The Guilty Librarian, an all-ages, general-interest bookstore, held a grand opening celebration Saturday morning in Flomaton, Ala., NorthEscambia.com reported.

Located in an historic building at 331 Palafox St., the Guilty Librarian sells new titles across a wide variety of genres. Co-owners and mother-daughter team Chandra Rigby and Tori Walker noted that fantasy and romance have a large presence on the shelves, and the store's decor and atmosphere are inspired by dark academia and romantasy aesthetics. 

Their event plans include author signings as well as after-hours events like a "Pages & Potions" night scheduled for October 30 that will include after-hours shopping, tarot readings, mocktails, and a costume contest. On November 28, Small Business Saturday, the Guilty Librarian will partner with the town for a special holiday market with local vendors.

Rigby told NorthEscambia.com, "This community has gone above and beyond here; they have wholeheartedly supported us even before we are open." Walker said they hope for the space to be an oasis for shoppers: "We want people to walk in here, and everything out here is quiet. They've escaped their own reality and just hung out with us for a little while. It's like the whole thing, and also I don't know of any other bookstores around here that are like this."

Walker and Rigby told NorthEscambia.com they fell in love with the building. Built in the 1880s, it has housed a drugstore and soda fountain, a hospital, the town's telephone switchboard, and more. Renovation work revealed original tile floors and a wooden ceiling, which have been restored.

The grand opening festivities on Saturday included book signings with local authors, local vendors, and swag bags for the first 50 shoppers.

The Blushing Bookmark, a mobile bookstore focused on romance, made its debut on October 4 in Massapequa Park, N.Y. Newsday reported that the bookstore is built out of a renovated landscaping trailer and holds around 300 books, with owner Keriann Iovino carrying an array of romance sub-genres. Iovino told Newsday: "I wanted it to feel like a cozy escape and to make it a shopping experience. It's designed to let you forget like you're inside a trailer. You're just stepping into a tiny bookstore."

Prior to opening the Blushing Bookmark, Iovino worked for a literary marketing firm that specialized in the romance genre. She chose to open a bookstore of her own based on her fondness for the genre, particularly romantasy, and the fact that there "aren't many niche independent bookstores around here, especially ones centered around romance." 

She opted for the mobile bookstore option based on cost considerations and time constraints, and she purchased the trailer from the owner of a mobile bookstore in New Jersey.

Her first appearance will be part of the Massapequa Park Street Fair in her hometown of Massapequa Park. Looking ahead, she plans to make more appearances at festivals and other pop-up events around Long Island.

Co-owners Matt Browning and Brian Mann are looking for a buyer for Plot Twist Books, South Charleston, W.Va., WCHS reported.

"After three and a half wonderful years, we are exploring some new opportunities and would love to turn over Plot Twist Books to new owners who share the same passion for the place that we--and our wonderful staff and loyal customers--do," Mann and Browning wrote in an announcement. 

Located at 209 D St., Plot Twist Books sells new and used titles for all ages along with books and gifts. It also has a connected Airbnb rental called the Bookstore Bungalow. The sale will include the business as well as the building. While they did not mention specific numbers in the announcement, they did note that "the store has turned a profit since year two and, thanks to solid book sales and a very busy year with the Airbnb, we're expecting our biggest year to date."

Business will continue as usual while Browning and Mann search for a buyer and arrange a sale. Interested parties can inquire via e-mail here.

At Rizzoli Group, Christine Edwards will join the company as chief commercial officer and v-p, effective November 1. She succeeds Jennifer deForest Pierson, who becomes emeritus CCO and will help with a transition and continue at Rizzoli until August 2027.

Christine Edwards

Edwards has more than 20 years of experience in book publishing, sales, digital marketing, and retail, most recently as senior v-p, global sales and subsidiary rights at Abrams. Her career includes senior sales and marketing roles at HarperCollins and Penguin Random House, and retail merchandising leadership at Borders Group.

Stefano Peccatori, CEO and president of the Rizzoli Group, said that Edwards's "expertise in sales, retail, and business transformation, and her passion for connecting readers with great books, make her the ideal leader for our next chapter. I am confident that under her guidance we will grow Rizzoli Group and all its imprint (Rizzoli, Rizzoli Electa, Rizzoli Universe and the new sister Chelsea Green Publishing) as a trade publisher reaching readers around the world, across every channel."

Rizzoli said that during her 25 years at Rizzoli, Pierson "played a central role in the company's global growth, leading its sales, marketing, and operations as CCO and building the distribution and partner relationships that expanded the reach of Rizzoli's list. Her strategic planning, operational leadership, and commitment to the company's authors and people helped shape Rizzoli into the publisher it is today."

