On Bookstore Romance Day, Lovebound Library in Salt Lake City, Utah, announced plans for expanding the romance bookstore that opened six months ago into the space directly behind it. The Salt Lake Tribune reported that owner Courtney Stookey credited the ability to do so to the readers and fans who have been supporting the store since it launched.

The expansion will be called Lovebound Lounge; it will double the store's size and serve as a space to house a seating area, room for more merchandise and events, a public restroom, and an expanded back room for more inventory.

"I feel so, so lucky that the community has just been showing up every week, seriously, every day. It just blows my mind," she said. "The fact that we even get to do this, and hopefully our customers and readers know that we absolutely wouldn't be able to do this without all of the support that they've already shown us."

Stookey added that the Lovebound Lounge will make running the store easier for her and her staff, but it's also a "thank you for showing up for our first six months. Here's how we're able to give back."

The store will remain open during the expansion. A grand reopening is scheduled for September 7, once the expansion is finished, with a local author signing.

In the Instagram post announcing the expansion, the bookstore noted: "We'll be posting lots of behind the scenes updates over the next few weeks, so be sure to follow along. We can't thank you all enough for showing up every day and completely blowing our minds with your support. This wouldn't be happening without you. THANK YOU!!!"

Bookshelf Shenanigans, an all-ages, general-interest bookstore, will open in Elizabethtown, Pa., this fall, Lancaster Online reported.

Owner Jessica McKinley has found a space at 2 N. Market St. that spans approximately 1,000 square feet. Within the wide-ranging inventory, she plans to highlight popular categories such as children's books, fantasy, mystery, and romance. Alongside the books, she'll carry sidelines including bookmarks, stickers, socks, and puzzles.

Prior to founding Bookshelf Shenanigans, McKinley was once a funeral director as well as the owner of a pet grooming shop. While no specific date has been announced, she plans to have the bookstore open in October.

Between the Lines, an all-ages bookstore selling new and used books, is opening in Goldsboro, N.C., this weekend, the News Argus reported.

Located at 144 N. Center St., Between the Lines will carry a wide selection of books at various price points, along with nonbook items like apparel, stationery, and bookmarks.

Owner Rhonda Coakley, who worked as a teacher for more than 30 years, described the store's interior as a cozy space full of "nooks and crannies." It includes space for community members to write, read, and play games, and the store features a special "Secret Garden" room located behind a moving bookshelf, as well as a "Dragon's Lair" located in the children's section.

Coakley's event plans include author talks, poetry readings, yoga classes, and "bucket list workshops." She explained that these will focus on "the things you've wanted to learn but never found the level you wanted to do, like canning."

Coakley told the News Argus that she's a lifelong reader and always liked the idea of owning a bookstore. After retiring from her career in education in 2019, she started discussing possibilities for a next step with her mother, Mickie Braswell.

"My mom has always wanted to have a bookstore," Coakley said. "She's in her 80s and she said, 'Well, let's do it. I'll help you.' She comes and helps me. She's my right hand."

Coakley has a grand-opening celebration planned for this coming Saturday that will include a storytime session as well as face painting and a scavenger hunt. The afternoon and evening will also feature a mocktail tasting and a social.

German bookstore chain Weltbild will be closing down its operations on August 31. The Bookseller reported that the move affects the remaining 14 bricks-and-mortar stores and the online shop, with 440 employees being laid off. 

In early June, owner WBD2C Group, a subsidiary of private equity investor Droege Group, called in insolvency administrator Christian Plail, who said he spoke with several possible buyers, but none were prepared to purchase the company because of high operating costs in a persistently tough market. 

"Without fresh capital a permanent and sustainable continuation of the business is not possible," said Plail.

Still, German bookstore chain Thalia wants to buy some assets of Weltbild, according to Börsenblatt. Thalia is interested in Tolino, the booksellers' online site that sells e-books and e-readers and is competitive with Amazon's Kindle. The company confirmed it had been in discussions with bankruptcy authorities and had notified the federal monopoly authority. In 2021, Thalia bought 10 Weltbild bookstores.

Over the past 12 years, Weltbild had been one of the major players in the German market, with sales of €1.6 billion (about $1.8 billion), 6,400 employees, and 300 branches in the high street and shopping centers, selling books and a wide array of nonbook merchandise, the Bookseller noted.

Weltbild previously survived a similar situation in 2014, when the Catholic Church (the then-owner) couldn't find a buyer and filed for insolvency. Droege stepped in, undertaking a strict restructuring process.  

