Karla Nelson, founder of Time Enough Books in Ilwaco, Wash., is retiring and selling the bookstore to her niece Kelli Hughes-Ham, the Chinook Observer reported.

The bookstore will remain in the family, with Hughes-Ham as owner and her husband, Bill Ham, who has worked part-time at Time Enough Books for around seven years, managing operations. Nelson plans to travel and spend more time with her husband, Peter, but will stay involved with the store, occasionally covering for Hughes-Ham when needed.

Hughes-Ham told the Observer that "this has been in the works for a few years," and she's "glad we are keeping it in the family. So many milestones were here. The children grew up here--this is like an extension of our home and it will continue."

Nelson opened the bookstore in 2000, in a space on Ilwaco's waterfront. The shop sells new and used books along with half-priced paperbacks. There are titles for all ages and across all genres, along with a selection of sidelines like jewelry, puzzles, games and cards."

Throughout her career as a bookseller, Nelson was active in the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association and for two years served as its president. She was also on the board of the Columbia Pacific Heritage Museum.

Hughes-Ham has a background in education and ran for state representative last fall, and her husband, Bill Ham, has a background in the theater community. They plan to put their mark on the bookstore without trying to fix something that isn't broken and that has "survived and thrived for 23 years."

"We are an independent bookstore and I believe people are still very much interested in reading and literature," he told the Observer. "There is a lot being said about how the Internet, and before that TV, have squashed general literacy, but I don’t think that's true. We get people from all walks of life.”

Book Cottage, Jackson, Mich., has closed after nearly 10 years in business, but co-owners Nancy and Mark Oakley plan to open "a different, but smaller store," at 4000 Page Ave. in Michigan Center. Treasure Chest, will be a vendor store hosting booths of antiques, collectibles and local art, MLive.com reported. 

After the owners announced in November that they would be closing, customers launched a GoFundMe campaign to try to save the store. "The GoFundMe allowed us to catch up a little bit on back bills because they'd gotten so far behind," Nancy Oakley said. "Which is part of the reason we were able to do something besides completely close."

Customers visiting Book Cottage since November "bought thousands of books and shared their sorrow to see the business close, which is why the owners decided to downsize to a different store," MLive.com said. "Through the years, the bookstore didn't just serve as a place for books, it served the community by hosting local vendors and community events, such as flea markets and fundraisers."

"The people have come through and told us they're going to miss us and how much this bookstore has meant to them," Oakley said. "So, this is at least going to allow us to do some of the community things that we thought we were going to have to give up."

The new store will feature a small section for books, but it won't be the same as hosting a large collection, she added. "It's heartbreaking to close the bookstore. We've had these kids who've come in and have turned into readers because of coming into the bookstore."

In a Facebook post, the booksellers wrote: "As we start the new year, and close the doors of Book Cottage, we have to express how much we will miss our customers. We have met thousands of amazing people, and we have enjoyed all of you, the ones that came twice a week, to the ones that visited once a year. The people who love every genre, to the ones that only read one author. We will miss talking about books, recommending books and introducing special books to people. We will miss the kids who became readers in our store, the kids who taught us about some great books we didn't know, and the ones who treasured books like a dragon treasures gold. We will miss the Harry Potterheads, who believe in magic no matter their age. We will miss the teachers who came in to get books to tempt specific students. We will miss running the bookstore, but we are so grateful to have been given the last 9 1/2 years, being part of this book community. Thank you Jackson, we are blessed to be part of this town!"

Golden Leaf Books, a metaphysical bookstore and feminist headshop, has opened a bricks-and-mortar store in Waterford, N.Y., the Daily Gazette reported.

Co-owners Shaunty McMillin and Allen DeJesus opened the physical store in December after debuting Golden Leaf Books as an online store and pop-up shop earlier last year. Located at 30 Saratoga Avenue in a space that previously housed a liquor store, the store carries a selection of books ranging from titles about witchcraft and spirituality to social justice titles and cannabis cookbooks. Nonbook items include locally made candles, incense and art, along with a variety of aesthetically pleasing cannabis paraphernalia such as pipes and bowls.

