The BiblioPub, a bookstore, coffee shop, and beer and wine lounge, hosted its grand opening celebration last month at 416 Campbell Ave. S.W. in Roanoke, Va. The Roanoke Times reported that the city's "newest hangout spot offers a cozy, laid-back space for people to enjoy a beer or a coffee, paired with a book."

"Thank you to everyone who came out to our grand opening! Your support, smiles, and love for books and community filled our space with pure joy," owner Ellen Seay posted on Instagram. "Here's to many more days of great reads, great pours, and even greater company! We can’t wait to welcome you back soon." 

Seay told the Times that she was looking to create a different type of community space with a "low-pressure" environment, adding: "You're not going to get judged or feel out of place."

She drew her inspiration from Busboys and Poets, which has several locations in the Washington, D.C., area, "and while Seay isn't planning for The BiblioPub to reach the same scale, she still wanted to bring something like that to Roanoke," the Times noted.

"I just felt like the community here would like a chiller hang out where you could have a beer or have a coffee," she said. "Your friend can have one thing, you can have the other, but you can all be at the same place."

While Bibliopub features an array of used books that are for sale or to read while at the pub, the business also features a section of new books, and Seay said she tries to use that section to highlight authors from underserved or marginalized communities and books on social issues. She's also open to working with local authors.

People can rent space at the BiblioPub for parties, book club meetings, and other events. She also hopes to host live music, trivia, drag show brunches, and more.

"The community support has been amazing. The weekend we opened was crazy, and I appreciate everyone's patience while we work out all the logistics," she said, adding that she is excited for the future of her business and "just being a good part of the community."

Reading Between the Lanes, a "mobile shop bringing new and trendy books to rural communities," has launched in the Williston, N.Dak., region, KMOT reported. Owner Nicole Holdaway bought the previous Ward County Bookmobile last December and has made it her own.

"The opportunity to come into a bookstore that have books that I'm geared towards, I thought, 'There's got to be more people who are like me,' " she said, adding that reading has always been a huge part of her life, but growing up in rural towns, she had to buy her books online.

Reading Between the Lanes has helped remedy the situation. "It's a lot of fun to be able to talk books to like-minded people who are interested in the same things I'm interested in," said Holdaway. "There's nothing better than just kind of turning your brain off and getting lost in someone else's story," 

She plans to expand the mobile bookshop's range to surrounding towns in the near future.

Read Between the Lanes has already made fans of Tori Lee and Andrea Placher, who both work at the Williston Community Library. KMOT noted that when they found out about this mobile bookstore, they wanted to see it right away.

"The first time I was a customer on this mobile bookstore was out in Crosby, North Dakota. I've never been to Crosby before that. I literally went to Crosby just to be a customer that day," said Lee. "We are lucky enough to have a bookstore in Williston, but a lot of rural communities and Williams County specifically, don't have access to books like that." 

Placher added that the community library can't always keep up with the newest books: "I always say, I wish I could have that library experience that everyone else has, but when you work there, it's not the same. It's work. When you come here, you're like 'Oh my gosh, this is so amazing, there's so many great things.' It's just a different experience."

Little Professor will close its Birmingham, Ala., location at the end of June, Bham Now reported. The flagship store in Homewood, Ala., will remain open.

Owners Jonathan and Meredith Robinson wrote in a message to customers that after a "new long-term tenant was secured for our current space, we were given the opportunity to relocate within Pepper Place and have chosen not to do so at this time. We are hopeful that this is an opportunity to refocus on our flagship store, create space for thoughtful improvements, and streamline operations for a season."

The Robinsons purchased Little Professor prior to the pandemic and opened the Pepper Place location in August 2022. They hoped to "replicate the spirit of our Homewood model in a new neighborhood, and all of those hopes were realized--welcoming weekly regulars, seeing smiling 'little' faces on Saturday mornings, hosting events, and of course, connecting with fellow book lovers."

They also noted that although the store is closing, they "look forward to continuing our relationships with our beloved Pepper Place community through pop-up events and future partnerships."

Wendy Ceballos has been promoted to senior director, retail marketing & field sales at HarperCollins. She joined the company early last year in the newly created role of director, retail marketing. She had worked for 19 years as a bookseller at Third Place Books in Seattle, Wash., before joining Abrams as indie ambassador in 2017.

Wendy Ceballos

HarperCollins noted that Ceballos "has brought a powerful combination of creativity and discipline to the way we partner with retailers to promote our books. Her strategic vision and leadership have established our new retail marketing team as a valued resource across the company. At the same time, Wendy has played a key role in shaping a dynamic field sales force, working closely with Kathy Faber to integrate many new reps into a cohesive and high-performing team.

"Drawing on her long experience as an independent bookseller, Wendy brings a service-minded, data-informed approach to supporting booksellers, ensuring they have what they need to thrive in a competitive marketplace. Under her direction, HarperCollins' retail marketing and field sales teams have doubled down on their support for bookseller events, participation in industry trade shows, customized retail marketing campaigns, and collaboration, led by Rio Cortez, with BIPOC-affiliated businesses."

In addition, Ceballos and her team rebooted the 2024 Fall Bookseller Preview and are taking it on the road this year, to New York and Seattle.

Barnes & Noble has chosen The Listeners by Maggie Stiefvater (‎‎Viking) as its June national book club pick. In a live virtual event on Tuesday, July 8, at 3 p.m. Eastern, Stiefvater will be in conversation with Megan McDowell, store manager of the Barnes & Noble at The Arboretum in Austin, Tex.

