Birdwhistell Books will open tomorrow, September 10, in downtown Elizabethtown, Ky., the News-Enterprise reported. Located at 110 N. Main St., the bookstore will sell new and used, general-interest titles for all ages. 

Store owners Tyler and Kelsey Birdwhistell, both teachers, began selling books at a local flea market in 2023. Though their focus was initially on used books, they have added new titles as the business has grown over the years. They noted that because they're more passionate about used books, they rely on Marian Carlson, a public library director, to help select their new titles.

Birdwhistell Books met with a good response, and when the opportunity came to open a bricks-and-mortar store, Tyler Birdwhistell said, "we jumped at it."

Empire Bookshop, a new and used bookstore in Kewanee, Ill., opened for business last month, the Kewanee Voice reported. 

The bookstore, which carries general-interest titles for all ages, is located at 100 W. 3rd St. It resides in an historic building from the 19th century and is next door to a coffee shop, which patrons can access through an interior door.

Owner Nicole Cernovich hopes to appeal to a wide range of customers, telling the Kewanee Voice that she "tried to get a little bit of everything." She explained that she wanted to open a bookstore for years and decided to make that dream a reality when the previous tenants vacated the space.

The name, Cernovich added, is a reference to a tavern called the Empire that once operated in the building.

Betty's Books in Webster Grove, Mo., will host a grand opening celebration for its new, larger location on September 20.

The bookstore, which is now at 8772 Big Bend Blvd., has added a full-service coffee bar and a dedicated events space. Its inventory remains focused on graphic novels, manga, comic books, and children's books. The event space can seat up to 50 people and has a sound system and projector. The coffee shop will serve coffee, tea, sodas, and a selection of food items.

"I'm thrilled to be able to expand our offerings at our new location," said owner Betty Bayer. "While comics and illustrated books will always be our focus, events--author signings, birthday parties, book clubs, art workshops, and beyond--are one of our biggest strengths as a business and community center. The new dedicated event space allows for more flexibility in timing and capacity for programming, parties, and beyond."

Bayer, who founded the store in 2021, has a weekend full of festivities planned for the new location's grand opening. There will be a ribbon cutting on September 20, followed by storytime and craft sessions for children, face-painting, live music, an event with cartoonist Nidhi Chanani, and more throughout the weekend. During the opening, the coffee shop will feature a limited menu, with the full menu coming the following week.

Nightlight Books, an online and pop-up bookstore focused on authors and subjects related to disabilities, is looking for a bricks-and-mortar home in Cleveland, Ohio, the Land reported. 

Patrick Antenucci

Founded in 2022 by bookseller Patrick Antenucci, Nightlight sells new and used titles pertaining to disabilities and makes pop-up appearances around the Cleveland area at flea markets, art events, music venues, and even roller derby matches. The bookstore's strong reception has led Antenucci to add two co-owners, Allie Mackerty and Ellen Euclide; transition to a co-op structure; and begin the search for a physical store.

The space would allow Antenucci, Mackerty, and Euclide to expand the bookstore's inventory and host book clubs and other community events. Given the store's focus, there will be a major emphasis on accessibility, including ramps, books placed at eye level, and other accommodations.

Prior to launching Nightlight, Antenucci worked as a bookseller in Pittsburgh, Pa. In 2021 he was diagnosed with fibromyalgia and returned to his hometown in Ohio and took a hiatus from working. He re-entered the bookselling world in 2022, this time with a focus on disabilities. He met Euclide and Mackerty while doing pop-ups.

"People in the wild who are facing a chronic disability, when they see our booth (at events), it’s almost like they emotionally or mentally sit down for a moment," Antenucci told the Land. "I've had hour-long conversations with people who have hung out with me at the booth."

For a special issue later this month about Banned Books Week (October 5-11), Shelf Awareness is seeking information from booksellers about plans for Banned Books Week. Tell us about your related displays, events, promotions, banned book clubs, regular banned book sections, and more. Please send information to extra@shelf-awareness.com by the end of this week. Thank you!