McMillin told the Gazette that she and DeJesus are "here to support women and we're here to support wellness." She noted that their store targets a very different demographic compared to most smoke shops. McMillin began looking into opening a smoke shop once cannabis was legalized in New York, and through her research realized there was a "void" in the metaphysical book market in the Albany region.

Following the store's online debut in May, the co-owners did pop-up appearances at several businesses around greater Albany. Now that the physical store is open, DeJesus manages the shop during the week while McMillin, who has a full-time day job, "handles administrative tasks and company flow." McMillin's husband, Wynn, also contributes with digital operations.

DeJesus remarked that he and McMillin have complementary skill sets that are different and work "really well" together.

At Portobello Bookshop

Independent booksellers in the U.K. reported "healthy if measured trading over the 2022 festive period, with the majority of respondents to the Bookseller's annual survey (39%) reporting 'average' sales compared to 2021, followed by 29% who described it as 'very good.' " Of the 31 respondents to the survey, five described trading as "excellent" over the period and five as "disappointing" (representing 16%), "suggesting a mixed bag compared to the results of last year's survey, in which 58% of independent booksellers described trading as 'very good' and 15% as 'excellent.' "

Alice Fischer, manager of Portobello Bookshop in Edinburgh, Scotland, said overall title availability was better than last year, "however supply was slower for some suppliers"; while Sarah Shaw of the Book Corner, Saltburn-by-the-Sea, England, noted that split deliveries had been an issue. Marie Mose of the Edinburgh Bookshop experienced out of stock and re-printing delays, but no worse than previous holiday seasons, adding: "Courier unreliability was a new and horrendous problem this year."

Looking ahead to 2023, rising costs are a paramount concern. "Like everyone else, we are worried about the economy and the current cost-of-living crisis, and how they will impact customers' buying habits--though for now, sales haven't slowed down," Fischer said. "We're also keeping a close eye on energy prices, and hoping ongoing supply issues (of finished products but also of primary material) are resolved soon. Though we're lucky to have a very strong customer base and a dedicated community keen to shop local, we're also concerned about the fact that the increasing cost of materials is leading to books being pricier, and how this will impact sales, as customers might turn to discounted titles from other retailers."

Caitlin Lowe, assistant manager of the St. Helens Book Stop, Merseyside, England, worried that the cost of living crisis will cause customers to "rethink buying from us.... We are also concerned about the cost of running our shop owing to increasing energy prices." Staffing levels were also a challenge for a number of respondents, with one saying they may have to resort to reductions if things get worse "because we've already cut costs as much as we can." 

Optimism remained in some corners, however. Leanne Fridd of Bookbugs and Dragon Tales in Norwich, England, said: "I'm optimistic about the book industry in 2023, particularly with paperbacks as they represent excellent value for money as people cut back on spending" but that she thinks they will be seeing lower spend per visitor.

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Last Friday, Barb Minett was working at the front desk at the Bookshelf, Guelph, Ont., which she co-founded in 1973, when a man came in. Soon she heard books being dropped on the floor where he had gone. As she told Guelph Today, "So I came around, and there he was, with all the books on the floor, and I said, 'What are you doing?' And he said, 'I'm taking these books because they are racist, and you can't sell any anti-racist books any longer.' "

The section is called "race relations and discrimination" and has been there for years without incident. Minett told a colleague to call the police. In that time, the man put about 20 books into a backpack and started leaving the store. She had a strong reaction and went after the man. "I just couldn't let someone walk out of the store, dismantle a section, threaten us like that, take 20 of our books, just because he thought that we were racist," Minett told Guelph Today.

Outside, helped by another staffer and others from the neighboring restaurant, Minett pulled on the backpack and was able to save the books. The whole time, she said, the man was screaming and repeatedly called her a racist.

Minett told Shelf Awareness that police have not caught the person she called "the white supremacist," adding that she's fine. "I tell Bookshelf staff not to do what I did," she continued. "But I'm fed up, old, and a free agent! I was definitely in the moment!"

