Today in words and glowing pictures we celebrate Bookstore Romance Day and introduce a new publisher that includes and is focused on independent booksellers. And don't miss the book excerpt in Deeper Understanding, the story of how a 12-year-old aspiring writer began talking shop with a neighbor--John Cheever.
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| At Books & Books | |
On Saturday, booksellers across the U.S. celebrated Bookstore Romance Day, which is designed to give indies "an opportunity to celebrate Romance fiction--its books, readers, and writers--and to strengthen the relationships between bookstores and the Romance community." Here's a sampling of bookshops sharing #BookstoreRomanceDay fun on social media:
Books Inc., which has 11 stores in the San Francisco Bay area: "Hi Hi Mountain View!! If you haven't heard already, tomorrow is Bookstore Romance day!! And what a year Romance Books and Authors have had!! We will be celebrating in many different ways!"
Carmichael's Bookstore, Louisville, Ky.: "We are PUMPED for Bookstore Romance Day tomorrow! Check out the love-filled display bookseller Emma made at our Frankfort Avenue store."
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| At Belmont Books | |
Belmont Books, Belmont, Mass: "Today's the day!! Happy Bookstore Romance Day! Celebrate with a free blind date with a romance book with a romance book purchase, while supplies last, and a chocolate raspberry latte at the @black_bear_cafe!"
Bookshop Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz, Calif.: "Dearest friends, let us gather on this most enchanting of days--Bookstore Romance Day!... We sincerely hope you are able to join us today in celebrating love stories, where every turn of the page brings a new promise of affection."
BookPeople, Austin, Tex.: "We're giving you the aux for Bookstore Romance Day! Drop below what tracks you want to hear on our store playlist on Saturday! Meanwhile, here's a behind the scenes look at just a few of the festivities we've been working hard to put together."
Books & Books, Coral Gables, Fla.: "Scenes from a day of literary love and bookstore magic."
Underground Books, Carrollton, Ga.: "We highly recommend searching for romance in a bookstore--in fact, we found each other when Megan stumbled into Underground Books just 10 days after Josh opened the doors!... Bookstore Romance Day is enough to make your heart race, right?!"
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| At Cavalier House | |
Cavalier House Books, Denham Springs, La.: "Bookstore Romance Day is here! Come hang out with us!... They were close friends, best friends. Then, they soon turned into enemies but eventually became lovers! Eden created an entire love story using finger puppets because sometimes, that's what you need to do at work."
Flyleaf Books, Chapel Hill, N.C.: "Happy Bookstore Romance Day from the Flyleaf team! Today, August 17, buy any romance book and we will enter your name into a drawing to win a $25 Flyleaf gift card or a galley of a super-secret-and-exciting forthcoming romance novel! Hope to see you today, and good luck!"
Bookish Modesto, Modesto, Calif.: "It's Bookstore Romance Day! (I'm not wearing a frilly pink dress for nothing!) All day long, we'll go live on Instagram with hourly specials on our fave romance books, so prepare to be entertained. Also, a shoutout to Will for the 24 years (and some change) we're celebrating on Monday. This last year has been the wildest ride yet, and I wouldn't have dreamed of taking this journey with anyone else."
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| At Fountain Bookstore | |
Fountain Bookstore, Richmond, Va.: "Bookstore Romance Day is on!! Come make bracelets and play games! Find the hidden rubber ducky in-store for a prize."
White Birch Books, North Conway, N.H.: "It's Bookstore Romance Day! Come indulge your favorite trope by taking 10% of your favorite. Good on any book in stock and applicable in the store or online. Now that's a happy ending!!"
Politics and Prose, Washington, D.C.: "Fake dating? Enemies to lovers? Brother's best friend? We'll take them all! Check out our newly expanded Romance section this #BookstoreRomanceDay and shop our favorite swoon-worthy titles!"
The Book Seller, Grass Valley, Calif.: "Happy Bookstore Romance Day! We have stacks of swoon-worthy romance reads to pique your interest and our booksellers are always happy to recommend something new for you!"
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| At Blue Willow Bookshop | |
Blue Willow Bookshop, Houston, Tex.: "Happy Bookstore Romance Day! Our bookshop is all about joy: the joy of reading, of community, and of happily ever afters! Come celebrate all things romance with us today. It's going to be a wonderful day in the bookshop!"
