"Of course I was going to pack Bad Words as full of indie bookshops as I could! My favorite part of visiting a new city or neighborhood is always ferreting out the local bookshops there and snooping around their corners and observing their ecosystems. 

"Indies are textured and handmade and represent the dreams of the people who built them, as well as the community of individuals supporting them. They say something about their people. In that, they're a perfect analogue for books themselves, and for everything else that's worth defending in this ever-smoothening world."

The Mountains and Plains Independent Booksellers Association FallCon, at the Renaissance Denver Hotel & Conference Center, commenced on Sunday with a rousing Mix and Mingle event at nearby Station 26 Brewery. Under clear skies and a setting sun, attendees shared travel stories, book recommendations, and excitement for the upcoming week of author luncheons, education sessions, and peer consultation. The show runs through Wednesday, and we'll have more coverage throughout the week.

Monday morning's Kick-Off Keynote Author Breakfast presented a lineup of forthcoming titles spanning genres and age groups. It featured (l.-r.) Nicola Yoon with Always One More Time (Delacorte), a YA romance whose main character struggles to believe in love; Charlie Donlea with Behind Every Face (Kensington), a suspense novel about a financial analyst working as an FBI informant; Julia Armfield with Up to the Light (Flatiron), a mountaineering story with a chilling twist; Amy Stewart with State Bird: A Nation Elects Its Feathered Representatives (Norton), which looks into the history of states choosing their emblematic avians; Jeff Giles with Someone Saved My Life Tonight (Nancy Paulsen Books), a YA novel following the aftermath of a bombing at a pop concert; and Daniel Nayeri with This Is a Door (Stonefruit Studios), a middle-grade hero's journey through an imaginative landscape of words. The discussion was moderated by Arvin Ramgoolam (far right), co-owner of Townie Books in Crested Butte, Colo.

(l.-r.) Booksellers Lydia Kelley, from Amethyst and Ink Books, Lawton, Okla., and Sheena Johnson and Kara Sanders, The Page Society, Duncan, Okla., show off their book haul from the author breakfast.

Show floor smiles from (l.) Riley Smith, Bright Side Bookshop, Flagstaff, Ariz., and Teena Krueger, The Plains Trading Company, Valentine, Neb., with their armloads of books.
Conner Horak-Flood and Megan Murray from Bookstore on the Square, Fort Collins, Colo., heroically toting bag upon bag of fresh finds.
Eli McCann (Stitched) and Betsy Gaines Quammen (This Haunted Land) sign their books for Lydia Kelley, Amethyst and Ink Books, Lawton, Okla., at the Torrey House Press booth. 

Heather Hall, Green Feather Book Company, Norman, Okla., gets her copy of Backwoods Banshee (October 2026) signed by author David R. Slayton at the Blackstone Publishing booth.

Sarah Rhu

Congratulations to Sarah Rhu of Scuppernong Books, Greensboro, N.C., who has won Shelf Awareness's scholarship to Winter Institute in Minneapolis, Minn., in February 2027. The scholarship covers registration fee, program meals, up to five nights room and tax, and up to $600 in eligible travel expenses. Applicants' stores needed to be ABA members and participate in Shelf Awareness partner mailings. More than 40 well-qualified booksellers applied.

Shelf Awareness's selection committee was most impressed by the breadth of Sarah's application: her interest in specific programming as a way to improve her store management, her eagerness to interact with fellow independent booksellers, and her desire to explore the publishing and bookselling scene in Minneapolis in person.

The Island Bookstore, Mackinac Island, Mich., will combine its two locations into a single, larger space next spring, the Mackinac Island Town Crier reported.

Currently, the Island Bookstore has one location next to the Lilac Tree Hotel at 7372 Main St. and a second, smaller location a short distance away at 7301 Main St. Following the end of tourist season this fall, the store at the Lilac Tree Hotel will close, while the Main St. store will expand into an adjacent storefront. In the spring, the Island Bookstore will reopen as a single, larger bookstore.

