The second in-person New Voices, New Rooms conference, held again in Arlington, Va., August 8-11, 2024, drew roughly 500 attendees, including 250 booksellers, 87 authors, and 137 exhibitors. The regional organizations hosting the event, the New Atlantic Independent Booksellers Association and the Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance, have both seen an increase in membership since last year. NAIBA currently has 257 bookstore members (up 22 since 2023) and 145 publisher members (up 23 since last year). SIBA's membership is up by 20% and they've set a goal of reaching 250 bookstore members by the year's end.

(from l.) Janice Killian and her husband, Jim (Reading Tree bookmobile); Jennifer Sauter-Price (READ book bus), Eileen Dengler, NAIBA executive director; Patty Exstein (Three Wishes Bookshop and bookmobile). (photo: Ryan Grover)

Several education sessions focused on alternative models for bookselling. Those who arrived for opening day on Thursday were greeted by a collection of bookmobiles, with their brightly colored outsides and sleekly organized interiors: the READ (Read Early and Daily) book bus, Reading Tree Books, and Three Wishes Bookshop, all based in Virginia.

The panel "New Bookstore Models Redefine Success," a lively discussion moderated by Candice Huber of Tubby & Coo's Traveling Book Shop, New Orleans, La., explored some novel models of bookselling. Daniel Rowe described Book + Bottle, St. Petersburg, Fla., as "a bookstore that sells wine, and a bar that sells books." Rowe said the staff's goal was to "leave pretentiousness at the door, whether that's wine or books." He said that 50% of their customers convert to regulars, "known by name and coffee order." As a woman-owned store, Book + Bottle also works with other women-owned businesses. The store carries wines from all over the world, all from women-owned wineries. "We choose values over money," Rowe said, explaining they spend more to serve natural wines, and use sustainable paper products.

Innovative booksellers: (l.-r.) Daniel Rowe (Book + Bottle, St. Petersburg, Fla.); Latanya DeVaughn (Bronx Bound Books, Bronx, N.Y.); Candice Huber (Tubby & Coo's Traveling Book Shop, New Orleans, La.).

Huber also said they place values over money. "I'm an anti-capitalist working in a capitalist system," they said, admitting that they need to make enough to keep going, but "it's less around sales than 'how entrenched in the community am I?' " Huber is the only dedicated queer bookseller in New Orleans, and as someone who embeds their 200-square-foot "pocket bookstores" within other retail spaces, says it's essential that their partners be queer-friendly. Huber will turn down potential partners if they don't adhere to the values listed on Tubby & Coo's website. Huber is also part of a co-op of seven other businesses--a vegan cafe, a food pantry, and a space that offers clothing for trans people, among them. Tubby and Coo's is celebrating its 10th anniversary as a bookstore, and Huber just hired their first two employees.

"I wanted to make books accessible and affordable," said Latanya DeVaughn of Bronx Bound Books, Bronx, N.Y. Her blue book bus "makes bookstores available where books often are not." She has partnered with hospitals, clinics, schools, and has recently spoken with community gardeners who want to host a "book garden." DeVaughn frequently works with publishers, who contact her to do offsite events. She has also found a way to generate revenue by renting out the bus: corporations pay for bus time and books onsite, and if they don't sell all the books, the books are donated to Bronx Bound Books; she makes sure the corporation gets credit for the donation with her patrons. Some of her clients begin as customers, such as people who saw the book bus at a farmer's market, then rented it for an event. DeVaughn got a boost when Bronx Bound Books was featured on The Today Show with Jenna Bush. "Make sure your Google information is up to date!" she noted. DeVaughn tells students who come aboard her book bus to choose three kinds of books: 1) a book you love, 2) a book you're curious about, and 3) a book by an author or from a genre you've never read before. Great advice for readers of any age! --Jennifer M. Brown

Chronicle Books has made "a realignment and expansion" of its Children's Publishing Group that involves new hires in editorial and marketing. The aim is to bring additional expertise as children's books expands its licensed publishing, chapter and middle-grade books, and graphic novel offerings alongside its award-winning picture book and board book program. The changes come under the direction of children's executive publishing director Jody Mosley, who joined the company earlier this year.

