Han Kang

South Korean writer Han Kang has won the 2024 Nobel Prize for Literature, announced this morning by the Swedish Academy in Stockholm. Kang was cited for "her intense poetic prose" that "confronts historical traumas and invisible sets of rules and, in each of her works, exposes the fragility of human life. She has a unique awareness of the connections between body and soul, the living and the dead, and in her poetic and experimental style has become an innovator in contemporary prose." She is the first Korean to win the Nobel Prize for Literature. She receives 11 million Swedish kronor (just over $1 million).

Kang is best known in the English-speaking world for The Vegetarian, translated by Deborah Smith (Hogarth), which won the Man Booker International Prize for fiction in 2016 and was made into a movie. (See our review here.) The Swedish Academy commented: "Written in three parts, the book portrays the violent consequences that ensue when its protagonist Yeong-hye refuses to submit to the norms of food intake. Her decision not to eat meat is met with various, entirely different reactions. Her behaviour is forcibly rejected by both her husband and her authoritarian father, and she is exploited erotically and aesthetically by her brother-in-law, a video artist who becomes obsessed with her passive body. Ultimately, she is committed to a psychiatric clinic, where her sister attempts to rescue her and bring her back to a 'normal' life. However, Yeong-hye sinks ever deeper into a psychosis-like condition expressed through the 'flaming trees,' a symbol for a plant kingdom that is as enticing as it is dangerous."

Her other titles published in English include The White Book, translated by Deborah Smith (Hogarth), which was shortlisted for the Man Booker International Prize in 2018; Human Acts: A Novel, translated by Deborah Smith (Hogarth) (see our review here); Greek Lessons, translated by Deborah Smith and Emily Yae Won (Hogarth) (see our review here); and We Do Not Part: A Novel, translated by Emily Yae Won and Paige Aniyah Morris (Hogarth). Mongolian Mark won the Yi Sang Literary Prize in 2005, and her novella Baby Buddha won the Korean Literature Novel Award in 1999 and was made into a film. She has published other novels, novellas, and poetry in Korean.

Kang's first published works were poems that appeared in 1993. The following year, her first short story appeared. Her other honors include the Today's Young Artist Award and the Manhae Prize for Literature. She has taught creative writing at the Seoul Institute of the Arts.

"Probably from year one or two of being an indie rep, I thought this is something I want to do," said Nissa Bagelman, a former sales rep who will be opening a bookstore, wine bar, and cafe in Portsmouth, N.H., later this fall.

Called Reedmor Books & Brews, the store will carry all new titles for adults. While there will be a "little bit of everything," Bagelman noted she will be "leaning more heavily" into genre fiction, specifically romance, fantasy, science fiction, and mysteries. She has no plans at this time to carry children's books, though she may include some YA titles eventually.

Reedmor will reside at 67 State St., in a space that formerly housed a restaurant. The overall square footage is about 1,740 square feet, which includes the kitchen and an office space. The bookstore and bar will be partly separated, each occupying its own room, but customers will be able to easily pass from one side to the other.

Reedmor owner Nissa Bagelman

For the bar, Bagelman has pursued a beer and wine license only, and plans to have a rotation of local craft beers on tap, along with cider and a variety of red and white wines. The cafe will serve tea, cold brew and drip coffee, and a food menu focused on tapas and upscale bar snacks. In addition, the bar and cafe side will house the store's nonfiction selection along with its sideline offerings, which will include lots of Reedmor-branded merchandise and "snarky" gift items.

The other room, meanwhile, will contain most of Reedmor's fiction selection and perhaps a smattering of sidelines. She added that she's very excited to receive feedback from the Portsmouth community, and "find out what books and sidelines and beers they want us to carry."

Asked about her event plans, Bagelman said she wants to focus on "community building around the space itself." While she's certainly not opposed to hosting author events, most of her plans involve things like literary trivia nights, poetry readings, and themed book clubs. There are also a number of breweries in the area that host book clubs, and she hopes to create partnerships with them and with other local businesses. She also intends to make the space available for rent for things like birthday parties, wedding rehearsal dinners, and other private events.

