(photo: Teylor Kaneshiro)

Reading in Public Bookstore + Cafe is open for business in West Des Moines, Iowa, following a grand opening on January 14. Owner Linzi Murray, store manager Bethany Fast and their team carry books with a strong focus on social justice and diversity. 

There are books for children and adults in both Spanish and English, and Murray, who is a Chinese adoptee, reported that most of the store's front-facing books are by authors of color. She added that the bookstore is "very proudly Asian-owned," and noted that as far as she is aware, her store is one of the very few Asian-owned bookstores in the entire Midwest.

The bookstore's emphasis on social justice is also evident in the community partnerships it's formed. Even before the bricks-and-mortar store opened, Murray and the team had partnered with organizations such as the Iowa Abortion Access Fund and Pied Piper Studio, a children's music and movement studio in Urbandale, Iowa.

(photo: Teylor Kaneshiro)

In addition to books, Reading in Public carries a variety of sidelines for all ages, including stationery, greeting cards, puzzles and toys. The cafe side of the business, meanwhile, sells coffee sourced from a roaster in Kansas City called PT's Coffee, and Murray has partnered with local vegan bakery Thistle Summit. Pointing out that she's originally from New York City, Murray said she also has a partnership with a bakery called Five Borough Bagels, which makes New York-style bagels and was founded by former New Yorkers.

While Reading in Public has yet to schedule any events, Murray remarked that she plans to host "anything that really serves the community and the interests of the community." Along with author talks and book signings, Murray said she likes the idea of hosting less traditional events like yoga workshops and programs that raise environmental-awareness.

Murray had dreamed of owning a bookstore for a long time, though she had always thought of it as a "far-off dream" that would manifest later in life if at all. When her favorite bookstores were forced to close in the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic, however, she started a Bookstagram account so that she could continue connecting with other readers and discovering new authors and stories.

Before long she felt compelled to open a bookstore of her own, and she began planning for Reading in Public in July 2021, when she was still living in New York City. Having a cafe in the bookstore was part of the plan pretty much from the beginning, as was the bookstore's general location. Valley Junction, a historic neighborhood in West Des Moines with a tight-knit community of small businesses, was the "only place I wanted to be."

Murray and her husband moved to Des Moines in November 2021, and in early 2022 Murray started looking for spaces in Valley Junction in earnest. There wasn't much available at the time, but there were a few new buildings planned and she "got in that as fast as I possibly could." She signed the lease in February 2022 and had initially hoped to open the store over the summer. Due to some long construction delays, the opening was pushed back into 2023.

"People have been so excited and anticipating this for such a long time," Murray said. The enthusiasm has not been confined to West Des Moines: some of her Bookstagram followers have been telling her "they're going to travel to visit" now that the store is open. "There's been lots of support."--Alex Mutter

The Book Nook, an indie bookstore located at 737 1st St. in Menominee, Mich., will have a soft opening on February 4, then be open every Saturday during the month, and expand to Monday through Saturday hours in March, the Eagle Herald reported. A grand opening celebration is planned for July 1.

The shop is owned by sisters Deanna and Jacilyn Knight, who as children would visit their grandmother and read books together in her living room, with Peter Rabbit and Harry Potter among their favorites. "She obviously knew the importance of reading," said Deanna Knight.

"We just want to bring back an experience because right now, especially 1st Street, it's so eclectic, but it's so touristy," Jacilyn Knight added. "We want to bring something that people who travel here and live here will have a different experience every time they come in."

The 500-square-foot shop features primarily new titles and some used books in the front, a fireplace and a back area for YA and kids' books. Book-themed sidelines are also available.  

Originally from Chicago, Deanna Knight moved to Menominee for a job in education, and Jacilyn Knight, a hairstylist and musical theater graduate, soon followed. "Not only was their education helpful, but their outsider expertise helped them brainstorm what was missing in the area, which was most definitely a bookstore," the Eagle Herald noted.

"We used to go to Barnes & Noble or Borders every weekend," Jacilyn Knight said. "I grew up watching my mom read all the time. My mom is a huge reader."

