Shelf Awareness is very happy to announce that Siân Gaetano is joining the company next month as children's/YA editor. She replaces Karin Snelson, who in March left for other bookish pursuits and will continue to freelance for us. We'd also like to thank Emilie Coulter for serving as our interim editor during the transition.

Siân Gaetano

Siân is assistant editor at the Horn Book Guide, where she started as editorial assistant in 2014. During her time there, she started and has managed the Horn Book podcast, which she calls a passion project, one that has included interviews with authors Melissa de la Cruz and Alexandra Bracken, illustrators Jon Klassen and Christian Robinson, and industry folk like Julie Danielson, Vicky Smith and Betsy Bird.

She earned a B.A. at Clark University in Chinese history and language and lived for a time in Beijing. She also has a master's in children's literature from Simmons College and has been a reader for Arthur A. Levine at Scholastic.

"I'm super excited to start working with Shelf Awareness and so pleased to get to take part in all the book and indie love," she said. We're super excited she's joining us.

In her impressive effort to open Books on B, a bookstore in Hayward, Calif., that would replace the recently closed Book Shop, Renee Rettig has raised nearly $67,000 in her IndieGoGo campaign that had aimed to raise $55,000.

Rettig was the longtime manager of the Book Shop, which closed in February after it lost its space because of a building renovation, and the owners decided to retire. She has found space across the street from the old location of the Book Shop, and plans to use the $55,000 for basic renovations, including demoing the space, electrical improvements, an HVAC extension, plumbing and bathroom improvements. The extra $12,000 raised will go to upgrading the lighting system, building out the mezzanine for office space and a rare book area, and improvements to the front of the building, including better signage and lighting and new windows.

Rettig estimates that the total costs to open will be between $110,000 and $140,000, including, in addition to renovation costs, startup costs of $40,000 and an operations reserve and three to six months of operations at $30,000.

On her campaign site, Rettig wrote, "This community deserves to continue the tradition of a gathering place where people are comfortable to express themselves freely, quench their curiosity, and discover their truest self. I've become my best self by serving this community's former bookstore, and it'd be my greatest pleasure and honor to continue for the rest of my days."

She added that she has a lease and a general contractor, and is "working with the city on building permits and a city business license. I am also working with the local SBA on shaping my plan and identifying additional sources of funding. I have approached the City for financial support, and hope for funds for inventory, equipment and other startup costs. The community support through this IndieGoGo campaign will help reduce the amount of my loans with the SBA for startup costs and operations reserve."

Inspired by the slogan "because everything changes when we read," World Book Night U.K was celebrated yesterday. The annual initiative, which is run by the Reading Agency, "brings together a powerful collaboration of national partners--publishers, printers, libraries, booksellers, private donors, trusts and foundations--to inspire more people to read," according to organizers.

Volunteers focus upon reaching those who don't regularly read by giving selected books through various organizations, including prisons, libraries, colleges, hospitals, care homes and homeless shelters. Individuals also give out books within their own communities. Here are a few highlights from social media yesterday:

World Book Night U.K.: "It's #LondonMarathon day today and we're cheering on the runners & their brilliant causes. We're also giving 26 books, one for each mile!"

Literacy Trust: "What book would you give to someone who doesn't usually read? That's the question @WorldBookNight is asking today."

Canongate CEO Jamie Byng: "To celebrate @WorldBookNight give a book (or several), whether from your home or bought from a bookshop & give them to people you don't know."

Give a Book:‏ "Spreading the word at Chelsea library ahead of World Book night! @ChelseaLibrary @WorldBookNight #giveabook."

Cumbria Libraries: "Mechanical Movable Type by @Commonerschoir singing in Carlisle Library for #worldbooknight @ace_national @readingagency @WorldBookNight".

Waterstones Glasgow‏: "Today / Tonight is World Book Night! There's still time to pick up something you love to pass on to others!"

Booktrust (for Mr. Bean fans): "Hooray! It's #WorldBookNight tonight... how will you be celebrating?"

