, for Avery, Berkley, Dutton, and Putnam, will be adding Riverhead, Viking, and Penguin Books to her current portfolio of imprints. She joined the company in 2005 has held a variety of national accounts positions, including several years with the Knopf Doubleday team. Updike said that Trzaska has "a terrific talent for transforming and synthesizing the hopes and goals of publishing into powerful sales campaigns that deliver maximum results."

Colleen Kurzbach, senior director, title management, now has a sole focus on supporting the Penguin Publishing Group.

Kim Shannon

Meanwhile, at the Knopf Doubleday Group, Kim Shannon has been promoted to executive v-p, adult retail & education, and director, Knopf Doubleday sales strategy. In her newly expanded role, she will oversee sales objectives and initiatives for Knopf Doubleday, in addition to her current responsibilities.

Shannon joined the company in 2003, selling Crown and Clarkson Potter to Borders. Since then, she has held a variety of leadership positions, and her current portfolio of responsibilities include oversight of adult national accounts, field sales to independent booksellers, education sales and marketing, and Penguin Random House Publisher Services sales.

Updike said that Shannon's "singular expertise across sales channels and categories make her the perfect candidate to help Knopf Doubleday achieve its future goals, among them, significant growth at storefront retail, as well as in the cooking category, and for a deep and storied backlist."

Orlene Gabrino, director, title management, Knopf Doubleday Group, will be moving to Shannon's team, once again focusing exclusively on Knopf Doubleday.

Benjamin Zephaniah

British poet Benjamin Zephaniah, "whose work often addressed political injustice," died December 7, the Guardian reported. He was 65. Writers, poets, musicians and politicians posted tributes to Zephaniah on social media. Author Bernardine Evaristo called him a "trailblazing poet" and "force of nature." Author Kehinde Andrews said, "We lost a real one. Brum legend. Rise in Power Benjamin Zephaniah." 

Zephaniah was born and raised in Birmingham, and began performing poetry in his early teenage years. He had dyslexia, and left school when he was 14. The Guardian noted that in 1979, he moved to London, and his first collection, Pen Rhythm, was published. He began performing at demonstrations, youth gatherings and outside police stations. "I was a big protester, not just against racism but also apartheid. We are a multicultural society but the institutions have to catch up with us," he said in 2019.

His second poetry collection, The Dread Affair (1985), featured a number of poems attacking the British legal system. In 1990, he published Rasta Time in Palestine, containing poetry and travelogue based on a visit to the Palestinian occupied territories. In 1999, he wrote What Stephen Lawrence Has Taught Us as part of the campaign to find the murderers of the 18-year-old south-east Londoner.

"His work, which appeared on the national curriculum, was heavily influenced by Jamaican music and poetry, and he was often classified as a dub poet," the Guardian wrote. He also released a number of albums, and was the first person to record with the Wailers after the death of Bob Marley, in a tribute to Nelson Mandela. 

In the 1990s, Zephaniah released several collections, including Talking Turkeys, Inna Liverpool and School's Out: Poems Not for School. He also wrote novels, including Refugee Boy and Face. Among his books for children are Windrush Child (2020) and We Sang Across the Sea: The Empire Windrush and Me, illustrated by Onyinye Iwu (2022). His autobiography, The Life and Rhymes of Benjamin Zephaniah, was published in 2018 to coincide with his 60th birthday. It was shortlisted for the Costa Biography Award.

Rejecting an OBE in 2003, he wrote in the Guardian: "Me? I thought, OBE me? Up yours, I thought. I get angry when I hear that word 'empire'; it reminds me of slavery, it reminds of thousands of years of brutality, it reminds me of how my foremothers were raped and my forefathers brutalized."

Zephaniah also played the role of Jeremiah "Jimmy" Jesus in the BBC TV series Peaky Blinders, appearing in 14 episodes. Upon hearing the news of his death, co-star Cillian Murphy said, "Benjamin was a truly gifted and beautiful human being--a generational poet, writer, musician and activist. A proud Brummie and a Peaky Blinder."

