Lifeway Christian Resources is closing all of its 170 bricks-and-mortar stores as it makes "a strategic shift of resources to a dynamic digital strategy," the company said, emphasizing that it will continue to serve customers online and via a network of partners who work directly with churches. All the stores will close by the end of the year.

Lifeway is the second company to close all its Christian bookstores in two years. In early 2017, Family Christian closed its 240 stores and went out of business.

LifeWay acting president and CEO Brad Waggoner said, "LifeWay is fortunate to have a robust publishing, events and church services business. Our retail strategy for the future will be a greater focus on digital channels, which are experiencing strong growth." The company said that in one month, it "interacts with five times as many people through its digital environments as it does through LifeWay stores."

In January, the company said it would close a "number of its retail locations due to declining customer traffic and sales." Waggoner commented: "While we had hoped to keep some stores open, current market projections show this is no longer a viable option."

Founded in 1891, LifeWay offers Bibles, books, Scripture reference tools, Bible studies materials, children's products, Christian music and movies, gifts and church supplies. Additional items, including church signs, furnishings and buses, as well as background checks, electronic giving and other services, are available through LifeWay's OneSource program. LifeWay also hosts camps and events for all age groups.

Bay Books will move a few doors away from its current location.

Describing it as "a storybook ending" CBS-8 reported that the Coronado, Calif., City Council recently gave the green light to a plan that will allow Bay Books to relocate just a few doors down from its current location, where the lease runs out at the end of the month, to 1007 Orange Ave. Mayor Richard Bailey called the council's decision "a win for Coronado."

In a December, the bookstore had announced it was seeking help finding a new space after the building's landlord offered a new lease with a three-fold rent increase.

Owner Angelica Muller had signed a letter of intent to occupy the new space, but the "bookstore's chances of survival increased substantially when Coronado changed its parking requirement policy. That change waives parking requirements for businesses that dedicate less than 250 square feet to food service, storage, seating and bathroom use," the San Diego Union-Tribune reported. "This helps Bay Books because it makes money from selling coffee and pastries outside. Without that extra income, the store would not survive."

"Having a bookstore is like being in charge of an endangered species," Muller told the city council. "You feel a tremendous obligation for the store to survive.... Having the coffee and food service for us is a most."

Muller "still needs to file plans with the city," the Union-Tribune wrote, adding that she "also needs to decide whether the bookstore will manage the coffee cart or if it will continue to work with its current operator. The coffee cart, Café Luis, is a separate business and pays part of the rent to Bay Books, she said. But for the first time in a long time, the future of the store is in their hands."

During the City Council meeting, 11 community members spoke on parking requirement issue, "with an overwhelming positive response for Bay Books," the Coronado Times reported.

Simon & Schuster imprint Saga Press, which has published science fiction, fantasy and horror since its creation 2015, is joining S&S's Gallery Publishing Group, effective immediately. Joe Monti, Saga's editorial director, will now be reporting to Jennifer Bergstrom, senior v-p and publisher of Gallery Publishing Group.

Though it publishes books for mature audiences, Saga was created within the Children's Publishing Division at S&S. Saga will now be joining Scout Press, Gallery 13 and other imprints within the Gallery group. Saga's major titles include Ken Liu's The Grace of Kings, Rebecca Roanhorse's Trail of Lightning and Catherynne M. Valente's Space Opera. S&S's adult sales team will continue to sell Saga's list to accounts, while Gallery will provide marketing and publicity support.

Sharjah, UNESCO's World Book Capital for 2019, has announced an ambitious lineup of book-related events across the emirate, including an outdoor opening ceremony April 23 that "will set the tone for the year, celebrating literary themes in a show that will unite the generations in a shared love of reading," according to organizers. Sharjah's theme as UNESCO World Book Capital is "Open books, open minds."

Signature annual events like the Sharjah International Book Fair, Sharjah Children's Reading Festival, Sharjah International Storytelling Festival, and Sharjah Light Festival will have enhanced programs that celebrate the World Book Capital.

