Kitchen Lingo Books, a culinary bookstore with a selection of new and vintage cookbooks, food magazines and other food writing, has opened in Long Beach, Calif., Eater Los Angeles reported.

Owner Matt Miller opened the bookstore in a limited capacity during the first weekend of March. It resides in a 400-square-foot space at 2116 4th St. in a part of Long Beach called Retro Row, and Miller plans to start expanding hours in the coming weeks.

The store's vintage offerings include things like a 1930 copy of the Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook, and he plans to work with the community to create cookbooks filled with "hand-me-down recipes." He'll also launch an event series called A Seat at the Table, which will bring in members of the food and hospitality industry for panel talks and discussions. 

Miller has a background as a food writer and has worked in the restaurant industry as both employee and owner. He told Eater that he's hoping to create something like Now Serving, a culinary bookstore that opened in L.A.'s Chinatown in 2017.

Rosalee Book Boutique, a general-interest bookstore in Beaver Dam, Wis., will make its debut this Saturday, WiscNews reported.

Located at 234 S. Spring St., the bookstore will carry around 1,000 titles at opening, with owner Kayla Drake planning to expand the inventory as the store finds its footing. And while the store will carry mostly new titles, a selection of used titles will be available.

Drake, who grew up in nearby Horicon, Wis., hopes for the store to become a community gathering place and would like to host book clubs, storytime sessions and events with reading and literacy specialists.

"I want it to be a place to share this love of reading," Drake told WiscNews. "I want it to grow literacy in our community."

Her store is the first bricks-and-mortar bookstore to open in Beaver Dam since 2014, when Book World closed after nearly 30 years in operation. As a child, Drake recalled, she would beg her mother to drive to Beaver Dam so they could go to Book World. She described herself as an avid reader and said opening a bookstore was a lifelong dream.

That dream began to move toward reality earlier in the Covid-19 pandemic. Drake, who worked as a nurse, read as a way to de-stress from her job and started giving book recommendations to co-workers. She loved the feeling of sharing books with others, and in September 2022 decided to take the plunge. She'd been shopping for books at Walmart when a person next to her said, "Wouldn't it be great if Beaver Dam had a bookstore?”

Drake looks to host a grand opening celebration sometime in April.

Tor Publishing Group is launching an imprint, Bramble, dedicated to "a wide array of romantic stories for the modern reader." Titles will include science fiction and fantasy, contemporary and family sagas, and have "spice levels to suit all readers, with familiar tropes and uncharted territory."

Tor President and publisher Devi Pillai said, "Tor Publishing Group is the gold standard of genre publishing and it's the perfect time to have an imprint dedicated to romance. Bramble will be the destination for exceptional love stories of all kinds. Expanding into romance gives our team and our readers another chance to do what we do best: get obsessed! Plus, let's be real, I just want to publish more books I love to read!"

Monique Patterson has joined the company as v-p, editorial director, and will oversee and develop Bramble as well as acquire titles for the imprint, in addition to acquiring fiction and non-fiction outside of Bramble. Patterson has almost 25 years of publishing experience, specifically in romance.

Patterson said, "There is a reason that romance and romantic fiction are among the most popular and beloved stories in the world. They capture our hearts and imaginations and help us explore what love means to each of us. That is powerful."

Bramble's first titles will appear this fall and include Fall of Ruin and Wrath by Jennifer Armentrout, Calamity by Constance Fay, Alone with You in the Ether by Olivie Blake and Ocean's Echo by Everina Maxwell.

Oprah Winfrey has chosen Hello Beautiful by Ann Napolitano (Dial Press) as her 100th Oprah's Book Club selection. She made the milestone announcement on CBS Mornings yesterday, noting: "I'm telling you. This book has the power to transform the way you see your life and even the world. I have started to look at my own life in the world differently." 

Responding to the news, Napolitano said: "Oprah calling me on the phone, out of the blue, to tell me that she loved my novel and had decided to select it for her book club was so unbelievably exciting that I'm pretty sure I'm still in shock. She has done so much to amplify authors and their work. The writers and books she has featured in her club reads like a list of my literary heroes, and to be included among them is an unbelievable honor."

"The whole reason I started a book club was to uplift and inspire people," Winfrey recalled. "A great book not only enhances your life experience but can also change you. Our 100th selection does just that--you cannot read it without opening up, forgiving, seeing yourself and the relationships we weave in a new way. You come away more connected to life."

Since 1996, Winfrey’s book choices "have set her on a journey of extraordinary influence and success, frequent reinvention and the occasional controversy," the Associated Press wrote. "It has endured through changes for both Winfrey and the publishing industry, through the rise of the Internet and the end of Winfrey’s syndicated talk show, through immersions in the classics and unexpected lessons in the reliability of memoirs and the lack of diversity of book publishing."