Expanding on what drove her to open an independent bookstore of her own, Bagelman explained that it's part of a family legacy. In 1928, her great-grandparents opened Reedmor Magazine Company in Center City in Philadelphia, Pa. Its specialty was rare, back-date magazines, and when Bagelman's grandfather inherited the store, he continued the practice of sleuthing for rare, hard-to-find titles. She remarked: "his collection was a marvel."

Over the next seven decades, the bookstore moved three times. Eventually it ceased operating as a retail storefront and became something of a warehouse while still pursuing rare and hard-to-find items. The bookstore closed completely in the early 2000s, but a "ghost sign" pointing the way to Reedmor still remains in Philadelphia.

That legacy, of course, is the reason Bagelman has decided to name the bookstore Reedmor (though she remarked that she is not sure why it was spelled that way in the first place). She's hired a graphic designer to reimagine the Reedmor logo, and she plans to "blast it everywhere." She'll sell apparel with the logo on it as well as glassware, barware, and mugs.

When she began exploring her options for opening a bookstore, Bagelman recalled, she initially thought of opening one in Somerville, Mass. However, she always wanted to have a bookstore and bar, and the process of getting a liquor license in Massachusetts "felt like a huge challenge." And while she was familiar with Portsmouth, the city had an established bookstore and bar of its own called Portsmouth Book & Bar, so that didn't seem feasible either. Then, Book & Bar closed in January, and Portsmouth suddenly had a niche to be filled.

People frequently drop by the store to ask about it, Bagelman reported, and community members are "excited to have another bookstore and bar." --Alex Mutter

Silver Sprocket, the 15-year-old publisher of artist-forward, socially conscious comic books, graphic novels, and related art, with a bookstore and gallery in San Francisco, Calif., has launched a fundraiser "to keep the lights on." The store sells titles from a range of publishers.

Silver Sprocket explained: "We've come to the realization that we need some extra help from the community we so proudly serve.... This fundraiser serves as an effort to mobilize our community to support a sustainable Silver Sprocket for everyone we've worked with, letting local cartoonists use our equipment and resources to make their own comics, year-round community events, initiatives like the Pride in Panels: SF Queer Comics Festival and to support everyone who works at Silver Sprocket (15+ employees) to make this sustainable. These efforts aren't profit-driven, nor do we want them to be--everything we do is central to our mission of supporting indie comics and the community above all else."

Two of the many artist prints available through Silver Sprocket's fundraiser (top: Sam Szabo; bottom: Jenn Woodall)

A key part of the fundraiser involves one-of-a-kind prints by more than 40 artists that will be sold during the campaign. Participating artists and creators include Lemony Snicket, Michael Deforge, Julia Wertz, Katie Skelly, Caroline Cash, Jenn Woodall, Ashley Robin Franklin, Alex Krokus, Eddy Atoms, and many more.

Beyond the prints, which are a one-time event, Silver Sprocket is also aiming to raise funds in an ongoing way through a subscription program for new books from the company. Through the program, subscribers can sign up for a month-to-month or a yearly plan and can receive books digitally or in print. Customers receive every book Silver Sprocket publishes in the month they sign up--and then all in each month in the future.

Additionally, each subscription gives the member either a 5% discount on all digital store purchases or a 10% discount on print purchases. For those choosing the print option, they also receive a welcome tote bag and can swap titles if they have certain ones on pre-order already or don't want a particular title. The print option is available only in the U.S. for now.

The monthly subscription is $14.99 for digital books and $39.99 for print books. Annually, the subscription is $179.88 for digital and $479.88 for print. Silver Sprocket hopes to get at least 200 subscribers.

Yesterday, the Mountains & Plains Booksellers Association wrapped up a thriving, inspiring FallCon in Denver, Colo. The total number of registrants was 468; of those, 231 were booksellers, and among the rest were 85 exhibitors with 162 attendees, including nearly 60 authors. The total current number of MPIBA bookstore members is 238, including 49 that joined in 2024 alone.

Executive director Heather Duncan said she had been concerned that attendance for MPIBA FallCon this year might be down due to the absence of roughly 30 members from Denver's Tattered Cover who'd always come to the conference (the former indie was purchased by Barnes & Noble over the summer). But Duncan was pleased that attendance has reached a high not seen since 2007. "I'm saddened by the loss of Tattered Cover to our membership, but grateful that our organization, and indeed indies across our region, are thriving," she said. "When I started in 2018, for instance, we had 11 bookstore members in Texas. Now we have 82."

