"I visited half-a-dozen [bookshops] on a book tour last week. Books have never been more beautiful and small shops never more creative in selling these lovely objects.... When I last toured indie bookshops two years ago, there was ebullience at the peaking of Kindle sales and popular revulsion at Amazon's tax arrangements. But no conventional economist could grasp how 900 indies are still in business. They are, because so much bookselling is done out of love. That's wonderful, but the rest of us--and publishers producing special editions--must love them back."

Violet Valley's Jaime Harker and Ellis Starkey, from the store's Kickstarter video.

Violet Valley Bookstore, a queer and feminist bookstore with an all-volunteer staff, will have its official opening later this month in Water Valley, Miss., the Daily Mississippian reported. Due to a limited number of available staff, the store will open initially only on Fridays and Saturdays, with an increase in hours dependent on community support. The store will be in a 400-square-foot space that previously housed a textile and quilt gallery. It will carry a "large stock of used books" covering an array of topics, along with a "smaller run of new books" featuring feminist and LGBTQ authors, and is a registered 501(c)3 nonprofit.

Jaime Harker, president of the board of Violet Valley Bookstore, told the Daily Mississippian that she has heard "some concern from people in Water Valley about the bookstore," but believes much of it is based on misconceptions about "both the bookstore and the LGBTQ community." She added that such misconceptions are "the reason that a bookstore like this is necessary," and she hopes community members will come to "understand that Violet Valley Bookstore is for everyone."

On October 13, Harker launched a Kickstarter campaign seeking to raise $5,000 for the store; by October 18 the campaign met its goal, and as of today has raised close to $6,500, with 10 days left to go. She wrote, "We are thrilled to hit our minimum, more money means a larger selection of new books once we open!"

Posman Books at Ponce City Market

Posman Books, the New York City bookseller that opened its first bookstore outside New York a year ago in Atlanta, Ga., plans to open a second bookstore in Atlanta, according to What Now Atlanta. The store will be in the Westside Provisions District, in "the recently-completed retail addition at 1210 Howell Mill, home to Design Within Reach."

Last year, Posman Books opened a 2,300-square-foot store in the historic Ponce City Market. The store offers books, toys, games, greeting cards and Ponce City Market merchandise such as tote bags and mugs.

Posman Books operates bookstores in New York City's Rockefeller Center and Chelsea Market. For 15 years, Posman Books had a thriving bookstore in Grand Central Terminal, which had to close in 2014 because of Terminal reconstruction. Earlier it had a store in Greenwich Village. Posman has also operated some college and school bookstores in the New York City area.

Amazon's Columbus Circle store in NYC.

Amazon also plans to open a bookstore in Atlanta, reported 11 Alive and the Atlanta Business Chronicle. The 5,000-square-foot Amazon Books store will be in Lenox Square, the regional shopping center in Buckhead with 1.5 million square feet of space and some 250 stores.

Since late 2015, Amazon has opened 12 Amazon Books books and electronics stores and has confirmed plans to open three others--but not the Atlanta store.

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In addition, Amazon plans to open a 1,000,000-square-foot fulfillment center in Macon, Ga., joining the three facilities currently operating in Braselton, Lithia Springs and Union City. Sanjay Shah, Amazon v-p of North America customer fulfillment, said the state "continues to be a great place for Amazon to do business.... We're glad to be a part of the community and provide a positive economic impact for the region."

Georgia Governor Nathan Deal praised Amazon's "continued investment in our state" and said Georgia's "strategic location, skilled workforce and innovative spirit are a perfect fit for Amazon's innovative approach to business, as the company's needs align with many of our key industries, from technology to distribution to connectivity."

Cynthia Nixon

Actress, director and activist Cynthia Nixon will host the 68th National Book Awards on November 15 at Cipriani Wall Street in New York City. The National Book Foundation said that Nixon, "known for her wide-ranging work on both stage and screen as well as her vocal advocacy for a variety of causes," will serve as master of ceremonies for the event that will announce the winners in four categories (fiction, nonfiction, poetry and young people's literature) as well as the presentation of two lifetime achievement awards. The benefit dinner serves to fund the educational and programming work of the Foundation.

