"I think that for a lot of us, [bookstores] remind us that everything will be okay. Growing up, I didn’t have a lot of friends, so being surrounded by books was really comforting. It still is, honestly. After the most recent election, my first instinct was to walk down to Powell's (this was before I worked here) and to just sit there, because I knew that I didn't want to be alone, but I also didn't need to actually talk to anyone. I just needed to feel safe. Bookstores will forever be a safe space."

Rebecca Binkowski, owner of MacIntosh Books & Paper in Sanibel, Fla., has opened a small spin-off store in nearby Fort Myers that she's nicknamed the "Mini Mac," the News-Press reported. While the spin-off store has the same name as the parent bookstore, it has only about 200 square feet of selling space and is one of many small stores located within the Franklin Shops in downtown Fort Myers.

Binkowski told the News-Press that the inventory is a "sort of snapshot" of what's found at the larger store. Its offerings include bestsellers, genre fiction, children's books and work from local authors, along with postcards and puzzles. "It's an eclectic selection, but I love it," said Binkowski.

MacIntosh Books has had a presence in the Franklin Shops since 2012. It began there as a single bookcase and has expanded several times over the years. The current iteration opened in July. "Fort Myers residents and vacationers do not have to travel to a mall if they are looking for a good read," manager Cornelia Reinhardt told the News-Press.

Books-A-Million plans to open a 2nd & Charles store in Lubbock, Tex., in the Canyon West shopping center, the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal reported. This will be the fourth 2nd & Charles branch in Texas; the others are in Beaumont, Conroe and Laredo. There is no timeline yet for the Lubbock store's opening.

Founded in 2010, 2nd & Charles stores buy and sell books, comics, DVDs, CDs, vinyl records, video games, gaming systems, etc. The stores also usually have cafes and often host book signings and special events.

Falling Rock Cafe & Bookstore in Munising, Mich., has been put up for sale. In a notice posted on the website, Jeff and Nancy Dwyer, who opened the store in 2003, said they have decided to sell the business as well as the 4,000-square-foot building, adding: "It has been a wonderful 15 years and we are in no particular hurry, but believe it's time for us to consider alternatives for insuring the sustainability of the business and its impact on the community."

The description reads, in part: "This remodeled retail space is open and spacious with completely updated electricity, heat, water, sewer and additional infrastructure. Located in the historic 104 E. Munising Avenue building along the shores of Lake Superior, our building was built in 1896, the year that the City of Munising was incorporated. We have uncovered the tin wall panels, wainscots and the original maple floors, and have restored the walls and floors to their former beauty."

A "well-established brand known for community and customer service," Falling Rock Cafe & Bookstore "is a leader in the community serving many charitable functions. It's a favorite of locals and tourists alike, and we are affectionately known as 'Munising's Living Room,' " the Dwyers wrote. In addition to the café and bookstore, the property includes four rental apartments on the second floor of the building.

Earlier this month, 26-year-old independent bookstore A Book for All Seasons moved from its home of 19 years to a new storefront just down the street in Leavenworth, Wash. The new location is smaller than the old, with about 1,300 square feet of retail space as opposed to 1,500, and is no longer attached to an upstairs inn. Owner Pat Rutledge explained that the space is in a new building and that Stephen and Donica Sharpe, her son and daughter-in-law who will eventually take over the store, had a hand in designing the new store. "They have the store that they will take over," said Rutledge. "It's been a two-and-a-half-year process."

Stephen Sharpe reported that the new store is much more open and airy than the old location, which had lots of nooks and crannies and "twists and turns." The new space has lower shelves, and display tables in the middle of the store; the taller shelves are along the walls. And even though there is less actual selling space, Sharpe added, customers keep coming in and asking if the new store is bigger. "So far the response has been amazing," Sharpe said. "It's not an expansion, but it sort of feels that way."

