Penguin Random House's 15th annual two-day holiday transit program for independent bookstores begins Monday, October 26, and will run through January 11, 2027.

The initiative, a cornerstone of the company's support for independent booksellers during the all-important fourth quarter, will continue to feature the popular "no minimums" requirement. Booksellers can submit orders in any quantity, on their schedule, without having to build up to a minimum-retail-value threshold.

The program encompasses all frontlist and backlist physical-format titles from the imprints of Crown, Knopf Doubleday, Penguin, and Random House publishing groups; Random House Children's Books; Penguin Young Readers; Penguin Random House Audio; and DK Publishing, as well as titles from the many Penguin Random House Publisher Services clients.

Penguin Random House will expedite the shipping of indie bookstore orders from its distribution and fulfillment centers in Westminster, Md., Crawfordsville, Ind., and Reno, Nev., to ensure delivery "from our dock to the bookseller's door" to arrive within two days, weather and transport conditions permitting. Distribution centers will continue to operate weekend shifts to help handle increased holiday demand.

"Indie booksellers continue to tell us how important this program is to their holiday business, and that speedy transit can be a lifesaver at this crucial time of year," said Jaci Updike, chief revenue officer, Penguin Random House U.S. "We are so happy to see indie bookstores thriving, and are looking forward to a strong holiday season."

Parchment & Potions, a genre-focused bookstore, opened October 11 in Prattville, Ala., the Montgomery Advertiser reported.

The bookstore, which focuses primarily on fantasy, horror, science fiction, romance, and mysteries, resides in an historic building at 119 1st St. The interior features a dark academia-inspired aesthetic and the store carries puzzles, games, totes, and candles alongside books. The "potions" part of the name, meanwhile, refers to six herbal tea blends sold in-store.

Owner Susan Johnson plans to host book events as well as Dungeons & Dragons sessions, writing and editing workshops, and classes for things like leather working and chainmail weaving. An avid reader and self-described nerd, Johnson told the Montgomery Advertiser she hopes "to build a sense of community here where everyone could feel like they belong, no matter who they are, what they look like."

Johnson described opening a bookstore as a lifelong dream, and said she and her husband had considering moving elsewhere before opening a business. But having lived in Prattville for so long, and recognizing that there's been a gap in the community since a Books-A-Million closed in 2023, they decided to "do it here," she explained.

Johnson said the opening on October 11 went very well, with hundreds of people stopping by. "It was honestly insane," she said. "We couldn't leave the checkout counter....I already cried on the way home [over the grand opening success]. We just couldn't believe the turnout."

Charlie's Queer Books in Seattle, Wash., will open a new, larger location in Seattle's Capitol Hill neighborhood this fall, KIRO7 reported.

Store owners Charlie Hunts and Madeline Burchard told the Stranger the new store will occupy a two-story space on E. Pike St. and include a cafe and wine bar as well as a children's reading nook and a loft for hosting events. It will be roughly twice the size of the original Charlie's Queer Books in Fremont and is expected to be open in November.

Hunts said the expansion came about due to the bookstore outgrowing its home at 465 N. 36th St., in which it opened in November 2023. Hunts recalled that at the time of the opening, "there were barely any books on the shelf. Now, we don't have enough wall space to even add bookcases if we wanted to."

"I feel honored to have something that Seattle embraced and that they took and ran with," Hunts told KIRO7. "The queer community embraced this thing and then grew it into what we know today."

Hunts pointed out that many of the books on the store's shelves have been banned or challenged in public libraries and schools, and it is "really important to us" to get queer stories to a wider audience during these times.

Hunts further emphasized that the store "isn't just for the LGBT community; it's for everyone. The store should be full of good stories for everyone and I hope that everyone feels welcome to come check it out."

New Material Books in the West Bottoms neighborhood of Kansas City, Mo., will close at the end of November, citing challenging bookstore economics and the need for more funding. The Star reported that owners Hannah Griffin and Brandan Griffin opened in 2024 as a pop-up and online bookstore before debuting their bricks-and-mortar shop on the seventh floor of the historic Livestock Exchange Building. The bookshop features a small, curated selection from around the world focusing on topics such as art, design, theory, hybrid works, fiction, and poetry.