In marketing, Lauren Hoffman, executive director, marketing and publicity, is combining the children's marketing and publicity team under associate director Brittany Mitchell, who will now oversee publicity and school & library marketing.

Linette Kim joins Chronicle Books as senior manager, school & library marketing and children’s publicity. Kim was most recently senior marketing manager at Astra Books for Young Readers. She has also held positions at Bloomsbury Children's Books and Harlequin/HarperCollins. Caitlin Ek continues as publicist for the children's group.

Natalie Nicolson is now senior manager, brand marketing. She will continue to work on Chronicle's established adult brands and licensed products, including LEGO, Disney, Marvel, and One Line a Day, and expand her role to include children's series such as Goodnight, Goodnight, Construction Site, and Tiny T. Rex.

In editorial changes, Rebecca Frazer joins Chronicle as children's books executive editor. Frazer was most recently executive editor at AMEET Publishing and has held editorial leadership positions at Disney Publishing Worldwide, Hachette UK, and Sourcebooks.

Mary Colgan returns to Chronicle as children's books senior editor. She began her career as an editorial intern at Chronicle Books more than a dozen years ago and has since worked for Highlights for Children, Boyds Mills Press, and Callisto Media. In her first stint at Chronicle, Colgan plucked Goodnight, Goodnight, Construction Site from the slush pile--it has since become Chronicle's bestselling series with 10 million copies in print.

Editor Emily Daluga, who joined the team this spring, will focus on Chronicle's middle grade and children's graphic novel publishing.

Senior editor Ariel Richardson will continue to focus on expanding Chronicle's picture book program, both fiction and nonfiction.

Victoria Rock, founding children's book publisher and editor-at-large, will continue to identify new and emerging voices and artists as well as nurture award-winning, bestselling creators like Annie Barrows, Sophie Blackall, and Brendan Wenzel.

Ink & Paper Bookstore opened earlier this summer at 7 Lincklaen St. in downtown Cazenovia, N.Y., near Syracuse. Eagle News reported that owner Chantal Nellis features primarily new fiction with a focus on adventure/historical, fantasy, romance, thriller/suspense, and YA. There is also a children's section and a small selection of nonfiction titles. In addition, Ink & Paper offers "bookish merchandise," including book lights, tote bags, book sleeves, candles, T-shirts, cups, reading rating journals, earrings, and bookends.

"I think Ink & Paper offers a comfortable space where people can hold a physical book and browse shelves to take in the smell and atmosphere that bookstores have to offer," Nellis said. "We can order books for people looking for something specific and notify them personally when the book arrives in store. We enjoy connecting with our customers and understanding their reading preferences to make recommendations. We have events coming in the future and look forward to bringing more people together."

Opening a bookstore has long been been a dream for Nellis, who noted: "I love books and the atmosphere a bookstore can have. I wanted to create that feeling for people and make an indie bookstore that I would love to shop at too."

Nellis previously worked as an occupational therapist for almost a decade before deciding to stay home with her three children. "During this transition phase for my family, we decided it would be a great time to reach for this dream," she said. "Cazenovia is a great community [filled] with so many amazing small businesses already, and I thought opening a bookstore here would be a great addition.... The community has been really welcoming. We have heard so many positive compliments about our space and selection of books in our little store."

Barnes & Noble will open a new store in Santa Fe, N.Mex., today, August 14.

Located in the Santa Fe Place Mall at 4250 Cerrillos Rd., the new store spans more than 25,000 square feet and features a cafe. The store will open officially with a ribbon cutting and book signing featuring Carlene O'Connor, author of the Irish Village Mysteries, the County Kerry Novels, and the Home to Ireland Mysteries.

B&N noted that the Santa Fe store is one of the largest new stores it has opened recently, and that Santa Fe has been without a large national bookseller since Borders Books & Music closed in 2011.