Among other initiatives is the Reading Caravan, which will set up a Bedouin tent that will be transformed into a library wherever it goes. Mobile libraries carrying a wide selection of titles will visit Sharjah's public spaces.

A range of Arab and international novelists, poets and playwrights will participate in celebrations this year, under six guiding principles: Unifying Communities, Fostering Knowledge, Honoring Heritage, Empowering Children &Youth, Raising Awareness, and Developing Publishing Industries.

Bodour Al Qasimi, head of the advisory committee of Sharjah World Book Capital 2019, and v-p of the International Publishers Association, said that April 23 "will mark the beginning of a new chapter in Sharjah's pioneering achievements and efforts to host leading cultural events and initiatives locally, regionally and globally. The event will offer a gateway to all 200 nationalities residing in the UAE to explore various sources of knowledge and culture. It will also be a unique platform for intellectuals, authors, publishers and artists to showcase their creativity and contribute to highlighting the irreplaceable value of books in promoting dialogue and empathy among civilizations around the world."

Last Thursday, the first part of the American Booksellers Association's Spring 2019 Kids' Next List was delivered to nearly half a million of the country's best book readers, going to 451,696 customers of 131 participating bookstores. The second part of the spring catalogue will be sent on Thursday, April 18.

The e-newsletter, powered by Shelf Awareness, features winter Kids' Next List titles, with bookseller quotes and "buy now" buttons that lead directly to the purchase page for the title on the sending store's website. The newsletter, which is branded with each store's logo, also includes an interview (from Bookselling This Week) with the author whose book was chosen by booksellers as the number-one Kids' Next List pick, in this case Laurie Halse Anderson, author of SHOUT (Viking Books for Young Readers).

For a sample of the newsletter, see this one from Bookbug Kalamazoo, Kalamazoo, Mich..

Marjorie Weinman Sharmat, "one of the nation's most prolific authors of children's books, including the popular Nate the Great detective series," died March 12, the New York Times reported. She was 90. Sharmat published more than 130 books for children and young adults, many of which have been translated into multiple languages.

Her boy detective Nate "quickly emerged as something of a pop culture figure. His picture once adorned 28 million boxes of Cheerios, to promote children's literacy," the Times wrote. Some of the books from the series were adapted for TV, including the animated short Nate the Great Goes Undercover (1974), which won an award at the Los Angeles International Children's Film Festival. The New York Public Library named Nate the Great Saves the King of Sweden (1997) one of its 100 Titles for Reading and Sharing.

Sharmat's son Andrew said the idea for Nate came to her after she had children and began paying attention to their reading material: "She picked up Dick and Jane and said, 'This is awful, it has no story line.' She wanted to do something more interesting, but something a first- or second-grader could pick up."

Sharmat's husband, Mitchell, created a cousin for Nate named Olivia Sharp, also a detective, and the couple wrote a series of Olivia Sharp books. Sharmat's sister, Rosalind Weinman, was co-author of Nate the Great and the Pillowcase (1993). Another son, Craig, collaborated with her on three books, including Nate the Great and the Musical Note (1990).

Andrew Sharmat, who helped his mother write the Kids on the Bus series in the early '90s, said she had constantly taken notes on scraps of paper: "She never went anywhere without a notepad," he said, adding that once she started being published, there was no stopping her. "It was like she was launched into the stratosphere. She loved it. She didn't cook our dinner--she wrote books."

In a piece on Bluestockings bookstore, amNewYork began with a recollection: "In the spring of 2015, the bookstore Bluestockings hosted an event for the fourth edition of This Bridge Called My Back, a collection of writing by radical women of color originally published in 1981. Guests crowded into the space to see co-editor Cherrie Moraga and various contributors speak about the work. Eventually the shop's door was propped open and the microphone cranked up so that those on the street could hear the talk."