Leavenworth is a big tourist destination, Sharpe said, and many people who visit the shop may only ever stop there once, but he and his wife wanted to make sure that the store gave the best first impression possible. Sharpe noted that they decided to leave much of the ceiling and the new vent work exposed, not only because it gave the place a bit of a "cool, industrial" look, but also because of how it expensive it would have been to conceal it all. It was also important to them to not deviate too much from the look and feel of the previous store, even while making it more open. "We wanted to keep the continuity of the old store," he said. "We didn't want it to be totally different, but different enough where people would come in and say, 'wow.' "

Rutledge and the Sharpes were able to complete the move in just one day, with the help of friends, family, community members and long-time customers. On July 15, the last day of business at the old location, Rutledge closed the store a few hours early and remained closed the next day as some 30 people stopped by to lend a hand. With their help, the store was open for business in the new location on July 17. The move was not far--only about 50 yards or so down the street--and Sharpe described giving dollies to customers and friends and loading them up with boxes. "You always hear about community, but to see it in such a specific, tangible way is a really cool thing," Sharpe said.

A Book for All Seasons pulled off a similar move in 1999, when it moved into the space that it just left on July 15. The move in '99 came about rather suddenly, after Rutledge and her husband learned that their landlord had sold their building and they had 30 days to get out. They found a new building with an amenable owner who had space for them--provided that they take over an adjacent kitchen and an upstairs inn, along with the storefront they wanted. They decided to do it, and to move across the street they enlisted the help of some 250 local students. "The community came together and moved us in one day," Rutledge recalled. "Incredible community support."

After Rutledge and her husband got their footing in that space, they turned the kitchen into a cafe and gave each of the rooms at the inn a different author theme. While the cafe lasted only about a year before a Starbucks moved into that space, the inn was a huge success, and Rutledge said that at different times over the years, the inn kept the bookstore afloat.

But when it came to thinking about a succession plan, Rutledge couldn't envision handing over the inn along with the bookstore. Despite how proud she was of it, the inn was also "dramatically draining" and took a lot out of the staff. It also didn't help that the building and its plumbing were very old and there were frequent maintenance problems.

But now, Rutledge continued, they have a new space in a new building, and her son and daughter-in-law will likely take over the business around the end of the year. She added: "It feels kind of like a fairy tale." --Alex Mutter

On Tuesday, a bus filled with happy editorial folk from Hachette Book Group took to the road to visit a trio of independent bookstores in Connecticut. The day began in Middletown, at the Wesleyan R.J. Julia Bookstore, and from there the group headed to R.J. Julia in Madison, where they had lunch with bookstore staff. The final stop was in New Canaan, at Elm Street Books. "Such beautiful bookstores! And I came away with an armload of great books to remember the day," said Terry Adams, v-p, digital & paperback publisher. "A terrific way to recharge while offering a reality shower." Hachette's goal is to do the tour again next year. "Get ready, indie bookseller friends, the bus might be headed your way," said Karen Torres, v-p, director of field sales.

Bethany Strout

Bethany Strout has been named director of buying at Tattered Cover Book Store, Denver, Colo. She succeeds Stephanie Coleman, who has left the store to spend time with her family. Coleman had joined Tattered Cover in 2013 and was promoted after longtime director of buying Cathy Langer announced her retirement, which took place in March.

Strout was promoted to frontlist children's book buyer earlier this year when longtime staffer Judy Bulow retired. Strout joined Tattered Cover in early 2017 and earlier worked at a library; the University of Chicago Press; Writers House literary agency; and most recently, for more than six years as a children's book editor at Little, Brown Books for Young Readers. In that last role, she edited or co-edited more than a dozen New York Times bestsellers and worked with such authors and artists as Libba Bray, Chris Colfer, Dan Santat and Laini Taylor.

Co-owner and CEO Len Vlahos commented: "Since joining Tattered Cover, Bethany has made a truly positive impact on our business. Her professional demeanor and innovative spirit have been a revelation. We're thrilled to have Bethany, who is already doing a wonderful job with our frontlist children's buying, take on the additional role of leading our wonderful team of buyers."

