Wishing Tree Books, "a (mostly) children's bookstore," is scheduled to open later this month at 1410 E. 11th Ave., in the South Perry neighborhood of Spokane, Wash. The Spokesman-Review reported that for owner Janelle Smith, the launch "will be the culmination of a lifelong dream."

"All I've ever wanted to do is own a bookstore," she said. "In high school, I started making lists of the books I'd have and the authors I'd invite."

Her husband, Ivan, calls her a "book matchmaker." Janelle Smith recalled that she had once been at Powell's Books, Portland, Ore., "and a lady asked me to help her find a book for her granddaughter." After that experience, she was hooked.

During her college years, "she worked at Children's Corner Bookshop in the old River Park Square and developed lasting friendships," the Spokesman-Review wrote. "After graduating, she taught school for a time, worked as the events manager at Auntie's Bookstore and most recently worked as Auntie's children's book manager." She is currently on the Washington State Book Award Committee and has served on the E.B. White Award Committee.

The future home of Wishing Tree Books

Opening her own store in Spokane was a natural progression. "I knew I wanted to be in the Perry district," Smith said. "I wanted a neighborhood bookstore." A house on 11th Avenue proved to be the perfect location. Smith had met fellow bookseller Tegan Tigani of Queen Anne Book Co. in Seattle during a book event. Tigani and her husband, Jordan Tigani, expressed interest in investing in a bookstore in Spokane and purchased the property in August 2018. They are now Smith's landlords.

Once she found a contractor who lives in the neighborhood, work on the 1907 house began, and the result "is 900 square feet of light and airy selling space," the Spokesman Review noted, adding that Smith chose vibrant purple paint for the exterior and interior of the store, then commissioned Lewis & Clark student Emma Daniels to make a stained-glass window and paint two exterior murals, which feature book spines.

Although the majority of stock is children's books, Smith will also devote space to books and gifts for grown-ups. "I'm including adult fiction and nonfiction because we're a neighborhood store and want everyone to feel welcome," she said. Her goal is to create a growing community of readers with literature-based programs and activities. "In the spring, we'll hold events in the backyard."

An important piece of Smith's bookselling past has a place of honor at Wishing Tree Books. Smith said she "was gifted with the wooden book table from the Children's Corner Bookshop. It means so much to me--like a torch is being passed."

Odyssey Bookstore will open at 115 W. Green Street in Ithaca, N.Y., early next year. The Cornell Daily Sun reported that owner Laura Larson "will be fulfilling her dream" by opening an independent bookstore and "believes that the competition between Amazon and large chains has created a demand for the sense of community that is offered by independent bookstores."

An Ithaca High School and Cornell University alumna, Larson recalled her "love for reading and frequenting the plethora of bookstores available in Ithaca during her childhood--because of this, she dreamed of opening a bookstore someday," the Cornell Daily wrote. She anticipates that construction on Odyssey will be completed sometime in early 2020.

Odyssey Bookstore in progress

"I want a store where I may not have, you know, a million options under every category but everyone can find something that resonates with them," Larson said, adding that she hopes to foster an inclusive space for all readers and create a setting where diverse groups of people can come together and engage in dialogue.

"When I grew up here [Ithaca] was a very bifurcated community," Larson observed. "The sections of Ithaca, as small as it is, often don't talk to each other and don't really interact with each other…. I want it to be that space where your kids are reading books with my kids and I'm joining a book group with someone I wouldn't have met otherwise.... I just think a community is better when it knows how to talk to each other and have conversations."

Joseph-Beth has completed the first round of renovations at its original store, in Lexington, Ky. To celebrate, it held a grand re-opening last Thursday and offered a weekend of activities that included special events, demonstrations and tastings.

The changes include creating more community gathering opportunities by adding chairs and spaces to socialize, work or rest; allowing customers to order from the Bronte Bistro anywhere in the store; an "updated fireplace for a warm and cozy place to read and relax";  expanded local, kitchen and fashion sections; a new books lounge, with 75% of the titles facing out to make it easier to browse; museum display cases (from NYC's Metropolitan Museum) to showcase accessories and gift collections, surrounded by key book themes connecting books and gifts.

Joseph-Beth is also offering "more opportunities to bring people together--from seeing authors speak, story time, book clubs or attending a class--as well as offering meeting spaces "for events, birthday parties or book clubs.

Adam Miller, president and CEO of Joseph-Beth, commented: "We want Joseph-Beth to be more of an experience than a store, where people can connect and belong. We aren't trying to reinvent bookstores. We want to redefine how you experience the bookstore." He also called Lexington "our home and we love being here."