Author Vaseem Khan, whose book The Unexpected Inheritance of Inspector Chopra was one of this year's WBN selections, wrote: "Over the course of the past year I have spoken at numerous schools, to children of varying degrees of reading ability, to adult groups who find reading a challenge (I am scheduled to speak to a drug recovery group next month), and run a library book group for east London residents, many of whom do not count English as a first language.... What struck me was how vulnerable those who struggle with the written word can be made to feel, if they are not positively encouraged. Initiatives such as World Book Night are a clarion call to educators everywhere to set our shoulders squarely to the wheel.... There is no magic bullet in this fight--but initiatives such as World Book Night are another step towards the light."

On April 29, 24 bookstores in the Chicago, Ill., area will celebrate Independent Bookstore Day with the #MyChicagoBookstore Challenge. With an initial purchase of at least $25, customers can pick up a #MyChicagoBookstore carabiner and their first luggage tag at any participating store. From there, customers will receive a luggage tag at each successive store they visit, with no additional purchase required. Anyone who collects 10 luggage tags will receive 10% off at all of the indies participating in the #MyChicagoBookstore Challenge for the next year, and those who make it to 15 stores will receive 15% off. Customers are also encouraged to take photos of themselves during the challenge and share them on social media for a chance to win more prizes. The #MyChicagoBookstore Challenge is sponsored by the Chicagoland Independent Bookstore Alliance. More info can be found here.

Poet Elizabeth Sargent, who "was the last tenant forced out of a rent-regulated apartment above Carnegie Hall in 2010, ending more than a century of storied subsidized housing and work space there for artists of all stripes," died April 10, the New York Times reported. She was 96. Sargent "led a quiet life there for more than four decades, during which she wrote A Woman in Love (1977), a novel based on her life, and published poems in magazines including the New Yorker and Cosmopolitan." These were collected in The Love Poems of Elizabeth Sargent and The Magic Book of Love Exercises.

"I don't feel I'm leaving the place. I feel the place is leaving me," she told the Times when she moved out of her Carnegie Hall studio apartment after 46 years in residence. "This was a magical place. Artists really had a freedom here; they developed here."

The Times noted that Mark Twain "used to smoke his pipe in the author's club across the hall from Ms. Sargent's studio. Marlon Brando entertained guests in the apartment directly below; and Leonard Bernstein read scores on the same floor. Norman Mailer penned works in her apartment, and Isadora Duncan danced down the hallway."

Before the final item, an out-of-tune upright player piano, was removed from Sargent's apartment in 2010, she "sat down and began playing 'St. Louis Blues,' and 'I Can't Get Started,' which was recorded by Billie Holiday. Construction workers stopped and watched, and the movers gathered, too, transfixed."

"Elizabeth got a beautiful round of applause," [Billy] Lyons said. "And off the piano went, out the door."

Posted on Twitter recently by Wild Rumpus Books‏, Minneapolis, Minn.: "Behind the scenes: local bag-warmer Booker T!"

Eugenia Pakalik is no longer at W.W. Norton and can be reached at epakalik@gmail.com. She had been director, sales operations, distribution services.

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At the Quarto Group:

Kristine Anderson has joined the company as adult marketing director, U.S. She was formerly v-p of marketing at LSC Communications Publishing (Dover Books) and earlier held senior marketing roles at Wolters Kluwer Health and Elsevier. She started her career in sales with StayWell/MediMedia and at Augsburg Fortress Publishing.

Diane Naughton has joined the company as children's marketing director, U.S. She formerly was v-p of integrated marketing at HarperCollins Children's Books. She started her career with the National Basketball Association as a direct marketer, then joined Sesame Workshop, where she oversaw its licensed publishing program.

Candy Is Magic: Real Ingredients, Modern Recipes by Jami Curl (Ten Speed Press), from the owner of candy company Quin, Portland, Ore.

Today:
Good Morning America: Jessica Seinfeld, author of Food Swings: 125+ Recipes to Enjoy Your Life of Virtue & Vice (Ballantine, $32, 9781101967140).