Former indie bookseller and author Kirk Reedstrom celebrated the launch of the fourth book in his Duck and Moose series, Duck and Moose: Moose's Bad Hair Day! (Disney/Hyperion), with readers of all ages at Blue Willow Bookshop in Houston, Tex. (photo: Sarah Duet)

Congratulations to Inklings Bookshop, Yakima, Wash., which has begun celebrating its 25th anniversary. Through the end of the month, the store is offering customers a (cosmic) crisp, locally grown apple from Johnson Orchards and 25% off of adult & children's classics at the register as well as a special surprise for in-store shoppers on September 20 and 21.

Owner Susan Richmond remembered: "In the summer and fall of 2000, so many people helped us get ready to open Inklings. We applied for a business license, applied stain to the very same shelves we are using today, took book recommendations from reader friends for our opening order, and researched gift companies. Nerves were a little twitchy that morning of September 18th. We had done the work, but would anyone come? Well, they did. And you are still coming. One of the first comments from a customer when they came through the door was, 'This is a Seattle-kind of place!' A tremendous compliment. Thank you, faithful customers, for our first 25 years."

Posted on Instagram by the Twig Book Shop, San Antonio, Tex.: " 'Happily Ever After' doesn't just exist in fairytales!! The Twig Family wanted to share the sweetest photos that we've been swooning over. We are extremely honored that Ray and Ulysses allowed us to be a part of their special day, right up there with Taylor and Travis."

Jeffrey Chin is joining Hachette as associate director, sales analytics, part of the establishment of a sales analytics team. He was formerly a sales analyst at HarperCollins and earlier worked at Macmillan and Penguin Random House.

Mackenzie Bronk has been promoted to sales director, national accounts. She has been with Hachette for eight years, and in the past three years has managed the company's national account business, working closely with Barnes & Noble and Books-A-Million.

A Ruin, Great and Free by Cadwell Turnbull (Blackstone Publishing), the conclusion to the Convergence Saga.

Tomorrow:
CBS This Morning: Emma Heming Willis, author of The Unexpected Journey: Finding Strength, Hope, and Yourself on the Caregiving Path (The Open Field, $30, 9780593833940). She will also appear on the View.

Today: Stephen Curry, author of Shot Ready (One World, $50, 9780593597293).

Congratulations to Linda-Marie Barrett, executive director of the Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance, whose book Creating a Salon: The Magic of Conversations that Matter is being published today by Agate Surrey! Here we present a magical conversation with her:

Linda-Marie Barrett (photo: Jon Mays)

What inspired you to write this book?

I write a blog with my sister, Diane Barrett Tien, called Barrett Sisters. We explore topics of interest to us and record a conversation, called a "parlor," before we post our essays to the blog. During one of these parlors, I was talking about my salon and sharing what a beautiful thing it is in my life. Diane was interested in hosting or attending something similar and wanted to learn more about how I run mine, which inspired me to write this book. As I was writing it, she was my ideal reader: someone who wanted this kind of experience in their life and needed tips and encouragement on how to do it well. My hope is that readers come away with the tools and the confidence to start a salon in their community. Salons can really change lives and bring folks closer together in meaningful ways.

What advice would you give someone who runs a book club, but is salon-curious?

Give it a try! The members of your book club could be the perfect group for diving deeper into more personal, guided conversations. In Creating a Salon, I offer ideas on how to turn a book club into a salon: thematic dinners, watching a movie version of the book and comparing it to the original, viewing art or listening to music that is central to or inspired by the book, or taking an author to dinner (or inviting them to your book club through Zoom). If you're salon-curious but would prefer trying this with a group with folks outside your book club, use the skills you've already developed as a book club host to follow your curiosity into the world of salons.

What do you hope readers take away from this book?

I hope that they are inspired to try hosting or attending a salon in their community and find the book to be a useful guide to an experience with the potential to nourish their soul. I also hope readers who are ready to create some positive changes in their lives, to pursue a dream, rekindle a sense of purpose, or expand their circle of friends, find inspiration and support within these pages, too.

What's next for you?

I'm currently working on essays around the trauma we experienced in western North Carolina during and after Hurricane Helene. This hurricane produced what has been called a thousand-year flood, damaged or felled over 40% of the trees in our county, and dramatically altered landscapes across our region; it also brought our community together in beautiful, heart-melting ways. Another project centers experiences with my Black Swan salon members outside of the salons themselves. Our journey together astonishes me in the best ways.

Do you host or arrange other types of gatherings besides salons and book clubs? 

