In a striking move the company called an indication of its "support for and belief in the long-term future of physical-retail bookstores," Penguin Random House is taking over the Baker & Taylor warehouse in Reno, Nev., effective January 1, greatly expanding the largest U.S. publisher's distribution system, which includes longstanding operations in Westminster, Md., and Crawfordsville, Ind.

The 244,000-sq.-ft. Reno warehouse currently leased by B&T will improve service from PRH and the many publishers distributed by Penguin Random House Publisher Services to a variety of retailers in the west. For those PRH customers, the change solves problems caused by B&T's decision earlier this year no longer to sell on a wholesale basis to retailers.

"We have discussed having a western fulfillment center for years, and now is the perfect time to make that happen," said PRH U.S. CEO Madeline McIntosh. "Creating a western hub in the Penguin Random House supply chain expands our distribution reach from coast to coast, and gives us additional capacity to get more books to more readers even more quickly than we do now." She called the addition of the warehouse "a major investment in the future of print books and retail."

Annette Danek

Under the warehouse agreement, B&T will continue to ship Penguin Random House and PRHPS reorders to current customers during the transition, which will be led by Annette Danek, who has been promoted to executive v-p, supply chain from senior v-p, supply chain. Danek is one of the architects of the company's state-of-the-art distribution and fulfillment network, overseeing the growth and expansion of the Maryland and Indiana facilities.

Danek commented: "We anticipate a seamless changeover. It is well-established that rapid replenishment is a key element of our customers' profitability, and we are thrilled to be able to provide this important support through the crucial fall season and beyond without interruption. At the outset, we'll be focusing on the western states currently serviced out of Reno. Over time, we hope to build capacity for greater flexibility and a wider range of services."

Amandeep Kochar, executive v-p at B&T, added: "Penguin Random House is a key publishing partner for Baker & Taylor and an admired leader in our industry. We have worked closely with them to facilitate this transaction, and believe it will be very beneficial for booksellers and will generate job opportunities. We wish everyone associated with the Reno facility much future success."

Nihar Malaviya

In related news, Nihar Malaviya has been promoted to president, COO, of Penguin Random House U.S. from executive v-p, COO. At the same time, Annette Danek and Jeff Abraham, president, Penguin Random House Publisher Services, have been appointed to the Penguin Random House U.S. Board of Directors.

PRHPS clients include, among others, America's Test Kitchen, Beacon Press, Candlewick Press, Charlesbridge, Dark Horse Comics, DC, Hay House, Highlights, Kensington, Kodansha Comics, Library of America, Melville House, MIT Press, National Geographic, New York Review Books, North Atlantic Books, Other Press, Quirk Books, Rizzoli, Sasquatch Books, Seven Stories, Shambhala, Soho, Steerforth Press, Verso and Wizards of the Coast.

Main Street Arts in Clifton Springs, N.Y., has launched literary programming, which will be facilitated by its new literary arts coordinator, Rachel Crawford. The Finger Lakes Times reported the new initiative "includes bringing the nearby bookstore (previously Explore! the Bookstore) under its umbrella, where Main Street Arts will host events and organize community engagement." Located at 18 East Main St., the bookstore has been renamed Sulfur Books, "a nod to the sulfur springs which put the town on the map."

"I want to bring literature from independent publishers (especially our Western New York neighbors) to the forefront of our growing literary community," said Crawford. "Moreover, I want to facilitate an inclusive space where readers can meet authors and poets and discuss what makes a work of fiction or poetry engaging."

The store is currently undergoing renovations and rebranding. On Facebook recently, Sulfur Books posted: "Renovations commence! We boxed and moved hundreds of books, tore down a wall of shelves, sanded and painted, and put up new walls--in just a couple of days! Keep following for more of our dream team's progress."

Artifact Books, the new, used and rare bookstore in Encinitas, Calif., formerly known as Book Tales, held a grand reopening celebration on Saturday with sales and giveaways, refreshments and appetizers from Eve restaurant, and a reading by author Richard Lange, the Coast News reported.

Owner Greg Mollin told the newspaper: "I'm a lifetime bibliophile and also a fiction writer and owning a bookstore has been a dream of mine for as long as I can remember. I actually had a little trouble learning to read in the beginning. Once I did learn, I remember feeling like the whole world had opened up for me. I read everything I could get my hands on and have never stopped."

