"I continue to be a cheerleader of indie bookstores just because I love them. I feel like after the pandemic, I recognized even more how important they are as it's not just where you get your books. It's a place where you go when you connect, and you chat with people and you find new stuff that you wouldn't have found. That's my experience whenever I go to the bookstore, trying to get one book and end up with five because I'm talking to the booksellers and seeing what they put on the table. So that idea of, let's give more context--let’s give more stories. Let's enrich the picture and give you more voices to listen to. I feel like it is so important, and it's part of why I'm really grateful for indie bookselling."

The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida by Shehan Karunatilaka won the £50,000 (about $57,105) 2022 Booker Prize. Karunatilaka is the second Sri Lankan-born author to win, following Michael Ondaatje, who won in 1992 with The English Patient. Organizers said that Karunatilaka's second novel, which will be published in the U.S. by Norton on November 1, "is a searing, mordantly funny satire set amid the murderous mayhem of a Sri Lanka beset by civil war."

Chair of judges Neil MacGregor said: "Any one of the six shortlisted books would have been a worthy winner. What the judges particularly admired and enjoyed in The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida was the ambition of its scope, and the hilarious audacity of its narrative techniques.

"This is a metaphysical thriller, an afterlife noir that dissolves the boundaries not just of different genres, but of life and death, body and spirit, east and west. It is an entirely serious philosophical romp that takes the reader to 'the world's dark heart'--the murderous horrors of civil war Sri Lanka. And once there, the reader also discovers the tenderness and beauty, the love and loyalty, and the pursuit of an ideal that justify every human life."

This year's Booker ceremony was fully in-person for the first time since 2019. Her Majesty the Queen Consort presented the trophy to the winner, in one of her first public engagements since the change in reign. The original 1969 Booker Prize trophy was reinstated in memory of its creator, the beloved children's author and illustrator Jan Pieńkowski, who died last February.

The Golden Notebook in Woodstock, N.Y., is launching a publishing program called Golden Notebook Press, Hudson Valley 1 reported. The imprint's debut title, Abigail Thomas's memoir Still Life at 80: The Next Interesting Thing, is scheduled for publication in January 2023, with Publishers Group West signed on to distribute.

Co-owner James Conrad explained that although Thomas has worked with Houghton Mifflin and Scribner in the past, she didn't want her memoir to be "one of hundreds" of titles at a big house that could get "lost in the shuffle." With Golden Notebook, he continued, "we know our customers, we know what sells and we can launch a book. It can grow from there."

In addition to Still Life at 80, Golden Notebook Press has four more titles in the works: a memoir by Mary Giuliani called How to Lose Friends and Influence No One; a new mystery series from writer Greg Herron; a book about a chapter in Woodstock's music history; and, planned for late 2023, a gift book focused on Woodstock locals.

Conrad and Golden Notebook co-owner Jackie Kellachan have been thinking about starting their own publisher for the past several years. It started with a local bestseller called Small Town Talk, about Woodstock's music scene in the 1950s and '60s. They worried about it going out of print, and have also been concerned about other local favorites such as guidebooks and books about the town's history.

"There is such great writing talent here," Conrad told Hudson Valley 1. "If a customer asks for a book that doesn't exist, we can ask, 'who in this area could write it?', and then we can develop it. And we can go at our own pace."

Black Garnet Books, a Black, woman-owned business that has been selling books online and through pop-up locations in the Twin Cities for the past two years, hosted a soft opening last weekend for its new physical bookstore at 1319 University Ave. W. in Saint Paul, Minn. Founder Dionne Sims had posted on Instagram Friday that "tomorrow is our first time doing this whole 'running a bookstore' thing!! the store itself may only be 60% finished due to delays (the powers that be will do as they please), but our attitudes are 100% you feel me?? 12pm-5pm or whenever we run out of books bc I'm a rookie and probably should've ordered more. be nice to me omg ok love you byeeeeee."

On the big day, Saint Paul City Councilmember Mitra Jalali, whose office last year awarded Sims and Black Garnet Books a $100,000 Neighborhood Sales Tax Revitalization (STAR) grant to renovate and open the physical store, posted on Facebook: "Congratulations Black Garnet Books on a successful soft open launch of the storefront today! I'm so proud to have gotten to play a role in helping bring this locally owned Black business to the Midway next to Ding Tea and Master Noodle. Dionne Sims is the true shero of this story though.... The whole team is working hard to bring a diverse curated collection of books as well as a community gathering space to the neighborhood. Visit this delightful space soon and let's show some love to Minnesota's newest Black-owned bookstore here in Saint Paul." 

