Ghoulish Books, the San Antonio area's first horror-focused bookstore, officially opened on Independent Bookstore Day at 9330 Corporate Dr, Suite #702, Selma, Tex.

Co-owned by Max and Lori Booth, the bookshop "marks an almost 10-year journey for the couple that began in 2012 when the two began a publishing company called Perpetual Motion Machine Publishing," MySA reported. "The duo were shipping published books from their 'kitchen operation,' as Booth referred to the home business. However, a rebrand was needed in 2020 after the couple realized they were publishing mostly horror genre books. That was when they changed the name to Ghoulish Books."

The opening was a success. On Saturday night, Max Booth posted on Facebook: "We are finally home after an action-packed grand opening. We sold over 300 books and took in over $5,000. Texas ghouls came through in a big way today and we are forever grateful. Thank you for supporting indie horror. Thank you thank you thank you." 

He told MySA:"I think San Antonio is a city that loves strange and spooky stuff. It just has that vibe to it. I think having a specific niche is how you grow an audience instead of being broader. We believe if you make that available the right type of ghouls will find us."

The idea for a retail location began after a decade of publishing and growing, when the Booths started looking for office space and decided to create a bookstore along with the expansion.

"My wife and I always fantasized about opening a bookstore," Booth said. "We need a spot for an office, why not just go all in and do a bookshop on top of it." Upon learning that the former owner of Cibolo Chick Bookstore planned to close that store after opening in June 2022, Booth took advantage of the opportunity. 

Future plans include having a book club, a writing club, a section of spooky books for kids, and a monthly reading event for little ones. Lori Booth is looking forward to showcasing independent horror to a new diverse group of readers: "The horror community is so welcoming. I can go to any horror convention and I'll know someone. They are so excited for us to open and it is great to have that kind of support."

In their newsletter Ghoulish Times, the Booths recently chronicled their theme-appropriate wedding. 

Ashlee and Annie Denington

A Likely Story, a new and used bookstore with a general-interest inventory, opened on Saturday in Midway, Ky., Spectrum News 1 reported.

Owner Annie Denington and her mother, Ashlee Denington, carry some 1,300 titles, and while many genres are represented, the store has a particular focus on mysteries, thrillers, fantasy, and YA, which Ashlee noted are Annie's favorites.

Annie Denington has wanted to open a bookstore since she was a teenager. After developing Functional Neurological Disorder at 17, she decided that going to college was not the right path for her. Reading had become a major source of comfort for her, and eventually Denington decided that she would pursue her passion--books--instead of going to college.

The Deningtons founded A Likely Story in 2018 as a pop-up and online store. Opening a bricks-and-mortar store was always the eventual goal, but the Covid-19 pandemic slowed their plans.

Ashlee Denington told Spectrum News 1 that opening in time for Indie Bookstore Day was a bit of a race to the finish line, requiring an all-nighter on Friday to shelve all the books, but they got it done. "We all just dug in. Everything came together really great for us, it just all came together, so here we are, we made it."

Annie Denington said she's very happy with the store, and she'll "very much enjoy coming to work here every day."

On Wednesday, May 17, at 7 p.m. Eastern, Publishers Lunch and the American Booksellers Association will present a virtual Buzz Books Editors Panel, hosted by Publishers Lunch founder Michael Cader.

Five "breakout authors" will discuss new titles with their editors. The titles are Coleman Hill by Kim Coleman Foote (SJP Lit/Zando), Hush Harbor by Anise Vance (Hanover Square), Bonfire Night by Anna Bliss (Kensington), The Night of the Storm by Nishita Parekh (Dutton), and Holiday Country by Inci Atrek (Flatiron).

Staff at two Barnes & Noble stores are seeking to unionize.

