"In a world where knowledge is power, let's line up and stand against the oppressors who attempt to restrict what we read. It's time to unleash the transformative power of literature and empower ourselves and others with the gift of knowledge. 

"So, let's make a pledge to support independent bookstores, local libraries, and authors who dare to speak truth to power. Remember, books are not just objects on a shelf; they are portals to new worlds, catalysts for change, and weapons against oppression."

Net sales at Amazon in the second quarter ended June 30 rose 10.8%, to $134.4 billion, while net income was $6.7 billion compared to a net loss of $2 billion in the same period a year earlier.

Both sales and net income topped analysts' expectations: sales of $134.4 billion were $2.96 billion higher than what analysts predicted, and earnings per share of 65 cents were nearly double predictions of 35 cents a share. As a result, in after-hours trading yesterday, the company's stock price rose 7%, to $137.90 a share. Amazon estimated that sales in the third quarter will grow between 9% and 13%, to between $138 billion and $143 billion, both above analysts' estimates.

Amazon's stock price has rallied lately. As the Wall Street Journal noted, "As of the close of regular trading Thursday, the stock had jumped by more than half this year, regaining ground after steep losses. Amazon's stock hit an all-time high in 2021 but then fell by more than 50% through the end of last year, as the company worked through changes in consumer demand and an expensive overbuild of its logistics network."

Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said in part, "It was another strong quarter of progress for Amazon. We continued lowering our cost to serve in our fulfillment network, while also providing Prime customers with the fastest delivery speeds we've ever recorded. Our AWS growth stabilized as customers started shifting from cost optimization to new workload deployment, and AWS has continued to add to its meaningful leadership position in the cloud with a slew of generative AI releases."

Amazon's core retail business has been healthy, while its highly profitable cloud-computing division--Amazon Web Services--again had a slower rate of growth than the same quarter a year before (12% instead of 33%).

The company is seeing the financial benefits of the cost cutting it has undergone in the past year following its rapid expansion during the height of the pandemic. Among other steps, it's closed some of its stores, including all its Amazon Books locations; paused its second headquarters project in Virginia; and laid off nearly 30,000 employees. More jobs could be cut: the Wall Street Journal wrote that the company's "office workforce could shrink further as it rolls out a new policy requiring employees to either relocate to major Amazon corporate hubs, such as Seattle and New York, or face termination."

Some observers believe Amazon's cost-cutting measures on the retail side will hurt the company that has built a mythology of being focused completely on its customers. The New York Times noted that Tom Forte, an analyst with D.A. Davidson, wrote last week to investors "about several disappointments he had experienced with Amazon, including no longer being able to have a defective product picked up for free by UPS. Now, he wrote, there is a $7.99 fee."

Forte commented: "In our view, Amazon is playing a 'game of chicken' and banking on other e-commerce companies not to offer a superior service, instead of its historical approach of working backwards with a customer-obsessed approach."

The Times also reminded readers that the Federal Trade Commission is "widely expected to file a lawsuit against the company accusing it of violating antitrust laws." Although many in the book world and elsewhere will applaud that, "a resolution could be years away."

Private equity firm KKR is in "advanced talks" to buy Simon & Schuster for about $1.65 billion, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing "people familiar with the situation." Other bidders include News Corporation, which owns HarperCollins and the Journal, and investor Richard Hurowitz, who was backed by the Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund manager.

Owner Paramount Global put S&S up for sale again early this year after the sale to Penguin Random House fell apart in October when the Justice Department won its suit blocking that deal. Second-round bids for S&S were due last month.

The $1.65 billion price for S&S is significantly lower than PRH's offer of $2.2 billion. But as the Journal pointed out, PRH had to pay a $200 million termination fee when its deal collapsed, and S&S has done well lately: in 2022, sales rose 19%, to $1.18 billion, and operating profit rose 16%, to $248 million. Paramount Global first put S&S up for sale in 2020.