B&N described the book this way: "Set during World War II, The Listeners follows the life of June Porter Hudson, General Manager of The Avallon Hotel & Spa, an opulent Appalachian retreat that has agreed to host captured Axis diplomats. With whispered secrets, skeptic staff, and spies now lurking the halls of the luxury lodge, June must manage the war that wages within her as personal and professional loyalties begin to clash. This is a must-read for all historical fiction fans, and a haunting, mesmerizing portrayal of wartime high society."

Click here to join the July 8 event.

Simon & Schuster will handle U.S. and Canadian sales and distribution for White Star, effective August 1.

Founded in 1984 in Italy, White Star specializes in high-quality illustrated books and has a catalog of more than 500 titles covering genres from lifestyle, travel, passions, cars and motors, fashion, photography, and art. White Star Kids offers a range of books for young readers, from early learning and board books to engaging picture and reference books. Vivida, its newest imprint, focuses on illustrated mind-body-spirit titles, esoteric topics, and card decks, including oracles and tarot.

At Penguin Press:

Colleen McGarvey has joined as an executive publicist. She was previously a strategic communications manager at Avoq.

Jessie Stratton has been promoted to marketing manager.

Far and Away by Amy Poeppel (Atria/Emily Bestler Books).

Today:
All Things Considered: Jacinda Ardern, author of A Different Kind of Power: A Memoir (Crown, $32, 9780593728697).

Tomorrow:
Tamron Hall repeat: Tina Knowles, author of Matriarch: A Memoir (One World, $35, 9780593597408).

Apple TV+ has landed an as yet untitled new series, based on the internationally bestselling crime novels by Lars Kepler, the pseudonym of Alexandra Coelho Ahndoril and Alexander Ahndoril. The project stars Liev Schreiber (The Perfect Couple, Ray Donovan), Zazie Beetz (Atlanta, Deadpool 2), and Stephen Graham (Adolescence, Boardwalk Empire, Greyhound). 

The series tells the story of Jonah Lynn (Schreiber), an ex-soldier turned homicide detective who, tired of working the tough streets of Philadelphia, moves to a small town in Western Pennsylvania for a quiet life. As the town and his family come under attack from serial killer Jurek Walter (Graham), Jonah is forced to send his adopted daughter, FBI Agent Saga Bauer (Beetz), up against Jurek.

The 10-episode series, which is produced for Apple TV+ by A+E Studios in association with Range Studios, is written and executive produced by Rowan Joffe (Tin Star, The Ballad of a Small Player) and John Hlavin (Shooter, The Man Who Fell to Earth), with Tim Van Patten (Franklin, Masters of the Air, Black Mirror) set to executive produce and direct the first two episodes. 

Also exec producing are Schreiber and Beetz, via her Sleepy Poppy production company. Kepler, Øystein Karlsen, David Rysdahl, Dorothy Fortenberry, and Niclas Salomonsson also serve as executive producers, while Julie Herrin serves as co-executive producer. Filming is set to begin this summer in Pittsburgh, Pa.

The Crime Writers Association has unveiled shortlists for the 2025 Dagger Awards, which honor the best books in the crime writing genre. The winners will be named during the awards ceremony at the CWA gala dinner on July 3. Check out the complete CWA Dagger shortlisted titles here.

Reading The Club: Where American Women Artists Found Refuge in Belle Époque Paris is like being slipped the password to a speakeasy or directions to an exclusive art show happening in a bohemian corner of Paris. The "Club" referenced in the title was a subsidized living and social space in Paris for young American woman artists of the Belle Époque era, which spanned the years between 1870 and 1914, prior to World War I. It offered young women a space of their own where they could pursue their artistic studies, and held luxurious common spaces of salons, libraries, and its own much-touted affordable restaurant, all located at 4 Rue de Chevreuse in the sixth arrondissement.

Author Jennifer Dasal, an art lecturer and host of the ArtCurious podcast, traces the origins and evolutions of the American Girls' Club for Artists under the steady hand of Elisabeth Mills Reid, a philanthropist and wife to Whitelaw Reid, the U.S. minister to France at the time, and Helen Newell, wife of the pastor of St. Luke's Chapel in Paris. The impetus for the organization was to keep these young women safe in what was perceived to be a somewhat dangerous and potentially corrupting urban environment.

Dasal paints an engaging picture deeply rooted in primary sources and with seamless integration of archival materials, personal letters, and contemporary accounts. One text, from the letters of sculptor and future suffragette Alice Morgan Wright, breathes life into the experiences the young women had and what the club meant to them: "I don't wish to present the club to you as 'all honey and all jam' which it ain't, but I do think that, to a marvelous extent are eliminated for us there the discomforts which other people in the Quarter have to put up with--the thousand little and big drawbacks which I could not begin to enumerate."

Dasal also provides occasional entertaining historical asides, like the previous uses made of the building itself before Reid secured it for use as the Club. All told, this is a joyful and vibrant portrait of individuals with aspirations, struggles, and triumphs, whose stories Dasal makes resonate with contemporary readers. And it's an illustration of the profound impact that a secure space and community can have on the lives and careers of its members, which is as true now as during transformative moments in the past. --Elizabeth DeNoma, executive editor, DeNoma Literary Services, Seattle, Wash.

Shelf Talker: The Club is a captivating look at a glamorous and singular part of the history of women in the arts, and a testament to the power of community and support.

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

1. The Boyfriend by Freida McFadden
2. Dear Reader by Tate James
3. Haunting Adeline by H.D. Carlton
4. Rich Relationships by Selena Soo
5. King of Envy by Ana Huang
6. Hustler50 by Liz Flynt
7. Little Stranger by Leigh Rivers
8. Kiss of the Basilisk by Lindsay Straube
9. Insatiable by Leigh Rivers
10. Hunting Adeline by H.D. Carlton

[Many thanks to IndieReader.com!]