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| (photo: Alyssa Ki) | |
"There's a whole sh*tload of people here tonight. You're not home watching TV. You're not home playing video games. You came here because you love books, and I think you oughta give yourselves a hand for that."
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| photo: Times Square Alliance | |
Today, the Strand Bookstore, New York City, is opening a kiosk in Times Square that will operate on the pedestrian plaza at 44th Street and Broadway, the Times Square Alliance announced (as reported by AMNewYork).
The kiosk will offer a "selection of books for tourists and New Yorkers alike such as Milk and Honey by Rupi Kaur, Men Explain Things to Me by Rebecca Solnit and Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates."
Tim Tompkins, president of the Times Square Alliance, said, "There have been a lot of conversations about how we want to curate these plazas and have them be a place that distinctive and disappearing New York City assets are brought back to Midtown."
The pop-up store will be open through Halloween seven days a week from 8:30 a.m-10:30 p.m. and will host author readings and a celebration of Roald Dahl's 100th birthday with the cast of Matilda.
The Strand has long operated a seasonal kiosk at 60th Street and Fifth Avenue.
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Visible Voice Books, Cleveland, Ohio, which closed two years ago, is reopening soon in a former funeral home that owner Dave Ferrante has bought and is renovating, Scene reported. Located in the Tremont neighborhood, the store is on Professor Avenue (and, appropriately, near the corner of Professor and Literary!).
In part to celebrate and spread the word about the store's return, Ferrante is hosting Rock-a-Lot, a pop-up tent party, on Sunday, July 10, featuring local musicians, pizza, craft beers and other beverages.
Ferrante commented: "While we're nowhere near opening up the building to the public, this pop-up party on the lot is definitely a great opportunity to begin to introduce fans of Visible Voice to our new location and concept."
The store will have "an expansive outdoor courtyard," according to Scene, and share indoor space with Crust, an "artisan pizza/sub/pasta/salad restaurant."
When Visible Voice Books closed in September 2014, after more than seven years in business, Ferrante said there wasn't enough foot traffic at that location to support the business--but didn't rule out reopening someday.
Books-A-Million will reopen its Lancaster, Pa., store at Park City Center in August after a one-year absence, the mall's general manager Rachel Gallagher told LancasterOnline. The bookstore, which will occupy a 5,000-square-foot space, had operated at Park City for five years, until February 2015, when its lease expired. Gallagher said the mall is bringing the bookseller back in response to shoppers' requests.
Barnes & Noble has declared another quarterly 15¢ dividend, payable July 29 to stockholders of record at the end of the business day on July 8. The quarterly payment continues B&N's annual dividend rate of 60¢. B&N reinstituted dividends last year after a four-year hiatus.
In other B&N news, Ashburn Patch reported that a new B&N store scheduled to open next year in One Loudon, a multi-use development in Ashburn, Va., in Loudon County, will be one of its new concept "bookstores of the future."
Booksellers in the U.K. and Ireland are gearing up for the 10th annual Independent Bookshop Week, which will be held June 18 to 25 and feature events, celebrations, reading groups, storytelling, author signings, literary lunches and more. The Bookseller reported that around 400 indies are taking part in IBW, offering two exclusive editions for sale: "a limited edition signed hardback of Robin Jarvis' The Power of Dark (Egmont) and an exclusive cloth bound reissue of The Incredible Book Eating Boy by Oliver Jeffers (HarperCollins), which will include some never-seen-before sketches to mark its 10th anniversary." Robert Macfarlane is writing "The Gifts of Reading," a specially commissioned essay to celebrate IBW.
The Booksellers Association said this year's IBW is being held at a time of "increased optimism and a more buoyant market for independent bookshops.... [Bookshops] are creating incredible social and cultural spaces on their high streets--offering events, literary lunches, children's storytelling, schools outreach, reading groups, festivals and meeting spaces."
Ros de la Hey, owner of the Main Street Trading Company in St. Boswells, said IBW "gives you the opportunity to celebrate with your 'shop local' campaign, linking up with other indie retailers. There is still a need for the indie community to shout about what is unique about it--creating fabulous local communities around books, providing events, linking with other local businesses and schools, creating local jobs and supporting local suppliers, often.... IBW acts as the summer celebration for our year-round BAMB activity. It makes indie bookshops, who can be quite isolated, feel part of something bigger, that's about them."