Co-owners Joseph and Diane Brandonisio and Mary Jane Barnwell told the Town Crier that with the two locations, the bookstores had a combined size between 1,300 and 1,400 square feet. In the expanded storefront, they will have around 1,800 square feet.

Between the extra space and no longer having to carry some of the same titles at both stores, they will "be able to have a deeper selection of books in every genre of book that we carry," Joseph Brandonisio said. He pointed to graphic novels and poetry as two sections that will have wider selections in the combined store. 

At the same time, having a single inventory to manage will make things simpler, he said, and it will be an advantage being entirely on Main St. He added that he thinks seasonal customers used to shopping at the Lilac Tree Hotel store won't have a problem finding the new space.

"I've always wanted a larger space, so this is a dream come true for me," Barnwell said. "I think it's going to provide our customers with a lot more room to browse, and a lot more options, a lot more books."

Original owner Cliff Olson opened the Island Bookstore in 1975. At that time, it was primarily an antiquarian bookstore and resided in a 300-square-foot space above a grocery store. The Brandonosios and Barnwell bought the store in the late 1980s. In the early '90s the owners moved the store to the space connected to the Lilac Tree Hotel. The second, smaller location followed after that.

The owners plan to have the expanded bookstore open by May 2027, in time for tourist season.

The American Library Association is observing Banned Books Week, Oct. 4-10, under the theme "Let Books Be. Protect the Freedom to Read." To mark the occasion and ALA's official 150th anniversary today, October 6, ALA has released a list of the 150 most challenged books documented from 1990 through 2025.

ALA's Office for Intellectual Freedom tracked 4,235 unique titles challenged in 2025, the second-highest total on record. The full list of 150 most challenged books spans contemporary titles such as Gender Queer: A Memoir by Maia Kobabe and literary classics like To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee and Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck.

"Every book on this list is a reminder that readers have the right to explore ideas and decide for themselves what to read," said ALA president Maria McCauley. "For 150 years, ALA has worked alongside library workers to keep that choice open to everyone. We ask for support for our libraries so the next generation has that same freedom."

Authors and free expression advocates Bess Kalb, known for the Buffalo Fluffalo series, and Tony Weaver, Jr., author of Weirdo, are this year's honorary chairs. Texas student advocates Marshall Romero and Azeemah Sadiq are youth honorary chairs.

Libraries, bookstores, schools and allied organizations are holding local programs throughout the week. The observance concludes Saturday, October 10, with Let Freedom Read Day, when everyone is encouraged to take at least one action against censorship or in support of library workers, authors, educators, and booksellers. 

Jeffrey Archer, "a bestselling British author, politician, philanthropist, athlete, and one-time jailbird, whose résumé seesawed between achievement and disgrace, and who inspired abiding public fascination with headline-grabbing accounts, both fictional and personal, of ambition, self-promotion, misbehavior and scandal," died October 5, the New York Times reported. He was 86.

Jeffrey Archer (photo: Toby Madden)

Archer's publisher, HarperCollins, announced his death in a statement, noting that his new book, Adam and Eve, which the author had always planned to be his final novel, is being released globally today, October 6. A half-century ago, his first novel, Not a Penny More, Not a Penny Less (1976) was published, launching a literary career that saw 300 million copies of his books sold in 119 countries and 49 languages. 

Kate Elton, HarperCollins UK CEO and his editor, said: "It has been one of the great privileges of my publishing life to have been Jeffrey Archer's editor. He was the master storyteller and an editor's dream--phenomenally hard-working, utterly committed to completing draft after draft to get every word as perfect as possible, and a true champion of the 'team' nature of great publishing. When he set out to write Adam and Eve he told me from the very beginning that it would be his final novel--he was so excited about the scale of it and told me that if he could pull it off it would equal anything he'd previously written, on which basis he couldn't imagine embarking on any future novels. He did indeed pull it off--and he was utterly thrilled by the early reader reactions. We're all devastated to have lost a writer who has brought joy to generations of readers--and a true friend."

