Joybird Books, a primarily used bookstore that opened in Orlando, Fla., in 2021, will close permanently at the end of the month, and starting in November, a romance-focused bookstore called The New Romantics will take over the same space.

On Facebook, Joybird Books owner Andrew Walker explained that things had reached a point where keeping the store open was "no longer financially sustainable." The bookstore's last day of business will be October 26, which coincides with a neighborhood Halloween celebration, and until that time, there will be "massive sales and fun events." Walker also noted that the bookstore's website will remain open after the storefront closes, and it will be revamped sometime "in the near future."

To the store's community Walker wrote: "We first want to say THANK YOU to everyone who has ever come by and said hello, maybe bought some books, maybe bought some art from local creators, or at very least picked up some art supplies from the Orlando Community Art Supply Closet. We love you all, and appreciate all of the warm, kind, and caring energy you have sent our way."

Starting in November, the space will belong to the New Romantics, which made its debut earlier this year as an online and pop-up bookstore. While owner Jane Rodriguez did not specify an opening date, she plans to stock a diverse range of romance titles.

She said the opening inventory will likely consist of some 2,000-2,500 romance titles across sub-genres like contemporary, romantasy, historical, YA, LGBTQ+/Queer, sports, dark, and paranormal. She and her team also plan on carrying books from local and independent romance authors, as well as Spanish-language romance. And while she will be making changes to the space, she told the Community Paper that the Community Art Supply Closet will remain.

Rodriguez wrote on social media that it was "bittersweet to be taking over this location, while losing such an important space in the Orlando community," and expressed her "deepest and sincerest gratitude" to Walker.

"From the moment he originally reached out to me about the space to the thousands of questions he has answered, I am eternally grateful for his part in helping our store come together," she said. "Andrew has so much love and care for the Orlando community and all the people, small businesses, and vendors involved. He has always made sure to put that at the forefront of everything he does and helping us is a testament to all of that."

Blush Bookstore, a romance bookstore that debuted in Wichita, Kan., in 2023, opened a second location this weekend in Dallas, Tex., CultureMap Dallas reported.

Located at 432 W. Eighth St. in the city's Bishop Arts District, the bookstore carries a variety of romance sub-genres including contemporary, fantasy, YA, and dark romance. Its nonbook offerings include apparel, candles, notebooks, and more.

A grand opening celebration over the weekend featured store-themed coffee drinks made by a local cafe, mocktails from a neighborhood bar, and a build-a-bouquet available from a local florist.

Owner Jaclyn Wooden decided to open a location in Dallas after hosting an event there in 2023 and seeing the potential for a romance store in that market.

Barbara and Valeria Cerda, sisters who own La Revo Books, Milwaukee, Wis., have been named the 2024 Midwest Booksellers of the Year and will be celebrated at the Heartland Fall Forum, taking place now in Milwaukee.

Barbara and Valeria Cerda

As noted in an inspiring article on the Midwest Independent Booksellers Association website, La Revo Books has a mission of bringing Black and brown books and authors to the South Side of Milwaukee. With its "storefront-free model," it can "meet people where they're at, even if they think they aren't readers or haven't bought books before. In that vein, Barbara and Valeria have sold books everywhere they can--at power-lifting competition, a low-rider car show, on a boat, and in art galleries, book clubs, fashion shows, theatres, and Milwaukee-area schools and universities, bringing people together to talk about what it means to be Latine in the Midwest."

MIBA executive director Carrie Obry said, "Barbara and Valeria are ideal candidates for this award, having done work that goes beyond the parameters of their own business to inspire an entire community and our bookselling region. These are two working class women from immigrant families who have created a city-wide inspirational bookselling model out of scratch and made the industry stand up and pay attention."

And Kristen Sandstrom, MIBA board president and manager of Apostle Islands Booksellers in Bayfield, Wis., said, "When these two women set their minds to do something, they go in 100%. They saw that their community was missing a very important resource, so even though they both had full-time jobs, they took it upon themselves to fill that void. They set up tables to sell Latinx books at every opportunity they could find. They created a strong, effective, and entertaining social media presence. They have made their voices heard throughout the bookselling community as well. We may never know how lucky we are to have these two energetic, intelligent, book-loving women as a part of our association of bookstores."