Journalist and author David Lamb, who "enjoyed the nomadic life, absorbed what he witnessed, made 'friends not sources,' as one editor put it, and wrote masterfully--even poetically--about people and events in the Middle East, Africa and Southeast Asia," died June 5, the Los Angeles Times reported. He was 76.
Lamb's books include The Arabs; The Africans; Vietnam, Now: A Reporter Returns; Stolen Season: A Journey Through America & Baseball's Minor Leagues; and Over the Hills: A Midlife Escape Across America by Bicycle.
"You could send him to a country in turmoil and get great copy," recalled his former boss Alvin Shuster, foreign editor of the L.A. Times from 1983 to 1995. "And then you could send him to Australia, where nothing was happening, and get great copy."
And Peter Osnos, founder and editor-at-large of PublicAffairs, called Lamb "a splendid author of multiple books."
Riverhead Books has launched a fundraiser to help Syrian refugees by supporting Libraries Without Borders, an international nonprofit that works to bring books, computers and learning resources to refugee and migrant populations in the form of the "Ideas Box," a portable multimedia toolkit that provides a customized library and media center, with Internet access and its own power source.
Through the end of June, anyone who donates $250 or more to Libraries Without Borders will receive a 3D author head of their choosing, printed and paid for by Riverhead. A donation of $1,800 will qualify for the complete set, which includes Riverhead authors Junot Díaz, Anne Lamott, Marlon James, Khaled Hosseini, Elizabeth Gilbert, Lauren Groff, Nick Hornby, Emma Straub and Dan Pink.
Riverhead's art team member Ben Denzer created the author head designs, which were printed by French 3D printing company LeBlox.
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| Sandi Liss at Soul Journey | |
Congratulations to SoulJourney, Butler, N.J., which is celebrating its 25th anniversary throughout June. Owner and founder Sandi Liss said the store is welcoming more than a dozen authors during the month with events ranging from angel readings to a lecture on sacred bathing, workshops on runes, EFT and the magick of planets, and a summer solstice celebration. There will be a celebration wine/cheese/dessert pairing on Wednesday, June 15. The store has also several giveaway baskets "overstuffed with goodies," and gift bags with every purchase and complimentary refreshments all month.
Over the years, SoulJourney has hosted many authors and held numerous classes and psychic readings. The store offers books, gemstones and crystals, Tarot and oracle decks, incense, oils, herbs, a selection of jewelry and other sidelines.
Recently, the "Artful Shopper" segment in the Fort Myers News-Press talked shop with Patti Jefferson, co-owner with Tim Jacobs of Gulf Coast Bookstore, which opened last year. Among our favorite exchanges:
What do you sell?
Gulf Coast Bookstore is strictly local. The authors are from Fort Myers and Cape Coral. The farthest that we've accepted a book is Marco and Venice because that person had local ties.
Who is your typical customer?
I think we have the exact same customer base as any bookstore. I don't think the average reader cares that it's independent or small press published. They just want good books. Some people will only read what they're told to read, but more and more people are looking for good books. They're book lovers in general.
Kelly Bowen has joined SparkPoint Studio, home of BookSparks, SparkPress, She Writes Press and SheWrites.com, as director of publicity and marketing. She was most recently director of marketing and corporate communications for Arcadia Publishing and the History Press. Before that, she was the publicity director at Algonquin Books for five years.
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In Crown Publishing Group's publicity department:
Rebecca Welbourn has been promoted to publicist, Crown, Hogarth, Tim Duggan Books, and Broadway Books.
Hannah Frail has been promoted to associate publicist, Crown, Hogarth, Tim Duggan Books, and Broadway Books.
Owen Haney has been promoted to associate publicist/marketer, Crown Business and Crown Forum.
Breaker, a YA novel by Kat Ellis (Running Press Teens).
Tomorrow:
All Things Considered: Annie Proulx, author of Barkskins: A Novel (Scribner, $32, 9780743288781).
HBO's Real Time with Bill Maher: Senator Barbara Boxer, author of The Art of Tough: Fearlessly Facing Politics and Life (Hachette Books, $27, 9780316311465).
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.
Saturday, June 11
11 a.m. Live coverage of the 2016 Chicago Tribune Printers Row Lit Fest in Chicago, Ill. (Re-airs Sunday at 11 a.m.)