Peccatori added, "We are lucky that for so many years Jennifer has been at the very heart of Rizzoli's growth. As our CCO, her leadership helped shape the company we are today, and we are deeply grateful for her extraordinary contribution."

In June, Media Source, the parent company of the review magazines Library Journal, School Library Journal, and The Horn Book, as well as the evergreen book boxes of Junior Library Guild, launched its first new publication in 75 years: Open Shelf Reviews. The paid service gives independent authors and small presses access to a community of professional reviewers, most with backgrounds in education and libraries.

The manager of this new online presence is Kimberly Fakih, who spent recent years as executive editor at SLJ and was previously senior editor at Kirkus Reviews and contributing editor of reviews at Publishers Weekly.

"This skill set follows me around," Fakih said. "Or perhaps I chase it! I've always had an affection for matchmaking: getting books into the hands of readers." For her, this is the first time fees have been involved. Authors and small presses pay for their reviews, whether positive, negative, or mixed. Reviews of picture books, delivered within six weeks, start at $399.

"We had to make sure the business was sustainable through paid reviews, but we also knew it was a way to level the playing field," Fakih explained. "Every author is passionate about their book, crafted over months or years. Now authors can ensure that an experienced professional reads their words."

The aim is to offer constructive feedback to authors no matter where they are in the process: before publication, just after publication, or as a way to revive a published title that may not have been reviewed the first time around. By clearly labeling the service, Fakih said, Open Shelf Reviews meets a growing market need while reinforcing the trust, established by its sister publications, that is at the core of review work.

"Libraries cannot purchase books without demonstrating that the titles have been reviewed by one, two--even three sources," Fakih noted. Given the number of book bans across school districts, a review can be crucial for a title that might otherwise not be purchased.

More books are being published than ever before. Bowker counted more than four million new titles in the United States in 2025, more than 3.5 million of them self-published. "It's not just librarians; booksellers, too, are telling us they need more reviews," Fakih said. "And we hope that means more attention for the small or niche titles that would otherwise be lost on enormous online shopping sites. Every book deserves the opportunity to be evaluated on its own merits. That's the match we're here to make."

Fakih has seen the business from all sides. She has published half a dozen books (most recently Little Miseries, in 2023) and edited books at major publishing houses. "I know what it's like to wait nervously for a review. And I would have loved to have had just a smidge more control over the process--good, bad, or otherwise."

The package authors sign up for includes a professional editorial review, reader and market readiness ratings, constructive editorial feedback, and a top market takeaway. "A professional review isn't about proving a book belongs. It's about helping the right readers find it," Fakih said. "Authors can pull quotes for a cover, use the language when they pitch booksellers and librarians, and put it wherever it helps. If you're self-publishing, you're likely siloed from the process all of us in publishing know. We want to educate those authors--and help them celebrate."

Linda Asher, who in nearly two decades at the New Yorker "edited the stories of literary luminaries like Haruki Murakami, Louise Erdrich, and A.S. Byatt and who was also a prominent translator of fiction from the French, including of novels by Milan Kundera, Yasmina Reza, and Georges Simenon," died September 15, the New York Times reported. She was 93.

Linda Asher

Asher "broadened the horizons of our fiction department," said Charles McGrath, a former deputy editor of the New Yorker who later oversaw the New York Times Book Review. "She was a genuine intellectual in a way the rest of us weren't. And she introduced writers to the magazine that only she could have--the biggest one was Murakami."

In her 18 years as a fiction editor at the New Yorker, Asher edited stories, and after she left the magazine in 1997, she continued to translate for books and articles.

"Linda's enthusiasm and excitement about the writing that interested her was an inspiration, and her translations of Kundera, among others, show her enormous sensitivity to the writer's intent," said Deborah Treisman, the fiction editor of the New Yorker.

In 2020, Asher received the Thornton Wilder Prize for Translation from the American Academy of Arts and Letters for lifetime achievement. "Asher is singular in her ability and plasticity of language to convey what the original intent of the writer had in mind," Terry Tempest Williams, a member of the literature committee, said on the prize's website. "She makes 'reading between the lines' synonymous with 'translating between the lines.' "

Her husband, Aaron Asher, an editor at several publishing houses, was also a translator whose works include Kundera's The Book of Laughter and Forgetting (1979) from French in 1996 and Life Is Elsewhere (1973) in 2000.