In a related change, Lainie Formby, who had been interim adult frontlist buyer, also succeeding Stephanie Coleman, will stay on in that position. While a student at Colorado College, she worked in the Tutt Library, and has worked in adult fiction at the St. Louis Public Library. She will earn her Master's in Library and Information Science through the University of Illinois' LEEP program this winter.

The Today Show's Jenna Bush Hager visited Books Are Magic in Brooklyn, N.Y., to interview co-owner and author Emma Straub, "who opened up about the surprising success of her business."

"I get to talk to people about books all day long," Straub said. "It's a dream."

In the shop's e-newsletter yesterday, Straub noted: "We were on the TV! In case you missed it, The Today Show came to the store and did a wonderful segment about us. They were filming for about nine hours, and the piece is three minutes! Now that's what I call magic."

Casemate Group will handle global print and digital distribution for two clients of the University Press of New England, which is closing at the end of the year:

Effective November 1, Casemate Group will distribute Bauhan Publishing, Peterborough, N.H., which focuses on New England regional books in the areas of history, art, nature studies and poetry, as well as publications that explore sustainability of both the earth and the spirit.

Effective January 1, Casemate Group will distribute International Polar Institute (IPI), which focuses on helping Inuit peoples tell their stories, particularly their perspectives on climate change. IPI's recent publication, Narwhal: Revealing an Arctic Legend, edited by William W. Fitzhugh and Martin T. Nweeia, won the 2018 William Mills Prize for Non-Fiction Polar Books and is the companion to a special exhibition at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History.

Simone Drinkwater, v-p, business development for the Casemate Group, said, "We are very much looking forward to working with Bauhan Publishing and IPI, who we currently provide international print distribution for, through our distribution partnership with UPNE, to continue the hard work of UPNE and our U.K. teams to increase the sales and profile of their publications in North America and beyond."

At the Association of University Presses:

Annette Windhorn has joined the association as external communications manager, a new position. She was formerly program coordinator for the distinguished lectureship program at the Organization of American Historians. Before that, she was marketing director at the Organization of American Historians and at the Smithsonian Institution Press.

Angelica DeVoe has been named program coordinator. She earlier worked at WebMD and the Children's Aid Society.

Kate Kolendo has been named communications program manager, a new position. She was earlier communications & special projects consultant for the association and was project manager and PROSE Award administrator for the Professional & Scholarly Publishing Division of the Association of American Publishers.

Kim Miller has been promoted to business manager. She was formerly office manager and program administrator.

Susan Patton has been promoted to membership & events director. She has been with the association since 1998.

Brenna McLaughlin has taken on the new title of research & communications director.

The Gold Pawn (An Art Deco Mystery) by L.A. Chandlar (Kensington).

Book TV airs on C-Span 2 this weekend from 8 a.m. Saturday to 8 a.m. Monday and focuses on political and historical books as well as the book industry. The following are highlights for this coming weekend. For more information, go to Book TV's website.

Saturday, August 4
7 p.m. Mona Charen, author of Sex Matters: How Modern Feminism Lost Touch with Science, Love, and Common Sense (Crown Forum, $27, 9780451498397). (Re-airs Sunday at 10 p.m.)

8 p.m. Darnell L. Moore, author of No Ashes in the Fire: Coming of Age Black and Free in America (Nation Books, $26, 9781568589480).

9 p.m. Andrew Puzder, author of The Capitalist Comeback: The Trump Boom and the Left's Plot to Stop It (Center Street, $27, 9781478975434). (Re-airs Sunday at 3 p.m.)

10 p.m. Malcolm Nance, author of The Plot to Destroy Democracy: How Putin and His Spies Are Undermining America and Dismantling the West (Hachette, $28, 9780316484817). (Re-airs Sunday at 9 p.m. and Monday at 3 a.m.)

