Blue Star Press, Bend, Ore., has bought Sasquatch Books, Seattle, Wash., from Penguin Random House. Blue Star said that Sasquatch will "operate autonomously and maintain its editorial independence and creative identity, while Blue Star Press works to expand Sasquatch's opportunities for growth through additional sales, marketing, and manufacturing support." It added that the two publishers are "built on shared values of creativity and craftsmanship [and] have a proven track record of publishing premium quality, highly visual books for adults and children."

Founded in 1986, Sasquatch Books focuses on nature, travel, gardening, entertainment, sports, food and wine, and children's titles. Its imprints include Little Bigfoot and Spruce Books.

Founded in 2015, Blue Star publishes 40-50 titles a year focusing on creative how-to, soft crafts, coloring, health and wellness, self-help, parenting, children's, guided journals, games, gift, and more. It has been a Penguin Random House Publisher Services sales and distribution client since 2019 and just extended its sales and distribution agreement with PRHPS for another 10 years. Sasquatch became a PRHPS client in 2012 and was acquired by PRH in 2017.

Blue Star Press CEO Peter Licalzi said, "Investing in quality content is integral to Blue Star Press's growth strategy, and Sasquatch Books has an incredible portfolio that we're excited to help amplify. As Blue Star continues to expand and as industry competition intensifies, we want to bolster our centralized resources and broaden our portfolio to fuel greater creativity. Combining Sasquatch's esteemed reputation with Blue Star's innovative approach to publishing will help drive continued success and help us thrive in the evolving publishing landscape. This acquisition, combined with the extension of our longstanding distribution partnership with PRHPS, will enable us to scale more quickly and effectively."

Jeff Abraham, president of publishing operations, technology, and services, PRH, said, "Sasquatch Books' creativity, innovation, and attentiveness to their publishing perfectly aligns with Blue Star Press' mission, and makes a perfect fit for Sasquatch's next chapter. I'm appreciative to the Sasquatch team for their years of collaboration and am excited to continue our partnership with Blue Star Press as an ongoing client of Penguin Random House Publisher Services."

Underdog Bookstore in Monrovia, Calif., which was on the verge of closing due to bigoted harassment, will remain open as a nonprofit under new leadership, the San Gabriel Valley Tribune reported.

Next month, founding owners and married couple Thomas Murtland and Nathan Allen will leave the bookstore, and a new leadership team, headed by long-time customer Kealie Mardell-Carrera, will take over. The bookstore, which highlights titles by underrepresented authors and provides a safe space for marginalized communities, will transition from a for-profit model to a nonprofit model, with Mardell-Carrera serving as president.

This spring, Murtland and Allen announced their intention to step away from the store, citing incidents of harassment both in-store and online that included everything from anonymous homophobic comments to people berating staff members about the diverse selection of books. In fact, the frequency of in-store incidents eventually led Allen and Murtland to keep the store open only on weekends

And though they were stepping away, they didn't want the area to become a book desert, and told customers and community members that they would be "open to ideas" regarding ownership changes.

The suggestion of turning the bookstore into a nonprofit drew an enthusiastic response, with more than 30 people reaching out about volunteering or joining the board, Mardell-Carrera told the Tribune.

"It was really affirming that this is an important space, that we need to make the nonprofit happen," Mardell-Carrera added.

Going forward, Mardell-Carrera plans to expand Underdog's operating hours and create additional programming geared toward foster youth, disabled children, and seniors. The store will continue to subsidize books for community members with limited access, and it will remain a safe and inclusive space.

While the switch to a nonprofit model is not yet complete, the bookstore will hold a fundraising event this Sunday at a brewery that will feature therapy animals, crafts, a silent auction, and a used book sale.

Centuries & Sleuths Bookstore in Forest Park, Ill., will close permanently this summer after more than three decades in business, the Forest Park Review reported.

In May 2023, store owner August "Augie" Aleksy announced his plans to retire by the end of the year. He hoped to find someone who would buy both the bookstore and its building at 7419 Madison St., and he put his retirement plans on hold last December due to offers from two interested parties. Those buyers, however, fell through, and now Aleksy will close the bookstore this summer, sell the building, and donate any remaining inventory to the Oak Park Public Library.

"I love selling books," Aleksy told the Review. "I love meeting with people. But I'm really not crazy about the paperwork, paying the bills, handling taxes. I'm too old to be messing with that stuff, as far as I'm concerned."

