Slant of Light Books, selling new, used, and discounted titles, has opened at 1543 N. Wells St. in the Old Town neighborhood, Chicago, Ill. Block Club Chicago reported that owner Jessica Murach hopes the store will be a place where people can hang out and read, and she plans to host a range of events and pop-ups.

"I think we have all felt this online fatigue," she said. "Whether that means teaching on Zoom or just working from home, I think a lot of us who have been locked into the internet have felt this collective realization as a society where we are really hungry for these spaces outside of work and home. Spaces that can fill our souls."

While the idea of opening a bookstore wasn't a dream for Murach, bookstores have always had a special place in her life. "It was more of this elusive idea than a dream of mine," she recalled. "The feeling of a bookstore has always been with me as something I love. I've always loved going to library book sales; I remember my first used bookstore and midnight release parties at Barnes & Noble. I did all of that and was so happy doing that because a bookstore is like a world within a world."

Slant of Light Books features a wall of fiction and nonfiction, a special Chicago section, as well as kids, science fiction, music, cooking, and other genres. The store has two seating areas.

"My vision for the store is something akin to an educational space," Murach said. "I'd like to conduct workshops, meet with local artists and display their work and tell their stories, have author visits and bring in people from different disciplines to present their work and ideas.... Making that a reality is the next step. I want this to be more than the buying and selling of books. Making it a space where people really feel the spark of curiosity."

Foxes & Fireflies Booksellers will open this year in Superior, Wis., Perfect Duluth Day reported.

Foxes and Fireflies in progress.

The general-interest bookstore will sell new titles and reside within a business incubator called the Superior Entrepreneurship Center. The incubator is located at 1401 Tower Ave., in an historic building that was once the town's post office. Initially the store will be open only on weekends, but owner Maria Lockwood intends to expand hours if there is enough support.

Lockwood, who works as a reporter at the Superior Telegram, told Perfect Duluth Day that she wants the bookstore to become a third space and community hub: "I want kids to come after school to do their homework, or to start an art club, or come have their own book club, maybe a knitting group wants to come, get out of the house and be someplace."

Superior has been without a bookstore selling new titles since 2007, when JW Beecroft closed, and Lockwood became dissatisfied after waiting 17 years for a new one to open. "It's here and it's for the community. It's not my bookstore, it's Superior's bookstore. And I really want Superior to own that. And they can only do that if they come and tell me what they want and they support us."

To help launch the bookstore, Lockwood made use of a Kiva loan, which involves both private fundraising and open crowdfunding. Lockwood began by securing 15 lenders to give at least $25. Then the crowdfunding phase opened, and Lockwood reached her goal of $8,500 within a week.

While Lockwood has not announced a definite opening date for Foxes & Fireflies, she has already started hosting some events around town, including silent book clubs at local parks.

Midtown Reader, Tallahassee, Fla., which had announced plans for expansion on the former Waterworks bar property earlier this summer, shared photos recently of what the new space will look like, noting: 

"The new area will be perfect for our in-store events, accommodating an additional 75-80 people. Plus, we're adding a lovely patio with greenery, where our Piebrary lovers can enjoy a cup of coffee in our Midtown oasis.... Construction is on the horizon, with work hopefully starting in early 2025. Your incredible support has made this possible, and we can't wait to celebrate this new chapter with you!"

Owner Sally Bradshaw told the Tallahassee Democrat that the planned area mirrors about half of the bookstore's existing lower level. It is part of an extension of about 700 square feet, not including a covered outdoor patio area. Pending permit approval, she would like to begin construction in January 2025. 

"There is a demand for an independent bookstore in Tallahassee," Bradshaw said. "Over eight years, we have been fortunate to build a really loyal customer base, which is excited to see us grow."

Bradshaw added that Waterworks owner Don Quarello had leased the property, but couldn't find another bar, lounge or restaurant to move into the space. "No one would have been happier than me if Waterworks had continued to exist as Waterworks, but Don made it very clear that he wasn't receiving enough business to justify staying open," she said.

Books Across Borders, a nonprofit that provides booksellers with travel fellowships to international book fairs, has announced its 2024 Fall Fellows. 

They are Spencer Ruchti, author events manager at Third Place Books in Seattle, Wash.; Veronica Santiago Liu, founder and general coordinator of Word Up Community Bookshop/Librería Comunitaria in New York, N.Y.; and Thais Perkins, founder of Reverie Books, in Austin, Tex.

Ruchti will attend the Frankfurt Book Fair in Frankfurt, Germany, in October, while Liu and Perkins will attend the Guadalajara International Book Fair in Guadalajara, Mexico, in November.

Books Across Borders noted that it is trying a new approach this year, where it takes applications for a 2024-2025 season and announces fellows on a rolling basis based on the season. The 2025 Spring Fellows will be announced in the fall and winter.