In New York City, booksellers at the flagship store on Union Square have filed for a union election with the National Labor Relations Board, according to Gothamist. Inspired by the staff at the B&N Education store at Rutgers University, who will vote on unionization later this month, the Union Square booksellers want to be represented by the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union, which also represents booksellers at McNally Jackson and Greenlight Bookstore in New York. The proposed bargaining unit at the store includes 100 booksellers, baristas, cashiers, and other non-supervisory employees. Gothamist added that management had chosen not to recognize the union.

Issues for staff include pay, benefits, training for conflict resolution, hiring an adequate number of staff, shifting part timers who work long hours to full timers, scheduling, and more.

Bookseller Desiree Nelson told Gothamist: "We're stretched thin, and with a union we'd win the pay, needed benefits and long-overdue training and safety resources we need to attract more co-workers and adequately staff the store so our customers have a safer and better experience shopping with us."

In Hadley, Mass., staff at Barnes & Noble are also seeking to unionize and join the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 1459, according to the Shoestring. The union would represent 18 booksellers and baristas.

Last month, staff and supporters held a rally outside the store and issued a statement echoing the concerns of the Union Square staff. It read in part, "We are often told that booksellers and baristas are Barnes & Noble's most valuable assets. We agree, and have decided to come together to stand up for our rights as workers in order to foster the working conditions we deserve....

"The majority of our staff are still underpaid and without benefits, even while many of us are working nearly or actually at full time hours. Our schedules are inconsistent and often fall outside of our (unreasonably low) rostered number of hours. Our hours are constantly subject to unexpected and unexplained cuts, despite our store being consistently understaffed."

Harold Kushner

Rabbi Harold Kushner, a "practical public theologian whose bestselling books assured readers that bad things happen to good people because God is endowed with unlimited love and justice but exercises only finite power to prevent evil," died April 27, the New York Times reported. He was 88. Several of his 14 books became bestsellers, "resonating well beyond his Conservative Jewish congregation outside Boston and across religious boundaries in part because they had been inspired by his own experiences with grief, doubt and faith." 

Rabbi Kushner wrote When Bad Things Happen to Good People (1981) after the death of his son, Aaron. Just hours after the birth of the Kushners' daughter, three-year-old Aaron was diagnosed with a rare disease, progeria, in which the body ages rapidly. He died in 1977, two days after his 14th birthday.

"Like a lot of children who feel they're going to die soon, he was afraid he would be forgotten because he didn't live long enough, not knowing parents never forget," Rabbi Kushner told the alumni magazine Columbia College Today in 2008. "I promised I'd tell his story."

Published by Shocken Books, When Bad Things Happen to Good People rose to #1 on the Times' bestseller list and transformed Kushner into a popular author and commentator. His thesis, as he wrote in the book, was straightforward: "It becomes much easier to take God seriously as the source of moral values if we don't hold Him responsible for all the unfair things that happen in the world."

Kushner was born in the East New York section of Brooklyn, N.Y. His father owned Playmore Publishing, "which sold toys and children's books, especially Bible stories, from a shop at Fifth Avenue and 23rd Street that he hoped his son would take over. Harold felt he lacked his father's business sense," the Times noted.

"The only thing worse than competing with my father and failing would be competing with him and outdoing him," Rabbi Kushner said. "Going into the rabbinate was not a way of saying, 'I'm rejecting what you're doing.' I'm affirming it."

Among Rabbi Kushner's other books are How Good Do We Have to Be? A New Understanding of Guilt and Forgiveness (1997); Living a Life That Matters (2001); and The Lord Is My Shepherd: Healing Wisdom of the 23rd Psalm (2003). He also collaborated with the novelist Chaim Potok in editing Etz Hayim: A Torah Commentary, the official commentary of Conservative Jewish congregations (2001).

Rabbi Kushner often said he was amazed at the breadth of his readership across theological lines. In 1999, he was named clergyman of the year by the organization Religion in American Life. In 2007, the Jewish Book Council gave him a Lifetime Achievement Award.