In a recent social media post, the Griffins wrote: "We don't exactly know what's next, but due to a few factors it's time to move on from our current formulation. We love being in the Livestock Exchange Building very much. We have a beautiful sunlit space where we've gathered readers, writers, and artists. We are so thankful for all the people we've met and the joy we've seen our books bring visitors.

"Ultimately, though, New Material Books needs a more traditional storefront space. It also needs to be open throughout the week. The flip side of this is that the store needs significant funding. We established NMB as a business that we hoped would eventually allow us to devote ourselves to doing something we love--bringing interesting books from around the world to everyone who is interested in them. But bookstore economics are tricky, and it may make more sense to think of NMB as an arts organization that requires external funding to maintain its offerings.... We're very sad to close this chapter, but life only moves forward, and we're ready for what's next. More soon."

Barnes & Noble will open new stores in Littleton, Mass., Atlanta, Ga., and Ontario, Calif., tomorrow, October 21.

The Littleton store will reside in the Point, a newly constructed building at 350 Constitution Way. The store will span more than 19,500 square feet and will include a B&N Cafe. The store will open to the public at 9 a.m. Wednesday with a ribbon-cutting and signing featuring local author Liana Cincotti (A Summer of Stars). The costumed character Biscuit the Dog will also make an appearance.

Located in the Toco Hills neighborhood, the new Atlanta store will occupy a 14,000-square-foot space in the Toco Hills Shopping Center at 2943-C North Druid Hills Rd. It does not include a B&N Cafe. James Dean, author of the Pete the Cat series, will be on hand at 10 a.m. Wednesday for a ribbon-cutting and signing, along with the costumed character Peter the Cat. The company noted that it has been busy in Atlanta recently: in July, it reopened a store in Edgewood; in August, it closed its store in Cumberland; and next it will relocate its Peachtree Corners store.

In Ontario, the new store will reside in a 23,000-square-foot space in the Ontario Mills shopping center at 4449 Mills Circle and feature a B&N Cafe. Local author Susan Straight will cut the ribbon before signing copies of her novel Mecca; the costumed character the Cat in the Hat will also be there. B&N noted that Ontario Mills is one of the largest one-level malls in the country, and with the new store's opening, there will be nine B&N stores in California's Inland Empire.

B&N plans to open 60 stores this year. The chain now has more than 730 bookstores across the U.S.; in 2023 there were fewer than 600.

Story & Song Center for Arts & Culture, Amelia Island, Fla., hosted Sophia Huneycutt (l.) for a discussion of her debut gothic horror novel, The House Built on Alligator Bones (Dutton), set on an alligator farm in Florida. She was joined by Jolie Hoyle, environmental outreach coordinator at the Okefenokee Swamp Park, who brought along a friend.

Posted by Ratty Books in Jeffersonville, N.Y.: "It's make your landlord read for Story Club day! Thank you for reading, Tim!"

"Give the gift of literacy." That was the sidewalk chalkboard message in front of Bookmarks in Winston-Salem, N.C., which noted: "Our bookseller, Suri, created this beautiful sign.... We are the bookstore for Bookmarks, the literary-arts nonprofit. We promote literacy in our community with an annual free festival of books and authors, bringing authors to schools and other literary and community events."

Narcissi by Babette Fraser Hale (Winedale Publishing).

Today:
Here & Now: Marcus Samuelsson, author of Back to Green: Rediscovering a World of Delicious, Healthy Eating (Avery, $40, 9780593715222).

Fresh Air: David Treuer, author of The Savage Mind: An American Legacy (Little, Brown, $30, 9780316599436).

Tomorrow:
Tamron Hall: Lisa Vanderpump, author of Home at Villa Rosa: Cooking and Living the Vanderpump Way (Workman Publishing, $35, 9781523536139). 

Live with Kelly and Mark: Andy Cohen, author of Andy's Bravo Scrapbook: Twenty Years Behind the Scenes of the Real Housewives and the Bravoverse (Andy Cohen Books, $38, 9798217090143).

"After a decade-long effort to secure the film rights" to Joanne Greenberg's 1964 novel I Never Promised You a Rose Garden, Ashley Avis (Disney+'s Black Beauty) has done so, Deadline reported. 

Calling the book "one of the most arresting and authentic explorations of mental illness ever written," Avis will direct from her own script and produce alongside Edward Winters through her Winterstone Pictures production company. The novel has sold millions of copies worldwide and previously inspired the 1977 film directed by Anthony Page and starring Kathleen Quinlan.

