"Political disagreements are one thing. Threatening to burn down a bookstore is another, and is unacceptable. While protests and calls to boycott are of course free and protected speech, that is no excuse for threats, violence, or sustained harassment. Now more than ever, we need to recognize and cherish the right of bookstores to offer books with diverse points of view from across the political spectrum."

The American Library Association released its annual Top Ten List of Frequently Challenged Books, included in the ALA's State of America's Libraries Report 2018, which "affirms the invaluable role libraries and library workers play within their communities by leading efforts to transform lives through education and lifelong learning."

According to the report, libraries continue to face challenges--including the potential for censorship--to a variety of books, programs and materials. The ALA Office for Intellectual Freedom tracked 354 challenges to library, school and university materials and services in 2017. Some individual challenges resulted in requests to restrict or remove multiple titles or collections. OIF estimates that 82%-97% of challenges remain unreported. Overall in 2017, 416 books were targeted--direct attacks on the freedom to read. The most frequently challenged titles last year were:

"Certainty on people and being able to access talent is key for us," said Lis Tribe, group managing director of Hodder Education and president of the U.K. Publishers Association, during a Tuesday morning panel discussion at the London Book Fair about the challenges facing the U.K. publishing industry with regard to Brexit.

On the panel with her were Baroness Rona Fairhead, Minister of State for Trade and Export Promotion at the Department for International Trade, and lawyer Miriam Gonzalez, co-chair of the law firm Dechert LLP's International Trade and Government Regulation practice, while Stephen Lotinga, chief executive of the Publishers Association, moderated the discussion.

From l.: Baroness Fairhead; Lis Tribe; Miriam Gonzalez; Stephen Lotinga

Chief among publishers' concerns, Tribe continued, was the ability to find and recruit talented staff from around the world, and she stressed the need for the "uncertainty about living and working in the U.K. when from abroad" to be resolved. She recalled her amazement when a recently hired Polish editor asked her how he could be sure that Hachette, Hodder's parent company, was committed to remaining in the U.K.

"We know we're worried about whether foreign nationals can work here, but those nationals are worried about whether the companies they join will still be in the U.K.," remarked Tribe.

Also high on the list of her concerns was the ability to export books around the world without them being "stuck in docksides in customs clearing," which she said would be disastrous for educational publishers. And looking ahead to future trade agreements with the European Union or any other country, Tribe stressed the importance of remaining steadfast on the U.K.'s "gold standard" copyright framework and said she and her colleagues "don't want any parts of that traded away for the sake of other points" in a potential Free Trade Agreement.

Fairhead said that the government is "committed to continuing to support this industry and continuing to help build trade." She noted that when it comes to the 40 or so trade agreements with third countries that the U.K. is party to as a member of the E.U., the plan is to try to "rollover" unchanged as many of those agreements as possible through the transition period. She reported that so far, those conversations have gone "pretty positively," adding that "nobody really wants a change and everybody's agreed they don't want a cliff edge."

As for new trade agreements, the U.K. is not able to enter any until after Brexit's "implementation phase" is complete and cannot even begin to negotiate new agreements until March 2019. Until that time, Fairhead explained, the Department for International Trade is doing preparatory work and actively seeking feedback from industry associations and individual businesses to guide future policy better. By October, the government plans to release some guidelines clarifying its stance on certain trade issues.

Gonzalez, who has been involved in negotiating with the E.U. in the past, said that things should be fairly predictable for businesses at least up until December 2020. For something hugely unexpected to happen before that point, she continued, something would have to go "very wrong" with the U.K.'s negotiations. For publishers at least, there could be a lot of "seamless trade" if negotiators manage to "do this cleverly" and make things as "predictable as possible."

She added that what "worries me enormously," though, is the lack of attention being paid to Brexit on the European side. While the Brexit negotiations are big news in Brussels, she said, it is almost "nonexistent" in the other European capitals. She advised U.K. businesses with operations on the continent to reach out to governments on the other side of negotiations, and she warned that should Brexit's priority continue to drop for those in the E.U., it might jeopardize the ability of both sides to reach a "meeting of the minds," resulting in "big gaps" in future agreements.

When asked during the Q&A portion whether Hachette was creating contingency plans for any worst-case scenarios, such as shipments of books being held back on the quayside, Tribe replied that "we are assuming that tariffs on physical books are not on anyone's list." --Alex Mutter

Once Upon a Thyme Bookshop has opened at the Fairfield Plaza, 1275 N. Fairfield Road in Beavercreek, Ohio. The Dayton Daily News reported that owner Kristina Heaton's focus is providing an array of cookbooks, kitchen gadgets and cooking classes.

