Beaverdale Books in Des Moines, Iowa, will host a 20th birthday party this coming Saturday, July 11, that will also celebrate the shop's recent expansion. The Register reported that the bookstore, which took over a neighboring law office, has doubled its size. Founder and co-owner Alice Meyer joked that before the expansion, a visiting author who could attract a crowd in excess of the store's 35 chairs could claim a "standing-room only" signing. "It's very cozy."

Since 2015, Meyer has worked with Hunter Gillum, who became majority owner of the store in 2023. Gillum "will take over day-to-day operations of the store after Meyer's retirement at a date to be determined," the Register noted, adding that the new space will allow Gillum to move his office from a nook in the original store to the back of the former law office. 

"It was kind of like something we'd been dreaming about for years," Meyer said of the expansion. "And then we jumped on it."

Meyer, who moved to Beaverdale in 1982, recalled when the building that houses her store didn't exist: "It was a little village. Clothing stores, and there was a five-and-dime store. I might be dating myself there."

The bookstore took over the lease for the new space in September 2023, when one of the two lawyers moved out. After the other one left in January, the bookstore owners began to plan the expansion, which involved new lighting and flooring, as well as removing the wall that once separated the two sides of the store.

"We had some events where the drywall was covered with plastic," said Jan Kaiser, the store's marketing and events coordinator. It also had one where guests had to stand on exposed subfloor, "but the authors were great, the customers, nobody cared. They were just like, 'We're so excited about the expansion.' "

The Register noted that Gillum "looks forward to leading the store into its future, even if it means he has less time to read (doubly so since he welcomed a baby last year)."

Look Around Books opened in Astoria, Ore., this spring, YourOregonNews.com reported. The all-ages, general-interest bookstore opened at 1413 Commercial St. on a limited basis on April 25, Independent Bookstore Day, before officially opening on May 1. In building the store's inventory, owner Ann Branson and her business partner Kate Wells have emphasized diversity and children's literacy. 

"I have such formative memories of going to the bookstore with family and getting to explore and pick out something that interested me," Branson told YourOregonNews.com. "I felt Astoria needed a bookstore where the kids are prioritized."

A lifelong reader, Branson got her start in bookselling when she was in high school, working at Tenth Muse and Espresso in Seaside, Ore. After a stint in politics and a stretch of doing other jobs, she decided to pursue her dream of opening a bookstore. Wells, who owns her own pet supply business called RiverDog, helped guide Branson through the process of starting a business.

"This is definitely Ann's baby, just like RiverDog is my baby," Wells noted. "I'm here to support it because I love it so much."

So far, Branson said, the Astoria community has embraced her bookstore. "It has been amazing to feel all the love and the support the community has given us. Astoria is a really special town and I love that we value arts, physical media, and slower paces."

Chapter 3, a Black-owned bookstore and cafe, is coming to San Francisco, Calif., Mission Local reported. Owner Vanessa Lee has filed a permit application to open Chapter 3 at 4512 3rd St. in San Francisco's Bayview-Hunters Point neighborhood. Lee is also the owner of Smoke Soul Kitchen, a restaurant in the same neighborhood.

Lee told Mission Local she was inspired by Marcus Books, a Black-owned bookstore that once operated in the Filmore before moving to Oakland. "I saw how it brought the community together," Lee said. "I wanted to put together a place that people will really like and that we deserve."

Lee plans to host a variety of events at Chapter 3, including author readings and live performances, and the cafe will become a wine bar in the evenings. Chapter 3 will also have a program through which customers can exchange used books by Black authors for new titles.

Earlier this year, Lee received a Storefront Opportunity Grant for Chapter 3. Awarded by the city of San Francisco, the grants aim to help fill vacant storefronts with community-focused businesses.

Per Mission Local, the neighborhood has been without a bookstore for over two years following the closure of Just A Touch Christian Bookstore.

A mobile bookstore called Modern Literates made its debut in Manistee, Mich., on June 27, the Manistee News Advocate reported.

Modern Literates carries a curated selection of new titles for adults, emphasizing genres including contemporary fiction, romance, science fiction, and fantasy. Blind dates with a book are popular, and alongside books customers can find candles, journals, apparel, and gifts.

