"I write things that would be very easy to just put in the corner, not face out, and wait for it to get remaindered. Instead, from the beginning, independent booksellers were the biggest champions. They are the only reason I have a career. They are the only reason my books got into the hands of enough readers for publishers to keep taking chances on me. They are the reason that my audience has grown from a teacup to a lake with this amazing depth and breadth, and I owe them everything."

The Women's National Book Association presented the 2025 WNBA Award to Judy Blume, "beloved author of books, renowned bookseller and champion of the spoken word."

Judy Blume

The association gives the award every other year to "a living American woman who has done meritorious work in the world of books beyond the duties and responsibilities of her profession or occupation.... Nominees must derive part or all of their income from books or the allied arts."

WNBA said that "Blume's works have had deep impact upon the consciousness of our nation. She discusses puberty, religion and mortality with integrity. Generations of women have found themselves reflected within her words to find comfort in difficult times. Today, mothers share her books with their daughters, as they once shared them with their classmates as young girls long ago."

"What distinguishes Blume is her meritorious work in speaking out against book banning and censorship in schools and libraries," said NC Weil, WNBA Award co-chair. "At an age when she could deservedly rest on her accomplishments, she chose instead to open a bookstore in Key West with her husband, and to speak out nationally about threats to books."

Ellen McBarnette, WNBA Award co-chair, added, "Honoring Ms. Blume is in line with our organization's more than 100 years of commitment to supporting access to the published for all who seek it. And how timely, that would accept this award while book bans have reached our nation's public libraries, private institutions and, even, the highest levels of academia."

Called one of the most banned authors of the 20th century, Blume is the author of Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret, Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing, Forever…, Deenie, Blubber, and more. Her bookstore is Books & Books @ The Studios of Key West, which she opened with her husband, George Cooper, in 2016, in affiliation with Books & Books.

The Book Nest opened a physical storefront in April at 33627 Redmond-Fall City Rd. SE in Fall City, Wash., the Snoqualmie Valley Record reported. Owner Andrea Amstutz started her business in 2023 as a pop-up shop at local community events in the Snoqualmie Valley and surrounding areas before launching a mobile bookstore in the summer of 2024. She still plans on taking the bus to Valley events, but now readers have another option.

"When I first started out thinking about doing it, it felt very much unrealistic," she said. "Over time, we've been able to slowly inch our way into what it feels like to be a business owner. Because I never would have imagined this was something that I would have wanted and dreamed of doing."

The Book Nest is "small--but mighty--and Amstutz said she tries to stock a little bit of everything," the Valley Record wrote. "She mostly stocks fiction, from mystery to romance to fantasy. She also has a children's book section and sells young adult novels. It's also important, Amstutz said, to keep local authors in stock."

She wants to cater to all genres, as well as all types of readers, noting: "Oftentimes people come in who maybe haven't read in a while, and they don't necessarily identify themselves as someone who reads. I've always felt like anybody can read. It's really about finding what draws your interest. And I think a lot of people just don't know yet, so that's probably what I enjoy most about having my bookstore."

Though she loves books, Amstutz said one of her favorite thing about owning the Book Nest is the connections she is making with her community: "It's not just about selling the books, but creating places and spaces for people to go and enjoy their life. I get to meet so many really neat folks that come in, and if I'm not busy, I'm able to have a chat with them and learn stories about people in the community.... You learn history about your community right around you that you wouldn't have otherwise known."

Words on Warren, a 1,500-square-foot children's bookstore, will open in New York City this September, the Tribeca Citizen reported.

The shop will reside at 52 Warren St. in New York's Tribeca neighborhood. In advance of the opening, owner Jean Su Maeng has been soliciting feedback from the community by posting a question in the store's front window. The question will change from week to week; one example: "What would be in your dream children's bookshop?"

"I'm gathering feedback from the community to help weave their ideas into the bookstore," Maeng told the Tribeca Citizen. "I've already received some wonderful suggestions, and many neighbors have reached out to offer help with programming and setup. It's been such a great experience connecting with everyone!"

Peter David, "who wrote millions of words of science fiction, fantasy and comic-book adventures, becoming a favorite of fans by making it clear that his enthusiasm for genre fiction matched or exceeded theirs," died May 24, the New York Times reported. He was 68.

Peter David

While David wrote scripts for the TV series Babylon 5, "highly opinionated" columns for the magazine Comics Buyer's Guide, and dozens of Star Trek novels, "it was with his 11-year run, from 1987 to 1998, on the Marvel title The Incredible Hulk, which began as a collaboration with the rising artist Todd McFarlane, that David left his imprint on the industry," the Times noted.

Once a flagship character for Marvel, including a network TV series from 1978 to 1982, the Hulk's comic book sales had declined after the show ended, but David revived the character by emphasizing his menace and exploring the traumatic childhood that had led to his split personality.