The Girls of Good Fortune by Kristina McMorris (Sourcebooks Landmark, May 2025) was selected by attendees as the winning title in the BuzzBooks contest at the 2024 Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association Tradeshow, September 29-October 1, in Portland, Ore.

Under voting procedures, punch cards were distributed to booksellers and librarians who then visited supporting exhibitors for quick pitches on six titles across a variety of genres. Booth stops were verified with a stamp from the attending reps and participants cast a vote for the book they were most excited to recommend to their customers and patrons.

The win for The Girls of Good Fortune was announced to an audience of 175 at the Signature Dish author dinner, where three participants were also awarded $100 cash prizes in a random draw of completed cards. The Sourcebooks team further celebrated their victory as McMorris joined reps on stage for a guest spotlight during the new late night talk show format Reps Behind the Desk event, sponsored by Shelf Awareness, which closed out the day's programming to a packed house.

Winners of the participant prizes:
Rob Porton-Jones, A Children's Place, Portland, Ore
Chasina Klein, Elliott Bay Book Company, Seattle, Wash.
Paul Waterman, The Book Nook, Canby, Ore.

Ella Leffland, whose critically acclaimed novels "probed the layered history of her home state as well as the mental topography of outsiders and villains, including the Nazi leader Hermann Goering," died September 18, the New York Times reported. She was 92.

Leffland grew up in Martinez, Calif. Her parents were Danish immigrants who referred to their native country as "home." In an interview, she said, "I think coming from a family that was different and had a different attitude toward things had a bearing on the people I write about." Memories of her California youth during World War II inspired one of her best known novels, Rumors of Peace (1979).

The Nazis were ever-present in her personal "sphere of terror," she added. Leffland tackled the topic of war directly in her "historical biographical novel about Goering, The Knight, Death and the Devil (1990)." Leffland "researched her subject with the zeal of a historian, including traveling to Germany to interview key Third Reich figures like Albert Speer, Adolf Hitler's architect and close confidant, who served 20 years in prison as a war criminal," the Times noted.

"I went by my feeling that the novel, with its layered interworkings of meaning, was the only form appropriate to the complexities and incongruities of Goering's character," she once said.

At 28, Leffland sold her first short story, "Eino," about the impact of World War II on a German boy, to the New Yorker for $750. In 1970, she published her first novel, Mrs. Munck, which was transformed into a dark comedy for Showtime in 1995, starring Diane Ladd, who also directed the film and adapted the screenplay with Leffland.

Her novel Love Out of Season (1974) chronicled a tangled love affair between a San Francisco artist and a school psychologist, while Breath and Shadows (1999) was a survey of three generations of a wealthy Danish clan.

Leffland continued publishing short stories in magazines including the Atlantic Monthly and Harper's, as well as in various literary journals. In 1977, she was a winner of the O. Henry Award for her short story "Last Courtesies."

She once said, "I started writing at about 10, and all I can say is that it's gotten harder ever since."

Authors, booksellers, and publishers gathered at Station 26 in Denver, Colo., last night for a Mix and Mingle to open the Mountains & Plains Independent Booksellers Association's FallCon, for which more than 225 booksellers pre-registered, according to executive director Heather Duncan. Pictured: (l.-r.) Joe Murphy and Brad Costa from W.W. Norton; Breanna Spiegal from IPG; Nic Dufort from Penguin Random House; and Renee Becher from The Crowded Bookshelf, Fort Collins, Colo.

Barnes & Noble has chosen The Mighty Red by Louise Erdrich (Harper) as its October national book club pick. In a live virtual event, on Tuesday, November 12, at 3 p.m. Eastern, Erdrich will be in conversation with Lexie Smyth, category manager for fiction at B&N, and Jenna Seery, associate producer, digital content, at B&N.