Knowing that if she wanted to open a bookstore in 2018, it would have to be different, Heaton opted to focus on cooking: "There are only about 15 (cookbook stores) across the country. It has always been my dream to open a bookstore, but in this climate, I can't compete with a Barnes & Noble or an Amazon. I knew I needed a niche.... I'm going for a community feel here. Just coffee and baked goods every day. Just a place where people can come and hang out.... It's exactly the kind of thing that people are looking for. So far, so good."

On opening day last weekend, Once Upon a Thyme shared a video on Facebook of the official first moment in business.

Lori Tucker-Sullivan

Lori Tucker-Sullivan, longtime executive director of the Independent Booksellers Consortium, is leaving the IBC to become program manager with the Goldman-Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses program in the Office of Economic Development at Wayne State University in Detroit, Mich. She will take, she wrote, "the skills I've developed working with independent bookstores, along with my passion for small business and for the city of Detroit, and put them to use helping the small business owners that are rebuilding my hometown."

She also indicated that it is difficult leaving the IBC after 18 years: "They are the best people I've ever worked for and I have learned so much from them. They have been mentors in work and in life and have supported me through the most difficult of times. It is a group of brilliant and strong women and men who define what it means to make a right livelihood. They have rebuilt their communities, weathered countless difficulties, and are the very best examples of doing well by doing good. They are extended family and I will miss them, until I see them on book tour!"

The IBC is a buying and information-sharing cooperative made up of some 25 independent bookstores around the country. It is seeking a new executive director, who will work part-time from home. For details about the position, see our Job Board listing below.

Book Culture in New York City shared a photo of its latest sidewalk chalkboard sign, which was crafted by one of the shop's staff. The colorful sign reads:

"Against Amazon

"In 2005 Amazon sold $55.6 billion worth of retail goods nationwide, all while avoiding $704 million in sales taxes. The cost of lost sales taxes falls equally on state and local governments. These sales taxes are the equivalent of 39,000 retail storefronts/133 million sq ft of commercial space which might have paid $128 million in property taxes. More than $1.2 billion in revenue is lost to state and local governments. Counting the jobs at Amazon, their sales produced a net loss of 222,000 retail jobs nationwide."

In 2012, Wendy Welch and Jack Beck, owners of Tales of the Lonesome Pine used bookstore in Big Stone Gap, Va., announced that they were looking for someone to take care of their bookstore for a couple of months while they traveled across the country promoting Welch's book, The Little Bookstore of Big Stone Gap. The request, which garnered widespread media attention, resulted in "the perfect" Andrew Whalen taking the helm.

Welch, whose latest book is Fall or Fly: The Strangely Hopeful Story of Foster Care and Adoption in Appalachia, recently told us: "Once again we find ourselves in need of a 'bookstore sitter or sitters' for this summer. Jack will be off conducting a group round Scotland the last two weeks of June and I will be tied up with my main job. Then both of us will be gallivanting around South Dakota and Wyoming for most of July. This is an opportunity for anyone who ever fancied owning a bookstore to have a 'dry run.' You live in the upstairs guest-room, get to meet all our quirky customers and live off the sales income while here. There have been many bookstore sitters since The Little Bookstore of Big Stone Gap was published in 2012 and all have thoroughly enjoyed the experience. If you are interested, then send a PM to Tales of the Lonesome Pine LLC on Facebook or e-mail to jbeck69087@aol.com and we can provide more details."

Lori Glazer has been promoted to senior v-p, executive director of publicity at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. She was previously v-p, executive director of publicity.

No Forgotten Fronts: From Classrooms to Combat by Lisa K. Shapiro (Naval Institute Press).

Comedy Central's The Opposition with Jordan Klepper filmed a segment called "The Nefarious Workings of Drag Queen Story Time" at BookBar, Denver, Colo. In the satirical segment, which aired Monday night, "Niccole Thurman investigates the demonic drag queens who are infiltrating bookstores across America to recite manifestos of inclusion and diversity to unsuspecting kids."

Tomorrow:
Today Show: Gina Biegel, author of Be Mindful and Stress Less: 50 Ways to Deal with Your (Crazy) Life (Shambhala Publications, $14.95, 9781611804942).

