"There is always competition there. If you take Amazon, the multinationals, it's everywhere. As a small business it is definitely challenging but we endeavor to compete. In an age of European macroeconomics, everything is big and devouring everything small, whether that is farming, fishing or retail. We have to be proactive as we can and we strive to provide the best service to our customers and be as personal as we can. We have a committed and engaging staff. If people can't find a book, we will get it for them....

"I have enjoyed serving the people. I would regard books through the centuries as sacred. A bookshop is an integral part of any social community. To use the English term, the high street bookstore, any community would be lost without it. They can only survive with the support of the community."

In 2016, when Steve Salis bought a stake in Kramerbooks & Afterwords Cafe, Washington, D.C., "he was already thinking about what it could become, its next iteration," the Washington Business Journal noted in reporting that after a protracted battle with a landlord and the city, "he hasn't been able to turn the site at 1517 Connecticut Ave. NW into Kramerbooks 2.0--so he's looking for a new space to build out the bookstore, restaurant and arts space according to his vision."

Salis became sole owner of the company in 2017 and now he is looking for an older building with character in the 5,000-10,000-square-foot range. The Business Journal cautioned that the "original Kramer's isn't going anywhere anytime soon. The current term on the lease stretches to 2026, and there are another 20 years of options after that."

"We want something with spirit, with great bones, so we can take the canvas, and the history around it, and try to meld it into what we would like to do," Salis said, adding that Penn Quarter, Capitol Hill, H Street NE and Union Market are all areas he is exploring as options.

Plans had been drawn about 18 months ago for a revamp of the existing location, but the Kramerbooks complex "is located in three different buildings with three different landlords, with entrances on both Connecticut Avenue and 19th Street NW, making a renovation project extremely complicated," the Business Journal wrote. Legal complications ensued.

The original plans, which would need to be fit to a new building, "mix a more modern look with some of the quirkiness that gives Kramer's its character," the Business Journal noted, adding that in addition to a "more cohesive design, Salis plans to brand a quick-service cafe element in the new store as a Sidekick. He also sees it having a much larger event component that helps people linger in the hybrid retail and restaurant space."

"I see this as a major arts and entertainment play going forward," said Salis, who is eager to put his stamp on what he sees as one of the original pioneers of the "experiential sales" movement. "Aside from the fact that it's an iconic retailer here in Washington, D.C., one of the things I found so fascinating about it is the fact that it's been around for so long, and yet it has very progressive elements to it as it pertained to the immersive retail experience."

The Booksellers Association of the U.K. and Ireland has released "Green Bookselling: A Manifesto for the BA, Booksellers and the Book Industry" as part of its ongoing commitment to decrease waste by its membership and in the supply chain. In addition to providing booksellers with recommendations on how to become more environmentally sustainable, the BA's Green Bookselling Task Force sets a range of goals in the manifesto, including a Green Audit, holding training seminars and reviewing existing processes to reduce environmental impact.

The Green Manifesto is based on three principles: that the need for change to prevent further environmental decline is urgent and permanent; that there is much that individuals and organizations can do; that there is much that the U.K. book supply chain can do.

The BA is working with both the American and Australian Booksellers Associations on this project, reflecting the commitment across the English-language territories to improve the book trade's green credentials, behaviors and aspirations.

"It is vital that everybody in the book industry, from individual booksellers to publishers, and from distributors to printers, makes a concerted effort to reduce their environmental impact," said BA managing director Meryl Halls. "Booksellers can take the lead in their communities, and in the trade--where there is already a high awareness of the challenge--and the Green Manifesto is designed as a key step in committing to doing more to be sustainable and ethical. The issue is urgent and inevitable, and so we are particularly pleased to be working with other booksellers associations on joint activity and initiatives in this area, to the benefit of all our members."

BA president Nic Bottomley, co-owner of Mr. B's Emporium of Reading Delights in Bath, added: "It feels very much like the consumer tide has turned on the environment, and we need to take seriously our customers' expectations of how we behave as ethical businesses. Booksellers are already taking the lead on environmental issues and--as always--are sharing good practice. I am really proud of the work we've started at the BA on the Green Bookselling Task Force, and thrilled at the resonance across the trade, and the world, in what we are aiming to achieve. There's more work to be done, but we have started in good heart and we now look forward to engaging our supply chain partners in the next steps."

