Matt Haig in the future Golden Bookshop

Author Matt Haig, whose bestselling books include The Midnight Library and Reasons to Stay Alive, will be launching the Golden Bookshop later this year in the Seven Dials neighborhood of Brighton, England, in a part of the city that doesn't currently have a bookshop. His goal is to open the store by Christmas.

In an Instagram post, Haig wrote: "My belief, as someone who grew up in a town without a bookshop, is that all communities should have a bookshop because bookshops save civilization and make life interesting. This bookshop will be about freedom. We won't be pushing things we don't want to push. Just good books. Curated by me and people I trust. Mind-bending books. Tearful books. Banned books. Fun books. Graphic novels. Kids' books. Grownup books. Really cool music and art books. Books with words. Books that have no words but are really gorgeous to flick through. Books that are actually vinyl records. The best dead and living writers. It will also have some comfy places to sit and drink some really good coffee. The occasional evening event. No stuffy vibes. No genre snobbery. No high/low book classism. You are welcome here. And so is your dog."

In an update over the weekend, Haig noted that since word got out about the bookshop, Golden had already received about 200 applications and work inquiries even though none have been requested yet. The first steps in the process will be renovating the space and finding "a manager who knows their stuff and who we trust."

He added that "the stats are that indie bookshops don't eat each other they build each other. Books breed books. And in the age of Bezos and AI we need as many as possible. And this space would have ended up being bought by a supermarket. If a chef sets up a new restaurant are they told they should just support other restaurants instead? In America it is a tradition for authors to set up bookshops. One American tradition I really like.... It's going to be good. We are fizzing with ideas."

Bigfoot Books & Brews in Marion, N.C., is expanding with the help of a successful crowdfunding campaign, the McDowell News reported. 

The bookstore and coffee shop, which is located at 124 E. Court St., will expand into an adjacent space at 122 E. Court St., gaining roughly 400 square feet. Co-owners and father-daughter team Olyvia and Stephen Knight will make use of the additional space by increasing the selection of used books, creating a larger children's book section, and adding vinyl records. It will also give them more room for events, and rather than shut down parts of the business during events, Bigfoot Books & Brews will be able to host events, sell coffee, and have patrons browsing for books all at the same time.

The Knights opened Bigfoot Books & Brews in August 2025, with the help of a Kickstarter campaign that raised $6,131. It sells new and used books along with coffee, tea, bottled beer, and wine, as well as used DVDs and Blu-rays.

They were not expecting to expand the business in less than a year, but the storefront next door became available and they had already felt a desire for more space. To help with the expansion, the Knights launched a second Kickstarter campaign in late April. It was fully funded in just 48 hours and went on to raise $4,154, more than double the original goal of $2,000.

"We didn't think it would be possible to expand in our first year of operation, but with the support of the amazing Marion and wider McDowell County community, it's become possible," Olyvia Knight told the McDowell News. "We're so grateful to everyone for all the love and support!"

Bigfoot Books & Brews will host a ribbon cutting for the expansion on July 22. "We want to invite everyone in the community to celebrate this milestone with us," said Stephen Knight. "We’re not only excited for folks to see the new space--including a larger selection of used books and now vinyl records, also--but the expansion means a redesign of our existing space. So we’re excited for people to get to see that for the first time, too!"

The Bluffton Bookshop hosted its grand opening celebration on July 11 at 89 Bridge St. in Bluffton, S.C. Owner Allyn Oliver's soft opening for the venture was at the beginning of July after months of renovations and planning.

At the time, she posted: "After months of dreaming, planning, and (let's be honest) waiting--our doors are OPEN! From friends chatting over books to kids peeking at the mouse house, to ice cream on the porch--these first few days have been pure magic.... We're here, and we're so excited to share this space with you."

Oliver previously told the Island Packet that she had dreamed of opening a bookshop, and found an opportunity in Bluffton: "I've always been a huge reader. Owning a bookstore is just one of those pipe dreams." 

The Bluffton Bookshop is located around the corner from Oyster Factory Park in a renovated, 80-year-old home. Oliver told the Island Packet she wants the bookshop to fit in with the character and community of Bluffton, envisioning a place where people can take their time, find potential reads, and enjoy a coffee or tea. 

The shop plans to host events including author talks, Mah Jongg games, and book signings. Two pop-up shops are planned for the summer. Attached to the bookstore is the Frozen Fiddler, which serves ice cream, shaved ice, and other treats. 

Walt Odets, a psychologist "whose work with gay men in the Bay Area at the height of the AIDS epidemic led him to write a book on a nearly taboo topic, the survivor's guilt and depression experienced by men who were not infected with H.I.V.," died on July 5, the New York Times reported. He was 79.

His 1995 book, In the Shadow of the Epidemic: Being H.I.V.-Negative in the Age of AIDS, "appeared more than a decade into the crisis--before effective treatments arrived and as thousands of men dying in their prime continued to grip gay communities in grief, fear and anger," the Times noted.

Odets, who was gay, wrote that there was also a "psychological epidemic" among those who were H.I.V.-negative, who were "anxious and lonely in their 'wellness'.... For many, survival is so difficult they sometimes wish they had not survived and sometimes hope they will not."

