The original Ivy Bookshop

Bird in Hand's location

The bookstore-café collaboration between the Ivy Bookshop, Baltimore, Md., and chef-restaurateur Spike Gjerde is opening next Monday, November 7, and will be called Bird in Hand, the Baltimore Sun reported.

Bird in Hand is in Charles Village, in a new student housing development close to the Johns Hopkins University campus.

"It is probably the largest concentration of writers, poets and educators in the city of Baltimore, so we're not framing this as a purely Hopkins experience," said Ed Berlin, who owns the Ivy Bookshop with his wife, Ann. "There's a need for a coffeehouse and there's a need for an additional bookstore.... This gives people in the area choice."

While the Ivy Bookshop has 26,000 titles, Bird in Hand will start with 2,500, "pretty close to the range of literature that we have at the other store," Berlin said. Bird in Hand will also be the bookstore's main event space; its first event there, on Thursday, November 10, will feature Andres Neuman, author of How to Travel Without Seeing.

The café will serve pastries, sandwiches, English muffin pizzas and other baked goods, as well as cereals, and have a full coffee, tea and juice bar, the Sun wrote.

Ada's Technical Books & Café, Seattle, Wash., which opened in 2010 and expanded when it moved to a new location in 2013, is expanding again, adding "a science-themed events and workshop space" called the Lab, Capitol Hill Times reported.

The Lab will offer coffee and cocktails, and serve as a site for speakers and workshops, as well as parties and other events. The store will hold a monthly prix fixe dinner in the Lab space, which will not offer merchandise. Events will include baristas discussing coffee and guest bartenders talking cocktails.

The Lab features a test tube chandelier over the bar; images from a scanning electron microscope taken by David Hulton, who owns the store with his wife, Danielle; and a Table of the Elements painted on one wall.

The Lab is "inspired by a famous scientist--physicist and chemist Marie Curie, who died from aplastic anemia, believed to have been caused by her exposure to radiation," Capitol Hill Times wrote. "It is also inspired by her relationship with her husband, Pierre."

The Lab will host an opening celebration on Thursday, November 17, 6-9 p.m.; a series of events will begin in January.

"You all have been so instrumental in my career. I owe you so much gratitude," said novelist and nonfiction writer Anne Lamott during an Author Brunch at the Northern California Independent Booksellers Association Fall Discovery Show last week in South San Francisco, Calif. Lamott was on hand to talk about her next book Hallelujah Anyway: Rediscovering Mercy, due out in spring 2017 from Riverhead. Lamott stated that she often tells people "if you don't want a really sh*tty seat in heaven, you better buy your books from indie booksellers."

During the same event, NBA legend and author Kareem Abdul-Jabbar discussed his latest book Writings on the Wall: Searching for a New Equality Beyond Black and White (Time). His collection of essays, he explained, is meant to serve as a starting point for essential conversations about race and equality in America. Anybody who reads this book, he said, "will have the compassion and insight to see the other side."

NCIBA authors lunch: (l.-r.) Anne Lamott, Melissa Cistaro, Maria Semple, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Rebecca Solnit.

Abdul-Jabbar added that he thought the American Dream was still worth dreaming, because "we've gotten this far," and said that he believed America can stand as "an example of what progress can look like." He would continue "betting on the front runner--and that's us."

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According to NCIBA executive director Calvin Crosby, 352 booksellers from 71 stores attended the trade show. There were 51 exhibits on the show floor with 225 reps in attendance, and more than 100 authors took part in various panels, receptions and meal talks. Crosby said that the educational programming got a great response from attending booksellers, and the addition of so many children's authors to this year's program in particular drew a "rave" response. Added Crosby: "We're looking forward to what the season and the next year has in store--the possibilities are endless!"

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During the NCIBA's annual meeting, Crosby said that "feelings were good" that booksellers were going to be exempted from a recently passed memorabilia law that, in its broadest form, had the potential to severely hinder independent booksellers' ability to sell signed books.

Also in the annual meeting, Alison Reid, co-owner of Diesel, A Bookstore, announced that on Sunday, November 13, she would host a "best practices town hall" meeting at Diesel's Oakland, Calif., location. The focus of the meeting, she said, would be on small, everyday inefficiencies and inconsistencies on the part of publishers that have an outsized effect on booksellers' day-to-day business. Reid added that she wasn't exactly sure how it would play out, but hoped that booksellers could work out ways of improving these issues and then get in touch with publishers who might listen.

