A highlight of the second full day of the Winter Institute was the Author Reception, featuring a range of authors who signed books and galleys and met some of the more than 900 booksellers in attendance.

At the Wednesday evening author reception, (seated) Alisha Fernandez Miranda, author of My What If Year, and Megan Tady, author of Super Bloom (both from Zibby Books), with (standing, left) Jasmine Cintron from Boogie Down Books, Bronx, N.Y., and Jeanne Emanual from Zibby.

Helen Macdonald (H Is for Hawk) and debut novelist Sin Blaché signed their forthcoming novel Prophet (Grove Atlantic, Aug.) for Julie Slavinsky (standing) from Warwick's in La Jolla, Calif.

Meghan Heyden from River Bend Bookshop in Glastonbury, Conn., picked up a copy of Jon Klassen's The Skull: A Tyrolean Folktale, coming from Candlewick in July.

Colson Whitehead signed copies of his new novel, Crook Manifesto (Doubleday, July), for Jazzi McGilbert (l.) and Tameka Blackshir from Reparations Club in Los Angeles, Calif.

Gaël LeLamer and Mitchell Kaplan of Books & Books, South Florida, with Héctor Tobar (center), whose new book, Our Migrant Souls: A Meditation on Race and the Meanings and Myths of "Latino", is coming from MCD in May.

(l.-r.): Taj McCoy, Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah, moderator Calvin Crosby, Andrew Joseph White and Chloe Gong.

"Is it too late to rebrand this panel 'Genre as Activism'?" asked moderator Calvin Crosby, co-owner of The King's English Bookshop, Salt Lake City, Utah, at Tuesday's keynote luncheon, New Voices in Genre.

Although the four panelists' work ranges from romance to speculative fiction to horror to fantasy (with some smudging of the lines a bit), their new books all incubated during the pandemic and social upheaval, and Crosby asked them to talk about how those factors have influenced their work.

Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah responded, "Deep sigh. So much happened between my first book [Black Friday, Mariner, 2018] and my second [Chain-Gang All-Stars, coming from Pantheon on May 2]. The whole world was grieving. My mother was sick; my father passed just before my first book came out. There was this internal pain and then pain on this grand scale." In Chain-Gang All-Stars, prisoners who participate and excel in death matches for three years can have their sentences commuted and even go free. As he started researching, the book kept expanding. Adjei-Brenyah observed "a huge outsourcing of massive suffering" and that "a lot of the carceral space is hidden." He believes that "your suffering is my suffering, actually," and that love and abolition are the same thing.  

Crosby told Taj McCoy that the heroine of her romcom Zora Books Her Happy Ever After (Mira, April) was "one of the most believable books I've read in fiction." He noted that "Zora is community-minded, and you're also community-minded." McCoy believes "we make things better when we do it together." During Covid, she hosted "productivity Zooms daily." She and her friend Lane Clarke (Love Times Infinity) were "spitballing" ideas, and Zora Books Her Happy Ever After was the result. McCoy described Zora as a "plus-size bookstore owner with a crush on an author" who's having an event at her store. She calls it an ode to Cyrano de Bergerac; Zora winds up dating the author and his friend.

"My psyche shattered after I read this," Crosby told Andrew Joseph White, in reference to his YA horror book The Spirit Bares Its Teeth (Peachtree Teen, Sept.). "There's a viciousness to this book; the title almost prepares you for what's inside." White credited his fiancé, who was in the audience along with White's mother, with naming the book. He described it as "an angry book" starring an autistic trans boy diagnosed with the madness-inducing Veil sickness and shipped off to Braxton's Sanitorium and Finishing School in Victorian England. White said he spent the pandemic "trapped in a building" in a 750-square-foot apartment, "writing 380 pages of attempted conversion therapy."

Although Chloe Gong wrote her first adult novel, Immortal Longings (Gallery/Saga Press, July), in isolation, its setting is very dense: an ancient walled city in Hong Kong, inspired by the now nearly vanished Kowloon Walled City, and also by Antony and Cleopatra ("the figures, more than Shakespeare," Gong explained). Princess Calla's parents have been killed, and Anton has ties to the aristocracy; they must remain hidden. Gong describes it as "Hunger Games if it were directed by [Wong Kar-wai] the director of In the Mood for Love." Crosby observed, "You bring in chi in a way no other book has." Gong, who was born in Shanghai and raised in Auckland, New Zealand (and now lives in New York), said, "I mess around with it a lot in a way my ancestors would not approve of. You are your soul, not your body, so the book has body-jumping. Anton jumps around all the time."

