Book Club Bar is opening a second location this coming Saturday, May 2, at 380 Troutman St. in the Bushwick neighborhood of Brooklyn, N.Y. Noting that the new store has been two years in the making, co-owners Erin Neary and Nat Esten said it will be a general bookstore like the original location in Manhattan's East Village, which opened in 2019, and will also expand its poetry and small press inventory.

The Brooklyn space features a 30-foot coffee and cocktail bar; and will host a variety of events. The owners have been eyeing the Bushwick neighborhood for years, waiting to find the right location. 

"Bushwick is so vibrant and this location is at its epicenter," said Esten. "The neighborhood has other small bookstores or ones with a different focus." Neary added: "We're happy to bring the neighborhood its newest general bookstore."

With Book Club Bar-Brooklyn opening, the owners are using this opportunity to temporarily close the Manhattan location for some repairs and a refreshed look.

Lost Willow Books children's bookshop opened last weekend in time for Independent Bookstore Day this spring at 1114 Central Ave. in Wilmette, Ill. Owner Jenna Rose posted on Instagram: "Thank you to everyone who came out to support Lost Willow Books during our opening weekend! We can’t wait to see you again soon."

Rose, who grew up in Wilmette and returned with her family a decade ago, told the Record recently that the downtown area was the "ideal place" for her business: "It's a community that is friendly, loves local business, loves reading and loves education. I think it will be a nice addition to an already great community.... I am so excited to open the doors and hear what people think." 

Rose and her husband, David McKirdy, have three children. Professionally, she has been involved in health-care startups, but described her new venture as a "departure for me," but one that has been a "serious daydream" for two years.

She loves to read and has found joy watching her children learn, so "when her daydream became strong enough, Rose messaged the village of Wilmette about open spaces," the Record noted. 

"Even at that time, I didn't think it would come to fruition, but the timing was perfect," Rose said, adding that the village informed her that Wild Child Toys was leaving 1114 Central Ave., and Rose said her idea "quickly went from daydream to reality."

Rose called Lost Willow a traditional children's bookshop, with titles for ages 0-12 that will vary from fiction to nonfiction and board books to YA novels. She also hopes to sell complementary items like toys and puzzles, while featuring a playspace in the rear of the store where children can sit down with a book.

"I hope it's a space parents want to come with their kids and spend time," she said. "I also hope older kids will come by themselves and spend time.... I hope people will come and give us their feedback. I want to hear from shoppers about what they want to see in the store, whether that's certain titles or genres, maybe nonbook items. I'm excited and nervous and hope over time the store will get better and better."

Modella Capital, the private equity firm that bought WH Smith's high-street bookshop business last year, is reportedly planning a drastic restructure of TG Jones, according to the Sunday Times, which noted that the plan would involve closing up to 100 of the chain's 480 shops and "many of the landlords of the surviving outlets will face steep rent cuts."

The restructuring is expected to take the form of a "cram-down," which the Sunday Times described as a comparatively new and controversial measure that requires the consent of only one class of creditor. It also requires consent from a High Court judge, and to "achieve this, TG Jones will have to prove that the only alternative to its restructuring plan would be to put the business into administration [bankruptcy]--and that creditors would be no worse off if this were to happen," the Sunday Times added. "The prospect of a forceful restructuring of a high street stalwart so soon after it was seemingly rescued is likely to spark recriminations among TG Jones's landlords. Some are thought to have been expecting some form of restructuring since Modella took charge."

In March, Sean Toal stepped down from his role of CEO at TG Jones one year after the sale to Modella Capital, with Alex Willson succeeding him in the role. 

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Charlie Redmayne

Charlie Redmayne, former CEO of HarperCollins UK, has been named CEO of independent publisher Vinci Books and has bought a stake in the business, the Bookseller reported. Founded by entrepreneur Mark Smith in 2024, the publishing and technology company aims to "offer authors the best of independent and traditional publishing." It has published more than 2,000 titles and developed technology tools for publishers.

Redmayne, who was HarperCollins UK CEO for 12 years before leaving in October 2025, will report to the Vinci Books board of directors. Smith, who was the co-founder and executive director of the Welbeck Publishing Group and founder and CEO of both Zaffre and Quercus, will become executive chairman at Vinci Books. 

