Julia Reidhead

Julia A. Reidhead, chairman and president of W.W. Norton & Co., has been voted chair of the board of the Association of American Publishers for the 2023-2024 term. She has served on the AAP board since 2020 and was vice chair for the 2022-2023 term.

Reidhead has been chairman and president of Norton since 2016 and earlier was v-p and publishing director of Norton's college department. In her 40-year career at Norton, she has also been principal in-house editor of the Norton Anthologies and edited works by Adrienne Rich, Seamus Heaney, Pauli Murray, Russell Shorto and Anne Enright. She is also on the board of the National Book Foundation and was chair of the board of governors of Yale University Press from 2012 to 2022. She is only the sixth person and the first woman to head Norton, which is celebrating its 100th anniversary and is the largest independent and employee-owned publisher in the U.S.

Reidhead said, "The AAP board of directors has a long and distinguished track record of effective stewardship. It is a privilege to assume the role of chair, to work hand in hand with my fellow board members and AAP's talented team, to represent the many large and small publishers in this essential industry, and to address the extremely pressing challenges that will have a direct impact on the immediate and long-term vitality of publishing--from incentivizing copyright markets to facilitating critical dialogues around free speech, diversity, and sustainability."

Maria A. Pallante, president and CEO of the AAP, said, "Julia Reidhead leads a historic publishing house at W.W. Norton that has long been committed to independent authorship, groundbreaking scholarship, and robust education, or put another way, the values and objectives of the modern publishing industry. Her tenure as AAP's chair coincides with alarming attacks on the laws and policies that make publishing markets possible, including efforts to normalize piracy, undercut licensing, and sanction censorship. But what good fortune to have this chair, this set of officers, and this board acting in service to the industry at this important time."

The board also re-elected Brian Napack, president and CEO of John Wiley & Sons, as an officer, serving as vice chair. He has been a director since 2017 and was chair from September 2020 to January 2022. Jeremy North, managing director, books, Taylor & Francis, was re-elected to a fourth term as treasurer. He has served as a director since 2015 and an officer since 2020. Michael Pietsch, CEO of Hachette Book Group, is moving from chair to immediate past chair. He has served as a director since 2013 and an officer since 2021.

Pallante thanked Pietsch for "his tireless, clear-sighted leadership at the helm. Among many 2022 highlights under his watch is the Maryland district court's unequivocal affirmation in AAP v. Frosh that it 'is only through the protection of copyright that books and other creative works may be generated and distributed at all.' "

Gilbert Hernandez outside Búho's new home.

Búho bookstore, located in the historic Calderoni Building at 1140 E. Washington St. in Brownsville, Tex., will open later this year. Owner Gilbert Hernandez launched Búho last spring as a pop-up operation, but his long-term vision was to find a permanent home for a bookstore and café. Búho is Spanish for owl, and he noted that owls are "symbols of wisdom, they are often associated with literature, libraries and bookstores."

Hernandez held some test runs recently at his bookstore "to see what the public's response would be and dozens of people showed up to see what his store had to offer," the Brownsville Herald reported. "At one of the test runs he had at least 60 people inside. He even ran out of paper bags for the books that customers bought. More bags are on the way."

On the shop's Facebook page, Hernandez wrote: "The Herald caught wind of us too! I appreciate that even though our Grand Opening is still months away, the press is excited about our project and y'all's support. As mentioned in the article, in between official Test Runs, anyone can enter the store if I'm working on things inside, or you can message me to find out if I'll be there. In the near future, Búho will have a team to staff the store in order to serve Brownsville Readers at all times."

The idea for the bookstore came to him after leaving Brownsville to attend college in Massachusetts, then returning home and visiting civic organizations in the community. "It was through these visits with organization members that he learned there was something many in Brownsville yearned for but was missing: a traditional bookstore," the Herald noted. 

"I did hear this complaint over and over again 'why don't we have a bookstore. I have to drive to McAllen, I have to drive to the Island to get my books,' " Hernandez said. "If you approach a project with passion, the more you do it, the more you get people on board with your mission, the likely is for you to create your own luck, the more doors you open."