Creating community gatherings is one of my passions, maybe even a calling. So many of us are feeling isolated or beaten down by one oppressive political act after another, and my immediate response is to bring folks together. I'm working with a friend--poet and writer Laura Hope-Gill--to host an event around the anniversary of Hurricane Helene's devastating passage through western North Carolina. We're calling it "Keening by the River," a time to shout, cry, sing, embrace, and speak to the water the way it spoke to us, or just in the ways our bodies need to, to release our grief. We've invited our community to join us by the banks of the French Broad River, and the response has been amazing. We need this.

What are some exciting things coming up for SIBA?

We've just come off a hugely successful conference in partnership with NAIBA, New Voices New Rooms. This year also marks SIBA's 50th anniversary! We're deep into an extensive update and rebranding project we're calling "A Bright Future." The update involves a new logo, website, and association management system. The transition will be completed by the end of this year. We have almost doubled our membership in the last five years so it's the perfect time to refine what we're doing to better serve our members.

You've worn a couple of different hats in the industry, from bookseller to author. Can you tell us about your background and your experience in each role?

I've come full circle and it's so lovely to now be an author. In my roles as bookseller and then executive director of a bookseller trade association, I've gained different perspectives on our industry. A common thread has been working with authors and their publicists. Now I'm on the other side of that relationship, working with my publicist setting up events to promote Creating a Salon. I wore many hats over the years at Malaprop's Bookstore/Cafe in Asheville, N.C., including events coordinator, buyer, general manager, and co-owner. I truly loved being a bookseller. Like so many indie bookstores, we were the heart of our city, and we always strived to create a welcoming environment that supported discovery of new titles and relaxing conversation. During my time at SIBA, we've focused on providing education and networking opportunities with publishers and authors that reflect and answer the needs of our growing membership. We've formed exciting collaborative partnerships with RAMP for our summer and winter catalogs and with NAIBA for our New Voices New Rooms virtual and in-person programming. We do better when we work together, a belief I bring into my personal life, too.

A young woman's escape from a troubling family legacy hangs in the balance in Cursed Daughters by Nigerian British writer Oyinkan Braithwaite. With scenes set in the present and forays into the past capturing the generational scope of her story, Braithwaite (My Sister, the Serial Killer) blends satire and high drama to deliver a spectacular saga glowing with romance and otherworldly intrigue.

The women of the Falodun family of Lagos, Nigeria, have struggled under a curse for five generations. The malediction was originally placed on their beguiling ancestress Feranmi by her husband's scorned first wife, who warned that Feranmi's female descendants would never find lasting love, that "men will be like water in their palms." The curse seems to be working. The Falodun ancestral home is a refuge for those heartbroken by absconding husbands and weak-willed lovers.

For charismatic Monife, the pivotal center of Cursed Daughters, her failed relationship with Kalu, the love of her life, has as much to do with the curse as her fear of it. It doesn't matter if she self-sabotaged her relationship, though, because Monife is no more. Heartbroken over Kalu's betrayal, Monife drowns and then is buried on the very day her cousin gives birth to Eniiyi. The child's mother is practical, no-nonsense Ebun, the only person dismissive of the curse. Ebun seems to need no man, but then who is Mr. Osagie, the handsome air force pilot who hangs around the gate to their home? Eniiyi's startling resemblance to Monife leads to superstitious chatter about reincarnation, and her childhood is weighed down by the haunting shadow of her dead aunty. As a college graduate, Eniiyi pursues a career as a genetic counselor.

Braithwaite's stellar storytelling is boosted by her skillfully crafted characters, including the formidable Grandma West, who lives in the west wing of the Falodun compound. A school principal, she "flirt[s] with strange spirits" to lure her husband back from London. The house itself, with its creaky floors and flickering lights, is the keeper of many secrets over the years while Sango, Monife's ancient dog, bears witness to them all.

Curse or not, when love comes for Eniiyi, it does so with a force that leaves her smitten and leads to a long overdue collision course with mysteries from Monife's past. The fallout is devastating yet Braithwaite's masterful conclusion finds hope in the enduring power of love. --Shahina Piyarali

Shelf Talker: A young woman's escape from a troubling family legacy hangs in the balance in this satirical drama fueled by romance and otherworldly intrigue that's set in Lagos, Nigeria.