The company opened more new stores last year than it did between 2009 and 2019, and it plans to open more than 50 new stores this year.

Lorenza de' Medici, an author, TV host, and cooking school director "who showed that Italian cuisine was about more than tomatoes, pizza and pasta," died June 23, the New York Times reported. She was 97. A direct descendant of the storied Medici clan that ruled Florence during the Italian Renaissance, she also offered intimate one-day to one-week cooking courses at her family's winery outside Florence, Badia a Coltibuono.

In books like Italy the Beautiful Cookbook (1988) and The Renaissance of Italian Cooking (1989) and later in her 13-part PBS show, The de' Medici Kitchen, she contended that Italian cooking "could be something else entirely: light salads and soups, elegant preparations and, above all, fresh ingredients, ideally bought that morning from a local farmer," the Times noted, adding that her cooking "was explicitly upper class. She called her food 'the villa table,' a blend of regional influences favored by wealthier Italian families."

Her books were lavishly illustrated with photographs of Badia a Coltibuono and other estates, most of them owned by friends, and accompanied by narratives of languorous meals shared during her tours of the country. Among her other titles are Tuscany: The Beautiful Cookbook, The Heritage of Italian Cooking, and The Villa Table: 300 Classic Italian Recipies.

Earlier in her career, she had been an editor at Novitá, a fashion magazine that later became part of Vogue Italia, where de' Medici eventually became food editor. During the 1960s, she switched to writing books, beginning with a series for children, including the cookbook Giochiamo alla Cucina (Let's Play at Cooking). 

De' Medici created a series of 365 recipes for a Milanese women's magazine "that modified traditional Italian cuisine to a modern family's needs. And she began to think more broadly about how to bring the cuisine she loved as a child to the world," the Times wrote.

"How could the precious culinary heritage of the past be adapted so that it would be practical for the 20th century without losing any of its essential character, either in substance or in style?" she asked in the introduction to The Renaissance of Italian Cooking. De' Medici largely retired in the mid-2000s. 

Charis Books and More in Decatur, Ga., hosted author Rosey Lee for a "wedding shower" event to reveal the cover of A Gardin Wedding (WaterBrook, May 13, 2025) to local book influencers, book club leaders, and library staff. The novel is the second book in Lee’s Gardins of Edin series. Pictured: Lee with Charis co-owner Angela Gabriel and local bookfolk. (photo: Jackson Randolph)

Third Place Books, Lake Forest Park, Wash., shared photos on Facebook of the shop's Women in Translation Month display, noting: "A table display by bookseller Spencer."

IPG has signed five new publishers to its sales and distribution programs:

Whimspire Books, Sacramento, Calif., a women-owned children's book publisher that aims to publish picture books that create moments of joy, laughter, and togetherness for families. (U.S. and Canada, effective February 1, 2025.)

Melbourne Books, an Australian publishing house founded in 2000, that publishes a range of books, including biographies, cookbooks, art, architecture, social histories, travel, academic work, and novels. (U.S. and Canada, effective January 1, 2025.)

WTAW Press, Santa Rosa, Calif., a nonprofit that aims to foster a thriving literary community and publish exceptional, enduring, literary books that are likely to be overlooked in mainstream corporate publishing. (Worldwide, effective July 1, 2024.)

BLoved Publishing, a U.S. house that specializes in translating and publishing popular Korean BL Manhwa and novels into English, as well as Chinese Danmei, Baihe, and BL Manhua in partnership with Monogatari Novels. BLoved seeks to bring captivating stories and immersive worlds to life through meticulous translations for English-speaking readers to enjoy in physical print. (U.S., Canada, and U.K., November 1, 2024.)

Anderson Entertainment, the U.K. company founded by Gerry Anderson to create, develop, produce, and nurture IP and content for raving fans across the globe. Anderson publishes books in a wide selection of formats--hardbacks, coffee table books, comic anthologies, series guides, and audiobooks--based on classic Anderson properties, such as the shows Thunderbirds and Space:1999. (U.S. and Canada, January 1, 2025.)