In his London apartment overlooking the Thames, the walls were adorned with paintings, including works by Monet and Picasso, the New York Times noted, writing: "He also maintained homes in Mallorca and in the village of Grantchester outside Cambridge, England, where he bought the 17th century Old Vicarage, once the home of the poet Rupert Brooke. Routinely, he was reported to borrow the overseas homes of wealthy friends and acquaintances to compose the multiple first drafts of his novels."

As a politician--both as a member of Parliament in the elected House of Commons and as deputy head of Margaret Thatcher's Conservative Party--his friendships and alliances eventually won him a place in the House of Lords with the title Baron Archer of Weston-super-Mare. "A political Houdini, he survived many vicissitudes, including a perjury conviction in 2001 when he was found guilty of creating false diaries and concocting a story to win a trial over whether he had slept with a prostitute to whom he paid hush money," the Times wrote.

Archer once said that politics was his first career choice, but it was from his 40-plus books that he amassed wealth after he had been defrauded of his personal fortune and retired as a lawmaker. "I was so low I would have sold fake Gucci bags on street corners," he told the Chicago Tribune. "Once you've lost a million dollars, you may as well have lost a hundred million dollars."

As a writer of thrillers, he found he had a skill for quick action that connected with readers, explaining at one point: "Where I come from in the West Country, we say 'Tell 'em a yarn, m'dear, and make 'em keep turning the pages, and you won't be far wrong.' " 

Archer described himself as a storyteller, telling author Anthony Horowitz in a 2011 Sunday Telegraph Magazine interview: "Storytellers are very rare, but they create a lot of envy. The people who survive are storytellers." Horowitz noted that Archer's 1979 novel Kane & Abel, which has sold more than 50 million copies since its publication in 1979, helped fund his art collection. 

In his books, Archer "showed a liking for multivolume series of novels revolving around central characters, such as the seven-book Clifton Chronicles charting the life and times of Harry Clifton, the son of a dockworker in southwest England, and the equally ambitious series of books such as An Eye for an Eye (2024) following the career of a Scotland Yard detective named William Warwick," the Times wrote, adding that even in nonfiction, Archer turned two years spent in prison for perjury into a three-volume memoir called A Prison Diary. 

Archer's death came less than 24 hours after he had signed books for hundreds of fans at a sold-out event with broadcaster Gyles Brandreth at the Leicester Square Theatre in central London on Sunday, the Guardian reported. Brandreth posted on social media: "Just yesterday I did a show with Jeffrey Archer to celebrate his new novel--he said it was to be his last. He was in the most wonderful, ebullient form and had such a great reception from a packed house. He was funny, engaging and self-deprecating--a great storyteller to the last."

Exile in Bookville in Chicago, Ill., hosted the launch event for Cynthia Pelayo's Latine horror anthology Something Followed Us Home (Primero Sueño Press/Atria). Pelayo (r.) was joined by contributors and authors Ananda Lima (l.) and Juan Martinez (center).

During Banned Books Week, October 4–10, Little Free Library is calling on readers to share a banned or challenged book in a Little Free Library. The organization is offering several ways for readers and stewards to participate, including:

• Share a banned or challenged book. Readers can place a title in a Little Free Library, take a photo, and share it on social media using #BannedBooksWeek and tagging Little Free Library. LFL also offers a curated Banned and Challenged Books list through Bookshop.org.
• Find where books are being challenged. LFL's Book Ban Map allows readers to see areas affected by book bans alongside the locations of Little Free Library book-sharing boxes, helping people put books directly into communities experiencing censorship.
• Discover Little Free Libraries that share banned books. Through the free Little Free Library mobile app, stewards can add a Banned Books tag to their   library, while readers can use the tag to find participating book-sharing boxes near them.
• Make support visible. Stewards can display "This Little Free Library Shares Banned Books" signs and window clings, while LFL offers downloadable graphics for readers to share online.
• Enter to win banned books. LFL is hosting several giveaways in honor of Banned Books Week, including It Started with a Book Ban by Linda Ravin Lodding, Rainbow Boys by Alex Sanchez, and Building 903 by Lois Lowry, a story about censorship and the radical power of books.
• Support year-round book access. Readers can donate to Little Free Library to help the nonprofit expand access to books, including banned and challenged titles, in communities across the country.