Valentine De Landro, an artist who drew a dozen issues of Marvel's X-Factor (an X-Men spinoff title) written by David in 2008 and 2009, said, "Story lines that he helped build and concepts for characters that he developed from almost 50 years ago are currently being referenced and leveraged." 

Earlier in his career, David spent four years working on Marvel's business side before moving to editorial, with another two years passing before he could afford to write full time. In his memoir, Mr. Sulu Grabbed My Ass, and Other Highlights From a Life in Comics, Novels, Television, Films and Video Games (2020), he recalled that his father had warned him: "Your hobbies are nice, but you can't make a living out of science fiction and comic books." But David wrote that it was "exactly what I did."

"Peter was super-talented and very good right from the start," Jim Shooter, a former editor in chief of Marvel Comics, said in a 2024 interview.

In addition to his work on the Hulk, David wrote numerous other titles for various publishers, including on Captain Marvel, Supergirl, Young Justice and Spider-Man 2099. His work on DC's Aquaman in the 1990s influenced the 2018 and 2023 films starring Jason Momoa as Aquaman.

David's more than 100 novels included many in the Star Trek universe as well as New Frontier, a spinoff series created with the editor John J. Ordover, for which he wrote 21 books between 1997 and 2015. His most popular Star Trek novel was Imzadi, a 1993 romance starring the characters William Riker and Deanna Troi, who originally appeared on the TV series Star Trek: The Next Generation.

In honor of Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, Big Hill Books, Minneapolis, Minn., hosted an AAPI Creatives Celebration, an evening dedicated to uplifting the voices of local AAPI authors and illustrators. The event featured a q&a with the creators, book signings, a raffle for 10 schools to win free author visits for the next school year. Guests received gift bags containing bookmarks, Asian candies, bindis, store discounts, and more. Front row, l.-r.: Payal Doshi (standing), V.T. Bidania, J.M. Lee, Christina Oxtra, Karen Latchana Kenny, Remona Htoo. Back row, l.-r.: Jade Amez, Nina Hamza, Meenal Patel, Emiko Rainbow.

Congratulations to Ada's Technical Books and Cafe, Seattle, Wash., which is celebrating its 15th anniversary all day today with "a little party" that includes a free Ada's T-shirt for the first 15 people who come in and wish the store "happy birthday"; a raffle featuring a $150 gift prize; and homemade cupcakes and cherry affogatos for sale in the cafe.

Vanessa DeJesús has joined Ecco as director of publicity. Most recently, DeJesús was a publicity manager at Penguin Random House.

Chicago's Fine Arts Building: Music, Magic, and Murder by Keir Graff (Trope Publishing).

Today:
Good Morning America: Candace Parker, author of The Can-Do Mindset: How to Cultivate Resilience, Follow Your Heart, and Fight for Your Passions (Zando, $28, 9781638932185).

Fresh Air: Todd S. Purdum, author of Desi Arnaz: The Man Who Invented Television (Simon & Schuster, $29.99, 9781668023068).

Tamron Hall: Jonathan Capehart, author of Yet Here I Am: Lessons from a Black Man's Search for Home (Grand Central, $30, 9781538767061).

Tomorrow:
Good Morning America: Taylor Jenkins Reid, author of Atmosphere: A Love Story (Ballantine, $30, 9780593158715).

CBS Mornings: Jacinda Ardern, author of A Different Kind of Power: A Memoir (Crown, $32, 9780593728697). She will also appear on the Late Show with Stephen Colbert.

Tamron Hall: Jennifer Levin, author of Generation Care: The New Culture of Caregiving (Balance, $30, 9780306832031).

Late Night with Seth Meyers: Maria Reva, author of Endling: A Novel (Doubleday, $28, 9780385545310).

New cast members have been added to Little House on the Prairie, Netflix's reboot of the series based on Laura Ingalls Wilder's classic novels, Deadline reported. CBS Studios produces with Anonymous Content Studio, with filming slated to begin this month in Winnipeg, Manitoba.

The cast additions are Jocko Sims (New Amsterdam), Warren Christie (The Watchful Eye), Wren Zhawenim Gotts (Echo), Meegwun Fairbrother (Avatar, The Sticky), and Alyssa Wapanatâhk (Peter Pan & Wendy) as series regulars, with Xander Cole (People of the West) recurring on the show.

Sims and Christie will play characters from the books while Gotts, Fairbrother, Wapanatâhk, and Cole play newly created characters, part of the extended Osage family. The new cast members join previously announced Ingalls family actors Alice Halsey (Laura), Luke Bracey (Charles), Crosby Fitzgerald (Caroline), and Skywalker Hughes (Mary Ingalls).

Little House on the Prairie comes from showrunner Rebecca Sonnenshine and CBS Studios. Sonnenshine executive produces alongside Joy Gorman Wettels for Joy Coalition, Trip Friendly for Friendly Family Productions, Dana Fox and Susanna Fogel. Sarah Adina Smith will direct the first episode. 

