Saltwater Bookstore, which opened in 2023 in the historic district of Marblehead, Mass., is under new ownership, with founder Laura Cooper passing the torch to one of the shop's booksellers, Joe Navarre. 

Joe Navarre

Describing the years since launching her business as "an amazing experience," Cooper posted on Instagram: "Through hard work, passion, dedicated employees, and incredible local support, Saltwater has been wildly successful and continues to grow. Saltwater is primed and ready for its next big chapter, filled with more community engagement, including author events, book clubs, and more.

"At the same time, however, I am also ready for my next chapter, as I transition to an empty nester. My husband and I are looking forward to more time together filled with new adventures and travel plans. Thus, I will be stepping away as owner. The decision to sell Saltwater has not been an easy one, as I've put my heart and soul into every aspect of this store, and I know how much it means to our wonderful reading community. It was essential for me to find the right fit to continue Saltwater's story, and I was lucky enough to have found him"

She added that she couldn't be happier with the change, adding that Navarre's "book expertise, attention to detail and design, and personable nature will certainly enable great success. I hope you continue to support Joe and Saltwater, along with super booksellers Cesca and Jack, as you've supported me through the years."

Navarre called the ownership change "a new chapter for me--literally and figuratively--at Saltwater Bookstore. I am honored to be stepping in to continue the story of this wonderful bookstore in Marblehead. The heart of Saltwater will remain the same--a warm place for readers, good books, and quiet discovery. In the months ahead, I am excited to introduce a few new community moments and collaborations: book clubs, children’s story hours, and other gatherings for fellow book lovers. For now, stop in and say hello--and tell me what you’re reading."

While Cooper's final weekend as owner was last Sunday, she noted: "Please know the many wonderful connections I've made at Saltwater will last a lifetime. I will always cherish my time at the bookstore and look forward to watching Saltwater grow and remain an essential part of our Marblehead community. Many thanks again for an incredibly rewarding experience... it really has been a dream come true!"

Plot Twist Books has opened a bricks-and-mortar location in Lockport, Ill., after debuting as a mobile bookstore, Patch.com reported.

The bricks-and-mortar store opened at 980 E. Ninth St. in February. It sells new and used titles for all ages, along with coffee, including cold brew. Owner Jacquelyn Martin plans to work with local authors and wants the store to be a meeting space for local book clubs and other community groups. 

"I really envisioned and wanted to create a space for the community," Martin told Patch. "We're really focusing on community-based events, like workshops and classes."

Martin had originally intended to open a bricks-and-mortar store but couldn't find a suitable space when she started looking. She decided to launch Plot Twist as a mobile bookstore built out of a trailer while continuing to search, and she intends to keep the book trailer going now that the bricks-and-mortar store is open. 

The store at 980 E. Ninth St. had a soft opening before Christmas and officially opened last month. The book trailer first hit the road in 2025.

Honey Flutters Teas & Books, "a tea room dining experience and a bookstore complete with clubs and events," held its grand opening celebration earlier this month at 18771 FM 2252, Bldg. 23 inside Bracken Village, San Antonio, Tex., Community Impact reported.

"It's been a whole new chapter, and it was time for me to choose what that meant for me," said owner Melissa Swift, who opened her business after leaving the corporate world.

She added that there is a handpicked selection of books, from romantasy to standard fiction: "We really want to focus on welcoming everyone and making people of all ages interested in reading again."

Swift holds a monthly book club and English tutoring each week. In the future, she said she would like to host more local San Antonio-based artists and authors and have their work displayed at the shop. "It makes it far more interactive for artists," she said. "People will be able to engage and interact with them in-person."

The tea room features an assortment of teas, along with pastries and smaller savory bites. Guests can also get their own tea and book boxes.

The Spaniel's Tale Bookstore in Ottawa, Ont., is relocating to a nearby storefront at 1109 Wellington St. West, "less than one-minute's walk" from its current location at 1131 Wellington St. West, co-owners Cole Davidson and Stephen Crocker noted in an announcement posted on the shop's website. An official date for the move has not been finalized.