In his book When All You've Ever Wanted Isn't Enough (1986), which was intended to be "an examination of the question of why successful people don't feel more satisfied with their lives," Rabbi Kushner observed: "Drawing on the Biblical book of Ecclesiastes, it suggests that people need to feel that their lives make a difference to the world. We are not afraid of dying so much as of not having lived."

The Midtown Scholar Bookstore, Harrisburg, Pa., hosted comedic actor, producer, and writer Rainn Wilson at the nearby Strand Theater. Wilson discussed his acting career and his new book, Soul Boom: Why We Need a Spiritual Revolution (Hachette Go). Pictured: Midtown Scholar staff and Wilson (seated)

"Today is May Day! Check out the display at our State Street location for books on the labor movement and worker's rights victories in Chicago history," Barbara's Bookstore, with several locations in the Chicago metro area, posted on Facebook yesterday.

To honor local indies in the Minneapolis area on Independent Bookstore Day, Lerner Publishing Group dropped off thank you bags with cookies, treats, notebooks, and more as a thank you to the stores and their teams for all that they do to support books. 
 
Thank you bags were delivered to Minneapolis indies Wild Rumpus, Birchbark Books & Native Arts, Magers & Quinn, Strive, Comma a Bookshop, and Moon Palace Books; St. Paul indies Red Balloon Bookshop and Black Garnet Books; and Excelsior Bay Books in Excelsior.

Super Bloom: A Novel by Megan Tady (Zibby Books).

Today:
Here & Now: James Catchpole, author of What Happened to You? (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, $18.99, 9780316506472).

Tomorrow:
Good Morning America: Emma Lovewell, author of Live Learn Love Well: Lessons from a Life of Progress Not Perfection (Ballantine, $28, 9780593497357).

The View: Minka Kelly, author of Tell Me Everything: A Memoir (Holt, $28.99, 9781250852069).

Tamron Hall: Jazmyn Simon and Dulé Hill, authors of Repeat After Me: Big Things to Say Every Day (Random House Books for Young Readers, $18.99, 9780593426975).

Lionsgate has released the trailer for its prequel film The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, based on the novel by Suzanne Collins. Deadline reported that it offers "a first look at tribute Lucy Gray Baird (Rachel Zegler) and Coriolanus Snow (Tom Blyth), with Peter Dinklage as the vindictive Casca Highbottom, Dean of the Academy, creator of the Hunger Games. Viola Davis is Head Gamemaker Volumnia Gaul."

The prequel in the $3 billion-grossing global franchise will hit theaters around the world on November 17. Hunger Games franchise sequel producer Francis Lawrence directed and will produce with the series producers Nina Jacobson and Brad Simpson. Collins, Tim Palen and Jim Miller are executive producers.

Stjenice (Bedbugs) by Martina Vidaić of Croatia and published by Naklada Ljevak is the winner of the 2023 European Union Prize for Literature, which recognizes emerging fiction writers from the European Union and beyond.

There were five special mentions, ordered by country, and with titles translated into English:

Cyprus: The Outpost by Hari N. Spanou (Aegan Publications)
Estonia: Pâté of the Apes: One Primate's Thoughts and Memories by Tõnis Tootsen (Kaarnakivi Seltsi Kirjastus)
Finland: Destruction by Iida Rauma (Siltala Publishing)
France: The Hour of Birds by Maud Simonnot (Editions de l'Observatoire)
Kosovo: Red Riding Hood, a Fairy Tale for Adults by Ag Apolloni (Bard Books)

Jean Luc Treutenaere, co-president of the European & International Booksellers Federation, said: "It is a pleasure for me to congratulate the EUPL 2023 winner and special mentions as well as all of this year's nominees. These brilliant emergent authors' works represent the richness of our European culture and the diversity of European contemporary literature. I wish them all a successful literary career and many great books that will fill the shelves of bookshops all around Europe and beyond and that will cross borders and help us understand each other better."