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At an author lunch on Thursday, Bassem Youssef, commonly referred to as the Jon Stewart of Egypt and author of the upcoming book Revolution for Dummies: Laughing Through the Arab Spring (Dey Street), called the insanity seen during this year's election "just another Monday" for Egyptians and others living under autocratic rule in the Middle East. Youssef said that after leaving Egypt he now lives in Pleasanton, Calif., a place "so white even I call the police" when he sees an Arab. He also joked that Americans waste so much time and money choosing a new president every four years; when Hosni Mubarak was ousted after three decades as president of Egypt, it was considered a "short first term" in that part of the world.

Min Jin Lee, author of Free Food for Millionaires and the upcoming novel Pachinko (both published by Grand Central), said she was indebted to indies for the success of her first novel. "There is no algorithm for a debut novelist," she explained. "And you don't need drones." --Alex Mutter

Jonathan Haupt

Jonathan Haupt has been appointed the first executive director of the Pat Conroy Literary Center in Beaufort, S.C. The announcement was made during the closing ceremony of the inaugural Pat Conroy Literary Festival.

Haupt has served as director of the University of South Carolina Press since 2011. Prior to that, he was USC Press' assistant director for sales and marketing. Haupt created and co-chaired the Pat Conroy at 70 Festival in 2015. Following Conroy's death last March, Haupt remade the event into the Pat Conroy Literary Festival, which will be the Center's signature annual event in Conroy's adopted hometown of Beaufort.

"In our discussions of what the center needed, we wanted someone with experience in literary arts leadership--a person who was creative and innovative with programming, marketing, and communication," said Cassandra King, Conroy's widow. "We needed a builder who dreamed big but could translate those dreams into reality. We hoped to find someone who knew Pat personally and understood the magnitude of the opportunity of the center. It was a daunting task, but I am very happy to share with you this evening that we have found just the right person with all of those qualities and so much more in Jonathan Haupt."

In his closing remarks at the festival, Haupt said, "The center is striving to fill in that enormous Conroy-shaped hole in all of our lives and our hearts. To play my part in that effort, in honor of my friend and my mentor, is more than an opportunity--it's a calling. And we're meant to say yes to callings. A Great yes. Pat Conroy's lowcountry heart was big enough to include all of us. As a teacher, a mentor, and an advocate, he wanted everyone to find her or his true potential. It's in that spirit that the center will take up our mission to continue Pat's legacy of generosity with readers and writers alike, in and beyond our home here in Beaufort."

During the Frankfurt Book Fair, Booksellers New Zealand made a formal proposal to the European and International Booksellers Federation for the EIBF to hold its 2018 Conference in Dunedin, New Zealand. The conference, as envisioned by Booksellers New Zealand, would be a two-day gathering with the theme "Bookselling in the Global Economy of the 21st Century" that would be held in June or July and attract 400 or more delegates from booksellers associations and bookstores around the world.

Booksellers New Zealand said that Air New Zealand and other members of the Star Alliance (including Air Canada, Lufthansa, Singapore Airlines and United, among others) "have joined together to offer special fares for delegates." In Dunedin, the association continued, hotel prices will be "attractive," and the city has "a long history of attracting large, successful, international conferences."

In its proposal, Booksellers New Zealand said that the conference has the support of the New Zealand government, the Dunedin City Council and the New Zealand Book Council, among others. Booksellers New Zealand CEO Lincoln Gould wrote that Booksellers New Zealand represents more than 200 booksellers in the country. "From their establishment, far from mainstream economies, our members have continually striven to look outward and embrace the world of books and represent best practice in offering readers books of the world. The expanding global economy has enabled New Zealand booksellers to engage even more with the international community of authors and publishers. The topic of this conference is thus very close to our hearts."

New Zealand Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage Maggie Barry said that the national government "welcomes the opportunity to host international delegates to strengthen the link between booksellers and related associations from across Europe and around the world.

"Not only are New Zealanders voracious readers but buying books and going to the library rate among our favourite pastimes. With this in mind, New Zealand has an innate affinity with books and your delegates will be met with the most genuine welcome on earth."