He also observed: "It has often seemed selfish, inappropriate or simply ridiculous for the uninfected to have any important feelings about themselves. Feelings about oneself seemed the exclusive right of those who were infected, sick or dying." But such feelings mattered, he contended, because a sense of fatalism among H.I.V.-negative men encouraged unsafe sex.

Born in Los Angeles, he was the son of the playwright Clifford Odets, author of Awake and Sing!, Waiting for Lefty, and other works. His mother was actress Bette Grayson. Both parents died by the time he was 16, and Walt spent part of his late adolescence in New York with his legal guardians, Method acting pioneer Lee Strasberg and his wife, Paula.

After training in clinical psychology at the California Professional School of Psychology in San Francisco, he received his Ph.D. in 1989 and offered therapy in Berkeley to gay men as individuals or couples. "In the years before his first book appeared, Mr. Odets was best known in the Bay Area as a fierce critic of AIDS prevention campaigns that had failed to slow infections among younger men," the Times wrote. 

About 25 years after In the Shadow of the Epidemic, Odets published Out of the Shadows: Reimagining Gay Men's Lives (2019), contending that despite evidence of progress like treatments that drove AIDS mortality sharply downward and same-sex marriage becoming the law, he dismissed the notion that America had outgrown its deep homophobia. Shame, he wrote, remained an ever-present emotion for many gay men and "still often lurks unconsciously behind the most successful of gay lives."

"There's sadness in Odets's life story," Benoit Denizet-Lewis wrote in a Times review of the book, "but there's mostly resilience, tenderness, and a willingness to fashion an unapologetic gay life, sometimes against all odds."

Co-event director Celeste Amidon (r.) and bookseller Lucia Biglow from Brookline Booksmith, Brookline, Mass., worked the event table for the launch of the seventh and final book in the Adventure Zone graphic novel series, Story and Song (23rd Street Books), by podcasters Griffin McElroy, Clint McElroy, Justin McElroy, and Travis McElroy, illus. by Carey Pietsch. The event took place at the Chevalier Theater in Medford, Mass.

Here is the July edition of The Poetry Shelf, our suggested poetry assortment, compiled by Michelle Halket of Central Avenue Publishing.

Welcome to the July edition of The Poetry Shelf! This summer is all about Homer--no, not my favorite Homer (Simpson)--but the Greek poet. Imagine being dead for 2,700 years and your movie adaptation drops, so suddenly people are buying every edition of the Odyssey and the Iliad they can get their hands on. Bro really played the long game. 💀

So yeah, there's a baker's dozen of those two books on the bestseller list so I say, just pick your favorite and showcase it. But once you do that, if you haven't already, then I would lean in to two very successful launches this week: The Love of My Life by Whitney Hanson and I Still Believe in Miracles by Lucas Jones, both of which would be considered to be in the Viral or Accessible segment as they each share their work on socials.

(Oh, and while I'm talking about classics, many booksellers put this segment in a different section of the store, not necessarily near poetry. Given how popular it is now, I might suggest trying to see if you could move it closer to your poetry books to see if you can get some cross pollination.)

If you're looking to show off something else, pick up the 2023 release by A.H. Jerriod Avant, Muscadine, which is having a moment, or the new release by Fatimah Asghar, Daughter of the Mountains.

I'm electing to show off some titles that would be ideal for Back to School displays. I chose these because of how diverse they are and generally how much these poets are taught and/or talked about. There're poet laureates (Sze) and more accessible poetry (Gorman) as well as books that might tie in well to history (Trethewey) or sociology (Choi) courses.

As always, everything I put on these lists are just suggestions meant to spark ideas of your own. Pick and choose as best fits your store!

"We agree, smelling books is better than smelling smoke," Woven Words Bookshop in Akron, Ohio, posted on Instagram in response to the dangerous smoke conditions that have resulted from recent wildfires. 
 
"One of our friends and customers Kara from @opentrailcollective was in the store this morning with her kids, and we were chatting about the impact our actions have on our surrounding community and larger world," the bookstore added. "If the wildfire smoke has sparked an interest for you in reading some climate fiction or non-fiction, here are a few suggestions we found on our own shelves."

Savannah Dewberry has joined Chronicle Books as sales & marketing enablement assistant.

Through the Garden Gate by Sharon Rose (The Collective Book Studio).

Today:
CBS Mornings: Roger Bennett, author of We Are the World (Cup): A Personal History of the World's Greatest Sporting Event (Dey Street, $30, 9780063320772).

Today: Jenny Jackson, author of The Shampoo Effect: A Novel (Pamela Dorman, $30, 9798217059959). 

Fresh Air: Harriet Clark, author of The Hill: A Novel (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, $28, 9780374614546).

Tomorrow:
The View: Timothy White, author of Life Through My Lens (Storyteller Media, $29.99, 9781969905018).

Late Night with Seth Meyers: Jo Firestone, author of Sex on Murder Island: A Luella van Horn Mystery (Bantam, $20, 9798217091478).