Hannah Perrin has joined Crown as associate marketing manager.

Hollow Out the Dark: A Novel by James Wade (Blackstone Publishing).

Today:
Fresh Air: Casey Michel, author of Foreign Agents: How American Lobbyists and Lawmakers Threaten Democracy Around the World (St. Martin's Press, $30, 9781250286055).

Apple TV+ has released an official trailer for the upcoming season 4 of Slow Horses, based on Spook Street, the fourth novel in Mick Herron's award-winning Slough House series. The six-episode season will premiere globally September 4 with the first episode, followed by one new episode weekly every Wednesday through October 9 on Apple TV+.

The returning ensemble cast includes Gary Oldman, Jack Lowden, Kristin Scott Thomas, Saskia Reeves, Rosalind Eleazar, Christopher Chung, Aimee-Ffion Edwards, Kadiff Kirwan, and Jonathan Pryce. Season 4 additions are Hugo Weaving, Joanna Scanlan, Ruth Bradley, Tom Brooke, and James Callis.

Slow Horses is produced for Apple TV+ by See-Saw Films and adapted for television by Will Smith (Veep). Jamie Laurenson, Hakan Kousetta, Iain Canning, Emile Sherman, Jane Robertson, Julian Stevens, Douglas Urbanski, Gail Mutrux, Graham Yost, and Smith serve as executive producers on the series. Season 4 is directed by Adam Randall. Apple TV+ previously announced a fifth season set to be adapted from Herron's fifth novel, London Rules.

Shortlists in the four categories of the 2024 Ned Kelly Awards have been announced and can be seen here. Sponsored by the Australian Crime Writers Association, the awards honor works in the categories of best crime fiction, debut crime fiction, true crime, and international crime fiction. Winners will be named September 25.

The judging panel noted that 2024 was "the year of cozy crime, a sub-genre that has surged in popularity around the world," and that "despite being fiction, a number of books reflected real world issues, including providing voices for girls and women."

photo: Greenbook Agency

Djuna is a science fiction writer and film critic, and a former chair of the Korean Science Fiction Writers Union. For some 30 years they have published as a faceless writer, refusing to reveal personal details regarding age, gender, or legal name. Widely considered to be one of South Korea's most important science fiction writers, Djuna has published numerous books of nonfiction, eight story collections, and seven novels, including their English-language debut, Counterweight. Everything Good Dies Here (Kaya Press, July 30, 2024), translated by Adrian Thieret, is a collection of stories that blend influences ranging from genre fiction (zombie, vampire SF, you name it) to golden-age cinema to Conrad's Heart of Darkness.

Handsell readers your book in 30 words or less:

It's a collection of stories about zombies in 19th-century Korea, a girl adopted by aliens, fictitious history slowly becoming reality, and humans traveling the galaxy aboard an alien spacecraft.

On your nightstand now:

A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers.

Labihem Police 2049 by Ae-jin Park. This is the first volume of the sci-fi high school romance novel series that I was a part of. It is meant to be a sequel of the original sci-fi high school romance manhwa, Labihem Police, which was published in the '80s and '90s.

Robot Dreams by Sara Varon.

Bruges-La-Morte by Georges Rodenbach. I recently saw The Dead City by Erich Korngold, an opera that dramatized this novel.

Favorite book when you were a child:

The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett. It provided me with a framework for an almost perfect adventure story. Even now, I consciously and subconsciously try to imitate this book.

Your top five authors:

Joanna Russ, Jeong-hui Oh (unfortunately, her reputation has drastically declined due to recent political controversies), James Tiptree Jr., Jorge Luis Borges, Patricia Highsmith.

This list can always change based on my daily mood.

Book you've faked reading:

I won't be faking it anymore if I confess now. When I was young, I pretended to have read Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy. I thought I could do it since I had seen movie adaptations starring the likes of Vivien Leigh and Greta Garbo. After I read the novel, I was shocked at the expansive universe within the book that the movies could not encompass. To the people who had read the novel, my lie must have sounded awfully clumsy.