Corey Farach, who huddled behind the shop's counter to free up floor space, said, "It was so powerful. I just felt like, wow, this space is so important. The community elders were coming in to talk and everyone in the room was getting in touch with this radical feminist literary tradition in a very beautiful way."

A volunteer at the time, Farach soon became one of six collective members who now help run the bookstore, fair trade cafe and event space.

"We're a free event space that prioritizes the narratives and experience of people of color and gender-nonconforming people," Farach said. "We try to make space for people to speak to their experience.... There's no such thing as an online transaction that gives you what you get when you walk into a small bookstore."

In a piece that highlighted "9 inspiring Flannery O'Connor destinations in Georgia," Explore Georgia showcased E. Shaver, Bookseller in Savannah, which is owned by Jessica Osborne, noting: "Locals and visitors alike should get their literary fix at this magical bookstore located only a short stroll away from Flannery O'Connor's childhood home. Adding this destination to your itinerary is a must-do for every book lover. E. Shaver, Bookseller opened its doors in 1975... Take time to visit this literary landmark and appreciate the inspiration that flows from the walls of books. We think Flannery would approve of this independent bookseller!"

[Edited on March 22 to reflect that Jessica Osborne now owns the store founded by Esther Shaver.]

The Frankfurt Book Fair New York has selected The Storyteller by Pierre Jarawan, translated by Sinéad Crowe and Rachel McNicholl (World Editions, $17.99, 9781642860115) as its March Book of the Month.

The organization described the book this way: "Samir leaves the safety and comfort of his family's adopted home in Germany for volatile Beirut in an attempt to find his missing father. His only clues are an old photo and the bedtime stories his father used to tell him. The Storyteller follows Samir's search for Brahim, the father whose heart was always yearning for his homeland, Lebanon. In this moving and gripping novel about family secrets, love, and friendship, Pierre Jarawan does for Lebanon what Khaled Hosseini's The Kite Runner did for Afghanistan. He pulls away the curtain of grim facts and figures to reveal the intimate story of an exiled family torn apart by civil war and guilt. In this rich and skillful account, Jarawan proves that he too is a masterful storyteller."

Pierre Jarawan was born to a Lebanese father and a German mother and moved to Germany with his family at age three. Inspired by his father's imaginative bedtime stories, he started writing at the age of 13. He has won international prizes as a slam poet, and in 2016 was named Literature Star of the Year by the Abendzeitung newspaper. Jarawan received a literary scholarship from the City of Munich (the Bayerischer Kunstförderpreis) for The Storyteller, which has been a bestseller in Germany and the Netherlands.

Sinéad Crowe is a native of Dublin, Ireland, and works as a freelance translator in Hamburg, Germany. Her short-story translations have appeared in the Short Story Project, and her translation of Ronen Steinke's Fritz Bauer oder Auschwitz vor Gericht is forthcoming from Indiana University Press.

Rachel McNicholl is a freelance translator and editor in Dublin, Ireland. Her translations have appeared in journals and anthologies including The Stinging Fly, Manoa, No Man's Land, Best European Fiction and the Short Story Project. Her translation of Nadja Spiegel's short-story collection sometimes i lie and sometimes i don't was published by Dalkey Archive Press in 2015. She won a PEN/Heim Translation Fund Grant in 2016. Last year, she had a funded residency at the Europäisches Übersetzer-Kollegium in Straelen, Germany, during which she worked on the final stages of The Storyteller translation.

At St. Martin's Press:

Joe Goldschein has been promoted to senior director, marketing & sales operations.

Kim Ludlam is promoted to director, creative services.

Martin Quinn is promoted to associate director, marketing.

Marissa Sangiacomo is promoted to senior marketing manager.

Erik Platt is promoted to senior manager, digital advertising operations.

Danielle Prielipp is promoted to senior marketing manager.

Joe Brosnan is promoted to senior marketing manager.

DJ DeSmyter is promoted to marketing manager.  

Dylan Helstien is promoted to assistant manager, advertising operations.

Oh, Bear by Melissa Nelson Greenberg, illustrated by Ruth Hengeveld (Cameron Kids).