American Booksellers Association CEO Oren Teicher commented: "The ABA is pleased to be working with our colleagues in the U.K.--and around the world--on a series of green initiatives as we recognize the critical importance of these matters and the special obligation that we in the book business have to be part of the solution, as these are clearly global concerns, and we need to find new ways in which we can cooperate."

Robbie Egan, CEO of the Australian Booksellers Association, noted that the organization "is investigating ways to help our industry respond to the need for better environmental practices, from reducing packaging waste, increased recycling and better management of freight and returns. Our colleagues in the U.K. have led the way and we look to this example with the desire to emulate the initiative, and to build a cooperative approach to improving bookselling and the book industry on both a local and a global scale."

Cassie Chadderton

Cassie Chadderton has been appointed the first CEO of World Book Day, effective this October. Kirsten Grant will continue in her role as director. Announcing the decision, WBD said that in recent years, the annual celebration "has made a strategic move to reach deeper into the workplace, and corporate and public sector life to galvanize an ever-wider constituency around the benefits of reading at an early age, and the importance of sharing stories. With her track record of representing policy and political and stakeholder relations within the arts sector, Cassie is well-placed to take the charity to the next level and to realize its mission to give every child and young person the opportunity to read and love books."

Chadderton began her career in publishing with companies that included Fourth Estate, Little, Brown, Macmillan and William Heinemann. As head of U.K. Theatre, she represented the interests of the sector with political and policy stakeholders. Previously, she was director, media & stakeholder relations, at Arts Council England.

"I'm thrilled to be joining World Book Day as its first chief executive, and to have this wonderful opportunity to build on its profile and success," she said. "I'm looking forward to developing its ambition to give even more children and young people across the country, and from all backgrounds, the chance to be excited about reading and books."

Stephen Lotinga, CEO of the Publishers Association and WBD chair, said Chadderton's "experience in both the publishing sector and with the Arts Council England and at U.K. Theatre are a perfect combination to take the charity into its next chapter. The World Book Day Charity has gone from strength to strength thanks to the tremendous work from Kirsten and the team over the years and we are excited to see where the charity and its core objectives around reading for pleasure can be developed even further."

The building housing a Barnes & Noble in High Point, N.C., has been sold to the operator of Living Arts College, a Raleigh school that offers programs in filmmaking, interior design, photography, game design animation and other fields, which plans to open a studio arts trade school at the location, the High Point Enterprise reported. B&N will close when its lease runs out.

The broker who represented the seller of the property told the paper that his "best guess" is that B&N will relocate in High Point in a smaller site. The 25,920-square-foot store was built in 1996 and was part of the former Oak Hollow Mall, which officially closed two years ago after a decade of decline. Most of the former mall is now owned by High Point University.

Paul Krassner, author, journalist, comedian, "prankster, a master of the put-on that thumbed its nose at what he saw as a stuffy and blundering political establishment," died July 21, the New York Times reported. He was 87. Krassner "epitomized a strain of anarchic 1960s activism" that became identified with the Yippies.... Along with Abbie Hoffman and Jerry Rubin and a few others, Mr. Krassner helped found that group, and he also joined Ken Kesey and the Merry Pranksters on their LSD-fueled bus trip across America."

Paul Krassner being interviewed in the men's room during the 1978 ABA convention. (photo: Andrew Porter)

As founder and editor of the underground humor magazine The Realist, he published contributors like Norman Mailer, Jules Feiffer, Terry Southern, Joseph Heller, Mort Sahl, Edward Sorel and Robert Grossman. "Yet so naturally irreverent was Mr. Krassner that when People magazine labeled him the 'father of the underground press,' he demanded a paternity test," the Times wrote.

As a keeper of the legacy of one of his mentors, Lenny Bruce, Krassner edited Bruce's autobiography, How to Talk Dirty and Influence People (1965), and was nominated for a Grammy Award for his 5,000-word liner notes to a collection of Bruce's nightclub routines, Let the Buyer Beware.

In 1994, he published a memoir, Confessions of a Raving Unconfined Nut: Misadventures in the Counter-Culture, which he later updated. His other books include Who's to Say What's Obscene?: Politics, Culture, and Comedy in America Today; The Winner of the Slow Bicycle Race; Sex, Drugs, and the Twinkie Murders; and One Hand Jerking: Reports from an Investigative Satirist. A new title, Zapped by the God of Absurdity: The Best of Paul Krassner, will be published later this year.

