Charlie Pugsley

Bookspace, a community-focused bookstore that has operated as a pop-up shop since 2015, has found a permanent home in Columbus, Ohio, Columbus Underground reported.

Owner Charlie Pugsley will operate the bookstore out of a dance, yoga and movement studio called Flux + Flow in the city's Clintonville neighborhood, selling a curated selection of zines and books pertaining to categories like social justice, science fiction and punk rock. Pugsley has launched a GoFundMe campaign to bring in more shelves and inventory, and he will continue selling books online and occasionally hosting pop-ups around Columbus at events like Columbus Pride.

"I love putting powerful books in the hands and minds of folks in Columbus and beyond," Pugsley told CU. His goal is to "get books out into the world that challenge, disrupt, awaken and transform. I believe that your independent bookseller makes a difference in the ideas and actions that are possible."

Russell Lepley-Pelacchi, co-owner of Flux + Flow, said the bookstore is a great fit for the movement studio. He noted that he's been buying books from Pugsley "for years," and after Pugsley told him that it was frustrating trying to grow the bookstore without having a physical space, Lepley-Pelacchi said, "Well... we have a lobby!"

He added that he is thrilled to be helping Pugsley grow his business and looks forward to having a shelf focused on books about queer dance. Flux + Flow co-owner Fili Lepley-Pelacchi, meanwhile, hopes to host a book club in the studio and bookstore.

Among the 25 recipients of this year's MacArthur Foundation's $800,000 "genius" awards, announced yesterday, are writers, most notably Robin Wall Kimmerer and Kiese Laymon, and many from different fields who have published books. Among the winners:

Jennifer Carlson, a sociologist whose books include Citizen-Protectors: The Everyday Politics of Guns in an Age of Decline (Oxford University Press, 2015), Policing the Second Amendment: Guns, Law Enforcement, and the Politics of Race (Princeton University Press, 2020) and the forthcoming Merchants of the Right: Gun Sellers and the Crisis of American Democracy (Princeton University Press).

P. Gabrielle Foreman, "literary historian and digital humanist." She is the author of Activist Sentiments: Reading Black Women in the Nineteenth Century (University of Illinois Press, 2009) and the upcoming Praise Songs for Dave the Potter: Art and Poetry for David Drake (University of Georgia Press) as well as co-editor of The Colored Conventions Movement: Black Organizing in the Nineteenth Century (University of North Carolina Press, 2021).

Martha Gonzalez, "musician, scholar, and artist/activist." She is the author of Chican@ Artivistas: Music, Community, and Transborder Tactics in East Los Angeles (University of Texas Press, 2020).

Monica Kim, a historian who is the author of The Interrogation Rooms of the Korean War: The Untold Histories (Princeton University Press, 2019).

Robin Wall Kimmerer, "plant ecologist, educator, and writer." She is the author of Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants (Milkweed, 2013) and Gathering Moss: A Natural and Cultural History of Mosses (Oregon State University Press, 2003).

Joseph Drew Lanham, "ornithologist, naturalist, and writer." His books include The Home Place: Memoirs of a Colored Man's Love Affair with Nature (Milkweed, 2016) and Sparrow Envy: Field Guide to Birds and Lesser Beasts (Hub City Press, 2021).

Kiese Laymon, whose works include the novel Long Division (Simon & Schuster, 2013), the essay collection How to Slowly Kill Yourself and Others in America (Simon & Schuster, 2013) and the memoir Heavy (Simon & Schuster, 2018).

Reuben Jonathan Miller, "sociologist, criminologist, and social worker," who is the author of Halfway Home: Race, Punishment, and the Afterlife of Mass Incarceration (Little, Brown, 2021).

Loretta J. Ross, "reproductive justice and human rights advocate." Ross is the co-author of Undivided Rights: Women of Color Organizing for Reproductive Justice (Haymarket Books, 2004), co-editor of Radical Reproductive Justice: Foundations, Theory, Practice, and Critique (The Feminist Press at CUNY, 2017), and co-author of the textbook Reproductive Justice: An Introduction (University of California Press, 2017).

Steven Ruggles, "historical demographer" and author of Prolonged Connections: The Rise of the Extended Family in Nineteenth-Century England and America (University of Wisconsin Press, 1987).

The 10th annual Heartland Fall Forum, hosted by the Midwest Independent Booksellers Association and the Great Lakes Independent Booksellers Association, kicked off yesterday in St. Louis, Mo.

