The Swedish Academy has awarded the 2026 Nobel Prize in Literature to Canadian author Anne Carson "for her bold and inventive oeuvre that, in playful dialogue with the classical tradition, has created new forms for contemporary literature." 

Anne Carson at the 2024 National Book Awards finalists reading (photo: Jay Dixit)

Carson was born in 1950 in Toronto. In 1981, she published her doctoral thesis in classics, Odi et Amo Ergo Sum, "and has, throughout her entire career, combined poetry writing with translation work and teaching at various universities," the Academy wrote in a bio-bibliography, adding that "almost all her literary production has centered upon the intersection between the philologist's obsession with words and the poet's desire for new meaning. She has herself identified the etymology of words as the starting point for all her work. Her translations from Classical Greek may be regarded as independent works in their own right." 

The Academy cited as examples her interpretation of Sappho's poem fragments, If Not, Winter (2002), along with tragedies such as Sophocles's Electra (2001) and Antigone (2015) and Euripides's Bakkhai (2015). (Carson's books are published in the U.S. by Penguin Random House and New Directions) 

Among her most heralded and popular works is Autobiography of Red: A Novel in Verse (1998), which "demonstrates her eminent ability to actualize the classical literary tradition," the Academy observed. "With a precise feel for contemporary idioms and experiences, she takes as her starting point poem fragments by the sixth century BC Greek poet Stesichoros concerning the winged red monster Geryon. While the myth describes how Heracles, in fulfilling one of his labors, kills Geryon and steals his cattle, Carson recasts the terrifying giant as a tender 'hero' devoted to his mother, in what becomes a modern Bildungsroman."

Carson's long essay Eros the Bittersweet (1986) laid the foundation for her subsequent authorship, the Academy noted. "With its brilliantly rendered meditation on Eros being the essence and driving force of the poem, the book draws heavily on a compound adjective from Sappho that defines Eros as pain and sweetness combined."

Her other works include Glass, Irony, and God (1995), "which demonstrates the potential of the long poem where genre boundaries are seen to blur"; The Beauty of the Husband: A Fictional Essay in 29 Tangos (2001), which "tells of a cutting and sardonic row with a deceitful husband, its 29 episodes each opening with lines of verse by the romantic poet John Keats"; Nox (2010), written in memory of her brother Michael, "who was mysteriously absent prior to his death in Denmark in 2000"; Float (2016), a work consisting of 22 chapbooks on different subjects, capable of being read in any order; and Wrong Norma from 2024, "a diverse combination of texts with a strongly performative aspect in which Carson crosses over into various artistic and academic fields."

(from l.) BINC's Jennifer Rojas and Kate Weiss; winner Kate Suazo of Maria's Bookshop, Durango, Colo.; and Michael McKnight, Basil Bookseller Software

Following four days of author breakfasts and luncheons, rep presentations, peer-to-peer discussions, and fun literary mixers, the Mountains & Plains Independent Booksellers Association FallCon ended on Wednesday. This year's conference was attended by 533 people, including booksellers, librarians, authors, volunteers, staff, and other industry workers. More than 250 of those were booksellers and librarians, with more than 50 first-timers, according to Heather Duncan, executive director of the MPIBA. The organization currently represents 381 bookstores, with 132 of those present at FallCon. Shelf Awareness was among the 134 vendors, publishers, and industry service providers present in the show's exhibit hall.

Binc held its annual heads-or-tails fundraiser during the final moments on the MPIBA show floor, with Michael McKnight of Basil Bookseller Software as official coin tosser. Contest winner Kate Suazo of Maria's Bookshop in Durango, Colo., won a $500 gift card and a Book Club Starter Kit box of books. All tallied, the fundraiser earned $1,018 for the nonprofit. 

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Booksellers problem-solving

Wednesday morning's education sessions shared practical strategies for maximizing store resources, enhancing customer interactions, and seizing opportunities for digital sales.

An interactive session called "Booksellers Are the Bookstore," moderated by Zareef Chowdhury, marketing and communications coordinator for MPIBA, prompted booksellers to solve dilemmas through four mainstays of the trade: handselling, displays, shelf-talkers, and community building. Each sample problem was presented on a large sheet of paper hung around the room for attendees to consider and address quietly with color-coded sticky notes before Chowdhury brought the issue before the larger group for further discussion.