Redmayne commented: "Throughout my career I have looked to embrace technology and digital change to create vanguard businesses. Vinci Books is doing precisely that. I really look forward to this opportunity to lead this excellent team into their next exciting phase of growth--and to delivering for our authors and our customers."

Smith added: "Charlie brings a rare combination of operational excellence, strategic vision and entrepreneurial instinct, which is exactly what Vinci needs as we scale. I founded this company to build something genuinely new, combining great publishing with world-class technology, and Charlie is the ideal person to lead us into the future."

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The three adult judges on the 2027 judging panel have been chosen for the inaugural Children's Booker Prize, which celebrates the best contemporary fiction for children ages 8-12, written in or translated into English and published in the U.K. and/or Ireland. The award is supported by AKO Foundation.

This year's adult judges are children's book author and screenwriter Frank Cottrell-Boyce, who is the inaugural chair of judges for the prize; actor, writer, and comedian Lolly Adefope; and children's bookseller Sanchita Basu De Sarkar, owner of the Children's Bookshop in Muswell Hill, London.

After the adult judges select an eight-book shortlist from publisher submissions, three child judges--who must be between eight and 12 years old and living in the U.K.--will then join them in choosing the winning book. The shortlist will be released on November 24 and the winner named on February 2, 2027. 

Barnes & Noble will open an 18,000-square-foot bookstore today, Wednesday, April 29, in Clovis Crossing at 1065 Herndon Ave., Clovis, Calif. The official launch will feature local author Monica Murphy cutting the ribbon and signing copies of her new YA novel, A Thousand Perfect Lies (Entangled: Mayhem Books).

"We are very pleased to open another store in California's beautiful Central Valley, at the doorstep of Yosemite National Park," B&N said. "Our Clovis booksellers bring with them decades of knowledge and experience that they cannot wait to share with this community which has welcomed them so warmly."

Little, Brown Books for Young Readers is launching a new imprint, Alvina Ling Books, that will be headed by longtime LBYR editor Alvina Ling. The imprint will publish 15 to 20 titles annually, from board books to young adult, with an emphasis on fiction. In close collaboration with authors and illustrators, titles will be created with care and love, prioritizing representation, imagination, and story. The logo for Alvina Ling Books features Ling's last name in Chinese, meaning "forest," and represented by the symbol of two trees standing side by side. The mission of Alvina Ling Books is to publish books at the intersection of entertainment and art, offering a favorite book for every young reader.

Ling began her tenure with LBYR in 1999 and served as editor-in-chief starting in 2014. Late last year she became v-p and publisher of her eponymous imprint. Award-winning titles she published include Grace Lin's Where the Mountain Meets the Moon (Newbery Honor); A Big Mooncake for Little Star (Caldecott Honor); When the Sea Turns to Silver (National Book Award finalist); Bear Came Along by Richard T. Morris, illustrated by LeUyen Pham (Caldecott Honor); Dave the Potter by Laban Carrick Hill, illustrated by Bryan Collier (Coretta Scott King Illustrator Award, Caldecott Honor); and Strange the Dreamer by Laini Taylor (Printz Honor). She has also launched bestselling series, including the Land of Stories by Chris Colfer, Holly Black's Folk of the Air and Novels of Elfame, and the Wild Robot by Peter Brown, which was made into an Oscar-nominated film in 2024 and has sold more than 7 million copies worldwide.

Ling said, "I'm thrilled to officially launch my imprint this fall, with a list that reflects the full range of categories I'm planning to publish--from board books to crossover young adult. Returning my focus to acquiring and shaping books as an editor and publisher feels like coming home. And, my guiding goal remains the same: to publish books that I love and care for deeply, in the hopes that each becomes some child's favorite book."

LBYR president & publisher Megan Tingley said, "Alvina is a brilliant tastemaker who has a remarkable gift for attracting and developing literary and artistic talent, championing underrepresented voices, and bringing life-changing works of literature to young people. I expect there will be a long line of authors and illustrators at her door hoping to be part of her new imprint."