His agent, Jodie Hodges, told the Bookseller: "Benjamin was quite simply extraordinary and it has been my pleasure and honor to work with him for the last 17 years. We can be comforted that his work--his important, powerful words and actions--will live on, and for that we can count ourselves lucky. My deepest sympathies go out to his family and many friends at this time."

Neil Astley, editor at Bloodaxe Books, said: "I knew and loved working with Benjamin for over 30 years, publishing four books of his poetry at Bloodaxe, from City Psalms in 1992 to To Do Wid Me in 2013. He was a writer and performer of extraordinary range: an oral poet, novelist, playwright, children's writer, reggae artist, actor, television personality and political activist. But what shone through most in all his work was his humanity, decency and ability to connect with everyone, both onstage and offstage."

From Zephaniah's poem "We Refugees":

We can all be refugees
Sometimes it only takes a day,
Sometimes it only takes a handshake
Or a paper that is signed.
We all came from refugees
Nobody simply just appeared,
Nobody's here without a struggle,
And why should we live in fear
Of the weather or the troubles?
We all came here from somewhere.

Cristin Stickles, a buyer at New York City's Strand Book Store, has organized a KnitWits raffle of luxury items, handmade by fiber artists from every corner of the publishing industry, with all of the money made from ticket sales going to the Book Industry Charitable Foundation. The handcrafted items include clothing, crocheted animals, and decorative gifts.

Stickles said, "I came up with this idea as a crocheter and bookseller myself after noticing the huge overlap in the Publishing Folks x Maker venn diagram, and was lucky enough that Alana Whitman (lifelong knitter and career book marketing pro) agreed to co-chair the effort with me. We just launched... and will be selling tickets online through 12/12/23. We're already planning for next year's raffle and would love for willing Makers to get in touch with us to participate."

Lisa C. Uhrik, president of Franklin Fixtures and co-owner of Plenty Bookshop, Cookeville, Tenn., shared a holiday season video of a recent family flash mob event at the bookstore, noting: "This happened last night... it was a surprise from two of my grandchildren, their dad and a friend... the Jolly J's all on brass in what we spontaneously dubbed a 'Bookshelf Ladder Concert' (our version of the tiny desk on NPR?). It was the perfect spontaneous way to end the New Neighbor night we had just launched with about 75 new folks to our area... and it brought us smiles."

"To our Brazos family and friends, today is a bittersweet day in our bookstore's history. Today we say good bye to our longest standing staff member, Dot the Dot Matrix Printer," Brazos Bookstore, Houston, Tex., posted on Facebook. "Yes. We've still been using a dot matrix printer. We're serious. No one on staff is quite sure how long she has faithfully served us, but legend says she's been chugging away in the back since we first implemented our digital inventory system (the software is about 30 years old so....).

"As our store begins undergoing some upgrades and spiffing up to prepare for our 50th Anniversary year, Dot started making more abrasive noises than usual (she really doesn't care for change) and the management team began discussing her retirement behind her back... and honestly right to her face last Thursday when we had to take her apart twice just to print our end of day report... HR got involved, it was messy, we're coping (let's be real, HR is our manager...).

"But honestly, Dot still works (with a little WD40 and some patience every 5-8 print jobs) and we know she's looking for a retirement gig so... make us an offer! Seriously. We'll start the bidding at a sandwich. Best offer can pick up Dot and a couple of boxes of her specialty paper next week in time to win your White Elephant gift exchange. We could probably be talked into wrapping her in festive paper for you and everything."

"Stock up on books" was the sidewalk chalkboard message last weekend at Naughty Dog Books, Nashville, Ind., which noted: "There is SO much to see and do in Nashville this weekend. From the @browncountychristkindlmarket to tonight's annual light parade, you've got plenty to keep you entertained. Don't forget to come see us over on East Main Street and stock up on books!"

Today:
NPR's Science Friday: Mike Massimino, author of Moonshot: A NASA Astronaut's Guide to Achieving the Impossible (Hachette Go, $28, 9780306832642).

Filming is underway on an production of Gill Hornby's bestselling novel Miss Austen, produced by Bonnie Productions for Masterpiece in the U.S. and distributed by Federation Studios. The series has already been acquired by the BBC in the U.K.