Mollin said he's been a private book collector and seller while working as a graphic designer in the sign business. About five years ago, he started researching opening a bookstore or taking over an existing one, and was attracted to Book Tales because of its "location and the lineage."

"You rarely find one with such incredible exposure and history," he explained. "There are some great stores, but the lack of exposure and foot traffic made them a lot less appealing. The fact that this location has existed as nothing other than a bookstore for something like 50 years is really incredible." The third owner of the bookstore, he bought it from Patricia McFarland, owner for the past 18 years.

Mollin aims to try to bring in more interesting titles and collectible books. "While I'll always carry an abundance of popular paperback fiction and bestselling titles, I'm also seeking out a lot of classics and rare stuff for a more eclectic selection," he said. "I get a kick out of curating the collection and handselling books to folks that might be off of their reading radar." He also plans to host a regular schedule of events such as author signings, local writers groups and readings.

Adam Bellow

Adam Bellow will launch a number of new imprints with Post Hill Press on a joint venture basis. In addition to political books through Post Hill's conservative imprint, Bombardier, he will also establish a line of books for Jewish readers and another focusing on global issues of sustainable development, investment, human rights and visionary leadership.

"After 30 years in corporate publishing I am eager to branch out in new directions while continuing to publish timely and challenging books from the right," Bellow said. "As an editor, I hope to play a role in rediscovering what it means to be conservative at a time when ideological priorities are changing and political identities are in flux. I also want to reinvigorate debate about ideas among American Jews and bring fresh perspectives on global affairs to an American political culture whose horizon is all too parochial."

Bellow started his career in 1988 at the Free Press/Macmillan, becoming editorial director in 1994. He has also been executive editor-at-large at Doubleday/Random House, editorial director at Broadside/HarperCollins and editorial director at All Points Books/St. Martins. Among the titles Bellow has published are Dinesh D'Souza's Illiberal Education, The Real Anita Hill by David Brock, The Bell Curve by Charles Murray and Richard D. Herrnstein, Jonah Goldberg's Liberal Fascism, Sarah Palin's Going Rogue and Peter Schweizer's Clinton Cash.

He is the author of In Praise of Nepotism: A History of Family Enterprise from King David to George W. Bush, the editor of New Threats to Freedom and co-editor of The State of the American Mind.

"Adam has had a long and distinguished publishing career with dozens of bestsellers to his credit," said Post Hill founder and publisher Anthony Ziccardi. "He has an enormous network and a well-earned reputation for keen commercial judgment and high intellectual standards. This strategic partnership inaugurates a new phase in the growth of Post Hill Press as we expand our existing operations and reach into new markets."

Half Price Books recently dropped off more than 2,500 books at Loos Field House to be distributed to students at Dallas, Tex., schools that are closed indefinitely because of the devastating tornado two weeks ago. The books are intended for the students to take home for their home libraries, as well as for teachers in need of books to rebuild their classroom libraries.

Through November, to benefit the tornado relief efforts in the Dallas Independent School District, all area Half Price Books locations will take cash donations at the registers for the Dallas Education Foundation, and Half Price Books will match those donations.

The company noted that if teachers or community organizations are in need of books due to the tornado, they can reach out to their local Half Price Books store, or to fill out a donation request form here.

The Golden Notebook Bookstore in Woodstock, N.Y., hosted local favorite and rock journalist Holly George-Warren to launch her biography of Janis Joplin, Janis: Her Life and Music (Simon & Schuster). It was an SRO event that featured a reading and music, with the author's husband, Robert Burke-Warren, on guitar accompanying singer Calder Peace Mansfield. George-Warren also displayed various memorabilia Joplin fans have given her in the four years she researched and wrote the book.

Bookshop Santa Cruz in Santa Cruz, Calif., has launched a "Swap Candy for Books" campaign running from November 1 to November 6. During that time, children can exchange their Halloween candy in order to receive 20% off all children's and YA titles in a single purchase. And for every pound of candy that a child trades in, they will be entered into a raffle for a variety of prizes. All candy collected during the campaign will be donated to the troops.