Book you're an evangelist for:

The Temptation of Saint Anthony by Gustave Flaubert. Many people seem to not even attempt to read it due to the entry barrier of it being a novel-length drama. However, this work provided me with the most overwhelming reading experience as a teenager. If I was a Westerner, I probably would have gone on to write a lengthy analogy comparing it to some form of narcotics.

Book you've bought for the cover:

The Lion in the Living Room by Abigail Tucker. The American cover is cute as well, but you must see the Korean version.

Book you hid from your parents:

I never hid any books from my parents. I had a bookshelf that I could curate with no interference. Recently, I've been hiding a book in a drawer for a reason I do not know. It's a Japanese photobook that is not very sensational but a little creepy that I impulsively bought.

Book that changed your life:

Nightmares and Geezenstacks by Fredric Brown. I read it and thought, "I can also write a book in this genre." So, it indeed was life changing.

Favorite line from a book:

"No live organism can continue for long to exist under conditions of absolute reality; even larks and katydids are supposed, by some, to dream." --The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson

Five books you'll never part with:

Wave by Su-ji Lee

French Drama Edition in the World Literature Collection (published by Jeongeumsa), which includes the plays Cyrano de Bergerac, The Barber of Seville, The Marriage of Figaro, and The Annunciation of Marie

Essays of Elia by Charles Lamb (published by Samjungdang)

Go-geum the Grain of Sand by So-cheun Kang

The Old Man in the Corner by Baroness Orczy

The list is mostly made for personal and sentimental reasons.

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

Fingersmith by Sarah Waters.

Carnegie Medal-winning author Ruta Sepetys and three-time National Book Award finalist and Newbery Honor author Steve Sheinkin team up to construct a thrilling and often hilarious fictionalized depiction of activity at Bletchley Park, the real-life British center that succeeded in decrypting communications between the Axis nations during World War II.

On the brink of the German invasion of England, 19-year-old math whiz Jakob has been recruited to crack German codes at the Government Code and Cypher School at a renovated English country estate. When his 14-year-old sister, Lizzie, shows up after their mother's presumed death during a bombing raid at the American embassy in Warsaw, Poland, she becomes Jakob's responsibility. Bletchley Park officials require her to sign the Official Secrets Act, after which she is assigned to serve as a messenger between the secret intelligence departments. Meanwhile, Lizzie appoints herself lead investigator into the disappearance of their mother, Willa. She recruits two new friends, leading to some hair-raising and occasionally slapstick escapades. Lizzie is confident she's being lied to about the circumstances surrounding her mother's supposed death, and other lurking nefarious characters would also like to know what happened to Willa. Is it possible, as some believe, that their mother is a spy for the Nazis?

Sepetys is known for her spellbinding historical fiction (I Must Betray You; The Fountains of Silence; Salt to the Sea) and Sheinkin for historical nonfiction (Bomb; Most Dangerous; Impossible Escape) that is utterly action-packed. In The Bletchley Riddle, the authors use alternating voices to capture the markedly different attitudes and personalities of the siblings. Lizzie's straightforward and precocious ways are not always welcomed by her elders, including Jakob. ("But let's be honest, shall we? When adults tell a... teenager that they're precocious, what they're really saying is, 'Please don't say that aloud.' ") Her droll, sophisticated use of language and keen perception make her chapters a delight, while Jakob's serious, anxious tone reflects the burden of responsibility he feels, both to his family and his country. Historical images, newspapers, and machines appear between chapters and real events and people from history, like Alan Turing and Dilly Knox, show up throughout the book. This middle-grade novel is sure to transcend age ranges and is both mystery and historical fiction, with a healthy dose of adventure and the tiniest hint of young romance. --Emilie Coulter, freelance writer and editor

Shelf Talker: In a gripping and surprisingly funny World War II historical novel, siblings at a top-secret cryptography center break codes and investigate their mother's purported death in a bombing raid.