Before joining the New Yorker in 1979, Linda Asher was a researcher at Life magazine; worked at Time-Life Books; was managing editor of the journal of the Institute of Society, Ethics and the Life Sciences (now the Hastings Center for Bioethics); and was an editor at Psychology Today.

She was hired at the New Yorker by editor William Shawn. McGrath recalled: "We had this system of exchanging opinions so when a story was up for consideration, it got passed around to different editors. Each editor would write a paragraph or two, but hers were incredibly deep, like miniature term papers."

Asher served on the award jury for the French-American Foundation, for which she annually read at least a hundred new translations from current and classic French writing. She won the organization's award in 2000 for her translation of The Case of Doctor Sachs by Martin Winckler, and in 2008 for The Curtain: An Essay in Seven Parts by Kundera.

Her other translations include Reza's Babylon (2018); Simenon's The Yellow Dog (1987); Memoirs of a Breton Peasant  by Jean-Marie Déguignet (2004); and The Human Comedy: Selected Stories by Honoré de Balzac, which she translated in 2014 with Carol Cosman and Jordan Stump. For her translations from French, she was recognized as a Chevalier of the Order of Arts and Letters of the French Republic.

Erdrich recalled that "A Wedge of Shade," her first story published in the New Yorker, was accepted and edited by Asher: "I remember the thrill it gave me and the even greater sense of gratification when, after many rejections, she'd write, 'Of course we'll take this one.' It was as if we both knew the outcome, and with the others I'd been throwing wide on purpose."

Denise Kiernan (Obstinate Daughters: The Rebels, Writers, and Renegade Women Who Ignited the American Revolution, Dutton) and Shannon McKenna Schmidt (You Can't Catch Us: Lady Bird Johnson's Trailblazing 1964 Campaign Train and the Women Who Rode with Her, Sourcebooks) teamed up to talk about trailblazing women at the History Book Festival in Lewes, Del. The festival celebrated its 10th anniversary this year.

Robert Sindelar

In early November, Robert Sindelar, co-owner of Third Place Books, Seattle, Wash., and a former American Booksellers Association president, performs his own solo play, The Things You Can't Forget, about his experience of returning to the world of theater after a 25-year absence while navigating his relationship with his mother as she loses her memory.

In the 1990s he acted in and directed plays around Seattle's Fringe Theater Scene at such theaters as Aha! Theater, New Mercury Theater, New City Theater, Odd Duck Studios and The Theater Off Jackson. He returned to theater in 2023, playing Vladimir in Waiting for Godot at OutCast Productions on Whidbey Island, where he also played Aston in Harold Pinter's The Caretaker in 2025.

The Things You Can't Forget is directed by Dawson Nichols.

The play will be performed November 5-8 at West of Lenin in Seattle. For more information and tickets, click here.

From Boulder Bookstore in Boulder Colo.: "We had a pretty unique visitor to Boulder Bookstore this past week: a juvenile Cooper's hawk made his way into the store and spent some time in our Ballroom! It took animal control a couple hours to catch him and after they ensure he is healthy, he will be released. We have named him Merlin and think he was looking for H Is for Hawk by Helen MacDonald."

"Just enjoying this beautiful night in Downtown Middletown," Well Worn Books in Middletown, N.Y., posted.

Today:
CBS Mornings: Michael Lewis, author of Blockers: Rebels in the Deep State (W.W. Norton, $29.99, 9781324131656).

The View: Sen. Thom Tillis, author of How to Lose Friends and Antagonize Presidents: The Trouble with Sycophants, Courage Outsourcing, and Partisan Groupthink (Broadside Books, $32, 9780063580695).

Live with Kelly and Mark: Jean Chatzky, author of The Forever Paycheck: The New Retirement Strategy to Spend More, Worry Less, and Never Run Out of Money (Avery, $32, 9798217179473).

Fresh Air: Michael Douglas, author of One Helluva Ride (Grand Central, $35, 9781538782224). He will also appear today on Good Morning America and tomorrow on the View.

Tomorrow:
CBS Mornings: Vanessa Van Edwards, author of Conversation: How to Connect with Anyone & Make Every Interaction Count (Portfolio, $32, 9798217048298).

Good Morning America: Leah Victoria, author of And That's Dinner!: Flexible Recipes for Cooking Smarter, Not Harder (DK, $38, 9780593969847).

Today: Yotam Ottolenghi, author of Ottolenghi Simple Too: A Cookbook (Ten Speed Press, $45, 9781984860088).

Drew Barrymore Show: Barry Michels, author of Ahead of All Parting: On Learning to Live with an Open Heart (Spiegel & Grau, $28, 9781966302179).