"It is now October, spooky and horror book season, this is NOT your wheelhouse," was one topic. It generated ideas about deferring to staff members who may be more familiar with the genre, suggesting they develop a display or a brief list of go-to titles, and even inviting customer recommendations.

If a buyer's purchasing reflects the desires of the community but individual bookseller tastes veer further afield, the standout suggestion was to introduce some friendly competition among staff to sell the most stock.

One of the more serious scenarios considered how working directly with local schools might be impeded by changing legislation. Answers trended toward reaching out to teachers and parents, who are allowed to do whatever they want in their free time; to circumvent the institutional issue with classroom wish-lists on e-commerce sites; and fundraiser events that highlight educator recommendations.

Meanwhile, another dilemma imagined a nearby bar's happy hour driving up foot traffic but producing few sales. Solutions included open collaboration with the neighbor for coupons or discounts valid during the designated timeframe.

For situations in which people browse the sales floor but purchase from Amazon, cute pictures of pets can be a non-confrontational reminder to customers about how buying local helps keep furry friends fed. And displaying QR codes for Bookshop.org and Libro.fm can inform them that your store is just as accessible online.

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Libro.fm's Lee Hooyboer

In a later session called "Sound Investment: Maximizing the Libro.fm Revenue Stream," senior manager of bookseller partnerships Lee Hooyboer elaborated on how stores can benefit from audiobooks. The presentation emphasized the company's commitment to making integration as easy as possible for booksellers by focusing on sustainable and low-effort strategies to increase digital sales.

"Audiobooks will not save your bookstore," Hooyboer stated, but the thin margins of bookselling makes any move of the needle meaningful. With no cost of goods required, Libro.fm can be a purely additive revenue stream. It's also not in competition with print sales. Most in-store customers want printed books, while audiobook customers want audio. But many of them don't know that they can get audios through indies, so prioritizing their awareness is crucial.

The single most actionable thing a store can do is drive up bookseller engagement by signing them up for accounts, where they'll gain access to all available ALCs. Booksellers tend to handsell whatever they're reading, so access to audio fosters professional development as well as word of mouth.

Beyond that, Libro.fm makes a wealth of information and materials, including bookmarks and signage, available to partners free of charge to help raise customer awareness and boost that bottom line. --Dave Wheeler, senior editor, Shelf Awareness

The Heartland Fall Forum began yesterday in Minneapolis, Minn., with a day full of educational retreats for store owners, managers, and event planners, and the Twin Cities bookstore tour. The evening events included the Heartland Book Awards ceremony and the opening night party at Open Book. The conference continues through Friday, and we'll have more coverage.

The Heartland Booksellers Award winners: (from left) John U. Bacon, winner of the Nonfiction award for The Gales of November: The Untold Story of the Edmund Fitzgerald, (Liveright); retired Penguin Random House sales rep David Underwood, winner of the Voice of the Heartland Award; and Jashar Awan, Picture Book winner for Loops (S&S Books for Young Readers) with event host Autumn Brown, co-host of the How to Survive the End of the World podcast and author of Temper: Practicing Freedom in an Unfree World (forthcoming from Macmillan). [Not pictured: Maggie Smith, winner of the Poetry Award for A Suit or a Suitcase (Washington Square Press) and Trung Le Nguyen, YA/Middle Grade winner for Angelica & the Bear Prince (Random House Graphic).]

Craig Popelars (r.), v-p of marketing & sales for Milkweed Editions--sponsor of the opening night party--welcomes a busload of Heartland Fall Forum attendees to Open Book. 

(from l.) Daniel Dziubinski and Ryvre Hardrick, Goblin Market, Chicago, Ill.; Hunter Gillum, Beaverdale Books, Des Moines, Iowa; and Rob McAllister and Melissa McAllister, Dungeon's Gate, Ankeny, Iowa.

(from l.) Gillette Kempf, Chapter2 Books, Hudson, Wis., with Hope Reeves and Brie Taralson from Lykke Books, New Ulm, Minn.

Bmore Romantic, a romance-focused bookstore in Federal Hill, had its soft launch recently at 1205 Light St. in the Federal Hill neighborhood of Baltimore, Md. Owner Augusta Christensen told the Baltimore Business Journal that the 2,000-square-foot shop will hold a grand opening celebration on Saturday, October 17.