At Crosby's prompting, the authors shared their favorite local bookstores. For Adjei-Brenyah, who lives in the Bronx, it's The Lit. Bar. McCoy, who's lived several places, gave a shout-out to East City Bookshop and Politics and Prose (both in D.C.), and Adjei-Brenyah added Loyalty Bookstores (also in D.C.) and Book Passage in Corte Madera and San Francisco, Calif. White's favorite is Bards Alley in Vienna, Va. (where his fiancé works), and for Gong, it's Astoria Bookshop in Queens, N.Y. --Jennifer M. Brown

Stories Like Me children's bookstore, which is located at 4381 Murray Ave. in the Greenfield neighborhood of Pittsburgh, Pa., will host its grand opening celebration this Saturday, February 25. The store posted on Instagram: "This has been a long time coming and we are delighted to be able to share this moment with you all. We will have a ribbon cutting, speakers, activities, snacks, and of course, stories! We are partnering with the @jfcspgh Squirrel Hill Food Pantry: if you bring a donation, we will give you a coupon for 10% your purchase on that day! A list of suggested donations is in our bio. We cannot WAIT to see you there!!!"

The bookstore, which launched as an online and pop-up business in the fall of 2018 and had a soft opening for the physical bookshop in November 2022, was co-founded by CEO Helen Campbell and her daughters, Imogen Campbell Hendricks (literary specialist) and Elsie Campbell (education specialist).

Stories Like Me's mission is to create "a corner of the world in which all children can see themselves in the images and stories around them, creating a community of readers and storytellers who understand their own value as well as the value of others. With our mission of being the most comprehensive and accessible resource for diverse and empowering children's literature, we strive to promote equality, equity, and inclusion, both in literature and in life."

The Booksellers Association of the U.K. & Ireland has published the findings of its inaugural Workforce Survey as part of a long-term commitment to make bookselling, and the wider book, media and creative industries, more inclusive and representative. Overall, 185 booksellers from 118 bookshops took part in the survey, which was conducted by EA Inclusion. The key findings include:

• 71% of respondents identified as female (vs. 51% of the population*)
• 7% of respondents' gender identity differs from the sex they were assigned at birth (vs. 1% of the population*)
• 23% of respondents identified as LGB+ (lesbian, gay, bi, or preferred to self-describe their sexual orientation) (vs. 3% of the population*)
• 7% of respondents identified as being from ethnic minority groups (excluding white minorities) (vs. 18% of the population*)
• 29% of respondents identified as having a disability or long-term health condition (vs. 18% of the population*)
• 23% of respondents have a neurodiverse condition (vs. 15% of the population [ACAS])
• 35% of respondents are currently experiencing mental health problems (vs one in six in the population [Mind])
• 59% of respondents had professional backgrounds (vs. 37% of the population [Social Mobility Commission])
• 17% of respondents attended an independent of fee-paying school (vs. 7% of the population [Sutton Trust and Social Mobility Commission])
• The majority of respondents agreed/strongly agreed that they feel included (93%), respected (92%), and like they belong (94%) at work.
• A high proportion of respondents agreed/strongly agreed that their organization values and is committed to diversity and inclusion (89%) and is making progress addressing diversity and inclusion (82%).
• Just over half (52%) of respondents agreed/strongly agreed that the culture in the bookselling industry is inclusive.

*All comparison population figures unless otherwise stated refer to the England & Wales 2021 census.

BA managing director Meryl Halls called the inaugural Workforce Survey "a vital step in our wider commitment to making bookselling more inclusive and representative of the population. We are very proud of the fact that there are many areas in which booksellers over index compared with the national population--including LGTBQ, those with long term health conditions, and those will mental health challenges. It seems to us clear from these statistics that bookselling is a de facto safe space for those from a variety of demographics, and this should be a source of pride for our sector. However, in other areas, it is clear there is a long road ahead, particularly in the representation of booksellers from ethnic minority groups. We look forward to continuing to work closely with our existing cohort of booksellers, as well as our partners at the Publishers Association and Association of Authors Agents, among many others, to ensure a more inclusive future for the book world. The BA will be working with its Equality and Inclusion Action Group to formulate a practical action plan for booksellers, ranging from employment and staffing, through stock and sourcing, to community engagement." 