Directed by Aisling Walsh (Maudie, Elizabeth is Missing), the four-part series was adapted by Andrea Gibb (Elizabeth is Missing, Mayflies). The cast includes Keeley Hawes (It's a Sin, Bodyguard, Line of Duty), Rose Leslie (Game of Thrones, Vigil), Patsy Ferran (Living, Hot Milk), Jessica Hynes (Life After Life, Years and Years), Mirren Mack (The Witcher: Blood Origin, The Nest), Phyllis Logan (Downton Abbey, Shetland), Kevin McNally (The Crown, Ten Percent), Max Irons (Condor, The Wife), Alfred Enoch (How to Get Away with Murder, Foundation), Calam Lynch (Bridgerton, Archie) and Liv Hill (The Serpent Queen, Elizabeth Is Missing).

The project started filming last month in the U.K. and is produced by Stella Merz (Gentleman Jack, Renegade Nell).

"To have this hugely entertaining female-driven story told by such a stellar cast, led by Keeley Hawes, as Bonnie Productions' first drama is genuinely a dream come true," said executive producer Christine Langan. "Gill Hornby has found an ingenious way into the Austen world, creating female characters modern audiences can empathize with and delight in. I'm so honored to be bringing this wonderful novel to the screen in collaboration with the deeply talented trio of writer, Andrea Gibb, director, Aisling Walsh and producer, Stella Merz."

Susanne Simpson, Masterpiece executive producer, added: "Miss Austen is a beautifully told story about the loves and losses of the Austen sisters. I'm thrilled that this heartfelt, romantic, and funny adaptation is in the hands of a remarkable ensemble cast led by the incredible Keeley Hawes." 

Dacre Stoker, the great grandnephew of Dracula author Bram Stoker, was a special guest at the recent 100th performance of the Off-Broadway production, Dracula, A Comedy of Terrors, currently playing at New World Stages, Playbill reported.

Stoker told the cast and audience, "Dracula has been adapted to the stage many times and in many ways. I think my uncle would be very proud of what happens on the stage at Dracula, A Comedy of Terrors. The adaptation, the creativity, and the performances are all incredible. I think my uncle would have loved this. It's just wonderful."

Winners have been selected for the 2023 Duende-Word BIPOC Bookseller Awards, sponsored by Duende District & The Word and designed to "celebrate and uplift the BIPOC independent booksellers whose dedication to indie bookstores and their Black, Indigenous and POC colleagues and communities have touched and influenced countless lives." Each winner receives a plaque and $1,000.

Activism Award: Erica Tso Haidas, the founder of Belonging Books, a Massachusetts community program provider and pop-up bookstore that centers the voices and stories of people of color and other underrepresented people. Organizers wrote in part: "She creates and holds space on Cape Cod for these communities to gather in joy, celebration, safety, and rest. Erica is also a founding member of The Arts & Justice Collective, a collaboration of mission-driven organizations that creates a culture of belonging for members of historically-excluded communities through art and social justice. She furthers her racial justice work by practicing pro bono immigration law and volunteering with local racial equity nonprofits and committees."

Innovation Award: Jhoanna Belfer, the founder and owner of Bel Canto Books, with three locations in Long Beach Calif. "A Filipina-American poet and former hospitality executive, Belfer began hosting pop-up book events in 2018 as a way of connecting her business experience with her lifelong love of reading. She currently serves on the board of directors of the California Independent Booksellers Alliance and is a founding member of the Burning Issues Book Club and the Indie Bookstore Field Trips group."

