Tara Goldberg-DeLeo and Kristy Bodnar have bought Mystery Lovers Bookshop, Oakmont, Pa., from Natalie Sacco and Trevor Thomas, who put the store up for sale in May, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported.

Goldberg-DeLeo, who has worked in advertising and publishing in New York City, and Bodnar, a business systems analyst who will keep her full-time job with a financial services firm in Pittsburgh, are running buddies and mothers who live in the neighborhood. Goldberg-DeLeo will focus on marketing and advertising while Bodnar will do design and layout.

The two plan to expand the children's literature section, increase the store's online presence and revive coffee service, the paper said. The store will continue to stock books of local interest and young adult literature.

Mary Alice Gorman and Richard Goldman opened Mystery Lovers Bookshop in 1990 and sold it in 2012 to Laurie Stephens, a librarian with bookstore experience. Stephens sold it to Sacco and Thomas in 2015.

Muddy Water Bookstore recently hosted a Chamber of Commerce ribbon-cutting ceremony to open its new shop at 120 East Washington Avenue in downtown Navasota, Tex. KAGS reported that owner Suzie Linnenbank moved from the Houston area with her husband a few years ago and wanted to create a place that has a welcoming, small-town feel.

"I want a place where people can come and feel at home, and they can relax, read a book and they can chat with their friends," she said. "I also want to support the community and be a part of growing Navasota."

Linnenbank chose the bookshop's name because "after all, Navasota is the blues capital of Texas," KWBC Radio reported, adding that she had been been "looking for the perfect location for her dream store for the better part of 30 years. Now, the dream is a reality."

Muddy Water Bookstore will offer a variety of genres, including children's titles, with an 80%-20% split in inventory between used and new books. 

On the bookstore's Facebook page, Linnenbank posted after the opening: "The support I'm receiving is beautiful even magical to me. I get all teary eyed and filled with warmth and love thinking about it. Thank y'all!"

June bookstore sales rose 5.3%, to $699 million, compared to June 2017, according to preliminary estimates from the Census Bureau.

For the year to date, bookstore sales were $4.7 billion, down 1% compared to the first half of 2017. The cumulative loss for 2018 so far is largely attributable to January results, when bookstore sales fell 8.6%.

In contrast to the average of all bookstores, indies have done very well: as of August 6, book unit sales among American Booksellers Association member stores have increased about 5% for this year compared to the same period in 2017, based on sales reported to the Indie Bestseller List, Bookselling This Week reported.

Total retail sales in June rose 5.7%, to $511 billion. For the year to date, total retail sales have risen 5.4%, to $2,920 billion.

Note: under Census Bureau definitions, the bookstore category consists of "establishments primarily engaged in retailing new books."

Seven Stories Press has launched the first in a series of monthly promotions aimed at supporting independent bookstores alongside online sales.

For the entire month of August, Seven Stories Press is offering indies a higher than usual discount on two separate collections of SSP titles, one of Women in Translation and another of books For Human Rights, Against War. On SSP's website those same collections will be discounted for one week only.

At the same time, SSP is also running a display contest. The store with the best display featuring titles in those collections, as judged by the New Atlantic Independent Booksellers Association, will receive a $250 prize from SSP.

Dan Simon, founder of Seven Stories Press, reported that the promotion grew out of discussions with Eileen Dengler, NAIBA's executive director, and NAIBA president Todd Dickinson, co-owner of Aaron's Books, Lititz, Pa., about ways publishers can work with indies on online sales.

"We are not saying that we've figured it out," said Simon. "But we think we've created a model for partnership and that, with that model in place, we will figure it out."

Simon said he is committed to doing this as a monthly feature for the foreseeable future, with a new collection each month. September's collection will include young people's literature. After six months or so, based on feedback and results from the previous promotions, Simon and SSP might tweak the way it works.

Dengler was optimistic that the partnership will serve as a first step in solving the problem of publishers' direct-to-consumers promotions undermining independent bookstores. Said Dengler: "Dan has been wonderful in his desire to work with our retail channel to come up with ideas to make this work."