Split Rock Books, Cold Spring, N.Y.: "Shots from BOOKSTORE ROMANCE DAY! We're going strong here at @splitrockbks!... I love that we get to chat romance all day--come on out and visit and gush about it with us!! Are you celebrating Bookstore Romance Day??"
Subterranean Books, St. Louis, Mo.: "It's Romance Bookstore Day at the shop! Love is in the air…let's spice it up! Stop by and check out all our romance titles and special display, get a handmade friendship bracelet made by @hi5er, write someone an appreciation postcard, and take a selfie with our conversation hearts!"
Wicked Good Books, Salem, Mass.: "We are having a sweet Indie Bookstore Romance Day."
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| At Copperfish Books | |
Copperfish Books, Punta Gorda, Fla.: "Happy Bookstore Romance Day! Join us for a day of bubbly champagne, sweet treats, and endless love stories!... It's going to be a day of love, literature, and surprises you won't want to miss!"
Schuler Books, with four stores in Michigan: "Today is the day! Bookstore Romance Day 2024. So many of you have been in the stores to help us celebrate already."
The Pile Bookstore, Berwyn, Ill.: "Have you come in to answer one of our romance book prompts yet? Fill out one of our hearts and we'll find it a place of honor on the shelves! The heart is still safe in its hiding space... stop by to see if you can find it and win the prize basket!... Congratulations to our winner!"
Blue Cypress Books, New Orleans, La.: "Thank y’all for a superbly lovely Bookstore Romance Day, we love you so much."
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| At Analog Books | |
Analog Books, Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada: "What a wonderful turn out for Bookstore Romance Day on Saturday with special guest authors Danielle L. Jensen and Elizabeth (E.A.M.) Trofimenkoff. The store was literally buzzing with energy and excitement as Danielle generously met everyone individually and signed hundreds of copies of her latest title, A Fate Inked in Blood."
River and Hill Books, Rome, Ga.: "Thank you to everyone who helped us celebrate our very first Bookstore Romance Day! We had a wonderful day seeing repeat customers and lots of new faces! We are so grateful for everyone who supports our little indie bookstore and other small businesses in downtown Rome; you are the best."
Read My Lips Bookshop, Marquette, Mich.: "I just wanted to say thank youuuuu to all of the wonderful people that came out for #bookstoreromanceday yesterday and a big shout out to @luteysflowershop for contributing their awesome mini flower bouquets! Yesterday was a huge hit! We've been busy daily ever since opening, but yesterday was almost as busy as our grand opening! I was shooketh! Love you all!"
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| At Doylestown Bookshop | |
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A group led by author and former Congressman Robert Mrazek; author, former Congressman, and bookstore owner Steve Israel; and former American Booksellers Association CEO Oren Teicher is launching Compass Rose Publishing, a publisher that aims to create "an innovative alliance within the universe of independent booksellers."
As co-chair Oren Teicher put it, "Our focus is on recognizing the critical role physical retailers play in the literary marketplace. Compass Rose is dedicated to reframing the relationship between publishing and independent bookstores." He added, "I do recognize that the publishing business is highly competitive, but I think there is room for a slightly different model that recognizes the substantial value indie booksellers bring to the table."
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Compass Rose plans to announce its first titles later this month. Beginning in February, it will publish one book a month in various genres, including memoir, literary thrillers, high adventure, mystery, and new editions of classics.
Compass Rose has an advisory board of independent booksellers who will, among other things, provide input on future title recommendations as well as operational matters. The current board of 11, which may expand by three or four in the next weeks, includes owners and/or staff members from Blue Willow Books, Houston, Tex.; Books & Books, Miami, Fla.; Flyleaf Books, Chapel Hill, N.C.; Green Apple Books, San Francisco, Calif.; Norwich Bookstore, Norwich, Vt.; Politics & Prose, Washington, D.C.; Powell's Books, Portland, Ore.; Print: A Bookstore, Portland, Maine; the King's English Bookshop, Salt Lake City, Utah; Theodore's Bookshop, Oyster Bay, N.Y., (owned by Steve Israel); and Water Street Books, Exeter, N.H.
The company also plans to partner with hundreds of other indies across the country "to harness their collective economic muscle while creatively promoting those books directly to their dedicated readers and book buyers in a voice and method that is authentic to each store."
