Harvard Book Store, Cambridge, Mass., will open a new location in downtown Boston this fall.

Harvard Book Store's new location at 33 Union St. (photo: Lily Rugo/Harvard Book Store)

Located at 33 Union St. in the historic Yankee Publishing Building, the new store will span 3,500 square feet and will offer general-interest titles for all ages. There will be a dedicated children's area as well as an events space, and a 1,500-square-foot cafe operated by Lakon Paris Patisserie will adjoin the bookstore. 

"We are delighted to bring Harvard Book Store to Boston, while continuing our long tradition of independent bookselling, author talks, and community engagement at our flagship store in Harvard Square," said general manager Lisa Jayne. "By bringing these very same services to Boston, we seek to enhance the already dynamic literary life of the city."

Jayne thanked Lakon Paris Patisserie as well as Cypress Reality Group, which owns the Yankee Publishing Building. "And, as always, we are grateful to principal owner John Henry and Boston Globe CEO Linda Henry, whose investment in Harvard Book Store makes this new chapter possible. 

"We also acknowledge minority owners Jeff Mayersohn and Linda Seamonson for their continuing participation in the management and operation of the store," Jayne continued. "Finally, we appreciate the great work being done by RODE Architects, Trinity Building and Construction Management Corp., and Franklin Fixtures. Most of all, we acknowledge our wonderful bookselling staff who continue to provide extraordinary service to the readers and writers of Greater Boston."

Construction is underway at 33 Union St., with Harvard Book Store targeting a fall opening. 

In 2022, Harvard Book Store announced that it would open a 29,000-square-foot store in Boston's Prudential Center, in a space previously occupied by a Barnes & Noble. In 2024, Harvard Book Store officially canceled the project, citing lingering effects of the pandemic that hindered construction and ultimately would make it unsustainable.

Author and editor Olivia Nightingale has started a crowdfunding campaign to help her launch Crowne Books, a Black bookstore based in Salt Lake City, Utah, the Salt Lake Tribune reported. It will debut as a mobile bookstore on Juneteenth, with Nightingale looking to open a bricks-and-mortar location sometime in 2027. 

Olivia Nightingale

Nightingale has set the target for the GoFundMe campaign at $7,500. Money raised will go toward inventory; a POS system; shelving, signage, and other fixtures; and permits, licenses, and insurance. So far, the campaign has raised more than $2,100. 

Crowne Books will "stock a variety of frontlist and backlist titles, maintaining a healthy mix of new and used books across all genres of Black literature, including comics, manga, and graphic novels," Nightingale wrote on the campaign page. She noted that while there is a Black-owned mobile bookstore in Utah called the Book Lovers Era, there is no Black-owned bricks-and-mortar bookstore in the state.

"One thing I've noticed is that we are really kind of lacking third spaces for Black people," Nightingale told the Tribune. "I think Utah, not only could support, they want to see a Black bookstore in our state." She also called the state's Black population "small but mighty," and said the state is "long overdue for something like a Black bookstore." 

Nightingale said that launching on Juneteenth was important to her, as "literacy is liberation." She elaborated: "Because for many, many years Black people weren’t even legally allowed to read or write; it was outlawed, and so that’s why I really want to push the fact that literacy is not only important, but it is actually a real blessing if you are around today in the United States, and you are Black."

Giancarlo Montemayor

Giancarlo Montemayor has joined Penguin Random House as director of sales, Christian market. He will lead sales strategy across the Christian publishing landscape, helping to grow and strengthen the company's presence in the Christian marketplace as well as work with PRH trade sales directors to prioritize Christian titles in traditional book markets. He has held senior roles in editorial, Spanish publishing, sales, and international Christian markets at Hachette and Lifeway Christian Resources.

Cynthia Lasky, executive v-p, group sales director, Random House & Crown, said that Montemayor's "broad knowledge, proven leadership, and passion for publishing, along with his deep appreciation for the unique mission and importance of Christian publishing, will be tremendous assets as we continue to grow our Christian Publishing Group. We are excited to benefit from his expertise, energy, and vision, and look forward to the impact he will have on our authors, publishing partners, customers, and colleagues. Based in Nashville, Giancarlo is an avid reader, lifelong learner, photographer, and world traveler."

Leaves Bakery and Books, a bookstore, tea shop, and bakery in Fort Worth, Tex., will close later this summer, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported. 

"Because of you our vision came alive, and we are so proud of the community we have cultivated together," read an announcement posted to Instagram. "You helped us build something we never could have accomplished on our own.... And now it's time for a new chapter. With full hearts, we are sharing that Leaves Bakery and Books will permanently close at the end of the summer on August 15."

Over the coming weeks, owner and founder Tina Howard and her team plan to "revisit favorite traditions, beloved events, memorable partnerships, and some of the flavors and products that have defined us."

The bookstore will continue to host events up until August 15. The last day for custom bakery orders will be August 4, with pick up no later than August 8. Gift cards and tea date cards will be valid until August 9. Howard has also created a Venmo tip jar for the store's employees.