Carolyn Ione McKnight Nichols, author, editor and publisher, died on October 21. She was 78.

From 1974 through 1979, Nichols wrote books, mostly Regency romance and historical fiction, including Gravetide, The Reluctant Lady and Draw a Dark Circle, under the pseudonyms Iona Charles and Carolyn McKnight.

After she began editing books for collaborators and friends, Nichols became an editor and publisher in New York, working at Berkeley/Jove, Bantam Books, Ballantine and the New American Library. In 2001, she retired as v-p and executive director, editorial, at New American Library.

During her publishing career, Nichols was founding editor of two romance lines, Second Chance at Love for Berkley/Jove and Loveswept for Bantam Books, and worked with authors such as Iris Johansen, Kay Hooper, Sandra Brown, Tami Hoag, Janet Evanovich, Mary Kay McComas, Kristin Hannah and Carla Neggers.

She also commissioned and published nonfiction, such as Todd Gitlin's The Sixties and the first mass-market paperback editions of Ernest Shackleton's memoirs of his Antarctic expeditions, and books on the Blair Witch Project and the Sopranos. She worked with pop stars such as Britney Spears and Nick and Aaron Carter, too.  

In addition, Nichols was active in Democratic Party politics, worked in government, was a writer and producer at WETA in the early years of public television, and was an actor and model.

Australian author Will Kostakis is on tour for his U.S. debut, The Sidekicks (Harlequin Teen); his first stop was Vroman's Bookstore, Pasadena, Calif. Pictured: Kostakis (l.) with Printz Award winner John Corey Whaley.

In Winston-Salem, N.C., "something peculiar is happening," Winston-Salem Monthly observed in a feature on the expansion of the area's indie bookselling scene, "with several new independent bookstores opening recently. The new establishments reflect the diversity of the sector—one shop, Bookmarks, which just opened on Fourth Street, sells only new books as a nonprofit. Another shop, Bright Leaf Books, which opened in the spring, sells mostly affordably priced used books. Another, Allington Antiquarian Books on Burke Street, specializes in rare books. Meanwhile, other more longstanding used bookstores, like the Eclectible Shop on Northwest Boulevard, have continued to thrive....

"In an age when consumers crave an experience that feels unique and connected to the local community (perhaps as a reaction to the uniformity of big box stores and the impersonal nature of online retailers), independent bookstores offer a breath of fresh air. Visitors come in for the tactile experience of it all, and to talk to a shop person who has recommendations, taste and a sense of humor."

"Our focus as a nonprofit is to connect readers with authors and books," said Ginger Hendricks, executive director of Bookmarks. "So from the beginning, we saw this as a gathering place where people who love books could get together and talk about them."

Bright Leaf's owner Samuel Puliafito said he is optimistic about more bookstores opening in the city because engaged consumers are attracted to the variety of offerings. "That’s why jewelry districts pop up, fabric districts. That extends to the book industry as well. The more bookstores there are, the better."

Raven Books in Springfield, Ohio, shared a photo on Facebook yesterday of their latest chalkboard creation, noting: "It's very true, ya know. Sorry, Mom. Happy November, folks! Be sure to stop by and check out our book displays, especially our No Shave November shelves!"

Jeff Tegge has joined Baker & Taylor Publisher Services as v-p of client services. He was formerly president of Legato Publishers Group and earlier was v-p of sales at Independent Publishers Group. He has more than 25 years of experience in the industry.

Seven Days of Us by Francesca Hornak (Berkley), a video that features Sean, the "world's worst editor," brainstorming about the book.

Today:
Fresh Air: Maryn McKenna, author of Big Chicken: The Incredible Story of How Antibiotics Created Modern Agriculture and Changed the Way the World Eats (National Geographic, $27, 9781426217661).

Tomorrow:
Wendy Williams: Joy Behar, author of The Great Gasbag: An A-to-Z Study Guide to Surviving Trump World (Harper, $24.99, 9780062699343).

Hallmark Channel's Home & Family: Laura Izumikawa, author of Naptime with Joey (Gallery, $12.95, 9781501174063).