Búho's grand opening is months away and Hernandez plans to do additional test runs before then "to satisfy the thirst. Before Búho we lived in a book desert, this is a little oasis. This is a little glass of water in the desert. Soon it will be a watering hole. This gives Brownsville a little taste of the bookstore experience.... I feel like it's something that must be done.... I feel like I have unlocked a new emotion. This whole project exists because of love for Brownsville.... This is my way of giving back that love that in a way that I feel adds value to the community."

Aslan's Square, a bookstore and coffee shop that opened last summer in Dyersville, Iowa, will close at the end of the month. In a Facebook post, owner Jacey Stanbro wrote: "With a heavy heart, Aslan's Square will be closing shop. The last day the shop will be open is next Wednesday February 1.... Even though this season is coming to an end the lord did miraculous things. I am so in awe of his glory. With that being said the shop is doing a 50% STORE WIDE sale on all retail....

"Thank you all for your community support and encouragement over these several months. We couldn't have done it without you. If you know anyone who feels the calling to keep something going similar to this, please reach out to us at aslanssquare@gmail.com."

(Image: Haag Brown Commercial Real Estate and Development)

Barnes & Noble will return to Jonesboro, Ark., after an absence of around three years, Talk Business & Politics reported. The new store will reside in the Crossroads Shopping Center in a space that once housed a Pier One store. An exact timetable for the reopening has not been announced.

In March 2020, shortly after the Covid-19 pandemic began, a tornado swept through Jonesboro and destroyed the B&N along with most of the surrounding shopping mall. In September 2020 the bookstore chain announced that it would not be reopening the store after doing business in Jonesboro for 14 years.

The closure left a void in Jonesboro and surrounding communities, and a number of independent bookstores have opened in northeast Arkansas since, including Stardust and Stories Bookstore, Weber's Book House and Verb Bookstore.

Victor Navasky

Victor Navasky, author and longtime head of the Nation, died on January 23. He was 90.

Navasky's best-known book was Naming Names, which the New York Times called "a breakthrough chronicle of the Hollywood blacklisting era." Published in 1980, Naming Names won the National Book Award in 1982 for general nonfiction paperback.

"The book focused on the ex-Communist writers, directors and producers who testified before the House Un-American Activities Committee and chose to inform on colleagues," the Times wrote. "Critics praised the book for its fairness and its compassion for people grappling with wrenching choices. However, some conservative critics said it was more inclined to denigrate the so-called informers, like the novelist Budd Schulberg and the director Elia Kazan, whose tortured explanations for their decisions Mr. Navasky found illogical."

Richard Sennett wrote in the New York Times Book Review that Navasky's "sympathies are clearly with those who refused to name names. But he refuses to prejudge the informers, to treat them simply as cowards or monsters."

The Washington Post quoted Navasky: "Those who resisted the committee and refused to name names were acting in the spirit of the Constitution and defending the First Amendment. Those who named names ended up contributing to the worst aspects of the domestic Cold War."

Another major title was Kennedy Justice (1971), about the Justice Department when Robert F. Kennedy was Attorney General in the early 1960s. Joseph Kraft called it "probably the best book ever done on the workings of a great department of American government."

And in 2005, Navasky wrote A Matter of Opinion, which the AP called "a memoir and a passionate defense of free expression." The book won the George K. Polk Book Award.

In A Matter of Opinion, Navasky wrote, "I was, I guess, what would be called a left liberal, although I never thought of myself as all that left. I believed in civil rights and civil liberties, I favored racial integration, I thought responsibility for the international tensions of the cold war was equally distributed between the United States and the U.S.S.R."

His most recent book was The Art of Controversy: Political Cartoons and Their Enduring Power, which was published in 2013.

At the Nation, from 1978 to 2005, Navasky published and encouraged such writers as Alexander Cockburn, Christopher Hitchens, Calvin Trillin, Toni Morrison, Eric Foner, Katha Pollitt and Katrina vanden Heuvel. From 1972 to 1976, he wrote "In Cold Print," a monthly column on the publishing world for the New York Times Book Review. (He was an editor at the New York Times Magazine before he joined the Nation.)

Navasky was also at the center of a case that tested the principle of fair use of copyrighted material. In 1979, the Nation obtained an early copy of A Time to Heal, former President Gerald Ford's memoir, and printed extensive excerpts from it. Harper & Row sued for copyright infringement; the Nation argued it was fair use of the book. The Supreme Court sided with Harper & Row, and the Nation had to pay damages of $12,500.