"Little Free Libraries are built on a simple but powerful idea: reading is a right," said Daniel Gumnit, LFL's executive director and CEO. "When someone places a banned or challenged book in a Little Free Library they're doing more than sharing a story. They're giving another reader the opportunity to encounter new ideas, see a different perspective, and choose for themselves what they want to read."

More information about LFL's Banned Books Week activities and resources to participate is available here.

"What do you mean you don't read?! You really just hang out in reality all the time?! Sounds exhausting...." That was the sidewalk chalkboard message in front of Novel Bay Booksellers in Sturgeon Bay, Wis., which noted that "in these current times... it sounds incredibly exhausting. Stop in. Take a break from reality."

Keely Kennedy has joined the future of agency as a marketing & publicity associate.

Little Bee and the Bloom by Carly Kremer (The Collective Book Studio).

Tomorrow:
CBS Mornings: Christy Carlson Romano, author of Once Upon a Trainwreck: The Fall and Rise of a Child Star (S&S/Simon Element, $29, 9781668082218).

Good Morning America: Mika Leon, author of Cuban Soul: 100 Vibrant Recipes from Mi Cocina (Union Square, $35, 9781454999140).

Today: Eric Ripert, author of Mindful Cooking: Simple Recipes for Nurturing Body and Soul (Random House, $38, 9780593978269).

Drew Barrymore Show: Diane Button, author of What Matters Most: Lessons the Dying Teach Us About Living (The Open Field, $29, 9780593833889).

Watch What Happens Live: Heather Gay, author of Eternal Glow: A Novel (Podium Publishing, $19.99, 9798347034291).

Late Night with Seth Meyers: David Byrne, author of Sleeping Beauties: Why Good Ideas Go Dormant and How They Wake Up (Penguin Press, $36, 9780593655276).

Jimmy Kimmel Live: Malcolm Gladwell, author of The American Way of Killing: The Invention of an Epidemic (Little, Brown, $34, 9780316603782).

The first U.S. trailer has been released for Clarissa, directed by Arie Esiri and Chuko Esiri (This Is My Desire). Shot on 35mm film in Nigeria, the movie "is a loose adaptation of Virginia Woolf's Mrs. Dalloway. The story follows Clarissa, a high-society woman in the throes of preparing to host a party at her home in Lagos, where she will unexpectedly encounter once-intimate friends from her youth," Deadline reported. It is set to release on December 11.

The film is led by Sophie Okonedo (Hotel Rwanda) and India Amarteifio (Queen Charlotte), who play the title character at different ages. The cast also includes David Oyelowo (Selma), Toheeb Jimoh (Ted Lasso), Nikki Amuka-Bird (Knock at the Cabin), and Ayo Edebiri (The Bear). 

Chuko Esiri wrote the screenplay and produced alongside Arie Esiri, Theresa Park for Per Capita Productions, and Nicholas Weinstock for Invention Studios. Co-producers include Nina Gold and Thomas Bassett, and executive producers are Okonedo, Dolly Omodolapo Kola-Balogun, Osahon Okunbo, Candice Sanchez McFarlane, and Jason Reif.

Brighter Than the Sun: A Solarpunk Romantic Comedy by Raveena Raju, which will be published by Generous Press on March 16, 2027, was the winner of the BuzzBooks contest at the 2026 Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association Tradeshow, September 27-29, in Portland, Ore.

Punch cards were distributed to booksellers and librarians who visited participating exhibitors on the show floor for quick pitches, a total of six contestants across a variety of genres. Booth visits were verified with a stamp from the attending reps. Full cards awarded players a vote for their pick for strongest handsell and a chance at one of three randomly selected cash prizes.

The win for Brighter Than the Sun was announced to a packed house at the Signature Dish author dinner, where the participant prizes were also handed out. Winners of the participant prizes were Crystal Whitcomb-Johnson, Jerrol's, Ellensburg, Wash.; Emily Sullivan, Homer Bookstore, Homer, Ark.; and Buddy Wilson, Seekers Bookshop, Colville, Wash.

