Easty Lambert-Brown, owner of Borgo Publishing, is opening Ernest & Hadley Booksellers in Tuscaloosa, Ala., the Tuscaloosa News reported. Named after Ernest Hemingway and his first wife, Hadley Richardson, the store will have a grand opening on Sunday, December 11.

The store's inventory will be arranged "chronologically instead of alphabetically or by genre," the newspaper wrote. For example, the "Lost Generation" section will feature books by Hemingway, Gertrude Stein and F. Scott Fitzgerald, as well as "other books that analyze the time and places those authors occupied," instead of scattered in fiction, poetry, biography and history. Themes will rotate, in part based on customer feedback.

"I'm not going to cover every genre," Lambert-Brown said. "Think of me as kind of a more specific version of Barnes & Noble or another big book store."

The store will also highlight local writers. "I want to emphasize our support for local authors and publishers, because they have no other outlet," Lambert-Brown said. "I think it will be kind of a contagious thing. Once people find out there's a local outlet to talk about and sell their books, they're going to be more inclined to visit the store and come see me about having the book on sale here."

In March 2017, Firefly Bookstore, Kutztown, Pa., which sells games and new and used books, is moving into new, larger space, according to Berks-Mont News.

Rebecca Laincz, who owns the store with Matthew Williams, said that a move to larger quarters had been part of the plan since Firefly was founded in 2012, saying, "We always knew that sooner or later we would outgrow our current space, as wonderful as it has been."

The new space will also the store to expand areas for events and meetings as well as work space for the employees. And some book categories will be increased. "We have so much that we can't get on the floor right now because of limited space," Laincz said. Some events have been very crowded in the current 1,000-square-foot store, necessitating that some activities be held outside.

"We are looking at adding more shelving for more titles," Laincz continued. "When customers walk in, we want them to be astonished at the variety of our collection. Organization is key, so that's going to continue in the new space."

Williams noted that the pair will soon be renovating its new space: "We have some changes and furnishings to set up and some great new features to put in place before we can move."

Bound Booksellers has opened in a 550-square-foot space in the West Haven Town Center, Franklin, Tenn., near Nashville, "a small town rich with local culture and the arts but in need of a community bookstore," Bookselling This Week reported. Owner Kelly Gore's mission is to "provide the community a small, locally owned 'artisan' selection of books and gifts in an atmosphere that is warm and inviting."

"I don't know if the idea for a bookstore existed initially in our minds--it was more as a community hub for the local artistic community of singers, writers, and artists, but with the backdrop of a bookstore," said Gore, who designed the shop with her husband, Chad. "I think there was an idealistic thing that existed for me since the time I was young, thinking that I would open [a bookstore] when I retired. Bookstores have always been a very comforting and warm place for me, and books have always had a very comfortable, homelike quality. Also, I live in a part of Franklin that didn't have that small independent bookstore, so I thought there was an opportunity in the neighborhood to really connect with people through opening a bookstore."

Bound Booksellers hosted a grand opening celebration November 19. "It was interesting how so many people who came in that first day thanked me for opening a bookstore," Gore said. "A lot of people were saying, this is exactly what we needed and wanted for this space. It was great to see everybody's love of books and bookstores.... I wanted Bound to be a place to go for books that you can pass down, or really well-bound versions of classics. Our inventory will include a section at the front of the store of those really well-bound beautiful books."

A Barnes & Noble in Albuquerque, N.Mex., remained closed yesterday after being damaged, along with several other stores, by a string of suspected arson fires early Saturday morning, the Journal reported. Mary Ellen Keating, B&N's senior v-p of corporate communications and public affairs, said she did not know when the chain's Coronado Center location would reopen, though some employees had returned to the premises to clean up, while others are working temporarily at the Cottonwood area store.

"I just know that all of our employees are either at the store working (on cleanup) or at the nearby store working, so no one is without pay," said Keating. She told the Associated Press that the company would not lay off employees while it cleans the fire-damaged location during the holiday season.

Yesterday, federal authorities charged a man with using an explosive device to damage an Old Navy store in Albuquerque, "where a string of overnight fires and vandalism during the busiest shopping weekend of the year" damaged Starbucks shops, the B&N and other establishments, the AP reported.

The Book Industry Charitable Foundation launches its 20th anniversary, year-end "Think Binc" fundraising campaign today, with a goal of $100,000.

Executive director Pam French said that for the foundation to continue providing essential financial assistance to meet the needs of booksellers and their families around the country, fundraising efforts are focused on the foundation becoming a sustainable entity.

Binc is participating in Giving Tuesday again this year to kick off its year-end fundraising campaign. The Binc board of directors have offered to match all donations up to $3,700 through December 15. Each board member has committed an additional gift of support this year to create this challenge.

"We are certainly grateful for the support and work our ambassadors Ann Patchett and James Patterson have provided so far this year," she noted. "It is critical to our mission to engage the book community and have support from both a financial and awareness perspective. Our ambassadors have elevated both of these key elements and booksellers across the country will benefit."