Dickinson added that after discussing the issue with a number of publishers, it was Seven Stories Press who "came back the strongest" and "were the most interested in developing some sort of pilot program" with indies. He said that while the program might change over time, the important thing was that there had been a first step, and "it's something that we really want to give our members the opportunity to do."

A $10 billion deal to move all of the Defense Department's classified and unclassified data to the cloud appears to have been rigged in Amazon's favor, Vanity Fair has reported, and is yet another sign of the growing closeness between Jeff Bezos and Defense Secretary James Mattis.

The Defense Department's requests for proposals, officially called Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure (JEDI), was written with a "host of technical stipulations that only Amazon can meet," and put together only after Mattis hired Sally Donnelly, a lobbyist who had previously consulted for Amazon.

Vanity Fair noted that in several places, the language in JEDI mirrors Amazon's descriptions of its own technology, including the use of the phrase "ruggedized," which is how Amazon describes its Snowball Edge product. The requests for proposals also called for things that at the moment only Amazon provides, including "a distance of at least 150 miles between its data centers" and 32 GB of RAM.

During her time at her former lobbying firm SBD Advisors, which had Amazon Web Services as one of its clients, Donnelly became particularly close with Mattis. And although she sold her stake in SBD Advisors before being hired by Mattis, an "investment fund with ties to Amazon's cloud-computing unit" purchased SBD advisers while JEDI was being finalized.

According to Vanity Fair, Amazon has spend $67 million on lobbying since 2000, and this year alone spent more than "Citigroup, JP Morgan Chase, and Wells Fargo combined." Amazon also employs numerous lobbyists who once held government positions. Last year, one such lobbyist, Anne Rung, helped secure Amazon as the "go-to portal for every online purchase the government makes--some $53 billion every year."

Vanity Fair concluded: "President Trump may enjoy firing off incendiary tweets attacking Amazon. But Bezos is quietly finding new ways to bolsters his empire with billions in federal tax dollars. And the Pentagon, it appears, is helping him do it."

John Calder, "a publisher like few others in Britain today" who, over the course of 50 years, "made and lost fortunes, supported some firebrand authors and championed such greats as Beckett, Miller and Burroughs with total commitment and enthusiasm," died August 13, the Bookseller reported. He was 91.

In 1949, he founded Calder Publications (now part of Alma Books), which published Chekhov, Tolstoy and Dostoevsky as well poetry, novels, criticism and plays of Beckett. Alma Books' founder Alessandro Gallenzi told the Bookseller that Calder was "a passionate publisher and a fiercely independent man.... He was at the forefront of postwar publishing and a towering figure in the fight against censorship and the dissemination of international literature and culture in the U.K. His influence--as a publisher, as an author, as an intellectual and as a beacon for an entire generation of readers and writers--cannot be underestimated."

Former Publishers Association CEO Clive Bradley, who knew Calder for almost 40 years, described him as "pretty controversial, but loved by most of his authors.... He was a complicated man who is pretty difficulty to encapsulate--a typical 'small' publisher at the high end of publishing, facing all the problems that 'small publishers' face, especially at that end of the business."

Calder also ran a bookshop at his office in London called the Calder Bookshop & Theatre, "which hosted Thursday evening sessions there in an informal theatre including readings, political debates and performances with actors and politicians," the Bookseller reported. His autobiography, The Uncensored Memoirs of John Calder, was released in 2001.

Bill Swainson, a freelance editor and literary consultant who knew Calder, described him as a "brave, pugnacious, committed publisher, who made it his life's mission to find new voices and publish them in post-war Britain. Among the many great writers he championed were Samuel Beckett, Heinrich Böll, Wolfgang Borchert, William Burroughs, Marguerite Duras, Louis-Ferdinand Céline, Sadegh Hedayat, Aidan Higgins, Henry Miller, Alain Robbe-Grillet, Nathalie Sarraute, Hubert Selby, Jr, and Claude Simon.... In short, John Calder was the right publisher at the right time who introduced international post-war literature, music and theatre to a country not always sure it wanted to make those discoveries, but when you look at his list 50 to 60 years later you realize just how far ahead of his time he was."