Navasky's busy career included his early founding and editing of Monocle, a political satirical magazine; his stint at the New York Times; managing Ramsey Clark's 1974 losing campaign against Senator Jacob Javits; teaching at Columbia University; chairing the Columbia Journalism Review; and contributing to NPR's Marketplace. Among the many awards he won was the I.F. Stone Medal for Journalistic Independence from Harvard's Nieman Foundation for Journalism in 2017.

At Scholastic, Vicki Tisch has been promoted to senior director of marketing operations, from director of marketing operations.

Posted on Instagram Monday by Roebling Point Books and Coffee, Covington, Ky.: "We took a winter's break from handselling to work on our snowman stick-arm's-selling. Credit to Andy and Hanna for their snow shoveling/snowman stuffing work.... Come on in, the weather is fine and the sidewalk is clear."

Abyss by Pilar Quintana, translated from the Spanish by Lisa Dillman (World Editions).

Tomorrow:
Good Morning America: Chad Veach, author of Worried about Everything Because I Pray about Nothing: How to Live with Peace and Purpose Instead of Stress and Burnout (Bethany House, $22.99, 9780764240188).

Drew Barrymore Show: Tori Dunlap, author of Financial Feminist: Overcome the Patriarchy's Bullsh*t to Master Your Money and Build a Life You Love (Dey Street, $22, 9780063260269).

Rachael Ray: Kristin Chenoweth, author of I'm No Philosopher, But I Got Thoughts: Mini-Meditations for Saints, Sinners, and the Rest of Us (Harper Celebrate, $22.99, 9781400228492).

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, January 28
9:30 a.m. Stanly Godbold, author of Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter: Power and Human Rights, 1975-2020 (‎Oxford University Press, $39.95, 9780197581568). (Re-airs Saturday at 9:30 p.m.)

4:05 p.m. Charles Clarke, author of George Washington Parke Custis: A Rarefied Life in America's First Family (‎McFarland, $39.95, 9781476686622). (Re-airs Sunday at 4:05 a.m.)

6 p.m. Daphne Geanacopoulos, author of The Pirate's Wife: The Remarkable True Story of Sarah Kidd (Hanover Square Press, $27.99, 9781335429841). (Re-airs Sunday at 6 a.m.)

6:50 p.m. Andrew Wehrman, author of The Contagion of Liberty: The Politics of Smallpox in the American Revolution (Johns Hopkins University Press, $32, 9781421444666). (Re-airs Sunday at 6:50 a.m.)

Sunday, January 29
9:10 a.m. Chris Hedges, author of The Greatest Evil Is War (Seven Stories Press, $21.95, 9781644212936). (Re-airs Sunday at 9:10 p.m.)

10 a.m. Ken Buck, author of Crushed: Big Tech's War on Free Speech (Humanix Books, $29.99, 9781630062477). (Re-airs Sunday at 10 p.m.)

2 p.m. Steven Thrasher, author of The Viral Underclass: The Human Toll When Inequality and Disease Collide (Celadon, $29.99, 9781250796639).

3 p.m. Jeff Bingaman, author of Breakdown: Lessons for a Congress in Crisis (High Road Books, $29.95, 9780826364142).

4 p.m. Andrew Weiss, author of Accidental Czar: The Life and Lies of Vladimir Putin (‎First Second, $28.99, 9781250760753).

5 p.m. Susan Shirk, author of Overreach: How China Derailed Its Peaceful Rise (Oxford University Press, $29.95, 9780190068516).

6:45 p.m. Devin Allen, author No Justice, No Peace: From the Civil Rights Movement to Black Lives Matter (Legacy Lit, $30, 9780306925900).

The Man Who Sold Air in the Holy Land, a short story collection by Omer Friedlander (Random House), has won the $1,000 Association of Jewish Libraries Jewish Fiction Award.