The Spaniel's Tale's future home

"When we opened our doors in 2022, we knew we were in the right neighborhood, and that hasn't changed," the owners wrote. "Since then, the community's support has been so overwhelming that we've outgrown our current space." At the new location, patrons "can expect the same welcoming atmosphere and the same great service from the same booksellers you've come to know. But you can also expect thousands of additional titles and gifts, a more comfortable shopping environment, and more space for community events."

Noting that the goal during the transition is to minimize the impact on the community, they wrote that the current storefront will remain open "as long as possible. When we do close to move to our new location, we plan to be closed for about five days. As quickly as we can, we will re-open with a grand re-opening celebration in our new home!"

British author Len Deighton, a prolific writer "whose tough, stylish spy thrillers featured on bestseller lists for decades," died March 15, the Associated Press reported. He was 97. His first novel, The Ipcress File (1962), "helped set the tone of cool and gritty 1960s thrillers and was made into a film starring Michael Caine that helped launch both author and actor to long and stellar careers."

Len Deighton (David Cairns/Grove Atlantic)

"Len was a Titan," said Tim Bates, his literary agent. "He was not only one of the greatest spy and thriller writers of the 20th century but also one of our greatest writers in any genre. His career spanned a dizzying range of styles and forms, from meticulously researched military history and era-defining thrillers, to epic historical novels and influential food writing. Len was a self-taught polymath, who was as comfortable writing about complex engineering structures as he was describing the best way to make a pot-au-feu. He was also a brilliant illustrator and an accomplished film-maker. Len's writing, in whatever genre, was witty and erudite, often very funny and always very cool. He was truly a master."

Born to a working-class family, Deighton served in the Royal Air Force, studied art, and worked as a waiter, pastry chef and flight attendant before having success as a book and magazine illustrator. His designs included the first U.K. edition of Jack Kerouac's On the Road (1958).

He wrote The Ipcress File to amuse himself during a vacation, the AP noted. The novel went on to sell millions of copies and was adapted into a 1965 film, with Caine "in a star-making performance as Deighton's protagonist, a sardonic working-class sophisticate with a love of gourmet food.... Deighton's depiction of espionage as a grubby, error-strewn business was a contrast to the glamour of Ian Fleming's James Bond novels." "I had never read a James Bond book," Deighton said in a 1997 BBC interview. The Ipcress File was published the month the first 007 movie, Dr. No, was released.

Later books Horse Under Water, Funeral in Berlin, Billion-Dollar Brain, and An Expensive Place to Die all featured the same unnamed hero. Caine, as the character Harry Palmer, starred in movies based on Funeral in Berlin and Billion-Dollar Brain.

Berlin Game (1983) was the first of 10 novels featuring MI6 officer Bernard Samson. Along with Mexico Set and London Match, it was adapted into the 1988 TV series Game, Set and Match. Deighton set several novels in World War II, including Bomber (1970) and SS-GB (1978), the latter of which was made into a TV series in 2017.

Charity, the final book in his trilogy that included Faith and Hope, was released in 1996. Altogether Deighton wrote more than two dozen novels. He also wrote historical nonfiction, including a book about the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, and Fighter: The True Story of the Battle of Britain.

In the late 1990s, Deighton "appeared to switch off his word processor and, without fanfare, retire," the Guardian wrote. "He was to say that, after 30 years of writing and obsessive rewriting and research, he felt he had earned a holiday and enjoyed the experience so much that he stayed on holiday. He did not, however, retire completely, cheerfully contributing forewords and introductions to books by other authors and, in 2006, writing his first short story in 35 years for an anthology to mark the 80th birthday of HRF Keating."

Deighton rarely gave interviews and avoided public appearances at festivals and conventions. He was elected to the Detection Club in 1969, but turned down the offer of a Diamond Dagger for lifetime achievement from the Crime Writers' Association on three occasions, maintaining that "two things destroy writers--alcohol and praise."

The Guardian noted that as a writer, Deighton maintained there was no substitute for sheer hard work, dismissing the idea of writer's block as "the blank wall we secretly know is incompetence" and though he was always associated with the latest technology, he said: "The only implements needed to write a book are pencil and paper, everything else is luxury."

