"Every time an indie bookstore opens, 25,000 angels get their wings."

July bookstore sales fell 1.9%, to $673 million, compared to July 2016, according to preliminary estimates from the Census Bureau. This marks a turnaround after a four-month streak in which bookstore sales rose every month. For the first seven months of the year, bookstore sales are $5.724 billion, down 0.3% compared to the same period in 2016.

Total retail sales in July rose 2.9%, to $476.7 billion. For the year to date, total retail sales have risen 3.8%, to $3,252.7 billion.

Note: under Census Bureau definitions, the bookstore category consists of "establishments primarily engaged in retailing new books."

Blue Ridge's current location

Blue Ridge Books plans to move in mid-November from Waynesville to Hazelwood, N.C. In its announcement, the bookstore said "you can look for us on the corner of Hazelwood Avenue and Brown Avenue in the shopping district of Hazelwood. We'll miss our home of 10 years, but we're excited to join a fabulous neighborhood. Most of our customers, locals and visitors alike, have told us how much they enjoy shopping in Hazelwood. If it's new to you, please check it out. It's a small area packed with delicious eating, unique shopping, great parking, and the practical conveniences of a pharmacy, post office, and tire center. We hope to see you there!"

Duende District Bookstore, an intersectional pop-up bookstore in the Washington, D.C. area, will head to Hyattsville, Md., this coming Friday for Hispanic Heritage Month (which began September 15 and runs to October 15) and will remain there for the rest of September. In celebration of both Hispanic Heritage Month and Hyattsville becoming a sanctuary city, half of the pop-up's space will be dedicated to events, many of them tied to Hispanic Heritage Month, and the store will expand its selection of Spanish books. Duende District will also host Christopher John Hoppe, the store's third artist-in-residence.

"The mayor and community have welcomed us with open arms and worked diligently with us to create a bookstore experience that reflects the entire community," said Angela Maria Spring, owner of Duende District Bookstore.

The pop-up is in partnership with the city of Hyattsville and the office of Mayor Candace Hollingsworth. The store will do business in a 1,500-square-foot storefront donated on a temporary lease by a local property company, and Spring has collaborated with several Hyattsville businesses for fixtures and decorations.

"Duende District's presence in Hyattsville is about more than just books: it will provide a safe, vibrant, and culturally rich space for all to fully experience community," said Mayor Hollingsworth.

Duende District Bookstore made its debut this spring at D.C.-area arts festival Artomatic. From September 8 to September 17, Duende District operated out of A Creative DC: Brookland, a community space and studio located on the Arts Walk at Monroe Street Market in D.C.'s Northeast quadrant. The pop-up featured an expanded selection of general adult and children's titles from authors and illustrators of color, and introduced the first Duende Artist Residents, Lory Ivey Alexander and Aliana Grace Bailey.

Canongate Books has acquired Severn House Publishers from owner Edwin Buckhalter and his family for an undisclosed price. The Bookseller reported that Buckhalter, who founded the publisher in 1974, and Mandy Shaw will remain as consultants but step down as chairman and company secretary respectively.

The four remaining members of the Severn House staff, including publisher Kate Lyall Grant, will continue in their roles and move into Canongate's west London offices. Kate Gibb, until recently Canongate's finance and operations director, has been promoted to COO of Canongate and will sit on the Severn House board of directors with Canongate's CEO Jamie Byng and chair David Young.

Describing Severn House as "a very impressive publishing operation," Byng said he has "great admiration for Edwin and the manner in which he has grown his company into such a successful and interesting business with an excellent team of staff and a terrific list of authors. When we were presented with this opportunity to buy Severn House, it became clear very quickly that the two companies were extremely complementary and I am delighted, as are the Canongate board and shareholders, that we have concluded this deal."

Buckhalter commented: "It is no secret that I am long past retirement age, and recently we have been approached by several companies (for acquisition) on both sides of the Atlantic. But when we were introduced to Canongate, it was immediately obvious that this was a perfect fit for two apparently disparate lists. I have always been impressed by Canongate's creativity, entrepreneurial spirit and fierce independence, and I am confident that their youthful outlook and energy will add new dimensions and potential for our authors."

