Literati's current location

Literati Bookstore in Ann Arbor, Mich., has signed a lease for a new space it will move into in 2027, Crain’s Detroit Business reported.

Owners Hilary and Michael Gustafson will be moving the bookstore from its current home at 124 E. Washington St. into a building at 210 S. Ashley St. Literati Bookstore will host a holiday pop-up in the new space, offering a curated selection of books as well as amaryllis bulbs, before moving permanently sometime next year.

The building at 210 S. Ashley St. previously housed a business called Downtown Home & Garden, which closed in December 2025. Constructed in the 1890s, the building originally belonged to a seed and grain supplier. It was sold to the Hertler family in 1906, becoming Hertler Brothers. Mark Hodesh bought Hertler Brothers and the building in 1975 and renamed the business Downtown Home & Garden in 1997. Hodesh sold the store to longtime employee Kelly Vore in January 2015 while retaining ownership of the building.

Literati's future home

Per the Ann Arbor Observer, Hodesh fielded myriad inquiries from developers about what to do with the building, some of which included turning it into a grocery store, an art gallery, or a music venue. He stated he wanted something that would serve the community that was not a bar, a restaurant, or condos. Hodesh told the Ann Arbor Observer he was proud to entrust the space to the Gustafsons, saying: "I can rest easy, and Literati is going to thrive."

Michael and Hilary Gustafson opened Literati Bookstore in 2013. Originally from Michigan, they were living in Brooklyn, N.Y., when Borders Books & Music closed in 2011. Unable to stand the idea that there would no longer be a general bookstore in downtown Ann Arbor, they moved back to Michigan to start a bookstore of their own.

Just in time for Halloween, the New York Times writes about the popularity of horror books and horror bookstores, focusing on Little Ghosts Books in Toronto, Ont.; Midslumber Media, Portland, Ore.; the Twisted Spine, Brooklyn, N.Y.; and Dark Delicacies, Burbank, Calif. (the longtime store that closed its bricks-and-mortar operation but continues to do mail order and pop-up events). 

Among scary morsels in the story:

"Horror bookstores are multiplying as fast as the slimy pod monsters from Invasion of the Body Snatchers."

"While reading for fun has declined in America, horror fiction is booming, and not just during Summerween and Halloween. And bookstores that specialize in all things creepy are meeting the demand. Through August, horror book sales are up 33 percent this year over last, according to Circana BookScan. The market is growing: 3.6 million copies were sold in 2025, up from 1.4 million in 2020."

Lauren Komer, co-owner of the Twisted Spine: Horror recognizes that the world can be a horrible place and steps in "to help build resilience to the outside.... The world is terrifying every day. People like having a way to navigate real life in a way that's controlled."

There's also a "burgeoning genre" rooted in "female rage, violence and being unconventional." Book critic Kay West said she finds something "very freeing about sometimes seeing yourself as the monster.... It feels really good to have other women characters taking revenge, taking up space and being unapologetic."

Haven Hollow Bookstore, "dedicated to independently published authors," will open next month at 102 East Main St. in Martinsville, Va., the Roanoke Times reported. Owner Amber McCain, a self-published author, has a goal of welcoming customers in November after renovations are completed.

In a social media post, McCain wrote, in part: "As a self-published author myself, I know firsthand how much heart, dedication, time, and hard work go into bringing a story to life. I also know how difficult it can be for independent authors to get their books onto bookstore shelves, reach new readers, and find spaces where their work is truly celebrated. That's why Haven Hollow was born....

"I wanted to create the kind of bookstore I wished existed when I began my own publishing journey. A place where indie authors aren't an afterthought. They're the very heart of everything we do. And now, that dream is becoming a real brick-and-mortar bookstore right here in Uptown Martinsville." 

McCain also noted that her goal is to create a "cozy, welcoming space where readers can discover their next favorite indie author, writers can connect, friendships can grow, and our community can gather for book clubs, author events, creative activities, and a little everyday magic."

The bookstore's plans center on a curated collection of independently published books and a reading lounge called The Hollow, the Roanoke Times noted, adding that the business has also launched the Wandering Hollow, a traveling bookstore for events. 

Steamy Lit in Fort Lauderdale

Steamy Lit Books, a romance-focused bookstore with locations in Miami Springs, Fort Lauderdale, and Tampa, Fla., has closed its Miami Springs location, the Miami New Times reported. The other Steamy Lit stores will remain in business.

