Shelf Awareness for Tuesday, September 17, 2024


Park Row: Last Twilight in Paris by Pam Jenoff

Tor Books: Eat the Ones You Love by Sarah Maria Griffin

Zest Books:  A Deathly Compendium of Poisonous Plants: Wicked Weeds and Sinister Seeds by Rebecca E Hirsch

Palgrave Macmillan:  Scotus 2023: Major Decisions and Developments of the Us Supreme Court (2024) (1ST ed.) edited by Morgan Marietta and Howard Schweber

Berkley Books: The Seven O'Clock Club by Amelia Ireland

News

50 Watts Books Opening in Philadelphia, Pa., in October

After debuting online in 2021, indie press and bookstore 50 Watts Books will open a bricks-and-mortar store in Philadelphia, Pa., next month. 

Owner and proprietor Will Schofield said the store will carry "eye-popping books," including art books, surreal picture books, underground comics, and zines, with a particular focus on imported Japanese and European books. The bookstore will reside at 15 W. Highland Ave. in Philadelphia's Chestnut Hill neighborhood and span about 700 square feet. Schofield's event plans include launch parties for new 50 Watts Books titles as well as exhibitions showcasing rare books from his personal collection.

Prior to starting 50 Watts Books, Schofield worked for 20 years as an editor for the small press Paul Dry Books, and in the 1990s he worked at Penn Book Center, which was renamed People's Books & Culture after a change in ownership, and closed in 2020. His initial plan for the bookstore involved making a Shopify storefront to sell books from his personal collection, but when he added some new art books and underground comics, they proved popular.

50 Watts Books in progress.

The new titles continued to sell, so Schofield began stocking more and more. He chose to emphasize unusual books that people could not find on Amazon, which included a lot of Japanese and European titles.

The store's first holiday season gave Schofield the funds needed to pay the printing bills for his first publications, which he described as projects that "had been simmering for years." One of 50 Watts' first titles, and a perennial favorite, is an edition of a picture book from 1897 called Animal Land Where There Are No People, which was written by a four-year-old in Scotland and illustrated by her mother. Other titles include a line of Japanese picture book classics, a collection of pictogram art by Warja Lavater, and a series of Japanese illustrations called "Anthropomorphic Japan." The company's most recent title is a collection of sci-fi illustrations by Stathis Tsemberlidis.

Schofield recalled that he first attempted to start a press in 2001, when he was in his early 20s. The project didn't come to fruition, and "it took me a while to get up the courage to try again," he noted. The first iteration of 50 Watts Books was actually a blog, which over the years built up a following.

Schofield is hoping to have the bookstore open for business in early October. Asked if he had any plans for a grand opening celebration, Schofield said he'd likely be "way too tired to celebrate" right away. "But I hope the shop will be an entertaining visit for art lovers and bibliomaniacs during the holidays, and maybe we'll party in the dead of winter."


Ivy Kids Eco: The Bison and the Butterfly: An Ecosystem Story by Alice Hemming, illustrated by Leschnikoff Nancy


Jack's Books Opening Next Month in Florence, S.C.

Jack's Books is set to open in downtown Florence, S.C., on October 26, the Post and Courier reported. Located at 152 S. Dargan St., Jack's Books will carry a mix of new and used titles across an array of genres. Alongside books, owner Colton Cauthen will stock a variety of gift items.

"This is just exciting," Cauthen told the Post and Courier. "There's a little bit of a hint of terror, you know, getting everything done in time."

Cauthen announced his plans to open Jack's Books in April and was blown away by the enthusiasm, he said. Over the intervening months, the storefront has undergone extensive renovations while Cauthen has been building the inventory. He's also been engaging with the Florence community by posting things like book-themed trivia questions on Facebook.

The Post and Courier noted that Florence has been without an independent bookstore of its own for years, with residents having to rely on big box stores and chains. When Cauthen first announced his bookstore plans, he said he eventually had an epiphany: "Instead of complaining about not having one, maybe I should try to do something about it."