The View: Senator Tim Scott and Rep. Trey Gowdy, authors of Unified: How Our Unlikely Friendship Gives Us Hope for a Divided Country (Tyndale Momentum, $24.99, 9781496430410).

Netflix "has set the Man Booker Prize-winning Aravind Adiga novel The White Tiger as a feature film," Deadline reported. Ramin Bahrani (99 Homes, Fahrenheit 451) will adapt and direct the project, with Mukul Deora producing through Watchtower Pictures, and Prem Akkaraju and Ken Kamins executive producing.

"The author has been a close friend since college, and he wrote parts of the book in my apartment," said Bahrani, who attended Columbia University with Adiga. "One man's personal story encompasses the entire scope of the country, and it is done with biting humor. I'm not giving anything away because it is revealed early, but the chauffeur kills his master and steals all his money. But he is charming in the way that Alex was in A Clockwork Orange. Or in Goodfellas, where you knew that Joe Pesci's character was a sociopath, but you could relate to Ray Liotta's character, a seemingly nice person who goes down the wrong path."

A 12-title longlist has been released for this year's £3,000 (about $4,250) Orwell Prize "for the work which comes closest to George Orwell's ambition 'to make political writing into an art.' " The shortlist will be announced May 18 and a winner named June 25. The longlisted titles are:

Winter Ali Smith
Bitch Doctrine by Laurie Penny
Why I'm No Longer Talking to White People about Race by Reni Eddo-Lodge
What You Did Not Tell by Mark Mazower
Lovers and Strangers: An Immigrant History of Post-War Britain by Clair Wills
Age of Anger: A History of the Present by Pankaj Mishra
Bread for All: The Origins of the Welfare State by Chris Renwick
The Islamic Enlightenment: The Modern Struggle Between Faith and Reason by Christopher de Bellaigue
Threads from the Refugee Crisis by Kate Evans
Testosterone Rex by Cordelia Fine
The Road to Somewhere: The Populist Revolt and the Future of Politics by David Goodhart Poverty Safari by Darren McGarvey

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The Nature Generation has announced its shortlist for the 2018 Green Earth Book Award, which honors authors and illustrators "whose books best convey the environmental stewardship message to youth" and is given annually "to promote books that inspire children to grow a deeper appreciation, respect, and responsibility for their natural environment." The winners, who will be announced on Earth Day (April 22), receive $1,500. You can find a list of the 25 finalists here.

Dave Wheeler is Shelf Awareness's associate editor and manages the "Reading with..." column. He started slinging books at 16, as a library page in his hometown. Since then, he has gone on to be a bookseller at both Village Books in Bellingham, Wash., and Elliott Bay Book Co. in Seattle. He wrote a poetry collection called Contingency Plans, and has written essays for Catapult, the Stranger and the Morning News. Stay tuned for more Shelfers featured here in the coming months!

On your nightstand now:

I'm perennially midway through numerous books at once. In earnest, though, I am reading Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore's novel Sketchtasy (forthcoming from Arsenal Pulp), as well as a Knopf biography of the Houston-based arts power couple John and Dominique de Menil, Double Vision. I'm also working my way through Gary Atkins's Gay Seattle, a history from 1893 through the 20th century. In between, I've been enjoying essays by David Rakoff in Don't Get Too Comfortable and am finally getting around to Tales of the City by Armistead Maupin.

Favorite book when you were a child:

When I was in the fourth grade, I happened upon a crusty old copy of Go to the Room of the Eyes by Betty K. Erwin. It's a 1969 chapter book now out of print, about a family who moves to Seattle's Capitol Hill from the suburbs. The kids hate the city and their big old musty house, but they soon discover a spooky scavenger hunt game called "Go to the Room of the Eyes," invented by the kids who used to live there. It's a bit like The Egypt Game by Zilpha Keatley Snyder, but for the first time in my life a book was set in a place I had been to! I was so excited I told my teacher, who then read it to the whole class the following month. This was the first time I ever sold a book!

Your top five authors:

Hanya Yanagihara: somehow she's written two perfect, back-to-back masterpieces--The People in the Trees and A Little Life. And I've read them both twice. Not to mention, her Instagram is gorgeous!

Bill Hayes: Insomniac City has definitely brought his work to a lot of people's attention--including mine! And I have read everything since. His writing is magnetic and thoughtful, funny and insightful. And his blend of the personal, historical and scientific makes you walk away feeling like you just had the most fascinating conversation of your life!