Two other titles won honor awards:
Atomic Anna by Rachel Barenbaum (Grand Central Publishing)
Thistlefoot by GennaRose Nethercott (Anchor Books)

Organizers called the 11 stories in The Man Who Sold Air in the Holy Land "remarkable for their intense originality and for Friedlander's ability to portray the complexity and nuances of political conflict together with a deep understanding of a shared humanity that transcends borders--both geopolitical and metaphorical. In a series of vividly drawn cameos, Friedlander employs multiple literary forms to portray characters, historical events, and social conditions in contemporary Israel: surrealism in 'High Heels,' where a young shoemaker scales cranes on construction sites in urban Tel Aviv; the picaresque in 'Alte Sachen,' about a family of junk collectors in Tsfat; pathos in 'Walking Shiv'ah,' when a mother and daughter trudge miles by foot to find out which of the two sons perished in war; black humor in 'The Sephardi Survivor,' when two boys co-opt a stranger as a stand-in for their school Holocaust survivor project; and the gritty realism of 'Jellyfish in Gaza,' where twin brothers try to cope with the reality and brutality of war and their father's trauma doing army service."

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Finalists for the 2023 Oregon Book Awards have been selected. Winners will be announced on April 3. To see the finalists in all seven categories, click here.

Selected new titles appearing next Tuesday, January 31:

Driving the Green Book: A Road Trip Through the Living History of Black Resistance by Alvin Hall (HarperOne, $29.99, 9780063271968) retraces the famous Green Book guide for Black travelers.

Becoming Free Indeed: My Story of Disentangling Faith from Fear by Jinger Vuolo (Thomas Nelson, $29.99, 9781400335817) is the memoir of a Duggar family member who escaped.

The Fresh Prince Project: How the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air Remixed America by Chris Palmer (Atria, $28.99, 9781982185176) chronicles the '90s sitcom.

The Drift by C.J. Tudor (Ballantine, $28, 9780593356562) is a thriller featuring three ordinary people in danger, much more danger than they realize.

River Sing Me Home by Eleanor Shearer (Berkley, $27, 9780593548042) follows an enslaved mother on Barbados searching for her children after the Emancipation Act of 1834.

The Snow Hare: A Novel by Paula Lichtarowicz (Little, Brown, $29, 9780316461351) is based the author's grandmothers' experiences in Poland during World War II.

Central Places: A Novel by Delia Cai (Ballantine, $27, 9780593497913) follows the daughter of Chinese immigrants introducing her white fiancé.

Exiles: A Novel by Jane Harper (Flatiron, $27.99, 9781250235350) is a mystery about a missing mother in Southern Australian wine country.

Finlay Donovan Jumps the Gun: A Novel by Elle Cosimano (Minotaur, $26.99, 9781250846037) is the third humorous mystery with Finlay Donovan.

All the Beating Hearts by Julie Fogliano, illus. by Cátia Chien (Holiday House/Neal Porter, $18.99, 9780823452163) is a picture book contemplation on perseverance and kindness.

Chain of Thorns by Cassandra Clare (S&S/McElderry, $24.99, 9781481431934) is the final novel in the Last Hours YA trilogy.

Paperbacks:
The Soul of Leadership: Unlocking Your Potential for Greatness by Deepak Chopra (Harmony, $19.99, 9780307408075).

Enough Already: Learning to Love the Way I Am Today by Valerie Bertinelli (Harvest, $18.99, 9780063268760).

The Nineties: A Book by Chuck Klosterman (Penguin Books, $18, 9780735217966).

Hideaway at Silver Lake: A Snowflake Sisters Novel by Jennifer Greene (Avon, $18.99, 9780063241138).

Children of Memory by Adrian Tchaikovsky (Orbit, $18.99, 9780316466400).

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

Hardcover: An Indies Introduce Title
The New Life: A Novel by Tom Crewe (Scribner, $28, 9781668000830). "Crewe pays great tribute to those throughout history who have braved the battles to rightfully normalize homosexuality. Addington and Ellis boldly believed in a New Life for everyone. Their legacy is nothing less than inspiring." --Barbara Hall, Readers' Books, Sonoma, Calif.

Hardcover
Blaze Me a Sun: A Novel About a Crime by Christoffer Carlsson, trans. by Rachel Willson-Broyles (Hogarth, $28, 9780593449356). "If you love a good Swedish crime novel or are a fan of Stieg Larsson, then this book is for you! A runaway bestseller in Sweden, this is the American debut for the author and a can't put down thriller that had me guessing until the end." --Kathy Clemmons, Sundog Books, Santa Rosa Beach, Fla.