Over the past 20 years, the Binc Foundation has granted more than $3.8 million in financial assistance to over 6,400 booksellers, awarded $1.3 million in higher education scholarships and $40,000 professional development scholarships. In 2016, contributions from individuals and industry partners thus far have allowed Binc to provide financial assistance to 30 bookstore employees and their families worth more $72,000; as well as award 27 higher education scholarships to students from 17 different states, representing 22 different bookstores. Professional development scholarships to attend Winter Institute, Children's Institute and regional bookseller trade conferences were awarded to 17 booksellers.

Legendary Canadian bookseller Jim Munro, who founded the landmark Munro's Book in Victoria, B.C., in 1963 with his then-wife, Alice Munro, and "gave his business to longtime staff members, whom he described as his extended family," after his retirement in 2014, died November 21, CBC News reported. He was 87. Munro was also named to the Order of Canada "for his vital championship of countless Canadian writers and for his sustained community engagement as an independent bookseller." National Geographic included Munro's on its list of the world's top 10 bookstores this year.

Store manager Jessica Walker, who is a co-owner with Carol Mentha, Sarah Frye and Ian Cochran, said Munro "placed great trust in us and gave us great freedom. He loved us.... He sat on heritage boards, he was very involved in culture, more than happy to write a letter to city council about things he felt passionate about. He loved discovering new books and new writers and introducing them to the world."

In a tribute written for the National Post, Rex Murphy called Munro "the nicest of men, of a certainty the best of employers, a gentleman of wit, humor and taste, benevolent--well-wishing--it seems to me, in all he said and did. On the correct scale of the word, he was a hero; someone who gave more than he received, who stimulated harmony in whatever setting he was to be found, a friend unassuming and ready to help when help was needed, and a near perfect exemplar of how an enthusiasm for words and books can make a full and pleasant life--and carry much joy into the lives of others."

Announcing Munro's passing on Facebook, the bookstore's co-owners noted that "he still loved to keep in touch, and earlier in the day had made it downtown for his regular lunch date with Doug Koch, an employee and friend for many years.... Jim touched many people during his long life, and his passions were many: art, music, politics, civic life, heritage architecture, and most of all, his beloved bookstore. Throughout his career, Jim delighted in discovering new books and promising writers. His importance in the world of books and literary culture was recognized with an appointment to the Order of Canada in 2014. His enthusiasm and generous spirit were the hallmarks of the business he lovingly built and tended for more than fifty years. He will be greatly missed."

Congratulations to Murder on the Beach Mystery Bookstore, Delray Beach, Fla., which is turning 20 and will hold a grand celebration on Friday, January 8, 2017, from 6-9 p.m. The party will feature appearances by authors Hank Phillippi Ryan, Charles Todd and PJ Parrish. (A Hank Phillippi Ryan paperback will be given to every customer purchasing a book at the party while supplies last.) Catering will be by local restaurant Papa's Tapas. Admission is free, and the public is invited. As the store writes, "Chat with your favorite authors, have some wine and munchies, and get an autograph or two or ten."

Murder on the Beach, which specializes in mystery, suspense and thrillers, was founded in 1996 in Sunny Isles Beach by Joanne Sinchuk. In 2002, the store moved to Delray Beach. In 2008, Sinchuk sold the store to Booksmart Enterprises in Boca Raton and has stayed on as store manager.

Booksellers New Zealand announced the winner of the "Love Letter to Bookshops" competition, which was held as part of the NZ Bookshop Day festivities. Out of 550 entries, this note from Marcus Hobson to Books a Plenty bookshop in Tauranga took the top prize:

"Bookshops are gateways to a thousand other worlds, ten thousand imaginations and a million possibilities.

"We can lose ourselves or find ourselves, find answers, find inspiration, or find just what we are looking for. We can even find that we were wrong.

"Most of all, bookshops are a portal into the imaginations of writers, where not everything is real or as it seems, but where you can happily live for the next few days or weeks."

Effective December 7, Jason Wells is joining the Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing Division in the newly created role of v-p, marketing and publicity. He was formerly executive director, publicity and marketing, at Abrams Books for Young Readers, where he worked for 14 years. He earlier worked at S&S in the publicity department. After his return to S&S, Wells will head an expanded and unified publicity and marketing force, adding additional positions throughout the department.

At the same time, Lucille Rettino, v-p, director of marketing, is leaving the company after more than 10 years.

Today:
Fresh Air: Cleve Jones, author of When We Rise: My Life in the Movement (Hachette Books, $27, 9780316315432).

Tomorrow:
Diane Rehm: Brian Fishman, author of The Master Plan: ISIS, al-Qaeda, and the Jihadi Strategy for Final Victory (Yale University Press, $30, 9780300221497).

The Real: Dolly Parton, author of Coat of Many Colors (Grosset & Dunlap, $17.99, 9780451532374).

Conan: Nick Offerman, author of Good Clean Fun: Misadventures in Sawdust at Offerman Woodshop (Dutton, $35, 9781101984659).