Hari Kunzru: nobody bends reality quite like he does, and his characters are always such fascinatingly empathetic figures, even when they're cruel or misguided. Gods Without Men hooked me, and I've been gobbling up his work ever since.

D.A. Powell: his poems are such delicate slices of pleasure and pain that remind me that we cannot truly appreciate one without the other. I came to his work through Chronic and absolutely adore Useless Landscape, or A Guide for Boys.

David Rakoff: he easily wins the award for author with the sexiest voice, and "The Love that Dare Not Squeak Its Name" will go down as one of the most delightful readings of Stuart Little ever. Rakoff's insight and humor has buoyed me through more than a few trials and tribulations. May he rest in peace.

Book you've faked reading:

I spent weeks handselling Zadie Smith's NW right when it came out, but I had quit reading it after 75 pages. Her style just did not click with me, and as much as I wanted to join the zeitgeist in adoration of her work, I just couldn't manage it. Several years later, a friend who is completely enamored of her convinced me to give the novel another try. I eventually finished it, but I'll be okay if I never read another.

Books you're an evangelist for:

There are two: A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara and Insomniac City by Bill Hayes. Chances are I will work one or the other into conversation within the first hour of meeting someone. They're wildly dissimilar at first blush, but when I think about it, they both depict the male interior life with such breathtaking nuance. Lots of books are about men, sure. But so few are as resilient, vulnerable, hopeful and poetic as these.

Book you've bought for the cover:

I remember buying the novelization of Star Wars: Episode I in hardback as a kid--because it had Ewan McGregor on the cover. I don't think I ever bothered to read it.

Book you hid from your parents:

When I was a teenager, I'd often slink through bookstores to read the juicy bits of Jake Logan westerns. These were cheap paperbacks in a series of men's fiction, published by Playboy Press and depicting the cowboy adventures and sexual exploits of one John (*ahem*) Slocum.

Book that changed your life:

There have been many, but let's go with Till We Have Faces by C.S. Lewis. It's one of very few books I've reread numerous times. My first encounter was in high school, when I needed a challenging alternative to the prescriptive religious literature I grew up on. The next time, in college, it opened my eyes to the varying shades of love people can have for each other. Subsequent readings have further reconfigured the way I see the world and relationships. It's really a remarkable work of fiction.

Favorite line from a book:

"Perhaps you who spring from the gods love like the gods. Like the Shadowbrute. They say the loving and the devouring are all one, don't they?"-- from Till We Have Faces

Five books you'll never part with:

My bound manuscript of A Little Life, dog-eared galley of Insomniac City, and marked up Till We Have Faces from college. Also: the V&A Museum coffee-table book for the David Bowie Is exhibit, and Don Paulson's An Evening at the Garden of Allah--a now-out-of-print history of the 1940s gay cabaret in Seattle.

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

Without question, Alif the Unseen by G. Willow Wilson is top of my list. I don't read many techno-thrillers, but toss in a heavy dose of fantastical mysticism and I am all yours. A pulse-pounding adventure with this many plot twists should come with some kind of warning, but I am so glad it doesn't. I cannot wait for her next novel.

Whether readers are familiar with Julie Murphy's bestselling Dumplin' or not, they will find plenty to love in Puddin', her follow-up featuring contestants from Clover City, Texas's Miss Teen Blue Bonnet Pageant. Murphy focuses on Millie Michalchuk and Callie Reyes, two girls who--at first glance--couldn't be more different.

Millie isn't the most popular girl at Clover City High School; in fact, due to her weight, she's usually the object of many jokes. Even though she is bullied, Millie isn't a loner--she values her friendships and works diligently to keep them strong. Charming and lovable, Millie enjoys watching romantic comedies with her mother and is not a rule breaker. In fact, she can't even bring herself to use profanity in her personal thoughts: "If she wants to be treated like a bada**," she thinks, "then she should act like a bada**."

Callie, on the other hand is beautiful, popular and dating a hunk. She rolls with the "in" crowd but her friendships tend to be superficial, based mostly on how they advance her status with the Shamrocks, Clover City High School's premier dance team. Dance is Callie's life and she is determined not only to be captain of the Shamrocks her senior year but also to win the National Dance Team Championships.

When unfortunate circumstances bring the two girls' worlds crashing together, neither is ready for the results. Puddin' is told in alternating chapters, giving Callie and Millie space to tell their first-person accounts of the events that placed them on that collision course.