Earlier in the day, Jalali had tweeted from the bookstore that the "opening is wall to wall packed."

Marcia Howard shared a video filmed inside the store on Twitter, noting: "It started with a tweet and a dream during the heart of the Uprising. Today, Dionne Sims opened the @blkgarnetbooks brick-and-mortar store! So so so proud!" Sims retweeted, adding that "this means sooooooo much to me. just the absolute world. thank you for being a day one!!"

Reverie Books, a community-focused bookstore offering a selection of diverse and inclusive titles, held a grand opening celebration in Austin, Tex., on Saturday, the Austin Chronicle reported.

Owner Thais Perkins opened the store in South Austin last year. She envisioned the bookstore as a "meaningful place" to "help us heal," not only from the Covid-19 pandemic but also the deeply divided political environment. The store sells bestsellers along with literary fiction, small press titles, poetry and nonfiction about topics such as social justice, race and reproductive rights. There are books for young people as well as adults, and the store hosts a Young Adult Banned Book Club with the help of two interns who are students at nearby Crockett High School.

The store, Perkins continued, helps create a third place and sense of community for the teens who get involved. "I think the kind of kids that are drawn to doing something like a banned book club have a lot in common, and they're all wonderful young people.”

Perkins worked for a nonprofit before starting Reverie Books last year. She told the Chronicle that the opportunity to open a bookstore of her own arose when a friend decided to close his bookstore, which was located in the same storefront.

She decided to take the plunge and put her nonprofit background to use when it came to community outreach and involvement. She acknowledged that she didn't really see opening the store as a "money-making enterprise." Instead "it was for community. It was for giving back. It was for creating these sorts of warm spaces for people."

Looking ahead, Perkins hopes to one day move to a larger space and also create a nonprofit for providing community services.

Amazon has introduced "the next generation of Kindle--the lightest and smallest Kindle." Starting at $99.99, the new Kindle features a 300ppi high-resolution six-inch display, adjustable front light, dark mode, USB-C charging, battery life of up to six weeks and 16gb of storage. The same features are included with Kindle Kids, along with a one-year subscription to Amazon Kids+. Shipping for Kindle and Kindle Kids began October 12. 

Kevin Keith, v-p of Amazon devices and services, said the new Kindle "is the latest example of how we continue to bring premium features to our most affordable devices for even more customers to enjoy. And since we launched Kindle Kids three years ago, kids have logged nearly three billion minutes reading on Kindle devices."

New Voices New Rooms, the programming partnership between the New Atlantic Independent Booksellers Association and the Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance, has revealed the finalists for the 2022 VIndie Awards, a celebration of "the best in bookstore video." Winners will be named November 16 at a ceremony emceed by Michael Triebwasser of Politics & Prose, Washington, D.C. Check out the VIndies finalists here.

This year's panel of judges were drawn from book industry partners in publishing, bookselling, and media. They reviewed 127 bookstore videos--triple the number from the prize's inaugural year--from nearly 70 independent bookstores, selecting 36 finalists in the categories of Animation, Around the Store, Comedy, Community Work, Drama, Staff Picks and Trending Sounds.

NVNR said the "expanded list of categories was created in recognition of the reasons independent bookstores are motivated to post video--to showcase their stores, inform their communities, and of course talk about their favorite books." Organizers attributed the increase to the rise in popularity of short animated and video "reels" on Instagram and TikTok, noting that TikTok is now the most popular social media platform. 

"Short videos are a fun, casual, spontaneous way to get your message out on social media and our bookstores have really embraced that," said NVNR organizer Linda-Marie Barrett, executive director of SIBA. Eileen Dengler, executive director of NAIBA, added: "We are amazed at all the wonderful, creative ways they have found to use video on behalf of their stores."

Posted on Facebook yesterday by Main Street Books, Frostburg Md.: "The week begins!"

Danielle Finnegan has joined Little, Brown as senior marketing manager, working across the Little, Brown and Mulholland lists.

The Best American Series of Books (Mariner Books).

Today:
Fresh Air: Hua Hsu, author of Stay True: A Memoir (Doubleday, $26, 9780385547772).

Tomorrow:
Today Show: Jon Meacham, author of And There Was Light: Abraham Lincoln and the American Struggle (Random House, $40, 9780553393965).

Also on Today: Noor Murad and Yotam Ottolenghi, authors of Ottolenghi Test Kitchen: Extra Good Things (Clarkson Potter, $32, 9780593234389).

Good Morning America: Dale Earnhardt Jr., author of Buster's Trip to Victory Lane (Thomas Nelson, $18.99, 9781400233342). He will also appear on Live with Kelly and Ryan.