The first store remodel in more than a decade, this is the first phase of a multi-phase project that will be done over four years.

Although the Frankfurt Book Fair footprint at the city's huge fairgrounds has shrunk somewhat in the last two decades, the fair is still one of the largest and most active in the world. This year, overall attendance, including members of the public on the weekend, rose 5.5%, to 302,267. On the three trade-only days, attendance rose 1.8%; there were 7,450 exhibitors from 104 countries, down slightly from 7,503 exhibitors from 109 countries in 2018.

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At the 41st International Supply Chain seminar, held the day before the fair officially opened and expertly managed (as is only appropriate) by Graham Bell, executive director of EDItEUR, participants in part celebrated the upcoming 20th anniversary of the first publication of Onix for Books, the international metadata standard through which publishers, booksellers and others communicate in a consistent way online with all kinds of information about their books. Behind the scenes it's one of the most important elements in book electronic data interchange--and thus the sale of books in the modern era. Presenters from several countries illustrated how the book industries in their countries have used Onix, sometimes in different ways, demonstrating the flexibility of the standard, which is firmly established in North America, Europe and Australia and growing in use in other countries.

For example, Fride Fosseng and Bente Franck-Sætervoll of Bokbasen in Norway discussed the Allvit project, which was launched last month and focuses on Norwegian academic books. Before Allvit, there were no academic e-books published in Norwegian, and the five largest publishers in Norway, as well as some smaller ones, participated, sending Onix records about their books. Now, for the first time, via an app, Allvit allows students to buy, rent or borrow academic titles in Norwegian online, a project that would have been difficult to implement without Onix.

Andrew Joseph of Wits University Press, South Africa, noted that only a few years ago, his press relied on a traditional print model to meet local demand and did international sales through large distributors and licensing. But in the digital era, this proved inadequate, leading him to help organize a database about African academic titles that relies on Onix records and aims to make participating African publishers improve their visibility globally online. For many participating publishers, the effort to move beyond spreadsheets and e-mails has been challenging, but will "expose books to the global market that were never there before." Joseph noted that in contrast to the Norwegian example, the African project aims to expand as widely as possible and is not a regional effort.

In an illustration of the power of Thema, the international book standard that focuses on subject categories, Susan Breeuwsma of Central Bookhouse in the Netherlands--which is owned by publishers and booksellers and is "the gateway to the entire Dutch book market"--discussed how Thema was introduced to improve interaction with book buyers. "In a world with sales going down, with people reading less, and more and more books available, Thema is a way to get books to readers," Breeuwsma said. When applied to a range of titles offered by bol.com, the largest online bookseller in the Netherlands, the added, more detailed and accurate information led to higher conversion rates in online searches by consumers. Breeuwsma call this "just the beginning" of using Thema. --John Mutter

WH Smith at Melbourne airport

Expanding its presence in U.S. airports, WH Smith, the British retailer that sells books, stationery, magazines, newspapers, entertainment and travel products and some food primarily at airports, train stations, downtowns, highway stops and hospitals, has bought Marshall Retail Group for $400 million, Reuters reported.

Marshall Retail Group has 170 stores in the U.S. (plus a few in Canada), most of which are branded shops in casino resorts and in airports. Reuters said WH Smith is particularly interested in the 70 airport stores. And Peel Hunt analyst Jonathan Pritchard said the deal "completely galvanises the travel side of WH Smith, making it a major player in the States and now one of the serious names in global travel retail."

Late last year, WH Smith bought InMotion, which has some 114 stores in 43 airports in the U.S. selling digital accessories and which will serve as "a scalable platform to launch the WH Smith airport format into the U.S.," the company has said. WH Smith has more than 1,400 locations, mostly in the U.K. but also in 28 other countries.

Also late last year, WH Smith was revealed as the company that came close to buying Barnes & Noble but withdrew its offer in June 2018, a decision that apparently led to the bitter confrontation between B&N chairman Len Riggio and former CEO Demos Parneros, who was summarily fired in early July.

Point Reyes Books, Point Reyes Station, Calif., hosted Pulitzer Prize winners Forrest Gander and Richard Powers in conversation about Powers's book The Overstory (Norton). The event took place at Toby's Feed Barn in Point Reyes Station, and in the above photo, Gander is giving Powers a 3.4 million-year-old slice of petrified redwood.

Posted yesterday on Twitter by Blue Willow Bookshop, Houston, Tex.: "The #WorldSeries starts tonight, and we're rooting for the home team! #Houston, swing on by and visit our display of HTX vs. D.C.-area authors. @whatwouldDOOdo, you're welcome, too! (Tip of the to Sean for advocating for indie bookstores all year.)"