First up: booksellers chose between three "shelfseeing" bus tours, each visiting indies in the bookstore-rich St. Louis area: The Noir Bookshop, Little Readers and Left Bank Books; Main Street Books, EyeSeeMe and Subterranean Books; and The Webster Groves Bookshop, Betty's Books and The Book House.

The show began last evening with a celebration of the winners of the Heartland Booksellers Awards, the Voice of the Heartland Award and MIBA's Midwest Bookseller of the Year. The event was hosted by authors Isaac Fitzgerald and Saeed Jones. (View this year's book awards winners). 

The busy day closed with Heartland's 10th anniversary party at The Novel Neighbor in the Webster Groves neighborhood of St. Louis.

Today's focus is on rep picks, the trade show and educational panels. Panels will address a range of topics, including understanding profit and loss statements, TikTok for booksellers, romance and manga & comics in indies, making sure stores are accessible, alternative bookstore ownership models, and bringing anti-racism to bookstores.

Heartland Booksellers Award Celebration: Jacqueline Woodson (Picture Book winner with Rafael López, The Year We Learned to Fly, Nancy Paulsen Books); Voice of the Heartland winner Kris Kleindienst, owner of Left Bank Books, St. Louis; Kate DiCamillo (YA/Middle Grade winner with Sophie Blackall, The Beatryce Prophecy, Candlewick); Bookseller of the Year Alex George, owner of Skylark Bookshop in Columbia, Mo.; co-host Saeed Jones; MIBA executive director Carrie Obry; co-host Isaac Fitzgerald; and GLIBA executive director Larry Law.

Heartland's 10th anniversary party last night at the Novel Neighbor.

The Novel Neighbor booksellers Stephanie and Kassie vie for the staff pick section win with ABA's Kim Hooyboer (c.).

Meredith Tax

Meredith Tax, "a second-wave feminist and author whose scholarship on labor movements informed her own class-conscious activism," died September 25, the New York Times reported. She was 80. Tax "was in London studying English literature on a fellowship when the Vietnam War escalated, and she and her roommate, Ann Barr Snitow, who would go on to help found the organization New York Radical Feminists, threw themselves into the antiwar movement." She met American labor organizer Jonathan Schwartz, who would become her husband, and they eventually moved to Boston, where Tax and others started Bread and Roses, a socialist-feminist collective. 

She began researching the labor and suffrage movements of the late 19th century, which led to her first book, The Rising of the Women: Feminist Solidarity and Class Conflict, 1880-1917 (1980, reissued this year). It would take 10 years for the book to find a publisher, during which Tax joined the October League (from which she was expelled for criticizing its treatment of women), worked on an assembly line in a Zenith factory in Chicago, then as a nurse's aide. She contributed an essay to the feminist journal Notes From the Second Year: Women's Liberation. In 1977, Tax, Alix Kates Shulman and others formed a political action group called the Committee for Abortion Rights and Against Sterilization Abuse.

"She never stopped being a leftist feminist," Shulman told the Times. "She never abandoned her commitment to the working class and to the poor."

Author Susan Faludi said: "Meredith had a very sharp class analysis, which is something often lacking in feminism today. We talk a lot about sex and gender identity and just about every dynamic except class. Meredith could speak about the importance of class in feminism, partly because she had worked in a factory. She knew about organizing working-class and poor women, which is very different from an academic embodiment of feminist theory. She was an intellectual, but she regarded herself in proletariat terms and walked the walk."

Tax's other books include the historical sagas Rivington Street (1982) and Union Square (1988), as well as a children's book, Families (illustrated by Marylin Hafner), "that in 1994--13 years after it was published--was banned in Fairfax, Va., for its depiction of divorce and of single, gay and lesbian parenting," the Times noted. 

With Grace Paley, she was a founder of the International PEN Women's Writers Committee, and went on to run other international organizations devoted to free speech and women's rights, including two groups that supported an all-female Kurdish militia in northern Syria. The Road Unforeseen: Women Fight the Islamic State (2016), her fifth book, is an account of that militia's actions.

"She was a great organizer," said Vivian Gornick. "When the activism began to peter out in this country, women like Meredith, for whom activism was mother's milk, turned elsewhere, to Eastern Europe and the Middle East. She was utterly devoted and steadfast. She was difficult, demanding, often wildly insensitive, but she got things done."

Anderson's Bookshop in Naperville, Ill., hosted its first annual Anderson's Goes Graphic, a celebration of graphic novels that included panel discussions, drawing demonstrations, games, signings and more. Publicity and events coordinator Danielle Dresser said, "It was a wonderful day that brought readers of all ages out to our Naperville bookshop."

