In late spring 2017, Wesleyan University, Middletown, Conn., will move its bookstore downtown, where it will be operated by R.J. Julia Booksellers. This month, renovations begin on the 12,000-square-foot space, which will have an open concourse design.

The new bookstore will be at 413 Main Street, an area that the university described as "thriving," with "popular restaurants, Kidcity Children's Museum, and retail outlets." Wesleyan's current bookstore, Broad Street Books, operated by Follett, at 45 Broad St., will close.

This is the second bookstore that R.J. Julia will operate. It also manages BookHampton in East Hampton, N.Y.

"We're committed to strengthening the ties between campus and Main Street," Wesleyan president Michael S. Roth commented. "Relocating Wesleyan's bookstore is a major step in the direction, and I am so delighted that R.J. Julia Booksellers, with their phenomenal reputation, will be our partner in this effort."

Roxanne Coady, CEO and founder of R.J. Julia Booksellers, which is located in Madison, about 20 miles south of Middletown, commented: "It is both rare and exciting to see a community come together the way Wesleyan, the City of Middletown, and the Middlesex Chamber of Commerce have. Their commitment to creating a bookstore that serves the college and the people of Greater Middletown is inspiring to us. Together we can create the kind of bookstore that will be the new standard for a college bookstore that is an integral, active member of its town. We will bring our 30 years of experience as knowledgeable booksellers to create a vibrant author series and a place for discovery, enlightenment, entertainment, and contemplation. We are honored to be part of this exciting partnership."

Coady added that the new store will employ 15-18 people and will aim to host at least four events a week, the Hartford Courant wrote.

Dan Drew, the mayor of Middletown, said, "The new Wesleyan bookstore will be a transformative development for downtown Middletown and for the city as a whole. We are thrilled to be working on this project with the university, which is contributing so much to the vitality of our community, and we look forward to the success of this project."

Larry McHugh, president of the Middlesex Chamber of Commerce, called R.J. Julia Booksellers "a premier bookstore" and said the new store "will create another destination to our bustling Main Street."

In 2012, Wesleyan considered moving its bookstore to a proposed development downtown but decided not to. In May of this year, Wesleyan president Roth said that the University wanted to move the bookstore downtown and issued an RFP.

Yesterday, Barnes & Noble opened its second new concept store, in Edina, Minn., in the Edina Galleria Shopping Center, according to Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal. Like the new concept store that opened last week in Eastchester, N.Y., this location features a full-service restaurant, called Barnes & Noble Kitchen, that offers beer and wine.

The Edina store has 21,500 square feet of space; the restaurant has 2,600 and seats 100. Other B&N new concept stores will open soon in Folsom, Calif.; Loudoun County, Va.; and Plano, Tex.

HarperCollins is creating a backlist program for U.S. independent retailers that aims to "reward and support independent retailers that maintain a varied selection of HarperCollins backlist titles specific to the store's strengths and customer base," the company said.

Eligible accounts will be able to earn an additional discount on all HarperCollins and Harlequin adult and children's backlist titles ordered in calendar year 2017. Accounts will receive HarperCollins's Backlist Finds newsletter, which will provide title suggestions and links to Edelweiss catalogues that will help accounts review their HarperCollins backlist. To be eligible for the program, an account must be in good credit standing and have a minimum net billing of $5,000 with HarperCollins for calendar year 2016. Eligibility will be reviewed annually.

Mary Beth Thomas, v-p, deputy director of sales, said, "We are delighted to offer a backlist offer that gives bookstores the opportunity to 'revisit and rediscover' HarperCollins titles. Developed from many conversations with booksellers around the country, the program is meant to be simple, straightforward and easy to implement. We've built in flexibility so that bookstores can participate without having to jump through a lot of hoops. Our goal is that the tools provided will enable our reps to have productive discussions to help their accounts make decisions about opportunity titles for their inventory mix."

For more information, bookstores should contact a HarperCollins sales rep or e-mail backlistprogram@harpercollins.com.

Following approval by the Book Industry Study Group's board of directors last week, the organization's programming schedule for 2017 now includes two dozen webinars, six topic-driven programs and four events that will take place throughout the year.