11:20 p.m. Robert W. Fieseler, author of Tinderbox: The Untold Story of the Up Stairs Lounge Fire and the Rise of Gay Liberation (Liveright, $26.95, 9781631491641), at Octavia Books in New Orleans, La.

Sunday, August 5
12:30 a.m. Ibtihaj Muhammad, author of Proud: My Fight for an Unlikely American Dream (Hachette, $27, 9780316518963), at the Strand Bookstore in New York City. (Re-airs Sunday at 4 p.m.)

3 a.m. Steven Watts, author of Mr. Playboy: Hugh Hefner and the American Dream (Wiley, $29.95, 9780471690597). (Re-airs Sunday at 8:10 p.m.)

12 p.m. Live In-Depth q&a with Cory Doctorow, author, most recently, of Walkaway: A Novel (Tor, $26.99, 9780765392763). (Re-airs Monday at 12 a.m.)

11 p.m. John Ross, author of The Promise of the Grand Canyon: John Wesley Powell's Perilous Journey and His Vision for the American West (Viking, $30, 9780525429876), at Politics & Prose in Washington, D.C.

The Society of Authors has launched the Paul Torday Memorial Prize, which will honor debut novelists over the age of 60, the Bookseller reported. The winner will receive £1,000 (about $1,310) as well as a set of the collected works of British author Paul Torday, who published his first novel, the award-winning Salmon Fishing in the Yemen, at the age of 60.

"My brother Nick and I founded this prize in memory of our late father Paul, who found literary success late in life," said Piers Torday. "Our message to the industry and the public with this prize is very simple and twofold: it truly is never too late to follow your dream, and we passionately believe that writing could be a wonderful second career for many more with a life of well-lived experience to call upon."

Selected new titles appearing next Tuesday, August 7:

Fly Girls: How Five Daring Women Defied All Odds and Made Aviation History by Keith O'Brien (Eamon Dolan/Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, $28, 9781328876645) chronicles the female aviators who raced in the air shows of the 1920s and '30s.

Captive: A Mother's Crusade to Save Her Daughter from a Terrifying Cult by Catherine Oxenberg (Gallery, $27, 9781982100650) exposes a sexual cult at the heart of a pyramid scheme called NXIVM.

King Con: The Bizarre Adventures of the Jazz Age's Greatest Impostor by Paul Willetts (Crown, $27, 9780451495815) tells the story of Edgar Laplante, a con man who made money masquerading as a Cherokee nation leader.

Ticker: The Quest to Create an Artificial Heart by Mimi Swartz (Crown, $27, 9780804138000) charts the history of the artificial heart.

The Point by John Dixon (Del Rey, $27, 9781101967560) follows superhumans trained at a secret school in West Point.

Horse: A Novel by Talley English (Knopf, $26.95, 9781101874332) takes place on a family farm, where a teenaged girl abandoned by her father finds comfort in a horse.

Bad Man: A Novel by Dathan Auerbach (Doubleday, $26.95, 9780385542920) is about a young man still searching for his missing baby brother after five years.

Dance of Thieves by Mary E. Pearson (Holt, $18.99, 9781250159014) is the first in a planned duology that will return readers to the universe of the Remnant Chronicles.

Up and Away!: How Two Brothers Invented the Hot-Air Balloon by Jason Henry (Sterling Children's Books, $16.95, 9781454923602) tells the story of brothers Joseph and Étienne Montgolfier's groundbreaking flying machine.

Paperbacks:
With You Always by Rena Olsen (Putnam, $15, 9781101982396).

Good Luck with That by Kristan Higgins (Berkley, $16, 9780451489395).

Movie:
BlacKkKlansman, based on the memoir by Ron Stallworth, opens August 10. Spike Lee directs this true story about a Colorado cop who infiltrated a local Ku Klux Klan chapter. A movie tie-in (Flatiron, $25.99, 9781250299048) is available.