The company has also created a "bookstore staff appreciation rewards" program that will reward employees. Partner and industry advisor Steve Israel was an eight-term Congressman from Long Island in New York who in 2021 opened Theodore's Books in Oyster Bay, N.Y., and has written two satires of Washington. Concerning the staff appreciation program, he said, "Indie bookstores operate on very thin margins and our employees are often compensated at the most basic living wage. That's why we've created a staff appreciation reward system for every store that wants to join us. The employees will receive ongoing stipends from Compass Rose in recognition of their contribution to the success of their store."
Chair and publisher Robert Mrazek was a five-term Congressman from Long Island in New York and has written 12 books, mostly military and historical fiction, and wrote and co-directed the 2016 film The Congressman. He commented: "With a world in turmoil, our goal is to appeal to those readers looking for books that offer hope and optimism and embrace themes like honor, courage, empowerment, humor, and love. It is our intention to publish any author on any subject that creatively and commercially engages these topics."
Staff includes v-p and senior editor James Bock, who worked at Crooked Lane Books, Alcove Press, and elsewhere and is experienced in multiple genres, including literary fiction, historical fiction and non-fiction, memoirs, mysteries and thrillers.
Compass Rose Publishing has four investors, who "have given the company enough funding to run with no revenue for a year and no profit until the third year," according to the Washington Post's Ron Charles, who wrote about the venture on Friday.
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Hans Weyandt has been named distribution manager for Itasca Books, a division of Bookmobile, in Minneapolis, Minn., succeeding Mark Jung, who is retiring at the end of the month after 20 years of service.
Weyandt has 21 years of bookselling experience, having worked at Moon Palace Books, Milkweed Books, Micawber's, and Hungry Mind Bookstore. He also was editor of Read This!: Handpicked Favorites from America's Indie Bookstores, published by Coffee House Press in 2012.
Bookmobile began as a design and typesetting production house in 1982, then started offering print services in 1996, and distribution services in 2004. Recently more than 20 Small Press Distribution publishers signed on to Itasca for trade distribution.
Weyandt commented: "Helping books from small presses find their way into the hands of readers has always been one of my main goals and joys in bookselling. I'm very excited to continue, and expand, that work in my new position with Itasca Books."
"Our heartfelt congrats and best wishes to Adaline and Alicia on your engagement!" Powell's Books, Portland, Ore., posted on Instagram. "We're so happy and proud you chose to get engaged at Powell's! We've always maintained that this is one of the few places where you can ask the age old question 'Where can I find Romance?' and get a clear and actionable answer. You've totally proved our point and leveled up.... Now, for the rest of us, it's Bookstore Romance Weekend this weekend at Powell's. Come down and find your romance!"
John Sargent, former CEO of Macmillan Publishing and always refreshingly open in discussions about the business, is featured on episode 3 of the Open Book Podcast with David Steinberger, CEO of Open Road Media and chair of the National Book Foundation. In the segment, titled "I Like the Way You Dance," Sargent talks about Macmillan's famous standoff with Amazon in 2010 as well as receiving a cease-and-desist order in 2018 from the President of the United States seeking to stop the publication of Michael Wolff's Fire & Fury.
8 Ways to Hope: Charting a Path Through Uncertain Times by William R. Miller (Guilford Press).
Today:
CBS Mornings: Luis Elizondo, author of Imminent: Inside the Pentagon's Hunt for UFOs (Morrow, $29.99, 9780063235564).
The View repeat: Jim Sciutto, author of The Return of Great Powers: Russia, China, and the Next World War (Dutton, $30, 9780593474136).
Late Night with Seth Meyers repeat: Ramin Setoodeh, author of Apprentice in Wonderland: How Donald Trump and Mark Burnett Took America Through the Looking Glass (Harper, $32, 9780063139909).
Tomorrow:
Good Morning America: Jodi Picoult, author of By Any Other Name: A Novel (Ballantine, $30, 9780593497210).
Also on GMA: Karin Slaughter, author of This Is Why We Lied: A Will Trent Thriller (Morrow, $32, 9780063336728).
Tonight Show: Liz Moore, author of The God of the Woods: A Novel (Riverhead, $30, 9780593418918).
Late Show with Stephen Colbert: Nancy Pelosi, author of The Art of Power: My Story as America's First Woman Speaker of the House (Simon & Schuster, $30, 9781668048047).