Alvina Ling Books' Fall list:
The Little Stone Buddha by Grace Lin (on sale 9/15, picture book)
A Book for Everyone by Hayley and John Rocco (on sale 9/29, picture book)
The Jungle of Carabanana by Kate McKinnon (on sale 9/29, middle grade)
A Big Bed for Little Snow by Grace Lin (on sale 10/6, board book)
The Gate, The Girl, and the Dragon by Grace Lin (on sale 10/6, trade paperback reprint)
A Conspiracy of Charming Monsters by Holly Black, illustrated by Solenne Songer (Frostbite Studios) (on sale 11/3, YA)

The Winter 2027 list:
It Begins with the End by Samira Ahmed (on sale 3/9/2027, young adult)
Dragon Boat Race by Tracy Subisak (on sale 3/30/2027, picture book)
House That Feels Like Me by Sasha Allen, illustrated by Julian Plum (on sale 3/16/2027, picture book)
Village Made of Rainbows by Jo Wu, illustrated by Alina Chau (on sale 4/13/2027, picture book)

It was a full house at Virginia Highland Books in Atlanta, Ga., for a storytime with author Laurel Snyder, who read her new picture book, Shrinking Violet (Chronicle).

"Sundays are for slowing down and discovering what’s hidden in all the nooks & crannies," Barrier Island Books & Art in Stone Harbor, N.J., posted on Instagram. 

Ingram's Consortium Book Sales & Distribution has added two new publishers:

Do Re Mi Books, a children's publisher with headquarters in London, England, which makes playful, distinctive board books and picture books that celebrate the best in contemporary illustration. The Do Re Mi list includes translations of children's books from around the world as well as many originals. Do Re Mi is inspired by the charm and creativity of Japanese children’s publishing. Forthcoming releases include How to Be a Cat by Sam Voulters, illustrated by Yoshiko Hada, and The Cricket in the Violin by Anna Haifisch, translated by David Colmer.

The Walking Tree, which publishes global literary travel books featuring storytelling and observations about a city or country. Written by authors who know each destination intimately, the Walking Tree's books are unlike traditional travel guides, and offer a local's understanding of a place--its rhythms, its customs, its contradictions, and the thousands of everyday details that make it tick. Among their titles publishing this fall are New York by Catherine Lacey and Tokyo by Emily Itami.

Theresa Collier is promoted to senior director, marketing & publicity for Workman, Artisan, and Black Dog & Leventhal. Previously, she was director of publicity & marketing.

The Stoney Creek Publishing Fall Lineup. 

Tomorrow:
NBC News Now: Christine Roussel, author of Lunch on a Beam, The Making of an American Photograph (Brandeis University Press, $35, 9781684583041).

A trailer has been released for Verity, and IndieWire reported that "if recent adaptations of Colleen Hoover novels have lived or died by their ability to translate melodrama into believable romance, then the bizarre first teaser for Verity suggests something less literal and more dangerous." Directed by Michael Showalter, the film stars Anne Hathaway, Dakota Johnson, and Josh Hartnett. It hits theaters on October 2. 

The Writers' Trust of Canada has named nine finalists for the 2026 RBC Bronwen Wallace Awards for Emerging Writers, which is presented to a Canadian citizen or permanent resident who has published poetry or prose in a literary magazine or anthology, but has not yet been published in book form and is without a book contract. 

Winners in three categories--poetry, short fiction, and creative nonfiction--will each receive C$10,000 (about US$7,310) at an event in Toronto on June 1. Finalists get C$2,500 (about US$1,825). This year's finalists can be found here.

photo: Kelly Bahr

Dane Bahr was born in Minnesota and now lives in Washington State with his wife and sons. He is the author of the novels The Houseboat and Stag. The Dead Ringer (Counterpoint, April 21, 2026) is a haunting western that features a man brought back from the dead to exact revenge.

Handsell readers your book in 25 words or less:

Montana, 1935. Benjamin Kilt is buried alive by his brother and bank-robbing partner. Exhumed at the final moment, Kilt sets out for revenge.

On your nightstand now:

Ayn Rand's The Fountainhead; Ernest Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea; Anne Lamott's Bird by Bird; Isaac Bashevis Singer's Enemies, A Love Story; Emily Nemens's Clutch.

