The Peddler's Pack Book Co. opened last month at 408 W. Main St. in Tomball, Tex. Offering new and used books, used vinyl, gift items, stationery, audiobooks, and kids items, the shop aims "to provide a space where our community can come together and embrace a shared love of literacy. Y'all come see us sometime!"

Owner Jacky Schaaf told Community Impact that she and her family chose Tomball because they live in the community and wanted to help bring more life to their "cozy corner of Northwest Harris County."

"We are so grateful for how much our community has shown up and supported us," Schaaf said. "Our grand opening was an overwhelming success." She also plans to add more in-store events, including weekly children's story time, book clubs, and author events.

In an Instagram post after the May 30 grand opening celebration, Schaaf wrote: "This weekend exceeded all expectations I had for how my store would be welcomed by our community. You guys BLEW ME AWAY. I was moved to tears by how many folks showed up to celebrate and shop with us. I want to tell everyone a heartfelt THANK YOU! Let's keep it going. I'm so excited to see what the future holds."

A Novel Escape mobile bookstore, which specializes in indie books from underrepresented authors--sold on consignment--as well as art, clothes, and accessories, has hit the road in the Wichita, Kan., area, primarily around the suburb of Derby. Owner Allyson Lacey, who converted an old school bus into the new venture, operates the bus seasonally while working as a special education paraprofessional, the Wichita Business Journal reported. 

Lacey noted that she found the old school bus for sale a few years ago on an auction website: "I had seen people living in buses, turning them into homes and stuff." She bid just over $1,000, expecting it to go for at least $5,000. "I was like, I'll get outbid, then I don't have to worry about having a bus. But then I didn't get outbid."

Not sure initially what to do with her bus, she decided last year to turn her love for books into a mobile bookstore: "I'm knowledgeable about books, I'm knowledgeable about what makes books sell and I was like, I have this bus, I'm going to just do it."

After removing the seats and grinding the bus down to the metal, she added refurbished wood from a basketball court to the floors. Lacey estimates she has invested approximately $6,000 to $8,000 so far in the bookshop.

"We support women, the LGBTQIA+ community, different ethnicities, a wide range of people," she added. "Those are the kind of people I look to support and uplift, and that's really important to me, to allow those people that may be more overlooked, give them an opportunity to get their books out there."

As an indie author, Lacey is familiar with the process and challenges that come with self-publishing and marketing, noting: "I had really struggled getting my books into stores and things like that. It is really hard to find an avenue for that."

A Novel Escape will operate from April through November, according to Lacey, who encourages other young business owners to "just do it.... I had to learn how to do a lot of different skills to construct the bus, and then I had to learn... how to (do) business and how to build contracts. You can learn anything, go to the library. You can learn any skill. You don't have to be perfect, you just have to try really hard."

Following its soft opening May 22, Ember & Ink will host a grand opening celebration this coming Saturday, June 27, in Hermosa Beach, Calif., the Daily Breeze reported. Ember & Ink is a romance-focused bookstore that also offers some general fiction titles and books for children and teens. It spans 1,250 square feet and includes a comfortable reading nook, along with a cafe area that is still in the works. The store's event offerings include craft nights, book clubs, and book signings.

Co-owners Kristine Conway and Eliza Lane told the Daily Breeze that Ember & Ink has been well-received. "I think there's that craving for community that's really happening right now," Lane said. "It feels like we're filling a hole, a need in the community."

Conway noted that the store already has regulars: "Sometimes they'll buy something; sometimes they just want to be in here."

Prior to opening Ember & Ink, Conway had a career in pharmaceutical sales, then became a stay-at-home parent, while Lane is an English professor at Bryant & Stratton College. They are both avid romance readers and active in the same PTA group, and Conway felt the urge to open a bookstore while discussing dream jobs at a book club meeting. The pair decided to take the plunge, and they looked at more than 40 locations before finding the space at 1200 Pacific Coast Hwy.

The grand opening festivities on June 27 will run from noon until 4 p.m. and include mocktails, a bookish craft station, flash tattoos, raffles, and other activities.

Marc DeBevoise has been named CEO of OverDrive, and founder and CEO Steve Potash is becoming chairman of the board. The company described the moves as "a planned succession designed to support OverDrive's continued growth and global expansion."

Marc DeBevoise

OverDrive has a large digital catalog of e-books, audiobooks, magazines, video, and other content, and mainly markets to libraries and schools. In 2020, KKR bought OverDrive from Rakuten, which had purchased the company in 2015.

DeBevoise joined OverDrive as president in March and earlier was CEO of Brightcove, chief digital officer of Paramount, and CEO of CBS Interactive. He commented: "OverDrive has extraordinary reach, incredible momentum, and an enduring mission--and I'm thrilled to lead this company forward. I'm grateful to Steve for his continued partnership and to the Board for their confidence, and I look forward to working with our team and partners to build on everything this company stands for."

Potash founded OverDrive 40 years ago as an early digital content venture and built it into a global platform serving more than 80,000 libraries and schools in more than 115 countries.

Potash said, "Founding and building OverDrive has been the most rewarding journey of my career. With Marc leading as CEO, the company is exceptionally well positioned to grow and evolve. As chairman, I look forward to supporting Marc and our team while continuing to champion the libraries, schools, and institutions at the heart of our mission."