Pajama Press:  Mystery at the Biltmore: The Vanderhoff Heist (Mystery at the Biltmore #1) by Colleen Nelson, Illustrated by Peggy Collins


B&N: New Stores Launching Tomorrow in San Antonio, Tex., and Rehoboth Beach, Del. 

Rehoboth Beach B&N

Barnes & Noble will host a grand opening celebration tomorrow, September 18, for its new Alamo Ranch bookstore, located at 5427 W. Loop Rd., 1604 N. in San Antonio, Tex. Author Jonny Garza Villa will be cutting the ribbon and signing copies of their new YA novel, Canto Contigo (Wednesday Books).

"Since closing the doors to our Bandera Pointe bookstore last year, we have been fully committed to finding a new home in this area of San Antonio," B&N noted. "We look forward to opening our Alamo Ranch Barnes & Noble and welcoming customers into their beautiful new bookstore."

Also opening tomorrow is B&N's new bookstore in the Tanger Outlets Seaside at 36508 Seaside Outlet Drive, Rehoboth Beach, Del., where author Marisa de los Santos will be cutting the ribbon and signing copies of her newest novel, Watch Us Shine (Morrow).

"It is always an exciting occasion to open a bookstore in a new community," B&N said. "Doubly so in Rehoboth Beach, where our nearest Barnes & Noble location is over 40 miles away."


Disruption Books: Our Differences Make Us Stronger: How We Heal Together by La June Montgomery Tabron, illustrated by Temika Grooms


NEIBA: Children's Author Breakfast and NECBA Meeting

Five authors of upcoming titles for children and teens spoke to a breakfast audience last week at NEIBA's 51st annual fall conference, held in Newton, Mass. Winsome Bingham, Christopher Denise, Gayle Forman, Adam Gidwitz, and Lamar Giles each talked about different aspects of their books and their inspiration, and discussed their experiences with independent bookstores. NECBA co-chairs Kinsey Foreman (High Five Books, Florence, Mass.) and Sara Waltuck (Brookline Booksmith, Brookline, Mass.) opened the breakfast with a high energy welcome that was matched by Steve Iwanski, founder of Charter Books in Newport, R.I., introducing Christopher Denise, author of Knight Owl and Early Bird (Hachette, October 15).

Chris Denise

Denise, who had a presentation designed to give booksellers a look inside his creative process, began by saying, "I would be remiss if I did not thank all of you--the group of people I have been waiting to thank since April of 2022." He continued, "It is all of you I need to thank for the continued success of my first book. I am so thankful. As is my family--I have two girls in college." Denise then told the story of how "this little nugget came to life." Until the publication of Knight Owl in 2022, Denise had been an illustrator for other people's writing. "During the pandemic," he said, "everything seemed to slow down." Denise had been working on something that fell through and realized he had never successfully crafted his own story. "How hard could it be?," he thought. "It was hard." But Denise had spent years reading the manuscripts of authors he admired. When his manuscript was done, "it was overly long, self-indulgent, and had no arc." He pitched the story to his family, and it received "crickets." But then his daughter asked, "What if the owl was a knight?" Denise paused and looked at the audience. "I knew in that moment that she was not only brilliant, but my new favorite daughter." Considering "what was happening in the world," Denise felt as if no one was paying attention--this gave him a "hall pass" to make not the kind of book he thought he should make or the kind of book he thought he should be known for, but something he liked. "The book published, and it was only after all of you discovered it and handsold it and brought it to other bookstores that the other players in this industry started paying attention to it." When his editor asked him what he would like to do next, Denise's answer was immediate: "Retire?" Instead, he "waded into the waters of the dreaded sequel." It was important to him that his sequel be as good as the first: "If it stinks or it's not coming together or it's not up to the level of the first book, we're not doing it." And, amazingly, "Early Bird just came to life. It worked and she took form." Writing was a big learning curve, Denise said, but "my hope is that we made something worthy of your continued interest--an adventure worthy of the attention of our young readers."