Pictured: (front, seated) bookseller Carolyn Roys; honorary bookseller Skylar Wehrli-Hemmeter; creators Matthew Swanson, Robbie Behr, Jon Klassen; director of education Lorie Barber; (back row) director of events Ginny Wehrli-Hemmeter; creators Raul III, Ryan T. Higgins, Gale Galligan, Jamar Nicholas, Mac Barnett, Stephen Shaskin; marketing manager Kerry Clemm, bookseller Genesis Thomas.

According to reliable sources, Halloween-themed sidewalk chalkboards are already haunting the streets in front of indie bookstores nationwide, in anticipation of spooky bookish doings later this month. Here are a few recent sightings: 

Naughty Dog Books, Nashville, Ind.: "It’s spooky season! Stop in for a new book (or two!) to ward off monsters and keep all the thrills and chills confined to the page."

Books & Books, Coconut Grove, Fla.: "It’s spooky season in Coconut Grove."

Curious Iguana, Frederick, Md.: "Read scary books with us. Another set of fabulous signs by bookseller @poor_robin."

Main Street Books, Lafayette, Ind.: "Spooky Scary Books inside! Come see us until 6 today."

Posman Books, Boston, Mass.: "It’s spooky season.. are your bookshelves ready?!"

At Zibby Books:

Sydney Tillman will join Zibby Books as publicity director on October 21. She was most recently publicity manager at Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, and has also worked at Scholastic and Penguin Random House.

Sherri Puzey has been promoted to senior marketing manager and contributing editor, Zibby Mag. She was most recently marketing manager.

Diana Tramontano has been promoted to associate publicist, Zibby Books, and consulting editor, Zibby Mag. She was most recently publicity assistant.

Graça Tito has joined Zibby Books as publishing assistant. Tito recently completed the Columbia Publishing Course.

Faith Tomlin has joined Zibby Books as marketing assistant, community and partnerships. She is an assistant on the podcast "Amarica's Constitution."

Dazzlin' Dolly: The Songwriting, Hit-Singing, Guitar-Picking Dolly Parton by Suzanne Slade, illustrated by Edwin Fotheringham (Calkins Creek).

Today:
Fresh Air: Ed Yong, author of An Immense World: How Animal Senses Reveal the Hidden Realms Around Us (Random House, $30, 9780593133231).

Tomorrow:
Today Show: Iliza Shlesinger, author of All Things Aside: Absolutely Correct Opinions (Abrams Image, $27, 9781419759406).

Tamron Hall: Justin Sutherland, author of Northern Soul: Southern-Inspired Home Cooking from a Northern Kitchen (Harvard Common Press, $30, 9780760375327).

Book TV airs on C-Span 2 this weekend from 8 a.m. Saturday to 8 a.m. Monday and focuses on political and historical books as well as the book industry. The following are highlights for this coming weekend. For more information, go to Book TV's website.

Saturday, October 15
9:25 a.m. Flora Fraser, author of The Washingtons: George and Martha: Partners in Friendship and Love (Anchor, $17.95, 9780307474438). (Re-airs Saturday at 9:25 p.m.)

3:10 p.m. Nancy E. Davis, author of The Chinese Lady: Afong Moy in Early America (Oxford University Press, $24.95, 9780197581988). (Re-airs Sunday at 3:10 a.m.)

4:05 p.m. Allen Packwood, author of How Churchill Waged War: The Most Challenging Decisions of the Second World War (Frontline Books, $22.95, 9781526771094). (Re-airs Sunday at 4:05 a.m.)

Sunday, October 16
8 a.m. Phil Gramm, author of The Myth of American Inequality: How Government Biases Policy Debate (Rowman & Littlefield, $29.95, 9781538167380). (Re-airs Sunday at 8 p.m.)

9:10 a.m. Victor Ray, author of On Critical Race Theory: Why It Matters & Why You Should Care (Random House, $26, 9780593446447). (Re-airs Sunday at 9:10 p.m.)

10 a.m. Mark Bergen, author of Like, Comment, Subscribe: Inside YouTube's Chaotic Rise to World Domination (Viking, $30, 9780593296349). (Re-airs Sunday at 10 p.m.)

11 a.m. Elliott Morris, author of Strength in Numbers: How Polls Work and Why We Need Them (Norton, $28.95, 9780393866971). (Re-airs Sunday at 11 p.m.)