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In another book world company collapse in Germany, BuchMarkt, the monthly "Idea Magazine for the Book Trade" founded in 1966 by the late longtime publisher Christian von Zittwitz, is ceasing publication at the end of the year, Börsenblatt reported.

Julian Müller, the head of BuchMarkt Media blamed the "stressed" print media landscape in general as well as declines in advertising and subscriptions. Von Zittwitz sold BuchMarkt in 2022 to eBuch, the bookselling cooperative. BuchMarkt has been an independent publication that focused on bookstores and booksellers.

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Australia's struggling online bookseller Booktopia, which had filed for "voluntary reorganization" in July, has a new owner, the Guardian reported. Shant Kradjian, founder of online camera store digiDirect, purchased the company, according to administrator McGrathNicol.

"The transaction will result in the retention of all remaining employees, the recruitment of some 100 additional employees and continuity of supply for Booktopia's trade creditors," McGrathNicol partner Keith Crawford said, adding: "Booktopia has been a key part of Australia's publishing industry for 20 years, and transitioning the business to such a well-known Australian retailer is a great outcome for all stakeholders."

New owner Kradjian told the Sydney Morning Herald he wants to preserve the Australian-owned identity of the online bookseller, which will delist from the local stock exchange, adding that he had admired Booktopia for years and that the two e-commerce businesses shared many qualities: "As it [Booktopia] was declining, I kept a closer eye on it. As soon as it went into administration, I reached out [and thought] there could be something there."

He also noted that he had met with book publishers and authors, who said it was important that Booktopia remain in local hands: "The brand has got a lot of good value. That was a big thing for publishers, authors, being Australian and not giving the business to Amazon. I'm taking on the CEO role. I've got my sleeves rolled up. This is not a side investment for me. I'm playing an active role in this."

Regarding the 100 jobs being added to the recently collapsed company, Kradjian said former employees are encouraged to return. Senior management and the board of directors of the former entity will not be part of the new business.

Booktopia's website is expected to begin trading soon, with an official launch campaign to follow. "We want our warehouse full, we're placing orders with suppliers as we speak. We'll stock up inventory," said Kradjian. "We bought this unencumbered, we have no debt into the business... it's kind of a clean slate and gives us a bit of an advantage."

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WH Smith has launched Smith's Kitchen, a new store format selling food and beverages, from its U.K. Travel division. The first Smith's Kitchen opened August 15 in Princess Anne Hospital, Southampton, England, with a 26-seat, 495-square-foot café. 

The café menu has been designed for hospital customers, NHS staff, patients and visitors, and features coffee sourced from a local roastery and hot breakfast choices, including patisserie freshly baked in-store. WH Smith also recently introduced the Smith's Family Kitchen food range, with more than 30 products, from sandwiches to salads to baguettes and wraps. 

U.K. Travel is the largest division in WH Smith, operating 590 stores across the U.K. in airports, hospitals and railway stations. --Robert Gray

Ruth Johnson Colvin, founder of Literacy Volunteers, which "became one of the world's largest organizations of volunteers tutoring basic language skills to functionally illiterate peoples in America and other lands, opening doors to citizenship and better lives," died August 18, the New York Times reported. She was 107.

Ruth Johnson Colvin in 2006

In 1961, Colvin discovered that the recent census had counted 11,055 residents of Onondaga County, N.Y., who could not read or write. Although she had no experience teaching, she felt that something had to be done about it. The Times wrote that a year later, "after consulting reading specialists and service agencies, she opened an office in her basement, began recruiting volunteers from churches to be tutors, wrote training manuals, and set up a small group to reach out to residents, many of them immigrants, to teach them basic English, offering pathways to jobs, education and rising standards of living."

In 1967, Literacy Volunteers was chartered by New York State as a nonprofit, with 77 tutors, 100 students, and Colvin as its first president. Over the following decades, the organization won federal and private grants, created programs in many states, won national recognition, and changed its name to Literacy Volunteers of America.

After a 2002 merger with Laubach Literacy International, the organization became ProLiteracy, with hundreds of programs and 100,000 tutors in 42 states and 60 countries, offering lessons in scores of languages at homes, workplaces, prisons, and other sites. For 60 years, Colvin remained a teacher and administrator, traveled widely, and wrote 12 books on her work. She also helped found the National Coalition for Literacy to raise public awareness of the country's illiteracy problems.

She received the President's Volunteer Service Award from President Ronald Reagan in 1987, was inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame in 1993, and received the nation's highest civilian honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, from President George W. Bush in a 2006.

"Ruth Colvin is a person of intelligence and vision and heart," Bush said in making the presentation. "And she has earned the gratitude of many and the admiration of us all."