Charles R. Cross, a Seattle music writer who edited "a local rock bible, during the city's grunge-era flowering in the 1990s, and who wrote acclaimed biographies of two of the city's most venerated musical figures, Jimi Hendrix and Kurt Cobain," died August 9, the New York Times reported. He was 67. Cross was the editor of The Rocket magazine from 1986 through 2000, "a period when Seattle bands like Nirvana, Soundgarden and Pearl Jam redefined rock. It was considered a must-read for musicians looking to join the wave."

Chris Walla, a former member of the band Death Cab for Cutie, posted on social media: "it's impossible to imagine the music or community of seattle in the 80s and 90s without charles r. cross. he influenced or enabled practically every story, relationship, and musicians wanted ad in the city for decades. i'm eternally grateful. may his name be a blessing."

Cross also turned his self-produced fanzine into Backstreets Magazine, a trove of Bruce Springsteen arcana. At a recent concert in Pittsburgh, Springsteen paid tribute to Cross, telling the audience that his "help in communicating between our band and our fans will be sorely missed" before launching into his song "Backstreets."

The first of his nine books, Backstreets: Springsteen, the Man and His Music (1989), was followed two years later by Led Zeppelin: Heaven and Hell, an illustrated history that he wrote with Erik Flannigan, with photographs by Neal Preston.

His 2001 Cobain biography, Heavier Than Heaven, was based on more than 400 interviews, as well as Cobain's private journals and other materials provided by his widow, Courtney Love. The book received ASCAP's Timothy White Award for outstanding musical biography in 2002. 

Room Full of Mirrors (2005), Cross's biography of Hendrix, was called one of the best music books ever written by Vibe magazine. He also collaborated with Ann and Nancy Wilson of the band Heart, who grew up in the Seattle area, on Kicking & Dreaming: A Story of Heart, Soul, and Rock & Roll (2012).

"His passion and purpose was to make it his life’s work to celebrate and chronicle the beautiful global renaissance that started with our local Seattle music scene," Nancy Wilson posted on social media. "Charley was the coolest rock literati bookworm to ever be lucky enough to know. And all us cool rock people got to feel even cooler to know him and call him a friend.... Charley was our trusty biographer and implicitly trusted friend.... Rest in wit and wisdom dear fine feathered friend."

Shelf Awareness for Readers, our weekly consumer-facing publication featuring adult and children's book reviews, author interviews, backlist recommendations, and fun news items, is being published today. Starred review highlights include the claustrophobic locked-room mystery The Chamber by Will Dean; MJ Wassmer's "hilarious, high-stakes social satire" Zero Stars, Do Not Recommend; the "riveting puzzle" that is Catherine Steadman's "sinister thriller" Look in the Mirror; and Adela's Mariachi Band, a "colorful, jubilant picture book" by Denise Vega, illustrated by Erika Rodriguez Medina, about an exuberant girl finding her place in the family band. In The Writer's Life, the authors of Gender Explained discuss the growing awareness of gender and identity. Plus, rediscover Robert Caro's Pulitzer Prize-winning biography of Robert Moses, The Power Broker, and learn about the New-York Historical Society exhibition honoring the 50th anniversary of its publication.

Today's issue of Shelf Awareness for Readers is going to more than 690,000 customers of 251 independent bookstores. Stores interested in learning more can contact our partnership program team via e-mail. To see today's issue, click here.

Book Passage, San Francisco and Corte Madera, Calif., presented an evening with former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, in conversation with Michael Krasny, for her book The Art of Power: My Story as America's First Woman Speaker of the House (Simon & Schuster). The event, in partnership with Broadway SF, took place at San Francisco's Orpheum Theater. Pictured: Luisa Smith, buying director at Book Passage, and Elaine Petrocelli, Book Passage founder and president, greet Pelosi. In the background: Book Passage co-owner Bill Petrocelli.

Once Upon A Time Bookstore, Montrose, Calif., shared pics of the shop's back to school display on Facebook, noting: "Let's get back to books this school year! Whether students are nervous or excited, we have a story for everyone in the classroom. Pippi is happy to help add a little excitement by sharing her love of reading with a new blue drawstring backpack featuring her smiling face. Don't forget we have fun journals, pencils, and erasers to make schoolwork more fun!"

"This is your sign to come buy a book." That was the sidewalk chalkboard message in front of the Pile Bookstore, Berwyn, Ill., which noted: "If you were waiting for a sign, this is it!"

"A rainy day is the best day to stop in at the bookstore for your back to school books and your favorite new release," the Curious Quill Book Shoppe, Manheim, Pa., posted on Facebook.

Voyage of the Damned by Frances White (MIRA/Harlequin Trade Publishing).