"Special shout out to @BlueWillowBooks, without whom this book never would have come about!" bestselling YA author Ally Carter tweeted earlier this week while linking to an Entertainment Weekly q&a about her writing career and upcoming book Dear Ally, which is set to be released next spring.

Blue Willow Bookshop, Houston, Tex., returned the compliment: "Congrats to our friend @OfficiallyAlly on her wonderful upcoming book, #DearAlly! She came up with the idea to write this advice-driven book for teen writers while at @tweensread in Houston. (Oct. 13!!!) Can't wait for you to get your hands on it! #YAlit."

Effective in January, Hopkins Fulfillment Services will provide distribution services for Wesleyan University Press.

Founded in 1957, Wesleyan University Press, Middletown, Conn., focuses on poetry, music, dance, science fiction studies, film/TV, and Connecticut history and culture. Its poetry series has won five Pulitzer Prizes, a Bollingen, and two National Book Awards. The press has been distributed by University Press of New England, which is closing at the end of the year.

Suzanna Tamminen, director and editor in chief at Wesleyan University Press, commented: "Wesleyan welcomes HFS's expertise in academic publishing. We look forward to working with their team to further strengthen our publishing program."

Hopkins Fulfillment Services manager Davida Breier said: "We've long been impressed with Wesleyan University Press's reputation and award-winning work in the arts and humanities."

A division of Johns Hopkins University Press, Hopkins Fulfillment Services specializes in the distribution of university presses and non-profit institutions.

Effective today, Karen Auerbach, director of publicity, is leaving Kensington Publishing after 11 years. "I'm off to new adventures, and have really enjoyed working at Kensington," she wrote. She may be reached via e-mail.

Gross Anatomy: Dispatches from the Front (and Back) by Mara Altman (Putnam).

Today:
Fresh Air: Kevin Kwan, author of Crazy Rich Asians (Anchor, $16, 9780525563761).

Tomorrow:
CBS This Morning: Heidi Grant, author of Reinforcements: How to Get People to Help You (Harvard Business Review Press, $28, 9781633692350).

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, August 18
10:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. Coverage from the Mississippi Book Festival at the Mississippi State Capitol in Jackson, Miss. (Re-airs Sunday at 12 a.m.). Highlights include:

• 10:30 a.m. A panel discussion on race and identity with Imani Perry, author of Looking for Lorraine: The Radiant and Radical Life of Lorraine Hansberry (Beacon, $26.95, 9780807064498), Sheryll Cashin, author of Loving: Interracial Intimacy in America and the Threat to White Supremacy (Beacon, $26.95, 9780807058275), and Jabari Asim, author of We Can't Breathe: On Black Lives, White Lies, and the Art of Survival (Picador, $17, 9781250174536).
• 11:45 a.m. A panel discussion on American history with Gary Krist, author of The Mirage Factory: Illusion, Imagination, and the Invention of Los Angeles (Crown, $27, 9780451496386), Andrew Lawler, author of The Secret Token: Myth, Obsession, and the Search for the Lost Colony of Roanoke (Doubleday, $29.95, 9780385542012), and Jack Davis, author of The Gulf: The Making of an American Sea (Liveright, $29.95, 9781631494024).
• 1 p.m. A panel discussion on civil rights history with Brenda Travis, co-author of Mississippi's Exiled Daughter: How My Civil Rights Baptism Under Fire Shaped My Life (NewSouth, $21.95, 9781588383297), Jane Hearn, author of A Past That Won't Rest: Images of the Civil Rights Movement in Mississippi (University Press of Mississippi, $40, 9781496816511), and Stephanie Rolph, author of Resisting Equality: The Citizens' Council, 1954-1989 (LSU Press, $50, 9780807169155).
• 2:30 p.m. A panel discussion on politics with Salena Zito, author of The Great Revolt: Inside the Populist Coalition Reshaping American Politics (Crown Forum, $28, 9781524763688), and Alan Abramowitz, author of The Great Alignment: Race, Party Transformation, and the Rise of Donald Trump (Yale University Press, $35, 9780300207132).
• 5 p.m. A panel discussion on presidential history with Charles Calhoun, author of The Presidency of Ulysses S. Grant (University Press of Kansas, $39.95, 9780700624843), and John Marszalek, editor of The Personal Memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant: The Complete Annotated Edition (Belknap Press, $39.95, 9780674976290).