Concerning the program of the conference, Booksellers New Zealand wrote, "In our current global economy, bookshops, thus booksellers, can be found the world over, in many different forms. What all booksellers have in common is that they represent the sharp end of the dissemination of culture: national or international, literary or mass market. Booksellers are the bridge between an author seeking a reader and a reader wanting entertainment, information or advice. And booksellers, whether from Boston, or Seoul, from Oslo or New Delhi all have a passion for the role they play; to place the books they love into the hands of the people that they were created for. Whether they serve children, avid fiction lovers, or sports-people; their mission remains the same."

The proposed program includes, among others, a session on "the future of English language bookselling in Asia"; a presentation by Nielsen Book Data on "global industry trends and sales data"; speakers on various bookselling programs in the U.S., U.K. and Germany; sessions about diversity in the book world, learning more about store customers, marketing, recruiting and nurturing younger booksellers; and a trade show.

The home of the University of Otago, Dunedin became New Zealand's UNESCO Creative City when it was awarded City of Literature status in 2014. The local organizing committee includes Phillippa Duffy, general manager of the University Book Shop in Dunedin, a director of Booksellers New Zealand and a founding trustee of the Dunedin Writers & Readers Festival; and Nicky Page, director, City of Literature.

[Editor's note: some of the Shelf Awareness editorial staff are familiar with Dunedin after having studied and visited there, and can attest that it is an inviting, beautiful city. The South Island is one of the most gorgeous places in the world, the home of Milford Sound, the Southern Alps, Queenstown (a center of outdoor and extreme sports) and more. In addition, New Zealanders are some of the most welcoming, gracious people in the world. We heartily endorse this proposal.]

Here's a small sampling of indie bookstore Halloween treats posted on social media yesterday:

Bookshop Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz, Calif.: "Bookshop Santa Cruz will be dispensing candy to Downtown Trick-or-Treaters til 5! Happy Halloween."

Tattered Cover Book Store, Denver, Colo.: "Candy? Candy!!! We have plenty of goodies for trick-or-treaters today, so make a stop as you head around the neighborhood!"

Booksellers at Vroman's in Pasadena, Calif.

Changing Hands Bookstore, Tempe & Phoenix, Ariz.: "We are what we read. Literally. #BookishHalloween."

LittleRotting Bksore (a.k.a. Literati Bookstore), Ann Arbor, Mich.: "Happy Halloween! Stop by in your boooooook themed costumes and win Literati gift cards!"

Green Apple Books, San Francisco, Calif.: "Come and get it kiddies. Happy Halloween from #greenapplebooks!!"

Belmont Books, Belmont, Mass.: "Just business as usual for us on Halloween. (Though this guy may be a little overdue for his lunch break.) #HappyHalloween."

Elliott Bay Book Co., Seattle, Wash.: "Five-dimensional werewolves. Of course. #BooksellerCostumes." And: "Mary Mojo Risin' #BooksellerCostumes."

Lake Forest Book Store, Lake Forest, Ill.: "Trick or Treat in the store today--Scary Cute!"

The Well-Read Moose, Coeur d'Alene, Idaho: "Come trick or treat at The Well~Read Moose!"

Trident Booksellers & Café, Boston, Mass.: "Our staff really pulled out all the stops for our annual costume contest, judged by you! Congrats to our winners, Adam and Liz!"

Old Firehouse Books, Fort Collins, Colo.: "Look who dropped in to help hand out candy! Princess Belle is here from the #FortCollinsChildrensTheatre."

Copperfield's Books, with eight locations in northern Calif.: "Happy Halloween from Copperfield's Books! Can you spot your favorite bookseller in disguise?"

Liberty Bay Books, Poulsbo, Wash.: "Cute costumes at the start of #Goulsbo Halloween in Poulsbo, Washington."

Waucoma Bookstore, Hood River, Ore.: "Happy #Halloween--we're here until 7 p.m.! #downtown #hoodriver #safehalloween."

British publisher Virago was the focus of a BBC Four special last night titled Virago: Changing the World One Page at a Time. "For over 40 years, publisher Virago has championed the work of new female authors, provided a platform for major feminist thinkers, and shone a spotlight on long-forgotten literary classics. Bidisha takes a look back at a publisher brave enough to shake up the book world," BBC reported, citing "six wonderful ways Virago shook up the world of books":

1. They were founded in the swinging but sexist 1970s
2. You wouldn't mess with a virago
3. They created design classics
4. They continue the tradition of women travelers
5. They've inspired great TV
6. They've stayed at the political cutting edge

The Best Possible Answer, a YA novel by E. Katherine Kottaras (St. Martin's Griffin).