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At Bert's Books

Yesterday was Spare Day. Prince Harry's memoir sold 400,000 copies in the U.K. in hardback, e-book and audio formats on its first day of publication, the Bookseller reported. Larry Finlay, managing director of Transworld, said: "We always knew this book would fly but it is exceeding even our most bullish expectations. As far as we know, the only books to have sold more in their first day are those starring the other Harry (Potter)."

"Cheeky bookshop" Bert's Books in Swindon, England, created a window display featuring Spare and the shop's bestselling 2022 title, How to Kill Your Family by Bella Mackie, while Winstone's Hunting Raven Books in Frome had a "love him or loathe him" chalkboard in its display.

Dutch bookseller the American Book Center in Amsterdam had some fun with the new book, pairing it with John Bradshaw's Family Secrets. Spare was also spotted at Dussmann das KulturKaufhaus in Berlin and Buchhandlung Lesezeichen in Germering, Germany, as well as Libreria Ubik, Castelfranco Veneto, Italy; and Australian bookseller Not Just Books in Burnie, Tasmania. --Robert Gray

The Book Industry Charitable Foundation is offering two $750 scholarships to comic book store owners and their employees to attend the ComicsPro Industry Meeting in Pittsburgh, Pa., scheduled for February 23-25. The funds may be used for travel, replacement wages, lodging and meals. Scholarship guidelines and the application form are available here. The deadline to apply is January 21 at 5 p.m. Eastern.

"We really appreciate Binc providing two scholarships for the Comic Industry Meeting!" said Marco Davanzo, executive director of ComicsPRO. "These scholarships will help those that might not have gotten to go to the meeting. Binc is a class act. They are there, day in and day out, helping employees and owners of comic book stores with unforeseen emergencies. The folks at Binc are the unsung heroes of the comic industry."

Binc executive director Pam French commented: "We are proud to continue our support for educational opportunities for the comics community with this new professional development scholarship for two individuals to attend the ComicsPro Industry Meeting in Pittsburgh in February. Through this scholarship, more retailers will have the opportunity to gain valuable connections with their peers and colleagues." 

Charles Simic

Charles Simic, "the renowned Serbian-American poet whose work combined a melancholy old-world sensibility with a sensual and witty sense of modern life," died January 10, the New York Times reported. He was 84. Simic won a Pulitzer Prize in 1990 for The World Doesn't End, a book of prose poems. He served as poet laureate of the U.S. from 2007 to 2008. Other honors include a MacArthur Foundation "genius grant" in 1984, a Wallace Stevens Award (2007), Frost Medal (2011), Vilcek Prize in Literature (2011) and Zbigniew Herbert International Literary Award (2014).

Simic moved to the U.S. while in his teens, and for "the rest of his life he would look back on not merely his wartime childhood but on the circus of everyday life in Belgrade. His poems were full of folk tales and pickpockets and old grudges," the Times noted, adding that "he embraced American life. He wrote verse like a man who had escaped a cruel fate and was determined not to waste a moment. His urbane and sardonic poems were increasingly filled with sex and philosophy and blues songs and late-night conversation and time spent at the dinner table."

His first two poems to appear in print were in the Chicago Review in 1959, when he was 21. Beginning in 1961, he spent two years in the Army as a military policeman in Germany and France, finding his voice upon his return. "Before the Army I had become too literary, buttoned down, in tweeds, pipe-smoking, all that," he said. "After the Army I had a much humbler view of myself. I started thinking about a remark of the painter Paul Klee, that if a young man is to accomplish something he has to find something truly his own. Well, I had a kind of minimalist urge, and so I started writing poems about the simplest things. Household objects: a knife, a fork, a spoon, my shoes."

His first book of poems, What the Grass Says, was published in 1967. He was offered an associate professorship by the University of New Hampshire in 1973, and taught there for more than three decades. 