MPIBA executive director Heather Duncan (l.) and marketing and communications manager Jeremy Ellis.

For the second year, MPIBA featured roundtable "Conversations with Colleagues" on various themes, including "Community Collaborations," "Total Compensation," "Sidelines & Gifts Merchandising and Buying"; these were held on the first full day of programming. And on the second full day of the conference this year, informal q&a sessions with "expert" booksellers took place in the foyer of the exhibit floor, with Peanuts' Lucy-style signage proclaiming, "The Expert Is In." These included topics such as "Ask a Buyer," "Ask a Merchandising/Display Manager," "Ask a Receiving/Returns Manager."

Duncan said they established these forums in response to booksellers who often rotated through the conference on different days, and couldn't be there for what has been traditionally the "education day" on the closing day of the conference. It's a delicate dance: to make sure book buyers were not forced to choose between an informative forum with colleagues and a "Pick of the Lists" presentation, for instance. And to make sure there were plenty of opportunities to visit the exhibit floor. Nevertheless, the third day was indeed predominated by education sessions, including marketing analytics, budgeting for buying, financial awareness, and "Display 101"; and culminating with the luncheon keynote from ABA's director of education Kim Hooyboer on "Prioritizing Cash Flow."

MPIBA’s SpringCon will take place April 9-11, 2025, in San Antonio, Tex., and next year’s FallCon will be in Denver once again, October 5-8, 2025.

Comedian, author, producer, political commentator, actor, and TV host Trevor Noah will be the official 2024 spokesperson for Indies First, the American Booksellers Association's national campaign of activities and events in support of independent bookstores that takes place on Small Business Saturday, November 30.

"Independent bookstores connect readers to ideas and stories, and they are the rare physical places in our communities where we can connect with each other," he said.

Noah is the author of the bestselling book Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood, which won the 2017 Thurber Prize for American Humor. In addition to his success as a comedian, he was the host of the Emmy Award-winning The Daily Show on Comedy Central. He has served as the Grammy Awards host for four years in a row, and currently hosts What Now? With Trevor Noah, a Spotify original weekly podcast. He also has an Emmy-nominated production company, Day Zero Productions.

In 2018, Noah launched the Trevor Noah Foundation to improve equitable access to quality education for underserved youth in South Africa. His vision is a world where education enables youth to dream, see, and build the impossible.

Hanif Abdurraqib and Chris La Tray spoke to a packed house at the Rocky Mountain Grange in Hamilton, Mont., for an event with Chapter One Book Store. The evening was in celebration of Abdurraqib's There's Always This Year: On Basketball and Ascension (Random House). He read from the book, then sat down in conversation with La Tray, who is currently on tour for his book Becoming Little Shell (Milkweed), followed by an audience q&a and book signing. Pictured: (front) co-owners Mara Luther (co-owner) and Katrina Mendrey (co-owner); (back) Marisa Neyenhuis (co-owner), Hanif Abdurraqib, David Nurik (Chapter One employee), and Chris La Tray.

Oprah Winfrey has chosen From Here to the Great Unknown: A Memoir by Lisa Marie Presley and Riley Keough (Random House) as her 108th Oprah's Book Club Pick: "Born to an American myth and raised in the wilds of Graceland, Lisa Marie Presley tells her whole story for the first time in this raw, riveting, one-of-a-kind memoir faithfully completed by her daughter, Riley Keough."

"I have great love and admiration for Lisa Marie Presley, and was so moved that her daughter Riley, through her grief, was able to help her finish a beautifully touching memoir that allows us to see her mother at her most honest and vulnerable," Oprah said. "This is an intimate look at what it was like growing up as heir to one of America's most famous families."

"I was just a few pages into this book, recognizing that it was going to be your voice and her voice, and then I thought, 'Oh, I have to choose this for the Book Club,' " Oprah told Keough in a CBS interview. "It's a lot of brave work you did in this book."

Patrick Hughes has been promoted to v-p, North America, of Pluto Press, and will oversee all aspects of the radical publisher's operations in North America. He has been sales manager for North America and was instrumental in expanding the publisher's reach in the U.S. and Canada.