"The past year has been filled with beautiful memories and so much love," wrote Steamy Lit owner Melissa Saavedra in an announcement. "We are incredibly grateful to every reader who shopped with us, attended our events, and made our space feel like a community. To the authors who visited our Miami location and everyone who supported us along the way, thank you for being part of this chapter of Steamy Lit."

Saaverda founded Steamy Lit as an online store in 2021. She opened the first Steamy Lit bricks-and-mortar in Deerfield Beach in early 2024 and opened the Tampa store later that year. The Deerfield Beach store closed in 2025, and the Fort Lauderdale store opened shortly thereafter. The Miami Springs store soft-opened last December and held a grand opening in January.

The Miami Springs store held its final event, a Junk Journaling night, on Saturday, October 23. Its official closing date was October 26. Going forward, Saaverda will be reaching out to customers about picking up or shipping ordered books and giving refunds for future events.

Saaverda said that while the Miami Springs bricks-and-mortar is closing, Steamy Lit will continue to have a presence in the area with events and pop-ups. "This may be the end of one chapter, but it isn't the end of Steamy Lit."

Sales increased by 12.2% in value and 7.2% in units during the week of Love Your Bookshop Day (October 10), compared to the equivalent week last year, according to the Australian Booksellers Association. Books+Publishing reported that the data shows Australians spent A$26.9 million (about US$18.9 million) on print books during the week, purchasing more than 1.33 million books.

"And it wasn't just the bestsellers finding readers. Nielsen recorded 121,828 different ISBNs purchased, almost 12,000 more than in the equivalent week last year, reflecting the diversity of books Australians are choosing to read," said the ABA, adding that feedback from association members showed 86% of booksellers who responded to a survey reported higher sales than on a typical Saturday, with 54% saying sales were significantly higher.

Booksellers Aotearoa New Zealand said that sales were up 5.6% in value and 6.5% in units. "In real terms: 7,917 more books sold, NZ$150,550 [about US$85,630] more spent on books, and 4,602 more ISBNs selling," according to the organization. "That is a meaningful result, and while we can't attribute all of it to Bookshop Day alone, the trend is clear and it is moving in the right direction."

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Ben McNally

Longtime Canadian independent bookseller Ben McNally, owner of Ben McNally Books in Toronto, has been named this year's recipient of the Ivy Award, which is given annually by the International Visitors Program in association with the Toronto International Festival of Authors, to an individual who has made a substantial contribution to Canadian publishing. McNally will be presented with the award today, October 28, at a TIFA event.

"From authors and publishers to festivals and booksellers, we all work for something we fiercely believe in: the power of books and stories to change lives," Ivy Award jury chair and TIFA artistic director Roland Gulliver said, adding that McNally "encapsulates this belief. Over decades, he has worked tirelessly to champion books and writers through his bookstore, wherever the location. He is a beloved figure in the book community who turns out, whether rain, shine or snow, to make sure the best books find their readers."

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Monocle spoke with five literary leaders in Jakarta's publishing sphere, where "a creative community is finding fresh ways to celebrate the written word and to support local writers, keeping the art of print alive while bringing readers together in physical spaces." 

One of them is Judo Suwidji, co-founder of Periplus, one of Indonesia's largest bookselling chains, who said, "What I really hope is that at Periplus, we can introduce talented young writers. Whether they write in Indonesian or in English, it does not matter. They are welcome. What matters is that they write well. After that, we will bring in publishers from across the world."

Roundabout Books & Café, Bend, Ore., hosted a Rep Picks Night, welcoming a sold-out crowd for after-hours private shopping. Pacific Northwest publisher reps presented their top titles, gave holiday gift recommendations, and mingled. From left: Aubrey Clemans, publicist, Sourcebooks; Katie Megan and Amy Rockwell (in red), PRH; Stacy Wayne, Chronicle Books; Madeline Shier, Hachette Book Group; Seana Hayden, PRH; Cassie Clemans, owner, Roundabout Books & Café; Craig Bunn, PRH; Chris Satterlund, Scholastic.

The Great Wherever by Shannon Sanders (‎‎Holt) is the November pick for Reese's Book Club, which described the book this way: "Aubrey Lamb is struggling to find her footing in the wake of grief. When she inherits a Tennessee farm, she sees an opportunity to escape the city and get her finances back on track, but she soon discovers that the land is steeped in family secrets, generational rivalries, and the watchful eyes of four ghostly ancestors. As the family faces the possibility of losing their ancestral home, Aubrey must reckon with the complicated legacy of those who came before her and decide what kind of future she wants to build."

Reese said: "This novel about family and tradition is the perfect read to bring home for the holidays."