The View: Keith Olbermann, author of Trump Is F*cking Crazy: (This is Not a Joke) (Blue Rider, $27, 9780525533863).

Last Call with Carson Daly repeat: Eddie Izzard, author of Believe Me: A Memoir of Love, Death, and Jazz Chickens (Blue Rider, $28, 9780399175831).

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, November 4
11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Live coverage from the 2017 Texas Book Festival in Austin, Tex. (Re-airs Saturday at 9 p.m.) Highlights include:

• 11 a.m. Liza Mundy, author of Code Girls: The Untold Story of the American Women Code Breakers of World War II (Hachette Books, $28, 9780316352536), and Meredith Hindley, author of Destination Casablanca: Exile, Espionage, and the Battle for North Africa in World War II (PublicAffairs, $30, 9781610394055).
• 12 p.m. Michael Hurd, author of Thursday Night Lights: The Story of Black High School Football in Texas (University of Texas Press, $24.95, 9781477310342).
• 1 p.m. A panel discussion on drug cartels in Mexico, Central America and South America with authors Hipolito Acosta, Melissa del Bosque and Guadalupe Correa-Cabrera.
• 2 p.m. Peter Wadhams, author of A Farewell to Ice: A Report from the Arctic (Oxford University Press, $15.99, 9780190691158), and Juli Berwald, author of Spineless: The Science of Jellyfish and the Art of Growing a Backbone (Riverhead, $27, 9780735211261).
• 3 p.m. James Forman Jr., author of Locking Up Our Own: Crime and Punishment in Black America (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, $27, 9780374189976), and Danielle Allen, author of Cuz: The Life and Times of Michael A. (Liveright, $24.95, 9781631493119).
• 4 p.m. Jared Yates Sexton, author of The People Are Going to Rise Like the Waters Upon Your Shore: A Story of American Rage (Counterpoint, $26, 9781619029569), and Kevin Young, author of Bunk: The Rise of Hoaxes, Humbug, Plagiarists, Phonies, Post-Facts, and Fake News (Graywolf Press, $30, 9781555977917).
• 5 p.m. Ellen Ullman, author of Life in Code: A Personal History of Technology (MCD, $27, 9780374534516).

6 p.m. C-SPAN's Local Content Vehicles tour literary and historical sites in Sioux Falls, S.D.

8 p.m. Laura Ingraham, author of Billionaire at the Barricades: The Populist Revolution from Reagan to Trump (St. Martin's Press, $27.99, 9781250150646). (Re-airs Sunday at 6 p.m.)

Sunday, November 5
12 p.m. Live In-Depth q&a with Michael Lewis, author of The Undoing Project: A Friendship That Changed Our Minds (Norton, $16.99, 9780393354775). (Re-airs Sunday at 12 a.m.)

3 p.m. Carol Anderson, author of White Rage: The Unspoken Truth of Our Racial Divide (Bloomsbury, $17, 9781632864130), and Angela J. Davis, author of Policing the Black Man: Arrest, Prosecution, and Imprisonment (Pantheon, $27.95, 9781101871270), live at the Texas Book Festival.

4 p.m. A panel discussion on the U.S.-Mexico border with authors Lauren Markham, Roger Hodge and Melissa del Bosque, live at the Texas Book Festival.

5 p.m. Paula Lavigne and Mark Schlabach, authors of Violated: Exposing Rape at Baylor University amid College Football's Sexual Assault Crisis (Center Street, $27, 9781478974086), live at the Texas Book Festival.

7 p.m. Diana Henriques, author of A First-Class Catastrophe: The Road to Black Monday, the Worst Day in Wall Street History (Holt, $32, 9781627791649), at WORD Bookstore in Brooklyn, N.Y.

7:50 p.m. Lawrence Freedman, author of The Future of War: A History (PublicAffairs, $30, 9781610393058).

Alexander Chee received the 2017 Paul Engle Prize, presented by the Iowa City UNESCO City of Literature organization, during the Iowa City Book Festival last month. The prize, established in 2011, honors an individual "who, like Paul Engle, represents a pioneering spirit in the world of literature through writing, editing, publishing, or teaching, and whose active participation in the larger issues of the day has contributed to the betterment of the world through the literary arts."