"On the first day alone, we had over 25 families participate and both the parents and the kids are really happy about the swap," reported store owner Casey Coonerty Protti. "The parents bought stacks of books. It really is a sweet deal!"

Book People in Richmond, Va., shared a photo on Facebook of its seasonal chalkboard message: "Leaf though a good book and Fall in love."

Rick Pascocello has joined Simon & Schuster as v-p, director of advertising and creative services. He has been a literary agent at Glass Literary Management since 2016 and earlier was v-p, executive marketing director at Penguin. During nearly two decades at Penguin, he was instrumental in launching several new imprints, including Riverhead, Caliber and Penguin Press, and led corporate marketing initiatives such as the Best of Penguin retail shops and Read Pink, a national campaign in support of the Breast Cancer Research Foundation.

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Sarah Thegeby is joining Dutton as senior publicist. Most recently she was at Thames & Hudson.

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Maya Fakundiny is joining Workman Publishing as digital marketing and advertising coordinator. For the past two years, she has been operations manager at the Book Industry Study Group.

Lair: Radical Homes and Hideouts of Movie Villains by Chad Oppenheim and Andrea Gollin (Tra Publishing).

Today:
Fresh Air: David Owen, author of Volume Control: Hearing in a Deafening World (Riverhead Books, $28, 9780525534228).

Tomorrow:
Today Show: Karamo Brown, co-author of I Am Perfectly Designed (Holt, $18.99, 9781250232212).

The Real: Adam Rippon, author of Beautiful on the Outside: A Memoir (Grand Central, $28, 9781538732403).

Late Night with Seth Meyers: Jenny Slate, author of Little Weirds (Little, Brown, $27, 9780316485340).

The inspiration for The Irishman, Martin Scorsese's nearly four-hour crime epic that is now in limited theatrical release before hitting Netflix later this month, "actually began in Idaho with an annual writers' conference, an independently-owned bookstore, and a novice movie producer by the name of Gerald Chamales," Forbes magazine reported.

Chamales's wife, Kathleen, first discovered Charles Brandt's nonfiction book, I Heard You Paint Houses, during the Sun Valley Writers' Conference more than a decade ago. She purchased a copy at Chapter One Bookstore in Ketchum and gave it to her husband.

"After reading the book, I was so impressed with the book and its historical significance because it literally solved the Jimmy Hoffa mystery... which was one of the great mysteries of the last century. I read the book literally over a weekend," Gerald Chamales said.

Not long after reading I Heard You Paint Houses, Chamales met the author at Chapter One, "thanks to a personal introduction from the shop's owner," Cheryl Thomas, Forbes wrote. "Gerald and Charles became fast friends and not long after that, Chamales--utterly shocked that no one had scooped up the film rights to the book yet--had hired an attorney and optioned the publication for a three-year period. He even asked Brandt to pen an early draft of the screenplay." The rest, with some stops and starts, is film history.

"We are all so very excited about the success of our dear friend, Charles Brandt," Chapter One posted on Facebook last month.

"The story also proves the unique value of independent bookstores, which have a firm knowledge of their clientele--and neighbors," the Wrap noted. "Cheryl Thomas, who has been at Chapter One for 43 years, is proud of her supporting role in the making of The Irishman. 'I've been waiting so many years for this movie to happen,' she said. 'Calling Charlie, and introducing him to Jerry, turned into a great night and a happy ending.' "

Jean-Paul Dubois won the 2019 Prix Goncourt, the most prestigious French book award, for Tous les hommes n'habitent pas le monde de la même façon (roughly translated as All Men Do Not Inhabit This World in the Same Way), a "moving and colorful epic about a prisoner looking back on his life," AFP reported. While Dubois gets only €10 (about $11) for winning the Goncourt, "the prize almost guarantees a boost in sales of 450,000 copies or more, placing it instantly among the year's top bestsellers."

Bernard Pivot, chairman of the Goncourt jury, described Dubois as a French "John Irving or William Boyd," writing highly entertaining books that are both popular and critical successes.

Sylvain Tesson won the Renaudot, "often seen as the consolation prize," for The Snow Leopard, "an account of his search in Tibet for one of the most endangered animals on the planet," AFP noted.