Leadership Award: Egypt Otis, owner of Comma Bookstore & Social Hub, Flint, Mich., "a safe haven that fosters inclusivity, representation, and creativity. Her bookstore has become a vibrant cultural hub, nurturing emerging talents and connecting diverse voices through literature, art, and activism. As an unwavering advocate for social justice, Egypt has fearlessly championed causes that challenge systemic inequities. She believes in harnessing the power of storytelling and literature to reshape perspectives and drive transformative change."

photo: Xavi Permanyer

In the late 1970s, with Bruce Boone, Robert Glück founded New Narrative--a literary movement of self-reflexive storytelling that combines essay, lyric, and autobiography in one work. Glück is the author of the story collections Elements and Denny Smith; a volume of collected essays, Communal Nude; and the novels Jack the Modernist and Margery Kempe. His books of poetry include La Fontaine with Bruce Boone; Reader, In Commemoration of the Visit with Kathleen Fraser; and I, Boombox. Glück served as director of the Poetry Center at San Francisco State University, where he is an emeritus professor. Glück is also a potter who has shown his ceramics in the U.S. and in Europe. He lives "high on a hill" in San Francisco. About Ed (NYRB, November 14, 2023) is his version of an AIDS memoir--like memory, a hybrid of fiction and fact: activism, comedy, fury, art, love, longing, and horror.

On my nightstand from a big stack of books:

National Dish by Anya von Bremzen explores the relation of politics to food traditions. For example, tapas is a fairly recent invention in Spain, promoted by Franco to create the impression of the Spain of tambourines and local cuisines.

The Long Form by Kate Briggs, not yet read, suggested by Lisa Robertson.

Music for Porn by Rob Halpern. In this book of poems, Halpern explores the myth of the American soldier. The eroticized bodies of the wounded and dead conflate with the power of the state.

Simple Passion by Annie Ernaux. Egoless exploration of obsession. I'm not surprised she won the Nobel Prize. At the same time, I am surprised that this writing without prudery could win it.

My Dead Book by Nate Lippens. This take-no-prisoners novel takes a walk on the wild side. It is scrupulous, funny, and scary--writing close to the edge of the cliff.

Favorite book when you were a child:

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll. Does this need explaining? Though his next book, Through the Looking Glass, was disturbing in its disrupted logic and lack of plot.

Your top five authors:

Frank O'Hara, Georges Bataille, Maurice Blanchot, John Keats, Geoffrey Chaucer. How embarrassing: white men in the hard drive.  

Book you've faked reading:

I read Moby-Dick all night for a college exam the next morning, and I realized at page 175 or so that I was dreaming my own story while turning the pages as though I were reading Melville's book.

Book you're an evangelist for:

Adorable by Ida Marie Hede. Hede is a Danish writer and poet, and her novel is a portrait of a young family, an exploration of a porous world where grime, bacteria, death are united with birth and love. It's scary and funny, with amazing prose.

And The Burning Plain and Other Stories by Juan Rulfo. If Rulfo married Maurice Blanchot, their son might be Roberto Bolaño.

Book you've bought for the cover:

Memoirs of Bob, The Spotted Terrier. I've had this book for decades, though I am this minute reading the first sentences by this erudite puppy, which are astonishingly apropos: "The love of fame seems natural to every thing that breathes; even the notoriety of infamy has been thought more desirable than the oblivious shade of unaspiring innocence. Else how can we account for several sad dogs of the human race, of both sexes, publishing their disgraceful memoirs; and thus inviting that reprobation which they might have escaped, had they kept their secrets to themselves?"

Book you hid from your parents:

When I was a teenager in my orthodox Jewish home, I was in love with the Christian mystics. For example, The Cloud of Unknowing. I was very surprised when a book by Martin Buber, the Jewish philosopher, appeared on my desk. So, then, it seems they were watching after all?

Book that changed your life:

Eroticism, also called Death and Sensuality, by Georges Bataille. I learned what sex and death have in common, and what actually constitutes a community.

Favorite lines from a book:

"You have delighted us long enough." Mr. Bennet gently quells his not very talented daughter in Pride and Prejudice.

"He hates an infidel much less than a heretic, and prefers a heathen many times to an infidel." Conrad describes a Grand Vicar in Nostromo, though this could be a description of the history of the left in San Francisco.

"But is the earth as full as life was full, of them?" --Frank O'Hara

Five books you'll never part with:

The Obituary by Gail Scott. This novel of unalloyed sadness and sly humor dissects repressed history and the disjunctions of language, gender, and race in Montreal.

Honey Mine, a collection of Camille Roy's stories. A deeply rich and tasty exploration of outlaw lesbian life in the '80s and '90s in San Francisco. "I detail the experience without making it intelligible."

