The Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance kicked off the fall regional season with a well-attended show--67 booksellers from 37 bookstores across the region--at the Sheraton in New Orleans, La., this week.

"Pass a Good Time" began on Wednesday with a bookstore tour, followed by an opening reception at the Historic New Orleans collection museum in the French Quarter. Thursday featured educational sessions, an author luncheon and an author speed-dating cocktail hour. Representatives from eight New Orleans bookstores were there, and lead a lively Ideas Exchange session.

The SIBA annual meeting, usually part of the Fall Show, will take place virtually on October 11.

It was a joyous show, with many booksellers and industry professionals excited to be together in person for the first time since Covid began.

Two buses brought SIBA booksellers to visit Octavia Books, Tubby & Coo's Mid-City Bookshop, Garden District Book Shop and Baldwin & Company Books.

Moderator Jamie Fiocco (far left), Flyleaf Books, led a lunchtime conversation with (l.-r.) Diane Marie Brown (Black Candle Women; Graydon House, Feb. 2023), Grady Hendrix (How to Sell a Haunted House, Berkley, Jan. 2023), Ciera Horton McElroy (Atomic Family; Blair, Feb. 2023); E.M. Tran (Daughters of the New Year; Hanover Square Press, October) and De'Shawn Charles Winslow (Decent People, Bloomsbury, Jan. 2023). 

At Thursday's author lunch: Rayna Nielsen, Blue Cypress Books in New Orleans; Judith Lafitte, Octavia Books, New Orleans; Krystal Dandridge, Book Bar RVA, Richmond, Va.; Elizabeth Alquist, Blue Cypress Books.

NOLA booksellers lead a session called "What's Working: Idea Exchange." After sharing what they've been doing at their stores, audience members contributed even more ideas, from displays and in-store promotions to community participation and building new audiences. (photo: Lucy Perkins-Wagel)

Speed dating: 15 authors rotated from table to table pitching their upcoming books.

Twelve Points Book Company, a bookstore and bar coming to Terre Haute, Ind., later this fall, has debuted as a weekly pop-up store, the Tribune-Star reported.

Owner John Cannaday plans to host a grand opening for the store on Small Business Saturday in November. When the bricks-and-mortar store is open, it will sell predominantly new books in a range of genres, along with beer and wine sourced from local breweries and wineries. His goal is to create a space where patrons can "meet others, share ideas, have a drink and find that perfect book."

Until that opening, Cannaday will be setting up shop every Thursday at the Twelve Points Creators Market in Terre Haute. There he's selling mostly used books from his own personal collection, and each purchase at the pop-up will come with a bookmark that will entitle customers to a discounted drink during the store's grand opening.

Cannaday told the Tribune-Star that opening a bookstore of his own has "been a dream of mine since I was a kid. I’ve loved bookstores and I've been to bookstores all over the world. When I think about this space, I imagine Cheers and Shakespeare and Co. in Paris, just an amalgam of those two.”

Prior to opening Twelve Points Book Company, Cannaday was a travel nurse earlier in the pandemic and worked as an ER and ICE nurse in Denver, Colo., before that. He also worked in France, where he taught English. Not long ago Cannaday returned to Terre Haute to be closer to his family, and found that "Twelve Points is going places and I wanted to be a part of it."

The community, Cannaday noted, seems very excited about the forthcoming bookstore. When he posted about his plans on Facebook, it was viewed by 27,000 people in only 12 hours.

Andrew Beckman

Andrew Beckman, v-p, publisher & editorial director of Timber Press, an imprint of Workman Publishing, will retire, effective December 16. He will be succeeded by Kathryn Juergens, currently the imprint's associate publisher and director of marketing & publicity. When she steps into her new role as v-p & publisher, Juergens will report directly to senior v-p and Workman publisher Dan Reynolds. Timber will begin seeking an editorial director immediately. 

"One thing about Andrew that really inspires me is his expansive view of what Timber is. His willingness to take risks in expanding our publishing program is a spirit I would like to carry forward, as well as the outstanding relationships he always maintained with authors," said Juergens, who will officially step into her new role December 19. She first joined Timber Press as trade sales coordinator in 2005 before moving on to marketing manager (2010-2014), director of marketing and publicity (2015-present), and associate publisher (2017-present).