In the coming weeks, Winfrey will join Napolitano and four Oprah's Book Club readers for a discussion of Hello Beautiful on OprahDaily.com.

British author Eileen Ramsay, whose 20 books included The G.I. Bride, A Schoolmistress at War and A Pinch of Salt, died recently. She was 82. The Bookseller reported that Ramsay grew up in Scotland, and after graduation moved to the U.S., where she taught in private schools in Washington, D.C., for several years. Then she and her Scottish husband moved to California, where "she raised two sons, finished her Master's Degree, fell in love with Mexico and published her first short stories and a Regency novel."

Ramsay and her family eventually returned to Scotland, where she continued to teach and write, as well as serve--at different times--on committees of the Society of Authors in Scotland, the Scottish Association of Writers and the Romantic Novelists Association, of which she was elected chairman (2015–2017). In 2004, her novel Someday, Somewhere was shortlisted for the Romantic Novel of the Year award.

Her other novels include A Way of Forgiving; The Stuff of Dreams; Rainbow's End; Henriqueta's Treasure; Love Changes Everything; Rich Girl, Poor Girl; The Farm Girl's Dream; The Dominie's Lassie; and The Glasgow Girl at War.

Ramsay's agent, Teresa Chris of Teresa Chris Literary Agency, said: "Eileen Ramsay was one of the most fascinating women I have known and worked with. A warm-hearted storyteller, her books gave great pleasure and provided escapism to an enormous number of people. I miss her so much."

Sarah Bauer, editorial director at Bonnier Books UK, added: "I was lucky to have worked with Eileen. She was a brilliant writer and a wonderful woman. I am pleased that so many got to know her through her writing and will continue to do so."

The Midtown Scholar Bookstore, Harrisburg, Pa., hosted Rebecca Serle (l.) for a discussion and signing for the paperback release of her novel One Italian Summer. Serle was in conversation with poet Kate Baer.

In the most recent episode of World Channel's Stories from the Stage, Hannah Harlow shares the captivating tale of her journey to becoming the owner of the Book Shop of Beverly Farms, Beverly, Mass. As the bookstore put it in a Facebook post: "Hey, it's Hannah on the TV!"

Boston PBS channel GBH shared the clip, noting: "It took a long, long time for Hannah Harlow to muster up the courage and finances to buy up the beloved Book Shop of Beverly Farms. When she finally did, the pandemic hit within a couple weeks and changed everything. Two years later, Harlow and the little yellow indie bookstore with the green awning in Boston's North Shore are still standing--helping so many in her community get through their grief, their anxiety, and their boredom along the way."

And we can't help but mention that at one point in the episode, Harlow recalled that "one glorious September morning," she discovered the bookstore was for sale in her daily reading of Shelf Awareness.

Pi Day at the Briar Patch

Many indie booksellers were celebrating Pi Day with social media posts, including:

"Title Wave Books, Anchorage, Alaska: "Happy Pie Day!! Which is your favorite; Pie or Pi? We love them both!! Come check out all the cool (and yummy) books we have on both!! How will you celebrate 3/14??"

The Briar Patch, Bangor, Maine: "Hurray for Pi Day! How do you celebrate this mathematical fest? By eating all the pie and posting this silliness at precisely 3.14159, of course!"

The Bookstore Plus, Lake Placid, N.Y.: "Happy Pi day! Our friends at @noonmarkdiner couldn't make it in to open their shop on Main St due to the storm, but they brought us slices yesterday! Apple, blueberry crumb and strawberry rhubarb. Free slice with any cookbook or pie-themed children's book."

Carmichael's Books, Louisville, Ky.: "Happy Pi(e) Day! It's a beautiful day to have fun with math and baking. A couple cookbooks perfect for the day are seen here, and if you need anyone to taste-test your pie creations, booksellers love treats."

In IPG's marketing department:

Lauren Klouda is being promoted from director of marketing to senior director of marketing.

Stefani Szenda is being promoted from marketing coordinator to associate marketing manager.

Kara Brock is being promoted from online content coordinator to senior digital marketing coordinator.

Serena Knudson is being promoted from accounts receivable – returns to, marketing associate.

Bianca Rodriguez is being promoted from rotating intern to marketing assistant.

In IPG's sales department:

Layne Ruda is being promoted from national accounts, sales coordinator to national accounts, sales representative.

Scott McWilliams is being promoted from sales associate to sales coordinator.

Jason Reasoner is being promoted to sales associate to sales coordinator.