Co-owners and sisters-in-law Alyssa Rakoski and Lexi Lund are both avid readers and had talked about opening a bookstore together, but the conversations were never especially serious, Rakoski told the Manistee News Advocate. "We shared the same idea of one day opening up a bookshop because we both enjoy reading…I think we both hit a point in our lives where we were like, 'let's just do it!' Next thing you know, Modern Literates Books was born."

Lund and Rakoski chose to launch the mobile bookstore at the Manistee Community Farmers Market because Manistee is home, Rakoski explained. "Our goal as beginners is to test the waters and earn feedback on what we can improve; what worked and what didn't work so we can be better for next time. Our families live in Manistee so it's just comfortable and familiar. We want to keep coming back."

Rakoski said the store's first appearance went very well. "It was eye-opening and we left with so much gratitude." 

Looking ahead, the pair plan to take Modern Literates to other towns and cities in Michigan this summer, including Grand Haven, Stockbridge, Bear Lake, and Ludington.

Lam Wing-kee, a former Hong Kong bookseller "who became a symbol of resistance to Beijing's crackdown on speech freedom after he was seized by Chinese authorities in late 2015," died July 2, the AP reported. He was 70. He had previously worked at Causeway Bay Books in Hong Kong, but moved to Taipei, Taiwan, in 2019 and reopened the bookstore in 2020.

Lam Wing-kee at Causeway Bay Books in Taiwan in 2020 (Hong Kong Democracy Council/X)

In a Facebook post, Taiwan's President Lai Ching-te wrote: "The passing of Mr Lam Wing-kee is deeply saddening, but the courage he left behind would not fade. Taiwan will remember that a Hong Kong bookstore worker once told us in the most ordinary yet most steadfast way how precious freedom is and reminded us that democracy requires the efforts of generation after generation to defend it."

Lam was one of five people affiliated with Causeway Books who disappeared in late 2015. His colleague, publisher Gui Minhai, "went missing from his holiday home in Thailand. He was sentenced in 2020 to 10 years in prison in China on a charge of illegally providing intelligence overseas. In an act of defiance, Lam gave an explosive account of his experience in 2016 that contradicted official Chinese accounts of what happened to the five booksellers," the AP noted. The Hong Kong bookstore closed in 2016.

After being seized by Chinese authorities in October 2015 when he crossed the border to Shenzhen, he was blindfolded for a 13-hour train ride to the eastern city of Ningbo, where he was kept under 24-hour surveillance in a room for five months. He said he was later forced to appear on Chinese television to confess to crimes.

In an interview with Central News Agency last month, Lam said he temporarily closed the bookstore due to health concerns, adding: "If my health improves, I'll reopen it. If not, I won't."

Taiwan's Minister of Culture Li Yuan recalled that he had visited Lam Wing-kee at Causeway Bay Books as recently as April, hoping to work with him on a plan to connect independent bookstores. Li said the reopening of Causeway Bay Books in Taiwan held deep significance for people there, especially in the wake of the 2019-2020 Hong Kong protests. He added that the bookstore had become a gathering place for Hong Kongers in Taiwan.
 
The Ministry of Culture also said Lam "played a key role in promoting dialogue and cultural exchange between Taiwan and Hong Kong, and served as an inspiration and role model for democracy, liberty, and human rights across borders."

The Silver Unicorn Bookstore, Acton, Mass., and Newtonville Books, Newton, Mass., teamed up to host NBA champion and two-time Olympic Gold medal winner (and local author) Jayson Tatum for his new picture book, Baby Dunks-a-Lot: The Day the Basketballs Stopped Bouncing, co-authored by Sam Apple and illustrated by Parker-Nia Gordon (Abrams Books for Young Readers). Tatum was in conversation with author, journalist, and producer Howard Bryant. The sold-out show at the Newton Community Stage was filled with kids who enjoyed seeing their favorite player up close. Pictured: (from left) Silver Unicorn owner Paul Swydan, Jayson Tatum, Newtonville Books owner Mary Cotton, Howard Bryant. (credit: Jessica Cronin Photography)

Click here to see the latest Independent Press Top 40, the weekly bestseller list celebrating the bestselling 40 fiction and 40 nonfiction titles from independent publishers, as sold by independent bookstores across the country. The list is sponsored by the Independent Publishers Caucus and the American Booksellers Association.