Today:
Morning Edition: Andrew Delbanco, author of The War Before the War: Fugitive Slaves and the Struggle for America's Soul from the Revolution to the Civil War (Penguin Press, $30, 9781594204050).

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, March 23
1 p.m. Bandy Lee, co-author of The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump: 27 Psychiatrists and Mental Health Experts Assess a President (Thomas Dunne, $27.99, 9781250179456). (Re-airs Monday at 4 a.m.)

5:30 p.m. Jeremy Brown, author of Influenza: The Hundred Year Hunt to Cure the Deadliest Disease in History (Atria, $26.99, 9781501181245).

6:30 p.m. William Burns, author of The Back Channel: A Memoir of American Diplomacy and the Case for Its Renewal (Random House, $32, 9780525508861), at Politics and Prose in Washington, D.C.

7:30 p.m. Robert Brown, author of You Can't Go Wrong Doing Right: How a Child of Poverty Rose to the White House and Helped Change the World (Convergent Books, $26, 9781524762780).

9 p.m. Dorothy Gilliam, author of Trailblazer: A Pioneering Journalist's Fight to Make the Media Look More Like America (Center Street, $27, 9781546083443).

10 p.m. Victor Davis Hanson, author of The Case for Trump (Basic Books, $30, 9781541673540). (Re-airs Sunday at 9 p.m. and Monday at 12 a.m. and 3 a.m.)

11 p.m. Coverage of the 2019 National Book Critics Circle Awards. (Re-airs Sunday at 1 p.m.)

Sunday, March 24
12:30 a.m. William Davies, author of Nervous States: Democracy and the Decline of Reason (Norton, $27.95, 9780393635386).

6:20 p.m. Amy Webb, author of The Big Nine: How the Tech Titans and Their Thinking Machines Could Warp Humanity (PublicAffairs, $27, 9781541773752), at Politics and Prose.

7:20 p.m. John Brockman, editor of Possible Minds: Twenty-Five Ways of Looking at AI (Penguin Press, $28, 9780525557999).

10 p.m. David Treuer, author of The Heartbeat of Wounded Knee: Native America from 1890 to the Present (Riverhead, $28, 9781594633157), at Politics and Prose.

11:10 p.m. Joseph Fischel, author of Screw Consent: A Better Politics of Sexual Justice (University of California Press, $34.95, 9780520295414).

The winners of the $50,000 Whiting Awards, sponsored by the Whiting Foundation and given to emerging writers of fiction, nonfiction, poetry and drama, are:

Kayleb Rae Candrilli (poetry)
Tyree Daye (poetry)
Hernan Diaz (fiction)
Michael R. Jackson (drama)
Terese Marie Mailhot (nonfiction)
Nadia Owusu (nonfiction)
Nafissa Thompson-Spires (fiction)
Merritt Tierce (fiction)
Vanessa Angélica Villarreal (poetry)
Lauren Yee (drama)

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The Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art has announced its 2019 Carle Honors Honorees, who will be recognized for their contributions to the world of children's literature on September 26 in New York City:

David Saylor, v-p and creative director, the Scholastic Trade Publishing Group, and founder and publisher of Scholastic's graphic novel imprint, Graphix. He is also the art director for all American editions of J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter books.

Melissa Sweet, a collage artist and writer whose work includes two Caldecott Honor books: The Right Word: Roget and His Thesaurus and A River of Words: William Carlos Williams, both by Jen Bryant.

The Chihiro Art Museum, the museum with two locations in Japan that is devoted exclusively to illustrations for children's books. Commemorating artist Chihiro Iwasaki (1918-1974), the museum has one of the largest collections of picture book illustrations in the world.

REFORMA, the National Association to Promote Library and Information Services to Latinos and the Spanish Speaking, which was established in 1971 as an affiliate of the American Library Association and supports the development of library collections, services, programs, and staff to support the needs of the Latino community. It co-sponsors the Pura Belpré Award.