Toadstool Bookshop in Peterborough

Willard and Holly Williams, owners of the Toadstool Bookshops in southern N.H., have sold the Peterborough and Keene stores to Emerson Sistare and his parents, the Monadnock Ledger-Transcript reported. 

Sistare, a former teacher who grew up in N.H. and frequently visited the bookshops with his family, has spent the last few months learning the ropes from the previous owners. The staff of both the Peterborough and Keene locations will stay on, and he told the Ledger-Transcript that his goal "is to continue the tradition of exceptional literary service and personal service that Willard and Holly have ingrained in the community."

The Williamses, meanwhile, will retain ownership of the Toadstool Bookshop location in Nashua, N.H., which they've renamed Balin Books. The Williams family founded the original Toadstool Bookshop in Peterborough in 1972.

Emerson Sistare

"I spent so much time there as a kid," said Sistare, who grew up in Petersborough, Jaffrey and Dublin. "It had a huge impact on the trajectory of my life."

He recalled visiting the Toadstool Bookshop after going to church with his grandmother as well as staying up for midnight releases of Harry Potter. Sistare lived outside of New Hampshire for a number of years, and he said that seeing the Toadstool always felt like coming home.

Sistare called the bookselling learning curve "very steep," though working with the Williamses and the team they assembled has been "unbelievably exciting." He noted that his favorite moments in the store are when children come in, particularly when they are with their grandparents. 

He added: "To get to provide a space where memories get to be made is a rare opportunity and a blessing. I feel very, very lucky."

Sacha Lamb

On Monday, January 30, at ALA's LibLearnX conference, Sacha Lamb won the Stonewall Award and the Sydney Taylor YA Book Award for outstanding books that authentically portray the Jewish experience, and received a Printz Honor for their debut, When the Angels Left the Old Country (Levine Querido).

Congratulations! You are one of the lucky few who got multiple calls. Which call came first? Were you at all nervous/excited about today?

The calls came in over a period of multiple weeks, actually! The Sydney Taylor was first, then the Printz and the Stonewall only came 12 hours before the awards announcements (which made it a little hard to fall asleep). I was so excited. These are career goals for me, and it's beyond amazing to have reached them with my debut. I think it's going to take a while for it to fully sink in, I feel like I don't have enough room in my head to react to all of them at once!

I've heard it can be quite intimidating to win an award like these for a debut, but I imagine it could also feel invigorating and affirming--how do you feel?

I'm feeling just about every emotion! I certainly feel like I've given myself a tough act to follow, but on the other hand, it's very validating to have this kind of recognition for a book that I wrote straight from my heart. I really wrote this story for fun and put everything I love the most into it, and clearly that's come through for the readers, so I guess I just have to keep hold of that sincere feeling!

Would you give our readers your two-sentence pitch for When the Angels Left the Old Country?

It's an Ellis Island-era immigrant fairytale starring an angel and a demon who are Talmud study partners and leave their shtetl to rescue a girl who's gotten into trouble on her way to America. On the way, they discover that the "Golden Country" is a complicated place full of magic and mystery and murders.

This novel has been compared with Good Omens and Elatsoe, two fabulous and very funny books--how do those comparisons feel to you?

I love both of these books! When I first got the offer from Levine Querido, I was telling everyone, "I'm going to be on a list with Darcie Little Badger!" I love how she handles folklore with both Native and European supernatural elements. Good Omens obviously has the angel/demon odd couple thing going on, but it's set in a Christian mythological universe, so in that way it's very different. Both comps give an angle on Angels that hopefully intrigues people enough to check it out and find out what makes it unique!

What was your inspiration for this book? For how long did Uriel and Little Ash live in your brain before you began to tell their story?

The first draft was actually incredibly quick from inspiration to completion. I think it took me two months. I had the idea of an angel/demon queer chavrusa pairing, I started writing thinking it was going to be a short story, and next thing I knew it was a draft of a novel. The path has been very smooth for this book, in a way that is very, very unusual, it's been kind of a whirlwind. I credit the incredible narrative energy that's contained in the bickering angel and demon partnership!