A Take-Charge Girl Blazes a Trail to Congress: The Story of Jeanette Rankin by Gretchen Woelfle, illustrated by Rebecca Gibbon (Calkins Creek).

Today:
Fresh Air: Ricardo Nuila, author of The People's Hospital: Hope and Peril in American Medicine (Scribner, $28, 9781501198045).

Tomorrow:
Today Show: Gesine Bullock-Prado, author of My Vermont Table: Recipes for All (Six) Seasons (Countryman Press, $35, 9781682687352).

Kelly Clarkson Show: Hannah Fry, co-author of The Complete Guide to Absolutely Everything (Abridged): Adventures in Math and Science (W. W. Norton, $17.95, 9781324051039).

Watch What Happens Live: Paris Hilton, author of Paris: The Memoir (Dey Street, $30, 9780063224629). She will also appear on the Drew Barrymore Show.

Dav Patel (The Personal History of David Copperfield, Slumdog Millionaire) will star in and executive produce The Key Man, a limited series based on the 2021 book The Key Man: The True Story of How the Global Elite Was Duped by a Capitalist Fairy Tale by Simon Clark and Will Louch. Deadline reported that the project is from Miramax Television, "part of the company's increased international focus, signaled by the hire three years ago of former NBCUniversal International Studios executive Marc Helwig--who has deep European TV industry ties--as Miramax's Global Head of Television."

Mining the independent studio's library has been a priority for Helwig and his team, who have shepherded series projects based Miramax movies like The Gentlemen, Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, Gangs of New York, Chocolat, The English Patient and Prêt-à-Porter.

Helwig said, "Miramax is a legacy company built on backing innovative, new voices, and we are recapturing that essence in television with our approach to working with many new and emerging voices in Europe and beyond."

Patel executive produces The Key Man alongside Scott Delman (Station Eleven) and Florence Sloan (Dehli Crime), who had optioned the book.

Winners and honor books have been unveiled for the Ezra Jack Keats Book Awards, which were created "to nurture illustrators and writers, early in their careers, who create extraordinary books that reflect our diverse population, the universal experience of childhood and the strength of family and community." The awards are presented by the Ezra Jack Keats Foundation in partnership with the de Grummond Children's Literature Collection at the University of Southern Mississippi. This year's recipients are:

Writer winner
Kari Percival for How to Say Hello to a Worm (Rise X Penguin Workshop)

Honor books for writer
Juliana Perdomo for Sometimes All I Need Is Me (Candlewick Press)
Pauline David-Sax for Everything in Its Place (Doubleday Books for Young Readers)

Illustrator winner
Doug Salati for Hot Dog (Knopf Books for Young Readers)

Honor books for illustrator
Chiomoa Ebinama for Emile and the Field, text by Kevin Young (Make Me a World)
Zahra Marwan for Where Butterflies Fill the Sky (Bloomsbury)

The Ezra Jack Keats Award Ceremony will be livestreamed from the Fay B. Kaigler Children's Book Festival at the University of Southern Mississippi in Hattiesburg on April 13.

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The longlist for the International Booker Prize has been chosen and can be seen here. The shortlist will be announced on April 18 and the winner on May 23. The winning author and translator share the £50,000 (about $60,750) prize.

photo: Jennifer Yin

Colin Winnette, from Denton, Tex., is the author of several books, including Coyote (Les Figues Press), Haints Stay (Two Dollar Radio) and The Job of the Wasp (Soft Skull Press), an ABA Indie Next Pick. His new novel Users (Soft Skull Press; Feb.), another Indie Next Pick, follows a virtual reality creative whose hasty and tone-deaf decision-making makes him the target of death threats from his user community, leading him to invent a new product that is ultimately his downfall.

Handsell readers your book:

Users is a novel about the dissatisfactions of working in tech. It's also a novel about the rot at the heart of a dysfunctional family, and their struggle to live in a world where our thoughts are not our own, and our selfhood is being rapidly collapsed into our devices.

On your nightstand now:

I've got a stack of poetry books, which I always try to keep nearby. These include the hilarious, moving, witty and wise Normal Distance by Elisa Gabbert; the latest book by the wildly intelligent and always insightful Jessica Laser, Planet Drill; and the tender, moving and quietly surreal Sad Boy Detective by local legend Sam Sax. I've also just cracked the latest release from Fern Books, Papers by Violaine Schwartz. It's a challenging, human and ultimately enlightening work, presenting voices and stories of refugees from around the world who came to France seeking asylum.