During her career, Colvin became an international administrator, trainer of tutors, and teacher in ProLiteracy Worldwide. She and her husband established literacy programs in schools for adults, libraries, prisons, and industries. She also wrote Great Traveling After 55 (1989) and Off the Beaten Path: Stories of People Around the World (2011). In recent years, she developed literacy programs in Madagascar, New Guinea, Zambia, Guatemala, Pakistan, Somalia, and China. Her last book was My Travels Through Life, Love and Literacy: A Journey Over 100 Years in the Making (2020).

Still working in 2019 at the age of 102, Colvin was honored by the New York State Senate as a pioneering champion of literacy. Senator Rachel May, chairwoman of the Committee on Aging, said, "Ruth Colvin reminds us all by her example of the profound positive impact one person can have on the lives of others."

Congratulations to Weller Book Works, Salt Lake City, Utah, which is celebrating its 95th anniversary this Friday and Saturday, August 23 and 24. The store will invite customers to use its selfie station to share their favorite books with the world. (Weller staff will be doing the same.) Weller Book Works has also created a zine featuring unusual items from its Rare Books Room. And the store will hold a sale: recognizing it beginnings as a used bookstore, it will discount used books 25% on Friday and 50% on Saturday. Rare books will be discounted 25% on Saturday. Some exceptions apply. 

The store noted that 95 years ago Gus Weller "picked up some used books with a lot of second-hand furniture he purchased for resale." At that moment in August, 1929, he decided selling books would be better than selling second-hand furniture or radios, and Zion's Bookstore was born.

In 1946, Gus's son Sam Weller returned home from serving in the army, intending to use the GI Bill to study musical theater. Instead, Gus persuaded him to take over management and ownership of Zion's Book Store. In 1969, the store's name changed to Sam Wellers Zion Bookstore.

In 1972, Sam's son Tony Weller began working at the bookstore after school. He became manager of Sam Wellers Bookstore in 1992, a time of great change in the family, downtown Salt Lake City, and in the bookselling landscape. In 2012, the bookstore moved from Main Street to Trolley Square and changed its name to Weller Book Works.

In 95 years, the bookstore has had five locations and nearly as many name variations. The store emphasized: "What hasn't changed during those 95 years is a dedication to the book and our community, and a fierce independence."

Bear Pond Books in Montpelier, Vt., was featured recently in the first episode of a new six-part podcast series called "Not Built for This." Created by the long-running radio show and podcast 99% Invisible, "Not Built for This" examines the impact climate change is already having on communities across the country and what those communities are doing to survive.

The first episode, which premiered Tuesday, discussed the devastating floods that swept through Montpelier last summer. Bear Pond Books was one of many businesses in Montpelier to be inundated; the bookstore was closed for more than 50 days while co-owners Robert Kasow and Claire Benedict and their team cleaned, repaired, redecorated, and restocked.

"Not Built for This" can be found on the 99% Invisible feed on SiriusXM, Pandora, and all major podcast apps.

Ingram's Two Rivers Distribution is now handling all sales and distribution for print, e-book, and audiobooks in the U.S. and Canada for SPCK (Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge) Group.

SPCK, with headquarters in the U.K., publishes Christian books and Bibles for adults and children via nine imprints, including the SPCK Publishing list and IVP UK and Lion Hudson, acquired publishers of Christian books since the 17th Century. SPCK titles include nonfiction works on theology, spirituality, Christian living, and Bible studies as well as spiritual fiction titles under the Marylebone House imprint. Among popular authors are N.T. Wright, Rowan Williams, Amy Orr-Ewing, Richard Reddie, John Lennox, and Bishop Rose Hudson-Wilkin. SPCK publishes approximately 80 titles per year and has a backlist of more than 3,000 titles.

At Melville House Publishing:

Hanna Lafferty has been promoted to director of sales.

Pia Mulleady has been promoted to publicist.

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Dana Eger has been promoted to marketing manager, school and library, for Candlewick, Holiday House, and Peachtree. She was formerly school and library marketing associate.

Twin Flames by Olivia Abtahi (Tu Books/Lee & Low Books).

Tomorrow:
The View repeat: Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, author of True Gretch: What I've Learned About Life, Leadership, and Everything in Between (Simon & Schuster, $26.99, 9781668072318).

Several cast additions have been announced for USA Network's series The Rainmaker, based on John Grisham's bestselling 1995 novel. Deadline reported that John Slattery (Mad Men, Spotlight) will portray Leo F. Drummond, with Milo Callaghan (Dune: Prophesy) as Rudy Baylor, and Madison Iseman (I Know What You Did Last Summer) as Sarah Plankmore. 

