Following the success of a crowdfunding campaign that raised more than $20,000, Impossible Moon Bookshop will open in Hapeville, Ga., this winter.

Located at 585 N. Central Ave. in Hapeville, not far from the Atlanta Hartsfield Jackson Airport, Impossible Moon is a Black-owned bookstore that will sell general-interest titles for all ages. Owner Breanna J. McDaniel--an Atlanta native and award-winning author of the children's picture books Hands Up!, Impossible Moon, and Go Forth and Tell, a biography of librarian Augusta Baker--plans to host community-focused activities ranging from book clubs to tutoring programs, and she hopes to work with other local businesses for events like local art crawls. 

"Impossible Moon is a monument to the people who have encouraged my curiosity, pushed me as a learner, and eventually led me to books through that curiosity," McDaniel said. "It's because of that curiosity, and those pushes, that so many things that seemed impossible for me before now feel very, very possible, like this shop."

Breanna J. McDaniel (photo: Tina Chang)

Recalling her childhood in Hapeville, McDaniel said she often went on trips to libraries and general bookstores, but in recent years those establishments have become scarce on Atlanta's southside. She intends to give back to the community by creating a third space and providing those literary resources. 

To help get the bookstore up and running, McDaniel launched a GoFundMe campaign in August with a goal of $20,000; the campaign reached that goal earlier this month. The funds will go toward books, sidelines, and shelves and other furnishings. 

"Every last donation was affirmation and it does not matter what anyone was able to give, the fact that you chose this bookshop to receive from you is incredible," McDaniel wrote on the campaign page. "Your goodwill is layered into the bricks of the store now. It's going to wrap people up when they enter the shop and they can already feel it."

McDaniel is aiming for a soft opening in the next few weeks, followed by a grand opening celebration on New Year's Eve.

Turtle Books, a children's bookstore in Brookline, Mass, celebrated its grand opening over the weekend, Brookline.News reported.

Cathy and Bruce Jacobs, Turtle Books owners

Store owners Bruce and Cathy Jacobs, Brookline residents who retired from their previous careers, opened the store at 224 Washington St. in Brookline Village. It is the same neighborhood in which a children's bookstore called the Children's Bookshop operated for nearly 40 years before closing in 2022. 

The Jacobses have opened Turtle Books to encourage local children, teens, and families to read and to fill the void left by the closure of the Children's Bookshop. They created a youth advisory board for children to join and they would like to form partnerships with Brookline schools.

"We wanted this to be a place where kids really had a voice and a presence and influence in terms of what books we provided," Cathy Jacobs told Brookline.News.

The festivities over the weekend included author events, live music, a puppet show, and a ribbon cutting Saturday afternoon that featured appearances from State Senator Cynthia Creem and State Representative Tommy Vitolo. Children were also able to cast votes to name a pet turtle.

Bruce Jacobs said the opening was "amazing," and he thanked the Brookline community for all its support.

The Book Industry Charitable (Binc) Foundation is launching its year-end campaign today, November 18, with a $30,000 matching gift challenge, its largest ever, thanks to Penguin Random House, AdventureKEEN, HarperCollins, and Libro.fm.

The campaign--Stand with Book and Comic Stores--aims to raise $200,000 in donations before December 31, to ensure Binc can continue its commitment never to turn away a bookseller in need. All gifts will be matched dollar for dollar, doubling the power and impact of donations received, up to a total of $30,000. Donations can be made here.

Binc CEO Pam French said, "Book and comic people need our support now more than ever. Housing stability and high medical costs are the top two reasons people are coming to us for help. We're incredibly grateful to Penguin Random House, AdventureKEEN, HarperCollins, and Libro.fm for joining us in support of these book and comic people who open their doors to their community and bring people together, provide safe spaces, and share ideas in this time of increased divisiveness and uncertainty."

Jaci Updike, chief revenue officer, Penguin Random House U.S., said, "At the heart of everything we do is our partnership with booksellers, whose dedication makes it possible for our books and stories to reach readers everywhere. Our ongoing collaboration with Binc helps us support their vital work during the holiday season and throughout the year."