Did you have to do any research while writing this book?

I kind of got the research "for free" because I had just finished my master's thesis in history when I started writing it. That was focused on Jewish immigration in the 1920s, so I read up on the whole period from 1880-1930. The folklore aspects I had been researching for a few years starting from a different YA project. I did have to brush up on some of the specifics of the Ellis Island encounter for the book, but in a way, I got to cheat by having done all the research before I started writing.

What was the editorial process like?

It was a lot of fun; I was working with really great editors. Obviously, everyone knows Arthur Levine, but Maddie McZeal, who was the assistant editor on this, was also so great. They really helped push me in the directions that the story needed to go to be the strongest version of itself. There's always some struggle involved in taking things apart and putting them back together, but it's worth it.

After the announcement, you tweeted, it's "very touching to see this extremely Jewish book recognized for its queerness, and extremely queer book for its Jewishness." I love this sentiment. Could you speak more to it?

The queer and Jewish elements of the book are intertwined quite closely, and that was a deliberate effort that I made, to make sure that Judaism and queerness weren't in opposition to each other within the story. The goal with that is to help readers who have felt conflict between those sides of their identities--queer people who've felt rejected by elements of Judaism, Jewish people who've faced antisemitism in the queer community--to find a place where their whole self belongs. This isn't the only queer Jewish YA by any means; the last couple of years have been very exciting in that regard with books like The City Beautiful and From Dust, a Flame even bringing in the fantasy element. But it's a message that bears repeating. You don't have to give up any part of yourself if you don't want to. There is a place for you, and it is even possible to imagine that others like you existed in the past. That's one of the things I hope people take away from this story.

Are you working on anything new?

Nothing is set in stone yet, but I've got a couple of ideas and a stack of research books on my desk. Whatever happens you can be sure it will involve more gender exploration and Jewish folklore!

Is there anything else you'd like to tell Shelf Awareness readers?

Make sure to check out the other amazing winners from today! My friend and Lambda cohort-mate Jas Hammonds won a Coretta Scott King John Steptoe award for We Deserve Monuments, which is so, so well deserved. Some of my other favorites that got honors are Himawari House and The Lesbiana's Guide to Catholic School! --Siân Gaetano, children's and YA editor, Shelf Awareness

Carin Goldberg, a "celebrated graphic designer who brought an inventive postmodern sensibility to book and album covers," died January 19, the New York Times reported. She was 69. Goldberg, who trained as a painter, "was a scholar of designs and typefaces, particularly those of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, which she reimagined in elegant and witty combinations on the covers of hundreds of albums and thousands of books."

She designed covers for bestsellers such as Oliver Sacks's The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat and "for more esoteric fare, like Rilke's The Sonnets to Orpheus, for which she channeled the vintage typography of the Viennese decorative arts movement Wiener Werkstätte," the Times noted.

Goldberg came of age as a designer for CBS Records in the late 1970s, "when the field of graphic design was dominated by a kind of corporate modernism," the Times wrote. She and others began looking to the past for inspiration. Her cohort included Paula Scher, who was for a time her boss at CBS; Lorraine Louie, who was putting her stamp at Vintage Books on covers for young authors like Jay McInerney (Bright Lights, Big City); and Louise Fili, then the art director of Pantheon Books and creator of the sultry cover for The Lover by Marguerite Duras (1985).

One of Goldberg's most recognizable works was her cover for Vintage's 1986 reissue of James Joyce's Ulysses. "Her brief, as she often recalled, had been to riff on a 1949 edition of the book by the designer E. McKnight Kauffer, in which he had enlarged the 'U' and flanked it with a slender 'l.' Her version set the title at an angle and rendered it in vivid colors--a flourish that paid homage to an even earlier work, a 1920s poster by the German designer Paul Renner showcasing the modernist sans serif typeface he called Futura," the Times wrote.