The bookstore offers a wide range of romance books, from contemporary and historical to fantasy and paranormal love stories. "Playing with that theme, the facade above the door is painted pink, and the interior walls and furniture are various shades of pink and purple. Shelves filled with books and merchandise line the left wall, while the front right portion offers seating. Complimentary drinks are available in a pink mini refrigerator," the Business Journal wrote.

Bmore Romantic also has an event room with locally focused décor, including a large mural of a Baltimore park bench with a copy of First-Time Caller by local romance author B.K. Borison. The shop's exposed brick has a subtle amount of glitter that Christensen added and a pillar she turned into a bookshelf tree.

"I feel like reading has had a huge resurgence," said Christensen of her decision to open the bookshop, adding that she had always been an avid reader. Although she works in politics, for many years she had thought of owning a bookstore, especially in retirement. That timeline accelerated when she noticed the Light Street storefront was available and reasonably priced for its location along a main thoroughfare and not far from the busy Cross Street area.

Christensen chose to focus on the romance genre because of its diverse, inclusive range of books and the supportive community around it. Bmore Romantic has been in the works since July. Christensen self-funded the project and had help from her husband in building out the space. The response has been fantastic, she said. "It's been a dream so far."

The Bookmark in progress.

The Bookmark will host a grand opening celebration on October 10 at 115 School St. in Greer, S.C. The Independent Mail reported that owners Nicole and Avery Noel have both worked remotely since the Covid-19 pandemic, and "noticed the need for more community spaces to bring people together. They discovered a space on School Street in downtown Greer, and their new passion project began."

"We've had so many people stop in to just say, 'hey, we're really excited about this,' and we're really looking forward to bringing a cool space to downtown where there's already so many other cool businesses," Nicole Noel said.

The new store currently is under construction, but Noel said their vision of turning it into a cozy, antique-style bookstore and community space will be complete by the opening. The bookshelves are being painted a deep green; bar seating will be installed along the front of the store and cozy seating placed throughout the space. The shop will also feature a fairy-themed children's section.

Noel added that their "vision is for the store to have a coffee-shop feel, where people can stay and hang out, but surrounded by books. She and her husband both work full-time and dedicate their spare time to transforming the Bookmark into that vision," the Independent Mail wrote.

"We're really excited to be creating a community space here in downtown for people that are just looking for a passion for books and also just a place to hang out," she said. The owners plan to partner with other local businesses, starting with grand opening day, when the parking lot adjacent to the store will be filled with 10 vendors offering book-themed goods, coffee, and more. Noel also plans to host book clubs and community events at the Bookmark.

Hilary McPhee, a legend of the Australian literary industry who nurtured the careers of writers including Helen Garner and Tim Winton, died on October 1. She was 85. The Sydney Morning Herald reported that McPhee Gribble, the publishing house she founded with Diana Gribble in 1975, "shaped a generation of iconic Australian writers--among them Kathy Lette, Dorothy Hewett, Kaz Cooke, Drusilla Modjeska, Jennifer Dabbs, and John Misto. Their slate of influential novels includes Winton's Cloudstreet, Garner's Monkey Grip, and Lette and Gabrielle Carey's Puberty Blues."

Hillary McPhee (photo; Jacquelne Mitelman)

"I published my first four books with McPhee Gribble. Hilary was a fine editor. I'll always be grateful for that," said Garner.

Lette added: "Hilary was the Boudicca of the book world, championing women's writing and defending our work. She went into battle for us, armed with a sharp intellect and cutting tongue. But behind the scenes, she was also adept at gentle nurturing. When Puberty Blues had been turned down by every publisher, Hilary (and Di Gribble) had the fierce feminist courage to publish the book and ride the seismic shock wave it sent through Australian society. We have lost a pioneering, passionate publisher and a warm and wonderful woman."

Because Winton worked from Western Australia, much of their decades-long partnership unfolded through letters, right up until just before her death. "Her handwriting is very familiar to me, it was always pencil on the page, and she was a sensitive and canny editor," he said. "She knew when to push, and she was someone you could trust," he said.