Argento Series by Kevin Killian. My heart swells with pride as I claim his masterpiece for San Francisco. Argento Series is Killian's "Lament for the Makers," a monument reaching halfway to the stars for our fallen stars and dreams lost to AIDS.

Lunch Poems by Frank O'Hara, though not necessary to keep since I know most of them by heart.

A Voice Through a Cloud, or any book by Denton Welch. Welch does not seem to have an agenda, yet he carries on in prose so accurate and free that he retunes my ears.

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

No doubt about this one: In Search of Lost Time by Marcel Proust, now that so many wonderful translators have tackled it, like Lydia Davis. I read the old Scott Moncrieff translation in the early '70s, a masterpiece in its own right, but not exactly Proust's masterpiece. Moncrieff suppressed changes in tone and diction, preferring to keep the prose elevated.

Scott Alexander Howard's first novel, The Other Valley, is a lyrical, thought-provoking coming-of-age story that probes the question of self-determination.

"That fall I was sixteen and the course of my life was ready to be determined. My class had reached the apprenticeship level," at which young people choose a professional path. Odile's mother has always intended that she try for a conseiller's post, which is ambitious for a kid from the village's north end, let alone one as socially outcast as Odile, but she dutifully tries.

Odile lives in a village in a valley bookended by villages in valleys identical to hers, with an important difference: to the east lies her village 20 years in the future. To the west, 20 years in the past. The Conseil governs the rare and tightly controlled visits from one valley to another. Coinciding with her bid for a conseiller position, Odile witnesses a visitor from the east. From what she has seen, she understands what is to come, and has the opportunity to influence events--but the Conseil teaches that she must not. Intervention, it is well understood, leads to catastrophe. "A person... interferes, and then new time rolls over him like a wave, leaving nothing behind. It's as simple and ruthless as that."

At the same time, Odile suddenly finds herself part of a group of friends for the first time: a fivesome of boys and girls her age, all struggling with choices about their future lives, including budding romance. She develops concurrent loyalties to the Conseil and to her friends, and these quickly clash. The nature of the valleys implies preordination, but her actions are her own. What if she could save a life? What if she had to sacrifice her own?

Howard's style is quietly lovely, drawing attention to the starkness of a harsh landscape, a culture with little tolerance for difference, Odile's loneliness, and her emotional range. "What I felt was a kind of thrilling sadness, something I have since experienced when looking out over other open spaces and lonely boundaries: an emotion that lives on the desolate edge of the known." Indeed, landscape vistas offer rich commentary on the themes at play in The Other Valley: what may be seen and what is obscured, who is allowed to look. "All I saw were future griefs." The novel's tone is somber, but there is hope in the way Odile's story pushes against the concept of predestination in favor of free will.

The premise is strikingly unusual and provocative; the climax, after a long, subtle build, is electrifying. With beautiful prose, a compelling protagonist, and serious fodder for thought, The Other Valley is a remarkable debut. --Julia Kastner, librarian and blogger at pagesofjulia

Shelf Talker: Alongside her coming-of-age, a teenaged girl must wrestle with when it is appropriate to influence the past and the future in this remarkably imaginative debut.

Last summer, as the Covid numbers volume knob dialed up a notch, I thought it might be a good idea to start tracking the appearance--or reappearance--of face masks in bookstore social media posts for a future "Face Masks Redux" column. That's the way a columnist's mind (or at least this columnist's mind) works. 

But here's the thing. When you do anything as long as I've been writing this column, you're instinctively prepared for online rabbit holes that turn out to be where you were headed all along. I wasn't seeing a lot of face mask posts, but the quest gradually revealed a lot of bookstore mug pics, and thus a "Mug Shots" column was born. 

My first mug shot sighting came on July 15, when I noticed posts by Itinerant Literate Books, North Charleston, S.C., and Duck's Cottage Coffee & Books, Duck, N.C. ("The best part of waking up is finding a little bit of the #outerbanks in your cup!" On Wednesday, Duck's Cottage closed this particular circle with: "Our #coffee tastes good in any mug... including this one from sister store #downtownbooks!"