Favorite book when you were a child:

Doctor De Soto by William Steig thrilled me! There's something so funny and charming about a little mouse dentist convincing his fox patient that he needs to have one tooth removed after another, ultimately leading to a literal defanging. The odd combination of a survival story that includes humor, body horror and a clever little mouse in a white frock probably had a more outsized influence on my work than I'm ready to admit.

Book you've faked reading:

I've said I read Gravity's Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon, but it's closer to the truth to say that I've looked at every page.

Book you're an evangelist for:

The Golden State by Lydia Kiesling. It's an incredible portrait of early motherhood from one of our most enjoyably intelligent writers. No joke, I've bought multiple copies just to hand them out to people.

Book you've bought for the cover:

Log of the SS the Mrs Unguentine by Stanley Crawford has a brilliantly striking cover and blurbs that made me feel like I had no choice but to buy it. They were right.

Book you hid from your parents:

I put a paper bag cover over Pet Sematary by Stephen King when I was in middle school. I couldn't stop myself from reading it in the cafeteria, but I hid it under the table, afraid an adult would approach and discover the irreversible corruption I was inflicting on myself. That one felt dangerous.

Book that changed your life:

Remembrance of Things Past by Marcel Proust completely changed the way I experienced the world for a while. It's brilliant on a psychological and metaphysical level, and it totally rearranged my thinking.

Favorite line from a book:

"Time just gets away from us." --True Grit by Charles Portis

Five books you'll never part with:

The Palm at the End of the Mind by Wallace Stevens is a poetry collection I find endlessly inspiring, intellectually and creatively. Norwood by Charles Portis is a book I return to for its humor and for the artful way Portis can write about serious things with a touch that makes you feel inexplicably happy and excited to be alive. His novels are magic tricks. My Heart Hemmed In by Marie NDiaye is a book with mysterious authority that I read casually whenever I'm creatively stuck because it still baffles and beguiles me. Eva's Man by Gayl Jones is a force to be reckoned with, and its perfect conceptual calibration of voice and structure is inspirational. Sorry to Disrupt the Peace by Patrick Cottrell is a powerful novel and a good reminder of how you can push against sentimentality in a way that evokes real depths of heart and longing.

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

I wept multiple times when reading All My Puny Sorrows by Miriam Toews. It unzipped me in a way that was a wonderful, cathartic surprise. I'd love to have that unexpected wave of feeling again.

Jennifer Berne possesses a tremendous gift for sharing the wonders of nonfiction with young readers. Whether she's introducing them to Emily Dickinson (On the Wings of Words) or sparking curiosity about Albert Einstein (On a Beam of Light), she expertly reels them into a world they perhaps never expected to love. How the Sea Came to Be is no different. The rich, rhythmic language of Berne's subaquatic exploration is as powerful as her imposing subject. When the stunning verse is experienced alongside the striking art from Amanda Hall (Out of This World), the reading experience is nothing short of mesmerizing.

Berne's words conjure detailed imagery: "Earth sizzled and simmered for millions of years. It bubbled and burbled and hissed." This text, paired with Hall's brilliantly colored and textured mixed-media illustrations, allows the audience to discover the ocean's evolution in an almost magical environment. The collaboration is divided into three parts: "the birth of the sea," "the birth of life" and "all that the sea came to be." Author and illustrator first explore the rage and violence of nature through storms and eruptions then delve into the miracle of teeny tiny life forms emerging, developing and populating the watery world. "There were ribbed and frilled creatures that wriggled and crawled... There were round jellyfish that drifted and squished." Each page offers readers a vivid microcosm to probe and absorb.

Once readers arrive at the current state of the ocean, Berne explains the layers of aquatic life. "In the deep midnight zone, there live fish in the dark with huge jaws and long, sharp, pointy teeth. There they sit in the black, as they wait for the food that drifts down to their world far beneath." Hall's double-page illustration must be turned 90 degrees to see the layers described--the length of the landscape format turned on its side allows the audience to appreciate the abundance of life that exists at the varying depths.

Berne and Hall bring readers back to the surface, exploring multitudes of creatures during the ascent and imparting wonderful tidbits and colorful imagery: "beware toothy sharks, barracudas, and eels, a ferocious and dangerous crowd./ .../ See the tiny seahorse, hear the porpoise's song, full of tales of the sea that it sings." The pair conclude their journey through space and time on the present-day shores of the ocean. This breathtaking tour then wraps with a treasure trove of additional resources readers can mine about organisms, terms, time periods and more. How the Sea Came to Be should captivate young scientists, historians and wordsmiths alike. It has the potential to create converts as well. This beautiful picture book is a prize addition to any library. --Jen Forbus, freelancer

Shelf Talker: The ocean--and life on this planet--takes shape in stunning verse and vivid imagery during a journey through the evolution of the sea.