"The first webinar each month will explain what our committees are working on, why it matters and how members can join in to shape their work," explained Brian O'Leary, who became BISG's executive director two months ago. "We'll typically use the second webinar each month to explain product updates and highlight new releases that benefit our membership and the industry."

The first of the four events will be the annual Making Information Pay session, which will be held in New York City in April and focus on "The Evolution of Delivery." In June, BISG plans to hold a one-day workshop called "The Accessibility Imperative," and November will see another Making Information Pay session, this one centered on Higher Education. Some of the topic-driven programs, meanwhile, will feature discussions on the plan to combine the International Digital Publishing Forum with the World Wide Web Consortium, and the case for ONIX 3.0 in the U.S. market.

"Earlier this year the Board developed and approved a refined statement of its mission, objectives and strategies," said Maureen McMahon, CEO of Kaplan Publishing and BISG board chair. "We have renewed our focus on providing members with information, standards and research that help them do their jobs more effectively."

Bruce Mazlish, a "historian of ideas who created controversy with psychoanalytic biographies of living world leaders, including one about Richard M. Nixon," died November 27, the New York Times reported. He was 93. His first book, The Western Intellectual Tradition: From Leonardo to Hegel (co-written with Jacob Bronowski), has been in print since it was first published in 1960.

Mazlish was best known for In Search of Nixon: A Psychohistorical Inquiry (1972), which was "an attempt to fuse science, or at least psychoanalytical insight, with the study of contemporary history," the Times wrote. He also published a series of books throughout the 1970s, profiling Henry Kissinger, Jimmy Carter and Mao Zedong, among others. His later works include The Fourth Discontinuity: The Co-Evolution of Humans and Machines and The Uncertain Sciences.

When it was first announced that Bruce Springsteen would do a short tour for his autobiography, Born to Run (Simon & Schuster), Tattered Cover's Len Vlahos and Kristen Gilligan lobbied hard to get Bruce to come to Denver. Alas, even the charming video featuring the staff parading through the store, with Len singing "Growing Up," wasn't enough. But when a second tour was announced, Tattered Cover was among the lucky five stores. Yesterday, more than 1,000 fans came out to meet The Boss. Above, the Tattered Cover staff with Springsteen.

From the Facebook page of Copperfish Books, Punta Gorda, Fla.:
"Take a peek inside Copperfish Books with this cool 360° photo of the store! Local building contractor Brigon Homes recently came and took the photo. Spin it around and have a look!..."

The sidewalk chalkboard outside Goobe's Book Republic, Bangalore, India, helpfully offers customers a choice: wi-fi or sci-fi.

At Naval Institute Press, Robin Noonan has been promoted to sales manager from marketing manager. Earlier, she was a trade publicist for Johns Hopkins University Press and a national account manager for Simon and Schuster.

The Birth of Jesus: A Christmas Pop-Up Book by Agostino Traini (Sparkhouse Family).

Tomorrow:
The Chew: Lauren Graham, author of Talking as Fast as I Can: From Gilmore Girls to Gilmore Girls (and Everything in Between) (Ballantine, $28, 9780425285176).

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, December 3
3 p.m. James Kitfield, author of Twilight Warriors: The Soldiers, Spies, and Special Agents Who Are Revolutionizing the American Way of War (Basic Books, $27.99, 9780465064700). (Re-airs Sunday at 7 p.m.)

6:30 p.m. Lewis Lapham, author of Age of Folly: America Abandons Its Democracy (Verso, $29.95, 9781784787110). (Re-airs Sunday at 11 p.m.)

7:30 p.m. A debate on the future of the U.S. economy with Robert J. Gordon, author of The Rise and Fall of American Growth: The U.S. Standard of Living since the Civil War (Princeton University Press, $39.95, 9780691147727), and Joel Mokyr, author of A Culture of Growth: The Origins of the Modern Economy (Princeton University Press, $35, 9780691168883). (Re-airs Sunday at 8:15 a.m.)

8:45 p.m. Heather Hendershot, author of Open to Debate: How William F. Buckley Put Liberal America on the Firing Line (Broadside Books, $28.99, 9780062430458). (Re-airs Sunday at 3 p.m.)