7:30 p.m. An interview with Mary Rasenberger, executive director of the Authors Guild. (Re-airs Sunday at 10 p.m.)
8 p.m. Joshua Cooper Ramo, author of The Seventh Sense: Power, Fortune, and Survival in the Age of Networks (Little, Brown, $28, 9780316285063). (Re-airs Sunday at 8:45 a.m.)
10 p.m. Senator Barbara Boxer, author of The Art of Tough: Fearlessly Facing Politics and Life (Hachette Books, $27, 9780316311465). (Re-airs Sunday at 9 p.m. and Monday at 12 a.m.)
Sunday, June 12
11 a.m. Continuing live coverage of the 2016 Chicago Tribune Printers Row Lit Fest in Chicago, Ill. (Re-airs Monday at 1 a.m.)
6:45 p.m. William Walker, author of Betrayal at Little Gibraltar: A German Fortress, a Treacherous American General, and the Battle to End World War I (Scribner, $28, 9781501117893).
8 p.m. David Horowitz, author of Progressive Racism (Encounter Books, $27.99, 9781594038594).
10:30 p.m. Yuval Levin, author of The Fractured Republic: Renewing America's Social Contract in the Age of Individualism (Basic Books, $27.50, 9780465061969).
Lisa McInerney has won the £30,000 ($43,515) Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction for her debut novel, The Glorious Heresies, which will be published in the U.S. by Tim Duggan Books on August 9.
Chair of judges Margaret Mountford commented: "After a passionate discussion around a very strong shortlist, we chose Lisa McInerney's The Glorious Heresies, a superbly original, compassionate novel that delivers insights into the very darkest of lives through humour and skillful storytelling. A fresh new voice and a wonderful winner."
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The winners in the 23 categories of the 2016 PubWest Book Design Awards have been announced and can be seen here. The overall Judges' Choice Award, selected from among the winners in each of the categories, went to is Eatymology: The Dictionary of Modern Gastronomy by Josh Friedland (Sourcebooks).
From last week's Indie bestseller lists, available at IndieBound.org, here are the recommended titles, which are also Indie Next Great Reads:
Hardcover
Dinner With Edward: A Story of an Unexpected Friendship by Isabel Vincent (Algonquin, $23.95, 9781616204228). "Dinner With Edward is the charming story of the author's friendship with her friend's widower father. Vincent does a wonderful job evoking the sensuous details of the meals they shared, but this is more than just a foodie memoir: it is an exploration of the nature of friendship, aging, loss, and how we define our identities as the world changes around us. Despite the sadness of some of its topics, Dinner With Edward is ultimately a warm, feel-good story." --Carol Schneck Varner, Schuler Books & Music, Okemos, Mich.
The Curious Charms of Arthur Pepper: A Novel by Phaedra Patrick (Mira, $24.99, 9780778319337). "Arthur Pepper has finally gotten around to cleaning out his deceased wife's clothes when he comes across her charm bracelet. He doesn't remember seeing it before, and the charms pique his curiosity about the life his wife led before they met. Thus begins an adventure that will have Arthur learning to embrace life more fully and becoming more present in the lives of those he cares about. Grab a seat and get lost in this charming read with characters you will cheer on, laugh with, and perhaps shed a tear for." --Lisa Fabiano, An Unlikely Story, Plainville, Mass.
Paperback
Church of Marvels: A Novel by Leslie Parry (Ecco, $15.99, 9780062367563). "In this page-turner of a debut very little is what it first appears to be. Set in Coney Island and Manhattan at the end of the 19th century, Church of Marvels is populated with carnival folk and others living on the edge of society with either much to hide or much to discover. The characters are richly drawn and their circumstances exceptionally intriguing as they seek and find the complicated truths of their lives in the dark underbelly of New York." --Cathy Langer, Tattered Cover Book Store, Denver, Colo.
For Ages 4 to 8
Wolf Camp by Andrea Zuill (Schwartz & Wade, $16.99, 9780553509120). "Oh, to step out of our routines, if only for a moment, and pretend to be someone else. Homer, a pampered pooch, gets to do just that when he goes off to Wolf Camp to experience life as a wolf. Homer and his fellow canine campers survive in the wild with all of its adventures and discomforts and make themselves into a temporary pack. When they take some of their new-found skills home, they enliven the neighborhood. Zuill's witty asides and comical artwork add humor to an already funny story." --Diann Fortune, the Country Bookshop, Southern Pines, N.C.