Paperback
In the Time of Our History: A Novel by Susanne Pari (A John Scognamiglio Book, $16.99, 9781496739261). "A poignant exploration of family, migration, cultural revolution, and community ties. Pari crafts nuanced characters woven together and torn apart by the same events; the journeys they each travel are momentous. This is a must-read." --Ashleigh Howland, Wellesley Books, Wellesley, Mass.

For Ages 4 to 8
An American Story by Kwame Alexander, illus. by Dare Coulter (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, $18.99, 9780316473125). "We are put in the shoes of school kids learning the painful history of American slavery, and the struggle their teacher faces trying to teach it. This book is necessary. Readers (and educators) will be challenged, but also given hope." --Kristin Richland, Phoenix Books, Essex Junction, Vt.

For Ages 10 to 14
They Set the Fire: The Teddies Saga Book 3 by Daniel Kraus, illus. by Rovina Cai (Holt, $18.99, 9781250224446). "The conclusion to the Teddies Saga is as explosive as its title. All questions are answered--some not in the ways you might expect. They Set the Fire keeps its secrets close in hand right up to the end. I could not breathe until I'd finished." --Kvothe Harris, Rediscovered Books, Boise, Idaho

For Teen Readers
Friday I'm in Love by Camryn Garrett (Knopf, $18.99, 9780593435106). "Friday I'm in Love is for every adolescent, or adult, who is wondering where they fit and who they belong with. It deals with sexuality, class, and race in a humorous way while still giving these aspects of the story the respect they deserve." --Isabella Barbuto, Books Are Magic, Brooklyn, N.Y.

[Many thanks to IndieBound and the ABA!]

Christine Byl's Lookout is an unforgettable novel, both stunning and subtle, written with nuance and compassion. With all the down-to-earth lyricism displayed in her memoir, Dirt Work: An Education in the Woods, Byl transports readers to rural Montana in the 1980s, '90s and 2000s, where the Kinzler family lives, works and loves. These characters, whose bonds are gorgeously rendered and even inspirational in their imperfections, are deeply lovable.

Josiah Kinzler's family history includes alcoholism and suicide; he is alone in the world before he is 20 but possesses land, skills, a work ethic and strong ties to his neighbors. He marries Margaret Blanchard. Together they eke out a living in her father's hardware store and eventually through Josiah's highly regarded furniture-making and woodworking. Their two daughters, Louisa and Cody, are remarkably different from one another but as fiercely loving as their parents. Family members are fully developed and sensitively drawn and, despite growing in nontraditional ways, never lose their commitment to one another.

Chapters shift between a third-person perspective and the first-person voices of various characters--not only the central Kinzlers but also various members of their community. In this way, Byl offers triangulations on events and characters. These secondary characters' perspectives enrich the story enormously, as when a neighbor who has known Josiah from childhood observes the latter's marriage and fatherhood: "He loves those girls, and I can see his ease with them that I have not found with my own sons." Montana in the 1980s and '90s is not without its problems: gay characters struggle to find acceptance, and American Indians' claims to the land are dismissed. Families and individuals struggle with mental illness and addiction. But Byl treats the people and their problems--even the shortsighted ones--with grace and frankness. Frequently, characters do the same for one another.

Lookout, which contains evocative expressions of love, is lush in its descriptions of relationships, the natural world and Josiah's exquisite woodworking. Byl writes with an attention to the details of her characters and setting: "A heavy snow in early May buried pasqueflowers and daffodils and the barely rising shoots that would become the season's crops, but by the end of the month, the sun lit up like a match." Cody and her father are similarly laconic and watchful; they share a special bond, as displayed in a stunningly beautiful scene in which he proudly watches her run a chainsaw, just as she was taught. Many of the relationships and family systems represented are unconventional--but sensitive and thoughtful. Lookout specializes in the quiet observation of transcendent truths about many facets of life. --Julia Kastner, librarian and blogger at pagesofjulia

Shelf Talker: This astonishing novel of work, love, community and forgiveness in 20th-century rural Montana will leave readers forever changed for the better.