Sarah Coglianese with her daughter.

The Perseus Books Group is supporting a former colleague in her battle against ALS, a neurological disease with no treatment and no cure. Sarah Coglianese, Perseus Distribution's former director of client services, was diagnosed with ALS in 2012 at the age of 33. She and her husband, Rob Goulding, recently launched the #whatwouldyougive campaign to raise money for the ALS Therapy Development Institute, a nonprofit devoted to ALS research and a cure.

"We were shocked to learn of Sarah's diagnosis and we have been sadly following the progress of her disease since," said Sabrina McCarthy, PBG's senior v-p, group sales director. "As her friends and former colleagues, we want to do anything we can to help her."

PBG has started a fundraising team, and several employees are also raising money individually. The company said the campaign has brought in more than $61,000 in one month.

"The prognosis for ALS patients is grim. But the outpouring of love and support from my publishing friends at Perseus has been amazing. It gives me hope," said Coglianese.

To donate, go to Perseus Books fundraising for #WHATWOULDYOUGIVE

Wild Fig Bookstore, which closed in February after three and a half years in business, will reopen at a new location in the North Limestone neighborhood of Lexington, Ky. Ace Weekly reported that in April, NoLi landlord Griffin VanMeter, with whom Ronald Davis and Crystal Wilkinson had previously discussed relocation, contacted them saying "his group had acquired more property that they could consider if they were still interested."

"When we closed, we weren't 100% certain that we even would reopen, and if so, we thought it would be two or three years down the line--at the earliest," said Wilkinson, adding that when the new offer appeared, they were definitely interested. "One of the primary draws to North Limestone is not just its increasing potential for retail, but the fact that so many of those who supported our old store actually lived in the N. Lime area--that was a crucial detail and deciding factor for us with considering a reopening so soon after our initial closing."

In its new incarnation, Wild Fig "will be more specific... to meet the needs of the current market," Ace Weekly noted. "It will cater more to patrons' specific interests and not be as much of a used-book catch-all, especially in the new, smaller location. In addition, Wild Fig will now carry more new books than old, and will expand upon the limited coffee service."

"The new store is going to be so drastically different than the old one that we weren't even wanting to reuse the same name," Wilkinson said. Ultimately, however, they chose to keep Wild Fig. "The mission also remains the same: to preserve, support and advance the local literary community," Ace Weekly wrote.

The Little Bookstore, Nokomis, Ill., will host a grand opening Saturday for its new sister store located at 222 E. Main Street in Shelbyville, "featuring demonstrations of gold panning and metal detecting and a talk on bee keeping. There will be 10% off on new books and in store credit for used books," the Daily Union reported.

Amazon, which began collecting Ohio's sales tax in June, received approval for state tax incentives estimated at $17.5 million from the Ohio Tax Credit Authority on Monday. The Columbus Dispatch reported the online retailer "plans to build distribution centers in Obetz and Licking County, but exact locations haven't been determined."

The Ohio Development Services Agency said Amazon "told the state it's looking at unspecified sites in Etna Township in southwest Licking County and the village of Obetz near Rickenbacker International Airport," but "the e-commerce giant also is considering sites elsewhere as it looks to put two fulfillment centers in the Midwest," Columbus Business First wrote.

"Ohio is competing with multiple Midwest states for both fulfillment centers," the state said.

Don Oberdorfer, a "highly respected diplomatic correspondent for the Washington Post and the author of well-received books about Korea, Vietnam and the Cold War," died last Thursday, the New York Times reported. He was 84. His books included The Turn: From the Cold War to a New Era--the United States and the Soviet Union, 1983-1990; The Two Koreas: A Contemporary History; and Tet! The Story of a Battle and Its Historic Aftermath, which was a finalist for the National Book Award in 1972.

Last  week, Tatnuck Bookseller in Westborough, Mass., held a launch party for Diane Giombetti Clue's A Broad Abroad: Surviving (and Loving) Your Junior Year on Foreign Soil. The event attracted an overflow crowd, and the author will return for an encore on October 17. Her book is a narrative of her junior year abroad (JYA) in the 1980s, along with practical advice and tips for students who want to make the most of their own JYA. Giombetti's tour will continue with an event in Canterbury, England, where she spent her year abroad. Pictured: Diane Giombetti Clue (l.) with her editor, Linda Dini Jenkins.