This week's debut fiction titles:

6. Six of Crows: A Darker Shore: Letters from Ketterdam by Leigh Bardugo (Insight Editions)
23. House of Rayne: Deluxe Limited Edition by Harley Laroux (Kensington)
32. Gray After Dark: Deluxe Stenciled Edges by Noelle West Ihli (Kensington)
38. The Summer Book by Tove Jansson (NYRB Classics)

Roundabout Books in Greenfield, Mass., shared a cozy photo of its "summer room of books."

Sabrina Callahan is joining Holt on July 27 to lead the publicity department in the role of v-p, executive director of publicity. She was previously at Little, Brown for 19 years, most recently as v-p, executive director of publicity.

Play Like He Would: A True Story by Heath Hamrick (Stoney Creek Publishing).

Tomorrow:
Today: Florence Comite, author of Invincible: Defy Your Genetic Destiny to Live Better, Longer (Little, Brown Spark, $32, 9780316595551).

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.

Sunday, July 12
8 a.m. Eugene Robinson, author of Freedom Lost, Freedom Won: A Personal History of America (Simon & Schuster, $30, 9781982176716). (Re-airs Sunday at 8:10 p.m.)

10 a.m. Jonathan Wilson, author of The Power and the Glory: The History of the World Cup (Bold Type Books, $35, 9781645030409). (Re-airs Sunday at 10:20 p.m.)

11 a.m. Hachette Book Group CEO David Shelley, Sourcebooks CEO Dominique Raccah, and Authors Equity CEO Madeline McIntosh discussed changes in the book industry at the 2026 U.S. Book Show in New York City.

11:43 a.m. Little, Brown Books for Young Readers Publisher Megan Tingley and New York Public Library Youth Services Librarian Ruth Guerrier-Pierre discussed reading's impact on childhood development at the 2026 U.S. Book Show in New York City.

12:40 p.m. Manoush Zomorodi, author of Body Electric: The Hidden Health Costs of the Digital Age and New Science to Reclaim Your Well-Being (Flatiron, $29.99, 9781250411204).

2:25 p.m. Daniel Squadron, author of The Fourth Branch: How State Government Can Save Our Union (Zando, $28.95, 9781638933854), at Politics & Prose in Washington, D.C.

4:45 p.m. Maya L. Kornberg, author of Stuck: How Money, Media, and Violence Prevent Change in Congress (Johns Hopkins University Press, $32.95, 9781421454580).

Egyptian publisher Yehia Fekry was awarded the 2026 International Publishers Association's Prix Voltaire at a ceremony during the 35th International Publishers Congress in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The IPA also announced a Prix Voltaire Special Award for the deceased Egyptian publisher Mohamed Hashem.

Jessica Sänger, chair of IPA's Freedom to Publish Committee, said, in part: "Through this year's shortlist we yet again see publishers having to operate in exile. Publishers being excluded from book fairs and literary festivals, publishers standing up for diverse ideas and challenging restrictive laws, giving a voice to communities who would otherwise be deprived of the chance to tell their stories. Publishers living in the context of war and still trying to publish books that help make sense of the world around us. As the Freedom to Publish Committee we are very much aware that not only do we have the responsibility of stewarding the prize on the basis of the nominations we receive, but every new year brings a renewed commitment to the laureates of previous years."

Fekry, founder and CEO of El Maraya, commented: "El Maraya was founded in 2016 with a simple but ambitious mission: to provide a platform for young voices emerging from Egypt's new democratic and liberal currents, and for critical perspectives that often struggle to find space within dominant intellectual and political discourse. Over time, El Maraya has succeeded in building a wide community of readers and followers. Yet the nature of our cultural mission--and the critical perspectives reflected in our publications--has exposed us to numerous institutional pressures that have challenged our work from the very beginning and continue to do so today. Despite these ongoing pressures, we remain committed to our mission and determined to carry it forward. We remain committed to the right of people to knowledge, and to the right of writers and researchers to express their ideas freely."

