Following its debut as a pop-up store last year, Beyond Words Bookshop has opened a bricks-and-mortar store in Mesa, Ariz., 12News reported.

Owner Kelly Boggs welcomed customers to the store on July 5. Boggs is a former English teacher and she sells new and used titles with an emphasis on books for young readers. The bookshop is located at 40 N. Macdonald. 

Boggs opened the bricks-and-mortar store with the help of a local grant providing six months of rent and utilities for a physical space in Mesa's Green Belt. She applied for the grant after hearing about it from local bookseller Alyssa Prewitt, owner of Twice Upon a Time Books. 

"For another person that's in the same business--that she could have been competing for this--sent it to me," Boggs told 12News. "I was like, 'oh my gosh, that's so amazing.' "

Novella Books, a romance-focused mobile bookstore, has made its debut with several appearances in southeastern Maine, News Center Maine reported.

Co-owners Lotti Ziervogel and Cailyn Wheeler carry a wide assortment of romance titles with an emphasis on books by independent authors. In addition to the many romance sub-genres available, they also have a small selection of non-romance titles in the "Oops, what are you doing here" section.

The store's first appearance was a soft opening on June 16 at Kit Supply and Co. in Kittery, Maine. Since then they've appeared in Sebago, Freeport, Portland, and Scarborough, among other communities. They've done pop-ups at markets, breweries, bakeries, and even cycling studios, and they've hosted book clubs as well as author signings. 

Their most recent appearance was at Sidereal Farm in Vassalboro, Maine, this past weekend, and looking ahead, they plan to travel to new communities throughout Maine over the summer and fall.

Wheeler and Ziervogel began building out the trailer, which they call Ella, near the beginning of the year. Their bookstore plans began when Ziervogel reached out to Wheeler one day and said, "Hey, I have this crazy idea--should we open a mobile bookstore?"

Wheeler agreed, and by early June the trailer was ready to go. So far, they noted, it has gone very well. "It's a dream, it really, really is," Wheeler told News Center Maine.

Books-A-Million is opening a bookstore in the University Commons strip mall at 4404 Stadium Drive, Kalamazoo, Mich. MLive reported that the store is moving into the 15,000-square-foot former home of Save-A-Lot, and next to Planet Fitness and Harbor Freight.

The new location will be the chain's third location in the state, joining stores in Traverse City and Beverly Hills. BAM operates more the 260 stores in 32 states.

Paulette Jiles, "a horse-riding poet who wrote historical novels that evoked the grit and natural grandeur of the 19th-century American West, notably in News of the World, in which a Civil War veteran and a 10-year-old girl embark on a 400-mile journey in search of the girl's relatives," died July 8, the New York Times reported. She was 82.

Paulette Jiles (Jill Gann Photography)

Jiles published six books of poetry, two memoirs, and nine novels. News of the World (2016) sold more than 700,000 copies, was shortlisted for a National Book Award, and adapted into a 2020 film directed by Paul Greengrass and starring Tom Hanks. Her other books include North Spirit (1995), Enemy Women (2002), The Color of Lightning (2009), Lighthouse Island (2013), and Simon the Fiddler (2020).

Jiles wrote "from a small writing studio above her one-room cabin on a 32-acre ranch near Utopia, in Texas hill country, where she also played the penny whistle in a bluegrass band, sang in a local choir and made frequent riding trips to Mexico and elsewhere. At the ranch, she kept two horses, Buck and Jackson, two cats and a koi fish," the Times noted.

Born in Missouri, Jiles moved to Canada in 1969 and worked as a freelance journalist for the CBC. She remained in Canada through the 1970s and much of the '80s.

In 1973, she published her first poetry collection, Waterloo Express (1973), which was edited by Margaret Atwood, who worked for House of Anansi Press at the time. In an e-mail to the Times, Atwood described Jiles as "tough, smart," a serious writer who "pulled no punches." Jiles's second collection, Celestial Navigation (1984), received a Governor General's Award.