The authenticity of Murphy's characters makes Puddin' more than a fun, breezy read. Millie's constant battle to believe in herself and be stronger than the bullies will ring true with anyone who has ever experienced some form of harassment. And what plus-size female hasn't wondered "what it might be like to go into a mall and shop in any store [they] want, instead of just the ones that want [them]"? Millie is proud of who she is but she still has to do a daily cost benefit analysis: "Is this floral tunic too loud? Is me being happy wearing it worth the attention it will cost me?"

Callie also deals with bias and stereotypes, despite her beauty. She even struggles to fit in with her own family: darker coloring inherited from her father's Mexican roots make Callie feel like an outsider with her very white mother, stepfather and half-sister. She tells Millie, "Sometimes people think I'm not even related to them. Then when people do find out I'm Mexican, they assume my mom is a cleaning lady or that I'm here illegally." The raw honesty of Puddin's characters makes them feel like true, rounded human beings in whom readers will certainly make an emotional investment.

Above all, Puddin' is an enchanting salute to female relationships with potent themes like the value of friendship, the cost of bigotry and the vast potential of girl power. --Jen Forbus, freelancer

Shelf Talker: In Julie Murphy's follow-up to Dumplin', two high school girls learn they may not be as different as they think when circumstances force them to see beyond the superficial.

Last week, hackers compromised the Facebook page for Bookmarks, a literary arts organization based in Winston-Salem, N.C., that "fosters a love of reading and writing in the community." Bookmarks' programming includes an annual Festival of Books, an Authors in Schools program, year-round events in its community gathering space and a nonprofit independent bookstore.

Jamie Rogers Southern, operations director at Bookmarks, wrote us to note that the hack and its aftermath have "turned into quite a learning opportunity! We hope that our experience will help others prepare and maybe avoid such stress as us. I thought I'd share in case it might be of interest to other booksellers":

Last week our Facebook page was hacked. Apparently through our assistant manager's personal page who was set as administrator for our page. It took over 24 hours to get back in our control and was very stressful meanwhile. It definitely could have been a lot worse, but here are some things we learned in the process we thought were important precautionary measures others could take.

Make sure anybody with admin access to your page has an updated e-mail address and phone number in Facebook. In our case, the admin that was hacked had an outdated e-mail address and phone number, which made reinstating their account (and proving their ID) much more difficult.

Set up extra security measures on your account: Get alerts about unrecognized logins so you'll be aware if your account is used on another browser or device. Choose 3 to 5 friends (who are not admins of the same page) to assist with the reset process if you get locked out. Use two-factor authentication that requires you log in with a code from your phone as well as a password.

Clearly communicate any account changes with your staff. Make sure that somebody knows if they receive a message that their admin privileges have been revoked that they immediately check with other admins. You don't want employees to ignore this e-mail!

If your page does get hacked:

File a report immediately with Facebook and have every admin on your page do the same. Identify which account has been comprised and be clear on who/what should be reinstated and include any other details that would help Facebook assess and fix the situation. When Facebook reinstated our roles, they unfortunately only reinstated us to positions like "analyst" which didn't allow us to perform the necessary tasks to secure our page. We needed to be reinstated as admin to kick the hacker out!

Spread the word: if possible, post from your personal accounts that the account has been hacked. This will make your followers (who hopefully follow the page) aware in case they see strange links on the page. Get employees to share on their accounts as well.

Check your bank accounts: If the account that was hacked has a stored credit cards for buying ads or fundraisers, notify your credit card company. Because we have fundraisers through Facebook, we also alerted our bank to be on the lookout for suspicious activity.

When everything is resolved:

Let your followers know that your account was hacked (in case they saw questionable activity) and thank them for their patience.

Assess the damage and clean up your page. Check contact information and other profile information, pictures, posts, and messages and delete all content related to the hack. Review your page followers and people who have liked your page to ensure people who hacked your page are not still associated with your account. We looked through activity for the past 24 hours and discovered several "questionable" profiles who had started following us in that time frame and then banned them from our page.

We were alerted to the problem when all the admins for the page received an e-mail from Facebook stating that their admin privileges to the page had been revoked. After determining which account had been comprised and filing reports with Facebook, we received word that the accounts had been reinstated about 12 hours later. Facebook didn't properly reinstate the account privileges, which took additional communication; however, the problem was resolved in about 24 hours.