From writer and executive producer Michael Seitzman, the Lionsgate and Blumhouse project received a series order by the NBCUniversal cable network in June, "capping a six-year journey by Seitzman to bring the book to TV," Deadline noted. Seitzman and Jason Richman wrote the pilot script, with Seitzman serving as writer on the series. The two are executive producing with Grisham, Jason Blum, and David Gernert.

A 1997 film adaptation of the novel, directed by Francis Ford Coppola, starred Matt Damon, Claire Danes, Jon Voight, and Danny DeVito.

The 20-title longlist for the 2024 German Book Prize has been announced. The shortlist will be revealed September 17 and the winner on October 14, to coincide with the start of the Frankfurt Book Fair. The winner receives €25,000 (about $27,680), the five finalists €2,500 (about $2,770). See the longlist here.

Jury spokesperson Natascha Freundel said: "What is a novel in the context of a reality that often outstrips all powers of imagination? On our exploratory journey of German-language literature in 2024, we discovered books worthy of being longlisted that still convey the magic of storytelling today. These include autofictional texts with surprising moments of surreal freedom; unembellished tales of loneliness, violence and loss that are simultaneously poetic expressions of self-affirmation; historical-political novels that also shed light on the looming darkness of dictatorship in the present or carry us off into little-known corners of world history like into a hall of mirrors. We were also fascinated by texts that challenge narration itself, the possibilities of a language of their own between digital textual building blocks. We were amazed, we argued, we laughed--and we selected 20 titles that are at the cutting edge, demand to be re-read, and show the world not only as it is but also as it could be."

Eunice Hong is the director of the Leadership Initiative and a lecturer in law at Columbia Law School. She was previously a litigation associate at Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison, and a law clerk to Richard M. Berman in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. Hong received her J.D. from Columbia Law School after graduating from Phillips Academy Andover and Brown University. She resides in New York City. Her debut novel, Memento Mori (Red Hen Press, August 13, 2024), is the winner of the 2021 Red Hen Press Fiction Award.

Handsell readers your book in 25 words or less:

Memento Mori offers a modern perspective on the Eurydice and Orpheus myth through a Korean woman who uses storytelling to try to understand her grief.

On your nightstand now:

My friends and parents make fun of me for this, but I'm always reading The Iliad. I have Allen Rogers Benner's Selections from Homer's Iliad next to my bed, because I'm trying to get back into a practice of reading the Greek. I also have two other books that I'm looking forward to starting:

This Flesh Is Mine by Brian Woolland, a play drawn from The Iliad that was performed in both Palestine and in London in 2014 in a joint coproduction by the Ashtar Theatre and Border Crossings; and Glorious Exploits by Ferdia Lennon, a novel about the Peloponnesian War that debuted this year.

Favorite book when you were a child:

Little Women by Louisa May Alcott. My mother gave me her copy, which I wore out so much that my grandmother had to laminate the cover with Scotch tape. Jo March had a profound effect on how I understood the performance of gender, particularly when someone would tell me that I couldn't or shouldn't do something because I was a girl.

Your top five authors:

I'll cabin myself to non-ancient authors:

John Edward Williams, for Augustus and Stoner.
Anthony Doerr, for Memory Wall, All the Light You Cannot See, and Cloud Cuckoo Land.
Kazuo Ishiguro, for Never Let Me Go.  
Celeste Ng, for Everything I Never Told You.  
Yaa Gyasi, for Homegoing and Transcendent Kingdom.

Book you've faked reading:

I don't know that I've ever faked reading a book, but there are a few I haven't been able to get through. I really tried with Dune by Frank Herbert, but I couldn't get into it. I've loved the movies, though.

Book you're an evangelist for:

Augustus by John Edward Williams, an epistolary novel about Gaius Octavius becoming Augustus after the assassination of Julius Caesar. A gorgeous, sweeping book that also feels intimate.

Book you've bought for the cover:

We, the Drowned, a Danish novel by Carsten Jensen. I usually have a good sense of whether I'm going to enjoy a book after the first few pages, and I put this one down three or four times. But for some reason, I felt compelled to pick it back up each time, and I'm glad I did, because it turned out to be an incredibly beautiful and engaging saga.

Book you hid from your parents:

I don't recall hiding specific books from my parents, who rarely investigated the contents of what I was reading. But I would often hide my books and a flashlight under my blanket so I could continue reading after my bedtime.

Book that changed your life:

On Another Man's Wound, a memoir by Ernie O'Malley that was responsible for me deciding to major in political science in college. The memoir gives a candid and moving account of his life as a soldier during the Irish War of Independence, with stunning descriptions of the land that give you a visceral understanding of why one might feel compelled to fight for freedom.