The New York Historical (formerly the New-York Historical Society) has awarded the $10,000 2025 Children's History Book Prize to A Two-Placed Heart by Doan Phuong Nguyen (Lee & Low Books). The award is given annually to "the best American history book for middle readers ages 9-12, fiction or nonfiction."

The New York Historical described the book this way: "Afraid her sister (and maybe even herself) could lose sight of their Vietnamese identity, 12-year-old Bom writes a poetic memoir to help them both remember--a love letter in verse to sisterhood and places left behind. Using her father's old typewriter, Bom writes down everything she can remember from her early life in Vietnam, like when they were so hungry Bom couldn't walk well, and what it was like moving to Tennessee--from ESL classes and bullies to strange foods and new friendships--and how her family worked to keep their heritage alive."

Doan Phuong Nguyen said, "This year, 2025, marks the 50th anniversary of the end of the Vietnam War, and the echoes of the war and the loss of a homeland still haunts many immigrant families, including my own. I am so grateful that I had the opportunity to share my family history and my experience as a girl caught between two countries and vastly different cultures, in this beautiful novel-in-verse."

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Winners have been selected for the James Tait Black Prizes in fiction and biography, which have been presented by the University of Edinburgh since 1919. My Heavenly Favourite by Lucas Rijneveld, translated by Michele Hutchison (published in the U.S. by Graywolf Press), has won the fiction prize, and My Great Arab Melancholy by Lamia Ziadé, translated by Emma Ramadan, has won the biography prize. The authors and translators share in the £10,000 (about $13,540) prize in each category. This is the first time that both prizes have been awarded to translated works and only the second time a writer and translator have been awarded a prize together in the history of the awards. The prizes were opened to translations in 2021.

Organizers said My Heavenly Favourite "charts a rural veterinarian's obsession with a young woman, in a dissection of taboos and social norms. The novel has been commended for its unique voice and uncompromising storytelling, confirming Rijneveld's reputation as one of the most original voices in contemporary Dutch literature."

About My Great Arab Melancholy, organizers commented: "A richly illustrated memoir intertwining personal narrative with the political and cultural history of the modern Arab world, the book reflects on tragedies which have impacted the region. Blending memoir, history and pop culture, My Great Arab Melancholy traces the lives of Arab intellectuals from the mid-20th century onward. Through lush visuals and personal reflection, Ziadé explores the cultural and political upheaval of the Arab world, capturing a sense of collective loss and longing."

Korean author Kyung-Ran Jo and literary translator Chi-Young Kim collaborate again after Jo's English debut, Tongue (2009), for Blowfish, a remarkably lyrical examination of the consequences after suicide, a tragic detail shared by two strangers who hesitantly develop a cautious bond. In alternating chapters, Jo achingly reveals their tragic pasts while building a multilayered connection.

She's a sculptor living in Seoul. Leaving her just-opened exhibition, she decides, "I'm ready now... I'm done thinking": she's resolved to end her life. Accepting an art residency invitation in Tokyo provides the opportunity to avoid burdening anyone at home. She arrives at "Number 605, 3-5-19, Negishi, Taitō-ku, Tokyo. Her final address on this planet." After arranging an appointment for a death cleaner, she carries her own chair to Ueno Park where she's carefully chosen a Kwanzan cherry tree. Shockingly, she's greeted by her late grandmother, sitting "at the very top, on the highest, thickest branch." Her grandmother's violent suicide--by blowfish soup--which happened before the sculptor's birth, has tormented her subsequent generations. Now she confronts her granddaughter: "I wanted to see my son's daughter, just once. Before you die." The interruption temporarily delays the sculptor's careful plans, but she merely changes methods, embarking on a meticulous study of blowfish.

He's a Korean architect living in Tokyo. His travel between Seoul and Tokyo is a common commute. After making a phone call to the architect, "his brother had jumped to his death from his apartment window on the fifth floor." The architect is haunted by his previous careless remark: "If you really wanted to fall to your death, you could do it from the third floor." The surviving family remains paralyzed by loss.

The sculptor and the architect met briefly in Seoul at a dinner hosted by a mutual colleague. He recognizes her when she visits Tokyo Tower but, more importantly, notices her because "she was fearlessly blank, having given up the most important thing in life"--not unlike his brother. For a time, that unexpected reunion engenders a tentative almost-relationship.

Initially published in 2010, Blowfish is composed with a simmering desperation Jo manages with impressive control; Kim is again a splendid translator. Jo's author's note mirrors her protagonist's "sadness and beauty and fear and death," as if the sculptor's longing to create despite everything else, is also her own: "What I want is a simple life, one in which I can think and read and write." Jo's complex exploration of living and dying becomes a mindful journey toward possibilities. --Terry Hong

Shelf Talker: Kyung-ran Jo hauntingly, gorgeously, explores a cautious, hesitant relationship between two strangers drawn together by legacies of suicide.