Kathryn Juergens

"Kathryn's strong understanding of Timber's placement in the marketplace and her background in sales have contributed immeasurably to our business's success," Beckman noted. "She's been a partner in running the business for many years, and she knows it inside and out. We're a niche publisher with a worldwide reach, and she has a real appreciation and understanding of what we do. One of the things that I think has contributed to her success is her close relationships with colleagues at Workman and with outside partners like field reps and booksellers. It's important to her to truly know and hear from a variety of voices, and it shows in her work." 

Reynolds added: "Kathryn has been a true partner in working to expand Timber's focus beyond gardening and horticulture. Particularly during her role as associate publisher, she helped increase sales year over year. She also led the effort to modernize Timber's website and consumer marketing efforts to build on Timber's long tradition of direct-to-consumer sales."

Workman also announced the following promotions at Timber Press, both effective immediately: Katlynn Nicolls is now associate director of publicity and Brian Ridder is associate director of marketing. 

As The Every by Dave Eggers approaches the anniversary of its publication in a hardcover edition by the house he founded, McSweeney's, that has been available exclusively to independent booksellers, McSweeney's is celebrating with a range of new covers.

Next week, McSweeney's will begin rolling out 16 additional jacket designs, for a total of 57 different artist-created Every covers in a range of styles, by artists including Michelle Blade, Tucker Nichols, Karen O., Eric Heiman, Kris Lang, Justin Carder and Elaine Buckholtz. These are designed exclusively for the hardcover edition.

"This book is about the free exchange of information and the dangers our culture faces when that access is curbed," said Amanda Uhle, publisher and executive director of McSweeney's. "So it's been nothing short of incredible to see the huge array of covers show up in indie bookshops all over the country, a real validation of the ethos of Dave's funny, scary, and complex novel of ideas.

"Local bookstores are our favorite places. They do the essential work of bringing bold new books--new writers, new voices, and groundbreaking ideas--to communities," Uhle said.

Last year, six weeks after its launch, Vintage (Eggers's longtime publisher, along with Knopf) released a paperback edition, and Random House Audio published the audiobook, narrated by Dion Graham, on November 16.

But the hardcover edition of The Every remains exclusive to indies. Eggers concedes it was no easy feat to work around the elephant in the room. And it was even harder than the last time he did it, 20 years ago with You Shall Know Our Velocity, distributed directly through about 500 independent bookstores.

The Every is a companion to The Circle (published in 2013), in which the world's largest combination search engine and social media company, the Circle, merges with the most powerful e-commerce site, and combines to form the richest and most dangerous monopoly ever known: the Every. --Jennifer M. Brown

Julie Mancini, who "made a major mark on the Portland cultural scene thanks to her pioneering work with such organizations as Literary Arts, Mercy Corps, and the Writers in the Schools program," died on August 29 at age 73, the Oregonian reported. "

In 1985, Mancini became head of Portland Arts & Lectures, which in 1993 merged with the Oregon Institute for Literary Arts to become Literary Arts. Mancini left Literary Arts in 2000. She helped "transform Portland from a city that authors might consider a backwater into a destination that welcomed and celebrated writers, books, and the arts," and she put the organizations on solid financial footing.

In addition, Mancini helped launch Caldera, an arts and nature-focused program for young people, and was director for the Mercy Corps's Action Center, the international humanitarian organization's Portland headquarters.

Literary Arts executive director Andrew Proctor said in a statement, "Julie was a force of nature. She was smart and wry and funny and caring and pretty much unstoppable. She was radically creative. I feel incredibly fortunate to have known her, and feel the force of her professional accomplishments every day as I continue her work. I regret only that some of you never got the chance to know her."

Mancini's son Peter Bromka said, "She was a force. She poured every ounce of her energy into every day. She just pushed herself all the time. She wasn't an easygoing spirit who did yoga and drank tea. She was blasting rock music, and drinking Diet Coke."

The Strand bookstore's iconic tote bag "is getting a high fashion makeover: Bottega Veneta is reworking the canvas totes into limited edition leather, creating a bag that will last as long as the Strand's legendary 18 miles of books" in Manhattan, Nylon reported. The bags, which range from $1,495 to $3,100, will be available exclusively at the Bottega Veneta Soho store starting September 8 and online beginning September 15.

Accompanying the release are a series of single-panel cartoons specially commissioned with the New Yorker "to celebrate the legacy--and clout--of the Strand and its bags," Nylon noted, adding: "And because you need something to put in the bag, if you can still afford to do so after buying it, Bottega Veneta's creative director Matthieu Blazy has also curated a selection of some of his favorite books--spanning from art and photography to fashion and architecture, available at the Strand until September 30."