Accepting the Prix Voltaire Special Award, Mohamed Hashem's daughter, Mirette Hashem, said: "My father dedicated his life to the belief that books are the cornerstone of a free and enlightened society. As a publisher, he was a staunch defender of freedom of expression, consistently advocating for the right to think, write, and publish without fear in Egypt. He sacrificed much to protect these values, always believing that freedom of expression is essential to a nation's progress. Thank you for honoring my father's legacy and for standing with those who champion the freedom to publish and the courage to think freely."

Selected new titles appearing next Tuesday, July 14:

Ransom: A Novel by Daniel Silva (Harper, $32, 9780063384224) is the 26th thriller with Gabriel Allon.

The Romance Revival by Christina Lauren (Gallery, $29, 9781668017753) is a romance about a scientist who brings her dead husband back to life.

This Changes Everything by Lisa Scottoline (Grand Central, $30, 9781538770030) is a thriller about a woman with psychic powers.

It Will Come Back to You: Collected Stories by Sigrid Nunez (Riverhead, $29, 9798217179152) collects 13 stories written over several decades.

The Country Road Murders: A Thriller by James Patterson and Mike Lupica (Little, Brown, $30, 9780316599870) is a sports thriller starring an injured football player.

Ruinous Ends by I.V. Marie (Delacorte, $21.99, 9780593898840) is the YA dark academia fantasy sequel to Immortal Consequences.

Monsters Are the Worst! by Alex Willan (S&S, $19.99, 9781665988599) is an addition to the author/illustrator's The Worst! series featuring Gilbert the Goblin and at least one very cute monster.

The Day After: How to Wield Power in a Post-Trump World by Brian Tyler Cohen (Harper, $28.99, 9780063495104) is a progressive guide to politics after Trump.

They Stole a City: Wilmington's White Supremacist Coup and the Families Who Live with Its Legacy by Lauren Collins (Penguin Press, $32, 9781984878816) chronicles a 1898 white supremacist massacre in North Carolina and its lingering legacy.

Aging Out: An Exploration of Caregiving, Community, and How Americans Grow Old by Lucy Schiller (Flatiron, $29.99, 9781250344526) investigates the state of elder care in the U.S.

Catch the Devil: A True Story of Murder, Deception, and Injustice on the Gulf Coast by Pamela Colloff (Knopf, $32, $32, 9780593230862) explores the case of a con man who fabricated jailhouse confessions. 

Paperbacks:
In Stormy Weather: A Novel by Chelsea Curto (Atria, $19, 9781668217436).

Extracurricular by Rachel Lynn Solomon (Berkley, $20, 9798217188284).

Falling Into You by Jill Shalvis (Sourcebooks Casablanca, $16.99, 9781464261060).

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

Hardcover
Tata by Valérie Perrin, trans. by Hildegarde Serle (Europa Editions, $30, 9798889661825). "An absolutely gorgeous read. Perrin's writing quietly wraps its arms around you, and before you know it, you are embracing her back. Take this book on vacation or give yourself a week to be fully immersed in this story." --Danielle Glasky, Long Story Books, Atlanta, Ga.

It Could Have Been Her: A Novel by Lisa Jewell (Atria, $29, 9781668033906). "WOW. In perfect Lisa Jewell fashion, this book read like a storm: it started off with a vague swirling that got tighter and tighter, ultimately reaching a thrilling conclusion. The characters and imagery leapt off the pages." --Kelly Blazo, 2 Dandelions Bookshop, Brighton, Mich.

Paperback (Indies Introduce in Hardcover)
A Marriage at Sea: A True Story of Love, Obsession, and Shipwreck by Sophie Elmhirst (Riverhead, $20, 9780593854297). "A raw telling of the fight a young couple endures physically and mentally as their boat is capsized by creatures in the middle of the sea. Reads like a novel--it's wild that this is a true story!" --Alex Hammett, Serendipity Books, Chelsea, Mich.