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European & International Booksellers Federation director Julie Belgrado and policy advisor Daniel Martín Brennan are currently attending the ABA Winter Institute in Seattle, Wash. EIBF's Newsflash reported that they are "having a great time gaining new insights into bookselling and networking with booksellers and other book trade professionals from the U.S. and the rest of the world."

On Tuesday, they tweeted: "Hello from @ABAbook's Winter Institute! We're thrilled to be here in Seattle joining our colleagues overseas for these 4 days of packed programme--now attending a keynote on how can #bookshops stand tall & resilient against the pressure of corporate monopolies."

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Canada is celebrating Freedom to Read Week, which runs from February 19 to 25. Quill & Quire reported that the Book and Periodical Council organizes the annual event "to encourage book people of all sorts to think and talk about the intellectual freedoms afforded to us under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, even if we aren't seeing the same overt anti-education and anti-personhood sentiments displayed so prominently in Canada."

"Those conversations do still make their way here," said Michelle Arbuckle, co-chair of the BPC's Freedom of Expression committee. "I think it's important every year to flex that muscle and have that conversation to talk about the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, what we experience here, and the state of reading in this country."

Each year during Freedom to Read Week, the committee releases the results of its annual survey of books that have faced challenges at public libraries across Canada. --Robert Gray

Rizzoli Bookstore in New York City hosted Billy Porter for his memoir Unprotected (Abrams), now in paperback. He was in conversation with Tommy DiDario, followed by a meet-and-greet with fans. 

On Tuesday, Kenny Brechner, owner of Devaney Doak & Garrett Booksellers, Farmington, Maine, posted on Facebook: "I'm very excited that a terrific new book, Murder Your Employer: The McMaster Guide to Homicide by Rupert Holmes is out today. I must say that it reminded me of a personal favorite book, Evelyn Waugh's The Loved One. I'm just hoping other readers take an interest in it as well because... (Meg and Beau here. Unfortunately Kenny was unable to finish today's post due to some exquisitely foreseen circumstances. On the plus side we can tell you that his last hope was realized)."

"Forget the milk and TP! Get your books!" Novel Bay Booksellers, Sturgeon Bay, Wis., cautioned its customers yesterday in sharing a snowstorm-inspired sidewalk chalkboard message: "This week's forecast calls for 8-10 books needed to survive the snow."

Independent Publishers Group has added four new publishers to its Spanish-language and Trafalgar Square Publishing programs:

Editorial Destellos, which focuses on accessible and high-quality children's and young adult literature, with stories celebrating diversity and the human experience. Worldwide distribution, excluding Puerto Rico.

Catapulta Editores, which publishes books for all ages. More than 20 years ago, Catapulta started as Klutz in Latin America before being bought out by Scholastic and later partnering with Quarto to create the Spanish-language imprint, Quarto Iberoamericana. North American print distribution.

Alegría Publishing, which publishes Latine/x stories that have traditionally been excluded from the book publishing industry. Alegría's books are created for a new generation of diverse and bilingual readers who want to see themselves reflected in the stories they read. North American distribution.

LID Publishing, a U.K. publisher specializing in general business publications, including non-fiction books, biographies and professional journals. North American distribution, beginning June 1, 2023.

Users by Colin Winnette (Soft Skull Press).

Tomorrow:
Live with Kelly and Ryan: Jocelyn Delk Adams, author of Everyday Grand: Soulful Recipes for Celebrating Life's Big and Small Moments (Clarkson Potter, $32.50, 9780593236215).

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 25
2 p.m. Roger Lowenstein, author of Ways and Means: Lincoln and His Cabinet and the Financing of the Civil War (Penguin Press, $30, 9780735223554). (Re-airs Sunday at 2 a.m.)

2:58 p.m. Walter Stahr, author of Salmon P. Chase: Lincoln's Vital Rival (‎Simon & Schuster, $35, 9781501199233). (Re-airs Sunday at 2:58 a.m.)

3:41 p.m. John Rhodehamel, author of America's Original Sin: White Supremacy, John Wilkes Booth, and the Lincoln Assassination (Johns Hopkins University Press, $27.95, 9781421441610). (Re-airs Sunday at 3:41 a.m.)

4:29 p.m. Elizabeth Leonard, author of Benjamin Franklin Butler: A Noisy, Fearless Life (‎The University of North Carolina Press, $36, 9781469668048). (Re-airs Sunday at 4:29 a.m.)

5:30 p.m. Jeff Guinn, author of Waco: David Koresh, the Branch Davidians, and A Legacy of Rage (Simon & Schuster, $29.99, 9781982186104). (Re-airs Sunday at 5:30 a.m.)