KKR manages some $500 billion in assets in a range of businesses. Last month it announced that it was selling RBmedia, the audio publisher that includes Recorded Books, Tantor Media, and GraphicAudio, to private equity firm H.I.G. Capital for more than $1 billion. KKR bought RBmedia in 2018 for about $500 million from yet another private equity firm. The Journal noted that KKR often gives "an ownership stake in companies in which it invests to the acquired firms' employees. In the case of RBmedia, the average payout for its employees will be a minimum of $50,000 at the close of the deal."

Observers have suggested that KKR has an advantage over HarperCollins because it is not a publisher and wouldn't raise the kinds of anti-competitive concerns that caused the Justice Department to sue to block PRH's purchase of S&S.

While a KKR purchase of S&S would mark the first time a private equity fund owned a major U.S. publisher, KKR has owned RBmedia for five years and private equity firm Elliott Management has owned Barnes & Noble since 2019. Elliott's U.K. arm, Elliott Advisors, bought Waterstones in 2018.

Union workers at Powell's Books in Portland, Ore., have voted to authorize a potential strike, KGW8 reported. 

While the vote does not initiate a strike, it does allow the union's bargaining team to call for one going forward. The union, which is affiliated with the International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 5, has been in contract negotiations with the bookstore since February. Per the Portland Mercury, the previous union contract expired in June and the bookstore is expected to make its next offer toward the end of this month.

Myka Dubray, ILWU Local 5 Union Representative who has worked at Powell's since 2015, told the Mercury that the two sides are close to an agreement on expanded healthcare coverage, but the sticking point remains wages and pay scale. Dubray noted that the workers want a "path to a living wage," and as they are no longer bound by the previous union contract, they are planning some "feisty actions" in the coming weeks.

In a statement, Powell's said it deeply values its employees and respects "their right to engage in protected union activity. Powell's Books has successfully engaged in contract negotiations with ILWU Local 5 for more than two decades, each time finding common ground that unites us. Our latest proposal includes immediate wage increases and further upholds excellent healthcare benefits that allow us to remain competitive in a challenging economic environment for retail. We are hopeful that we will reach an agreement soon that is sustainable and honors our employees."

Penzler Publishers is launching an imprint, Crime Ink, that will focus on literary true crime. Crime Ink plans to publish four to six books in its first year, starting in the winter of 2024. Crime Ink will be distributed by W.W. Norton and Company, which also distributes the Mysterious Press, Scarlet, and American Mystery Classics.

The editor of Crime Ink will be Tom Wickersham, formerly manager of the Mysterious Bookshop, and the publisher will be Charles Perry, a position he currently holds with the Mysterious Press, American Mystery Classics, Scarlet, and MysteriousPress.com, an electronic book publisher--the other imprints of Penzler Publishers. Luisa Smith will oversee as editor-in-chief of Penzler Publishers.

Otto Penzler, CEO of Penzler Publishers, said, "True crime is an important publishing category that has enjoyed a long history of success. When Tom Wickersham agreed to join us in this venture, his extraordinary knowledge in this field immediately convinced me that we had a great addition to our team that would prove to be innovative and successful."

Wickersham commented: "I am excited to join Penzler Publishers and contribute to the rich genre of true crime with Crime Ink. We are poised to launch in the spring of 2024 with The Serial Killer's Apprentice, the first modern examination of 1970s serial killer Dean Corll. Also under contract are a biography of New York crime journalist Jimmy Breslin, a comprehensive account of the Son of Sam killings, and a series in translation from France. We will strive to publish revelatory works that shed new light on old cases, expose modern injustices, and expand the classification of true crime as we know it."

Marlena Spieler

Food writer Marlena Spieler, whose best work "combined a globe-trotting knowledge of world cuisine (she spent around a third of the year travelling) with a sunniness of tone and consistently exciting recipes," died July 6, the Guardian reported. She was 74. Hot and Spicy, her groundbreaking 1985 cookbook, "included a host of Mediterranean recipes that could easily come from one of [Yotam] Ottolenghi's books, including spiced versions of hummus and baba ganoush as well as other Middle Eastern delights such as zhoug (a fiery Yemenite green sauce seasoned with green chillies), and shakshuka, that staple of the modern brunch scene."