Richard Hunt, president of AdventureKEEN, said, "At a time when half of the world wouldn't mind if bookstores, and books, and authors, and people who care deeply and act unselfishly, would just go away, Binc is the backstop that literally keeps bookselling alive (and, by extension, publishing). With Binc stepping in when the weather and taxes and politicians turn nasty and brutish, Binc allows us all to keep up the good fight. Shop local, live local, read local."

Kathy Faber, v-p of independent sales, and Wendy Ceballos, senior director, independent sales, at HarperCollins, said that the company is "proud to continue our partnership with Binc in support of booksellers and the invaluable work they do--connecting readers with stories and uplifting our authors. We're honored to stand alongside Binc in championing the resilience and impact of booksellers in communities across the country."

Binc is offering an audiobook credit for everyone who donates $100 or more and three credits for donations of $500 or more, an offer that is available until December 31.

Volumes Bookcafe, Chicago, Ill., which has been in business in Wicker Park for almost 10 years, will close in January. Block Club Chicago reported that the store and its cafe, operated by sisters Rebecca George and Kimberly George, "was a staple of Wicker Park's independent bookstore scene, hosting book clubs, live events with authors and open mics, and regularly participating in the annual Indie Bookstore Day." They also ran a store for four years at 900 N. Michigan Ave. that closed in 2023.

In 2022, the owners moved the Wicker Park store a few blocks south to its current location, and "for the next few years, business was solid and growing.... But things changed last year when Barnes & Noble opened a store in the heart of the neighborhood," Block Club Chicago noted.

"I definitely blame it on Barnes & Noble, 100%, because that's been literally the trend since the moment they opened," said Rebecca George, adding that sales "have been down 20%, 30% since they opened." This fall has seen some of the shop's slowest sales days ever. "What we would normally consider a low day a year ago, we've blown out of the water as of like, what a low day can be." 

The owners are now focused on paying back their investors and honoring a place that has been a center of community in Wicker Park. "I'm hopeful for the future, but also really devastated I won't be that daily part of so many people's reading lives and just their lives in general," she added. While they are preparing to wind things down, the holiday season at Volumes will still be "business as normal.... This holiday season, we want it to be our best holiday season ever, and make sure that everyone gets a chance to come and say goodbye."

Hal Sirowitz, "a onetime poet laureate of Queens who mined his suffocating relationship with his overprotective mother to create mordant reminiscences that were both highly personal and universal, and that made him a standout at New York City poetry slams," died October 17, the New York Times reported. He was 76. Sirowitz published five books of poetry: Mother Said (1996); My Therapist Said (1998); Father Said (2000); Before, During, and After (2003); and Stray Cat Blues (2012).

A special-education teacher at a public elementary school in Queens, Sirowitz spent his nights performing at venues like the Nuyorican Poets Cafe in Manhattan's East Village, the Times noted. He also appeared on MTV and on the PBS series The United States of Poetry. Garrison Keillor often read his poems on The Writer's Almanac. He was named poet laureate of Queens in the early 2000s by the borough president.

Often using his difficult childhood for both lyricism and laughs, Sirowitz was, as his longtime friend, the poet Bob Holman, said in an interview, "a poet of the particular." In an interview with the Times, Sirowitz said, "The highest compliment I get is when people say to me, 'We must've had the same mother.' " From his poem "Crumbs":

Don't eat any more food in your room,
Mother said. You'll get more bugs.
They depend on people like you.
Otherwise, they would starve.
But who do you want to make happy,
your mother or a bunch of ants?

His poems were translated into several languages, "and he gained particular attention in Norway, where a group of budding filmmakers made a short animated film based on one of his works," the Times wrote. 

"I became a performance poet even though I was a stutterer and had other speech issues that I had to overcome," Sirowitz told the Schuylkill Valley Journal. "I use silence--those pauses--as an advantage. I draw out the humor in my poems."