8 p.m. Keith O'Brien, author of Fly Girls: How Five Daring Women Defied All Odds and Made Aviation History (Eamon Dolan/Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, $28, 9781328876645), at Brookline Booksmith in Brookline, Mass. (Re-airs Sunday at 11 p.m.)

9 p.m. Anna Clark, author of The Poisoned City: Flint's Water and the American Urban Tragedy (Metropolitan, $30, 9781250125149).

10 p.m. Kate Germano, co-author of Fight Like a Girl: The Truth Behind How Female Marines Are Trained (Prometheus, $18, 9781633884137). (Re-airs Sunday at 9 p.m. and Monday at 12 a.m. and 3 a.m.)

11 p.m. Lynn Vincent and Sara Vladic, authors of Indianapolis: The True Story of the Worst Sea Disaster in U.S. Naval History and the Fifty-Year Fight to Exonerate an Innocent Man (Simon & Schuster, $28, 9781501135941), at Politics & Prose Bookstore in Washington, D.C. (Re-airs Sunday at 2:10 p.m.)

Sunday, August 19
6:20 p.m. Mark P. Mills, author of Work in the Age of Robots (Encounter, $7.99, 9781641770279).

7 p.m. Steven Ujifuza, author of Barons of the Sea: And their Race to Build the World's Fastest Clipper Ship (Simon & Schuster, $29.99, 9781476745978), at Politics & Prose Bookstore in Washington, D.C.

7:45 p.m. Thor Hanson, author of Buzz: The Nature and Necessity of Bees (Basic Books, $27, 9780465052615), at Powell's Books in Portland, Ore.

8:45 p.m. Gary Smith, author of What the Luck? (Duckworth Overlook, $14.95, 9780715652657).

10 p.m. Maryanne Wolf, author of Reader, Come Home: The Reading Brain in a Digital World (Harper, $24.99, 9780062388780), at Harvard Book Store in Cambridge, Mass.

The shortlists for the Dayton Literary Peace Prize in fiction and nonfiction have been announced and can be seen here. A winner and runner-up in both categroies will be announced on September 18. Winners receive a $10,000 honorarium and runners-up receive $2,500.

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This year's finalists have been announced for the 2018 Not the Booker Prize, the Guardian's alternative award that includes public voting. This year's shortlist features five titles chosen by voters and one wildcard entry picked by a judging panel. The winner, which will be announced October 15, "will receive a Guardian mug. They may not want it, but there’s nothing we can do about that." The complete shortlist includes:

Sealed by Naomi Booth
Dark Pines by Will Dean
Raising Sparks by Ariel Kahn
Sweet Fruit, Sour Land by Rebecca Ley
The Ruin by Dervla McTiernan
Three Dreams in the Key of G by Marc Nash (wildcard)

Selected new titles appearing next Tuesday, August 21:

Unnecessary Roughness: Inside the Trial and Final Days of Aaron Hernandez by Jose Baez and George Willis (Hachette, $27, 9781602866072) is an account of the late New England Patriots player's trial co-written by his defense attorney.

Fearless: How an Underdog Becomes a Champion by Doug Pederson and Dan Pompei (Hachette, $28, 9780316451642) is a memoir by the head coach of the Super Bowl-champion Philadelphia Eagles.

Dead Man Running by Steve Hamilton (Putnam, $26, 9780399574443) is the 11th thriller with private eye Alex McKnight.

Heartbreaker: A Novel by Claudia Dey (Random House, $26, 9780525511731) follows a mother and daughter living on a mysterious cult compound in the 1980s.

Whiskey When We're Dry by John Larison (Viking, $26, 9780735220447) takes place in the 1880s American West, where a teenage girl disguises herself as a boy while hunting her outlaw brother.

The Devoted: A Novel by Blair Hurley (Norton, $25.95, 9780393651591) follows a zen devotee and her strange relationship with her mentor.

The Rough Patch by Brian Lies (Greenwillow, $17.99, 9780062671271) uses an overgrown garden as a metaphor for a child's experience with loss.