Spieler wrote more than 70 cookbooks, starting with Naturally Good in 1974, and co-authored or contributed to more than 25 others. Her titles include Jewish Cooking; Best-Ever Book of Jewish Cooking; Recipes from My Jewish Grandmother; Grilled Cheese: 50 Recipes to Make You Melt; A Taste of Naples; and The Vegetarian Bistro. Her book Yummy Potatoes led to a role as an ambassador to the United Nations' International Year of the Potato conference in Peru. Above all, she wrote about the cuisines of her favorite countries, especially Mexico and Italy.

"I love garlic passionately. I yield to its voluptuous presence often, even at the point of destroying my social life," she once wrote. The Guardian noted that "her good-humored ebullience did not always endear her to the stuffier elements of British food-writing circles. Although she lived in Britain for the last 35 years of her life... her work was less recognized here than it was in her native U.S."

From 2000 to 2010, she wrote the Roving Feast column for the San Francisco Chronicle, and in 1992 she won a James Beard Award for her book From Pantry to Table: Creative Cooking from the Well-Stocked Kitchen.

"She would travel the world and bring back wonderful tales of food and adventure, and relate them all to what we were all eating and feeling here in Northern California," said Miriam Morgan, former food editor at the Chronicle. "Her recipes sparkled with life and were incredibly popular with readers.... She would come in with bags full of the most interesting and fabulous ingredients, and in a matter of minutes whip up something wonderfully delicious that we would then be able to share with our readers."

Ryan La Sala and Kosoko Jackson celebrated the launch of La Sala's novel The Honeys (Scholastic) in paperback at the Barnes & Noble on Atlantic Ave. in Brooklyn, N.Y. The Honeys is B&N's YA Monthly Pick for August.

Congratulations to Bear Pond Books, Montpelier, Vt., which is celebrating its 50th anniversary this weekend at a challenging time for the bookstore. In a message to friends of Bear Pond, the bookseller wrote: "Fifty years ago today Bear Pond Books opened its doors at 100 Main Street in downtown Montpelier. While we had planned to celebrate this momentous birthday this Saturday, life and weather had other plans. In the past 50 years we have weathered the flood of '92, the growth of Amaz*n, the birth of the e-reader, the recession of 2008, Covid shut-downs and now the flood of July 2023. We have moved, adapted, grown, and re-invented countless times and we will again, thanks to our hard-working staff and loyal, generous and well-read customers! 

"We can not thank you enough for all the support we have received in the past three weeks. When we were feeling overwhelmed and discouraged, your kind words, volunteer time, notes, donations and cookies have helped motivate us to rebuild and re-open better than ever! We literally could not do it without you. We will forever be grateful for the kindness you have shown us. 

"Status Update: The exciting news of the week is--our new floors are going in and they look great! This will enable us to move forward with the rest of the rebuild. New bookcases are arriving next week and then we'll really get going. We wish we could tell you when we'll be opening again but that remains tbd. We'll keep you posted!"

Village Books and Paper Dreams, Bellingham and Lynden, Wash., has founded the Village Books Literary Citizenship Award, which will be given annually to coincide with the anniversary of the bookstore's founding on June 20, 1980.

Owners Paul Hanson, Kelly Evert, and Sarah Hutton said the award will honor people who have "demonstrated a commitment to engage with the literary community with the intent of giving as much, if not more so, than they receive. This can take many different forms such as giving back to the literary community in a meaningful way, making yourself available to other writers as time allows to provide your knowledge and expertise, championing other people's successes, and involving yourself in the local literary landscape of independent bookstores, libraries, and writing organizations." Each winner receives $1,000 and will be inducted into the Village Books Literary Citizen Hall of Fame, which will be on permanent display in Village Books, Fairhaven, Bellingham.