Phoenix Books hosted Dog Man at its stores in Essex and Burlington, Vt., over the weekend; nearly 250 people showed up both days. Events and marketing coordinator Elaina Welles reported: "Kids loved the scavenger hunt, snacks, activities, and giveaways set up throughout the store, and everyone had a blast meeting Dog Man! We are grateful for Scholastic for the opportunity to host such a fun event and helping us get the kids in our community reading." Pictured: (from l.) staffers Dawn Hamilton, Kristin Richland, and Elaina Welles. 

Stable Distribution, the distribution division of the Stable Book Group, has added five publishers, its second wave of distribution clients. Most of them as well as the first 15, will be distributed effective in January, through Stable's distribution program with Hachette. The five are:

McSweeney's, which was founded by Dave Eggers and is renowned for its literary journal McSweeney's Quarterly Concern, The Believer, and a diverse catalog of fiction, nonfiction, and experimental design.

Pigna, Italy. Founded in 1839, Pigna is the notebook and stationery company renowned for its Italian craftsmanship and design, now expanding into North America with collections inspired by leading American artists and partnerships with top art institutions.

Gloo Books, the children's publisher focused on stories that promote empathy, inclusivity, and sustainability, with picture books that inspire curiosity and care for the world.

Marble Press, a new publisher of children's and young adult books, including graphic novels, imaginative picture books, and middle-grade fiction, celebrated for their storytelling and visual artistry. (Effective March 2026.)

Amber Books, a U.K. illustrated reference publisher whose list of nonfiction titles spans military history, technology, natural history and visual culture, recognized for an accessible, authoritative style and striking visual presentation.

At the Random House Publishing Group:

Erin Richards has been promoted to publicity manager.

Rachel Parker has been promoted to senior publicist.

Hope Hathcock has been promoted to publicist.

Peter Dyer has been promoted to associate publicist.

"When they ask how we keep the books on the shelves when we travel": Wandering Quills Bookshop, a mobile bookshop in the Columbus, Ohio, area, posted an Instagram reel response, noting that "you will NEVER guess what THE #1 question we get asked is and while we love answering that question, we can't help but think of all the other ways we could answer!! Imagine if THIS was how we kept the books on the shelves."

Tomorrow:
Today: Oyinkan Braithwaite, author of Cursed Daughters: A Novel (Doubleday, $29, 9780385551472).

The View: Abby Phillip, author of A Dream Deferred: Jesse Jackson and the Fight for Black Political Power (Flatiron, $30.99, 9781250806314).

Tonight Show: Tom Freston, author of Unplugged: Adventures from MTV to Timbuktu (Gallery, $28.95, 9781668089798).

Warner Bros has released an official trailer for Wuthering Heights, writer-director Emerald Fennell's adaptation of Emily Brontë's gothic romance novel. Deadline reported that the film, starring Margot Robbie as Catherine Earnshaw and Jacob Elordi as Heathcliff, "is gearing up for a Valentine's Weekend 2026 premiere in theaters."

The cast also includes Hong Chau, Shazad Latif, Alison Oliver, Martin Clunes, and Ewan Mitchell. Fennell wrote, directed, and produces. Robbie produces through her LuckyChap Entertainment, marking the production company's third collaboration with Fennell (Saltburn, Promising Young Woman).

Christina MacSweeney has won the $1,000 Cercador Prize for her translation from the Spanish of The Queen of Swords by Jazmina Barrera (Two Lines Press). Founded in 2023, the Cercador Prize recognizes works of literature in translation and is selected by a committee of independent booksellers in the U.S. The Cercador is the only bookseller-led prize for literature in translation.

The judges wrote: "The Queen of Swords, presented here in a lyrical translation by Christina MacSweeney, astounded the committee. Jazmina Barrera's study on Elena Garro, a maligned pioneer of magical realism, defies convention and embraces contradiction. This is a book of reversals and research, an unwaveringly brilliant portrait of a complex and undone life, captured in art and destruction, love and pain, faith and persecution."