Josh Spencer

The three judges for the 2026/2027 Story Prize include Josh Spencer, founder and owner (with his wife, Jenna Spencer) of The Last Bookstore in downtown Los Angeles, Calif., as well as a branch in Studio City in L.A.; Lost Books, Plants & Vinyl in Montrose, Calif.; and Skull-Face Books & Vinyl in Honolulu, Hawaii.

The other two judges are author Deesha Philyaw, who won the Story Prize in 2020/21, and journalist and book critic Michael Schaub.

Casemate Group is exclusive provider of marketing, sales, and distribution services for print titles for Red Stripe Press in North America.

With headquarters in Dublin, Ireland, Red Stripe Press publishes nonfiction in a variety of genres, including music, sports, religion, and general Irish history. Key 2026 titles include Edged in Blue: A Rock 'n' Roll Odyssey with Rory Gallagher by Dónal Gallagher, the brother of the famed musician.

Red Stripe Press publisher Michael Brennan said: "As we at Red Stripe Press take the first, tentative steps beyond Ireland and the U.K., it is most reassuring to know that our list will be represented in the Americas by the distribution powerhouse that is Casemate. This new partnership has the potential to help us to grow our list in new and exciting ways. I couldn't be more pleased."

Casemate Group president David Farnsworth said, "We have a long history of elevating sales for Irish publishers in the North American market. We couldn't be more thrilled that our Casemate IPM trade publishing division now features Red Stripe Press's fantastic list."

At Shreve Williams Public Relations:

Chris Artis has been promoted to director of publicity, nonfiction. Before joining the firm more than a decade ago, he was head of editorial communications at Reuters, and held PR and communications positions at Random House, John Wiley & Sons, and Avon Books.

Lauren Hodapp has been promoted to director of publicity. She has held publicity roles with National Geographic, Penguin Press, Hyperion Books, and Knopf. 

Deb Shapiro has been promoted to director of publicity, lifestyle, wellness and fiction. She is a former journalist and bookseller with an M.A. in children's literature, and has worked more than 12 years in book publishing, creating and executing publicity and marketing campaigns for Houghton Mifflin, Holt, Simon & Schuster, and Bloomsbury Publishing.

Today:
Fresh Air: Anand Giridharadas, author of Man in the Mirror: Hope, Struggle, and Belonging in an American City (Knopf, $35, 9780593802014).

Tomorrow:
Good Morning America: Susan Spungen, author of Cookie Queen: 80+ Irresistible, Doable, Giftable Recipes (Rodale, $40, 9780593980743).

The View: Sophia Bush, author of And I Will Tell You Mine: Notes from a Life in Progress (Flatiron, $29.99, 9781250457899).

Jennifer Hudson Show: Tisha Campbell, author of The A Word: A Mother’s Journey Through Autism and Love (Amistad, $29.99, 9780063446489).

Jimmy Kimmel Live: Christopher Lloyd, author of In My Own Time: A Memoir (Grand Central, $32.50, 9781538776544).

Bill Nighy (Living, About Time) will co-star with Caitríona Balfe (Outlander, Belfast) in Alfonso Cuarón's new horror-thriller Apple TV series Ascension. Deadline reported that Natalie Erika James and Christian White are co-showrunners of the project, which was inspired by Adam Nevill's novel Last Days and is written by James, White, Alfonso Cuarón and Carlos Cuarón, with James serving as lead director. Apple Studios is the studio.

Ascension is a "psychological horror thriller following Rose (Balfe), a relentless documentary filmmaker and recently divorced mother who is brilliant at uncovering others' truths but struggling to resolve her own. When Rose begins a project on a mysterious 20th-century cult known as the Church of Ascension, she finds unexpected refuge in its teachings--until she discovers something far more insidious beneath," Deadline wrote. Nighy will play Zac, a documentarian who hires Rose to work with him on a new project. 

Finalists have been named for the Lane Anderson Award, which honors the best science writing in Canada in the adult and young reader categories, Quill & Quire reported. Two category winners, who will each receive C$10,000 (about US$7,120), will be announced in January 2027. The shortlisted titles are:

Young readers 
The Buzz on Wild Bees: The Little-Known Pollinators that Keep Our Planet Humming by Kira Vermond, illustrated by June Steube 
The Gland Factory: A Tour of Your Body's Goops, Juices, and Hormones by Rachel Poliquin, illustrated by Clayton Hanmer 
The Story and Science of Hope by Andrea Curtis, illustrated by Ana Suárez 