Posted on Facebook yesterday by Bookmarks, Winston-Salem, N.C.: "Tuesday is New Release Day in the book industry, and new books just happen to be the perfect companions for dreary fall days."

Effective November 1, Simon & Schuster will handle sales and distribution to markets and territories in North America for Oneworld Publications.

Founded in 1986, Oneworld Publications, London, England, publishes more than 100 books a year, including fiction and nonfiction, "books that are read by the intellectually curious all over the world."

Sara Hinckley has been promoted to senior v-p, books, at Hudson Group and her responsibilities will now include the book operations team. She had been v-p, book purchasing and promotions, and has been with Hudson Group since 1995.

Nancy: A Comic Collection by Olivia Jaimes (Andrews McMeel). And check out this related, interactive board book: Nancy's Genius Plan, also by Olivia Jaimes.

Tomorrow:
Rachael Ray Show: Hilton Carter, author of Wild at Home: How to Style and Care for Beautiful Plants (CICO Books, $19.95, 9781782497134)

Also on Rachael Ray: Chris Kimball, author of Milk Street: The New Rules: Recipes That Will Change the Way You Cook (Voracious, $35, 9780316423052).

Watch What Happens Live: Julie Andrews, co-author of Home Work: A Memoir of My Hollywood Years (Hachette Books, $30, 9780316349253).

Also on Watch What Happens Live: Whoopi Goldberg, author of The Unqualified Hostess (Rizzoli, $35, 9780847866984).

Also on Watch What Happens Live: Andre Aciman, author of Find Me: A Novel (FSG, $27, 9780374155018).

Amy Poehler is "expanding her relationship with NBC" by setting up The Mother-in-Law, based on Sally Hepworth's novel, at the network. According to the Hollywood Reporter, the "drama landed at NBC with a sizable put-pilot commitment."

Jessica Goldberg (The Path, Parenthood) will write the script and exec produce alongside Poehler and her Paper Kite head of production Kate Arend. Hepworth is also attached to exec produce alongside 3 Arts' Dave Becky.

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Hugh Laurie (The Night Manager, House) is developing a script for a TV adaptation of one of Agatha Christie's novels, "but which of the Queen of Crime's books he is adapting is being kept strictly under wraps," Variety reported.

The project is through ITV-owned producer Mammoth Screen and is being developed for the BBC. In 2016, the BBC and Agatha Christie Ltd. inked a deal for seven adaptations. The BBC's Mammoth-produced projects since include three-parter Ordeal by Innocence and The ABC Murders, Variety noted.

A shortlist has been released for the £50,000 (about $64,945) Baillie Gifford Prize, which "rewards excellence in nonfiction writing, bringing the best in intelligent reflection on the world to new readers." A winner will be named November 19. The 2019 shortlisted titles are:

Furious Hours by Casey Cep
On Chapel Sands by Laura Cumming
The Lives of Lucian Freud: Youth by William Feaver
Maoism: A Global History by Julia Lovell
Guest House for Young Widows by Azadeh Moaveni
The Five: The Untold Lives of the Women Killed by Jack the Ripper by Hallie Rubenhold

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The Glad Shout by Alice Robinson has won the A$3,000 (about US$2,055) 2019 Readings Prize for New Australian Fiction. Readings, which has seven shops in Melbourne, Australia, described the book this way: "In the near future, a cataclysmic storm has sent floodwaters through Melbourne. Isobel, Shaun, and their toddler Matilda have sought refuge in a stadium where help is promised; instead, matters quickly deteriorate. Moving between two timelines, The Glad Shout is at once a pacey disaster thriller and a powerful examination of motherhood."

Readings managing director Mark Rubbo added: "This book brought home the realities of the climate crisis to me so vividly that I felt compelled to take action in my own life. The Glad Shout demonstrates the power of fiction to create real change."

jtophoto.com

Jory Mickelson is the author of Wilderness//Kingdom (Floating Bridge Press, October 2019). His poems have appeared in print and online in the U.S., Canada and the U.K., and he's received fellowships from Lambda Literary, the Helene Wurlitzer Foundation and Centrum's Port Townsend Writers' Conference. Originally from Montana, Mickelson now lives in Bellingham, Wash.

On your nightstand now:

My "to read pile" is actually a small bookcase. But from that bookcase, the two books on my nightstand are Four-Legged Girl: Poems by Diane Seuss and Blood on the Marias: The Baker Massacre by Paul R. Wylie.