Harry Bradbeer (Fleabag, Enola Holmes) will direct a film adaptation of Peter Swanson's bestselling 2020 novel Eight Perfect Murders. Deadline reported that New Regency and Maximum Effort are teaming up on the project, having recently acquired rights to the book.
"I'm delighted to be working with Maximum Effort and New Regency on this truly remarkable project--a witty, surprising mischievous thriller, that's as fun as it is soulful," Bradbeer said.
Shortlists in three categories (nature writing; writing on conservation; children's nature & conservation writing) have been released for the 2024 James Cropper Wainwright Prize for U.K. Nature Writing, which "celebrates the finest nature, travel and environmental writing; in particular, works that encourage exploration of the great outdoors and nurture respect for the natural world." The winners, who will be named September 11 in London, share a £7,500 (about $9,710) prize fund.
The Mourner's Bestiary by Eiren Caffall (Row House Publishing, $27.99 hardcover, 294p., 9781955905589, October 15, 2024)
Eiren Caffall's debut, The Mourner's Bestiary, is an ardent elegy for her illness-haunted family and for the ailing marine environments that inspire her.
For centuries, the author's family has been subject to "the Caffall Curse." Polycystic kidney disease, a degenerative genetic condition, causes fluid-filled cysts to proliferate in a person's enlarged kidneys. PKD can involve pain, fatigue, high blood pressure, kidney failure, and a heightened risk of brain aneurysm. Given Caffall's paternal family history, she expected to die before age 50.
Caffall's melancholy memoir spotlights moments that opened her eyes to medical and environmental catastrophe. In 1980, when she was nine years old, she and her parents vacationed at a rental cottage on Long Island Sound. They nicknamed the pollution-ridden site "Dogshit Beach"--her mother spent idyllic summers there as a child, yet now "both the ecosystem and my father were slipping away." For the first time, Caffall became aware of her father's suffering and lack of energy. She realized that she, too, might have inherited PKD and could face similar struggles as an adult.
In 2014, Caffall, then a single mother, took her nine-year-old son, Dex, on vacation to the Gulf of Maine. During the trip, she had a fall that prompted a seizure, and she and Dex were evacuated from Monhegan Island by Coast Guard ship. Although no further seizures ensued and no clear cause emerged, the crisis served as a wake-up call, reminding her of how serious PKD is and that it might afflict her son as well.
The book draws fascinating connections between personal experiences and ecological threats. Caffall structures her story as a gallery of endangered marine animals such as the Longfin Inshore Squid and Humpback Whale, tracing their history and exposing the dangers they face in degraded environments. Red tides (massive algal blooms) and floods are apt metaphors for physical trials: "the Sound was dying, hypoxic... from an overwhelm of nutrients flooding an ecosystem--nitrogen, phosphorus, imbalanced saline--the same things that overwhelm a body when kidneys can no longer filter blood properly."
Re-created scenes enliven accounts of family illness and therapeutic developments. The lyrical hybrid narrative, informed by scientific journals and government publications, is as impassioned about restoring the environment as it is about ensuring equality of access to health care. Personal and species extinction are just cause for "permanent mourning," Caffall writes, but adapting to change keeps hope alive. --Rebecca Foster, freelance reviewer, proofreader, and blogger at Bookish Beck
Shelf Talker: Eiren Caffall's impassioned debut memoir blends memory and research to pay tribute to family members lost to a genetic kidney disease--and to marine creatures threatened by ecological collapse.
Chris Epting is the author of Where One Hears the Rain: Finding Your Voice and Crafting Your Story, from Inspiration to Publication, to be published tomorrow, August 20, by Permuted Press.
His career as a writer was given an early, most unusual assist--by legendary fiction writer John Cheever, a neighbor in Ossining, N.Y., to whom he reached out when he was about 12. Epting remembers, "Today, as a memoirist, I often reflect on the valuable lessons he imparted to me, which have become a significant influence in my writing. It is surreal to think back on the time I spent with him and the impact it has had on my work." Cheever even influenced the title of Epting's new book with his quote: "For me a page of good prose is where one hears the rain. A page of good prose is when one hears the noise of battle... A page of good prose seems to me the most serious dialogue that well-informed and intelligent men and women carry on today in their endeavor to make sure that the fires of this planet burn peaceably." In his new book, Epting remembers meeting and getting to know Cheever and his insights into writing:
I had decided early on that I wanted to be a writer. I had written a short story that truly impressed my fourth-grade teacher, Ms. Tina Rinaldi, to the point where she notified my parents and suggested they encourage me in this arena--and even mentioned it to a couple of other teachers. (Ms. Duff, my fifth grade teacher, I remember, got very excited.) For me, having a teacher become that invested in something I'd done was significant--and its effect lasts to this day. From that moment on, I was set. Come hell or high water, I was determined to be a writer. (A fallback I'd use many times when things like math grades suffered: "Hey... who needs math?... I'm gonna be a writer.")