Award presenters will be Caldecott-honor artist and author Grace Lin and book editor Alvina Ling, friends since childhood and longtime supporters of diversity and inclusion in the world of picture books.

Selected new titles appearing next Tuesday, March 26:

The Handmaid's Tale: The Graphic Novel by Margaret Atwood, illustrated by Renee Nault (Nan A. Talese/Doubleday, $22.95, 9780385539241).

The Path Made Clear: Discovering Your Life's Direction and Purpose by Oprah Winfrey (Flatiron, $27.99, 9781250307507) gives life advice.

They Said It Couldn't Be Done: The '69 Mets, New York City, and the Most Astounding Season in Baseball History by Wayne Coffey (Crown Archetype, $28, 9781524760885) chronicles the 1969 Miracle Mets.

Gray Day: My Undercover Mission to Expose America's First Cyber Spy by Eric O'Neill (Crown, $27, 9780525573524) explores the case of FBI mole Robert Hanssen.

Professor Chandra Follows His Bliss: A Novel by Rajeev Balasubramanyam (The Dial Press, $27, 9780525511380) follows a stressed economist recovering from a bicycle hit-and-run.

The Last Second by Catherine Coulter and J.T. Ellison (Gallery, $27.99, 9781501138225) is the sixth thriller in the A Brit in the FBI series.

Double Exposure by Alfred Gough and Miles Millar (Grand Central, $26, 9781538731369) is a thriller set in the 1960s in which a mysterious film may show Hitler survived World War II.

The Astonishing Maybe by Shaunta Grimes (Feiwel and Friends, $16.99, 9781250191830) features two tweens on a mission to find a missing father.

Size of the Truth by Andrew Smith (Simon & Schuster, $17.99, 9781534419551), Smith's first middle-grade novel, is about a boy dealing with PTSD from his time spent stuck in a well.

Paperbacks:
A Gentleman in Moscow: A Novel by Amor Towles (Penguin Books, $17, 9780143110439).

Supermarket by Bobby Hall (Simon & Schuster, $17.99, 9781982127138).

Tomorrow's Bread by Anna Jean Mayhew (Kensington, $15.95, 9780758254108).

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

Hardcover
When All Is Said: A Novel by Anne Griffin (Thomas Dunne, $26.99, 9781250200587). "Dark and unflinching yet packed with heart and humanity, When All Is Said is Irish storytelling at its best. Maurice Hannigan sits in a bar on a Saturday night and toasts five people who have been important in his life and who have left him, either through death or distance. The 84-year-old widower spools out his story like tangled fishing line, raising one glass to each of his departed loved ones. It all leads up to a startling yet inevitable end to an unsettling yet satisfying story." --Grace Harper, Mac's Backs, Cleveland Heights, Ohio

Hardcover: An Indies Introduce Title
Long Live the Tribe of Fatherless Girls: A Memoir by T Kira Madden (Bloomsbury, $27, 9781635571851). "Madden has no limits when it comes to the ones she loves--her cool and free older friends, her Internet-famous first girlfriend, her mother, her father, and us, the fortunate readers. She accomplishes one of the great feats of a memoir: in telling the story of her life, she translates its remarkable aspects (for one, her father worked for Jordan Belfort and was, yes, a wolf of Wall Street) while making the commonplace (love for one's parents) remarkable. Her prose is a Lisa Frank-racetrack-Hawaiian shirt phantasmagoria that I couldn't get enough of. And, man, that last section--it'll knock you loose." --Molly Moore, BookPeople, Austin, Tex.

Paperback
Lying in Wait: A Novel by Liz Nugent (Gallery/Scout Press, $16, 9781501178474). "Liz Nugent returns with another riveting tale of intrigue and domestic drama. Teenage Laurence suspects that his father might be involved in the mysterious death of a young woman. After his father suddenly dies, Laurence becomes even more bound by the smothering love of his overly attentive mother. When Laurence falls in love with the dead girl's sister, lies ensue, complications arise, and the hidden depths of evil lurking in the manor house are exposed. Readers will be mesmerized by Lying in Wait, and the ending is so devious that it will knock your socks off."--Pamela Klinger-Horn, Excelsior Bay Books, Excelsior, Minn.