Winsome Bingham

Ernio Hernandez from River Bend Bookshop in Glastonbury and West Hartford, Conn., introduced Winsome Bingham, who co-authored The Table with Wiley Blevins, illustrated by Jason Griffin (Neal Porter Books, September 17). Bingham spoke to the hard work of booksellers and the need she sees in children's literature. "The world has changed and it's time our stories and our books reflect that. Yes, we need books about pretty princesses. We need books with creatures that don't exist in our immediate world, but in a world all their own. You show up for the elves on the shelves year after year. You show up for the mermaids, the unicorns, the dragons, and of course, the Knight Owl. I'm asking you," Bingham said, "to show up for people and the things in our lives we take for granted. I'm asking you to show up for the poor because they get up every morning to go to work but still live below the poverty line. I'm asking you to show up for the two families in The Table." Bingham spoke about the creation of The Table, of a childhood in which she didn't know she was poor because she had "everything [she] needed," and how divided the world feels. "At the end of the day, we all have one thing in common: we want the best for each other, we want the best for our children, we want to be kind, we want to be giving. Our lives may look different but they're not--we're living the same life, they're just parallel. You, booksellers, are life changers. Selling parallel worlds for $30."

Gayle Forman

Liz Whitelam, incoming NEIBA board president and owner of Whitelam Books in Reading, Mass., introduced Gayle Forman, who read the first chapter of After Life (Quill Tree Books, January 7, 2025) to the audience. "It's a metaphysical mystery," she said of the book, noting that she writes stories about death and dying, not because she's "particularly morbid, but because to me, the great hope of life is, although these moments are coming for us all, we survive them." The reason she wrote After Life, she said, was because of "the second most quoted line of any of my books," a line from the afterword of If I Stay. That book "was made with you all. You all went out and handsold this strange book--you took this book into your heart and you handsold the hell out of it and changed my life completely. I thank you, and my daughter, who is also at college, thanks you." Though Forman didn't read the line, she said this book came from the idea that "love does not die as long as you keep the stories of people alive in your heart."

Adam Gidwitz

By the time Waltuck invited Adam Gidwitz (Max in the Land of Lies, Dutton, February 25, 2025) to take the stage, the allocated time for the breakfast was rapidly dwindling. Gidwitz, concerned about making time for both he and Giles to speak, told the story of Max in the House of Spies but purposefully kept it quick. The book came about from Gidwitz's desire to tell the story of family friend Michael Steinberg's early life in England after arriving on a Kindertransport in 1938 when he was 10 years old. To be honest, Gidwitz said, "Michael Steinberg scared the bejezus out of me when I was a kid." But, when Gidwitz was about 15 years old, The Phantom Tollbooth came up in conversation. Steinberg said he had never read it. "I took a risk and ran up to my room and grabbed it and gave it to him," Gidwitz said. Steinberg "went out into our yard, sat there for five hours, and read that book cover to cover. That holiday season, he sent a copy of The Phantom Tollbooth to all his friends. This remains the proudest moment of my life." When the pandemic hit, "we lived in a time that felt full of bewildering lies," Gidwitz said. "I didn't know what was true, and I started thinking about navigating a world where lies are the primary discourse. And I thought back to Nazi Germany." Michael, he realized, was his way into that story. "To be here is one of the great honors of my life, my year, so thank you all," Gidwitz finished.