For Ages 9 to 12
Lily and Dunkin by Donna Gephart (Delacorte, $16.99, 9780553536744). "Lily Jo McGrother is about to start eighth grade, and she's determined that this will be the year she truly becomes Lily instead of Timothy. The year seems to start off on a positive note when Lily meets Dunkin, but Dunkin has his own issues and it appears he would rather get in with the popular crowd than swap secrets with a boy at the bottom of the middle school food chain. This book takes the usual middle school themes and puts gender identity and bipolar disorder in the mix with two special characters who want nothing more than to be accepted for who they are." --Melissa Oates, Fiction Addiction, Greenville, S.C.
For Teen Readers: An Indies Introduce Title
The Square Root of Summer by Harriet Reuter Hapgood (Roaring Brook Press, $17.99, 9781626723733). "If I told you that time travel is real, you would think I'm crazy, but for physics prodigy Gottie Oppenheimer, it is real. The emotional stress from the loss of her grandfather, rejection by her secret boyfriend when she needed him most, and the reemergence of her dorky-turned-dashing childhood best friend send her traveling through wormholes to critical moments in her past. With love, family, and friendships on the line, Gottie tempts fate to uncover the meaning behind the wormholes. The Square Root of Summer is as entertaining as it is insightful." --Clare Donovan, the river's end bookstore, Oswego, N.Y.
[Many thanks to IndieBound and the ABA!]
Underground Airlines by Ben H. Winters (Mulholland Books, $26 hardcover, 9780316261241, July 5, 2016)
After successfully fusing the detective genre with apocalyptic speculative fiction in his excellent Last Policeman trilogy, Ben H. Winters has created another masterly genre-bender with his novel Underground Airlines. Set in a United States where the Civil War never happened, it retains the noir-inflected detective protagonist (of a sort) and swaps out the doomsday backdrop for an impressively realized alternate history. In Winters's version of American history, Abraham Lincoln was assassinated soon after his election, and to avert war, the government passed a series of compromises allowing slavery to continue in slave-holding states. In the present day, the remaining slave states have been whittled down to the infamous Hard Four, which practice a perversely "modernized" form of industrial-scale slavery.
Victor, the protagonist, knows the horrors of the Hard Four from personal experience. After escaping them, he was captured by the U.S. Marshalls and forced to become a bounty hunter tracking down fellow escapees. Now embittered by the choices he's made to stay free, Victor is a consummate pessimist, frequently reiterating his fatalistic motto "everything happens." He is embarking yet again on the "devil's work," but as so often happens in noir, this case turns out to be far more complex than Victor would have ever predicted.
Underground Airlines is an undeniably entertaining novel. Winters doles out twists and turns at perfect intervals--his pacing is all-around excellent. Although readers might find it tempting to gulp the whole book down in a sitting or two, Winters's impressive commitment to his premise ensures that it won't go down easily. In his vision, the compromises that kept the Union together were essentially moral compromises, leaving non-slave states almost as sick with complicity as the Hard Four.
The parallels with modern-day racism in the United States are difficult to miss--they are, in fact, practically explicit, including checkpoints ("I was an undercover operative in a dangerous line of work, but understand that also I was an African American male living in the United States of America. There were going to be checkpoints. I was going to get stopped"), family bands ("talented slaves brought north to sing to sold-out northern audiences, living proof of how happy everybody was down there"), and so-called "Freedman Towns," and the perverse logic that perpetuates them:
"Create a pen like that, give people no choice but to live like animals, and then people get to point at them and say will you look at those animals... black gets to mean poor and poor to mean dangerous and all the words get murked together and become one dark idea, a cloud of smoke, the smokestack fumes drifting like filthy air across the rest of the nation."
Ben Winters, in other words, makes no compromises with Underground Airlines. He has improbably created a novel that calls to mind Raymond Chandler and Ta-Nehisi Coates in equal measure. --Hank Stephenson, bookseller, Flyleaf Books
Shelf Talker: Underground Airlines introduces the reader to a version of the United States where the Civil War never happened and slavery is still practiced, deftly fusing alternate history and noir fiction to create a brainy, troubling page-turner.