6:30 p.m. Andrew Delbanco delivers the 50th annual Jefferson Lecture, presented by the National Endowment for the Humanities, in which he discusses reparations for slavery. (Re-airs Sunday at 6:30 a.m.)

Sunday, February 26
8 a.m. Arthur Laffer, co-author of Taxes Have Consequences: An Income Tax History of the United States (‎Post Hill Press, $28, 9781637585641). (Re-airs Sunday at 8 p.m.)

8:55 a.m. Jessica Lander, author of Making Americans: Stories of Historic Struggles, New Ideas, and Inspiration in Immigrant Education (Beacon Press, $30.95, 9780807006658). (Re-airs Sunday at 8:55 p.m.)

2 p.m. Jonathan Augustine, author of Called to Reconciliation: How the Church Can Model Justice, Diversity, and Inclusion (Baker Academic, $19.99, 9781540965035). (Re-airs Monday at 2 a.m.)

3:55 p.m. Emily Bingham, author of My Old Kentucky Home: The Astonishing Life and Reckoning of an Iconic American Song (Knopf, $30, 9780525520795), and Renee Harrison, author of Black Hands, White House: Slave Labor and the Making of America (Fortress Press, $28, 9781506474670), at the Southern Festival of Books in Nashville, Tenn. (Re-airs Monday at 3:55 p.m.)

4:43 p.m. Margaret Burnham, author of By Hands Now Known: Jim Crow's Legal Executioners (Norton, $30, 9780393867855), and Imani Perry, author of South to America: A Journey Below the Mason-Dixon to Understand the Soul of a Nation (Ecco, $32.99, 9780062977403), at the Southern Festival of Books. (Re-airs Monday at 4:43 a.m.)

6:40 p.m. Donald Yacovone, author of Teaching White Supremacy: America's Democratic Ordeal and the Forging of Our National Identity (Pantheon, $32.50, 9780593316634), at the Odyssey Bookshop in South Hadley, Mass. (Re-airs Monday at 6:40 a.m.)

A shortlist has been unveiled for the £2,000 (about $2,410) Jane Grigson Trust Award, created in memory of the British food writer to recognize "a first-time writer of a book about food or drink which has been commissioned but not yet published." The winner will be named March 14. Runners-up receive £100 (about $120) in book tokens. This year's shortlisted titles are:

The Balkan Kitchen by Irina Janakievska
Bahari: Recipes from an Omani Kitchen and Beyond by Dina Macki 
Caribe': A Cookbook with History by Keshia Sakarah 

Selected new titles appearing next Tuesday, February 28:

Jamie MacGillivray: The Renegade's Journey by John Sayles (Melville House, $32, 9781612199887) follows a Scottish rebel sentenced to servitude in the New World.

The Crane Husband by Kelly Barnhill (Tor, $19.99, 9781250850973) is a modern retelling of a Japanese folk tale.

Empireland: How Imperialism Has Shaped Modern Britain by Sathnam Sanghera (Pantheon, $29, 9780593316672) brings a U.K. bestseller to the U.S. with a foreword by Booker Prize-winner Marlon James.

I'm So Effing Hungry: Why We Crave What We Crave--and What to Do About It by Dr. Amy Shah (Harvest, $28.99, 9780358716914) is a guide to curbing food cravings.

Don't Think, Dear: On Loving and Leaving Ballet by Alice Robb (Mariner, $29.99, 9780358653332) is a memoir about attending the School of American Ballet.

Chaos Theory by Nic Stone (Crown, $18.99, 9780593307700) is a YA romance featuring two young people living with grief, mental illness and addiction.

Nightbirds by Kate J. Armstrong (Nancy Paulsen Books, $19.99, 9780593463277) is a YA fantasy in which women's magic is outlawed.

Paperbacks:
South to America: A Journey Below the Mason-Dixon to Understand the Soul of a Nation by Imani Perry (Ecco, $19.99, 9780062977373).

The Fell: A Novel by Sarah Moss (Picador, $17, 9781250863119).

Nettle & Bone by T. Kingfisher (Tor Trade, $17.99, 9781250244000).

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
Brutes: A Novel by Dizz Tate (Catapult, $27, 9781646221677). "In her outstanding debut, Dizz Tate has created a searing look at a group of young friends, the Brutes, who move as one and disrupt as they go. Set in Florida and traveling across time, Brutes illustrates childhood devoid of innocence." --Caitlin Baker, Island Books, Mercer Island, Wash.