Lamar Giles

Lamar Giles, introduced by Kinsey, closed the breakfast, describing his book, Ruin Road (Scholastic Press, September 17), by saying that, in his mind, demons wouldn't be out signing bargains and taking souls--those willing to give their souls wouldn't have souls worth taking. Demons, he said, "would be more like infernal venture capitalists on a show like Shark Tank." Giles took that concept of demons and "threw everything [he's] ever been scared of into this book." Writing about being a parent was the hardest, he said. "I had been walking around fearless my whole adult life until my daughter was born. But now, I'm walking around scared of everything. Grapes are terrifying." Because of the audience of booksellers, though, Giles said that he, a man who grew up "in a community where [he] never saw a writer," can now bring his daughter into a store where she can see her name on the books. "Thank you for all you've done and all you will do," he finished. "And just know that when we're all done with this conference and you head home, don't get lost. There are some strange, strange roads out there."

Immediately following the breakfast was the annual NECBA meeting, led by co-chairs Foreman and Waltuck. Unlike previous years, they announced the 2024 Windows and Mirrors list and and then the attendees split into small groups where they could chat about the different winners. Booksellers shared information on the winning titles, discussed how to handsell the books, and gave each other recommendations on read-alikes for young readers. This excellent resource of diverse and inclusive children's titles can be found on NEIBA's website. --Siân Gaetano, children's and YA editor, Shelf Awareness


BINC: Your donation can help rebuild lives and businesses in Florida, North Carolina, Tennessee and beyond. Donate Today!


Notes

Image of the Day: CALIBA Kicks Off

The CALIBA Fall Fest opened last evening in Pasadena, Calif., with a welcome reception held at Vroman's Bookstore. Paul Yamazaki, principal buyer at City Lights Booksellers in San Francisco, Calif., participated in a q&a before CALIBA booksellers mingled at Vroman’s 1894 wine bar.

Cool Idea of the Day: Customer's 'Death to Your Thirties' Bookstore Birthday Bash

Posted by a Book Place, Riverhead, N.Y., on Facebook: "Thank you for celebrating your #deathtoyourthirties with us in the shop. Hope you had the best experience."


Personnel Changes at Astra Books for Young Readers

Paul Reyes has joined Astra Books for Young Readers as retail marketing manager. He previously worked for DK as analyst, market and consumer, and at Penguin Young Readers as sales analyst.


Media and Movies

Media Heat: Russ Buettner, Susanne Craig on Fresh Air

Today:
Fresh Air: Russ Buettner and Susanne Craig, authors of Lucky Loser: How Donald Trump Squandered His Father's Fortune and Created the Illusion of Success (Penguin Press, $35, 9780593298640).

Tomorrow:

CBS Mornings: Joe Posnanski, author of Why We Love Football: A History in 100 Moments (Dutton, $30, 9780593475522).

Today Show: Eric Roberts, author of Runaway Train: or, The Story of My Life So Far (St. Martin's Press, $30, 9781250275325).

The View: Connie Chung, author of Connie: A Memoir (Grand Central, $32.50, 9781538766989).

Tamron Hall: Dolly Parton and Rachel Parton George, authors of Good Lookin' Cookin': A Year of Meals--A Lifetime of Family, Friends, and Food (Ten Speed Press, $35, 9781984863164).



Books & Authors

Awards: Booker Shortlist

The six-title shortlist has been released for the 2024 Booker Prize for Fiction. The finalists each receive £2,500 (about $3,300) and a bespoke bound edition of their book. The winner, who gets a further £50,000 (about $66,070) and a trophy named Iris (after winner Iris Murdoch), will be announced on November 12 during a prize ceremony at Old Billingsgate in London. This year's shortlisted titles are:

James by Percival Everett
Orbital by Samantha Harvey 
Creation Lake by Rachel Kushner
Held by Anne Michaels 
The Safekeep by Yael van der Wouden
Stone Yard Devotional by Charlotte Wood

For the first time in the Booker's 55-year history, the shortlist includes five women. The prize was last won by a woman in 2019, when it was shared by Bernardine Evaristo (Girl, Woman, Other) and Margaret Atwood (The Testaments). Female writers have won 20 times since the Booker's inception in 1969.