Also on GMA: Caitlyn Jenner, author of The Secrets of My Life (Grand Central, $30, 9781455596751). She will also appear tomorrow on Live with Kelly and on Late Night with Seth Meyers.

CBS This Morning: Michael Bloomberg and Carl Pope, authors of Climate of Hope: How Cities, Businesses, and Citizens Can Save the Planet (St. Martin's Press, $26.99, 9781250142078).

Fresh Air: Rick Ankiel, author of The Phenomenon: Pressure, the Yips, and the Pitch that Changed My Life (PublicAffairs, $27, 9781610396868).

Bloomberg Surveillance: David Rothkopf, author of The Great Questions of Tomorrow (Simon & Schuster/TED, $16.99, 9781501119941).

Watch What Happens Live: Patricia Altschul, co-author of The Art of Southern Charm (Diversion Publishing, $25.99, 9781682308356).

Also on Watch What Happens Live: Kelly Osbourne, author of There Is No F*cking Secret: Letters from a Badass Bitch (Putnam, $27, 9780399176562). She will also appear tomorrow on Good Morning America, the View and the Late Show with Stephen Colbert.

Ellen: Sheryl Sandberg, co-author of Option B: Facing Adversity, Building Resilience, and Finding Joy (Knopf, $25.95, 9781524732684). She will also appear today on Good Morning America and tonight on the Late Show with Stephen Colbert.

Hannity: Robert O'Neill, author of The Operator: Firing the Shots that Killed Osama bin Laden and My Years as a SEAL Team Warrior (Scribner, $28, 9781501145032). He will also appear tomorrow on Fox & Friends.

Daily Show: John Kasich, author of Two Paths: America Divided or United (Thomas Dunne, $27.99, 9781250138460). He will also appear today on CBS This Morning and tomorrow on the View.

Tomorrow:
CBS This Morning: David Green, author of Giving It All Away…and Getting It All Back Again: The Way of Living Generously (Zondervan, $19.99, 9780310347941).

Charlie Rose: Frances FitzGerald, author of The Evangelicals: The Struggle to Shape America (Simon & Schuster, $35, 9781439131336).

Daily Show: Charlamagne Tha God, author of Black Privilege: Opportunity Comes to Those Who Create It (Touchstone, $25.99, 9781501145308).

HBO has put into development a film adaptation of Ray Bradbury's classic novel Fahrenheit 451, which will star Michael B. Jordan as Montag and Michael Shannon as Beatty, Variety reported. Jordan will also serve as an executive producer on the project, through his Outlier Productions, along with Sarah Green of Brace Cove Productions, Alan Gasmer, Peter Jaysen and Noruz Films' Ramin Bahrani, who is directing the project as well as co-writing with Amir Naderi.

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New images have been released for season 7 of HBO's hit series Game of Thrones, based on the novels of George R.R. Martin. The shortened season, which will consist of seven episodes rather than the usual 10, premieres July 16, with the eighth and final season airing next year. "Many of the pictured characters will surely die in the meantime, so enjoy their company while you can," IndieWire noted.

The winners of the 2016 Los Angeles Times Book Awards, announced during the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books, are:

Art Seidenbaum Award for First Fiction: Nathan Hill for The Nix (Knopf)
Biography: Volker Ullrich for Hitler: Ascent, 1889-1939 (Knopf)
The Christopher Isherwood Prize for Autobiographical Prose: Wesley Lowery for They Can't Kill Us All: Ferguson, Baltimore, and a New Era in America's Racial Justice Movement (Little, Brown)
Current Interest: Svetlana Alexievich for Secondhand Time: The Last of the Soviets, translated by Bela Shayevich (Random House)
Fiction: Adam Haslett for Imagine Me Gone (Little, Brown)
Graphic Novel/Comics: Nick Drnaso for Beverly (Drawn & Quarterly)
History: Benjamin Madley for An American Genocide: The United States and the California Indian Catastrophe, 1846-1873 (Yale University Press)
Mystery/Thriller: Bill Beverly for Dodgers (Crown)
Poetry: Rosmarie Waldrop for Gap Gardening: Selected Poems (New Directions)
Science & Technology: Luke Dittrich for Patient H.M.: A Story of Memory, Madness, and Family Secrets (Random House)
Young Adult Literature: Frances Hardinge for The Lie Tree (Abrams)