The first recipients of the Village Books Literary Citizenship Award are:

Joan Airoldi (1946-2022), who was executive director of the Whatcom County Library System, fought the FBI about a patron's book in 2004, and won a PEN/Newman Award.

Laurel Leigh Erdoiza (1963-2023), a writer, teacher, and editor who taught creative writing and memoir classes through the Chuckanut Writers Program, helped found the Chuckanut Writers Conference in 2004, and hosted Village Books' Open Mic for more than a decade.

Rena Priest, an enrolled member of the Lhaq'temish (Lummi) Nation, who served as the sixth Washington State Poet Laureate (2021-2023), was the 2022 Maxine Cushing Gray Distinguished Writing Fellow, and has received a range of awards. For the book I Sing the Salmon Home, Priest gathered poems from more than 150 Washington poets, ranging from first graders to tribal elders, all inspired by the Northwest's iconic salmon.

For more about the honorees and the award, click here.

Elora Sullivan has joined Chronicle Books as senior marketing manager.

---

At Sourcebooks:

Danielle Drenth has joined the company as senior marketing associate for Callisto Publishing.

Emily Luedloff has been promoted to marketing specialist for the retail marketing & creative services team.

The Detective Up Late by Adrian McKinty (Blackstone Publishing).

Tomorrow:
Good Morning America: Elizabeth Acevedo, author of Family Lore: A Novel (Ecco, $30, 9780063207264).

Skydance has acquired the rights to Mickey Spillane's and Max Allan Collins's Mike Hammer franchise "with plans to develop and produce the bestselling book series as a feature film based on the iconic character," Deadline reported. No writers, directors or actors are attached yet.

Hammer is the protagonist of a series of hardboiled detective novels, starting with I, the Jury (1947). "With more than 250 million copies of Mike Hammer books sold globally, it is often recognized as the most popular American mystery/thriller series of all time," Deadline noted. "Hammer is credited with inspiring numerous other characters including Dirty Harry, Jack Reacher and James Bond (who Ian Fleming famously referred to as 'the British answer to Mike Hammer')."

The producers have the rights to the Hammer catalogue, which includes dozens of stories, books and graphic novels written by Mickey Spillane as well as those co-authored by Spillane and Collins, who wrote Road to Perdition.

Kiss Me Deadly was adapted into a 1955 film directed by Robert Aldrich and starring Ralph Meeker as Hammer. In 1999, it was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress.

A longlist has been released for the 2023 Toronto Book Awards, which honor "books of literary merit that are inspired by Toronto." The shortlist will be announced later this summer and a winner named at a ceremony in October. The winner receives CA$15,000 (about US$11,235) and each shortlisted author gets C$1,000 (about US$750). This year's longlisted titles are:

Nomenclature by Dionne Brand 
Half-Bads in White Regalia by Cody Caetano 
Really Good, Actually by Monica Heisey
The Story of Us by Catherine Hernandez 
Denison Avenue by Daniel Innes & Christina Wong
Wild Fires by Sophie Jai 
On the Ravine by Vincent Lam 
Moving the Museum by Wanda Nanibush & Georgiana Uhlyarik 
The Melancholy of Summer by Louisa Onomé 
Finding Edward by Sheila Murray 
Quality Time by Suzannah Showler 
The Fake by Zoe Whittall 
Clara at the Door with a Revolver by Carolyn Whitzman 

photo: Gabrielle McLean

Candi Sary is a graduate of the University of California, Irvine, whose first novel, Black Crow White Lie, won a Reader Views Literary Award, a Chanticleer International Book Award, and was first runner-up for an Eric Hoffer Book Award. The mother of two adult children, Sary lives in Southern California with her husband, a dog, a cat, and several ducks. Magdalena (Regal House Publishing, paperback, July 11), her second novel, was inspired by her experiences of motherhood.

Handsell readers your book in 25 words or less:

Magdalena is part ghost story, part tender tale of love, loss, and longing. Think Shirley Jackson! This novel explores the complexities of obsession and love.