The Los Angeles Times noted that for his 1968 Life profile, Krassner offered a personal philosophy: "If I had one thing to tell everybody, it would be: Do it now. Take up music, read a book, proposition a girl--but do it now. We know we are all sentenced to death. People cannot become prisoners of guilts or fears. They should cling to each moment and take what enjoyment they can from it."

Vero Beach Book Center, Vero Beach, Fla., celebrated the 50th anniversary of the moon landing with a packed story time event featuring illustrator John Hare and his debut picture book, Field Trip to the Moon (Margaret Ferguson/Holiday House). Above, Hare is seated in front of the wall at the store with a drawing of the creatures that the protagonist of his book encounters on the moon.

"Rest in Peace, sweet man," Skylark Bookshop, Columbia, Mo., wrote in a Facebook post featuring a photo of its sidewalk chalkboard, which pays tribute to editor and author George Hodgman, who died July 20, by quoting him: "I can never be a person who has not made mistakes. But I can be someone who has lived through them: one of those who look you square in the eye and say, 'This is how it has been and it’s okay.' "

KTUL profiled Chris Hardy, the owner of The Book Exchange & Bible Bookshop in Pryor, Okla., who dresses as a character called "Cowboy Short" when he reads stories to children at his store, libraries and schools.

Hardy's grandparents opened the bookstore in 1980 as a used bookstore, eventually adding new books. Hardy took over in 1998, and now the shop is "three bookstores in one," combining a new bookstore, used bookstore and a Bible bookstore.

"Grandmother said, years ago, said, 'Pryor needs a bookstore,' and so that's what I've kept doing," Hardy told KTUL.

New York City's Rizzoli Bookstore shared photos on Facebook of a recent special event: "We were honored to host the wedding of Valerie and Joel this weekend. A wonderful evening of beautiful words, family, music, drinks, and food. Congratulations to the happy couple!"

Effective October 28, Workman Publishing will be exclusive worldwide distributor outside of Canada for all Familius titles. Workman will also distribute Familius's distribution clients--Future House, a science fiction and fantasy publisher founded by Adam Sidwell, and Protégé Publishing, a regional calendar line founded by Rick Schafer.

Founded in 2012 by former Gibbs Smith CEO Christopher Robbins and his wife, Michele, Familius publishes books that "help families be happy." Its titles include Made for Me, Good Moms Have Scary Thoughts, Fairy House, Let Me Tell You My Story, 100 First Words for Little Geeks and Courageous People Who Changed the World, among others. Familius publishes some 30 books a season.

Tomorrow:
Today Show: Paul McCartney, author of Hey Grandude! (Random House, $17.99, 9780525648673).

HBO's latest trailer for Damon Lindelof's upcoming series Watchmen, based on the comic book epic by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons, marks a debut for fan favorite Doctor Manhattan. Entertainment Weekly reported there "are still a lot of questions about how (and when) the world in Lindelof's Watchmen operates, but news footage sees Doctor Manhattan flaunting his abilities on the planet Mars. This is where Regina King's character, reportedly named Angela Abar, says he's been living. Only now, it would appear he's back on earth."

The trailer also features Jeremy Irons (reportedly playing an older version of comic character Ozymandias), Don Johnson, Jean Smart, Tim Blake Nelson and Yahya Abdul-Mateen II. Also featured in the series are Louis Gossett Jr., Hong Chau, Andrew Howard, Tom Mison, Frances Fisher, Jacob Ming-Trent, Sara Vickers, Dylan Schombing and James Wolk. Watchmen premieres on HBO this October.