Together, McPhee and Gribble were "trailblazers in the old boys club of Australian publishing," the Morning Herald noted. As McPhee wrote in her memoir Other People's Words (2019): "The strong men in publishing liked to call in the late afternoons with bottles of wine and kindly advice: stick to packaging, do horse books or ballet books... put together some recipes... get a good-looking, famous sheila to front them for you...."

Nikki Christer, a publisher who inherited Picador from McPhee, described her predecessor and mentor as an editor with a "deep respect for the writer's voice.... She was part of a generation that transformed Australian publishing. When she and Di created McPhee Gribble, it was largely dominated by overseas publishers and imported books. And so she helped create a publishing culture that put Australian writers and therefore Australian stories at the center."

McPhee and Gribble published hundreds of titles under their imprint, including those of young Indigenous authors, and fostered the fledgling careers of editors and publishers like Sophie Cunningham and Sue Hines.

Speaking to the Morning Herald in 2022, 46 years after a then unknown Helen Garner walked into their offices, McPhee recalled: "Helen arrived one day on her bicycle with two copies of the manuscript of Monkey Grip in green foolscap folders. This is what writers did in those days, you gave publishers two copies. Di and I each took a manuscript home, read it overnight and rushed in the next day and said we've got to publish it."

In 1979, McPhee, Gribble, Joyce Nicholson, Anne O'Donovan, and Sally Milner founded Sisters Publishing, a mail-order feminist book club that published poetry and fiction "by women, for women." By the 1980s, recession hit the Australian publishing industry and they signed a co-publishing deal with Penguin before selling McPhee Gribble entirely to Penguin in 1989.

McPhee stayed on for a few years before moving to Pan Macmillan, where she ran the Picador imprint until 1994 when she was headhunted by then prime minister Paul Keating to become the first female chair of the Australian Arts Council. She was made an officer of the Order of Australia for her services to the arts and literature in 2001.

McPhee's other books include the memoir Other People's Homes; Wordlines (2010), a selection of contemporary Australian writing; and an annotated edition of filmmaker Tim Burstall's 1950s diaries, Memoirs of a Young Bastard.

"The Australian publishing industry may not look quite the same as it did in 1976, when McPhee entered the scene, but it's no doubt all the better thanks to her sharp eye and fierce belief in the people who make it what it is," the Morning Herald wrote. "Her enormous legacy lives on in the pages of Cloudstreet, The Children's Bach (McPhee's favorite of Garner's works), and countless others."

The King's English, Salt Lake City, Utah, hosted author Ariel Lawhon for her historical novel The Pirate Queen (Doubleday). Pictured: (from l.) volunteer Maddie Barker; bookseller Chalene Riser; Ariel Lawhon; Anne Holman, co-owner of The King's English; bookseller Faith Karrington; volunteer Amber Courtright. 

Click here to see the latest Independent Press Top 40, the weekly bestseller list celebrating the bestselling 40 fiction and 40 nonfiction titles from independent publishers, as sold by independent bookstores across the country. The list is sponsored by the Independent Publishers Caucus and the American Booksellers Association.

This week's debut fiction titles:

2. May We Feed the King by Rebecca Perry (Transit Books)
23. Dawn of the Cursed Queen: Deluxe Special Edition (Gods and Monsters #3) by Amber V. Nicole (Kensington)
25. London Station: A Novel by David McCloskey (W.W. Norton)
33. Walk the Blue Fields by Claire Keegan (Grove Press)
37. The Lost Spectacular: Deluxe Limited Edition by Zoé Duhaime (Erewhon Books)
38. In the Dark: Deluxe Limited Edition (Kept in Paradise #2) by Shain Rose (Kensington)

This week's debut nonfiction titles:

8. With Her Own Hands: Women Weaving Their Stories by Nicole Nehrig (W. W. Norton)
12. Chasing the Headless Horseman: The History, Hijinks, and Halloweens of the Real Sleepy Hollow by J.W. Ocker (Countryman Press)
13. Ungrateful Immigrant Daughter: A Memoir From the Child of a Mail-Order Bride by Katya Suvorova (Alcove Press)
16. How to Survive Authoritarianism: A Russian's Phrasebook for Everyday Life in America by Maria Kuznetsova and Dan Storyev (Liveright)
17. Traumatized: The New Politics of Public Suffering by Catherine Liu (Verso)

"It's Banned Books Week this week and all banned and challenged books are 15% off through Saturday, October 10," Sulfur Books in Clifton Springs, N.Y., posted. "Our banned and challenged section got a little upgrade just in time. If you've ever been curious as to why a book is in that section, we now have that information right on the shelf. Unfortunately, given the astonishing number of challenges and book bans taking place, we don't have room for all of them. But if you're curious, just ask. We will be posting all week and sharing information from the American Library Association regarding the statistics around book bans, censorship, and the fight for the freedom to read."