In 1989, Aleksy left his job in banking to open a bookstore. His research at the Oak Park Public Library, as well as a survey he sent out, told him that mystery and history were the most popular subjects for Oak Park residents. Hence the bookstore's specialty, and its name Centuries & Sleuths. Its first home was at 743 Garfield St. in Oak Park, and the store moved into its current home in 2000.

He added: "It was, at least to date, the best 34 years of my life. It was wonderful, the people, the personalities."

Aleksy said he's looking forward to retirement and plans to do some traveling with his wife as well as write a book set in Europe prior to World War I.

The Book Industry Charitable Foundation has announced the winners of the Susan Kamil Scholarship for Emerging Writers, which awards $10,000 each to aspiring writer-booksellers working on full-length manuscripts.

The five recipients are:
Nicole Brinkley, manager of Oblong Books in Rhinebeck, N.Y., who is working on a science fiction manuscript;
Rachel Dillon, book events and programming manager at Beacon Hill Books & Cafe in Boston, Mass., whose manuscript is a poetry collection focusing on Gloucester, Mass.;
Brendan McHugh, bookseller at Green Apple Books in San Francisco, Calif., whose writing explores San Francisco's response to the AIDS crisis;
Liv Morris, bookseller at Harvard Book Store in Cambridge, Mass., who is working on a middle grade manuscript;
Joanna Roddy, bookseller at Roundabout Books in Bend, Ore., whose manuscript is a YA contemporary dark fantasy.

The scholarship is named for Susan Kamil, who was executive v-p and publisher of Random House prior to her death in 2019 and was known for recognizing and introducing new voices. Bestselling author and Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter Charles Duhigg and his wife, Liz Alter, who is a biology professor at California State University Monterey Bay, established the scholarship, with Binc administrating.

"These five writers--and all the applicants--show why booksellers are so important: they share new stories, build communities and, ultimately, keep our democracies strong," said Duhigg. "I know Susan would have loved these books and would have loved supporting writers bringing more beauty and truth into the world."

Pam French, Binc's executive director, noted that more than 250 writer-booksellers applied for the scholarship, resulting in Binc increasing the number of judges on the selection panel from four to seven. Added French: "We are grateful to them, Charles and Liz, and all the talented book and comic people we expect to be reading in the coming years."

In 2023, audiobook sales rose 9%, to $2 billion, continuing the category's steady growth over the years, and a majority of adults in the U.S. (52%) have listened to an audiobook, meaning that nearly 149 million Americans have yet to try audiobooks.

These and other findings came from surveys on sales and on consumer attitudes done for the Audio Publishers Association by Toluna Harris Interactive and Edison Research, respectively. They are available in their entirety to APA members.

Other findings:

Surveyed in February, some 38% of American adults listened to an audiobook, up from the 35% reported a year earlier. And the most avid audiobook fans listened to an average of 6.8, up from 6.3 a year earlier. Overall, all audiobook listeners listened on average to 4.8 audiobooks, up from 4 the year earlier.

Some 53% of adult audiobook listeners say their children also listen to audiobooks. And 77% of those parents say a key benefit of audiobook is giving their children a break from screens.

Some 46% of audiobook listeners have borrowed a digital audiobook from a library in the last year.

With 64% of sales revenue, fiction is the top audiobooks category for the third consecutive year. Top fiction categories are general fiction (21%), science fiction/fantasy (14%), and romance (11%).

The fastest-growing audiobooks categories are history/biography/memoir (up 22%), health & fitness (up 20%), religious/faith-based (up 17%), and romance (up 14%).

Author Daniel Weizmann launched his new mystery, Cinnamon Girl (Melville House), the second in the Pacific Highway Mystery series, at Book Carnival in Orange, Calif. Pictured: store owner Anne Saller with Weizmann.

"Happy Pride Month," Odyssey Bookstore, Ithaca, N.Y., posted on Facebook, along with a photo of the shop's display case, noting: "A shoutout to all our Odyssey booksellers for helping to create this month's spotlight display. While queer authors and their stories exist throughout Odyssey’s shelves, we wanted to shine our spotlight this month and celebrate their voices."

Lily Detaeye has been promoted to associate publicist at Soho Press.

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Kaitlyn Connors recently joined Macmillan as sales assistant, special markets, trade sales.

Else B. in the Sea: The Woman Who Painted the Wonders of the Deep by Jeanne Walker Harvey, illustrated by Melodie Stacey (Cameron Kids).