Favorite book when you were a child:

When I was very young, I was in love with The Monster at the End of this Book by Jon Stone and Michael Smollin. As I grew older, it was My Side of the Mountain by Jean Craighead and then The Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E.L. Konigsburg. The reoccurring themes of my childhood games were being an orphan or being stranded in the wilderness with no adults present.

Your top five authors:

In no particular order: Carl Phillips, David Wojnarowicz, Brian Teare, Edmund White and Gabrielle Calvocoressi. They all continue to move me and to instruct me, no matter how many times I return to their work.

Book you've faked reading:

All seven volumes of Marcel Proust's Remembrance of Things Past. The only volume I successfully completed was Sodom and Gomorrah, and it was for a class.

Book you're an evangelist for:

There are two. The first is May Sarton's Journal of a Solitude. I give this book away to friends, fellow writers, nearly everyone. She is so brilliantly herself in this journal. There is something here for nearly everyone.

The second is In Youth Is Pleasure by Denton Welch. The writing is flawless. The intensity of observation is almost, well, Proust-like. Welch's prose makes a summer where nothing particular happens compelling and sensual at the same time. He has the heart of a poet.

Book you've bought for the cover:

Trail of Lightning by Rebecca Roanhorse. Tommy Arnold's portrayal of the heroine is pitch perfect. The heroine, Maggie Hoskie, is a strong indigenous woman. The cover illustration doesn't sexualize or exoticize her. This breaks nearly all the conventions of picturing female protagonists in urban fantasy.

Book that changed your life:

I never thought much about poetry. But then I read "Degrees of Grey in Philipsburg" in Selected Poems by Richard Hugo and everything changed for me. I experienced that top of my head being taken off Emily Dickinson speaks of. Somehow, perhaps because I had been to Philipsburg where the poem was set, knew someone who lived there--I thought I too could write a poem.

Favorite line from a book:

"One day I will find the right words, and they will be simple" from The Dharma Bums by Jack Kerouac. This is the obsession of most poets and writers I know. We are all reaching for an exactness or an authenticity that we may never achieve on the page.

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

I wish I could discover The Beautiful Room Is Empty by Edmund White over again. He writes with such beauty and sensitivity about nearly everything, and I mean everything. I learned that style can carry any subject matter.

In the whimsical Wild Honey from the Moon, a mother shrew makes an epic journey to save her son from a mysterious illness.

Many claim that they would go to the moon and back for a loved one. But it takes a worried mother actually to make that trip. Upon learning from her tome-like copy of Dr. Ponteluma's Book of Medical Inquiry and Physiological Know-How that the cure for son Hugo's midwinter ailment is one teaspoon of wild honey from the moon, Mother Shrew is undaunted. "My dear darling," she tells her sleepy, cold-headed, hot-footed son. "I have to step out just now."

Both children and adults will appreciate the way Mother Shrew distractedly deals with the first of her obstacles, a great horned owl who, under other circumstances, would be terribly threatening. To this mother on a mission, though, he is but a stepping stone. "My dear mortal enemy," she responds to his villainous query about whether he should eat her now or save her for later. "You must eat me later, for right now I am on a mother's errand to the moon." Indeed, in the way of all the best stories, she even tricks him into flying her to her destination. Once landed on the moon, our intrepid heroine faces stampeding night mares (moon-horses chased by bad dreams), great mountainous distances and extremely negative bees before finally sitting down to tea with the regal, matronly--and chatty--Queen Bee to make her honey request. And then, of course, there's the journey home....

In seven short, delightful chapters, Kenneth Kraegel (King Arthur's Very Great Grandson; Green Pants; The Song of Delphine) takes enraptured readers on an adventure they are likely to want to experience again and again. Kraegel uses a muted palette, his two-page spreads awash with intricate watercolor and ink illustrations, scratchy lines capturing the textures of animals, trees and grass. Tucked snugly into a tree, surrounded by a village of rope-ladder-connected treehouses, the Shrew home is sweetly detailed with scalloped shingles, lofted beds, books, bowls and baskets. By contrast, the moon's landscape is vast and changeable, with unexpected (and fantastical) details like a flower- and butterfly-filled valley and an island fortress of belligerent honeybees (over the entrance is inscribed the word "NO!"). The masses of bees are mildly frightening, almost identical with their alien-looking eyes and beautiful wings that seem to act as capes.

Wild Honey from the Moon is a mother's love story... and an adventure to linger happily over. Put this one on the shelf next to Sam McBratney and Anita Jeram's Guess How Much I Love You and Maurice Sendak's Little Bear. --Emilie Coulter, freelance writer and editor

Shelf Talker: Nothing is going to stop this mama shrew on her "mother's errand to the moon" to save her son in this fanciful early-chapter book that may well become a family favorite.