Yesterday's release of the long-lost Dr. Seuss book What Pet Should I Get? inspired the shop dogs, including newest addition Mary Todd Lincoln Coffman, at Parnassus Books, Nashville, Tenn., to "speak our truth in the style of Dr. Seuss."

On Monday Green Apple Books, San Francisco, Calif., tweeted: "Over @gabsunset, Maurice Sendak is featured on our latest chalkboard art."

Noting that a "visit to Madison in Connecticut offers not only one of the best independent bookstores but also the state's largest shoreline park," Australian Associated Press (via SBS) advised: "Make sure to visit RJ Julia Booksellers in central Madison. You can spend hours browsing and if you visit at the right time, you can attend a book meeting with authors. The store has drawn Caroline Kennedy, Julie Andrews and Gene Wilder--not bad for a town 160 kilometres from Manhattan with a population of 18,000."

Tomorrow on MSNBC's the Cycle: Molly Knight, author of The Best Team Money Can Buy: The Los Angeles Dodgers' Wild Struggle to Build a Baseball Powerhouse (Simon & Schuster, $26, 9781476776293).

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Tomorrow on a repeat of Tavis Smiley: Charlie Wilson, author of I Am Charlie Wilson (Atria, $25.99, 9781476790077).

Miguel Arteta (Alexander & the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day) will direct Elle Fanning in a film adaptation of Jennifer Niven's YA novel All the Bright Places, with Niven writing the script. Demarest Media is financing and producing the movie alongside Mazur/Kaplan, the "book-centric production company" founded by Paula Mazur and Books & Books owner Mitchell Kaplan.

"All the Bright Places is a very personal story for me," said Niven. "Mazur/Kaplan, Miguel and Demarest Media have given the book and me the most wonderfully supportive, creative home, and they are as invested in Finch and Violet as I am."

Arteta described the novel as an "achingly heartfelt and authentic story [that] is the most convincing portrayal of teenage life I have ever come across."

Mazur noted they "were instantly rapt with this novel and are thrilled to have Elle be our muse and our Violet, as this terrific team brings Jennifer's important story to the screen."

Life in Squares, BBC Two's three-part drama about the legendary Bloomsbury Group, was "stirring up interest, and getting some hot and bothered, ahead of its Monday airdate in the U.K.," Deadline.com reported last week. Written by Amanda Coe (Room at the Top), the project dramatizes the relationship between Virginia Woolf (Lydia Leonard) and Vanessa Bell (Phoebe Fox), as well as Bell's alliance with Duncan Grant (James Norton) "as they, and their group of like-minded friends, navigate love, sex and artistic life in the first half of the 20th century."

Life in Squares is "billed as an 'intimate and emotional portrait,' but is also understood to feature its fair share of sex," Deadline.com noted. "While there is currently no U.S. broadcaster, one is likely to hop on."

The 13-book longlist for the £50,000 (about $78,054) Man Booker Prize, announced today, consists of:

Did You Ever Have a Family by Bill Clegg (U.S.)
The Green Road by Anne Enright (Ireland)
A Brief History of Seven Killings by Marlon James (Jamaica)
The Moor's Account by Laila Lalami (U.S.)
Satin Island by Tom McCarthy (U.K.)
The Fishermen by Chigozie Obioma (Nigeria),
The Illuminations by Andrew O'Hagan (U.K.)
Lila by Marilynne Robinson (U.S.)
Sleeping on Jupiter by Anuradha Roy (India)
The Year of the Runaways by Sunjeev Sahota (U.K.)
The Chimes by Anna Smaill (New Zealand)
A Spool of Blue Thread by Anne Tyler (U.S.)
A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara (U.S.)

Chair of judges Michael Wood commented: "We had a great time choosing this list. Discussions weren't always peaceful, but they were always very friendly. We were lucky in our companions and the submissions were extraordinary. The longlist could have been twice as long, but we're more than happy with our final choice.... The range of different performances and forms of these novels is amazing. All of them do something exciting with the language they have chosen to use."