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A shortlist has been selected for the 2026 Baillie Gifford Prize for Nonfiction. The winner named on November 4. The winning author receives £50,000 (about $66,075), shared with the translator where applicable.

The shortlist:
Baldwin: A Love Story by Nichola Boggs
Days of Love and Rage: A Story of Revolution by Anand Gopal
London Falling: A Mysterious Death in a Gilded City and a Family's Search for Truth by Patrick Radden Keefe
Alexander: God, King, Man by Edmund Richardson
The Great Dictator: A Life of Barbara Cartland by Matthew Sweet
The Traveller: The Revolutionary Life of George Forster and His Search for Humanity by Andrea Wulf

In her superbly disturbing third title, Fetal Position, Carolyn Huynh makes a sharp departure from her earlier, lighter contemporary novels, The Fortunes of Jaded Women and The Family Recipe. With chilling clarity, she creates a dystopian future in which women are the power elite, yet are so overburdened that some choose to escape their lonely pressure-cooker lives for a halcyon version of traditional motherhood.

Overwhelmed Lena Do, private equity expert, is about to hit burnout: "To outsiders, I had held power, autonomy, and was at the top of my game. But I was tired, a fraud, and hated who I had become." Her late mother "solved the burden of domestic labor" by revolutionizing androids to intuit human needs. An early model, which Lena profanely, insultingly named "Dog," ironically became the nurturer Gemma never was--so much so that in adulthood, Lena "[misses] Dog more than [her] own mother." Lena never understood why Gemma had "gone through the trouble of having a child through lab-spawned sperm, only to end up mothering her own research and bots instead." That "neo-vitro" legacy manifested in Lena's "bioluminescent yellow" eyes, which marked her as a target for never-ending, discomfiting attention.

In this strange new world, women lack the time and inclination to reproduce, which means humans are dying out. To counter critically low birth rates, a mysterious new company, Hatch, is recruiting "high-value, intelligent women" with an irresistible invitation: "join Hatch as a traditional wife. If you choose to accept, your current salary will be tripled, you'll be given several acres, a subsidized home, and a sperm match companion." Exhausted Lena succumbs, but amid the luxury and pampering--plus the rather attractive, temptingly empathetic, potential father-to-be of her future children--she quickly realizes she's under constant surveillance. Questionable, even fatal medical procedures control bodies. Lies are everywhere. Motherhood equals entrapment. With Lena's next insemination looming, survival becomes a frantic race.

Huynh presents her provocative thriller in two timelines: flashbacks to Lena's childhood spent trying to understand enigmatic Gemma are intertwined with Lena's currently aborted career and transfer to Hatch. Huynh deftly layers her storytelling with sharply observed details--office décor combining "drenched" white walls and hard modern furniture that "screamed investors," "a quiet house was what happened when your entire lineage boiled down to two people left." With piercing insight, Huynh expertly confronts motherhood and identity, gender and power, freedom and choice. The result is an unforgettable premise both fearsome and aspirational. --Terry Hong

Shelf Talker: Carolyn Huynh brilliantly explores a dystopic near-future in which powerful women facing debilitating burnout choose a version of traditional motherhood instead.

The following were the most popular book club books during September based on votes from book club readers in more than 95,000 book clubs registered at Bookmovement.com:

1. The Calamity Club by Kathryn Stockett (Spiegel & Grau)
2. Theo of Golden by Allen Levi (Atria)
3. Whistler: A Novel by Ann Patchett (Harper)
4. Mad Mabel by Sally Hepworth (St. Martin's Press)
5. Yesteryear: A Novel by Caro Claire Burke (Knopf)
6. The Correspondent: A Novel by Virginia Evans (Crown)
7. The Book Club for Troublesome Women by Marie Bostwick (Harper Muse)
8. Culpability: A Novel by Bruce Holsinger (Spiegel & Grau)
9. Kin: A Novel by Tayari Jones (Knopf)
10. The Frozen River: A Novel by Ariel Lawhon (Doubleday)

Rising Stars:
The Birthing Tree: A Novel by Amanda Peters (Catapult)
Big Little Truths: A Novel by Liane Moriarty (Crown)