For Ages 4 to 8
Hope by Matthew Cordell (Disney-Hyperion, $16.99, 9781484773413). "I loved Hope, which I thought of as a love letter to one's grandchildren. We wonder if what we teach our children stays with them when we are gone. In this book, it does." --Kathi Rauscher, Hockessin Bookshelf, Hockessin, Del.

For Ages 9 to 12
The Moon Within by Aida Salazar (Arthur A. Levine, $17.99, 9781338283372). "An absolute gem! Aida Salazar perfectly captures the anxiety, excitement, and embarrassment that come with middle school. Celi slowly grows into a better understanding of her mother's hopes for her and what it means to be a good friend. Her moon ceremony--at first a strange and new idea--becomes an opportunity to show her strength and the person she is becoming. Beautiful and powerful." --Cecilia Cackley, East City Bookshop, Washington, D.C.

For Teen Readers
Rayne & Delilah's Midnite Matinee by Jeff Zentner (Crown, $17.99, 9781524720209). "This is a story of true friendship, of joy and laughter, of loss and pain, of heartbreak and love, and in the end it's a story of growth and hope. Josie and Delia each hold half of my heart. I saw different parts of myself in them in deep ways; their words felt like my own stolen from a place where I feared to speak them aloud. This book left me laughing with tears streaming down my face and warmth in my heart!" --Meghan Vanderlee, Schuler Books, Grand Rapids, Mich.

[Many thanks to IndieBound and the ABA!]

In this heartfelt contemporary romance, Tracey Garvis Graves (Heart-Shaped Hack) follows the tumultuous love story of an autistic woman and the one that got away.

As students at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1991, Annika and Jonathan meet over a hard-fought game at the school chess club. Struggling to adjust to independent life after years of homeschooling, Annika leans on her roommate Janice for guidance on navigating social situations and has never dated. Unable to read social cues, easily overwhelmed by sensory input and exhausted by too much human interaction, Annika's two comforts are playing chess and volunteering in wildlife rehabilitation. Jonathan, a transfer student, wants to start over after making the wrong choices at his last school. Thrown together by circumstance, the two embark on a relationship that evolves from sweet to white-hot.

In 2001, Annika and Jonathan meet again by chance in a Chicago grocery store. Jonathan works in finance and is newly divorced. Annika, now a public librarian and more adept at social situations, is determined to prove that their love deserves a second chance. Before the lovers can start over, they must face the truth about why their relationship fell apart and prove that a second tragedy can't break their bond.

Graves eschews the lighter tone of other romances featuring characters who fall somewhere on the autism spectrum, such as Graeme Simsion's The Rosie Project or Helen Hoang's The Kiss Quotient, and the result brims with thoughtful sensitivity. The undisputed star of the story, Annika exhibits real limitations, expressing her frustration as "like everyone around you has a copy of the script of life, but no one gave it to you.... And you'll be wrong most of the time." While Jonathan is a supportive partner, Graves doesn't put him in a savior role but allows Annika to take command of her own growth. Her friendship with her roommate, which moves from altruism on Janice's part to genuine connection, provides needed relief from the mean-girl interactions she suffers from other girls and women throughout her life.

Alternating between scenes from the '90s and the 2000s, the narrative builds at a deliberate pace toward the reason for Annika and Jonathan's original breakup and has a second punch of high drama following the revelation. Romance fans who love the second-chance motif will find The Girl He Used to Know a must-read, but any reader who appreciates character-driven fiction will enjoy Annika's determination to reach her goals and become stronger in the process. --Jaclyn Fulwood, blogger at Infinite Reads

Shelf Talker: Graves's strong, autistic heroine fights for the love she once lost in this sensitive, affecting romance.