The longlist has been announced for the £50,000 (about $62,180) Booker Prize, which is supported by the charitable foundation Crankstart. A six-book shortlist will be revealed September 3, and the winner named October 14. The shortlisted authors each receive £2,500 (about $3,110) and a specially bound edition of their book. This year's longlisted titles are:

The Testaments by Margaret Atwood (Canada)
Night Boat to Tangier by Kevin Barry (Ireland)               
My Sister, the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite (U.K./Nigeria)
Ducks, Newburyport by Lucy Ellmann (U.S./U.K.)           
Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo (U.K.)
The Wall by John Lanchester (U.K.)        
The Man Who Saw Everything by Deborah Levy (U.K.)
Lost Children Archive by Valeria Luiselli (Mexico/Italy)     
An Orchestra of Minorities by Chigozie Obioma (Nigeria)
Lanny by Max Porter (U.K)
Quichotte by Salman Rushdie (U.K./India)
10 Minutes 38 Seconds in This Strange World by Elif Shafak (U.K./Turkey)           
Frankissstein by Jeanette Winterson (U.K.)

Chair of the 2019 judges Peter Florence commented: "If you only read one book this year, make a leap. Read all 13 of these. There are Nobel candidates and debutants on this list. There are no favorites; they are all credible winners. They imagine our world, familiar from news cycle disaster and grievance, with wild humor, deep insight and a keen humanity. These writers offer joy and hope. They celebrate the rich complexity of English as a global language. They are exacting, enlightening and entertaining. Really--read all of them."

---

Author N. Scott Momaday, "who for more than half a century has illuminated both the ancient and contemporary lives of Native Americans through fiction, essays, and poetry," is this year's recipient of the Dayton Literary Peace Prize's Ambassador Richard C. Holbrooke Distinguished Achievement Award, which recognizes authors for their complete body of work. Momaday will be presented with the award November 3 during the Dayton Literary Peace Prize Gala.

Sharon Rab, founder and chair of the Dayton Literary Peace Prize Foundation, said Momaday's "body of work illustrates the power of ritual, imagination, and storytelling to mediate between cultures, produce peace through intercultural understanding, and heal individuals damaged by conflict. By honoring and safeguarding the storytelling traditions of our nation's indigenous communities, his writings at the same time affirm the value of a multicultural society."

Momaday commented: "If we are to understand the synthesis of literature and peace, we must first consider that the end of art is the definition of the human condition. In its ultimate realization the human condition is a state of peace. Peace is the objective of human evolution, and literature is the measure of that evolution. The history of human experience is in many ways a history of dysfunction and conflict, and literature, because it is an accurate record of that history, reflects not only what is peaceful but what is the universal hope and struggle for peace. Literature and peace are at last indivisible. They form an equation that is the definition of art and humanity."

photo: Beth Girone

T. Marie Vandelly has wanted to write her entire life but, due to a career change, has only recently been granted the freedom to pursue her dream full-time. The psychological thriller Theme Music (Dutton, July 23, 2019), is her first novel. Vandelly lives in Virginia on Gwynn's Island in the Chesapeake Bay with her husband and their dog.

On your nightstand now:

I am halfway through Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens, but I don't think I will be able to finish it. I keep reading the same exquisitely written sentence over and over again. I barely get through one before the next heartbreakingly poignant metaphor stops me dead in my tracks. If I do make it to the end without dissolving into a puddle of mush, the next book on my nightstand will be harshly and unfairly judged. Sorry, An Anonymous Girl.

Favorite book when you were a child:

We Were Tired of Living in a House by Liesel Moak Skorpen, pictures by Doris Burn. I keep it on a shelf in my office to this day, and will flip through it every now and again. It has so much texture and heart. I still love looking for the cat. Later, when I discovered Nancy Drew, I got hooked on suspense thrillers and mysteries. If a book didn't have a ghost, monster or a dead body in the first couple of pages, forget about it.

Your top five authors:

Though there are many authors I love and would hate to leave off a list of favorites, if I am only allotted five, I would have to go with those whose works left me completely awestruck: John Steinbeck, Harper Lee, Toni Morrison, Donna Tartt and Michael Cunningham.

Book you've faked reading:

I wouldn't say I fake-read A Catcher in the Rye by J.D Salinger--though I did skim quite a bit--but I definitely faked my admiration for it. Personally, I think everyone is lying about how great it is. I reread it a few years ago to see if perhaps I had been too harsh on it originally but, no, I remain unmoved.   

Book you're an evangelist for:

The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver is the one title that always pops to mind when someone asks me for a reading recommendation. For months after I finished reading it, I worried and wondered about what had become of the characters. I could not stop thinking about them, like they were long-lost family members I hoped to reconnect with one day. Even after all these years, when there's news about the Congo, I listen for their names.