"I am enormously proud of this shortlist of six books that have lived with us," said chair of judges Edmund de Waal. "We have spent months sifting, challenging, questioning--stopped in our tracks by the power of the contemporary fiction that we have been privileged to read. And here are the books that we need you to read. Great novels can change the reader. They face up to truths and face you in their turn.

"If that sounds excessive it reflects the urgency that animates these novels. Here is storytelling in which people confront the world in all its instability and complexity. The fault lines of our times are here. Borders and time zones and generations are crossed and explored, conflicts of identity, race and sexuality are brought into renewed focus through memorable voices. The people who come alive here are damaged in ways that we come to know and respect, and we come to care passionately about their histories and relationships."


Book Review

Review: Water, Water: Poems

Water, Water: Poems by Billy Collins (Random House, $27 hardcover, 144p., 9780593731024, November 19, 2024)

In Water, Water, a collection of new poems, former U.S. Poet Laureate Billy Collins applies his signature wit and whimsy to everyday situations: waiting at the doctor's office, playing cards on a winter's night, reading the guest book at a lakeside cottage. In examining these ordinary moments (sometimes minutely), Collins holds them up to the light, revealing facets both absurd and beautiful: the exquisite torture (to some) of an all-violin jazz band; the "rough armadillo plates" of a pineapple; or the way that joy, personified, seems "down to earth,/ like a girl getting off a bus with a suitcase."

Throughout his career, Collins (Aimless Love; Whale Day; Sailing Alone Around the Room) has explored the beauties, amusements, and pathos of ordinary life: his poems are often about small things, at least on the surface. But his sly genius lies in turning the commonplace at an angle, allowing readers to appreciate their hidden depths. A solitary breakfast after an argument becomes a meditation on not only the history of art, but complex stories of the people portrayed in famous paintings; a reflection on illuminated medieval manuscripts leads the poet to contemplate the benefits of modernity, including his car and his wife (both beloved). Similarly, Collins's continuing tour through the dailiness of life is both practical and mischievous, as he considers the poetic practice of addressing the heart (or other organs), the challenges of lesson planning as related to orange trees, and the experience of hearing an Italian astronaut read Emily Dickinson's poetry aloud from space.

In "The Monet Conundrum," Collins ponders a question that may well occur to veteran writers: "Is every one of these poems/ different from the others," he asks, "or are they all the same poem,/ haystack after haystack/ at different times of day,/ different shadows and shades of hay?" While the poems in Water, Water certainly present variations on a few themes--marriage, mortality, jazz, and Emily Dickinson, among others--each one is quietly, slyly distinct, pondering such existential phenomena as the anniversary of a loved one's death and mulling over the idea of the afterlife on a Sunday drive. Although Collins frequently waxes philosophical, musing on constellations, ancient deities, and the very nature of existence, his poetry is at its best when capturing a particular shade of memory--fleeting, unexpected, luminous with meaning--like the one in "Daydream," when a blaze of multicolored azaleas reminds the poet of a stolen moment with the neighbor's "tall daughter/ whose hand you once held in the dark." --Katie Noah Gibson, blogger at Cakes, Tea and Dreams

Shelf Talker: Billy Collins applies his signature wit and whimsy to ordinary situations, revealing their hidden absurdities and depths.


The Bestsellers

Top-Selling Self-Published Titles

The bestselling self-published books last week as compiled by IndieReader.com:

1. Wild Eyes by Elsie Silver
2. Haunting Adeline by H.D. Carlton
3. Twisted Love by Ana Huang
4. Apollyon by Jennifer L. Armentrout
5. Edge of the Known World by Sheri T. Joseph
6. Twisted Lies by Ana Huang
7. The Inmate by Freida McFadden
8. The Ritual by Shantel Tessier
9. Truly Madly Deeply by L.J. Shen
10. Broken by Daylight by Elizabeth Helen

[Many thanks to IndieReader.com!]


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