Jiles returned to the U.S. in the late 1980s and published Blackwater (1988), a collection of poems and prose. Around that time, Jiles met Jim Johnson, a retired army lieutenant colonel, on a camping trip. At Johnson's suggestion, they soon went on a seven-month road trip across the U.S., which she recounted in her 1992 memoir, Cousins. They married in 1991, but divorced in 2003. 

In a remembrance in Texas Monthly after Jiles's death, poet Naomi Shihab Nye described her as "brilliant and driven and, sometimes, prickly." 

After the publication of Enemy Women in 2002, Jiles told the San Antonio Express-News that she wanted to keep her quiet, secluded day-to-day existence: "I just hope my life continues to be dull and plodding. It's the best thing for me."

In Bothell, Wash., HarperCollins hosted dozens of Washington State booksellers for a Fall Preview event. The day started with a conversation between author Susana M. Morris (Positive Obsession) and Rio Cortez, retail marketing manager, multicultural focus. Next up, several HC employees talked about their roles in an Insider Buzz session, then five sales folk (Ronnie Kutys, associate director, retail marketing; Rio Cortez; Jamil Zaidi, field sales rep; Kalani Kapahua, inside sales rep; Bailey Thomas, divisional sales director) talked about upcoming fall titles. The day ended with a local author panel featuring Corey R. Tabor and Dalton Webb (Wally Mammoth: The Sled Race); Justinian Huang (Lucky Seed); Alisah Rai (Enemies to Lovers); Clyde Ford, director of the MLK Library; and Sonora Jha (Intemperance), followed by author signings and galley giveaways.

Owners Joel and Carol Tomlin at Landmark Booksellers

Congratulations to Landmark Booksellers, Franklin, Tenn., which celebrated its 20th anniversary on Wednesday. The party included entertainment, refreshment, and appearances by authors Karen Kingsbury, Kathie Lee Gifford, and Brad Thor.

"The celebration was a true testament to Landmark Booksellers' enduring appeal and its unique place in both literary and local history," the store wrote. "The shop, which famously inspired Karen Kingsbury's bestselling novel The Bridge, is housed in Franklin's oldest commercial structure, a building dating back to circa 1808 with a storied past that includes serving as a bank, a factory store, and even, legend has it, a place where Andrew Jackson paid his troops. As Joel and Carol Tomlin reflected on their journey, they expressed immense gratitude for the 'good memories, new acquaintances and friends from around the world, wonderfully rich books, interesting events, and the opportunity to enjoy every day together doing something we love.' It was a night that perfectly encapsulated the magic and rich history that Landmark Booksellers brings to Franklin."

Recently posted in the storefront window of des pair books, Los Angeles, Calif.: "F*ck it. Everything 20% off. Today only."

The Wisdom of the Hive: What Honeybees Can Teach Us about Collective Wellbeing by Michelle Cassandra Johnson and Amy Burtaine (Sounds True).

Today:
Fresh Air: Joseph Lee, author of Nothing More of This Land: Community, Power, and the Search for Indigenous Identity (Atria/One Signal, $28.99, 9781668087251).

The View: James Longman, author of The Inherited Mind: A Story of Family, Hope, and the Genetics of Mental Illness (Hyperion Avenue, $27.99, 9781368099479).

Tomorrow:
CBS Mornings: Scaachi Koul, author of Sucker Punch: Essays (St. Martin's Press, $28, 9781250270504).

Good Morning America: Holly Jackson, author of Not Quite Dead Yet: A Novel (Bantam, $28, 9780593977057).

Jennifer Hudson Show repeat: Big Sean, author of Go Higher: Five Practices for Purpose, Success, and Inner Peace (S&S/Simon Element, $28.99, 9781668045732).

Lizzy Greene (Ransom Canyon) and Harry Collett (House of the Dragon) will star in Easy, a film adaptation of the bestselling novel by Tammara Webber. Deadline reported that Australian director and producer Luke Eve (I Met A Girl) is helming the project, which recently wrapped principal photography in Malta.