The independent European-U.S. TV series Odysseus "is being readied in the slipstream of glowing reviews for Christopher Nolan's blockbuster movie The Odyssey," Deadline reported. Tanweer, the Greek distributor of Nolan's film, is producing the project  series in Athens, with Karl Gajdusek, Jordan Dykstra, and Sean Finegan of U.S. production label Tectonic, and U.S.-Armenian company USATV. 

Gajdusek is the showrunner, and Roel Reiné (Washington, Black Sails) will direct. The pilot was written by Finegan, Scott Windhauser, Noah Lang, and Blake Hoss. The goal is to shoot early next year on location in Greece and Armenia, with the hope that it will lead to an "expanded series universe."

Odysseus is described to us as "visceral, and muscular--the real Bronze Age world of blood, ships, betrayal, and characters trying to survive the era that inspired Homer's epic. The emphasis on real history lets the story collide with the wider convulsions of the age leading up to the Bronze Age collapse breaking the known world apart into legend," Deadline noted.

"There's something huge about taking on this epic story in the most grounded and realpolitik way we can," Gajdusek said. "The mythical stations of Odysseus's journey are beautifully rendered by Homer as metaphorical journeys into self, but there's also a real under all that. Choices. Lives and loves lost and saved. And for us to set out to tell that real, necessarily sweeping away all adornment, is thrilling. We get to take the audience backstage, meet the Bronze Age flesh and blood characters that birthed the spectacle, and live with their true story."

Margaret MacMillan's Peacemakers has won the £2,000 (about $2,690) PEN Hessell-Tiltman Prize "Winner of Winners," a special anniversary edition of the award for historical nonfiction, marking its 25th and final year.

Peacemakers, which explores the Paris Peace Conference of 1919, was the winner of the inaugural PEN Hessell-Tiltman Prize in 2002. The award was established through a bequest from former PEN member Marjorie Hessell-Tiltman to the PEN Literary Foundation to found a prize in her name.

The "Winner of Winners" was chosen from previous winners by returning judges from past years. Observing that Peacemakers was the first winner of the prize, chair Isabelle Hessell-Tiltman said: "Twenty-five years later, its selection as 'Winner of Winners' is a testament to the book's enduring quality and relevance. Through meticulous research and exceptional storytelling, Margaret MacMillan brought a pivotal moment in international diplomacy to life for a wide readership, creating a work that continues to resonate today."

Can someone vanish if their existence isn't acknowledged as valid to begin with? That is the question driving Booker Prize winner Marlon James's The Disappearers, a massive, unsparing reckoning of a novel, spanning more than 600 pages.

The story opens in Kingston, Jamaica, in May 1988. Eight gay men, all strangers, gather to rehearse John Herbert's Fortune and Men's Eyes, a play set inside a prison. "This is a gay play about men loving and sexing and rule over other men in a prison. All the roles are gay. If is 'Christmas Carol' you looking for you in the wrong place." The choice of a cage for a set reflects exactly how these men already experience the outside world. The cast includes Havelock Titus, the director; 18-year-old Eddy Porteous; and Jordan Brown, who describes himself with sharp, defensive bluntness as a "full-time battyman.... Occasional thorn in somebody's backside." Rounding out the group are Omar Joseph, Rainford Ellis, Orrin Turner, Matt Chin, and Clive Lim.

Their world shatters when a violent mob attacks their rehearsal space. By sunrise, Omar is dead, Rainford is blinded, and Orrin and Matt, the titular "disappearers," have vanished into the Kingston heat. The narrative maps the ensuing wreckage over several years through a fragmented structure of diary entries, interviews, letters, and even the perspectives of the attackers themselves. This formal choice forces readers directly into the mob's mindset, refusing to offer the safety of a detached vantage point.

In 1988 Jamaica, the Offences Against the Person Act, a colonial-era relic, mandated up to 10 years of hard labor for sex between men, but more often the penalty was enforced culturally. Pastors preached damnation, dance-hall tracks competed in violent homophobia, and neighbors turned informant. The global AIDS crisis was considered proof of divine judgment. In The Disappearers, James refuses to turn perpetrators into caricatures; he presents the homophobia of ordinary citizens as casual and omnipresent.

Survival requires different tactics from each character. Jordan's voice crackles with a protective wit and a refusal to seek respectability, making him the novel's anchor. Meanwhile, the younger Eddy tries to untangle his trauma by obsessively replaying the year before everything broke. Even the missing men, Orrin and Matt, define the narrative through an absence that carries its own weight.

James (Black Leopard, Red Wolf; A Brief History of Seven Killings) has spent his career examining Jamaica's historical fractures, but The Disappearers possesses a raw, unmediated fury. As a gay Jamaican writer, James brings profound personal stakes to this register. The result is a more intimate and less mythologized prose than in his previous work with a gravity that is felt on every page. --Elizabeth DeNoma, executive editor, DeNoma Literary Services, Seattle, Wash.

Shelf Talker: A sprawling, furious, necessary work, Marlon James's The Disappearers maps the wreckage of a violent act in 1988 Jamaica.