Simic published more than 30 poetry collections, including Walking the Black Cat (1996 National Book Award finalist); Selected Poems, 1963–1983 (1986 Pulitzer finalist); Unending Blues (1987 Pulitzer finalist); New and Selected Poems: 1962-2012 (2013); The Lunatic (2015), Scribbled in the Dark (2017); Come closer and listen: new poems (2019); and No Land in Sight (2022). He also published many books as an editor, an essayist and a translator of the work of French, Serbian, Croatian and other poets. His nonfiction titles include Dime-Store Alchemy: The Art of Joseph Cornell (1992).

The New York Review of Books tweeted: "We mourn the death of Charles Simic (1938-2023), who since 1999 wrote 175 essays and poems for The New York Review, on subjects ranging from Saul Steinberg to the Fourth of July to gun violence to Buster Keaton."

Noting another recent literary loss, Simic's longtime friend and editor Daniel Halpern posted on Instagram: "The world is less so without the writers Russell Banks and Charles Simic. They will be missed in so many ways."

Simic's poem "The Wind Has Died":

My little boat,
Take care,

There is no
Land in sight. 

"Do you look at your TBR pile and feel a little twinge of guilt??" Cibolo Chicks Bookstore, Selma, Tex., asked, then offered a potential solution: "Turn that pile into something fun! Create your own monthly Blind Date with a Book stack or throw the titles in a cute jar and pull out one a month!"

Wheatberry Books, Chillicothe, Ohio, shared a photo of a temporary sales floor display created because "we're having fun looking for books that have a sentence as a title."

The two most popular books in December at Reading Group Choices were The Seamstress of Sardinia by Bianca Pitzorno (Harper Perennial) and The Last Party by Clare Mackintosh (Sourcebooks Landmark).

At Scholastic:

Sabrina Montenigro has been promoted to marketing associate, educational & library marketing, from marketing coordinator.

Jody Stigliano has been promoted to senior manager, library & educational brand marketing, from national account manager.

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At Macmillan:

Amy Solov has joined the special markets team as a manager, gift sales.

Rae Bowman has joined the merchandise & wholesale sales team as a national sales assistant.

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Cate Turner has joined Nicole Banholzer PR as assistant publicist. Previously she was an intern at the firm as well as at Writers House and Triada U.S. Literary Agency.

Finding Your Why and Finding Your Way: An Acceptance and Commitment Therapy Workbook to Help You Identify What You Care About and Reach Your Goals by Daniel J. Moran and Siri Ming (New Harbinger).

Book-to-screen adaptations collected some hardware at last night's Golden Globe Awards, though the haul was considerably less than usual. Winning productions that started as books or have book connections included:

Movies 
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, based on the Marvel Comics character Black Panther: Best performance by an actress in a supporting role in any motion picture (Angela Bassett) 

Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio, loosely based on the 1883 Italian novel The Adventures of Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi, and influenced by Gris Grimly's illustrations for a 2002 edition of the book: Best motion picture--animated  

TV
House of the Dragon, based on George R.R. Martin's novel Fire & Blood: Best drama series

Black Bird, based on the autobiographical novel In with the Devil: a Fallen Hero, a Serial Killer, and a Dangerous Bargain for Redemption by James Keene (with Hillel Levin): Best supporting actor in a limited series, anthology series or motion picture made for television (Paul Walter Hauser)

Today:
Fresh Air: Taffy Brodesser-Akner, author of Fleishman Is in Trouble (Random House, $17, 9780525510895), the basis for a new FX series.

AMC Networks has acquired the rights to John Maxim's Bannerman spy book series, which includes The Bannerman Solution, The Bannerman Effect, Bannerman's Law, Bannerman's Promise and Bannerman's Ghosts.

The novels are being developed as a potential TV series by Shane Black (Lethal Weapon, Ironman), Greg Nicotero (The Walking Dead, Creepshow) and Brian Witten (Creepshow, Friday the 13th). Maxim is also attached as a consulting producer. 

"Maxim is an untapped national treasure, and AMC provides a proper fit. It's time," said Black.
 
Nicotero added: "I read this entire series years ago and found the contrasting worlds of these dark and tortured souls desperate to live normal lives quite compelling. To partner with Shane on this, who shares the same passion that I do for the books, takes this project to a whole other level."