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The finalists for the 2017 Chautauqua Prize, sponsored by the Chautauqua Institution, are:

The General vs. the President: MacArthur and Truman at the Brink of Nuclear War by H.W. Brands (Doubleday)
The Fortunes by Peter Ho Davies (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)
Blood River Rising: The Thompson-Crimson Feud of the 1920s by Victoria Pope Hubbell (Iris Press)
Underground Airlines by Ben H. Winters (Mulholland Books)
American Character: A History of the Epic Struggle Between Individual Liberty and the Common Good by Colin Woodard (Viking)
The Song Poet: A Memoir of My Father by Kao Kalia Yang (Metropolitan Books)

The winning book will be announced in mid-May.

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Patricia Spears Jones has won the $50,000 Jackson Poetry Prize, sponsored by Poets & Writers and given to an American poet of "exceptional talent who deserves wider recognition." In their citation, the judges described Jones's poems as "made of fever, bones, and breath" and said she "has steadily and quietly enriched the American poetic tradition with sophisticated and moving poems. More of us should know who she is, and even more should read her."

Her most recent collection of poems is A Lucent Fire: New and Selected Poems, published by White Pine Press in 2015. Her earlier books include Painkiller (Tia Chucha Press, 2010), Femme du Monde (Tia Chucha Press, 2006) and The Weather That Kills (Coffee House Press, 1995).

One can understand the eight-year gap since Colin Harrison's last New York City crime novel, Risk. His day job as editor-in-chief of Simon & Schuster's Scribner imprint during a transitional decade in publishing and bookselling was probably a pretty big time sink. Like the seven novels since his first (1990's Break and Enter), You Belong to Me is steeped in the stewpot of Harrison's city--each of its chapters is titled with a location described as a local might, e.g., Chapter 1: "West Forty-Ninth Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues." "Crime novel" is perhaps too restrictive a label for Harrison's story of money, power, sex and the obsession to possess--both objects (rare maps) and people (spouses, family and friends). It's noir, but as Harrison said in a recent interview: "The city is always noirish. Noir is never going to leave us. We are noir."

Twice-divorced and in his 50s, with "some money but not big money... rumpled and wrinkled, his best years already behind him," Paul Reeves runs a lucrative boutique immigration law firm and collects old maps of New York City--a long-sought 1766 Stassen-Ratzer is available on the market for the first time. His neighbors in his high-rise apartment building are 32-year-old Iranian American financier Ahmed Mehraz ("full of himself, a world beater in a city full of them") and his trophy wife, Jennifer ("attractive in a very New Yorky manner... her brand"). When former baseball phenom Billy Wilkerson arrives to rekindle the passionate romance he had with "Jenny" in their late teens and to take her back to Texas, her comfortable marriage begins to unravel. Who better to turn to for help than her quiet, reliable neighbor Paul? With Paul competing with another mysterious bidder to lock up the Stassen-Ratzer purchase, and concealing Jennifer and Billy's affair to avoid Ahmed's network of mercenary operatives, You Belong to Me ratchets up the action and intrigue.

Harrison loads his New York City fiction with historical, geographical and ephemeral background, but the city's underbelly of violence and menace is never far away. He describes Staten Island "like Brooklyn had been sexually mounted by New Jersey and this was the offspring," and a black-tie fundraiser as "a pecuniary mating dance [where] certain individuals representing enormous sums of money... would copulate with other sums of money and create even more money." Chapters later, he details a gruesome crossbow murder by an undocumented former Mexican cartel assassin hiding from El Chapo in the Bronx. You Belong to Me is a solid addition to what has become Colin Harrison's own particular brand of New York City noir. --Bruce Jacobs, founding partner, Watermark Books & Cafe, Wichita, Kan.

Shelf Talker: Harrison's New York City noir explores the city's obsession with possession, and the jealousy and violence that come with it.