A trailer released for Martin Scorsese's "long-in-coming epic" Silence, adapted from the novel by Shūsaku Endō, "is thrilling, set to screaming violins, intense martial drumming and blasts of the religious imagery and violence all but perfected by Scorsese. There will be crucifixions," Deadline reported.

The film, which opens December 23, stars Liam Neeson, Andrew Garfield, Adam Driver, Tadanobu Asano, Yosuke Kubozuka, Ciarán Hinds, Shinya Tsukamoto and Issey Ogata. The screenplay is by Jay Cocks and Scorsese.

William Finnegan won the £28,000 (about $34,740) William Hill Sports Book of the Year Award (the "Bookie") for Barbarian Days: A Surfing Life, which took the Pulitzer Prize for biography earlier this year and was on President Obama's summer reading list. The judges described the book as a "painstaking, intelligent, but above all, open-minded examination of an immensely complicated area." In addition to the cash prize, Finnegan gets a William Hill bet worth £2,500 ($3,100) and an exclusive day at the races.

Mark Lawson, one of this year's judges, said: "Although the author himself acknowledges the skepticism of some about whether surfing is a sport, the judges felt that Finnegan's account of the physical and psychological drive to achieve athletic perfection make Barbarian Days a worthy winner of the William Hill Sports Book of the Year Award. The autobiographical detail and precision of the writing also make it rewarding to those who might think they would struggle to get on board with surfing as a subject."

If you missed J.D. Daniels's crackerjack letters when they first appeared in the Paris Review, The Correspondence is your chance to catch up with this talented, funny, often dark master of the personal essay. Mostly nonfiction, the six pieces in this collection by the Whiting Prize-winning Daniels include experiences as diverse as training in Brazilian jiu-jitsu, laboring as a deckhand on a Mediterranean ship out of Tunisia, kicking around his hometown of Louisville, Kentucky, and attending a group psychotherapy retreat. They paint a picture of a man who embraced the contrary, did more than his share of drugs and alcohol, stumbled in and out of college, handled marriage poorly, dabbled in therapy and wound up becoming a writer, despite some of the whiny, self-centered colleagues in his writing classes.

Fortunately, Daniels has managed this with a hearty, self-deprecating sense of humor and cutting insight into the world around him. For example, in "Letter from Cambridge," he impulsively signs up for jiu-jitsu classes where "Big Tony knocked me down and sat on my neck for two hours," and he immerses himself in Brazilian culture, including "the noir novel where people smoke cigarettes, talk about Roland Barthes, and now and then stick the handle of a hunting knife up somebody's behind." He gives up teaching ("I admitted how much I wanted to kill and eat the children who had been entrusted to my care."), and signs on as a deckhand with shipmates "burned brown and wrinkled by the sun... like a wallet someone had been sitting on for forty years." In the fictional "Letter from Level Four," the night parking lot clerk clearly has a bit of Daniels in him: "reading the book of Deuteronomy behind a cash register in a parking garage, drinking a six-pack and eating an onion sandwich in my studio apartment." Group therapy does little for Daniels's angst. He sums it up in "Letter from the Primal Horde" as having "your individual ego reduced to molten slag in the hell furnace of our collective unconscious."

Each letter in The Correspondence is a striking piece of prose with Daniels's sharp take on life nested inside humor and clever wordplay, but "Letter from Kentucky," about his return to his hometown, is perhaps his most sensitive, observant essay. It opens with a biblical begats list of his ancestors, touches harshly on his parents and the religion pounded into him, tastes the bars and alleys that shaped his youth, and captures the heart of the culture in drive-by panoramas: "I drove past Magic Vapor Shop and Tri-State Floors... Urban Creek Holiness Church... Jimbo's 4-Lane Tobacco and the Federal Correctional Institution." Daniels catches something true about every piece of the unsettled world. He could be talking about himself when he paraphrases Daniel Boone's response to the question of whether he felt lost when he stood at the Cumberland Gap looking out at Kentucky: "I can't say as ever I was lost, but I was bewildered once for three days." These letters are brief, but they hit the mark with more than bewilderment and humor--they often nail the truth. --Bruce Jacobs, founding partner, Watermark Books & Cafe, Wichita, Kan.

Shelf Talker: With striking prose and self-deprecating wit, Whiting Prize-winner J.D. Daniels uncovers a plethora of small truths when dipping into his troubled diversions and travels.

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

1. Managed (VIP Series Volume 2) by Kristen Callihan
2. Sweet Cheeks by K. Bromberg
3. Rescuing Harley (Delta Force Heroes Book 3) by Susan Stoker
4. Mischief and the Masters by Cherise Sinclair
5. Since I Fell For You (New York Sullivans #2) by Bella Andre
6. The Elf on the Shelf by Carol V. Aebersold and Chanda B. Bell
7. Wicked Legends by Various
8. Buttons and Lace by Penelope Sky
9. Shifters in the Snow: Bundle of Joy by Various
10. Alphas for the Holidays by Various

[Many thanks to IndieReader.com!]