Ages 4-8
Today We'll Be Eaten by Alan Barillaro (Rocky Pond Books, $19.99, 9798217004362). "We worry and worry for something to happen, but taking a moment like the ladybug and dragonfly will offer a much needed peace that we all need." --Rachel Trainum, Dog-Eared Books, Ames, Iowa

Ages 8-12
The Second Life of Snap by Erin Entrada Kelly (Greenwillow Books, $19.99, 9780063485952). "A short middle grade novel for older Wild Robot fans from a storyteller who writes incredible protagonists. An ultimately hopeful story set in a hardscrabble section of an oppressive society. Note: this is not a gentle story. It is one of survival and questions of what makes us free-willed and human." --Leslie Darnell, Powell's Books, Portland, Ore.

Ages 13+
The Secret World of Briar Rose by Cindy Pham (Kokila, $21.99, 9798217113026). "In this richly detailed and emotional retelling of 'Sleeping Beauty,' two sisters jump through a magical portal and enter the dream world of the iconic princess. There, they must confront what it truly means to escape, and whether or not dealing with pain and grief makes life worth living in the first place. This book will leave readers with a small but important burst of hope that they may need." --Jason Mills, The Book Bungalow, St. George, Utah

[Many thanks to IndieBound and the ABA!]

In 2022, journalist Lea Korsgaard set out to see all 64 of Denmark's butterfly species within a year. The Butterfly Season, her first book available in English, translated from Danish by Sherilyn Nicolette Hellberg, is an engaging record of that quest and a profound meditation on metamorphosis, extinction, and connection with nature.

While waiting for butterflies to emerge, Korsgaard passed the winter studying field guides and raising painted ladies indoors, from eggs to caterpillars to chrysalises. So unpromising did they appear throughout the process that it's no wonder Aristotle assumed eggs were lifeless and adult butterflies generated spontaneously. Various philosophers and theologians followed in his footsteps by arguing that all creatures--including humans--evolve toward perfection.

Compared to other year-challenge books, The Butterfly Season is heavier on historical research and philosophical reflection than the practicalities of the journey. Korsgaard considers the Freudian--that is, sexual--explanation for obsessive collecting by the likes of Vladimir Nabokov. She also delves into the cultural significance of butterflies, which are often associated with spirits and eternal life. Indeed, Korsgaard's mother attributes glimpses of small tortoiseshells in significant moments to the continued presence of her late mother.

The author's first sighting of the season was a small tortoiseshell on March 7. For expert advice and in-the-field guidance, she consulted lepidopterist Michael Stoltze and precocious biology student Emil Blicher Bjerregård. The latter works on restoring butterfly habitats and helped Korsgaard group her list into 12 trips. Butterflies rely on specific locales, such as bogs or heath, where trees are thin and food plants abundant. She had a breathtaking view of a northern chequered skipper pair; once common, they'll be locally extinct in a year, according to Bjerregård.

Korsgaard is distressed that few are sounding the alarm over how capitalism and consumerism threaten biodiversity. Her realistic yet melancholy tone risks alienating readers who signed up for lighthearted butterfly-watching japes. However, her prose is lush with lyrical descriptions of landscapes and epiphanies experienced in them. Each chapter ends with a list of the species seen, accompanied by color sketches.

By summer's end, with several species unseen, Korsgaard feared her project was doomed. Yet it had become more than checking butterflies off a list. Instead, she was recapturing the holistic relationship with nature modeled by members of her family--such as her grandfather, the novelist, Lutheran minister, and ethnographer Erik Aalbæk Jensen, whose diaries evinced his love of wild places and creatures. This allowed her to genuinely affirm, "This was not the end; this had only just begun." By turns pessimistic and mystical, The Butterfly Season is a nature book for the age of extinctions. --Rebecca Foster, freelance reviewer, proofreader, and blogger at Bookish Beck

Shelf Talker: Danish journalist Lea Korsgaard undertakes to see all 64 of the country's butterfly species in a year and turns the resulting journey into a philosophical rumination on change, loss, and wonder.

The book is partially a personal history, but I also hope it will be used as a permission slip for the entire nation to cut work for a month. Let We Are the World (Cup) be encouragement for us to do what we do better than any other nation in the world: Savor the circus. After you read, I hope you are compelled to slink out of your office cubicles en masse, day drink, watch, revel, and inhale the World Cup in its full glory.