Kelly Anthony Hays

Kelly Anthony Hays, owner of used bookstore 30 Penn Books in Oklahoma City, Okla., and a former judge and attorney, died last Thursday, September 14, during a robbery at the store. He was 66.

According to the AP (via Public Radio Tulsa), police said that Hays "was found dead underneath a pile of books in his burning store and the death is being investigated as a homicide... Police have not said how he died, but said he suffered injuries that appeared to have been caused before the fire, and arson investigators say the fire was intentionally set."

Fred Pahlke, the owner of the building in which 30 Penn Books is located, told KFOR that Hays, who had rented the space for 14 years, was a "very nice man, real nice soul. He had one of the best older bookstores in this part of the, probably this part of the state, because he had all types of books. Books that range from 25 cents of upwards to a couple thousand dollars.... It was a love that he had."

A funeral will be held this Sunday, September 24, at noon at the Vondel Smith funeral home at Memorial Road and N. MacArthur Blvd. in North Oklahoma City/Edmond.

Staff at Johns Hopkins University Press held a fundraiser for the Southern Poverty Law Center last week, raising $781.50 via personal donations of baked goods, artwork, gift certificates and more. From l.: Hopkins Fulfillment Services employees Edwina Tito-Vinton, Terrence Melvin, Davida Breier, Alicia Catlos, Linda Edmonds, Tim Heintzman and Chris Walsh.

At Ingram Content Group:

Matthew Dickie has joined the Ingram Publisher Services international sales team as a European sales manager. He previously worked for Usborne Publishing.

Tucker Stone has joined Consortium Book Sales & Distribution as a client marketing manager focused on the children's and comics market. He most recently was the U.S. sales & marketing director at Nobrow U.S./Flying Eye Books.

Philippa Malicka has been promoted to business development manager from key account sales manager at Lightning Source U.K.

Nick Singh has been promoted to key account sales manager from account representative at Lightning Source's IngramSpark in the U.K.

Tyler Montgomery has been promoted to content manager from inside sales representative at Ingram Book Group.

Louisa Brody has joined Two Rivers Distribution and Ingram Academic Services in the newly created role of manager, client relations.

Wake Up!: A Handbook to Living in the Here and Now: 54 Playful Strategies to Help You Snap Out of Autopilot by Chris Barez-Brown (the Experiment).

Margaret Atwood with the cast of The Handmaid's Tale. photo: Inwood/AP

Hulu's The Handmaid's Tale, based on Margaret Atwood's novel, and HBO's Big Little Lies, adapted from the novel by Liane Moriarty, were big winners at last night's Primetime Emmy Awards. The book-to-TV adaptations dominated the festivities, garnering wins in several major categories, including:

The Handmaid's Tale: outstanding drama series, Elisabeth Moss (lead actress, drama series), Ann Dowd (supporting actress, drama series), Alexis Bledel (guest actress, drama series), Reed Morano (director, drama series), and Bruce Miller (writing, drama series for the pilot episode "Offred"). In her acceptance speech, Moss expressed her gratitude to Atwood: "Thank you for what you did in 1985 and thank you for what you continue to do." A short time later, the author
received a standing ovation as she took the stage after the outstanding drama series Emmy was announced.

Big Little Lies: Outstanding limited series, Nicole Kidman (lead actress, limited series or movie), Laura Dern (supporting actress, limited series or movie), Alexander Skarsgard (supporting actor, limited series or movie) and Jean-Marc Vallée (director, limited series).

Today:
CBS This Morning: Tom Brady, author of The TB12 Method: How to Achieve a Lifetime of Sustained Peak Performance (Simon & Schuster, $29.99, 9781501180736).

Also on CBS This Morning: Ray Dalio, author of Principles: Life and Work (Simon & Schuster, $30, 9781501124020). He will also appear tomorrow on Charlie Rose and CNBC's Squawk Box.

Imus in the Morning: Nelson DeMille, author of The Cuban Affair: A Novel (Simon & Schuster, $28.99, 9781501101724).

Fresh Air: Hillary Clinton, author of What Happened (Simon & Schuster, $30, 9781501175565). She will also appear tomorrow on the Late Show with Stephen Colbert.

Daily Show: Gucci Mane, co-author of The Autobiography of Gucci Mane (Simon & Schuster, $27, 9781501165320). He will also appear tomorrow on NPR's All Things Considered.