Blazy told the New York Times recently that he is obsessed with the Strand, making it not just a his first stop on his trips to New York City, but "almost a motif that recurs throughout my life. " 

Vogue featured his book list, and Blazy said, "From going there on my initial visit to New York as a teenager, it’s always [been] a space of physical exploration with the pleasure of the unexpected and finding something new."

Alex Kanenwisher, book buyer at Costco, has selected The Lost Girls of Willowbrook by Ellen Marie Wiseman (‎Kensington, $16.95, 9781496715883) as the pick for September. In Costco Connection, which goes to many of the warehouse club's members, Kanenwisher writes:

"In The Lost Girls of Willowbrook, Ellen Marie Wiseman uses the story of fictional twins Sage and Rosemary to evoke the story of a New York state mental institution, the Willowbrook State School.

"Once again fiction is the vehicle for an introduction to a time and place in the not-so-distant past that I'd previously been unaware of. And I couldn't be more thankful for Wiseman's powerful storytelling."

Readers' Books, Sonoma, Calif., shared a photo of the shop's latest sidewalk chalkboard message: "Had it with the heat dome? It's cool inside and there are books."

Casemate Group is now the exclusive print book distributor for McNidder & Grace Limited in North America, providing marketing, sales, and distribution services. It was previously distributed by Global Book Sales.

McNidder & Grace, Carmarthen, Wales, publishes approximately 15 titles per year, focusing on thrillers and crime fiction along with nonfiction pop culture titles, including music, photography, and biography. The company was founded in 2011 by Andy Peden Smith.

At Chronicle Books:

Carrie Gao has been promoted to school and library marketing associate.

Griselda Ponce has been hired as sales assistant, special markets.

Melissa Gonzalez has been hired as temp publicity assistant, children's.

Harry Potter: The Blueprints (Insight Editions).

Mariama Diallo (Master, Random Acts of Flyness) will direct the pilot episode of the Hulu original series The Other Black Girl, based on the 2021 novel by Zakiya Dalila Harris. Deadline reported that showrunner Danielle Henderson executive produces alongside Rashida Jones, Temple Hill, Adam Fishbach, and Zakiya Dalila Harris. Onyx Collective is the studio.

Vertical Entertainment has released the official trailer for The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry, based on the 2014 novel by Gabrielle Zevin, Collider reported. Directed by Hans Canosa from a script by Zevin, the film stars Kunal Nayyar, Lucy Hale, Christina Hendricks, Blaire Brown, Lauren Stamile, David Arquette and Scott Foley.

Zevin also serves as a producer on the film alongside Canosa, Claude Dal Farra, Brian Keady, and Kelsey Law. Nayyar, Hale, and Hendricks are executive producers.

Winners were named in three categories for the 2022 James Cropper Wainwright Prize, which recognizes "the books which most successfully inspire readers to explore the outdoors and to nurture a respect for the natural world." A £7,500 (about $8,945) prize fund will be shared by the authors of the three winning books, with each receiving a specially commissioned original artwork by paper artist Helen Musselwhite. This year's winners are:

Nature writing:
Goshawk Summer: The Diary of an Extraordinary Season in the Forest by James Aldred

Highly commended:
Otherlands: A World in the Making by Dr. Thomas Halliday
On Gallows Down: Place, Protest and Belonging by Nicola Chester 

Writing on conservation:
Eating to Extinction: The World's Rarest Foods and Why We Need to Save Them by Dan Saladino

Highly commended:
Wild Fell: Fighting for Nature on a Lake District Hill Farm by Lee Schofield.

Children's writing on nature & conservation:
The Biggest Footprint: Eight Billion Humans. One Clumsy Giant by Rob & Tom Sears 

Highly commended:
October, October by Katya Balen, illustrated by Angela Harding 

For 34 years, tastemaker, retailer, author and daily blogger Ted Kennedy Watson has been hosting stylish gatherings with his husband at their homes in Seattle and on Vashon Island, Wash., and in Ghent, N.Y. He wrote, styled and photographed Ted Kennedy Watson's Guide to Stylish Entertaining (Gibbs Smith, August 23, 2022). He shares his entertaining knowledge and expertise: creative ways to set a table and arrange flowers, how to select menus and recipes, and much more. He includes QR codes that link to instructional videos and Spotify playlists that can be used to accompany gatherings, supplying everything needed to pull off memorable events for both the guests and the host.

Handsell readers your book in 25 words or less:

Entertaining at home can be stressful. Perfection is often the culprit. I show you how to be a stellar host and have fun!