Smyth said, "There's a reason Louise Erdrich has won both the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award. The Mighty Red is a testament to Erdrich's masterful storytelling abilities. She seamlessly ties together stories of the bond between a mother and a daughter, the economic realities of rural America, a fascinating love triangle, and our connection to the land we live on. This is an immersive read that begs for conversation."

For more information, click here.

Yesterday's issue of Hut's Place, the weekly newsletter by Hut Landon, bookseller and former executive director of the Northern California Independent Booksellers Association (now part of the California Independent Booksellers Alliance), features "a trio of celebrity books": Into the Uncut Grass by Trevor Noah, illustrated by Sabina Hahn (One World); Taylor Swift Style: Fashion Through the Eras by Sarah Chapelle (St. Martin's Griffin); and From Here to the Great Unknown by Lisa Marie Presley and her daughter, Riley Keough (Random House).

Alexandra Primiani has been promoted to publicity director at Avid Reader Press. She was formerly associate director of publicity and has been with the Simon & Schuster imprint since its founding in 2018.

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At Tor Publishing Group:

Saraciea Fennell is being promoted to associate director of publicity.

Caroline Perny is being promoted to associate director of publicity.

Andrew Beasley is being promoted to associate director, data intelligence.

Ariana Carpentieri is being promoted to associate marketing manager.

Us from Nothing: A Poetic History by Geoff Bouvier (Black Lawrence Press).

Today:
CBS Mornings: Jason Reynolds, author of Twenty-Four Seconds from Now... (Atheneum/Caitlyn Dlouhy, $19.99, 9781665961271).

Good Morning America: Caroline Choe, author of Banchan: 60 Korean American Recipes for Delicious, Shareable Sides (Chronicle, $27.95, 9781797227115).

Also on GMA: Ryan Seacrest and Meredith Seacrest Leach, authors of The Make-Believers (Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, $19.99, 9781665949873). They will also appear on Live with Kelly and Mark.

Sherri Shepherd Show: Law Roach, author of How to Build a Fashion Icon: Notes on Confidence from the World's Only Image Architect (Abrams Image, $28, 9781419768217).

Tomorrow:
CBS Mornings: Emily Weinstein, author of Easy Weeknight Dinners: 100 Fast, Flavor-Packed Meals for Busy People Who Still Want Something Good to Eat (Ten Speed Press, $35, 9780593836323).

Good Morning America: Tom Colicchio, author of Why I Cook (Artisan, $35, 9781648291289).

Today Show: Chris Pine, author of When Digz the Dog Met Zurl the Squirrel: A Short Tale About a Short Tail (Flamingo Books, $18.99, 9780593528228).

Additional cast members have been named for the movie adaptation of Emily Henry’s People We Meet on Vacation, which stars previously announced Tom Blyth and Emily Bader, Deadline reported. Miles Heizer, Tommy Do, Alice Lee, Alan Ruck, and Molly Shannon are joining the project, along with Sarah Catherine Hook, Jameela Jamil, Lucien Laviscount, and Lukas Gage. 

Brett Haley directs the Temple Hill, 3000 Pictures, and Netflix romantic comedy. Temple Hill’s Marty Bowen, Wyck Godfrey, and Isaac Klausner are producing while the studio’s Laura Quicksilver will serve as exec producer. Erin Siminoff is overseeing the project for 3000 Pictures. 

Divided: Racism, Medicine and Why We Need to Decolonise Healthcare by Dr. Annabel Sowemimo has won the 2024 Bread and Roses Award for Radical Publishing. Organized by the Alliance of Radical Booksellers in collaboration with Five Leaves Bookshop in Nottingham and Lighthouse: Edinburgh's Radical Bookshop, the prize "celebrates radical, accessible, and politically-left nonfiction which offers new perspectives and insights." The winner receives £500 (about $655).

The judges said: "Divided fit all of the criteria for the Bread and Roses Award. It is unique in its radical nature and widely encompassing in its coverage of the issues in the healthcare system. It contributes greatly and robustly to the discussion of racism in U.K. healthcare, particularly given that this issue is most often discussed in mainstream spaces with reference to the U.S. Sowemimo discusses racism and inequality in healthcare through personal experiences and rigorous research that is resonant across generations. This book is not only timely, but also indispensable to those who work in healthcare, care about healthcare, and interact with healthcare in the U.K.--which is to say every one of us." 