"I rationalized that Joyce was a modernist," Goldberg said in an interview with the graphic designer Sean Adams. "That was my hook."

She left CBS in 1982 to start her own business, creating designs for books, records, posters and media companies. "Carin's work was stylish and smart and formally inventive," said author and book designer Peter Mendelsund, now the creative director of the Atlantic magazine. "She was also formally restless. Every single great book cover she made was different from the rest."

Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser recently visited Politics & Prose's Union Market store. She left with a copy of I Am Ruby Bridges (Orchard Books) for her daughter.

Black Garnet Books, St. Paul., Minn., posted a Twitter thread observing that "the best part about being a shop that prioritizes Black authors and creators is that every day we're open is in celebration and appreciation of Black history, Black futures, and collective freedom. 

"Black history is American history, and more. our history is the groundwork for the future, and the foundation of our present. this store exists within the context of a painful history, while simultaneously laying the foundation for a joyful future.

"being Black is a complex and full experience. we deserve more than a month, more than a display table that'll be packed up in 30 days (ahem... 28).

"I hope that this month, and every month, you'll consider the ways in which our liberation is intrinsically tied to all liberation.

"and after you consider, and read, and learn... I hope you'll act. I hope your every day actions will reflect to those around you that Black history is their history, is our future, and we know very little without knowing it. 

"we can change very little without understanding it.

"thank you for loving/caring for the piece of Black history/future that is this shop. I'm not doing much different this month bc overwork is a particular part of Black history that I have no interest in, and our engagement with Black orgs/people/youth is an every month thing.

"white and non-Black folks need to be the ones uplifting us without us taking on all the legwork!! amen?? if that resonates with you, you can support us by buying a book or gift card, as always."

Jessica Kastner Keene has joined WaterBrook and Multnomah as publicity manager. She has 10 years of book publicity experience, most recently at Rowman & Littlefield. She is also the author of Hiding from the Kids in My Prayer Closet and is a writer in the Christian market.

Love Is Loud: How Diane Nash Led the Civil Rights Movement by Sandra Neil Wallace, illustrated by Bryan Collier (Paula Wiseman/Simon & Schuster).

Today:
Fresh Air: Jere Van Dyk, author of Without Borders: The Haqqani Network and the Road to Kabul (Academica Press, $38, 9781680538656).

Tomorrow:
Good Morning America: Christina Tosi, author of Just the Right Cake (Rocky Pond, $18.99, 9780593110713).

Drew Barrymore Show: Jay Shetty, author of 8 Rules of Love: How to Find It, Keep It, and Let It Go (Simon & Schuster, $28.99, 9781982183066).

Tamron Hall Show: Marcus Stroman, author of The Grip (S&S/Aladdin, $17.99, 9781665916141).

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, February 4
2 p.m. Adam Mendelsohn, author of Jewish Soldiers in the Civil War: The Union Army (‎NYU Press, $35, 9781479812233). (Re-airs Sunday at 2 a.m.)

3:30 p.m. Joel Paul, author of Indivisible: Daniel Webster and the Birth of American Nationalism (Riverhead, $30, 9780593189047). (Re-airs Sunday at 3:30 a.m.)

4:45 p.m. Steve Kemper, author of Our Man in Tokyo: An American Ambassador and the Countdown to Pearl Harbor (Mariner, $29.99, 9780358064749). (Re-airs Sunday at 4:45 a.m.)

Sunday, February 5
8 a.m. Kermit Roosevelt III, author of The Nation That Never Was: Reconstructing America's Story (‎University of Chicago Press, $25, 9780226817613). (Re-airs Sunday at 8 p.m.)

10 a.m. Saket Soni, author of The Great Escape: A True Story of Forced Labor and Immigrant Dreams in America (Algonquin, $28, 9781643750088). (Re-airs Sunday at 10 p.m.)

11 a.m. Debby Applegate, author of Madam: The Biography of Polly Adler, Icon of the Jazz Age (Doubleday, $32.50, 9780385534758). (Re-airs Sunday at 11 p.m.)