Lars Ole Sauerberg, a professor of literature at the University of Southern Denmark and the author of Secret Agents in Fiction (1984), told the New York Times: "He is the master of the intricately plotted espionage thriller that offers an antihero with his roots demonstrably in the British people, rather than the civil-service aristocracy. I can think of no other writer of secret-agent fiction with a comparable command of the reality behind the clandestine games."

Bubbles filled the air at Children's Book World in Los Angeles, Calif., as Emmy-nominated writers Annabeth Bondor-Stone and Connor White celebrated the launch of their debut picture book, Kitty Caterpillar (Balzer + Bray), with a crowd of enthusiastic young readers and their families. 

Joining the fun was Kitty Caterpillar illustrator Brigette Barrager, Mista Cookie Jar, and the Kitty Caterpillar puppet, designed in collaboration with illustrator and designer Sarah Hayden. Bondor-Stone and White, whose television credits include Waffles & Mochi (Netflix/Higher Ground), brought the same energy to the bookstore that has made them fan favorites in children's media.

Among the many indie bookstores celebrating "the wearing of the Green" yesterday were:

Neighborhood Books, Presque Isle, Maine: "A lucky St. Patrick's Day to have these two ladies here to work today."

Titcomb's Bookshop, East Sandwich, Mass.: "Happy St. Patrick's Day from the Titcomb's Bookshop crew!"

Joseph-Beth Booksellers, Cincinnati, Ohio: "Happy St. Patrick's Day from Cassity and Ben! Have you checked out our bookseller spotlight this month for their guide to Irish Literature? Come in and check it out today!"

A Great Good Place for Books, Oakland, Calif.: "Jorgie's celebrating St. Patrick's Day, we hope you are too!"

"The snow has the shop closed today but it did give us another opportunity for a reset: enjoy 60 seconds of a wee bookstore in the snow," Comma, a bookshop, Minneapolis, Minn., posted on Instagram.

Spring's a-buzzin' at Plaid Elephant Books in Danville, Ky., which shared a pic of its store window on Instagram, noting: "Buzzzzz into a good book! We're loving the new window art, courtesy of the fabulous Becca Sims aka Legal Graffiti."

At Brookline Booksmith, Brookline, Mass.:

Celeste Amidon is the new co-events director, sharing the role with Meaghan O'Brien, who has been event director since 2023.

Kaylee Tada, a recent recipient of the Carla Gray Award for her community advocacy work, is the new assistant events director. She has been a Booksmith employee since 2023. 

Today:
Fresh Air: Francis Spufford, author of Nonesuch: A Novel (Scribner, $31, 9781668214374).

Tomorrow:
Today: Mikel Welch, author of The Forever Home: Classic, Clever Design to Help You Put Down Roots (Clarkson Potter, $35, 9780593796931).

Tamron Hall: Faith Roberson, author of What Stays and What Goes: Organize with Intention and Create Space for Grace (Scribner, $28, 9781668011744).

Lang Fisher (The Four Seasons, Never Have I Ever) is currently in development at Peacock on a TV adaptation of Elle Cosimano's Finlay Donovan Is Killing It, the first book in the author's Finlay Donovan Mysteries series that includes six titles, with a seventh, Finlay Donovan Crosses the Line, hitting stores this week, Deadline reported. 

Executive producers include Fisher, Tina Fey, through her Little Stranger, Inc. production banner, Eric Gurian, David Miner, and Cosimano. Universal Television, a division of Universal Studio Group, where Fisher and Fey are under overall deals, is the studio.

The logline: "Based on the book by Cosimano, Finlay Donovan Is Killing It follows a struggling novelist and single mom on the verge of losing custody of her kids, who is mistaken for an assassin and offered life-changing money for one kill."

Virginia Evans won the 2026 PEN/Hemingway Award for Debut Novel for The Correspondent (Crown). The judges said the winning book "tells us it's never too late to atone for the mistakes of the past. It's never too late to fall in love. It is a compassionate, hopeful, moving novel, deftly structured and vividly characterized, especially prescient in our times and compelling in any."