Book you've bought for the cover:

Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by John Berendt. I didn't know if it was fiction or nonfiction, murder mystery or romance novel, a literary masterpiece or a tourist guide to historical graveyards, but I was intrigued enough by the cover to want to find out--and pleasantly surprised that it had a little bit of everything.

Book you hid from your parents:

I used to sneak-read all the time as a child. If a book was deemed "too mature" for me, I just had to read it. My fourth-grade teacher once confiscated my parents' paperback copy of Jaws by Peter Benchley before I could secretly devour it during recess.

Book that changed your life:

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee ignited a passion in me like nothing else. Not just to write, but to write really, really well. I read it several times in a row to analyze her style, and figure out how one perfectly placed and chosen word could bring a character to life. If I write a particularly mundane sentence and think, ah, good enough, I try to imagine Harper Lee saying that to herself, and back the cursor up to try again.

Favorite line from a book:

"It's the possibility of having a dream come true that makes life interesting." --from The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho

Five books you'll never part with:

Though I have read all of these titles several times, I would be completely distraught to think I never could again: To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell, The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver, The Shining by Stephen King and Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See.

Book you most want to read again for the first time:

Lord of the Flies by William Golding. Being forced to read this in high school, I couldn't, or didn't, fully appreciate it. Even now, when I think I might give it another shot, it feels like a homework assignment. But if I could read it now for the first time, without a book report due on completion, it could conceivably jump onto my list of all-time favorites.   

Book you never got around to reading:

I'm embarrassed to say that I have never read The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. It's really inexcusable. It's not a daunting undertaking, like War and Peace or Moby-Dick. It's only 200 pages! I could read it in a single afternoon. I even have a copy of it, somewhere. I'm sure I would like it. I might even love it. Okay, enough is enough. Today I will vow to read The Great Gatsby, eventually, probably not.

It's the summer before seventh grade, and 12-year-olds Ofelia Castillo, Lane DiSanti, Aster Douglas and Cat Garcia have no plans to ruffle feathers in their small Florida town. In fact, they don't even know each other. Lane, visiting her wealthy grandmother, decides that the summer will go by more quickly if she has friends, so she leaves the daughter of the woman who cleans her grandmother's house an anonymous invitation to a secret meeting. She leaves two more invitations in bags she hides in the girls' restroom of the public library, figuring that "kids who spent time in places she liked were more likely to be kids she could potentially hang out with."

All three invitees show up, and the Ostentation of Others and Outsiders convenes. The girls form a loose, uncertain fellowship, fashioning themselves as a kind of anti-scout club in reaction to the Floras, a prestigious local girls' troop that focuses on social etiquette. The Ostentation quickly solidifies around an unusual passion project: Cat, an avid bird watcher who has recently stopped attending Floras meetings, wants the Floras to discontinue their yearly tradition of crowning Miss Floras with a 100-year-old hat made of bird feathers. "It's about what the hat symbolizes," she tells her new friends. "Birds aren't just things you can kill to make something pretty.... it's wrong to use something that has such an awful history." Though at first the girls seem to have little in common, they rally around this mission. Unfortunately, while their zeal and moral righteousness are laudable, their techniques are not always wise or safe.

All four girls narrate in alternating chapters, giving context and depth to their individual and collective stories. Struggling with loss, family turmoil, identity questions and the discomfort of growing up, the girls deliberately and consciously work to forge relationships with each other. This determination to connect can be seen as Lane, who is certain she wants nothing to do with the Floras, studies their official handbook in an attempt "to figure out how you [make] a group a group.... What [is] the magic?" Despite missteps and misunderstandings, the girls find their own brand of magic--individually and as a unit. They stand up for something they believe in and, perhaps more importantly, they stand up in support of each other.

The age of 12 can be both magical and miserable. In Strange Birds, author Celia C. Pérez (The First Rule of Punk) gathers up all the messy, wild, confusing pieces of early adolescence and offers them back to the reader as a lovely mosaic made with sparkly bits of independence, tradition, principles and friendship. --Emilie Coulter, freelance writer and editor

Shelf Talker: Four girls, previously unknown to each other, awkwardly come together to form a new club to protest the outdated traditions of an elite scout troop in their town.