10 p.m. George Mitchell, author of The Negotiator: A Memoir (Simon & Schuster, $28, 9781451691375). (Re-airs Sunday at 9 p.m. and Monday at 3 a.m.)

11:15 p.m. Medea Benjamin, author of Kingdom of the Unjust: Behind the U.S.-Saudi Connection (OR Books, $16.95, 9781944869021). (Re-airs Sunday at 5:30 p.m.)

Sunday, December 4
1:15 a.m. Becky Bond and Zack Exley, authors of Rules for Revolutionaries: How Big Organizing Can Change Everything (Chelsea Green, $18, 9781603587273).

12 p.m. Live In-Depth q&a with authors who have recently written about the attack on Pearl Harbor, including Steve Twomey (Countdown to Pearl Harbor: The Twelve Days to the Attack), Eri Hotta (Japan 1941: Countdown to Infamy) and Craig Nelson (Pearl Harbor: From Infamy to Greatness).

4:30 p.m. Chandra Manning, author of Troubled Refuge: Struggling for Freedom in the Civil War (Knopf, $30, 9780307271204), at Harvard Book Store in Cambridge, Mass.

10 p.m. Lisa Napoli, author of Ray & Joan: The Man Who Made the McDonald's Fortune and the Woman Who Gave It All Away (Dutton, $27, 9781101984956).

The National Book Critics Circle has announced finalists for this year's John Leonard Prize for a first book in any genre. A panel of member-volunteers will read the finalists and select a winner, to be announced in January. The prize will be presented March 16 at the NBCC Awards ceremony in New York City. The 2016 finalists are:

The Mothers by Britt Bennett (Riverhead)
The Girls by Emma Cline (Random House)
Here Comes the Sun by Nicole Dennis-Benn (Liveright)
Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi (Knopf)
The Nix by Nathan Hill (Knopf)
Grief Is the Thing with Feathers by Max Porter (Graywolf)

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British bookseller Foyles has chosen Paul Beatty's Man Booker Prize-winning The Sellout as its book of the year, "pledging to promote the title heavily online and in-store in the run up to Christmas," the Bookseller reported, adding that copies of the book will be featured on special displays with gold and white "Foyles Book of the Year" stickers, marketed on in-store screens, windows and social media channels.

"Paul Beatty's novel is important, timely and original," said Simon Heafield, head of marketing and brand at Foyles. "From publication day the book has enjoyed a phenomenal reception at Foyles from our booksellers and customers alike, leading us to name it as our Book of the Year for 2016. We fully expect the huge demand we've seen at Foyles for this book to continue right up to Christmas, and beyond."

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For its part, Waterstones has chosen The Essex Serpent by Sarah Perry as its book of the year, the Bookseller reported. Managing director James Daunt called the book, a work of historical fiction set in Victorian London and Essex in the 1890s, "the overwhelming choice by our booksellers to be their Book of the Year. A novel of rare intelligence and utterly compelling to read, it takes complete possession of the reader. It is a treasure and we recommend this wonderful book to everyone."

Waterstones will sell an exclusive edition of the book that has a blue cover with gold foil and embossed finishes, top and tail binding and bespoke endpapers, making it "a book whose exterior beauty matches the majesty of its writing."

Selected new titles appearing next Tuesday, December 6:

Of All That Ends by Günter Grass, translated by Breon Mitchell (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, $28, 9780544785380) is an essay collection by the late Nobel Prize-winning German author.

The Undoing Project: A Friendship That Changed Our Minds by Michael Lewis (Norton, $28.95, 9780393254594) explores a 40-year-old partnership between two Israeli psychologists that created the field of behavioral economics.

Tools of Titans: The Tactics, Routines, and Habits of Billionaires, Icons, and World-Class Performers by Timothy Ferriss, foreword by Arnold Schwarzenegger (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, $28, 9781328683786) looks at the time management techniques of successful people.

Jump: Take the Leap of Faith to Achieve Your Life of Abundance by Steve Harvey (Amistad, $25.99, 9780062220356) is the comedian and TV host's guide to success.

Life in Motion: An Unlikely Ballerina Young Readers Edition by Misty Copeland (Aladdin, $17.99, 9781481479790) is the middle-grade adaptation of the memoir by Misty Copeland, the first African-American principal dancer in American Ballet Theatre history.