Favorite book when you were a child:

The Ways of Game Fish by Russ Williams and Charles Cadieux (with reproductions of paintings by Bob Hines and Fred Sweney and etchings by R.H. Palenske). It is a big book with lovely pictures. I'd read it every summer during vacation. Growing up in Minnesota, the saltwater species might as well have been living on Neptune.

Your top five authors:

Ernest Hemingway, Cormac McCarthy, James Salter, Elmore Leonard, John Steinbeck, Molly Gloss... Oops, that's six.

Book you've faked reading:

Thomas Pynchon's Gravity's Rainbow. All the cool literary kids loved this and gleaned some kind of spiritual insight. But holy shit!

Book you're an evangelist for:

I have several, apologies. Dave Eggers's A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius; Tim O'Brien's The Things They Carried; The Complete Short Stories of Ernest Hemingway. Eggers did something so weirdly and distinctly original, and it hasn't been matched since. O'Brien's book is so tight and understated--I've read it and reread it so many times and come away with something new each time. Hemingway for all the clichéd reasons one loves Hemingway. You can't write today without contending with Hemingway's ghost.

Book you've bought for the cover:

Ottessa Moshfegh's My Year of Rest and Relaxation. Turns out the book is pretty damn good too.

Book you hid from your parents:

I'm not telling you...

Book that changed your life:

Chuck Klosterman's Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs. I had no idea you could write like that and get away with it. It felt truly radical. A revelation for me.

Favorite line from a book:

"So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past." --F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby

Five books you'll never part with:

Books are forever, but books are also mercurial. They come and go in my life; we seem to find each other at certain times, and it lines up. I know that sounds corny, but it's true.

Book you most want to read again for the first time:

None. You can't go back to a first. You can go back and when you do it will be nostalgic but not the first. But if it's a good book it will be the first. And then you put it on the shelf.

Whale, That Was Unexpected is a seriously fun picture book collaboration between author Casey Lyall (Vampire Jam Sandwich) and illustrator Kathryn Durst (Polite Predators series) that features an eccentric, white-haired mariner who, with her loyal canine sidekick, faces down a whale of a situation with fourth-wall-breaking, unflappably dry wit.

Every day, for "many, many, MANY" years, crusty fisherwoman Maude and her scruffy dog, Claude (both clad in bright yellow waterproof garments), take "enough snacks for two" and head out to sea. Maude is pretty sure she's seen everything, until... "Wait. What?" Her "trusty little boat" is swallowed by a whale! So, Maude does the only sensible thing: she throws a goodbye party. Maude insists that the book's narrator "do the honors" and offer some final words, but apparently "Farewell, Maude" and "Farewell, Claude" will not do. "Can't you fancy it up a bit?" Maude protests. The narrator tries again: "Farewell, Maude, a grand old dame. Farewell, Claude, sixth of his name." Sailor and dog ham it up, until there's a wet WHOOOSH of a wave, and now, also saying goodbye, are a crab ("king of the sea"), an octopus ("permanently"), a "musty little goat," a sea lion ("give us a roar!"), and a puffin ("you're all done for!"). When the emergency flare Maude is using as a candle for her goodbye sandwich is lit, smoke fills the whale. "AAAAAAAACHOOOOOO!" The partygoers are all unceremoniously dumped back into the sea. "That's one way to end a party," Maude grumbles. The narrator thinks the episode was fun, but Maude is ready for a nap. A final, splendid image hints at more adventures--however unwanted--to come.

Lyall's spirited text features conversational, delightfully droll exchanges between Maude and the narrator. The rhyme is cumulative and reminiscent of "The Green Grass Grew All Around" and the fun phrasing of Seuss's Green Eggs and Ham. Lyall's matter-of-fact presentation of the farewell party solidly grounds the story in comical territory, and the accumulation of characters is a treat. Maude's and Claude's outsize personalities are magnified by Durst's descriptive art. The illustrator uses charcoal, gouache, and digital illustrations and maintains a grim, wintry seaside palette that contains a boatload of amusing details. All the activity of the participants, the intermittently sarcastic interplay between Maude and the narrator, and the intricate art give this story a plethora of potential to become a story-time favorite. --Lynn Becker, reviewer, blogger, and children's book author

Shelf Talker: This seriously fun picture book features a crusty fisherwoman, her sidekick dog, and a cheeky narrator who face down a whale of a situation with unflappable dry wit.