Tomorrow:
CBS This Morning: Ellen Pao, author of Reset: My Fight for Inclusion and Lasting Change (Spiegel & Grau, $28, 9780399591013).

Also on CBS This Morning: Lenora Chu, author of Little Soldiers: An American Boy, a Chinese School, and the Global Race to Achieve (Harper, $27.99, 9780062367853).

Good Morning America: Donald Driver, author of The 3D Body Revolution: The Ultimate Workout + Nutrition Blueprint to Get Healthy and Lean (Harmony, $28, 9780451497468).

Rachael Ray: Jonathan and Drew Scott, authors of It Takes Two: Our Story (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, $27, 9781328771476).

Also on Rachael Ray: Graham Norton, author of Holding: A Novel (Atria, $25, 9781501173264).

Late Night with Seth Meyers: Celeste Ng, author of Little Fires Everywhere (Penguin Press, $27, 9780735224292).

The National Book Foundation unveiled the last of its longlists for the 2017 National Book Awards. Following young people's literature, poetry and nonfiction, it released this longlist for fiction:

Dark at the Crossing by Elliot Ackerman (Knopf)
The King Is Always Above the People: Stories by Daniel Alarcón (Riverhead Books)
Miss Burma by Charmaine Craig (Grove Press)
Manhattan Beach by Jennifer Egan (Scribner)
The Leavers by Lisa Ko (Algonquin)
Pachinko by Min Jin Lee (Grand Central Publishing)
Her Body and Other Parties: Stories by Carmen Maria Machado (Graywolf Press)
A Kind of Freedom by Margaret Wilkerson Sexton (Counterpoint Press)
Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward (Scribner)
Barren Island by Carol Zoref (New Issues Poetry & Prose)

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Kirsten Lunstrum has won the Flannery O'Connor Award for Short Fiction. She receives a $1,000 prize, and her collection of short stories, What We Do with the Wreckage, will be published by the University of Georgia Press in fall 2018.

Opera singers know drama: they have to, so they can pour themselves into demanding, heart-stirring roles. But Charity Tillemann-Dick didn't expect her personal drama to include two double-lung transplants in three years. Diagnosed with a rare and usually fatal pulmonary condition, she was determined to keep singing even through her grueling treatments and first lung transplant. But as her medical condition worsened, she wasn't sure she would survive. In her memoir, The Encore, Tillemann-Dick shares the story of her singing career, her illness and recovery, and the incredible love and support of her family, her doctors and the man who became her husband.

Raised in a big, loving Mormon family in Colorado, Tillemann-Dick was always a performer. The Encore's first act (of three, each chapter headlined by a dramatic heroine from a different opera) details her background, family life and early career. Once Tillemann-Dick began singing seriously, she won several prestigious fellowships, including the chance to study at the Franz Liszt Academy of Music in Budapest. Her first act reads almost like a fairy tale. But as in music, so in life: Act II is where the going gets tough. The aftermath of the first lung transplant, including the long recovery, proves to be more grueling than anyone expected. Tillemann-Dick's mother, Annette, a recent widow, throws herself into caring for her daughter while her siblings rally around. By the time Act III opens, the reader is hoping for two happy endings: the restoration of Tillemann-Dick's health after another, extremely risky double lung transplant, and her marriage to Yoni Doron, the man who has already stood by her in sickness and in health.

Like many memoirs of illness and recovery, Tillemann-Dick's story occasionally becomes a blur of tests and hospitals, doctors and nurses, medical setbacks and triumphs. But her clear-eyed, fresh voice--honest almost to a fault--keeps the narrative from becoming saccharine or too repetitive. Her faith runs throughout like a leitmotif from one of her beloved operas, adding depth and dimension to an already powerful story.

Fittingly for an opera or a life, The Encore contains a few glamorous "aria" moments: Tillemann-Dick's debut at Lincoln Center, her TED talk and the attention it garners. But those scenes pale in comparison, as they should, to the supporting "recitative" sections: the selfless love and devotion of her supporting cast of doctors and loved ones, and Tillemann-Dick's own resilience and determination to keep singing however she can. --Katie Noah Gibson, blogger at Cakes, Tea and Dreams

Shelf Talker: Opera singer Charity Tillemann-Dick shares the story of her two double lung transplants and incredible recovery.