On your nightstand now:

Poverty, by America by Matthew Desmond--I mostly read fiction, but I'm drawn to nonfiction when something important like this comes out.

The Door by Magda Szabó--A novelist on a podcast raved about this one, so I had to pick up a copy.

Have Mercy on Us by Lisa Cupolo--I'm rereading this brilliant collection of essays, as it was chosen for this month's book club.

Favorite book when you were a child:

My favorite was an old book of fairy tales my mom read to me. One story, "Jack and the Beanstalk," is somehow etched in my mind as a childhood experience. I have a vivid, colorful memory of climbing the beanstalk.

Your top five authors:

Toni Morrison, Mary Oliver, Ann Patchett, José Saramago, and Anne Tyler.

Book you've faked reading:

I read the first three chapters of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone to my kids when it first came out, but when their teachers started reading it in class, I stopped. It ended up being the most talked-about book. Fans were so obsessed with it, they seemed offended I'd only made it to chapter three. I decided to start agreeing with how amazing the story was (I did see the movie) and omit the fact that I hadn't read it.

Book you're an evangelist for: 

Bertolt by Jacques Goldstyn is a children's book about a boy whose best friend is an oak tree. The story and illustrations are so incredibly beautiful--for both children and adults. I always have two copies at the house. One I keep. One I give away to anyone interested after I rave about it. I've gifted at least 10 copies.

Book you've bought for the cover:

An Instagram friend in Australia posted The Kites by Romain Gary with a glowing review. The story intrigued me, but I mostly wanted to buy it for the gorgeous yellow cover. Unfortunately, that cover was not available online. So I went to my local bookstore, they worked their bookish magic, and for a slight premium and a couple weeks' wait, I got my yellow cover. (The inside ended up being just as wonderful.)

Book you hid from your parents:

I don't remember hiding any books from my parents. Even my diaries were too tame to hide.

Book that changed your life:

Jazz was the first Toni Morrison novel I ever read. Back in the '90s, there was a sale at the library, and I bought it on cassette tape for a couple of dollars. I was so blown away by it, I bought a paperback copy to reread it. Then I went on to read all of her novels. Toni Morrison made me fall in love with language and storytelling in ways no other writer had. Twenty-eight years ago I sat down and attempted my first novel, because I had to do something with all that love she inspired.

Favorite line from a book:

Oh, there are too many to name! But I'll go with Shirley Jackson's first line from The Haunting of Hill House, which I used as the epigraph in Magdalena: "No live organism can continue for long to exist sanely under conditions of absolute reality; even larks and katydids are supposed, by some, to dream."

Five books you'll never part with:

Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace--I couldn't get through it on my own, so I recruited five friends to read along with me. Each week we read 25 pages and got together to discuss. It took us over a year to finish. It became a favorite, because having six pairs of eyes on it helped explain and expand the novel, not to mention how much it made us laugh together. My worn copy is full of highlights, notes, and memories that won't allow me to part with it.

War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy--The same group of friends read this classic together as well. We called our weekly meetings "War and Peace and Therapy," since we spent maybe 10 minutes discussing the book and the rest of the hour talking about life.

Upstream by Mary Oliver--I reread this gorgeous little book once a year. It's a love letter to both nature and literature. I'm in awe of Mary Oliver's mind--how she merges childlike wonder with the wisdom of age.

Girl Factory by Jim Krusoe--I had my book club read this novel back in 2008, and that's how my reputation for suggesting bizarre books began. This one is wildly unique. A must-read.

The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson--because it's brilliant!

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

I read The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern during the pandemic. It was probably the darkest time of the lockdown for me. This novel made me want to wake up each morning and escape into its magical world. The story is deliciously original and full of surprises. I'm hoping if I wait a few more years to reread it, I'll have forgotten enough of the details so I can fall back into its spell.