The Man Booker Prize shortlist will be unveiled September 15 and the winner will be announced on October 13.

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A shortlist has been announced for the fourth annual £1,000 (about $1,560) Bloody Scotland Crime Book of the Year (formerly the Deanston Scottish Crime Book of the Year), which recognizes excellence in Scottish crime writing and includes nationwide promotion by Waterstones. The winner will be named September 12. This year's shortlisted titles are:

Paths of the Dead by Lin Anderson
DM for Murder by Matt Bendoris
Dead Girl Walking by Chris Brookmyre
Thin Air by Ann Cleeves
The Ghosts of Altona by Craig Russell
Death Is a Welcome Guest by Louise Welsh

photo: Jessica Tholmer

Mandi Harris is an accidental librarian at a public library in the Pacific Northwest. She never set out to be a children's librarian, but she fell in love with it and now finds herself with purple hair, wearing quirky aprons and considering story time the best part of her day.

On your nightstand now:

I just started Boy, Snow, Bird by Helen Oyeyemi. There's this feeling of falling I get when I read the first page of a particularly good book. It's as though the plot is pulling me down into it. My stomach flips, and I get chills. It's a rare feeling, but the first page of Boy, Snow, Bird gave it to me.

I have checked out Moriarty by Anthony Horowitz from the library about five times, and it keeps sitting on my nightstand. I'm sure it's feeling neglected by now, so I need to start it soon.

I also like to always be reading a YA or middle grade novel so I can have something to recommend to the library tweens and teens. Right now I'm reading Inside Out and Back Again by Thanhha Lai, Hook's Revenge by Heidi Schulz and The Invasion of the Tearling by Erika Johansen.

Favorite book when you were a child:

Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery was my safe and happy place. I didn't just want to be Anne--I thought I was her. I love how Anne is much too much. She reads too much, daydreams too much, laughs too much, talks too much, feels too much, is impulsive too much. She always keeps herself moving forward, even when life is too much.

Your top five authors:

Jasper Fforde, Cherie Priest, Isabel Allende, Roxane Gay, L.M. Montgomery.

Best books for story time:

Mo Willems's books are the easiest way to delight a group of children. I don't know a kid who doesn't love Pigeon, Duckling, Piggy, Gerald, Knuffle Bunny or Edwina (the dinosaur who didn't know she was extinct). If you want to get kids to laugh (and in my experience, making books fun is the easiest way to get kids to love reading), grab a book by Mo Willems. Laughter, books and kids: Does it get any more delightful than that?

Book you've faked reading:

I'm originally from Oregon, and lived in Eugene, home of Ken Kesey, for a long time. I've never admitted this to anyone, but... I have never read a single one of Kesey's novels, which is an unspeakable sin for anyone from Eugene. When I was a bookseller, I recommended his books, and I once had an intense discussion about them with a guy I was in love with. I was faking it the whole time. He never knew.

Book you're an evangelist for:

The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde. It's bookish sci-fi, fictional literary criticism. Oh, that doesn't sound interesting to anyone who wasn't an English major, does it? But it's full of action, adventure, intrigue, romance and conspiracies.

Its heroine, Thursday Next, lives in a world where books are so important, Shakespeare gangs and Marlowe gangs fight on the street, and the next big exploitable industry is traveling into books. My favorite part is that from the first book in the series to the last, Thursday ages from her mid-30s to her 50s. It is rare to find an older sci-fi heroine who drives the action and saves the day, but Thursday does it all with humor, humanity and a really cool car.

Book you've bought for the cover:

The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield.

Book that changed your life:

The Blue Castle by L.M. Montgomery. This is Montgomery's only book for adults; it is very hard to find a copy. It's the story of a spinster who leaves behind all she knows, all the rules of proper life she's always been taught, and moves to the woods (Okay, okay... she moves there with a handsome scoundrel who is hiding a secret or two, but a touch of shameless romance never hurt anyone).