Adult
The Lobster Trap: The Global Fight for a Seafood on the Brink by Greg Mercer 
Meltdown: The Making and Breaking of a Field Scientist by Sarah Boon 
The Mind Mappers: Friendship, Betrayal and the Obsessive Quest to Chart the Brain by Eric Andrew-Gee 

Tanaïs (photo: Hassan Sayed)

Tanaïs (née Tanwi Nandini Islam) is a multidisciplinary artist, novelist, memoirist, and perfumer. They are the author of In Sensorium: Notes for My People, which won the Kirkus Prize for Nonfiction and offers an alternative history of South Asia through the lens of scent. Their queer coming-of-age debut novel, Bright Lines, was a finalist for the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize, the Edmund White Award for Debut Fiction, and the Brooklyn Eagles Literary Prize. They studied at Vassar College and Brooklyn College, and founded the independent artisan perfume house Studio Tanaïs. Their writing and perfumes have been featured in Vogue, Vogue India, Elle, Harper's Bazaar, the Cut, the Nation, and more. Stellar Smoke (Dutton, October 20, 2026) is their hypnotically original and lush speculative novel about family secrets and the mother-daughter bond across generations.

Handsell readers your book:

Stellar Smoke is a speculative novel in which I imagine a future where an artificial intelligence interrogates the very nature of love, life, death, and consciousness through the primordial mother-daughter bond. The book explores the delicate, oft dangerous terrain of family secrets and generational wounds, and the tension between a technological afterlife and our sensual, messy humanness.

On your nightstand now:

Crocodilopolis by John Manuel Arias and Uprising by Tahmima Anam. The way that Arias wields language with such wisdom, such poetry, is mesmerizing. I've been savoring each chapter. Anam is an incredibly innovative and daring writer, and I can't wait to dive into this novel about a floating brothel of the coast of Bangladesh.

Favorite book when you were a child:

Amy Tan's The Joy Luck Club, Scott O'Dell's Island of the Blue Dolphins, Mario Puzo's The Godfather. Mothers and daughters, islands, family sagas, taboo, New York City, the mob. Apart from the last one (don't count it out just yet!) these themes have been recurring in my own work, and these are books that I inhaled in a few sittings. Deeply realized characters grappling with alienation, surviving against all odds, and hustling drew me in at a young age because I identified with feeling untranslatable as an artist.

Your top five authors:

Toni Morrison, Kiese Laymon, Arundhati Roy, Elena Ferrante, Gabriel García Márquez.

These are the authors I return to over and over again to remind me what reading brilliant writing does for the spirit. Writing that dances between the sacred and profane, writing that radiates swag and compassion, writing that holds in every sentence eons of history and longing and the aftermath of unimaginable horror. Writing that pierces through illusion, straight to your heart.

Book you've faked reading:

Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy. Look, I read a nice chunk of this book during my M.F.A. years at Brooklyn College, but to say I wasn't a McCarthy fan would be sacrilege in that environment. I did recommend the book to my husband, who loved it, so there's that.

Books you're an evangelist for:

Magical/Realism: Essays on Music, Memory, Fantasy, and Borders by Vanessa Angélica Villarreal and When We Were Sisters by Fatimah Asghar.

As a fiction and nonfiction writer myself, I always turn to poets for inspiration. Poets have the deepest souls, a great range across genres. Villarreal is one of the most brilliant minds alive, her every thought illuminates the human condition, and her devotion to uncovering the interwoven nature of pleasure, fantasy, the cruelty and falsehood of borders, is so very important.

Asghar moves between poetry, fiction, film, and her debut novel floored me with its heart-wrenching portrayal of Muslim sisters who brave the world without their parents. There is so much eternal truth in this book.

Book you bought for the cover:

Perfume by Patrick Süskind, Folio Society hardcover edition. It's gold foil and ecru, in a sort of psychedelic pattern with a woman hurtling through space in the middle. It's perfect.

Book you hid from your parents:

Flowers in the Attic. Basically the entire V.C. Andrews oeuvre. They had no clue that this book wasn't about actual flowers, or florists, or anything remotely close to the sordid abuse in those pages!

Book that changed your life:

Feminism Is for Everybody by bell hooks

Read this in my very first Women's Studies class at Vassar, which not only decided my major but also gave me new language to understand liberation, solidarity, and consciousness. Black feminist theory is the blueprint.

Favorite line from a book:

"They shoot the white girl first." --Toni Morrison, Paradise. This line is so irreverent, dangerous, and potent. This line made me think, Oh, we can say anything when we write. That's what it means to write free.

Five books you'll never part with:

Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison: I have a signed copy which my mom procured from a client at her bank, who happened to be Toni Morrison's house painter.