Although the decision to select the winner was unanimous, also highlighted were two other books: I Feel No Peace: Rohingya Fleeing Over Seas & Rivers by Kaamil Ahmed and Friends of Israel: The Backlash Against Palestine Solidarity by Hil Aked. The judges noted: "At this time of genuine terror, loss of life and political strife across the world and in the U.K., the judges feel that these books are indispensable in understanding how we got to this point and where we can go now. They shed light on issues that are mired in miscommunication and disinformation. We sincerely hope that they will be read widely and used to provide further nuance to the issues of migration, foreign relations, and international justice and human rights."

Former journalist Zahid Rafiq's resounding debut collection, The World with Its Mouth Open, offers 11 stories that distill quotidian moments--a walk, job search, new neighbors--into opportunities for deep insight. Reflecting his own background, Rafiq's characters live in Kashmir--a disputed territory on the Indian subcontinent uneasily governed by India, Pakistan, and China. They navigate the demands of family, community, to survive amid looming chaos and violence.

Rafiq's title haunts "Crows," about a young boy subjected to vicious beatings from an in-demand (by desperately ambitious parents) tutor who absolutely won't accept underperformance: "Do you know what is waiting out there?," he ferociously rebukes, "The world... with its mouth open," ready to devour the unprepared. For a while, at least, the boy has a concerned, compassionate friend who bears witness by being the one to tell his story.

Victims reliant on others to record and remember their lives--and deaths--are many here; that indirect exposition seems to be Rafiq's clever reminder of an inevitable interconnectedness, even among strangers. In "Bare Feet," a young man who's returned home to "war and desolation" after three years in America, is visited by the spirit of a murdered boy: "Was that how it worked then, the dead... showing up in the dreams of strangers, in houses where no one knew them?" The lost shadow exhorts the man--despite the dangers the man will undoubtedly face--to find his home and alert his worried family of his grievous demise. A young journalist, with a penchant for beautiful things he can't afford, attempts to reverse death in "In Small Boxes," as he assuages a storeowner who's apoplectic after seeing his obituary in the newspaper when he's very much alive. "It is not a small thing. It is no joke. To tell someone's story. To write the truth," the storeowner insists, but the truth becomes muddled, leading to tragic misunderstandings.

In a society debilitated by destruction, Rafiq deftly finds glimmers of humanity, even among anthropomorphized canine residents in "Dogs" who, like their bipedal counterparts, exhibit bonded loyalty and exhausted disconnection. His characters have doctor appointments, get fired, fall in love, help and hurt each other. Rafiq writes succinctly, almost curtly, encouraging readers to piece together elliptical details to deduce the rewarding narrative: promises, flowers, ancestral grave plots, eventually reveal why a young man has come to the cemetery alone in "Flowers from a Dog." Hauntingly astute, Rafiq is a storyteller to watch--and closely read. --Terry Hong

Shelf Talker: Kashmiri writer Zahid Rafiq's debut collection transforms quotidian details of various characters living amid certain violence into insightful glimpses of (in)humanity.

The following were the most popular book club books during September based on votes from book club readers in more than 88,000 book clubs registered at Bookmovement.com:

1. The Women: A Novel by Kristin Hannah (St. Martin's Press)
2. The Frozen River by Ariel Lawhon (Doubleday)
3. The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store by James McBride (Riverhead Books)
4. James: A Novel by Percival Everett (Doubleday)
5. First Lie Wins: A Novel by Ashley Elston (Pamela Dorman Books)
6. The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese (Grove Press)
7. All the Colors of the Dark by Chris Whitaker (Crown)
8. Lady Tan's Circle of Women by Lisa See (Scribner)
9. Tom Lake by Ann Patchett (Harper)
10. The God of the Woods by Liz Moore (Riverhead)

Rising Stars:
The Many Lives of Mama Love by Lara Love Hardin (Simon & Schuster)
The River We Remember by William Kent Krueger (Atria)