12 p.m. Michael Cohen, author of Revenge: How Donald Trump Weaponized the U.S. Department of Justice Against His Critics (Melville House, $32.50, 9781685890544). (Re-airs Monday at 12 a.m.)

1 p.m. Coverage of the 34th annual Southern Festival of Books in Nashville, Tenn. (Re-airs Monday at 1 a.m.)

6 p.m. Marc Morano, author of The Great Reset: Global Elites and the Permanent Lockdown (‎Regnery, $34.99, 9781684512386). (Re-airs Monday at 6 a.m.)

The Canada Council for the Arts has announced finalists in 14 English- and French-language categories for this year's Governor General's Literary Awards. Category winners, who will be named November 16, receive C$25,000 (about US$18,850). The publisher of each winning book receives C$3,000 (about US$2,260) to support promotional activities, and finalists each receive C$1,000 (about US$755). A complete list of finalists is available here.

"The Governor General's Literary Awards illustrate the dynamic nature and constant renewal of our literary scene," said Simon Brault, director and CEO, Canada Council for the Arts. "The quantity, quality and diversity of books the Canada Council for the Arts received attest to the creative forces of those who devote their lives to literature. Books have the power to help us grow; they are with us on our journey through the complexities of the world and the demands of life, and they contribute to our individual and collective emancipations."

Selected new titles appearing next Tuesday, October 18:

Liberation Day: Stories by George Saunders (Random House, $28, 9780525509592) is Saunders' first story collection since Tenth of December.

The Last Chairlift by John Irving (Simon & Schuster, $38, 9781501189272) follows the son of a ski instructor who goes looking for the answers to family questions in Aspen.

The Boys from Biloxi by John Grisham (Doubleday, $29.95, 9780385548922) is a legal thriller about the sons of Mississippi families on opposite sides of the law.

The Extraordinary Life of an Ordinary Man: A Memoir by Paul Newman, edited by David Rosenthal (Knopf, $32, 9780593534502) posthumously completes an autobiographical project begun in the 1980s.

Demon Copperhead: A Novel by Barbara Kingsolver (Harper, $32.50, 9780063251922) is a Dickensian tale of childhood poverty in southern Appalachia.

The Christmas Spirit: A Novel by Debbie Macomber (Ballantine, $22, 9780593500101) finds a pastor and bartender switching professions the week before Christmas.

A Heart Full of Headstones by Ian Rankin (Little, Brown, $28, 9780316473637) is the 24th mystery with detective John Rebus.

Treasures of Egypt: A Legacy in Photographs from the Pyramids to Cleopatra, edited by Ann Williams (National Geographic Society, $50, 9781426222634) collects National Geographic photography from the 100 years since the discovery of King Tut's tomb.

Somebody Feed Phil the Book: Untold Stories, Behind-the-Scenes Photos and Favorite Recipes: A Cookbook by Phil Rosenthal and Jenn Garbee (S&S/Simon Element, $32.50, 9781982170998) explores a Netflix culinary travel show.

Greywaren by Maggie Stiefvater (Scholastic Press, $19.99, 9781338188394) is the third and final novel in the YA Dreamer Trilogy.

Unstoppable Us, Vol. 1: How Humans Took Over the World by Yuval Noah Harari, illus. by Ricard Zaplana Ruiz (Bright Matter Books, $24.99, 9780593643464) is an illustrated title for middle-grade readers about "the true story of humankind."

Paperbacks:
A Cosmic Kind of Love by Samantha Young (Berkley, $17, 9780593438619).

Ejaculate Responsibly: A Whole New Way to Think About Abortion by Gabrielle Stanley Blair (Workman Publishing, $14.99, 9781523523184).

Ottolenghi Test Kitchen: Extra Good Things by Noor Murad and Yotam Ottolenghi (Clarkson Potter, $32, 9780593234389).

A Line to Kill by Anthony Horowitz (Harper Perennial, $18, 9780062938152).

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

Hardcover
Sweet, Soft, Plenty Rhythm: A Novel by Laura Warrell (Pantheon, $28, 9780593316443). "Like the jazz in her debut novel, Warrell threads together the lyrical, effervescent story of trumpeter Circus Porter and, more importantly, the women who have marked his life. A beautiful, breakable, lovely mess; this novel is its song." --Melinda Powers, Bookshop Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz, Calif.

Tell Me I'm An Artist: A Novel by Chelsea Martin (Soft Skull, $27, 9781593767211). "Chelsea Martin completely nails what it's like to be in a creative space that is quietly but heavily divided by class. Who can focus on creativity when they worry about making rent? The protagonist is written with such care and insight." --Audrey Kohler, BookWoman, Austin, Tex.