12 p.m. Live In-Depth q&a with Lance Morrow, author of The Noise of Typewriters: Remembering Journalism (Encounter, $27.99, 9781641772280). (Re-airs Monday at 12 a.m.)

4 p.m. Jonathan Freedland, author of The Escape Artist: The Man Who Broke Out of Auschwitz to Warn the World (‎Harper, $28.99, 9780063112339). (Re-airs Monday at 4 a.m.)

6:30 p.m. Eugene Linden, author of Fire and Flood: A People's History of Climate Change, from 1979 to the Present (Penguin Press, $28, 9781984882240). (Re-airs Monday at 6:30 a.m.)

The Romantic Novelists' Association named A Christmas Celebration by Heidi Swain as the winner of the 2023 Popular Romantic Fiction Award, which is voted for by librarians, booksellers and book bloggers/reviewers. The RNA also unveiled shortlists in nine categories for this year's Romantic Novel Awards. Winners will be announced during the RNA's Romantic Novel Awards ceremony, set for March 6 in London. See the complete RNA shortlists here.

Selected new titles appearing next Tuesday, February 7:

Unnatural History by Jonathan Kellerman (Ballantine, $28.99, 9780525618614) is the 38th thriller with psychologist Alex Delaware.

Three Can Keep a Secret by M.E. Hilliard (Crooked Lane, $28.99, 9781639102365) is the third mystery with librarian/sleuth Greer Hogan.

Chrome Valley: Poems by Mahogany L. Browne (Liveright, $26.95, 9781324092278) is by the Lincoln Center's inaugural poet-in-residence.

People vs. Donald Trump: An Inside Account by Mark Pomerantz (Simon & Schuster, $29.99, 9781668022443) outlines a criminal case against Trump by a lawyer who worked for Manhattan's district attorney.

We Over Me: The Counterintuitive Approach to Getting Everything You Want from Your Relationship by Khadeen Ellis and Devale Ellis (Rodale, $27, 9780593577608) advises focusing on a partner's needs over one's own desires.

Permission to Speak: How to Change What Power Sounds Like, Starting with You by Samara Bay (Crown, $28, 9780593238684) is by a Hollywood speech coach.

A Minor Revolution: How Prioritizing Kids Benefits Us All by Adam Benforado (Crown, $28.99, 9781984823045) chronicles the country's grave mistreatment of its own children.

Happy Easter from the Crayons by Drew Daywalt, illus. by Oliver Jeffers (Philomel, $9.99, 9780593621059) features the friendly wax characters decorating a giant egg together.

Wildblood by Lauren Blackwood (Wednesday Books, $18.99, 9781250787132) is a YA fantasy that takes place in a Jamaican jungle filled with monsters.

Paperbacks:
Maureen: A Harold Fry Novel by Rachel Joyce (Dial Press, $17, 9780593446423).

Not the Plan by Gia De Cadenet (Dell, $17, 9780593356647).

Booth by Karen Joy Fowler (Putnam, $18, 9780593331453).

The Hotel Nantucket by Elin Hilderbrand (Back Bay, $18.99, 9780316258982).

Such Pretty Flowers by K.L. Cerra (Bantam, $17, 9780593500255).

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

Hardcover
Everybody Knows: A Novel by Jordan Harper (Mulholland, $28, 9780316457910). "What Don Winslow's The Force did with the NYPD and New York, Everybody Knows does with Hollywood and Los Angeles. A wonderful yet wretched exploration of human nature, you will struggle to put this book down or ever forget it." --Hilary Kotecki, The Doylestown & Lahaska Bookshops, Doylestown, Pa.

Moonrise Over New Jessup: A Novel by Jamila Minnicks (Algonquin, $28, 9781643752464). "An absolutely breathtaking debut that celebrates Blackness in all of its triumphs. Both an in-depth exploration of all-Black towns and a love story all the same, Jamila Minnicks has written a stunning and poignant modern classic." --Mary Louise Callaghan, Bookmarks, Winston-Salem, N.C.