The One Hundred Nights of Hero: A Graphic Novel by Isabel Greenberg (Little, Brown, $25, 9780316259170) is about female storytellers in an imagined medieval world.

Blood Vow: Black Dagger Legacy by J.R. Ward (Ballantine, $28, 9780451475336) is a paranormal romance.

Babylon's Ashes by James S.A. Corey (Orbit, $27, 9780316334747) is book six in the Expanse sci-fi series.

Who Watcheth by Helene Tursten, translated by Marlaine Delargy (Soho Crime, $26.95, 9781616954048) is the ninth mystery with Swedish Detective Inspector Irene Huss.

Spindle by E.K. Johnston (Hyperion/Disney, $18.99, 9781484722282) is a re-imagined "Sleeping Beauty" story from the author of A Thousand Nights.

Yoga Bunny by Brian Russo (HarperCollins, $17.99, 9780062429520) is a picture book starring a bunny who tries to get his animal friends interested in yoga.

The Whole30 Cookbook: 150 Delicious and Totally Compliant Recipes to Help You Succeed with the Whole30 and Beyond by Melissa Hartwig (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, $30, 9780544854413) gives Whole30 diet-friendly recipes.

Paperbacks:
Private: The Royals by James Patterson and Rees Jones (BookShots, $4.99, 9780316505192).

Come and Get Us by James Patterson and Shan Serafin (BookShots, $4.99, 9780316505161).

Nothing Less by Anna Todd (Gallery, $16, 9781501130847).

From last week's Indie bestseller lists, available at IndieBound.org, here are the recommended titles, which are also Indie Next Great Reads:

Hardcover
The German Girl: A Novel by Armando Lucas Correa (Atria, $26.99, 9781501121142). "On May 13, 1939, the S.S. St. Louis set sail from Germany to Cuba with many Jewish passengers fleeing Hitler. Despite all best efforts, they were turned away from Cuba, the U.S., and Canada, forcing the ship to return to Europe, where many of the passengers would die in Hitler's death camps. Correa puts a human face on this shameful episode. Hannah Rosenthal, the daughter of wealthy aristocrats, was 12 when she boarded the St. Louis. Seven decades later, Anna Rosen receives a package from an unknown relative in Cuba that inspires her and her mother to travel to Cuba to learn the truth about their family's mysterious and tragic past. A masterful debut!" --Deon Stonehouse, Sunriver Books & Music, Sunriver, Ore.

Orphans of the Carnival: A Novel by Carol Birch (Doubleday, $27.95, 9780385541527). "Orphans of the Carnival is the story of a time when the oddities of nature could be a lucrative path to fame and fortune. Although heartbreaking, it is the wonderful journey of a talented woman who just wants a normal life, in spite of being alternately vilified and celebrated. Filled with many unforgettable characters and amazing writing, this is a book that will stay with readers for a long time." --Mary McBride, Rainy Day Books, Fairway, Kan.

Paperback
Only Love Can Break Your Heart: A Novel by Ed Tarkington (Algonquin, $15.95, 9781616205263). "Tarkington's debut novel feels positively Shakespearean in its sense of family dynamics and the sometimes destructive power of love, but it speaks with the deceptively plain, poignant language of a Neil Young song. Set in the 1980s in a small Virginia town, the book tells the coming-of-age story of Rocky Askew as he copes with fraternal abandonment, dangerous liaisons, caregiving, and one town scandal after another with little help other than his brother Paul's old vinyl collection. Only Love Can Break Your Heart speaks to anybody working to function, however imperfectly, in any type of family." --Andrew Hedglin, Lemuria Bookshop, Jackson, Miss.

For Ages 4 to 8
A Child of Books by Oliver Jeffers and Sam Winston (Candlewick, $17.99, 9780763690779). "This book is a quiet and powerful homage to the transformative power of children's literature. Readers follow a young girl as she travels a sea of words to collect a boy in need of an adventure. The imaginations of both the reader and the boy bloom under the guidance of the young girl, and by journey's end everyone becomes a Child of Books. Jeffers' colorful illustrations draw new and familiar fans alike into the story, while Winston's typographic scenery holds many rewards for the careful and observant reader." --Amy Brabenec, Brookline Booksmith, Brookline, Mass.