Tomorrow:
The Talk: Carole Bayer Sager, author of They're Playing Our Song: A Memoir (Simon & Schuster, $28, 9781501153266). She will also appear on Hallmark's Home & Family.

Food Network's the Kitchen: Elise Strachan, author of Sweet! Celebrations: A My Cupcake Addiction Cookbook (Atria, $35, 9781501142222).

Late Show with Stephen Colbert: Michael Strahan, author of Wake Up Happy: The Dream Big, Win Big Guide to Transforming Your Life (Atria/37 INK, $16, 9781476775692).

In what was referred to as "a competitive situation," the AMC network bought Dietland, a drama series from Skydance Television based on the 2015 novel by Sarai Walker, Deadline reported. Written and executive produced by Marti Noxon, the project is being put on a straight-to-series track by AMC "under its model that involves the opening of a writers room for a series production order consideration."

Noxon will write, showrun and serve as an executive produce alongside Skydance's David Ellison, Dana Goldberg, and Marcy Ross as well as Maria Grasso of Noxon's Tiny Pyro, and Bonnie Curtis and Julie Lynn of Mockingbird Pictures.

Finalists have been named in 14 categories for the 2016 Bord Gáis Energy Irish Book Awards, which "was founded to celebrate and promote Irish writing to the widest range of readers possible." Winners will be named November 16. Check out the complete Irish Book Awards shortlists here.

For many in the United States, Mogadishu is best known as the place where Army Ranger choppers in 1993 were shot down and soldiers were surrounded by desperate, violent rebels, as depicted in the movie Black Hawk Down (based on the 1999 Mark Bowden book). Andrew Harding's The Mayor of Mogadishu goes behind this big-screen image. In an easygoing style, Harding tells the story of Mohamud "Tarzan" Nur's remarkable rise from a nomadic "camelboy," born on the Ethiopian side of the border with Somalia, to become the enigmatic mayor of one of the most divided, broken, bloody cities in the world. Harding, a BBC Africa correspondent and veteran foreign affairs journalist, has been in and out of Somalia numerous times over the last 15 years, allowing for plenty of meetings with Tarzan, his family, his schoolmates and his enemies--most notorious of them the Islamist militant group Al-Shabaab. Accompanied by his own passel of security guards, Harding takes readers through the war-torn streets of Mogadishu and its drought-stricken surroundings--like a safari guide pointing out terrorism sites and bombed-out churches as he might the occasional rogue elephant or pack of hyenas at their kill.

Tarzan is a larger-than-life political chameleon. Sent across the border to Mogadishu after his father's death, he lived with his financially burdened aunt until she had to put him in an orphanage. He found a niche on the basketball team despite his unusual Somalian stature ("A bulldog, you might say, in a nation of whippets"), and became known as a stubborn defender of the little guy. Married outside his clan to the trendy niece of a Somali feminist, he and his wife and six children left Somalia during the dictator Siad Barre's repressive regime and found asylum in London. Like many in the Somalian diaspora, Tarzan missed his country, despite the chaos and anarchy of the 1990s civil war. In London, he worked with refugees and honed his political skills. As one client said, "He was a good guy. Funny. You could tell he was a leader, and the community loved him." When the fighting finally subsided, Tarzan went home and leveraged his refugee connections to be named the mayor of Mogadishu. Although carrying the baggage of a mixed reputation, he is clear in his goal to someday be elected president of Somalia. Concluding that he might actually achieve his dream, Harding tells Tarzan's intriguing story, warts and all. And what a story it is--better than the movies. --Bruce Jacobs, founding partner, Watermark Books & Cafe, Wichita, Kan.

Shelf Talker: Veteran foreign correspondent Andrew Harding explores the mysteries of the seemingly ungovernable Mogadishu in a lively biography of its unlikely mayor, Tarzan Nur.

The bestselling self-published books last week as compiled by IndieReader.com:

1. The Sexy One by Lauren Blakely
2. Royally Screwed by Emma Chase
3. Twisted Palace by Erin Watt
4. Punk 57 by Penelope Douglas
5. Whiskey for Breakfast (Addison Holmes Volume 3) by Liliana Hart
6. The Next Best Bride (Once Upon a Wedding Book 5) by Kelly McClymer
7. The Holiday Brides Collection by Ginny Baird
8. Love, Christmas by Various
9. The Fix Up by Kendall Ryan
10. Paper Princess by Erin Watt

[Many thanks to IndieReader.com!]