Paperback
Bindle Punk Bruja: A Novel by Desideria Mesa (Harper Voyager, $17.99, 9780063056084). "Half-Mexican, white-passing witch Rose dreams of owning her own illegal jazz club in 1920s Kansas City while refining her inherited powers in a sexist, racist society. Bindle Punk Bruja is fun, sexy, and downright dangerous--so is Rose." --Karen Valenzuela, Cellar Door Books, Riverside, Calif.

For Ages 0 to 8
When You Take a Step by Bethanie Deeney Murguia (Beach Lane Books, $18.99, 9781534473676). "Sometimes it's difficult, but we all learn from each of our steps; even if we fall, and often, these steps change our whole world! Lovely!" --Dea Lavoie, Second Star to the Right Children's Books, Denver, Colo.

For Ages 10+
Agent Most Wanted: The Never-Before-Told Story of the Most Dangerous Spy of World War II by Sonia Purnell (Viking Books for Young Readers, $18.99, 9780593350546). "Moxie. That's what Virginia Hall was made of. I am thankful to Sonia Purnell for this story as I love reading about incredibly brave women and their contributions to our world. In this case, she helped save it from the tyranny of Nazi Germany." --Debbie White, The Well-Read Moose, Coeur d'Alene, Idaho

For Teen Readers
The Drowned Woods by Emily Lloyd-Jones (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, $18.99, 9780759556317). "A lush and haunting heist novel inspired by Welsh folklore. Emily's beautiful prose draws you in from the first page. If you like atmospheric fantasy, high stakes adventure, and a touch of romantic tension, you will love The Drowned Woods." --Gabrielle Belisle, An Unlikely Story, Plainville, Mass.

[Many thanks to IndieBound and the ABA!]

They're Going to Love You by Meg Howrey (Blind Sight; The Cranes Dance) is an unforgettable novel of scintillating beauty and heart-buckling pain about ballet, loyalty, forgiveness and the many forms of love.

Carlisle grows up feeling distant from her mother, with whom she lives most of the time in Ohio, and with a deep and yearning love for her father and, even more, for her father's partner, James. When she stays with Robert and James at their Bank Street apartment in Greenwich Village, Carlisle basks in the arts education James shares with her. She's been born into ballet: her mother a former professional dancer, her father briefly the same before managing ballet companies and festivals. James still teaches ballet. Carlisle loves dance and works hard, but tops six feet tall in high school, "the height that--for a woman--is rarely allowed to pass without comment in the outside world, let alone the ballet one." (There may be other shortcomings as well.) By her early 40s, she is one of the first women to make it as a successful-but-struggling choreographer. She's been estranged from Robert and James for 19 years when she gets the call that her father is dying.

The estrangement began with a betrayal that takes most of the novel to reveal. Carlisle's first-person narrative bounces between the present, as she delays and eventually travels back to Bank Street to her father's deathbed, and the past, her coming-of-age years as a visitor to Bank Street during the 1980s AIDS crisis. James is a mentor and a hero. "My father, I love, and James I sort of want to be. Maybe I mean: have?" It is a young person's love, pure, ardent and jealous, wrecked by a mysterious episode that shapes the rest of Carlisle's life--absolutely including her choreography career. Naturally, along with James's news about Robert's pending death comes a big opportunity to compose a modern version of the classical ballet Firebird. Carlisle both knows this is a big chance (maybe the big chance) and resists it. The reader will understand before Carlisle does that Firebird and her relationship with her father are part of the same wound.

Meg Howrey's writing is dazzlingly, mind-bendingly good, and so true it hurts. She considers ballet, music, the artist's drive to create, being a woman in a man's world, desire and betrayal, family and the bottomless, haunting hunger to belong ("Are any of these questions danceable?"; "Emotions have a way of collecting and hardening inside us, like neglected grease. We are all smoking stoves"; "There might be undanceable truths.") Her prose can be as funny and pithy as it is poignant and grand. They're Going to Love You tackles a broad range of themes, but Howrey is superlatively up to the task. As Carlisle grows from longing, awkward youth to lonely, gifted working artist, Howrey conjures "all this gorgeous, unrepeatable wreckage" in spectacular fashion. Readers will laugh and cry and be changed. --Julia Kastner, librarian and blogger at pagesofjulia

Shelf Talker: This gorgeous, heartbreaking novel movingly evokes family ties and betrayal, love and forgiveness against a backdrop of professional ballet.