Today:
NPR's Science Friday: Cady Coleman, author of Sharing Space: An Astronaut's Guide to Mission, Wonder, and Making Change (Penguin Life, $28, 9780593494011).

HBO has released the official trailer for the fourth and final season of My Brilliant Friend, created by Saverio Costanzo and based on Elena Ferrante's bestselling novels, Deadline reported. The series premieres September 9 on HBO and streaming on Max, with new episodes dropping every Monday. This season is directed by Laura Bispuri

The fourth installment, adapted from Ferrante's novel The Story of the Lost Child, stars Alba Rohrwacher and Irene Maiorino. The cast also includes Fabrizio Gifuni, Stefano Dionisi, Anna Rita Vitolo, Pier Giorgio Bellocchio, Daria Deflorian, Lino Musella, Eduardo Scarpetta, Edoardo Pesce, and Sonia Bergamasco. 

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Netflix is developing The Grays, a TV series based on Oscar Wilde's classic novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray. Deadline reported that the project is from Berlanti Productions and Warner Bros. Television. 

Written by Katie Rose Rogers, The Grays is "a contemporary take on the Oscar Wilde classic about our fascination with eternal youth set against the backdrop of the modern beauty industry. In a twist on the gothic novel, the series revolves around siblings Basil and Doran Gray," Deadline wrote.

Executive producers are Katie Rose Rogers and Robbie Rogers, who worked together on the Emmy-nominated limited series Fellow Travelers; showrunner Rina Mimoun and director Lee Toland Krieger; as well as Berlanti Productions Greg Berlanti, Sarah Schechter, and Leigh London Redman.

Lex Croucher won the £2,000 (about $2,615) YA Book Prize for Gwen & Art Are Not in Love. The award was launched by the Bookseller in 2014 to celebrate fiction for teenagers and young adults in the U.K. and Ireland.

Prize judge Anissa de Gomery called the novel a "stand-out winner for its refreshing and inclusive take on historical romance... Gwen & Art Are Not in Love captivates young adult readers with its witty dialogue, relatable characters and engaging storyline." Judge Alice Oseman added: "With a crew of flawed protagonists who each traverse huge emotional journeys, writing that fluctuates between hilarious witticisms and painfully relatable revelations, and a story that transports you to a magical Arthurian realm and doesn't let you go--Gwen & Art Are Not in Love is a master class in teen romantic comedy."

If you had a chance to take a blood test that would predict your future behavior, would you do it?

That's what small-town Ohio insurance salesman Brock Hobson, the protagonist of Blood Test: A Comedy by veteran novelist Charles Baxter (The Sun Collective) decides to do. In this disarming tale of love, family, and the things that give our lives meaning, the consequences of that decision are both startling and hilarious.

In the course of a visit to a local clinic seeking the cause of stabbing pain in his side and back, Brock makes an "impulse purchase" of an expensive blood test offered by the vaguely described company Generomics Associates of Cambridge, Mass. When the results come back--boasting an accuracy rate of 94%--they reveal that he will engage in criminal behavior, or as the doctor informs him, "felonies are definitely in your future." Indeed, in a follow-up call, a Generomics representative ominously warns him, "We see a murder. Committed by you."

Brock is a "low-wattage sort of person." He has such an orderly life that he's known to his family as "Mr. Predictable"--manifested in his status as a respectable businessman who teaches Sunday school and prides himself on his charitable inclinations. So these dire prophecies provoke for him an understandable psychological and emotional tailspin, and the true joy of Baxter's story comes as he carefully peels back the layers of Brock's life to reveal the angst bubbling beneath its placid surface.

His most prominent source of agitation is his ex-wife Cheryl's relationship with subcontractor Burt Kindlov, someone Brock has known and despised since they were in first grade together. Even though he's in an affectionate new relationship himself, Brock can't shake his dismay over the fact that Cheryl left him for a man who's more physically attractive, but far less intelligent and decent. Does Brock hate Burt enough to kill him? That's the question that propels the novel's action, providing some of its sharpest comic and dramatic moments.

Brock is an appealing everyman who possesses a vivid imagination and a droll sense of humor that surfaces in trenchant observations about life and death, and in his compulsion to correct the grammatical errors of everyone he encounters. Baxter has always excelled in portraying scenes of Midwestern domesticity. Here, that takes the form of Brock's tugs of war with his sexually avid 17-year-old daughter, Lena, and her boyfriend, Peter, along with Brock's 15-year-old son, Joe, who he fears may be suicidal. Anyone who has ever felt overwhelmed by moments of sheer absurdity amid the pace of life in 21st-century America will identify with Brock Hobson's pain and pleasure and celebrate Charles Baxter's skill in capturing it. --Harvey Freedenberg, freelance reviewer

Shelf Talker: A small-town businessman submits to an unconventional blood test that radically changes his outlook on his quiet life.