The Next Chapter Bookstore, Hermiston, Ore., was another example. In July, the shop posted: "We are in LOVE with these new hand thrown stoneware mugs. Rep your favorite bookstore every morning while you drink your coffee." More recently, the shop anticipated Thanksgiving weekend with: "Small Business Saturday Spotlight: Teas, Sipping Chocolates, and Mugs.... We have a vast array of mugs, teas, and sipping chocolate."

Of course, the holiday season and increasingly cold weather have ramped up the cozy mug shot momentum for most booksellers, including:

Reads & Company, Phoenixville, Pa.: "The last few weeks have given us a plethora of celebrity memoirs to dive into. This mug-shot includes just a handful of these new releases." 

Storyville Books, Pontypridd, U.K.: "It's wet and windy out there today. What better way to stay warm and cosy than with a good book and a cuppa in our new #StoryvilleBooks mugs?"

Plenty Bookshop, Cookeville, Tenn.: "I spy with my little eye something for my tea. And it's awesome. Introducing PLENTY mugs, handmade by local ceramic artist @mavoureenstudios (who is amazing--we are so excited that we got to work with her!) Perfect for cozy fall mornings with a good book! We love them."

Scuppernong Books, Greeensboro, N.C.: "Stop by and buy a mug. Only $10. And it's a cool mug!" 

Lake City Books, Madison, Wis.: "Cold weather got ya down? It's clinically proven* that buying a new mug will cure the October chills! *(ok not really but this FEELS true)." 

Neighborly Books, Maryville, Tenn.: "We have limited quantities of these limited edition mummy mugs from Maryville potter Em.Burge Pottery. Imagine how good your pumpkin-spice latte would taste in one of these beauties!"

Morgenstern Books, Bloomington, Ind.: "What's cuter than our supervisor Mack? Not much. But these adorable glass cups and mugs sure do come close! And should we mention what a perfect gift these are for those early holiday shoppers (wink wink)."

The Novel Neighbor, St. Louis, Mo.: "The weather is getting colder, which means our tea is getting hotter. We love this tea advent calendar from @bighearttea and we have a great selection of mugs to hold it!"

Femme Fire Books, Jacksonville, Fla: "We have Femme Fire Books mugs!!! These mugs are insulated to keep that coffee/tea/cocoa/toddy warm, and with our gorgeous logo on it, you can now tell everyone that you shop at Femme Fire Books without telling everyone you shop at Femme Fire Books!" 

2 Dandelions Bookshop, Brighton, Mich.: "We are thrilled to be launching our branded, handmade mugs and ornaments today! The mugs even come in 2 sizes!"

The Literary Book Bar, Champaign, Ill.: "Swag alert! Stay steamy in the snow with our cozy, fleecy, sweatshirt and *NEW* mugs! It's seriously so gorgeous in here when it snows and so are you in that sweet Lit swag ;)."

Deadtime Stories: True Crime and Other Books, Lansing, Mich.: "LOOK HOW CUTE these mugs from K&S Designs are! Quantities are VERY limited, so start your book hunting quest early!"

Anderson's Bookshop, Naperville & Downers Grove., Ill.: "Our annual Gift Card/Mug promo is back! Stop in today to grab a gift card and get a great deal on our 2024 Holiday Mug."

Dragontale Books, Menomonie, Wis.: "Day 6 of Happy December Days is a mug and copy of Candide by Voltaire."

Paper Places Bookshop, Jasper, Ala.: "Come get in the Christmas feels with a cute Christmas read and a cozy Christmas mug."

The Bakers Bookshoppe, Mount Joy, Pa.: "Jólabókaflóð is upon us!... We have updated our Christmas displays to help you engage in the Icelandic tradition of Jólabókaflóð. Read all about it on our website. Enjoy giving the gift of books this year and add to your book gift cozy items such as hot cocoa bombs, coffee mugs, handmade marshmallows, and more."

Mug shots. Even Dictionary.com is on board: "It's time to elevate your gift-giving game, one definition at a time! Gift the joy of linguistic expression to your loved ones with a Dictionary.com mug."