Women in Concert: An Anthology of Bengali Muslim Women's Writings, 1904-1938, edited by Shaheen Akhtar and Moushumi Bhowmik, translated by Stree: This collection of writing by Bengali Muslim women in pre-partitioned India made me realize fully that there is no such thing as being the first; there are always hidden figures and foremothers who've imagined the world we wish we had. It's our duty to read them, find them, and share their work; and this book was with me as I wrote my memoir, In Sensorium: Notes for My People.

The Autobiography of Malcolm X, as told to Alex Haley: I always return to Malcolm X when I need to remember the sanctity and necessity of rage against injustice. For me, as a young femme raised Muslim in the U.S., I felt the revolutionary power of his words, his willingness to change, and his refusal to bend to the forces set to destroy him. This book taught me how much it costs to live a life of truth.

The Heart of the Buddha's Teaching by Thich Nhat Hanh: As I deepen my Buddhist practice, I find the clarity and beautiful wisdom of Hanh's teachings to be centering.

Orientalism by Edward Said: Forever indebted to this book for being intrinsic to my lifelong process of decolonization, of remembering the patramyth of European and American superiority is built on the labor, resources, minds, hearts, and bodies of people whose lands were--and continue to be--colonized.

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

White Teeth by Zadie Smith. This was the first time I'd encountered diasporic Bangladeshi characters in English fiction and it rocked me.

Books that changed how you see the world:

The Man Who Could Move Clouds by Ingrid Rojas Contreras; Wayward Lives, Beautiful Experiments by Saidiya Hartman; Freshwater by Akwaeke Emezi; Salt Houses by Hala Alyan; Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. Butler; How to Say Babylon by Safiya Sinclair.

Each of these books shifted my consciousness, and these writers have made me feel and question the role we have as writers to record what it means to be alive. What it means to write in relationship to history, self, spirituality, the mythic and mystical, the familial, the lands we come from--in ways that offer reckoning, and healing, which our world desperately needs.

The Wondrous Tale of Lavender Wolfe by Karen Foxlee (Miss Mary-Kate Martin's Guide to Monsters series) is a triumphant middle-grade adventure on the high seas featuring danger, sorrow, courage, magic, and found family.

It is 1719. Lavender Wolfe is hungry and has waited hours for her mother to return to the wharf to fetch her. Big Agatha, a "yellow-haired," olive-eyed, "perfectly wild looking" ship's cook, spots the fair-haired young Lavender. She takes Lavender aboard the Good Marchioness, "the most magical and cursed pirate ship that ever sailed the seven seas," despite the girl's protestations that she hasn't been abandoned. The captain, Odyessia Pleasant, a frightening, violet-eyed woman with a jagged scar and a wing in place of one arm, suspects Lavender can hear winds speak. Lavender insists she isn't magical, even though the wind did talk to her. However, desperately hungry, she takes the kitchen rat's oath and learns to peel potatoes, stir porridge, and scrub floors, along with five other magical children. They serve the crew, who seek the ghost ship Lady Eloise, which has a "spectral map" that will lead them to a stolen treasure. They must return the prize "before the dawn of the last day of the seventh year" or all aboard the Good Marchioness are doomed to be turned to sand. Meanwhile, the tetchy Captain Pleasant is suspiciously eager for Lavender to help her bottle storms.

Lavender's journey, narrated in her own plucky voice, is heartwarming and heartbreaking. There is much grief on the months-long voyage as children full of "goldenness" die and those who want to "make [their] own destiny" run toward other dangers. Lavender, who feels "meant for the sea," grows brave on waters calm and treacherous as the Good Marchioness faces mutiny, a Spanish armada carrying "only ammunition and vengeance," and the dreadful, blue-tongued ghosts of the drowned. Her relationship with the enigmatic captain, whom everyone else fears, is especially captivating. Big Agatha's bedtime stories conjure a fairy tale atmosphere, and magic seeps from interstitial recipes with ingredients such as "a wish for safe seas with the first bite." The textured black-and-white mixed-media illustrations by Martina Heiduczek (Wild and Free) give a sense of time and place to the novel. Her spot drawings, such as a tiger painted on a glass spice bottle, add whimsy, as do Foxlee's larger-than-life side characters (including a peculiar hen). Here lies excitement as vast as the sea. --Samantha Zaboski, freelance editor and reviewer

Shelf Talker: A girl who can speak to the winds goes from kitchen rat to brave pirate on a cursed ship in this exhilarating, endearingly eccentric, and singularly spirited middle-grade high-seas fantasy.