Also on Drew Barrymore: Melissa King, author of The Girl Who Became King: A Memoir (The Dial Press, $30, 9780593594872).

Tamron Hall: Prabal Gurung, author of Walk Like a Girl: A Memoir (Viking, $32, 9780593493274). 

Jimmy Kimmel Live: Kyle MacLachlan, author of Fictional Selves: A Memoir (Crown, $34, 9798217086320).

Noting that the series His & Hers, based on Alice Feeney's book, "became one of Netflix's most-watched series ever after launching earlier this year," Deadline reported that the group behind the Jon Bernthal and Tessa Thompson-led thriller will once again team with Fifth Season to adapt the author's next novel, Twist.

William Oldroyd returns to write and direct the project, joining Kristen Campo's Campout Productions, Jessica Chastain and Kelly Carmichael's Freckle Films, Bill Dubuque and Thompson's Viva Maude, to develop it as a series. Exec producers include Oldroyd, Campo, Chastain, Dubuque, Thompson, Feeney, Kelly Carmichael, and Kishori Rajan.

Twist "is a thriller about love, marriage, murder, and revenge. It centers around a flight attendant living a double life with two different husbands and a murder that shatters their lives. Told across dual POVs, the story twists and unravels as secrets surface, in a marriage thriller that asks if we can ever really know the person we marry," Deadline noted. Macmillian will publish the book in February 2027.

"Having had such a wonderful experience with His & Hers, it was a very easy decision to get the band back together for Twist," said Feeney. "It feels like a dream come true. I love this book, I love this team, and I can't wait to see these characters come to life on screen."

The shortlist has been selected for the $5,000 2027 Crook's Corner Book Prize, recognizing "the best debut novel set in the American South." The winner will be announced in January. 

The longlist:
The Resettlement of Vesta Blonik by Denise Smith Cline (Regal House Publishing)
God Is Harder on Girls by Ella Dodson (Chapel Hill Press)
This Here Is Love by Princess Joy L. Perry (W. W. Norton)
The Slip by Lucas Schaefer (Simon & Schuster)

From a connoisseur of culinary culture, Table Hopping by Dylan Jones offers readers a thrilling front-row seat to the British capital's emergence as a leading global hot spot for international cuisine. Rife with cheeky humor, nostalgic anecdotes, and famous chefs behaving badly, it is a fascinating oral history of London's iconic eateries with colorful commentary by legendary restaurateurs and influential critics. Celebrity diners such as Keira Knightley, Mick Jagger, and Princess Diana also pop up throughout the book.

Jones (David Bowie: A Life; London Sartorial) is a former editor of GQ and the Evening Standard. Referring to Table Hopping as a first-of-its-kind "social history" of London's restaurants, Jones goes far beyond the restaurants' menus to highlight their importance as "cornerstone[s]" of the city's singular cultural identity. To quote chef Marco Pierre White, they were not just about the "best food," but who had the "best package." When it opened in 1976, Langan's Brasserie was the first London restaurant to generate "international appeal." The stylish brainchild of actor Michael Caine and hard-drinking restaurateur Peter Langan, the brasserie became a "gastronomic palace" known for its spinach soufflé and the insults that were Langan's signature dish. Superstars and royalty flocked there, heralding the birth of the "designer restaurant" concept. When Hong Kong entrepreneur David Tang opened China Tang in 2005 at Mayfair's Dorchester Hotel, it quickly became a "bold-face hangout" for the likes of Russell Crowe and Fidel Castro.

As readers accompany Jones around London, to Notting Hill, Piccadilly Circus, and a Soho restaurant that gave birth to the espresso martini, it's clear he is a trusted fixture of the restaurant scene. It's no surprise, then, that the chefs Jones interviewed shared scandalous secrets, including the story of an amorous, "globally renowned super chef" who made highly inappropriate use of the restaurant's hotplate. Jones's clear favorite is the Wolseley, fashionably modeled after "a grand all-day European café," where regulars such as Annie Lennox and Harry Styles hung out.

Each chapter's "What We Ate" summary describes the "heady glamour" and sensory novelties that set London's restaurant scene alight. With his flair for storytelling, Jones delights with laments about the "epicurean plague" of truffle oil in the early 2000s.

Table Hopping celebrates dining experiences that "feed our souls as well as our bellies." It's a dazzling literary adventure into the "centre of the culinary world." --Shahina Piyarali

Shelf Talker: Here is a dazzling, first-of-its-kind history of London's iconic restaurants, including a Soho eatery that created the espresso martini and a celebrity-fueled Chinese restaurant in Mayfair.