The winners and honorees have been announced for the annual Walter Dean Myers Awards for Outstanding Children's Literature. Sponsored by We Need Diverse Books, the awards recognize diverse authors whose works feature diverse main characters and address diversity in a meaningful way. This year's winners are: 

Walter teen category winner
Man Made Monsters by Andrea L. Rogers, illustrated by Jeff Edwards (Levine Querido)

Walter teen category honors
All My Rage by Sabaa Tahir (Razorbill)
The Lesbiana's Guide to Catholic School by Sonora Reyes (Balzer + Bray)

Walter young readers category winner
Choosing Brave: How Mamie Till-Mobley and Emmett Till Sparked the Civil Rights Movement by Angela Joy, illustrated by Janelle Washington (Roaring Brook Press)

Walter young readers category honors
Star Child: A Biographical Constellation of Octavia Estelle Butler by Ibi Zoboi (Dutton Books for Young Readers)
The Last Mapmaker by Christina Soontornvat (Candlewick)

The Walter Awards Ceremony and Symposium will be held March 17 at the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library in Washington, D.C. The event will begin at 10:30 a.m., is open to the public and will be livestreamed. 

Author Jacqueline Woodson, the sixth National Ambassador for Young People's Literature, will serve as emcee. The ceremony will be preceded by "Books Save Lives," a symposium on diversity in children's literature, moderated by WNDB founding member, CEO and writer Ellen Oh.

photo: Julie Broadfoot

Carole Johnstone is a short story writer and novelist from Scotland, whose work has been published worldwide. Her debut novel, Mirrorland, has been optioned by Heyday TV and NBCUniversal. Her latest novel, The Blackhouse (Scribner, January 3, 2023), is a gothic thriller set on an isolated Scottish island where nothing is as it seems and shocking twists lie around every corner. Johnstone lives with her husband in the Scottish Highlands, though her heart belongs to the sea and wild islands of the Outer Hebrides.

Handsell readers your book in 25 words or less:

Set off the west coast of Scotland, The Blackhouse is about a remote village and a deadly secret. And an outsider who knows the truth.

On your nightstand now:

Sundial by Catriona Ward. I've been a huge fan of Catriona's writing ever since reading her debut novel, Rawblood, about five years ago. Sundial, set in the Mojave Desert, is a brilliant horror thriller about motherhood and sisterhood.

Favorite book when you were a child:

I loved Roald Dahl's books, growing up. His stories have exactly the right amount of creepy weirdness. They are darkly funny and often moving, and I'm pretty sure that they are where my love of the surprise twist and unexpected ending began! If I had to pick a favorite, it would probably be James and the Giant Peach, but I love them all.

Roald Dahl wrote that "those who don't believe in magic will never find it," which is something I think about often while writing.

Your top five authors:

Agatha Christie, Alexandre Dumas, Stephen King, Margaret Atwood, Jane Harper. If you ask me the same question next week, the answer will probably be different!

Book you've faked reading:

Sunset Song by Lewis Grassic Gibbon was pretty much required reading in Scottish schools, but I found it so unrelentingly miserable that I couldn't finish. I've since read it, and though it is a very powerful and important story, it is definitely not the book to choose if you need cheering up.

Book you're an evangelist for:

I adored A Brief History of Seven Killings by Marlon James when it came out in 2014, and I've been waiting for the television adaptation ever since! Set in Jamaica and New York from the 1970s through to the '90s, it depicts the ever-changing fortunes of those caught up in the violence of drug wars, poverty and politics. Each chapter is narrated by someone different, which often doesn't work at all, but James does it so skillfully that every character sings. I loved that some of the dialogue and narration are in patois. I'm obsessed with language and especially regional dialect and vernacular.

Book you've bought for the cover:

The U.K. hardback cover of A Teaspoon of Earth and Sea by Dina Nayeri is very striking, as is House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski. I don't generally judge a book by its cover, but I do remember as a teenager begging my mum to buy me The Silmarillion by J.R.R Tolkien without even caring what it was about, because it was just such a beautiful book, complete with slipcase and sprayed edges.