Graham Zimmerman felt strongly about climbing from his earliest experiences growing up in the Pacific Northwest, and by age 25 was an avid and accomplished international alpinist with his dreams focused on nothing else. But injury, loss, climate change, and a yearning for connection have forced him to consider how to combine his love for alpine ascents with social and environmental pursuits. A Fine Line: Searching for Balance Among Mountains is his thoughtful story of climbing communities in broader context, and his philosophies for a life well lived.

Not yet 40 at its writing, Zimmerman acknowledges "this is not a complete work," calling his book "a signpost along the way." It is still dense with lessons learned and offered, however. At just over 200 pages, A Fine Line reads quickly, many of its action sequences adrenaline-filled as Zimmerman recounts climbs with varying levels of success. It is also a neatly organized memoir, with the tensions between climbing and everything else appearing early. Following a major award, he experiences a significant fall, injury, and lengthy recovery, emphasizing the dangerous nature of his passion and his financial insecurity. The women he attempts to date react poorly to months-long absences on risky expeditions. Frequently climbing at high altitudes amid shrinking glaciers also alerts Zimmerman (trained in geology and glaciology) to the impacts of human-caused climate change. And the young alpinist wrestles with loss, as numerous fellow climbers--his friends--die in the mountains. A mentor cites what he calls the "100-year plan": to make decisions that will set one up to live to be 100. "I was 26 and only occasionally thought about turning 30, let alone ticking over into triple digits," Zimmerman reflects. "Do I have a death wish...? No, just a case of severe myopia." This plan, and meeting the fellow athlete whom he would marry, reset the narrator's views on risk. Over time he comes to focus on being not just a better climber, but a smarter, safer one: "It hadn't been more time in the mountains that had set me up for success; rather, it was a stable relationship and being surrounded by positive influences."

As its subtitle forecasts, A Fine Line is about finding balance between an extreme sport in remote natural settings and "actual life in the lower regions." As a crafted work of memoir, the book mirrors that achievement with its own balance between gorgeously written adrenaline rushes and philosophic reflections about intentional living, healthy relationships, athletic ambition, and service to human communities and the natural world. Obviously for fans of extreme outdoor sports, Zimmerman's debut is also recommended for readers seeking wisdom and balance in any pursuit. --Julia Kastner, librarian and blogger at pagesofjulia

Shelf Talker: Alpine climber Graham Zimmerman's memoir, dense with lessons learned and offered, recounts how he sought balance between his sport and the other elements of life.

How did you celebrate Paperback Book Day on July 30? Or perhaps a better question would be: Did you know PBD was even a thing? I confess it crept up on me. What is PBD? Officially, it's a day to acknowledge both the importance of the format in making books more affordable and accessible to the general public, as well as an acknowledgement of Penguin's role in the effort. 

This is how Penguin describes the historical turning point: "In 1934, on his way to London after visiting his friend Agatha Christie, the young publisher Allen Lane stopped at the station bookstall at Exeter St. Davids and saw that all the books on sale were of a poor quality and overpriced. What was needed, he realized, were good books at a price everyone could afford. Within a year he had founded Penguin Books, creating a paperback revolution that democratized quality literature and would fundamentally change the publishing world forever."

On July 30, 1935, Penguin released its first 10 paperback titles, featuring orange covers for fiction, blue for biography and green for crime. Each cost sixpence. The lineup included Ariel by Andre Maurois, A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway, Poet's Pub by Eric Linklater, Madame Claire by Susan Ertz, The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club by Dorothy L. Sayers, The Mysterious Affair by Agatha Christie, Twenty-Five by Beverley Nichols, William by E.H. Young, Gone to Earth by Mary Webb, and Carnival by Compton Mackenzie. 

Allen Lane

The jury will always be out for book historians on whether this was the birth of the paperback. Even the Guinness World Records folks have a qualifier: "Allen Lane was not the first publisher to attempt a run of high quality mass market paperbacks, but his was the first to achieve significant success. The branding and overall philosophy of the new Penguin imprint was heavily influenced by an earlier series of books, published under an imprint called The Albatross, which were printed in Germany in 1932."