Louis Menand asked a terrible question in the New Yorker this week: "Are Bookstores Just a Waste of Space?" 

Fortunately, his answer was no (mostly). "You will probably soon be able to chat online about your book interests with a bot, but a bot is not a person with green hair, a tattoo, and a sense of humor who might have some offbeat suggestions for you," Menand wrote. "Salespeople today tend to be book lovers themselves (historically not always the case), and they can recommend a new book or help you find a book whose title you have forgotten.... The chief rationale offered for brick-and-mortar bookstores today is that they are community-building spaces.... They are practitioners of bibliotherapy. They introduce people to books that will help them overcome grief or minister to confusions about life choices or personal identity."

Speaking of ministering, earlier this month an Instagram post by City Lights, San Francisco, Calif., pointed me to a New York Times article by Cara Buckley, headlined " 'Earthalujah!': A Rebel 'Pastor' Preaches for the Planet." 

"The preacher stood wild-eyed before his flock, swaying to a gospel choir. His pompadour stood tall, his voice was thunderous, and his all white suit perfectly matched the heeled white loafers he was wearing on his feet," Buckley wrote. "This was Earthchxrch, also known as Earth Church, the latest iteration in the ever evolving mash-up of performance art, satire, protest and song from Reverend Billy Talen, a self-anointed preacher and ersatz clergyman, and the Stop Shopping Choir.... They called themselves the Church of Stop Shopping, which Mr. Talen has described as 'an anti-consumerist communion devoted to putting the odd into God.' "

As it happens, I had the opportunity to spend some quality time with Rev. Billy earlier in the century at the Northshire Bookstore in Manchester Center, Vt. He was at the bookshop for an author event, though he never broke character (a compliment). Memory fades, so I'm not sure if it was for his book What Should I Do if Reverend Billy Is in My Store? (The New Press, 2005) or What Would Jesus Buy (Public Affairs, 2007). 

He was great fun to be around, even though, as a semi-conscious consumer, frontline bookseller, and future book trade newsletter editor, I could have been seen as an all-consuming enabler. But Rev. Billy must have had a good time because he returned in 2016 to promote The Earth Wants You (City Lights).

Rev. Billy and his Stop Shopping movement have been around since the 1990s, but it does appear the world of social media consumers is gradually catching up with him, if the articles hitting my inbox and Google Alerts lately are any indication. Among recent examples: 

Fast Company ("Why TikTok's 'Underconsumption Core' trend won't die"): "For more than a month now, people across social media have been bragging about the scuffed, worn-out shoes they've been wearing since middle school and how they use their makeup all the way till the very last drop.... It's a trend that has been exploding throughout the summer, under the hashtag 'underconsumption core'.... Companies that pivot toward designing more durable products, and making them from higher quality materials, will stand out in a market that remains flooded with low-quality goods. And many consumers are desperate for products built to last, and will be paying to pay a premium for it. The ball is in your court."

FoxBusiness ("More people trying 'no-buy year' trend to save thousands of dollars"): "A Tiktok trend is encouraging people to save more money. It's called the 'no-buy year.' The rules are simple. Make a list of the non-essential items you will not spend money on for a set length of time and stick to it."

The Guardian ("Reuse that teabag! Ignore that special offer! It's time to join the underconsumer revolution"): "Enter 'underconsumption core.' It's the latest slightly earnest TikTok trend, in which young people extoll the virtues of buying only what you need.... Consumer goods companies are powerful and sophisticated, with huge budgets to throw at conventional advertising and influencers to make people want their stuff. Why not try to beat them at their own game?... Underconsumption is part of a de-influencing fightback against the dispiriting, destructive churn of hyperconsumerism and it targets influencers' audiences; it makes sense to use their codes and conventions."

Where do books and bookstores fit into this trend? That question brings us back to Louis Menand's New Yorker piece, where he observed: "One reason for the distribution problem is that each book is a unique good. It is handcrafted by a writer and a postproduction team of editors and designers.... And, unless you are a 'just looking for something to read on the beach' kind of customer, there are usually no acceptable substitutes. When you go to a supermarket, the store may carry two brands of milk or ten. It doesn't matter. You just want milk. But book buying doesn't work that way. You want the book you want."

You want the book you want. Somewhere between the underconsumer revolution and good old-fashioned hyperconsumerism lies a cozy nook where you can buy stuff that does matter, without guilt. Let's call that space an independent bookstore. 

I love the creative sidewalk chalkboard messages that so many indie bookstores feature outside their storefronts. We highlight them often at Shelf Awareness (see above). If I had a sidewalk board here, it would read: "Don't Buy Nothing... Buy Books!"