On your nightstand now:

What Just Happened: Notes on a Long Year by Charles Finch. We must never forget 2020-2021. Loving his perspective. My hope is that going through a global pandemic would make society more empathetic. The jury is still out. I am hoping for the best.

Anna: The Biography by Amy Odell. I find Anna Wintour endlessly fascinating. Pretty much always have.

Happy-Go-Lucky by David Sedaris. David is a customer in my shops, Watson Kennedy. I have read everything he has written from the beginning. I laugh until I cry while reading his work. A favorite treat is to hear him speak in Seattle when he is promoting a book.

Favorite book when you were a child:

The Story of Ferdinand by Munro Leaf. I have loved flowers since I was a little, little boy.

Your top five authors:

Ernest Hemingway, Adam Gopnik, Ann Patchett, David Sedaris, Ina Garten.

Book you've faked reading:

Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace. I played tennis against Wallace in Illinois where we both grew up. I just could not make it happen with this much-praised book.

Book you're an evangelist for:

Crossing to Safety by Wallace Stegner. Such an extraordinary book about friendship. It was given to me as a gift in my 20s from a dear friend. She and her husband have ended up being some of our closest friends for the last 30 years.

Book you've bought for the cover:

The Dutch House by Ann Patchett. I adored that cover! Something so mesmerizing about her expression. I loved the birds flying about. We would absolutely hang that painting in our home.

Book you hid from your parents:

My journal.

Book that changed your life:

The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion. It made me think about death differently--or in a different light. Grieving is deeply personal. There is not a certain way to do it. So often I find facing the death of someone you love shows you as much about life as it does death.  

Favorite line from a book:

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

Five books you'll never part with:

The entire Lee Bailey cookbook/entertaining series. He is my entertaining hero!
The Tales of the City series by Armistead Maupin.
Ernest Hemingway's A Moveable Feast.
Joan Didion's The Year of Magical Thinking.
The New Basics Cookbook by Julee Rosso and Sheila Lukins. In the kitchen, I turn to it like no other.

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

Mastering the Art of French Cooking by Julia Child, Louisette Bertholle and Simone Beck.

The fact that tales of hazing and womanizing cycle through The Resemblance, a thriller centered on a University of Georgia fraternity, will probably surprise no readers. But the daringly dark turn that Lauren Nossett's sturdy fiction debut takes toward the book's midpoint will likely come as a shock.

From the first, The Resemblance seems destined to assume the shape of something it ultimately isn't: a straight-ahead procedural. On a Tuesday morning in November, homicide detective Marlitt Kaplan is visiting her mother, a German professor, in her office at UGA when she hears screaming. Marlitt follows the commotion and discovers that a car has fatally hit a student at an intersection on campus. Witnesses say the black BMW didn't slow down before the crash and fled the scene right after impact. But two peculiar details distinguish this accident from a typical hit-and-run: witnesses report that the BMW's driver was smiling and that he looked an awful lot like the victim.

The victim is UGA junior Jay Kemp, a member of Kappa Phi Omicron. Once Marlitt learns that Jay was a frat brother, she starts ticking off possible motives for the murder: "Revenge for hazing fits neatly at the top of my list, followed by stealing someone's girlfriend, and your run-of-the-mill brotherhood rivalry." But as Marlitt proceeds with interviewing members of Jay's fraternity, her initial, obvious theories crumble. If they hadn't, she wouldn't have had to endure the calamity that engulfs her about halfway into the book.

Hometown girl Marlitt is as flush with affection for Athens as she is afroth with disgust with frat life, for a reason that becomes clear as the story unspools. Other aspects of Marlitt's personal life add dimension to the novel, among them her somewhat prickly relationship with her odd-couple parents and her persistent but reluctant crush on her work partner, who has a girlfriend. Nossett, a German-language professor and author of The Virginal Mother in German Culture, over-relies on gestures like eye-rolling and eyebrow-raising for characters' reaction shots, but that's a quibble. The Resemblance is an alluringly somber and satisfying thriller. While the book doesn't present a counterpoint to Marlitt's disdain for fraternities--"If it were up to me, the university would do away with the whole thing. They're cesspools of underage drinking and sexual assault"--it's also true that nothing that happens in The Resemblance would make good marketing copy for Greek life. --Nell Beram, author and freelance writer

Shelf Talker: This alluringly somber and satisfying debut thriller revolves around the on-campus murder of a University of Georgia fraternity brother.