Evans will receive $10,000. Both Evans and the authors of the other finalists--Susanna Kwan for Awake in the Floating City (Pantheon) and Maggie Su for Blob (Harper Perennial)--will be honored on April 26 at the 50th Anniversary PEN/Hemingway Award Ceremony, to be held at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum in Boston, Mass. 

They will also be given a two-week residency at Ucross Foundation, which includes a private studio space, living accommodations, meals prepared by a professional chef, and staff support on Ucross's 20,000-acre ranch in northern Wyoming.

"Selecting one work of fiction from the many stellar submissions we received this year was a monumental task for which we owe a debt of gratitude to our judges," said PEN/Faulkner Awards committee chair Lauren Francis-Sharma. "In The Correspondent, we see a novel that reminds us of the profound and often life-altering discoveries that await us in an earnest engagement with literature and the practice of writing. We look forward to celebrating this beautiful and inspiring novel alongside our other finalists at this year's awards ceremony." 

photo: Carrie Patterson

Lindsay Linton Buk is an artist and photographer, and the author of Women Shaping the West: Stories from Wyoming (Collective Book Studio, March 10, 2026), a portrait collection of some 25 Wyoming women whose lives and work embody the modern American West. A fifth-generation Wyoming native, originally from the small farm town of Powell, Buk worked as a portrait photographer in New York City before returning home. Her work to create Women Shaping the West, which includes a podcast and a traveling exhibit, has generated national interest, with features on Forbes.com, PRX Radio, the Travel Channel, and many others. Her work can be described as "art with an impact."

Handsell readers your book in 25 words or less:

Intimate biographies, stunning photography, behind-the-scenes reflections, and rich history come together in a powerful portrait of the American West.

On your nightstand now:

Suleika Jaouad's The Book of Alchemy is beautiful and inspiring. I'm drawn to typography, and love that she used Garamond (also featured in my book). As my designer said when we were deliberating fonts for my book, "Garamond is feminine and also no-nonsense." My type of sentiment.

Let's Talk About Hard Things by journalist and Death, Sex & Money podcast host Anna Sale is more important than ever.

The End of Your Life Book Club by Will Schwalbe is a poignant, powerful tribute to his mother, who died of cancer. Will's book is a reminder continually to make memories with the ones you love most.

Sahil Bloom's The 5 Types of Wealth offers timely, insightful exercises to align five areas of wealth: physical, mental, time, social, and financial. I appreciate the efficiency of reflections as a mama to a six- and 4.5-year-old.

When Women Ruled the World by Egyptologist Kara Cooney is a fascinating account of six ancient Egyptian female pharaohs. While their reigns were revolutionary, these women often ruled in a patriarchal style rather than one that advanced equity.

The New York Times Explorer: 100 Dream Trips Around the World, edited by Barbara Ireland, is a constant source of joy and visual inspiration, somewhat satisfying my need for adventure, travel, and discovery.

Lastly, I'm a Heated Rivalry addict, so I'm currently devouring Rachel Reid's audiobooks after binging the series. Hollanov forever.

Favorite book when you were a child:

A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle. As a child, I loved being transported from the small farm town where I lived to worlds beyond worlds.

Your top five authors:

Isabel Allende, Elizabeth Gilbert, and Wyoming authors Annie Proulx, Gretel Ehrlich, and Laura Bell.

Book you've faked reading:

Honestly, I'm a terrible liar!

Book you're an evangelist for:

I will endlessly recommend The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron to anyone in a season of transition or in need of creative inspiration.

Book you've bought for the cover:

As a visual creative first and foremost (photographer), I'm most drawn to covers and will often buy a book to sit on my shelf and add visual frequency to my space. One of the most impactful books I purchased was Women by Annie Leibovitz. The book became an early inspiration for my project about bold, impactful women in Wyoming. Leibovitz's portraits are powerful and timeless. I wondered, could I do this, too?