Favorite line from a book:

I am blanking on every word I have ever read. The first quote that comes to mind is from an incredible play called Copenhagen by Michael Frayn: "I was formed by nature to be a mathematically curious entity, not one, but half of two."

Five books you'll never part with:

On Another Man's Wound by Ernie O'Malley. I have a first edition of the U.K. and the U.S. printings, which I never touch in case I ruin them.

Augustus by John Edward Williams. I made the mistake of lending my first copy to my mother years ago, and she still hasn't given it back, so I bought a second copy that I'm hiding from her.

Cannery Row by John Steinbeck. I did not enjoy The Grapes of Wrath in high school, and I refused to read more Steinbeck for years. But I finally decided to give this one a shot, and I was stupid not to have read it earlier.

Dated Emcees by Chinaka Hodge, a slim book of poetry that took me forever to read because I kept putting it down so I could process its genius.

Little Women by Louisa May Alcott. I still have the taped-up copy my mother gave me, and I will keep it forever.

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

Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro. I went into the book already spoiled on the premise, and I wonder what the impact would have been if I had gone in knowing absolutely nothing about the book.

Your favorite myth retellings:

Country by Michael Hughes, which transposes The Iliad to Northern Ireland in an unforced, brilliant way.

Home Fire by Kamila Shamsie. I went into this not realizing it was a retelling. About halfway through, I was like "hang ON," and it clicked. I won't give away what the retelling is for anyone who doesn't know, but Shamsie does a stunning and devastating job pulling everything together.

For Her Dark Skin by Percival Everett. A few years ago, I read all the Medea retellings I could get my hands on within the space of a month (which I don't recommend for health reasons), and this one really stood out to me, along with Medea by Christa Wolf.

House of Names by Colm Tóibín. I think I've read most, if not all, of the retellings involving Clytemnestra, and this one is my favorite.

Here, the World Entire, a novella about Medusaby Anwen Kya Hayward. There is a lot of discourse about what versions of the Medusa story are "original" or "Ovid propaganda" or "woke propaganda." I don't care about any of that. The writing is gorgeous, and it broke my heart. I hope she does a longer treatment of Medusa one day.

In their lauded Banned Book Club, Korean creative team Kim Hyun Sook and Ryan Estrada, with illustrator Ko Hyung-Ju, used the graphic novel format to tell Kim's gripping story of book club rebellion under martial law. Kim and Estrada inspiringly continue Kim's autobiographical journey in No Rules Tonight, this time illustrated by Estrada himself.

During Hyun Sook's 1983 college freshman year, Korean President Chun Doo-hwan's military dictatorship (1979-1988) made her literary quests life-threatening. No Rules Tonight opens in 1984, after the banned book club was disbanded. Although the government's draconian curfews have been lifted, "saying, thinking, watching, writing, or reading anything that the regime didn't approve of could still get me and my friends arrested, beaten, or even killed."

Hyun Sook feeds her curiosity and finds companionship through her involvement with the Masked Folk Dance Team: "I studied Talchum, a thousand-year-old art form that was like band, musical theater, dance, history, and activism all rolled up into one." As winter break approaches, the team prepares for their annual hiking trip, departing on Christmas Eve. The team's director, Hoon, gets arrested for not standing at attention--mandatory for everybody--during the daily 5 p.m. playing of the national anthem. Though Hoon's mistake was unintentional, his anti-authoritarian spirit won't be contained: just the day before, he shared Erich Fromm's The Art of Loving with Hyun Sook, complete with how-tos and contacts for reviving another banned book club. The team still heads to the mountains without their fearless leader, determined to have their remote adventures: "No parents, no teachers, hours from the nearest police station... what would you do with one night of freedom?" Trusting each other is still a challenge--what's with that creepy new kid?--but that trip "ended up changing everything."

Kim and Estrada highlight a sobering history: "The challenges we faced back then are just as relevant today," Kim's author's note insists. Kim is an inclusive storyteller who expands her own experiences through detailed examinations of her family, friends, acquaintances, and school. Her memories of team practices and performances are particularly resonant as she underscores the lifesaving power of art. Estrada displays that energy through full-color pages and comic panels that move, bend, and break, allowing the illustrations--and emotions--to spill out into uncontained full-page bleeds. He adroitly balances the all-too-real fear with humor, connection, and pure joy. --Terry Hong

Shelf Talker: Kim Hyun Sook and Ryan Estrada continue creatively collaborating to reveal Kim's inspiring experiences in 1980s Korea during a dangerous, totalitarian regime.