Producers are Ryan Hamilton (Hotel Mumbai, Possessor), Addam Bramich (Poker Face, Ice Fall, Shiver) and Volodymyr Artemenko (A Working Man, Wife and Dog, Shiver) as well as author Anna Todd (Shiver), whose writing credits include the YA romance series After.

Webber self-published Easy in 2012, and its publishing rights "were snapped up by Penguin/Razorbill for the U.K. and Penguin/Berkley for the U.S. and the novel has also since been translated into more than 20 languages," Deadline noted.

"We optioned Easy many years ago as we adored Tammara's book and we are very proud to bring this project to life with Luke at the helm and we couldn't have imagined a better Jacqueline and Lucas in Lizzy and Harry," said Hamilton.

Webber, who wrote another three novels in what became the Contours of the Heart series, said, "I'm thrilled to have Lizzy and Harry take my lead characters from page to screen under Luke's skilled guidance and vision. What a spectacular team."

Chain-Gang All-Stars by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah (Pantheon) has won the 2025 Inside Literary Prize, which is judged exclusively by incarcerated readers and is sponsored by Freedom Reads in collaboration with the National Book Foundation, the Center for Justice Innovation, and Interabang Books co-owner Lori Feathers. Some 300 people incarcerated in six states and territories across the country voted on the prize.

The winning author said, "There is no question that this is the highest possible honor a book like this could ever receive. I take it to mean those who judged believed I was not careless or callous, that I used language in a way that felt like truth. This retroactive mandate is a gift I can never repay, but one I will forever be grateful for. I want to thank all those Inside, those who judged and those who did not. This award is dedicated to you all."

Elizabeth Gilbert has been an iconic figure in the U.S. memoir space since her massive hit Eat Pray Love landed on bookshelves nearly 20 years ago. She scored another cultural bullseye with Big Magic in 2015. Both books explore self-discovery and creativity and celebrate the sometimes tangled way the self evolves. She's produced numerous works of fiction and journalism in the meantime.

Now, in her first memoir in a decade, All the Way to the River: Love, Loss, and Liberation, Gilbert takes readers to a darker, more complicated space than many of her earlier works. This is a harrowing, vital, and ultimately transcendent exploration of fierce love, codependency, and grief.

All the Way to the River is a love story, but not one drawn in soft-focus romantic tones. It's the story of Gilbert's profound and life-altering relationship with her one-time best friend and hair stylist, Rayya Elias, herself a charismatic, vehemently independent artist and musician. Their bond, forged over years of deep friendship, found new contours when Elias was diagnosed with terminal pancreatic and liver cancer. There, on the verge of permanent loss, they revealed to each other the depth and nature of their love.

But this joy was entwined with the fact that both women were addicts, albeit of different kinds. Elias had been in more or less successful recovery for a time, but as her pain increased and her time grew shorter, she relapsed in intense fashion, with Gilbert taking part and footing the bill. As Gilbert observes, "Love addiction, drug addiction, dependency, codependency--it's all the same thing: a disease so tireless and dirty and dignity-consuming that it will never rest until you're ruined."

Whereas Eat Pray Love is about finding oneself by traveling out into the world, All the Way to the River is about the perilous, interior journey of loving someone as they are leaving it. Gilbert confronts not only the anticipatory grief of losing the love of her life but also the chaotic, terrifying nature of their shared addictions. This unflinching examination of codependency, relapse, and the desperate, often messy, business of caregiving and boundary setting marks a stark departure from the aspirational tone of her previous work, grounding this memoir in a brutal reality. The beautiful narrative is complemented by Gilbert's poetry and sketches detailing the stages of her circumstances.

The lessons Gilbert derives from her devastating experience are hard-won and devoid of platitudes. The central liberation she references in the book's subtitle is not a sudden, sun-drenched epiphany, but a slow, painful untangling of self from another in order to love more fully and more honestly. --Elizabeth DeNoma, executive editor, DeNoma Literary Services, Seattle, Wash.

Shelf Talker: Gilbert's latest memoir is an in-depth honest and emotional reckoning with what it means to love and forgive oneself and other people.