Book you hid from your parents:

Flowers in the Attic by V.C. Andrews. They probably wouldn't have cared in the least, but I was a very shy and timid kid and would have been mortified for them to have known I was reading a book with themes including rape and incest.

Book that changed your life:

And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie. I read it when I was around 11 or 12 at my grandparents' creepy old house in Edinburgh, and it blew me away. The premise was so simple and gothic and the plot so insanely clever, it was the first time I can ever remember saying to myself: I want to do this. I would love to do this.

Whenever I set out to write anything, I always keep that book in mind as an example of what a great story is. And when I was plotting my debut novel, Mirrorland, it's probably no coincidence at all that I ended up setting it in my grandparents' old gothic house!

Favorite line from a book:

"Hill House, not sane, stood by itself against its hills, holding darkness within; it had stood so for eighty years and might stand for eighty more." --from The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson

Five books you'll never part with:

The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas, Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption by Stephen King, The Dry by Jane Harper, Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood, O Caledonia by Elspeth Barker.

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

Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn. It was so brilliantly written and so cleverly plotted. I'd love to experience again that moment of "Oh my God!" when that first big twist is revealed. She makes it look easy, and it absolutely isn't.

Character you most relate to:

O Caledonia by Elspeth Barker is a wonderfully dark and witty coming-of-age story set in the Highlands of Scotland. Its protagonist, Janet, is very much like me growing up: an awkward daydreamer, forever getting into trouble through (mostly) no fault of her own; harboring a fierce love for animals and landscapes, instead of people. That the book begins with poor Janet lying murdered at the bottom of the stairs is probably not the best of omens.

In her moving and engrossing The Windeby Puzzle, two-time Newbery medalist Lois Lowry (Number the Stars; The Giver) imagines two possible lives for the Iron Age youth whose body was discovered in a peat bog in 1952.

When Lowry learned about the 2,000-year-old remains found on an estate called Windeby in northern Germany, her imagination was sparked. She writes, "Each of us has a story. I do, you do, my mailman does; so does the frail elderly neighbor, the woman who waits on me at the supermarket, and the boy who just rode past me on a bicycle." Lowry longed to know what had happened to this young person whose life was cut short. Lacking that knowledge, she decided to write the story herself--and then an alternate story when more historical details came to light. Exploring scientific and historic theories, archeological evidence, facts about peat bogs and accounts of first century CE Germanic tribes led Lowry to fabricate full, though brief, lives for a girl named Estrild and a boy named Varick.

What makes The Windeby Puzzle unusual is its structure. Parts One, Three and Five are labeled simply "History." Sandwiched between these absorbing and informative pieces of historical context Lowry inserts creative inventions: Estrild's Story (Part Two) and Varick's Story (Part Four). The nonfiction sections break the fourth wall of the fiction sections, as when Lowry writes in Part Three, "I confess. It was excruciating for me to write the final paragraphs of Estoril's story. Yet it had been clear, from the beginning, from the body found in the bog, how the story would end for her...." The author connects past to present by giving a life to the long-lifeless youth. To her, this body was not an archeological artifact--it was the vessel for a real person who lived a life that we will never fully know. Thanks to Lowry, though, we can now imagine a girl who pushed back against gender roles--with deadly consequences--and a boy whose physical limitations and status as an orphan doomed him to a short, difficult life.

Each of the five sections begins with a brief illustrated story by Jonathan Stroh. The art features a majestic eagle-owl flying over the contemporary archeological dig as well as the historical bog. Did eagle-owls exist 2,000 years ago? No one knows. "But," Lowry writes, "I decided, in writing Varick's story, that it would." This small flight of fancy establishes a link between ancient times and the present, allowing readers visually to connect the "History" with Lowry's affecting "Story." --Emilie Coulter, freelance writer and editor

Shelf Talker: After learning about an ancient body found in a peat bog, Lois Lowry imagines the life that might have been in this captivating blend of fiction, archeology and bog biology.