Richard Sarnoff, chairman of media, KKR Americas Private Equity, said that Potash "built an extraordinary organization--a mission-driven company with true global impact--and Marc is the ideal leader to write its next chapter. Marc's vision, energy, and operational depth give us every confidence that his leadership will not only augment its success as a business but also heighten its outstanding record of service to libraries and their patrons, to schools and their students, and to publishers and content owners."

Book Passage in Corte Madera, Calif., hosted Greg Sarris in celebration of his new novel, The Last Human Bear (Heyday Books). Sarris, a university professor and tribal leader currently serving his 17th term as chair of the Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria, was in conversation with author Jane Ciabattari. Pictured: (l.-r.): Allison Bainbridge, Book Passage; Sheryl Cotleur, head buyer for Copperfield's Books; Greg Sarris; Jane Ciabattari, Mark Ciabattari; Karen West, Book Passage.

At the Anderson's Bookshops store in Naperville, Ill., "Jennifer and Nikki recently finished our annual Pride windows in our storefront. We create Pride windows every year, and this year's theme is 'Love and Books for All.' "

To mark the start today of its Anti-Prime sale, Bookshop.org offers a hilarious video of a Bookshop marketer and lawyer going over possible campaign themes. After some wonderful ideas are shot down for legal reasons, the approved version still resonates: "Bookshop.org is celebrating Anti-Prime Day! There's free shipping on all orders. Every purchase supports local independent bookstores. Support bookstores, not billionaires."

"Books: a cheaper way to deal with a mid-life crisis." That was the sidewalk chalkboard message in front of Good Neighbor Bookstore in Lakewood, N.Y., which offered an alternative to car show attendees on Saturday: "To my regular customers, apologies for the lack of parking. To the car show patrons... might I interest you in something that can take you on a journey that will go further than the rusted out pick up truck could ever dream of going? No gas/batteries required. It's a book. A book is what I'm referencing."

Tomorrow:
Today: Farideh Sadeghin, author of The Hot Dog Cookbook: 50 Recipes for the World's Best Food (Workman, $20, 9781523529674).

Skydance Sports is developing a movie adaptation of Scouts and Raiders: The Navy's First Special Warfare Commandos, a 1993 nonfiction book by John B. Dwyer, which Mark Perez (Game Night) and Jason Filardi (Chapelwaite) will adapt, Deadline reported.

Scouts and Raiders "is billed as telling the true origin story of the WWII commando unit of the same name, a precursor to the Navy SEALs, including its heavy recruitment of collegiate and professional football players," Deadline noted. The National Football League is involved with the project through its partnership with Skydance Sports. 

Sisters in Crime Australia has released a longlist in four categories for the 2026 Davitt Awards, recognizing the best crime and mystery books by Australian women. The shortlist will be unveiled in July and winners named in August/September. Check out the complete longlist here.

This year, 126 books were entered in the categories of adult fiction, nonfiction, YA, and children's books. Judges selected a longlist of 28 books "that reflect the excellent quality and maturity of stories written by Australian women crime writers. These stories are notable for their originality, depth and high level of the authors' skills."

The Art of Charming a Changeling is an endearing, enthralling fantasy-romance by Sylvie Cathrall, whose imagination takes readers through Folk and Fairy lands, into a painting, and back again.

Florrie Hyverfell loves her work as an art conservator. It's people she finds challenging. Constantly arranging her face, rehearsing conversations ahead of time, seeking out comforting textures, and managing her interactions with the world exhaust her. She feels fortunate to be employed by Prince Ardant at the Commonplace Palace Museum, where she cares for his extensive collection. He even shares her passion for Fairy paintings, which have become embarrassingly outmoded. The painting he cares the most about is The Resolute Portrait of Vibrant Lord Vernal Mauve Among the Ruins; but to her dismay, Florrie quickly determines it has been replaced by a Fairy forgery. Worse, the counterfeit painting is holding hostage a changeling, a minuscule, near-perfect copy version of Lord Vernal Mauve, who asks that she call him Vern.

Florrie feels a little overwhelmed. According to the Conservators' Code (which she has memorized), "one must only introduce the mere possibility of a counterfeit after acquiring at least five forms of incontrovertible evidence." To save her job, and to help Vern escape from the beautiful but closed world of his painting, Florrie is compelled to find the original stolen painting. To do so, she must travel into Fairy lands, where Folk seldom travel. Meanwhile, there is the utter allure and magnetism of Vern, and does he have tiny, impossibly adorable dimples?

Cathrall (A Letter to the Luminous Deep) invites readers into a curious world in which Folk and Fairies have parted ways, with Folk generally preferring simpler technologies (rejecting levitating carts because "nothing feels so real as a wheel") and eschewing Fairies and their overly embellished art. Finding herself attracted to Vern presents another layer of difficulty to a woman who frequently struggles to find her way. But Florrie is stronger than some might think.

The Art of Charming a Changeling offers an absorbing foray into an imaginative setting populated by art-focused princes, haughty collectors and conservators at odds with one another, fanciful Fairies, and the occasional predatory duck. It contains a sweet and cozy romance, a woman's journey of self-actualization within a society that undervalues her, and a whimsical fantasy of changeling art. It also features a quest, for those seeking adventure. This first in a planned series will leave all sorts of readers hungry for more. --Julia Kastner, blogger at pagesofjulia

Shelf Talker: A plucky art conservator must travel into Fairy lands to save her job and a dreamy Fairy imprisoned in a painting in this endearing, enthralling fantasy romance.