---

The shortlist has been released for the £10,000 (about $12,465) Royal Society of Literature Ondaatje Prize, which recognizes "an outstanding work of fiction, nonfiction or poetry that best evokes the spirit of a place." The winner will be announced on May 10. This year's shortlisted titles are:

Heritage Aesthetics by Anthony Anaxagorou
Scary Monsters by Michelle de Kretser 
The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida by Shehan Karunatilaka
England's Green by Zaffar Kunial
Black Butterflies by Priscilla Morris 

The judges said, "What captivated us about all five books on the shortlist was the revelations they gave us: powerfully evoked landscapes that felt sometimes home, but sometimes alien and hostile worlds because of the political forces that strafe across them like bullets. Cinematic in scope and description, we were enticed by personal stories connected to larger histories, rich and adventurous language, and revelations that sometimes bordered on an unexpected new form of creative documentary. All these books defy narrow national boundaries, and we've relished an unflinching power of individual figures standing up against violence and hostility, and facing down darkness, with decency and love."

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory meets Mr. Lemoncello's Library with a grownup twist in Meg Shaffer's whimsical, wistful first novel, The Wishing Game.

Lucy's only wish in life is to adopt Christopher, an orphaned seven-year-old stuck in the foster system. Her meager teacher's-aide pay and multiple-roommate living situation disqualify her as a potential mom. Her dream gets a surprise second chance when she receives an invitation to the remote island home of reclusive mega-bestselling children's author Jack Masterson, who hasn't released a new book in years. Masterson has at last written a new book in his wildly popular, long-running children's series Clock Island, and he's holding a competition for ownership of the single existing copy. If Lucy wins, she can sell the book for enough money to start a new life with Christopher.

She makes the trek from California to Masterson's quirky Victorian mansion on the real Clock Island, off the coast of Maine. There she will pit her riddle-solving skills and lifelong fan's knowledge of Clock Island against competitors who share a special commonality with her: each of them ran away to Clock Island as children. Also waiting on the island is Jack's gorgeous and grumpy cover illustrator and caretaker, Hugo Reese, who says of Jack, "[H]e's Albus Dumbledore, Willy Wonka, and Jesus Christ all rolled into one. If Dumbledore, Wonka, and Christ had depression and drank too much." Returning to Clock Island makes Lucy look back on the painful past that caused her to flee to it as a teen and continues to haunt her. While she fights to stay a step ahead of her competitors and begins to fall for Hugo, Jack has a surprise ending up his sleeve for all of them that would astonish Wonka himself.

Shaffer tenderly portrays lost souls finding each other in this feel-good story that will ignite nostalgia for those most-loved reads from childhood. Lucy's steadfast yearning to give a bereft boy the love and attention her parents never gave her is a solid, complex emotional anchor for the fairy-tale concept. The riddles of Clock Island and the sweet, supportive romance blossoming between Hugo and Lucy lend a balancing lightness to the heavier matter of excavating and healing psychological wounds. Anyone who has ever dreamed of escaping into the world of a book should find resonance here, not to mention an affirmation of their inner child. --Jaclyn Fulwood, blogger at Infinite Reads

Shelf Talker: A young woman accepts an invitation to a Wonka-esque competition in this whimsical, emotionally deep novel of second chances.

The bestselling self-published books last week as compiled by IndieReader.com:

1. Keyboard Rich by Bill Von Fumetti
2. Value Creation Kid by Scott Donnell and Lee Benson
3. For the Love of Whiskey by Melissa Foster
4. The Worst Wedding Date by Pippa Grant
5. The Inmate by Freida McFadden
6. Pucking Around by Emily Rath
7. Haunting Adeline by H.D. Carlton
8. Right Man, Right Time by Meghan Quinn
9. Things We Never Got Over by Lucy Score
10. Things We Hide from the Light by Lucy Score

[Many thanks to IndieReader.com!]