Paperback
The Dream Builders: A Novel by Oindrila Mukherjee (Tin House, $17.95, 9781953534637). "A fascinating look at modern Indian culture through an imaginary city, a homage to consumerism, capitalism, and globalization. The creative structure pulls back the curtain and shows what it means to live in this glittery, modern place." --Cori Cusker, Bright Side Bookshop, Flagstaff, Ariz.

For Ages 4 to 8
The Kindest Red: A Story of Hijab and Friendship by Ibtihaj Muhammad and S.K. Ali, illus. by Hatem Aly (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, $18.99, 9780759555709). "People often wish for 'World Peace.' In The Kindest Red, Faizah wishes for 'World Kindness.' Isn't that the first step to world peace? This simple picture book with a big message celebrates diversity and personal responsibility." --Angie Tally, The Country Bookshop, Southern Pines, N.C.

For Ages 8 to 12
Trashed! by Martha Freeman (Simon & Schuster/Paula Wiseman Books, $17.99, 9781665905350). "When Arthur discovers a teacup in his parents' second-hand shop, life takes a turn to the adventurous. Arthur teams up with his best friend, little sister, and a ghost mouse to get to the bottom of some seemingly unrelated mysteries." --Chelsea Stringfield, Parnassus Books, Nashville, Tenn.

For Teen Readers
Queen Among the Dead by Lesley Livingston (Zando Young Readers, $19.99, 9781638930181). "Queen Among the Dead is bright, authentic and spellbinding. The story takes place in a kingdom where magic is outlawed and druids hoard and misuse magic. When Eire is threatened, an outlaw and a princess team up to secure a safer future." --Kahill Perkins, Raven Book Store, Lawrence, Kan.

[Many thanks to IndieBound and the ABA!]

Emilia Hart's first novel, Weyward, glows and glimmers with hidden powers, thrills and danger, a close connection with nature and between women across time. Three distinct stories eventually link to form a larger tale about strength, resilience and love.

Altha goes on trial for witchcraft in the English countryside in 1619. In 2019 London, Kate attempts to escape an abusive partner while harboring a significant secret. And at a grand estate in 1942, teenaged Violet struggles against the limitations of her father's strict household rules, consumed by an unladylike love for trees, insects and other natural wonders. In alternating chapters, each of these stories deepens. Altha, the daughter of a healer, tries her best to follow in her beloved late mother's footsteps, helping her neighbors and causing no harm, while dodging the increasingly avid witch-hunters of her time. Locked in a Lancaster dungeon, Altha does what she can to protect herself. Kate flees the city undetected, holing up in a cottage inherited from a great-aunt she hardly knew, but her safety there is tenuous as she plans for an uncertain future. Violet is a tenacious and spirited 16-year-old, but powerless as she is imprisoned in her father's world; she dreams of becoming a biologist or an entomologist, but cannot even visit the local village. Men in the Weyward world, in all three timelines, are sources of power and abuse, not kindness, but Violet's loyal brother forms a notable exception.

Each woman must learn about and come to terms with her powers and her connections to the natural world. Violet is passionately entwined with a particular beech tree, with damselflies and weasels, but no one will even tell her her mother's name, let alone the family history that she senses casts a shadow on her life. Having lost her father at a young age in a curious accident, Kate lives in fear of the birds and insects that most call to her. Altha is reluctant to exercise her full powers, having promised her mother she would be careful. But, she says, "I had begun to suspect that nature, to us, was as much a life force as the very air we breathed."

Hart expertly weaves together disparate but connected storylines, with leaves and butterfly cocoons and a mountain stream. Her protagonists are strong, but hard beset by the forces around them, even across centuries. Her prose sparkles with wonder and simmers with danger. Weyward's atmosphere is compelling, as each plot thread offers suspense. With a momentum of its own, this debut draws readers inexorably to a glorious conclusion that celebrates connectedness and the power of women and nature. --Julia Kastner, librarian and blogger at pagesofjulia

Shelf Talker: The stories of three imperiled protagonists across centuries connect in this suspenseful, magical debut about the power of women and the natural world.