"We don't usually talk about the rigorous employee screening process we have here at From My Shelf Books & Gifts, but today I'm proud to highlight our official, unpaid Head of Pest Control. Coal is currently on high alert in the fiction section. For those who don't know, we have an internal term for flies here at the shop: 'sky raisins,' " From My Shelf Books & Gifts in Wellsboro, Pa., posted. "They are spicy, they move too fast, and according to Coal's intense, unblinking glare, they are a threat to local literacy. He's been stalking one particular sky raisin for the last forty minutes. His current strategy involves sitting directly on a stack of new arrivals, letting his massive cloud of fluff entirely obscure a display, vibrating his lower jaw, and occasionally doing a backflip into a cardboard box.

"Does it look professional? No. Is it effective? Also no--all that magnificent fluff just creates extra aerodynamic drag, and the fly is currently sitting on his forehead. But look, his job performance metrics are entirely based on how many laps he can warm and how much fuzz therapy he provides, so I'm not going to fire him. If you want to come witness elite, highly aerodynamic ninja training--or just need to buy a book while a giant tumbleweed of fur intensely judges the ceiling--we are open. Bring treats, because the sky raisins aren't filling him up."

Today:
Here & Now: Jack Wong, author of Goodbye, Koi (Orchard Books, $19.99, 9781338830996).

Tomorrow:
Today: 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).

Drew Barrymore Show: Timothy White, author of Life Through My Lens (Storyteller Media, $29.99, 9781969905018).

Jennifer Hudson Show: Kwame Onwuachi, co-author of All Hours: Crazy Good Food for Whatever, Whenever (Knopf, $40, 9780593802588).

Book TV airs on C-Span 2 this weekend from 8 a.m. Saturday to 8 a.m. Monday and focuses on political and historical books as well as the book industry. The following are highlights for this coming weekend. For more information, go to Book TV's website.

Sunday, October 11
8 a.m. John A. Jenkins, author of Summer of '71: Five Months That Changed America (Citadel, $29, 9780806544465).

9 a.m. Thomas Levenson, author of A Pox on Fools: The True Believers, Grifters, and Cynics Who Convinced Us to Reject Vaccines (Random House, $28, 9781035920976), at Politics and Prose in Washington, D.C.

1 p.m. JS Tan and Clarissa Redwine, authors of Against Tech Oligarchy: Worker Resistance in the World’s Most Powerful Industry (Haymarket Books, $27.95, 9798888908570), at Harvard Bookstore in Cambridge, Mass.

2 p.m. Sharon Weinberger, author of Valley of Death: How Big Tech Is Fueling the Future of War (Little, Brown, $32, 9780316595933).

4 p.m. Cristin O'Keefe Aptowicz, author of The Ballad of the Fugitive William Parker: A True Tale of Love, Murder, Treason, and Ordinary Folks Who Saved America (Simon & Schuster, $31, 9781668035931), at Politics and Prose in Washington, D.C.

5 p.m. Joseph Kelly, author of The Biggest Lie: The Prehistory of American Fascism, 1818-1915 (Bloomsbury, $33, 9781639732111).

6 p.m. Naomi Klein and Astra Taylor, authors of End Times Fascism: And the Fight for the Living World (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, $32, 9780374621384), at Politics and Prose in Washington, D.C.