Chee, a graduate of the University of Iowa Writers' Workshop, is a Korean-American writer, poet, reviewer and essayist who writes on subjects such as race, gender and LGBTQ+ issues. He is also a veteran of ACT UP, the AIDS advocacy organization.

His debut novel, Edinburgh, about sexual abuse, won the Whiting Award, the James Michener/Copernicus Society Fellowship Prize, the Iowa Writers' Workshop's Michener Copernicus Prize in Fiction and the Lambda Literary Foundation Editor's Choice Award.

His second novel, Queen of the Night, a historical novel about an opera singer, was published in 2016. His essay "Girl," which deals with gender identity, appeared in the 2016 edition of Best American Essays, and his first collection of essays, How to Write an Autobiographical Novel, will be published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt in 2018.

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Bill Beverly will receive the 2017 Mark Twain American Voice in Literature Award for his first novel, Dodgers: A Novel (Crown). Sponsored by the Mark Twain House & Museum, Hartford, Conn., the $25,000 award honors "an 'American voice' such as Twain established in his masterpiece Adventures of Huckleberry Finn." The award will be presented at the Museum on November 30, Twain's birthday.

Finalists included Stuart Nadler for The Inseparables and Don DeLillo for Zero K; each of those authors will receive $1,000.

The organizers described Dodgers as "the story of a young L.A. gang member named East, who is sent by his uncle along with some other teenage boys--including East's hothead younger brother--to kill a key witness hiding out in Wisconsin. The journey takes East out of a city he's never left and into an America that is entirely alien to him, ultimately forcing him to grapple with his place in the world and decide what kind of man he wants to become."

Selected new titles appearing next Tuesday, November 7:

The Midnight Line: A Jack Reacher Novel by Lee Child (Delacorte, $28.99, 9780399593482) is the 22nd Jack Reacher thriller.

The Lay of Aotrou and Itroun by J.R.R. Tolkien, edited by Verlyn Flieger (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, $24, 9781328834546) contains early Tolkien work previously out of print for 70 years.

When the World Seemed New: George H.W. Bush and the End of the Cold War by Jeffrey A. Engel (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, $35, 9780547423067) explores the first Bush administration in the context of the fall of the Soviet Union.

The Quantum Spy: A Thriller by David Ignatius (Norton, $25.95, 9780393254150) is a thriller about the development of the first quantum computer.

Revolution Song: A Story of American Freedom by Russell Shorto (Norton, $28.95, 9780393245547) is a history of the American Revolution.

Garden of the Lost and Abandoned: The Extraordinary Story of One Ordinary Woman and the Children She Saves by Jessica Yu (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, $27, 9780544617063) profiles a woman who saves orphans from the streets of Kampala, Uganda's capital.

Bonfire: A Novel by Krysten Ritter (Crown Archetype, $26, 9781524759841) follows an environmental lawyer investigating wrongdoing in her hometown.

Heather, the Totality by Matthew Weiner (Little, Brown, $25, 9780316435314) follows a wealthy couple and their daughter.

Inventing Joy: Dare to Build a Brave & Creative Life by Joy Mangano and Alex Tresniowski (Simon & Schuster, $26, 9781501176203) is the memoir of an entrepreneur and inventor.

Renegades by Marissa Meyer (Feiwel & Friends, $17.99, 9781250044662) is the first in a new series featuring the Renegades, a group of prodigies with extraordinary abilities.

The Amateurs, Book 2: Follow Me by Sara Shepard (Disney-Hyperion, $17.99, 9781484742280) is the second in a series about a group of teens trying to solve a murder.

The Bad Food Bible: How and Why to Eat Sinfully by Aaron Carroll (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, $25, 9780544952560) gives a doctor's advice on eating "unhealthy" food in moderation.

The Sullivan Street Bakery Cookbook by Jim Lahey and Maya Joseph (Norton, $35, 9780393247282) is a guide to making sourdough bread.