The Queen of Swords is a portrait of Mexican writer Elena Garro (1916-1988), a founder of magical realism, a socialite, and an activist on behalf of indigenous Mexicans. Garro's work has been overshadowed by her turbulent relationship with her husband, Octavio Paz, and other male writers of her generation. Jorge Luis Borges once called her "the Tolstoy of Mexico."

MacSweeney has translated three other books by Barrera, including Linea Nigra, which was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle's Gregg Barrios Book in Translation Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Autobiography Prize. She has also translated works by such authors as Elvira Navarro, Valeria Luiselli, Daniel Saldaña París, Julián Herbert, and Karla Suárez and has contributed to several anthologies of Latin American literature. 

The judging committee members were Javi Tapia of Third Place Books, Seattle, Wash., Dylan McGonigle of Wayfinder Bookshop, Fairfax, Calif., Beatriz Quiroz García of Skylight Books, Los Angeles, Calif., C. Rees of Alienated Majesty Books, Austin, Tex., and chair Emily Tarr of Thank You Books, Birmingham, Ala.

Emi Yagi, who won Japan's coveted Osamu Dazai Prize with Diary of a Void, returns with another delightfully surreal novel, When the Museum Is Closed. Yuki Tejima smoothly translates, capturing Yagi's impressively matter-of-fact tone as inexplicably zany events continue to happen with unquestioning, quotidian ease.

Rika Horauchi is starting her new job. Her "shift was once a week, and no experience was required aside from conversation-​level Latin," never mind that it's a dead language. A former professor who recognized Rika's remarkable language skills recommended her to the museum's curator, Hashibami. She's "been hired to talk to the ancient Roman statue of Venus" in the octagonal room of the titular museum every Monday, when doors are closed to the public. Venus is her preferred moniker over Aphrodite, because she's a "very 'ancient Greek goddess,' but I was born in Rome," she explains. "Venus is actually my English name." Despite Rika's initial hesitation--"I felt out of place here"--Venus is quite engaging, bitingly funny, and surprisingly accommodating, demanding that Hashibami hunt down the perfect chair for Rika's comfort. "I've never sat in a chair," she quips. Despite the distraction of "her lush body curved to perfection," conversations with the goddess of love and beauty grow easier, especially since Venus "never [runs] out of memories." Rika, too, opens up, sharing the provenance of her Latin fluency--a "short-term study abroad in Finland," during which she conversed only in Latin with her roommate. Over cups of tea (the one in front of Venus untouched), statue and human share endless stories.

Outside the museum, Rika lives in a "dilapidated two-storey building" where the cheap rent means, by default, that the aging landlady has become her responsibility. Ever since finishing her university degree years ago, Rika has worked in a few freezer warehouses, where conversations are limited and she won't perspire. Since childhood, "a ridiculous yellow raincoat" has hampered her life. No one else can see it, but it weighs her down, trips her up, turns into a "sauna suit" causing heat rashes; avoidance and isolation are her best defense. Becoming intimate with a marble statue, however, proves a transformative experience.

Yagi has written a whimsical tale highlighting unexpected relationships--particularly those where one is finally seen and heard honestly, regardless of whether as a coveted goddess or ostracized human. As a slim novella, When the Museum Is Closed might seem initially spare but it's rife with insights on language, communication, love, identity, definitions of beauty, gender roles, and the possibility of true individual freedom. --Terry Hong

Shelf Talker: Emi Yagi's sophomore novel is another surreal delight, centering on Latin-speaking meetings between the goddess of love and beauty and her part-time conversationalist.

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

1. Right Wing Revolution by Charlie Kirk
2. Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros 
3. Pretty Rings and Broken Things by Kat Singleton
4. Onyx Storm by Rebecca Yarros
5. The Things Gods Break by Abigail Owen
6. La Mosca Que Voló al Espacio by Lauren Sánchez
7. Haunting Adeline by H.D. Carlton
8. Heart of a Goon by Jahquel J.
9. Bad Bishop by L.J. Shen
10. Coeds and Cattails by Jana DeLeon

[Many thanks to IndieReader.com!]