Book that changed your life:

As it did for millions of women, Elizabeth Gilbert's Eat, Pray, Love awakened something inside me. For four months after living in New York City and before moving home to Wyoming, I solo-traveled throughout Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, and Bali. While I went into the trip with the mindset that I would experience a major life "aha" or shift, as Gilbert did in her year abroad, my experience was quiet. I learned that transformation can't be manufactured. Little did I know that when I returned to Wyoming after that experience, the real work would begin. What followed was a decade-plus effort to preserve women's voices and stories by traveling across my home state and documenting women making an impact in the Cowboy State. My book is the final, culminating installment of this body of work.

Favorite line from a book:

What immediately comes to mind is actually my favorite reveal in a book, which occurs in Elizabeth Gilbert's The Signature of All Things. The way she builds suspense to introduce Tomorrow Morning as a person, not a point in time, was so well done, surprising, and satisfying.

Five books you'll never part with:

The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron

The Signature of All Things by Elizabeth Gilbert

The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende is masterful, rich and spiritual.

My Harry Potter books because most are first editions and all remind me of childhood and my brothers, the three of us racing to finish reading first.

Women by Annie Leibovitz because it inspired me to tell the story only I can tell from Wyoming.

Ailey Ascending: A Portrait in Motion photographed by one of my mentors, Andrew Eccles.

I could go on and on....

Book you most want to read again for the first time:

Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë was a favorite as a teenager. With the upcoming movie release, it feels like a great time to read it again.

Favorite author to read to your two boys:

The author, printmaker, and artist Virginia Lee Burton, author of Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel, Katy and the Big Snow, Maybelle the Cable Car, Life Story, and others. Her personal story is so inspiring to me. She was a groundbreaking author and illustrator, as well as an entrepreneur and changemaker in Folly Cove, Mass. I love how she weaves history into her rhythmic tales, particularly in Maybelle the Cable Car, which shares the history of San Francisco's cable cars in her signature playful style. Virginia was also a mother to two sons. I greatly admire her work, legacy, and impact as a mother and creator.

In her debut YA novel-in-verse, An Expanse of Blue, Kauakanilehua Māhoe Adams offers an intimate slice of life about grief, sisterhood, and the power of being seen.

Aouli Elizabeth Smith, a Kānaka (Indigenous Hawaiian) teen living in Hawk Valley, Wash., is unmoored. In Hawaiian, her name means "blue, sky, expanse," and she holds that meaning close to her heart: "My soul is great/ sweeping like the sky." But lately, she feels lost in that great swathe--she is not pliant and perfect like her sister Kāia; not silent and godly like her mother; and is one of the few brown faces in the crowd of white that is her suburb and church. Her stoic father's moods have begun to shift like unpredictable tides, the entire household subject to their sway.

Aouli finds some solace in her journal, a place for "all the songs in [her] head to go," though they are less songs and more "lyrics/ aching/ for a melody." And her physical refuge is Aunty Ehu's house, where the Kānaka community in Hawk Valley gathers on Saturdays. But when Aouli discovers a life-altering secret on her father's phone, even that safest of havens becomes tainted. When a boy with eyes "full of stars" appears at church youth group, he immediately guesses Aouli is Hawaiian, highlighting for her what it is she needs: to be seen. Her identity isn't hard "to figure out," she thinks, "when someone was born/ of the same sky/ of the same sea/ of the same people/ as you."

In the tradition of Elizabeth Acevedo's The Poet X and Dean Atta's The Black Flamingo, An Expanse of Blue is a novel-in-verse with spare text and expansive feeling. As Aouli moves through a particularly turbulent time, Adams uses the urgent language of poetry to convey Aouli's inner world. While the story unfolds in a linear narrative, the poems are often potent afterimages of Aouli's emotional experiences.

Adams's skill is evident in the way she plays with the form and structure of her text. Aouli moves between a variety of poetic forms, from visually striking concrete poems to surreal depictions of dreams. Adams tells the story from inside a specific diasporic community and, because of its diaristic format, An Expanse of Blue is intrinsically intimate. But as is so often true of poetry, its specificity is what lends to its universality--in the wide expanse of space between Aouli's words, anyone might find a piece of themselves reflected. --Mariel Fechik DesLaurier, librarian, freelance writer, music reviewer

Shelf Talker: In this subtle but powerful debut YA novel, a Native Hawaiian teen explores connection, heartbreak, and identity through poetry.