Hardcover
Really Good, Actually: A Novel by Monica Heisey (Morrow, $27.99, 9780063235410). "This book follows a woman's first year of singledom after her brief marriage unceremoniously falls apart. Depression, delusion, and self-pity all star here, but the author handles it all with tenderness and a dash of humor." --Tracy Affonso, Wellesley Books, Wellesley, Mass.

Paperback
Georgie, All Along by Kate Clayborn (Kensington, $16.95, 9781496737298). "Kate Clayborn always delivers, and Georgie, All Along is no different. The writing is engrossing and diverting and it's impossible not to love Georgie as she finds herself and her way. This is an excellent winter read to curl up with." --Preet Singh, Eagle Eye Book Shop, Decatur, Ga.

For Ages 3 to 7
This Little Kitty by Karen Obuhanych (Knopf Books for Young Readers, $18.99, 9780593435144). "Anyone who's had cats will find these pages familiar. I particularly love the kitties receiving their loving, and one chomping down on the human's hand. Great expressions, hilarious mischief, and fun rhymes that don't feel forced." --Tegan Tigani, Queen Anne Book Company, Seattle, Wash.

For Ages 8 to 12
Rare Birds by Jeff Miller (Union Square Kids, $16.99, 9781454945048). "A coming-of-age story where a young man sees there are things bigger than himself. How better to learn the value of life than a new friend and a rare bird? A nice middle grade with the right amount of wonder, turmoil, adventure, and self-love." --Tina Greene-Bevington, Bay Books, Suttons Bay, Mich.

For Teen Readers
Blood Circus by Camila Victoire (Blackstone, $19.99, 9798200816088). "Blood Circus is a breath of fresh air. It is brutal, set in a complex dystopian future that is both familiar yet bizarrely different. Incredible book, one of the best I've had the pleasure to read this year. Completely unforgettable." --Kyle Page, Lake City Books and Writers Nook, Plattsburgh, N.Y.

[Many thanks to IndieBound and the ABA!]

In The New One, Evie Green (We Hear Voices) takes readers on a propulsive journey through grief, loss and secrets kept by those we love. This compelling novel will have readers up all night, following the tribulations of a struggling family offered a great gift--or possibly a curse.

Scarlett, the Trelawneys' daughter, was a perfect angel--brilliant, beautiful, sweet, gifted--until she turns 13. She then becomes a terror: lying, staying out late at night, neglecting her schoolwork. "They had become a shouty family," Green writes. "They all yelled at one another every day, and [Tamsyn] had no idea how to stop." In near-future Cornwall, Scarlett's parents, Tamsyn and Ed, are barely surviving in their humble camper: Ed works nights, and Tamsyn is up early mornings, "a peasant working in fields." They subsist on stolen cauliflowers and rarely speak to each other (without shouting). Then tragedy strikes: Scarlett is left lying in a hospital bed in a coma, and Tamsyn fears she'll never see her daughter conscious again. Just as their insurance runs out, they receive an offer that seems a mix of magic, miracle and horror: while a company called VitaNova rebuilds their daughter, the comatose Scarlett will receive the finest medical care, and her parents will be granted a fully funded fresh start in Geneva, Switzerland. Scarlett, now named Sophie (her middle name), is part human clone and part AI. She shares Scarlett's memories and gifts, although with the traumatic past year erased, and has been augmented with a better knowledge of French and physics--and a perfect, innocent love for her parents.

Most of the story is told from Tamsyn's point of view, with brief ventures into the perspectives of the other members of her family. Tamsyn is unsure of her manufactured daughter: this new one is so like her darling Scarlett that she's impossible not to love. But Tamsyn grasps what Ed seems not to: their real, true, original daughter still lies unconscious, and every bond with Sophie represents a small betrayal.

The New One's creepy Stepford atmosphere is not to be underestimated. Readers can see what even Tamsyn cannot: Sophie understands more than she seems to, and her best interests and Scarlett's may not align. Ed is keeping secrets. Geneva is a bit too perfect. Green's (aka British author Emily Barr) prose is compulsively readable, her characters disarming and capable of great mystery. The New One is deliciously disturbing, engrossing and surprising at its every turn. This not-to-be-missed novel of family dynamics and what it really means to be human and to love is both pleasurably escapist and thought-provoking. --Julia Kastner, librarian and blogger at pagesofjulia

Shelf Talker: Artificial intelligence, family troubles, love and aspiration combine for a delightfully suspenseful novel of secrets and betrayal.