My parents were fine with the fact that I wanted to be a writer by the time I was nine years old. A couple of years later, after watching me write regularly outside of school, my father suggested I take it a step further by dropping a note to a man who lived down the road--a writer named John Cheever--to see if he could offer me any advice. I had never heard of John Cheever, but I did know that my father had a couple of his books stacked on a shelf next to other famous authors, like Hemingway and Steinbeck. So I did. I wrote a few simple sentences to this man I'd never heard of, asking for some guidance. My mom drove me down Spring Valley Road (until it became Cedar Lane) and I placed the note in a large silver mailbox clearly labeled "Cheever."
Then, just a few days later, I got a neatly typed note that has been committed to memory since I opened the envelope:
Dear Chris Epting:
It is nice to know that there is another writer living in the neighborhood. I will call you one day soon and then maybe we can take a walk and talk about writing.
(signed)
John Cheever
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| Chris Epting | |
I could tell from my parents' reaction that this was a big deal. (There's something about seeing adults get genuinely excited, acting almost like kids, that impresses a young person. It feels incongruous, but in a good way.)
Several days after receiving his reply, the phone in our house rang. My mom said it was for me and I could tell from the look on her face that it was not one of my pals--John Mungo or Tommy Monohan--calling. She watched intently as I took the receiver.
"Hello?"
"Yes, Chris..." a rich, weathered, weary (vaguely British?) New England–accented voice began. "Hello, Chris. This is John Cheever."
With that, I was introduced to one of the greatest fiction writers in American literary history.
It starts, as I recall, with me eagerly listening one day as he shared some of his experiences teaching at the prestigious Iowa Writers' Workshop. Mr. Cheever spoke about how he would occasionally, while teaching at colleges, take aside young writers and ask them a simple but profound question: "Why are you here?" He explained that he was searching for a particular answer, one that set apart the truly dedicated and passionate writers from the rest. He told me that many aspiring writers would talk about their love for writing, their aspirations to become authors like him, and their excitement for the craft. However, he confessed that he wasn't interested in those answers. Instead, he listened intently for a different response. He wanted to hear some variation of, "I'm here because I have to write."
Mr. Cheever emphasized the significance of this distinction. He explained that when writing becomes a necessity--when it is as essential to one's being as eating, sleeping, or breathing--it sets writers apart. It becomes an integral part of their psyche, an ingrained compulsion that they cannot ignore or resist.
John Cheever's study was a sanctuary of creativity. The room exuded an air of quiet contemplation and intellectual energy. I couldn't help but be in awe of the well-oiled machinery of his writing life. The walls were lined with bookshelves that were filled to the brim with volumes of literature I had only dreamed of reading. A typewriter sat prominently on his desk--a testament to the bygone era of writing before the rise of computers.
When we sat down together, Mr. Cheever would take out my stories, his red felt-tip marker poised to make notes in the margins. His feedback was invaluable, and I hung on to his every word. He would offer suggestions and insights that transformed my writing, urging me to dig deeper into my characters or to create more evocative descriptions. "Make her more mysterious," he would say, or "Describe the flowers in the garden, and as they are dying, let that serve as a metaphor for the relationship." His guidance breathed life into my stories, adding layers of complexity and nuance that I had never considered.
During these sessions, there were moments of silence. Mr. Cheever would light cigarette after cigarette, the smoke curling lazily in the air as he gazed out the window, lost in thought. I marveled at the weight of his contemplation, knowing that I was witnessing a glimpse into the mind of a true storytelling master.
Occasionally, our conversations would veer off into other topics, like baseball or current events. These casual exchanges provided a glimpse into the man behind the writer--a person with a wide range of interests and a genuine curiosity about the world. It was during these moments that I realized the importance of being well-rounded and knowledgeable in order to enrich one's writing.