The shortlist has been released for the 2026 T.S. Eliot Prize, which honors "the best new collection of poetry published in the U.K. or Ireland." Each shortlisted poet receives £1,500 (about $1,980) and the winner, who will named at the award ceremony on January 18, 2027, gets £25,000 (about $33,035). This year's shortlisted titles are:

Killing Spree by Jorie Graham
Hide Me Under the Blood and I Shall Be Satisfied by Keith Jarrett
PIVOT by Imani Mason Jordan
Sleep Gate by Sylvia Legris 
Behold by Shara McCallum 
The House of Broken Things by Kim Moore 
Gravity Archives by Andrew Motion 
Cafés by Holly Pester
The Channel by Jana Prikryl 
Render by Billy Ramsell 

Chair of judges Leontia Flynn said: "Though very different in voice, style and preoccupation, these ten collections share a determination to meet the challenges faced in difficult times with closer attention to language. Linguistic disruption, personal reflection, humorous lyricism--or indeed all these things at once--can be found in this work. Each of these books reminds us why, when nothing else makes much sense, it's to poetry we turn to reorient ourselves."

Selected new titles appearing next Tuesday, October 13:

Peck & Peck: A Novel by Bonnie Garmus (Scribner, $30, 9781668251065) takes place in 1982 New York City, where a recent college grad takes a job at a prestigious poetry quarterly. 

Threshing Day by Rebecca Yarros (Entangled: Red Tower Books, $24.99, 9781682818091) continues the Empyrean romantasy series.

Off the Reservation by Stephen Graham Jones (S&S/Saga Press, $32, 9781668225127) returns to the setting and characters of The Only Good Indians with a tale about repatriating the remains of a boy who died at the Carlisle Indian Industrial School.

Music Against the Night: A Novel by Yiyun Li (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, $29, 9780374613051) follows two piano proteges across continents and decades during the early 19th century.

As You Wake, Break the Shell: A Novel by Becky Chambers (Harper Voyager, $32, 9780062936066) is the first book in a sci-fi duology about a botanist on a resource-poor planet and a pilot of living spaceships.

The Museum of Modern Love by Mariko Turk (Holt, $20.99, 9781250421289) is a YA romcom about a teen who plans to be locked into the Metropolitan Museum of Art with her best friend and love interest but gets stuck with her ex instead.

Realmsweep by H.E. Edgmon (Feiwel and Friends, $18.99, 9781250423177) is a middle-grade fantasy that takes place in an alternate, magical United States.

Vibe: The Secrets of Strong Connections in a Lonely World by Adam Grant (Viking, $33, 9798217059706) gives advice on how to connect easily with other people.

In the Shadow of Eight: Surviving the Reality of My Childhood by Collin Gosselin (Grand Central, $30, 9781538784723) is a memoir by one of the sextuplets from the reality TV show Jon & Kate Plus 8.

The Game by Peter King (W.W. Norton, $39.99, 9781324123637) chronicles four decades of reporting on the National Football League.

The Last Best Place on the Internet: A Human History of Wikipedia by Richard Cooke (W.W. Norton, $29.99, 9780393881882) explores the creation and current state of Wikipedia.

Minds I've Met: From Denying to Embracing the Inner Lives of Animals by Frans de Waal (W.W. Norton, $29.99, 9781324076384) tracks the changes in how science understands animal behavior and emotion over the last 50 years. 

Paperbacks:
It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Murder: A Novel by Ally Carter (Avon, $18.99, 9780063387041).

As We Fall Through Time by Claire North (Orbit, $19.99, 9780316586467).

Merry Spooky Love: A Melody Bittersweet Novel by Josie Silver (Dell, $20, 9780593983041).

Entities to Lovers by Mallory Marlowe (Berkley, $20, 9780593956335).

From last week's Indie bestseller lists, available at IndieBound.org, here are the recommended titles, which are also Indie Next Great Reads:

Hardcover
Sophie, Standing There: A Novel by Meg Mason (Harper, $30, 9780063493131). "Sophie, Standing There is about the numbing pain of losing yourself and your confidence and the steep climb to gain it back. For fans of Sally Rooney and Dolly Alderton and anyone who has ever awoken from a season of clouds and found their way back through the mist." --Jill Smith, Still North Books & Bar, Hanover, N.H.

The True Confessions of First Lady Freeman: A Novel by Deesha Philyaw (Mariner Books, $32, 9780063383074). "Deesha Philyaw explores the pressures of Black patriarchal church culture and its double standards of 'purity' for women and virility for men. Anyone who has ever rolled their eyes at a no-good, full of it Pastor will be shouting hallelujah by the end of this novel." --Errol Anderson, Charis Books & More, Atlanta, Ga.