Bollywood Kitchen: Home-Cooked Indian Meals Paired with Unforgettable Bollywood Films by Sri Rao (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, $25, 9780544971257) explores Indian cuisine through the lens of Bollywood films.

Paperbacks:
Secrets for the Mad: Obsessions, Confessions, and Life Lessons by Dodie Clark (Atria/Keywords Press, $18.99, 9781501180101).

The Exile by James Patterson (BookShots, $4.99, 9780316411103).

Lies Jane Austen Told Me: A Proper Romance by Julie Wright (Shadow Mountain, $15.99, 9781629723426).

Movie:
Murder on the Orient Express, based on the book by Agatha Christie, opens November 10. Director Kenneth Branagh also stars as detective Hercule Poirot, who must find a murderer among a trainful of passengers (played by Johnny Depp, Judi Dench and Willem Dafoe, among others). A movie tie-in version (Morrow, $9.99, 9780062693662) is available.

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 Exact Nature of Our Wrongs: A Novel by Janet Peery (St. Martin's Press, $26.99, 9781250125088). "Long-suffering Hattie Campbell and her irascible husband, Abel, are in their 80s and still manipulating, enabling, and worrying about their four adult children, all of whom suffer, to some degree or other, from addiction, jealousy, and neediness. The sun around which they circle is Billy, the youngest of the siblings, who is both the most likable and most damaged. As Abel's health declines and Billy deteriorates, the remaining siblings compete to win their parents' favor. Peery's long-awaited follow-up to her National Book Award-finalist The River Beyond the World is a sympathetic portrait of a dysfunctional, complex, and often funny clan who, although they try, can't slip the family ties that bind." --Cindy Pauldine, the river's end bookstore, Oswego, N.Y.

The Prague Sonata: A Novel by Bradford Morrow (Atlantic Monthly Press, $27, 9780802127150). "A rich, sweeping novel that moves through history, from World War I to World War II, into the fall of the Soviet Union, and up to the present day. Weaving throughout the story is a hauntingly beautiful anonymous piano sonata that has been broken up into three parts. With rich and complex characters and multilayered writing that moves seamlessly throughout, The Prague Sonata touches deep into the human heart." --Richard Corbett, Powell's Books, Portland, Ore.

Paperback
Writing to Save a Life: The Louis Till File by John Edgar Wideman (Scribner, $16, 9781501147296). "This is a powerful meditation on the life of Louis Till, the father of Emmett Till whose brutal murder in 1955 spurred the Civil Rights Movement forward. It is not common knowledge today that Louis Till was convicted of a crime and executed in Italy while serving in the Army during World War II. Wideman was 14 years old--the same age as Emmett when he died--the year he saw pictures of Emmett Till's body in Jet magazine. When he found out decades later about Louis Till's fate, Wideman set out to investigate the tragic lives of both father and son. The result is a profound and moving exploration of race, manhood, violence, and injustice in our society." --Cody Morrison, Square Books, Oxford, Miss.

For Ages 4 to 8
Windows by Julia Denos, illustrated by E.B. Goodale (Candlewick, $15.99, 9780763690359). "A young boy walks his dog in his neighborhood at dusk in Denos' Windows, which combines the familiar evening walk with all the possibilities of the stories that happen inside the houses one passes. This perfect, gentle book is a breath of fresh air before bed, and a welcoming hug of coming home." --Cynthia Compton, 4 Kids Books & Toys, Zionsville, Ind.

For Ages 9 to 12
Timeless: Diego and the Rangers of the Vastlantic by Armand Baltazar (Katherine Tegen, $19.99, 9780062402363). "Timeless is every young adventurer's dream come true--a drop-your-jaw-gorgeous, picture-filled cinematic story, lovingly written, with characters you want to hang out with and filled with dinosaurs, hoverboards, fighter pilots, and robots. There isn't room in this book for anything else wonderful--Baltazar already put it all in." --Beth Albrecht, The Magic Tree Bookstore, Oak Park, Ill.