For Ages 9 to 12
Furthermore by Tahereh Mafi (Dutton, $17.99, 9781101994764). "Welcome to Ferenwood, where the flowers are edible, colors are magic, and magic is currency. It is the home of Alice, who, in a world of beauty and magic, struggles with poverty, a missing father, and the fact that she alone in the entire village has almost no color. As her future seems empty, Alice grabs the chance for adventure and joins her nemesis, Oliver, in a bid to rescue her father from the dangerous land of Furthermore, finding far more adventure than she bargained for. I cannot recommend this book highly enough!" --Kelly Morton, Joseph-Beth Booksellers, Cincinnati, Ohio

For Teen Readers
Wrecked: A Novel by Maria Padian (Algonquin, $17.95, 9781616206246). "Conundrum: The name of the campus house where Haley's freshman roommate claims to have been raped, and the exact position Haley is put in when she finds herself drawn into the campus investigation. At the same time, Haley is growing closer to Richard, a housemate of the accused and a boy who annoys her, excites her, makes her furious, and makes her laugh. Haley and Richard find themselves on opposite sides of somebody else's war, struggling and scrambling to discern just who is telling the truth about what really happened. Timely, poignant, and thought-provoking, Wrecked should be required reading for every high-school senior." --Angie Tally, The Country Bookshop, Southern Pines, N.C.

[Many thanks to IndieBound and the ABA!]

Nothing is easy for undocumented Mexican immigrant Solimar "Soli" Castro Valdez in Shanthi Sekaran's second novel, Lucky Boy (after The Prayer Room). Nor is it a piece of cake for Indian American Kavya Reddy, who at 35 is a Cal-Berkeley sorority cook whose husband, Rishi, works at the Bay Area dotcom Weebies, a popular website for all things baby and parent. With their small Craftsman bungalow, Prius and convenient commute, Kavya and Rishi seem to have it knocked--except for Kavya's craving for a child, both to appease her traditional parents' expectations and to fill a hole in her life: "She'd come to Berkeley to find herself, but found that her self was not enough. She wanted a self of her self."

Two thousand miles south, Soli is desperate to escape her tiny Oaxaca farm town. She fills a backpack with bottled water and heads for El Norte with a sketchy "coyote." Weeks later she arrives at her cousin's house in Berkeley after a harrowing ride on Mexico's informal immigrant express train "The Beast"; a gang-rape by bandits in the Arizona desert; and a spirit-crushing ride through California in a truck full of onions. A disheartened and pregnant brown woman without papers among the privileged who prowl farmer's markets "as if fresh herbs and homemade kombucha were all that could matter in the world," Soli takes a housekeeping job to pay board at her cousin's, send a little home to her parents and save something to seed the American dream for her expected son--her lucky boy.

From this dramatic setup, Sekaran builds an ambitious story that touches on sweeping themes of fertility, immigration, motherhood, racism and class struggle. While Soli unexpectedly becomes pregnant during her journey, Kavya and Rishi remain childless after many years of trying. In her frustration Kavya reflects: "She was an Indian woman. Surely a country of one billion people had produced some capable wombs." But after diligently tracking ovulation cycles and a devastating miscarriage, Kavya abruptly tells Rishi: "I want a kid now... like Veruca Salt demanding an Oompa Loompa.... I want to adopt."

As the Reddys work through the social services adoption bureaucracy, Soli delivers her healthy son, Ignacio, and for a year she carries him everywhere. When she and her cousin are in a car accident, however, Immigration discovers that she is in the country illegally. Ignacio, a U.S. citizen by birth, is taken to social services while Soli is put in a detention center to await deportation. No surprise in who become Ignacio's foster parents. But that is not the end of the story. The personal bonds and rights of a birth mother are strong, as are the opportunities provided to a child by loving foster parents. There are few easy solutions to life's toughest problems, but Sekaran's Lucky Boy goes a long way toward putting a humanizing face on them. --Bruce Jacobs, founding partner, Watermark Books & Cafe, Wichita, Kan.

Shelf Talker: Shanthi Sekaran's ambitious Lucky Boy captures the street-level reality of the 30,000-foot issues of immigration, motherhood and class.