Paperback (Indies Introduce)
Buzzard by Inez Ray (Left Unread, $19.95, 9781967967261). "A feminist dystopian that was a tense but relevant read. Its multi-timeline navigates the complexity and nuance of bodily autonomy well and with care. This book is fast-paced and doesn't shy away from the heavy topics." --Stephen Hayes, Fred & June's Bookstore, Mooresville, N.C.

Ages 4-8
Mia's Cheetah by Amelia Bothe (Clarion Books, $19.99, 9780063472662). "What a wonderful story of imagination with gorgeous illustrations and fabulous perspectives. As my mom used to say, 'only boring people get bored.' And Mia, her dad, and her Nana prove themselves to be decidedly NOT boring!" --Tegan Tigani, Queen Anne Book Company, Seattle, Wash.

Ages 8-12
The Lost Three by Annie Barrows (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, $17.99, 9780316593908). "Magic, an orphan who gets rescued from a corrupt adoption by ghosts, a cat-like person, a funny narrator. Four very different people come together to become their own makeshift family. It's a classic orphan's tale with a happy ending, but the middle of the story is really funny and fully unexpected. Great for all those who love magic, fantasy, and mystery (also historical fiction?)." --Andrea Iriarte, Molly's Bookstore, Melrose, Mass.

Ages 13+
As I Dream of You by Jennifer Lee, illus. by LeUyen Pham (First Second, $27.99, 9781250862037). "I came for LeUyen Pham's art and stayed for the utterly heart-wrenching love story that turned my expectations upside down and caused me to read it again immediately after finishing. I dare you not to cry and gasp and wish for more. Stunning." --Leah Atlee, Bright Side Bookshop, Flagstaff, Ariz.

[Many thanks to IndieBound and the ABA!]

The Swiss author Peter Stamm (Agnes; In a Deep Blue Hour) is something of an unofficial laureate of isolation, writing of characters who either are dedicated autophiles who prefer solitude or are reluctantly alone due to happenstance. Translated by Michael Hofmann, the nine stories in the magnificent collection On Thin Ice explore various forms of isolation and protagonists' efforts either to ease their pain or increase their insularity. Results are mixed.

Stamm's opening piece, "Lieke writes," is the story of a Swiss teacher who has gone to Germany to be a ski instructor and escape an unspecified legal proceeding--"After the police questioning," he says, "I just left. Just get away, as far away as possible"--and the friendship he strikes up at the resort with a Dutch woman dealing with her own loneliness. "Mars" is about a teenager who is so entranced by Mars One, the Dutch firm that wanted to land humans on the planet, that he builds a "mother craft" in his parents' basement and plans to stay there "for almost seven months in complete isolation, without contact, without conversation, without sunshine," to emulate the mission. His mother finds his scheme "batty" but it instills in his father "a fresh sense of the earth, as though seeing it through his eyes."

The collection's centerpiece is the two-part title story. An actress who yearns for a career in the theater must accept work at a hospital, where she simulates patient symptoms for doctors in training. The backstory of the character she plays--married to a bank manager, enduring the death of a child--reverberates in her own life as she develops a friendship with one of the trainees. Other stories include "Jump and Run," in which a woman opts to leave her husband and kids to join the army as part of peacekeeping forces "to get away from my life, to have a bit of an experience"; and "Elin's Apples," in which a high-powered businesswoman who says "time was running away from me" feels strangely drawn to the solitude of an unheated shack "improvised from wood planks and fiberboard," where a lone woman sells apples, potatoes, and pumpkins to passersby.

Stamm has always been a beguilingly unflashy writer, with stripped-down prose that makes the exposure of raw emotions all the more lethal. He's as perceptive and empathetic as ever in this excellent work. -- Michael Magras, freelance book reviewer

Shelf Talker: Peter Stamm's collection On Thin Ice contains nine magnificent stories that highlight various forms of isolation among his diverse protagonists, written with his characteristic stripped-down prose.