From last week's Indie bestseller lists, available at IndieBound.org, here are the recommended titles, which are also Indie Next Great Reads:

Hardcover
The Great Believers: A Novel by Rebecca Makkai (Viking, $27, 9780735223523). "This flawlessly written and lovingly told story depicts the immediate toll AIDS took on the Chicago gay community in the '80s and the long-term impact on survivors and their families. Makkai threads it all compellingly together with art world intrigue and institutional drama. I don't want to diminish it in any way with comparisons, but The Great Believers brought to my mind several of my favorite contemporary novels: A Little Life, Three Junes, and The Goldfinch. Rebecca Makkai, in my opinion, has launched herself into a whole new category of literary achievement with this." --Becky Dayton, The Vermont Book Shop, Middlebury, Vt.

The Lido: A Novel by Libby Page (Simon & Schuster, $25, 9781501182037). "What a fun read! Libby Page does a great job telling the story of a small London town pool and the people who make it an important part of their lives. The friendship between Kate and Rosemary, despite their age difference, is so well-developed and plays an integral role in the story. The Lido is a book that every summer reader will enjoy and one that will be great to talk about at book clubs. Very well done, Libby Page!" --Anna Flynn, Watermark Books & Café, Wichita, Kan.

Paperback
The Dark Net: A Novel by Benjamin Percy (Mariner, $14.99, 9781328915375). "In The Dark Net, Benjamin Percy's best work yet, the author takes the poorly understood underbelly of the Internet and brings it to terrifying life in Portland, Oregon, in a tale complete with hipsters and homeless people, supernatural beings, hardcore geeks, a journalist, and a blind 12-year-old girl. As a former resident of Portland and a technologist, I was particularly impressed with Percy's nuanced portrayal of downtown Portland and its landmarks, including Powell's Books. Percy does a masterful job of making the Internet scary in a thriller that feels like a combination of American Gods and the Stephen King books I tore through as a teenager. Highly recommended." --Nathan White, Content Bookstore, Northfield, Minn.

For Ages 4 to 8
How to Code a Sandcastle by Josh Funk, illustrated by Sara Palacios (Viking, $16.99, 9780425291986). "I joke that I 'book' and I don't 'math,' the latter of which could certainly include coding, but How to Code a Sandcastle may change my mantra. One of our store's favorite picture book authors, Josh Funk, has written a smart, engaging, and easy-to-follow book about coding that easily explains the subject to readers of all ages. Add a fun beach setting as we head into summer and amazing illustrations by Sara Palacios, and it's a perfect equation for success." --Holland Saltsman, The Novel Neighbor, Webster Groves, Mo.

For Ages 9 to 12
Evangeline of the Bayou by Jan Eldredge, illustrated by Joseph Kuefler (Balzer+Bray, $16.99, 9780062680341). "Evangeline is (hopefully) the next haunt huntress in her family's long line and she is being trained by her grandmother in the art of fighting banshees, grims, Acadian fang worms, and more. Her familiar hasn't shown up yet, but she's (mostly) sure it will soon, and then she'll be official. But when she and her grandmother are called to New Orleans for a new job, things start to get complicated... and scary. Evangeline isn't sure she can handle this job, but she might have to, with or without her (still-absent) familiar. Exciting, a little spooky, and full of great characters." --Lillian Tschudi-Campbell, Red Balloon Bookshop, St. Paul, Minn.

For Teen Readers
All of This Is True: A Novel by Lygia Day Penaflor (HarperTeen, $17.99, 9780062673657). "A fabulously complex, confident novel about four avid fans of a YA author and the disastrous results of their relationship with her. Is everything true--or is anything true? Amazing, edgy, passionate--I loved this book and the characters and couldn't put it down. I can't wait to share it with our avid teen readers." --Vicky Titcomb, Titcomb's Bookshop, East Sandwich, Mass.

[Many thanks to IndieBound and the ABA!]