--Roger Bennett, author of We Are the World (Cup): A Personal History of the World's Greatest Sporting Event (Dey Street Books)

I had to come back to the FIFA World Cup, which has finally--after a month of great matches and one embarrassing political interference foul by a certain unnamed host nation's president--reached its quarterfinals stage. A couple of weeks ago I wrote about indie booksellers celebrating the global tournament, and they've continued to have fun:

Aaron's Books, Lititz, Pa., noticed that the U.S. team uniforms bore a striking similarity to a certain book character ("Is it just us, or is finding Waldo front of mind for the whole country these days?"); while Magic City Books, Tulsa, Okla., weighed in on a headline-making red card ("Talk about timely. Those folks @penguinclassics are on it!"); and Book Larder went into full rooting mode ("Good luck to @usmnt today! Plus in our home city of Seattle no less!").

Then came, as the song goes, the day the music died. After the U.S. team's humbling defeat to Belgium, I recalled the opening line in Peter Handke's The Goalie's Anxiety at the Penalty Kick: "When Joseph Bloch, a construction worker who had once been a well-known soccer goalie, reported for work that morning, he was told that he was fired."

The U.S. team was fired. In the wake of the final whistle, Roger Bennett (see quotation above) hosted a post-mortem Night Cup edition of his Men in Blazers podcast, featuring frequent guest and bestselling author John Green, along with women's soccer legend Becky Sauerbrunn, who played on U.S. teams that won Olympic gold and two FIFA Women's World Cups. Their conversation in the shadow of defeat had an almost healing vibe that turned bookish near the end, including this exchange: 

Bennett: "John Green, take us home you beautiful human being. Deliver some lesson I can hold onto, a tiny handhold as I'm dangling from the cliff."
Green: "Well, I would say two things. First we have a Women's World Cup coming up, which is exciting. Always exciting. The second thing I would say is we were reminded today that hope isn’t always rewarded, but hope is always justified. Hope is always the correct response to  consciousness. And I'm reminded as I always am in tough times of that great Emily Dickinson poem that 'hope is the thing with feathers/ that perches in the soul/ and sings the tune - without the words/ and never stops at all.' And we do have reason to be hopeful. We still have football to enjoy whether or not the U.S. is part of that football and we still get to watch the World Cup together and we still get to be together and ultimately that's the point you know. To love and lose together is the point. And today we lost together, but at least we were together."

Bennett then mentioned that Sauerbrunn had something to say to Green:
Sauerbrunn: "I've got a beef with you, man. Your books have just haunted me through the years."
Green: "Oh that's so nice."
S: "I know. It's such a compliment, I'm sure, for an author to hear, but, yeah, you just live rent free in my mind. There are some lines that...."
G: "That's amazing!"
S: "Yeah, yeah, well done."
G: "You live rent free in my mind because I've watched you play for so many years. This is like if God came down from heaven and was, like, you know, what I think about sometimes is your books."
S: "I don’t even know how to respond to that."
G: "Yeah, no, just say thank you. But that's so great. I'm sorry that they're sad. The new one comes out on September 22 [Hollywood Ending, Dutton Books]. It's a little sad as well."
S: "Yeah, I'm sure I'll read it."

Now the World Cup circus moves on without the U.S. squad. I'll keep watching the matches, however, because (don't tell anybody) I'm an almost lifelong England fan, both by heritage (my last name's a clue) and personal experience. I played soccer in high school and college with an English/American teammate. An international flair was added during summer league play on teams that included Italian and Polish immigrant marble workers in our area. 

Just before the 2026 World Cup began, I learned that my high school coach had died at the age of 83. When we were all young, he launched a club team at my school. We would become an official state league team in the fall of 1966, which also happened to be the year that two other significant moments occurred. England won its only World Cup that summer, and on Labor Day our coach invited a few of us to join him on a road trip to Yankee Stadium to watch the Brazilian legend Pelé and his Santos FC club beat Inter Milan of Italy 4-1 in something called the NY Champions Cup. 

So, soccer is kinda in my blood, but I'll let Guardian cartoonist Tom Gauld take the last shot with his brilliant creation of the FIFA Prize for Literature. Congratulations, Haruki Murakami.