Howard founded the business in 2018 as Leaves Books and Tea Shop. In 2022, she took over a bakery called Stir Crazy Baked Goods and merged the two. 

"Most of all, thank you--for every order, every conversation, every time you chose to slow down with us," Howard wrote. "Thank you for letting us be a part of your lives and this community. Leaves has always been special because of you. We are so grateful to have shared this season with you."

Award-winning author Tim Johnston, "who broke onto the literary scene in 2015 with the New York Times bestselling novel Descent," died on May 26, the Gazette reported. He was 63. Johnston had already won numerous honors when he published Descent, a literary thriller that "tells the story of a teenage girl abducted while trail running in the Colorado Rockies, and of her father and brother, both tormented by her absence."

Tim Johnston

Johnston aimed to write stories that were ''interesting, compelling, true--and importantly, there is nothing unrealistic about them," he told the Gazette in a 2019 interview. "I'm not trying to come up with the most thriller-y situations.... I just have to write the book I want to write. I think it's important to keep evolving."

As an undergraduate focusing on creative writing at the University of Iowa, he took a course taught by John Leggett, then director of the Iowa Writers' Workshop. He earned his M.F.A. at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst; and in the 2010s taught writing at George Washington University and the University of Memphis. Johnston made a living for 25 years as a carpenter. 

He published a novel for young adults, Never So Green, in 2002. The Gazette noted that his 2009 short story collection, Irish Girl, won the Katherine Anne Porter Prize in Short Fiction, "and many of the individual stories in the collection garnered honors. The title story caught the eye of David Sedaris, who included it in an anthology he edited, and the humorist and essayist has been a champion of Johnston's work ever since."

Johnston's novel The Current (2019) "explores the aftermath of a deadly winter car accident in Minnesota, which links to a series of unsolved murders," the Gazette wrote, adding that his final novel, Distant Sons (2023), "sees key characters from Descent and The Current caught up in a decades-old child abduction mystery in rural Wisconsin."

"As someone who has worked with his hands in the heartland," he told Neal Thompson of Blood & Whiskey in 2023, "I feel a strong connection to such people, men and women. But I've also done my time in academia, as student and teacher, and I feel these two backgrounds--blue collar guy and college guy--simultaneously within me, and I do like to get both experiences in play, sometimes at odds with each other, in the storytelling realm."

In an interview with the Gazette, Johnston once said, "I'm not a religious person at all, but I do marvel at how the world works... how one small thing can change your life."

Last week's Shelf Awareness Presents webinar with Kim Brock of Joseph-Beth Booksellers and Paul Hanson of Village Books and Paper Dreams generated terrific advice for booksellers about holiday titles. Whether you are a veteran bookseller or just starting out, the ideas and observations that came from Kim and Paul are extremely valuable. Watch the presentation here.

Among other actionable items, you will learn about Village Books' amazing Open House idea and how Joseph-Beth creates an extended and profitable promotion around Father's Day.

Following the conversation, sponsors Cottage Door Press, Publisher Spotlight, and Norton Young Readers presented holiday data and great titles from independent publishers. A highlight was a conversation between Norton rep Kelsy April and author Alex Ritany.

Would you like to be involved in a future webinar as a bookseller? Would you like to sponsor your own webinar as a publisher? Please reach out to Shelf Awareness publisher Matt Baldacci, and we'll work together to create a useful and powerful presentation.

Charter Books, Newport, R.I., welcomed author Annabel Monaghan (r.) for a cocktail evening at the OceanCliff Hotel for her novel Dolly All the Time (Putnam), which is set in a fictional town based on Newport. Monaghan was in conversation with Kylie McCollough, founder of the Newport Ladies Book Club literary community.

As part of its celebration of the country's sesquicentennial, the NewSouth Bookstore in Montgomery, Ala., is featuring an America 250 Wish Tree. "We borrowed the idea from Yoko Ono, who in 1996 created an art installation by that name in Brooklyn, N.Y.," noted Suzanne La Rosa, the bookstore's co-founder and president. "For our project, we've been asking visitors to the NewSouth Bookstore to write their wishes for our nation on a tag which we then hang with twine from the tree on our bookstore's side patio. 

"Our Wish Tree has taken life with the inscriptions, gently waving in the wind and symbolizing the hopes of the people of our nation--all our people--for the future of our country. It seems a fitting way to celebrate our significant American history. Certainly, the diversity of contributions and expression has been remarkable. And with several hundred tags now collected and hung (we will continue to collect tags through July 4), the effect is even more compelling than we expected. 

"I am personally moved to describe it. I'm also tickled to mention that some people, upon seeing the tree with signage--positioned in a planter directly under the canopy of the tree--then step into the store to inquire about the project. Imagine that!"

"It's always an honor when someone proposes to the love of their life in our store," Carmichael's Bookstore in Louisville, Ky., posted on Facebook. "This spring, we got to be the setting for an after-hours date turned surprise proposal and engagement photo shoot! Congratulations to DJ and Bri! We wish you both all the best and many years of love and shared books."