Ostensibly, it's a love story, but to me it's always been the story of a dying woman letting go of life and finding herself in nature. I spent most of my 20s battling chronic illnesses, and this book gave me solace. When you are ill, you have to let go of both the life you thought you'd have and the life your health forces you to have, and find a new way of existing, a way to create yourself all over again.

Favorite line from a book:

"The opinions you avowed were rational," said Schedoni, "but the ardour of your imagination was apparent; and what ardent imagination ever was contented to trust to plain reasoning, or to the evidence of the senses? It may not willingly confine itself to the dull truths of this earth, but, eager to expand its faculties, to fill its capacity, and to experience its own peculiar delights, soars after new wonders into a world of its own!" --from The Italian by Ann Radcliffe

Which character you most relate to:

Anne Shirley, but I'm hoping to grow into Thursday Next.

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

Pure by Julianna Baggott. I can be irritable when it comes to dystopian YA. Sometimes it feels like the same book written a hundred times, just with different names and different overly complicated fascist post-apocalyptic governments.

I started Pure thinking I was getting another paint-by-numbers YA novel, but I was wrong. There are scenes from it that have stuck with me for years, particularly a scene with a group of mothers who have been fused to their young children. The mothers never get to see their children grow, learn and lead their own lives. The children are alive but not living. This scene was one of the most haunting, disturbing scenes I've ever read.

Readers looking for a break from the ordinary will welcome A. S. King's (Glory O'Brien's History of the Future; Everybody Sees the Ants) newest novel. Deftly juggling a number of surrealistic elements, the author crafts a wholly original work of fiction that is as bizarre as it is satisfying.

Stanzi won't take off her lab coat and dissects frogs with a clinical passion. She's in love with Gustav, who is building a helicopter that's not technically invisible, but Stanzi can see it only on Tuesdays. China, Stanzi's best friend, repeatedly turns herself inside out due to a nasty encounter with a weatherman ("She just turns herself over and over, esophagus to rectum, like a human Lava Lamp"). Everyone is aware of this. The dangerous bush man sells letters for a kiss. And Lansdale Cruise "is like Pinocchio except her hair grows, not her nose." Add in daily bomb scares and the pervasive pressure of standardized testing at their high school and you have the basic tenets of I Crawl Through It.

The brilliance of this novel is how everything makes sense in King's carefully crafted plot. The story weaves together alternating points of view of characters who are all dealing with some kind of trauma, yet they are all looking for love and redemption. Stanzi's parents are mysteriously absent from her life, and the family has clearly survived some kind of violent encounter. Stanzi and Gustav intend to use his helicopter to escape a life of standardized tests, mediocrity and TV. Since the helicopter is invisible to Stanzi six days out of seven, she will "just have to trust." Meanwhile, after China was deeply hurt by her affair with the weatherman, she's trying hard to stay out of trouble. But she's still looking for love, so when she meets a boy on the Internet, she takes the bus to New York City to see him. Lansdale Cruise, whose father has worked his way through four wives, furiously looks for her own answers to love and perfect test scores. Even the mysterious man in the bush is looking for love.

Readers who follow the story threads will be rewarded in a big way, as these smart teens cope with stress, violence, turmoil and the dysfunctional adults in their lives by taking extraordinary measures. Ultimately, it is only when they are ready to face their demons head-on that true healing finally begins. --Lynn Becker, host of Book Talk, the monthly online discussion of children's books for the Society of Children's Book Writers & Illustrators

Shelf Talker: Master of contemporary surrealistic fiction A.S. King offers a smart and wholly original new YA novel.

For a different perceptive, here are the top 10 bestselling titles from independent bookshops around Australia for the week ending July 11, as featured in the Sydney Morning Herald:

1. The Mindfulness Colouring Book by Emma Farrarons
2. The Eye of the Sheep by Sofie Laguna
3. The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins
4. Grey by E.L. James
5. Enchanted Forest by Johanna Basford
6. Fabulous Flowers by Michael O'Mara
7. Paper Towns by John Green
8. Decorative Designs by Michael O'Mara
9. The Other Side of the World by Stephanie Bishop
10. The Little Paris Bookshop by Nina George