Today:
Fresh Air: Ali Velshi, author of Small Acts of Courage: A Legacy of Endurance and the Fight for Democracy (St. Martin's Press, $30, 9781250288851).

Tomorrow:
Morning Joe: Francis S. Barry, author of Back Roads and Better Angels: A Journey into the Heart of America Democracy (Steerforth, $35, 9781586423889).

Tamron Hall: Emily Henry, author of Funny Story (Berkley, $29, 9780593441282).

Kelly Clarkson Show: James Patterson, co-author of Eruption (Little, Brown, $32, 9780316565073).

First-look photos have been released for the upcoming Starz limited series Three Women, based on the bestselling 2019 book by Lisa Taddeo. Deadline reported that that the show will premiere on September 13.

The cast includes Betty Gilpin, DeWanda Wise, Blair Underwood, Gabrielle Creevy, Shailene Woodley, Jason Ralph, and John Patrick Amedori. Laura Eason is the series showrunner, and Taddeo serves as creator and executive producer. Kathy Ciric and Emmy Rossum also exec produce.

Maggie Burton has won the C$10,000 (about US$7,330) Canadian First Book Prize, awarded annually by the Griffin Poetry Prize, for her debut collection Chores. The prize also includes a six-week residency in Italy in partnership with the Civitella Ranieri Foundation. Burton will be invited to read from her book at this year's Griffin Poetry Prize readings on June 5 in Toronto.

The judges called Chores "charming and profound, traditional and inventive. Its combination of qualities seems effortless but is not only the innate fruit of a vision but the result of skillful poetic design. The book’s detailed, intimate awareness beautifully evokes Newfoundland and expands to our worldwide cultural moment. Burton applies a critique of how we live while embracing life with tenderness and humor. For all the fate, traditional limitation, labor, bitter recognition that chores contain, perhaps the deepest desire of Chores is to fulfill its glimpses of hope beyond mere acceptance: 'the old harbour was chock solid with seals/ and harpoons and I now believe/ with all my heart the stirring is true…' "

In The Boys of Riverside, Thomas Fuller shares an uplifting, deeply inspiring true story about how--through hard work, determination, and skill--underdogs can beat the odds and triumph. His narrative deconstructs the Riverside Cubs, an all-deaf high school football team, "tormented by loss" since its inception in the 1950s, whose dedication to personal sacrifice and teamwork eventually transformed them into victors.

The story begins in 2021, when Fuller, a news correspondent serving as San Francisco bureau chief for the New York Times, received an e-mail about a high school football team in Riverside, at the California School for the Deaf--a 51-student, state-run public school. While the U.S. was still mired in the Covid pandemic, Fuller was drawn to the heartening story about the school and its undefeated football team, which was comprised of eight players on their way to a winning season. Intrigued, he put his career on hold and, deploying his investigative reporting skills, spent the season culling stories of the team, the history and formation of the deaf school, and the intricacies of Deaf Culture.

A captivating, life-affirming mosaic emerges. Fuller examines the lives, backgrounds, and families of key team players. He goes into the role visual synchronization played in pivotal game match-ups, and the many physical and athletic challenges that were conquered on the road to the championship, including a host of injuries and, in one case, homelessness. At the center of the huddle of players, Fuller also tells the story of deaf head coach Keith Adams and how he came to lead the team. He motivated and guided the players, fortifying them with a sense of fierce mental toughness that drove them to celebrated success. Interwoven throughout are fascinating historical details about deaf history and how stigmas have evolved over centuries.

Fuller's all-encompassing narrative will hold great appeal for sports fans and general readers alike. The Riverside Cubs showed the world that deafness imposes "no impediment to sporting glory." Rather, their perceived limitations served to empower and accentuate their excellence. This triumphant, hopeful story ultimately reveals the many virtues--personally and via teamwork--that combined to achieve the quintessential American Dream. --Kathleen Gerard, blogger at Reading Between the Lines

Shelf Talker: An inspiring true story about an all-deaf, California high school football team who beat the odds to become winners--in every sense of the word.

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

1. Ruckus by L.J. Shen
2. Haunting Adeline by H.D. Carlton
3. Twisted Love by Ana Huang
4. King of Sloth by Ana Huang
5. King of Wrath by Ana Huang
6. Wild Love by Elsie Silver
7. Hunting Adeline by H.D. Carlton
8. The Inmate by Freida McFadden
9. The Ritual by Shantel Tessier
10. Twisted Games by Ana Huang

[Many thanks to IndieReader.com!]