At Candlewick Press, Holiday House, and Peachtree:

Sarah Howard Parker has been promoted to senior publicist. Her previous title was publicist.

Cara Broel is joining the company as publicist, effective June 22. She previously ran the children's literature blog The Baby Bookworm.

Today:
Fresh Air: Jesse Wegman, author of The Lost Founder: James Wilson and the Forgotten Fight for a People's Constitution (Celadon Books, $30, 9781250851079).

Tomorrow:
CBS Mornings: J.D. Vance, author of Communion: Finding My Way Back to Faith (Harper, $35, 9780063575011).

Today: Dave Ogleton, author of So Dad It's Good: The Ultimate Dad-a-Base of Cringeworthy Dad Jokes (Tarcher, $14, 9798217178346).

A film adaptation is in development of the novel American Fantasy by Emma Straub, author and co-owner of Books Are Magic in Brooklyn, N.Y. Variety reported that the book was optioned by Elisabeth Moss and and Lindsey McManus's Love & Squalor Pictures, who will produce the film with Straub as an executive producer. Writer, cast, and distributor will be named later.

Published this year, American Fantasy "follows Annie, a recently divorced woman who boards a nostalgia cruise headlined by the '90s boy band that soundtracked her adolescence--only to find herself unexpectedly reckoning with who she was and who she still wants to be," Variety noted.

"Emma's honest yet humorous portrayal of the humbling experience of being a fan is so rare and genuinely fun to read that we knew we had to find a way to bring it to screen," Moss and McManus said in a joint statement.

Straub added: "Elisabeth Moss has talent spilling out of every one of her pores, and I feel delighted to have been caught in the tractor beam of her gaze. What luck, to have such a tenacious force on the side of this story! I am gobsmacked."

The Matchbox Girl by Alice Jolly won the £25,000 (about $33,570) Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction. The judges said: "Originality, innovation, ambition--The Matchbox Girl not only more than fulfills the judging criteria for the Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction, it confronts a topic of immense complexity in a gripping tour de force. With the skill of a cubist painter, Alice Jolly has altered the angle from which events in Vienna in 1934, and particularly in the Vienna Children's Hospital, are observed, and a story we think we know is disrupted by a heroine who is speechless yet speaks with disturbing energy. The Matchbox Girl may be the most unusual book you read this year. For its honesty, power and storytelling dexterity, our 2026 winner will also be one of the most important."

Jolly commented: "It feels overwhelming and incredibly exciting. I feel as though I've waited all my life for something like this to happen to me--it's a dream come true and I think it's really going to transform my writing life. I'm feeling now incredibly positive about the future and the prize has given me that sense of purpose."

Lisa Roe's wry, warmhearted second novel, Big & Lily, takes readers deep into the heart of the Alaskan wilderness--and the equally challenging terrain of sisterhood.

Bridget "Big" Ackerman-Petty has spent her life caring for everyone around her, especially her bright, charismatic younger sister, Lily. Big's two kids are grown and her husband has retired, but she still spends her time managing everyone's lives, not to mention chauffeuring her imperious mother to water aerobics and appointments. When Lily's marriage implodes, she books a last-minute slot on an Alaskan wilderness trek and begs Big to come with her. Big reluctantly agrees, compelled by her sense of responsibility, only to discover that Lily has signed them up for a no-frills adventure. Without cell service, a comfortable bed, or her luggage, Big finds herself entirely out of her depth, attempting to support Lily while struggling to keep up with their fellow hikers. As the sisters navigate physical tests, Alaskan wildlife, and each other's constant presence, they are forced to confront the emotional baggage they've lugged across the country--and maybe have a real conversation for once.

Roe (Welcome to the Neighborhood) explores the sisters' close but complicated dynamic: Bridget's protectiveness of Lily and her resentment at Lily's carefree approach to everything, plus Lily's not-so-secret envy of Bridget's life as a wife and mother. On the Alaskan trek (as in their regular lives), Bridget tries to sustain Lily in the way she knows how: urging her to open up about her feelings and making a plan for what's next. Lily, meanwhile, blows hot and cold as she processes the end of her marriage, alternately pushing Big away and crawling into bed with her at night. The sisters' tensions also flare up along the trail itself, leading to at least one too-close encounter with a moose, among other dramatic incidents. Roe slips in a few breathtaking descriptions of the Alaskan scenery and one heart-to-heart conversation that begins to shift the way Bridget sees her sister and herself. With the help of several new friends, a borrowed pair of hiking boots, and some serious grit, Big may survive this hiking trek after all--and if she does, she'll be making a few changes when she gets home.

With a gorgeous setting and plenty of humor, Roe's insightful novel will appeal to readers who love adventure tales, complex families, and stories of second chances. --Katie Noah Gibson, blogger at Cakes, Tea and Dreams

Shelf Talker: Lisa Roe's warmhearted second novel explores the complicated dynamic between two grown sisters on a hiking trip in the Alaskan wilderness.