Thurber House in Columbus, Ohio, provided some additional context: "Paperback Book Day is an ode to the paperback books in the world and the journey they've come along since their inception. Many people think of the English publishing house, Penguin, when they think of paperback history. While it is true that paperbacks' popularity on a large scale took place when Penguin started commercializing the idea in the 20th century, the history of paperbacks goes further back to the 17th century. European countries like Germany and France were already publishing stories and papers in the paperback-like format then."

In the 21st century the impending demise of the affordable paperback format has occasionally popped up, and was particularly in the air when e-books were having their relatively brief run to greatness. "The Dog-Eared Paperback, Newly Endangered in an E-Book Age," a New York Times headline blared on September 2, 2011. A survey released by the Association of American Publishers and the Book Industry Study Group revealed that while the publishing industry had expanded overall, mass-market paperback sales had fallen 14% since 2008. And yet, 12 years later, whither the e-book? 

I celebrated Paperback Book Day quietly at home reading a trade paperback: Lars Iyer's upcoming novel My Weil (Melville House). I also kept an eye on social media to see if booksellers were in a PBD mood, and some were, including:

At Horizon Books

Horizon Books, Cadillac, Mich.: "Today is Paperback Book Day! What's not to love about a good, floppy paperback? Check out the newest paperback releases to pack for summer vacation."

Anderson's Bookshop, Naperville, Ill.: "It's National Paperback Book Day (we are not making this up, we promise), so we walked our sales floors and did a quick poll of our booksellers and customers and here is a stack of the best paperbacks everyone we talked to has read lately. What paperbacks would you add to our stack?"

At Theodore's Books

Theodore's Books, Oyster Bay, N.Y.: "It's #paperbackbookday! Move over hardcovers. It's time for a beach read. What book are you throwing in your bag today?? We want to know."

Underground Books, Sacramento, Calif.: "#DYK: Today marks #PaperbackBookDay. On this day, we commemorate the anniversary of the first Penguin paperbacks published in 1935, which revolutionized the world of literature. The introduction of paperback books made reading more accessible to everyone."

Fables Books, Goshen, Ind.: "All paperbacks are perfect for slipping into your pocket or bag to take with you wherever you go.... Visit us today and find your next read."

At Barnes & Noble, Thornton, Colo.

Eureka Books, Eureka, Calif.: "We love all books, but paperback books do have their own unique charms. They are lighter weight making them great for putting in a bag, taking on a trip and, in most cases, they are budget friendly! Happy reading!"

In the May 1935 edition of the Bookseller, Allen Lane wrote: "I would be the first to admit that there is no fortune in this series for anyone concerned, but if my premises are correct and these Penguins are the means of converting book borrowers into book buyers, I shall feel that I have perhaps added some quota to the sum of those who during the last few years have worked for the popularization of the bookshop and the increased sales of books."

Happy Belated Paperback Book Day! 

The following were the most popular book club books during July based on votes from book club readers in more than 83,500 book clubs registered at Bookmovement.com:

1. Lessons in Chemistry: A Novel by Bonnie Garmus (Doubleday)
2. Demon Copperhead: A Novel by Barbara Kingsolver (Harper)
3. Hello Beautiful by Ann Napolitano (Dial Press)
4. Mad Honey: A Novel by Jodi Picoult and Jennifer Finney Boylan (Ballantine Books)
5. The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese (Grove Press)
6. Horse: A Novel by Geraldine Brooks (Viking)
7. West with Giraffes: A Novel by Lynda Rutledge (Lake Union)
8. Remarkably Bright Creatures: A Novel by Shelby Van Pelt (Ecco)
9. The Personal Librarian by Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray (Berkley)
10. The Measure: A Novel by Nikki Erlick (Morrow)

Rising Stars:
Hang the Moon by Jeannette Walls (Scribner)
Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros (Entangled: Red Tower Books)

[Many thanks to Bookmovement.com!]