For Teen Readers: An Indies Introduce Title
Saints and Misfits by S.K. Ali (Salaam Reads/Simon & Schuster, $18.99, 9781481499248). "In an ideal world, Saints and Misfits wouldn't need to be an important tent-pole book of Muslim representation; it would be one of many books about Muslim teens doing all sorts of things. And then we could just talk about how it's a funny, sharp, feminist book that tackles real issues with grace. It's just really good. Read it, for that reason and more." --Anna Kaufman, DIESEL: A Bookstore, Brentwood, Calif.

[Many thanks to IndieBound and the ABA!]

S.A. Chakraborty enters the fantasy genre with a captivating series opener set in a magical realm peopled by djinn, marids and other creatures from Middle Eastern mythology.

On the streets of 18th-century Cairo, Nahri lives by her wits, reading palms and performing exorcisms for the gullible and desperate. Though drawn to healing, Nahri has no access to training and cannot read, so she peddles magic she doesn't even believe exists. Called upon to exorcise a demon from a young girl, Nahri's nonsense ritual produces astonishing results when she accidentally summons the ferocious and drop-dead gorgeous djinn warrior Dara, who protects her from the ifrit possessing the child. An ancient creature with his own tangled past, Dara believes Nahri is a shafit, a hybrid born of human and djinn parents, and resolves to take her to Daevabad, the enchanted city of brass.

Because of her power to summon Dara and her gift for healing, Nahri must be related to the Nahid, a prestigious family of djinn healers believed to have been completely wiped out. Though Dara treats her with condescension at first because of her human heritage, and Nahri finds him attractive but insufferable, the two gradually develop a grudging respect that ripens into more. However, the family that destroyed the Nahids now rules Daevabad. The city awaits them with a labyrinthine mess of political subtleties neither are prepared to navigate. Young Prince Ali, the king's second son and a mighty swordsman, is already entangled in it, risking charges of treason to support a resistance cell that opposes the unfair treatment of shafit. A host of religious, racial and dynastic tensions lie below Daevabad's surface like a time bomb, and Nahri's arrival is a spark to the fuse.

A complex tapestry of fiery personalities, capricious creatures and grudges that span millennia, Chakraborty's debut dazzles. It digs into strong source material, relatively underused in the genre, and its richly detailed world charms with an array of fascinating magic. Scrappy Nahri and noble, damaged Dara make for an engaging if conflicted pair of leads, while Ali and his social justice crusade contribute a sympathetic viewpoint to the opposing team. First in a proposed trilogy, The City of Brass takes readers on an emotional roller-coaster, leaving them with an open ending that will have them desperate for the follow-up. Majestic and magical. --Jaclyn Fulwood, blogger at Infinite Reads

Shelf Talker: Nahri, a con artist in 18th-century Egypt, enters a world of magical intrigue when she accidentally summons a djinn warrior during a fake exorcism.

The bestselling Libro.fm audiobooks at independent bookstore locations during October:

Fiction:

1. Manhattan Beach by Jennifer Egan (Simon & Schuster Audio)
2. Turtles All the Way Down by John Green (Penguin Random House Audio)
3. Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng (Penguin Random House Audio)
4. Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders (Penguin Random House Audio)
5. A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles (Penguin Random House Audio)
6. Origin by Dan Brown (Penguin Random House Audio)
7. My Absolute Darling by Gabriel Tallent (Penguin Random House Audio)
8. It by Stephen King (Simon & Schuster Audio)
9. The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas (HarperCollins)
10. Exit West by Mohsin Hamid (Penguin Random House Audio)

Nonfiction:

1. What Happened by Hillary Clinton (Simon & Schuster Audio)
2. Al Franken, Giant of the Senate by Al Franken (Hachette Audio)
3. You Are a Badass by Jen Sincero (Tantor Media)
4. We Were Eight Years in Power by Ta-Nehisi Coates (Penguin Random House Audio)
5. The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck by Mark Manson (HarperCollins)
6. Coming to My Senses by Alice Waters (Penguin Random House Audio)
7. Born to Run by Bruce Springsteen (Simon & Schuster Audio)
8. You Don't Have to Say You Love Me by Sherman Alexie (Hachette Audio)
9. The Gene by Siddhartha Mukherjee (Simon & Schuster Audio)
10. Theft by Finding by David Sedaris (Hachette Audio)