Losing the Field by Abbi Glines (Simon Pulse, $18.99, 9781534403895) is the fourth book in Glines's Field Party series.

Paperbacks:
Bye Felipe: Disses, Dick Pics, and Other Delights of Modern Dating by Alexandra Tweten (Running Press, $15.99, 9780762463749).

Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance by Angela Duckworth (Scribner, $17.99, 9781501111112).

Movie:
The Bookshop, based on the novel by Penelope Fitzgerald, opens August 24. Emily Mortimer stars as woman who tries to open a bookstore in a small town in England during the 1950s.

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

Hardcover
Kill the Farm Boy: The Tales of Pell by Delilah S. Dawson and Kevin Hearne (Del Rey, $27, 9781524797744). "Wildly unpredictable, tremendously goofy, and brilliantly inventive, Kill the Farm Boy is a laugh-out-loud fantasy trope extravaganza. A talking goat, a fierce warrior, a bumbling rogue, a wannabe dark wizard, and an enchanted bard set out on a quest full of adventure, mishaps, and lots of cheese. I can't count the number of times I giggled, snorted, and chuckled at a clever quip or ludicrous joke. Fans of Monty Python and Robin Hood: Men in Tights will definitely find Kill the Farm Boy to their liking." --Sami Thomason, Square Books, Oxford, Miss.

Baby Teeth: A Novel by Zoje Stage (St. Martin's Press, $26.99, 9781250170750). "I am a little afraid to write a review after finishing this book because I have the terrible feeling that I'm being watched, this due to the suspicion that seven-year-old Hannah has jumped from the pages of the book straight into my head--something she undoubtedly planned the entire time, despite the obvious impossibility of it all. I could not put this book down--simply fascinating." --Debra Barrett, Where the Sidewalk Ends, Chatham, Mass.

Paperback
Forest Dark: A Novel by Nicole Krauss (Harper Perennial, $16.99, 9780062431004). "No surprise: Forest Dark was worth the wait. Tapping into intellectual and deeply personal moments, the two main characters are ones to identify with even as the circumstances they find themselves in are fantastic. Krauss' reflections about marriage are poignant, and there is a lot to contemplate. At first, I enjoyed having moments when I wasn't reading to think, but toward the end I found myself not being able to put it down." --Kira Wizner, Merritt Bookstore, Millbrook, N.Y.

For Ages 4 to 8
Julián Is a Mermaid by Jessica Love (Candlewick, $16.99, 9780763690458). "A beautiful and light-hearted story for every kind of fanciful and imaginative kid! Jessica Love's illustrations are absolutely gorgeous and perfectly portray Julián's wish to be a magical creature. This is a delightfully simple story that explores gender expression and individuality. Careful details also help communicate Julián's fear of revealing his identity to his abuela, an important representation of emotions that kids need to help them handle all kinds of situations." --Johanna Albrecht, McIntyre's Books, Pittsboro, N.C.

For Ages 9 to 12
Breakout by Kate Messner (Bloomsbury, $17.99, 9781681195360). "The format of Breakout--a collection of notes and recordings for a time capsule--was a great way to really get to know the book's characters. As a former English teacher, I know that this book will be beneficial for teaching voice and character development in English classes. By the end, I couldn't put it down for anything! I loved the poetry and history that swirled throughout--thank you, Kate Messner, yet again!" --Shelley Lowe, Monkey and Dog Books, Fort Worth, Tex.

For Teen Readers
Neverworld Wake by Marisha Pessl (Delacorte, $18.99, 9780399553929). "Neverworld Wake begins like a young adult version of Groundhog Day, with a group of young people experiencing the same 11 hours over and over, trapped in a purgatory. One will be allowed to live while the others will die--and they must unanimously vote on it! Mysteries and secrets from the past intertwine with the dangers of the present in this wonderfully dark fantasy novel. Pessl really delves into the psyche of young people, exposing traumas and fears that are usually well-hidden. The finale is stunning--a brilliant piece of psychological drama that is both suspenseful and, ultimately, incredibly moving. This is a book adults and young adults will love." --William Carl, Wellesley Books, Wellesley, Mass.

[Many thanks to IndieBound and the ABA!]