Well, my brother has a sword and I have my mind. And a mind needs books like a sword needs a whetstone. That's why I read so much...."

--Tyrion Lannister, Game of Thrones

I have been reading for a living for three decades, but I've read to live since the 1950s. Like you, I can't imagine a life without books, nor can I imagine anyone telling me what to read... or not read. Because I'm a reader, however, I can easily imagine villains who would restrict access to books and even limit opportunities to learn to read. 

Our summers traditionally begin with media reports about sunny beach books and end during Banned Books Week. This year, however, darkness seemed to come early, with pressure being put on schools, libraries, bookstores and more to remove certain titles from shelves. Recently the Brooklyn Public Library shared a QR code offering anyone access to its online banned books collection and the villains pounced again, as Roebling Point Books & Coffee, Covington, Ky., pointed out. 

Almost one in five children in the U.K. between the ages of five and eight do not have a book of their own at home, an increase of 1.9% since before the pandemic started, according to the latest survey by the National Literacy Trust. The Bookseller reported that the issue is "considerably greater" for young boys, as 21% are bookless, compared to 16% of girls.

So I was just looking for a little bookish hope this week when I encountered a Facebook post from Readings bookstore in Melbourne, Australia, alerting me to the fact that September 7 was Indigenous Literacy Day. The bookseller was "supporting the day by donating 10% of funds from all books sold to the Indigenous Literacy Foundation, a not-for-profit charity that strives to reduce the literacy gap and improve outcomes for young First Nations people in remote communities. Alternatively, if you are in a position to do so, we encourage you to make your own donation here."

Then the Twig Book Shop, San Antonio, Tex., tipped me off to the significance of September 6: "If y’all stop into the Twig this beautiful National Read A Book Day, make sure you post a pic & tag us to let us know that you popped in! Don't keep it to yourself. Share the experience! Read aloud either to children or to grandparents. Read to your pets or to your stuffed animals and plants. Reading improves memory and concentration as well as reduces stress. Older adults who spend time reading show a slower cognitive decline and tend to participate in more mentally stimulating activities over their lifetime. Books are an inexpensive entertainment, educational tool and time machine."

Want to know something else about September 7? Sassafras on Sutton, Black Mountain, N.C., told me it was "National Buy a Book Day, and what better way to celebrate such a momentous occasion than to swing by and get one of our newest Indie Next books? What 2022 book have you read that is your favorite?" And CFO Services Group even put in a plug for a Washington, D.C., indie: "Today is #NationalBuyABookDay! Check out our good friends at @eastcitybooks for all your reading needs."

Literacy Tree tweeted some book love for London's Tales on Moon Lane Children's Bookshop: "So yesterday was National Read a Book day and today #NationalBuyaBookday (think this should have come first!) so we would like to shout out @talesonmoonlane @MoonLnEducation @moonlaneink who are constantly supplying our schools with the books they need to #TeachThroughaText."

To end the week on a positive note, Thursday was UNESCO International Literacy Day. Fabled Bookshop & Café, Waco, Tex., planned to donate 20% of sales to Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library in McLennan County. And in Canada, Books on Beechwood, Ottawa, Ont., posted on Instagram: "In honor of International Literacy Day, we will be donating 10% of our sales today to PEOPLE, WORDS & CHANGE!"

I was already feeling a little better about the state of reading when I came across a Bookseller column--headlined "The business of hope"--yesterday by Sam Taylor, co-founder of Max Minerva's Marvellous Books & More in Bristol, England. "When life gets bleak, we need a release; we need a relief from the mundanity and gloom," he observed. "We need a little joy. If we're priced out of holidays and thriftily reducing our nights out, then where will we fill our hearts and top up our hope? When we can’t overthrow our inept overlords or burn down the whole blinking thing, then where can we release our frustrations and fears? Where will we find our beacons and dispose of our monsters? Where can we do all of that for just £10?...

"During the last recession, in 2009, Obama's Dreams From My Father provided the balm, while Stephenie Meyer's Twilight offered the escape. Books provided an affordable alternative to the harsh reality of life. And just as then, so will be now. In 2023, there will be another balm and there will be another escape; there will be a crime or a horror that reflects the brutality of many lives; there will be a romance or adventure that puts a much needed smile on tired faces; there will be a bonkbuster that gets the country talking and there will be an epic that speaks of the times."

It turned out to be a pretty good week after all. The world still has a sword, but we have our minds, so keep them sharpened. As Tyrion Lannister knew, winter is always coming for readers