The View: Amber Tamblyn, co-author of Listening in the Dark: Women Reclaiming the Power of Intuition (Park Row, $25.99, 9780778333333).

Late Night with Seth Meyers repeat: Hillary Clinton and Chelsea Clinton, authors of The Book of Gutsy Women: Favorite Stories of Courage and Resilience (Simon & Schuster, $35, 9781501178412).

Lena Waithe's company Hillman Grad Productions will produce The Book of Myca, adapted from a speculative fiction story in Joshua Bennett's recently published poetry collection, The Study of Human Life, that explores an alternate reality where Malcolm X rose from the dead in 1965. 

Waithe and Hillman Grad Productions CEO Rishi Rajani will serve as executive producers on the TV adaptation for Warner Bros. TV, while creative executive Sylvia Carrasco will oversee the production, Variety reported.

Aftermath by Preti Taneja has won the Gordon Burn Prize, which honors books that show "an affinity with the spirit and sensibility of Gordon's literary methods: novels which dare to enter history and interrogate the past; writers of non-fiction brave enough to recast characters and historical events to create a new and vivid reality."

The winner receives £5,000 (about $5,590) and a writing retreat of up to three months at Gordon Burn's cottage in Berwickshire in the Scottish Borders.

Organizers called Taneja "a writer whose unflinching work of narrative non-fiction blurs genres and form to understand terror, trauma and grief." Aftermath, they continued, "strives to make sense of the London Bridge terror attack in 2019. Usman Khan was a convicted terrorist who spent eight years in prison and went on to kill two people, Saskia Jones and Jack Merritt, at an event marking the anniversary of a prison programme he had participated in. Preti Taneja had taught Kahn in prison and Jack Merritt was her colleague. Aftermath is a profound attempt to regain trust after violence and rebuild faith in human compassion: a powerful recommitment to activism and radical hope."

She and Her Cat offers a quartet of imaginative, deeply affecting stories of magical realism written by Naruki Nagakawa and based on an original story by Japanese director, producer and manga artist Makoto Shinkai. The book is alternately narrated by multiple generations of isolated Japanese women who face loss and the feral neighborhood cats who come to love them--and vice versa.

In "Sea of Words," a male street cat is rescued by a single gal who works for an art and design college. The woman lives a quiet life and has romantic woes that lead to a falling out with her best friend. She names the cat Chobi, and the two offer each other comfort and solace. As Chobi patrols the neighborhood nightly, he meets a cast of eccentrics including Jon, a dog who is a sagacious philosopher; Mimi, a kitten; and Reina, a woman who lives nearby and feeds feral cats.

Mimi, the kitten now grown, anchors "First Blossoming," where she and Chobi meet up daily to enjoy food provided by Reina. A "gifted" young artist-painter, Reina couldn't get into university, but is offered an exciting internship at a film and manga design company by the narrator of the first story. Reina excels until exploitive corporate culture upsets her life. In the meantime, Mimi "[ties] the knot" with another feral cat and gives birth to kittens.

In "Slumber and Sky," Cookie, one of Mimi's offspring, is adopted by a mother who gives the cat to her young adult daughter, Aoi, whose severe depression keeps her housebound. A huge artistic rift between Aoi and her "soul sister" precipitated Aoi's paralysis of sadness, guilt and regret. When Cookie, normally a housecat, goes in search of her mother--Mimi, who is sick--Aoi is forced to confront her own limitations.

In the fourth story, "The Temperature of the World," a long-suffering and self-sacrificing divorcée takes in her rebellious, disillusioned nephew. His presence forces her to stand up to her domineering brother--with the help of a smart, feral, neighborhood boss cat who knows all. 

Read on their own or taken as a whole, these heartfelt, insightful stories offer a thematic continuum about the quiet burdens people bear in the modern, often isolated world and how human-animal interactions enrich and embolden lives. --Kathleen Gerard, blogger at Reading Between the Lines

Shelf Talker: In these insightful, interconnected stories, challenged Japanese women are empowered by feral cats who live in their neighborhood.

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

1. Things We Never Got Over by Lucy Score
2. Never Trust the Living (Battle Crows MC Book 7) by Lani Lynn Vale
3. Final Proposal by K. Bromberg
4. My Brother's Forbidden Friend (The Greene Family Book 9) by Piper Rayne
5. Realm of Darkness by Various
6. Holiday Heart-On by Various
7. Rich Dad, Poor Dad by Robert T. Kiyosaki with Sharon L. Lechter
8. 7 Figure Flipping Underground by Bill Allen
9. A Little Too Late by Sarina Bowen
10. The Perfect Marriage by Jeneva Rose

[Many thanks to IndieReader.com!]