"Joanne Greenberg crafted a story that is at once deeply intimate and breathtakingly imaginative, because it is courageously personal," Avis said. "She invites us into the Kingdom of Yr, into all of its seduction, and beauty along with its violence--and we will question, along with Deborah, whether it is possible to give it up."

Avis added that what moved her most "was the true story tucked between the pages of Rose Garden; the relationship between two very real women who inspired these characters. Deborah Blau and Dr. Fried become mirrors for one another as they navigate darkness, trauma, healing, and the question of what it means to truly live in, and accept, reality."

Isabel Allende won Spain's €1 million (about $1.1 million) Premio Planeta, "one of the world's most lucrative literary prizes, under a pseudonym," for La hora antes del alba, a sequel to The House of the Spirits, the Guardian reported. The new book "returns to the characters of her 1982 novel, a multigenerational family saga set against political upheaval in a country inspired by Chile."

Speaking at the award ceremony in Barcelona, Allende said, "I had never entered a competition because I wanted to avoid the embarrassment of coming last. At my age, there is very little to lose." She added that she had been prompted to write the sequel by decades of readers asking what happened to Alba. 

The prize is open to unpublished manuscripts, with the option of submitting under a pseudonym. Allende entered under the name Luz Ventura, with the fictional title Los que faltan. The award is run by Planeta, one of the largest publishing groups in the Spanish-speaking world, "and includes the condition that the winning book be published by them. Allende has been published by Plaza & Janés, an imprint of Penguin Random House, since The House of the Spirits, so this marks a significant coup for Planeta," the Guardian noted.

"I'd be very surprised if the judges did not know that it was Isabel Allende," said Duncan Wheeler, the chair of Spanish studies at Leeds University and president-elect of the Association of Hispanists of Great Britain and Ireland. 

The runner-up was Spanish writer and screenwriter Sergio Hernández, whose historical novel La añoranza won €200,000 (about $224,390).

Xujun Eberlein's powerful memoir, The River Drowns the Able Swimmer, chronicles three generations of her family's history and experiences in Communist China through the lives of three brave women: her grandmother, her mother, and herself. Eberlein's narrative shows the sweeping social, cultural, and technological changes brought about by the Cultural Revolution, the continuing echoes of family secrets, and the complications of personal expression under a repressive regime.

Eberlein (Apologies Forthcoming) begins with her grandmother, known as "Gaga," born without a name in the 1890s in a remote mountain village. She shares Gaga's early rebellion against foot binding and her later dedication to working the fields on her husband's farm. Eberlein's mother, called "Eighth Girl" or simply "Girl" during her childhood, became the first in her family to attend school--unusual for a poor female child. Her early education motivated her to continue her studies, eventually giving rise to Eberlein's own hunger for knowledge. The shifting governments and alliances in China during the 20th century had a profound effect on all three women, and Eberlein details a world almost completely obliterated by those changes.

In her own part of the account, Eberlein traces her relationship with her older sister Ruo-Dan, whom she admired and who later joined the paramilitary youth-led Red Guard. Despite her high regard for her sister, Eberlein struggled to understand Ruo-Dan's devotion to the cause, especially after her sister's eventual death by drowning. She returns repeatedly to this incident, as well as to a different trauma her mother suffered as a young woman, juxtaposing their struggles against the larger hardships faced by the people of China. In both cases (as well as in other instances), the official narrative of events directly contradicted the truth. Eberlein muses on the lasting effects of this cognitive dissonance and the strain of keeping certain truths concealed. Eventually, she shares the story of meeting her American husband and their experiences traveling together across China before moving to the U.S. to marry and start a family.

Eberlein's distance, literal and metaphorical, from the land of her youth gives her memoir a feeling of the long-distant past or the retelling of an ancient myth. At the same time, the personal details--her grandmother's gnarled fingers, her mother's sparse school lunches, her own complex relationships with her sisters--feel immediate and compelling. For readers interested in life in Communist China or simply drawn to layered family sagas, Eberlein's memoir is a fascinating journey. --Katie Noah Gibson, blogger at Cakes, Tea and Dreams

Shelf Talker: Xujun Eberlein's powerful memoir traces the political and social changes of 20th-century China through the lives of the iconoclastic women in her family.