"Sometimes you just want to live inside a book," author Jeanette Winterson once wrote in the Times of London. "In Paris this can happen quite literally, thanks to what might be the world's most exciting bookshop: Shakespeare and Company.... The ethos is as it ever was--two floors of books of every kind, new and second-hand, and a library for browsers, along with a piano if you feel like playing it... staffed by fresh-faced and optimistic twentysomethings from around the world."

Shakespeare and Company is celebrating its 75th anniversary this year, and oh what an adventure it's been. The legendary bookshop's history is well-chronicled, and a refresher course is available on its website. During August and September, the bookseller was sharing images and memories from its archives on social media, including:

George Whitman

The Façade: "1951. Opening day. George Whitman stands outside his new bookshop, a former épicerie he bought with a small inheritance. The building had been condemned back in the late 19th century. George took a chance, and a home for wandering readers and writers was born on the Left Bank of the Seine.... Our facade has weathered decades of change. So has the world around it. But walk through that door, and you’ll find the spirit exactly as it was in 1951."

The Events: "A bookshop is more than just a room full of books. It's a place for readings, for gatherings... for happenings! A place full of people, voices, and discussions about literature, politics, and poetry. Events have been at the heart of Shakespeare and Company since the very beginning. Over 75 years, we’ve hosted thousands of writers upstairs, downstairs, and outside. From Nobel laureates to completely unknown poets, as well as novelists and musicians, artists and eccentrics, all given the same welcome. Even when the bookshop was closed by the French authorities in the late 1960s as part of «Operation Anti-Beatnik», the readings continued."

Kitty

The Cats and Dogs: "Not every bookseller at Shakespeare and Company over the years has been human. From the early days, cats and dogs have curled up on piles of books, or prowled between the shelves here, greeting readers at opening, keeping the stock (and laps) warm throughout the day and long into the evening. George had a simple system for naming the cats: every one was called Kitty, after Anne Frank’s diary. Less time spent remembering names meant more time for reading!... The dogs, on the other hand, tended to have names.... And let’s not forget the hundreds of animals that you have brought in over the years. We love meeting them all, though the pig who lived on a nearby houseboat for a few years will always hold a special place in our hearts."

There are also the pilgrims. The Economist noted recently that the bookshop has "around 2,000-3,000 people visit each day--nearly 1 million a year," though it's hard for me to imagine how that math works, given its size. 

Fortunately, we made our pilgrimage to Shakespeare and Company in 2013 on a particularly weather-bitten March day in Paris that may have kept the crowds at bay. My wife and I had begun the morning with innocent optimism at the Musée d'Orsay, where we discovered a line of tourists and students outside, snaking around the plaza and down the street. 

Accidental portrait of Martha, the columnist's wife, browsing in front of Shakespeare and Company bookstore in Paris

We just kept strolling along the slick sidewalks in the general direction of our next goal, Shakespeare and Company, which would, we were certain, offer much-needed warmth and shelter from the storm to a couple of weary readers. We were right. The quiet inside the cozy bookshop was almost as breathtaking as the cold wind had been. We browsed for a long time, exploring the ground floor stacks as well as the library upstairs.

Because it's just my nature, even when on holiday, I also observed the booksellers, who were young and knew their stuff, fielding questions in French from the locals; changing direction instantly for an Australian man's query about "social justice in literature"; then deftly handling an American woman's request for some Ken Follett, Nora Roberts or Pat Conroy. It was a drill most frontline booksellers would recognize: Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose, more or less.

The general air of serenity could also have been inspired by the shop's neighbor, Notre Dame Cathedral. Even an energetic band of chaperoned young Americans toned it down a notch inside the bookshop, reminding me that hushed conversations from unexpected sources are also a form of quiet.

I spent a considerable amount of time browsing the iron-gated little poetry section. Naturally, we bought several books, and had them approved with the bookshop's signature rubber stamp. and then we ventured back outside for a wet and chilly walk back to our rental apartment.

More than a decade later, the privilege of crossing the bookshop's threshold remains, for me, a special kind of bookish holy moment. And it seems particularly apt--during a week when a certain online mega-corporation is running yet another in an endless series of "Prime Days"--to end this column with the words Bruce Handy used in a 2014 Vanity Fair piece on Shakespeare and Company: "There are reasons this English-language bookshop is a destination, far from Amazon."

So, happy 75th birthday, Shakespeare and Company. It's good to know you're still there, living inside a book.