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The Chartered Institute of Library & Information Professionals has announced nominations for the 2020 Carnegie Medal, for "a book written in English for children and young people that creates an outstanding reading experience through writing"; and the Kate Greenaway Medal, for "a book that creates an outstanding reading experience through illustration." The longlist will be announced February 20, the shortlist March 19 and the winners June 17.

Alongside nominations from CILIP members, the list of 162 books includes nominations from BookTrust, CLPE, CommonWord, English & Media Centre, IBBY, Inclusive Minds, National Literacy Trust and RNIB. These organizations were invited to nominate as an outcome of CILIP's independent diversity review of the Awards (2017-18). CILIP invited nominations that met the criteria for the medals and reflected the spirit of the Awards mission: to inspire and empower the next generation to create a better world through books and reading.

For someone who produced 13 works of nonfiction along with multiple volumes of fiction and poetry, Brian Doyle (Mink River), who died of brain cancer in May 2017 at age 60, never achieved a popular reception commensurate with his impressive productivity. But now, thanks to One Long River of Song: Notes on Wonder for the Spiritual and Nonspiritual Alike, a generous sampling of the longtime Portland magazine editor's dazzling essays, there's a renewed opportunity for more readers to discover the insight and humanity of his work.

Compiled by Doyle's longtime friend David James Duncan (The Brothers K) and two co-editors, One Long River of Song's more than 80 pieces resist easy categorization. Among Doyle's preoccupations were basketball, hawks, the Gaelic language, his father, otters and the beauty of the Pacific Northwest region where he made his home, but there are few important aspects of life that aren't at least touched on here.

Doyle specialized in the brief personal essay, exemplified in the 173 "Epiphanies" he wrote for the American Scholar's website, where he established himself as the site's longest tenured blogger. His literary versatility extended to a hybrid form of prose and poetry he called "proems," a sampling of which are included in the volume. One of them--"Clairtonica Street," describing how his father burst into tears when his sons took him back to his childhood home in Pittsburgh after 70 years--demonstrates the distinctive power of the form.

Doyle, who gleefully coined words like "heartchitecture" and "agogishment," was also something of a literary high wire artist. "Pants: A Note," a tribute to some of his favorite items of clothing, including a pair of coveralls that "dissolved in a washing machine, leaving a sort of bedraggled sad grainy dust I had to shovel out with a trowel," features a 379-word opening sentence. In the lighthearted piece "Brian Doyle Interviews Brian Doyle," he conducts an imaginary q&a on his literary likes and dislikes. Doyle's writing also bursts with vivid descriptions, like the vision of his three children "dozing in the back seat of the car as we slide through the velvet night, their faces flashing cinematically in my mirror as streetlights snick by metronomically."

As David James Duncan explains in an opening appreciation of Doyle's work, his friend, a "born cultural Catholic who cheerfully observed the rites of his inherited tradition," frequently turned to the subject of spirituality. Doyle's brand of theology will appeal to fans of the work of writers like Anne Lamott, as in the brief piece "Last Prayer" that concludes the book. In it, he thanks "Coherent Mercy," recognizing his complaints "were infinitesimal against the slather of gifts You gave mere me, a muddle of a man, so often selfish and small." Spirituality aside, readers fortunate enough to discover the many pleasures of Brian Doyle's work here will be grateful, too, for that encounter. --Harvey Freedenberg, freelance reviewer

Shelf Talker: This collection of the late Brian Doyle's reflections on life's pleasures and pains is a valuable introduction to his body of work.

The bestselling self-published books last week as compiled by IndieReader.com:

1. Shelter for Penelope by Susan Stoker
2. Swamp Santa (Miss Fortune Mystery Book 16) by Jana DeLeon
3. Famous by Marie Force
4. Taming My Whiskey by Melissa Foster
5. Devastated by R.L. Mathewson
6. Lasting Shadows (Shadows Landing Book 3) by Kathleen Brooks
7. The Duke I Tempted by Scarlett Peckham
8. Christmas at Mistletoe Lodge by Various
9. Moonlighter by Sarina Bowen
10. Rich Dad, Poor Dad by Robert T. Kiyosaki and Sharon L. Lechter

[Many thanks to IndieReader.com!]