Lily Brunson is joining Pluto Press as the new fellowship associate in the Las Vegas office and will assist the sales and marketing team.

---

At Sourcebooks:

Mickey Tirado has joined the company as regional indie sales manager: South.

Emily Gilbow has joined the company as regional indie sales manager: Mid-Atlantic.

Jordan Standridge has joined the company as regional indie sales manager: Pacific Northwest.

Suzanne Marx has joined the company as regional indie sales manager: Midwest.

Anna Lisa Sandstrum has joined the company as inside sales manager.

Hannah Kil has been promoted to assistant marketing manager.

---

At Atria, in the publicity and marketing & publishing departments:

Gena Lanzi has been promoted to publicity manager. She joined Atria in 2020.

Megan Rudloff has also been promoted to publicity manager. She joined S&S in 2017, first at Touchstone and then Atria.

Dayna Johnson has been promoted to senior marketing manager. She joined Atria in 2022.

Zakiya Jamal has been promoted to senior marketing manager. She joined Atria nearly two years ago.

Jolena Podolsky has been promoted to marketing & social media associate.

Aleaha Renee has been promoted to marketing coordinator. She joined the Atria marketing department in 2023.

Abby Velasco has been promoted to publishing associate.

---

At Abrams:

Gabby Portugal has joined the company as assistant, integrated marketing.

Tatyana Scott has joined the company as marketing assistant, digital strategy & consumer engagement.

Taylor Dietrich has joined the company as sales assistant, international sales and subsidiary rights.

The Undercurrent: A Novel by Sarah Sawyer (Zibby Books).

Tomorrow:
Good Morning America: Owen Han, author of Stacked: The Art of the Perfect Sandwich (Harvest, $29.99, 9780063330658).

Drew Barrymore Show: Riley Keough, co-author, with her mother, the late Lisa Marie Presley, of From Here to the Great Unknown: A Memoir (Random House, $32, 9780593733875).

Book TV airs on C-Span 2 this weekend from 8 a.m. Saturday to 8 a.m. Monday and focuses on political and historical books as well as the book industry. The following are highlights for this coming weekend. For more information, go to Book TV's website.

Saturday, October 12
2 p.m. Allen C. Guelzo, author of Our Ancient Faith: Lincoln, Democracy, and the American Experiment (Knopf, $30, 9780593534441), and Jon Grinspan, author of Wide Awake: The Forgotten Force That Elected Lincoln and Spurred the Civil War (Bloomsbury, $32, 9781639730643).

3:20 p.m. Peter Canellos, author of The Great Dissenter: The Story of John Marshall Harlan, America's Judicial Hero (‎Simon & Schuster, $21.99, 9781501188213).

4:25 p.m. Shirley L. Green, author of Revolutionary Blacks: Discovering the Frank Brothers, Freeborn Men of Color, Soldiers of Independence (Westholme Publishing, $35, 9781594164064).

Sunday, October 13
8 a.m. Amanda Jones, author of That Librarian: The Fight Against Book Banning in America (Bloomsbury, $29.99, 9781639733538). (Re-airs Sunday at 8 p.m.)

10 a.m. Brigid Schulte, author of Over Work: Transforming the Daily Grind in the Quest for a Better Life (Holt, $31.99, 9781250801722). (Re-airs Sunday at 10 p.m.)

11 a.m. Connie Chung, author of Connie: A Memoir (Grand Central, $32.50, 9781538766989). (Re-airs Sunday at 11 p.m.)

12:30 p.m. Kirk Cameron, author of Born to Be Brave: How to Be a Part of America's Spiritual Comeback (Post Hill Press, $28.99, 9798888454237).

2 p.m. Mike Madrid, author of The Latino Century: How America's Largest Minority Is Transforming Democracy (Simon & Schuster, $28.99, 9781668015261).

3:10 p.m. Nancy Rosenblum and Russell Muirhead, authors of Ungoverning: The Attack on the Administrative State and the Politics of Chaos (Princeton University Press, $29.95, 9780691250526).

4:05 p.m. Jeremy Kahn, author of Mastering AI: A Survival Guide to Our Superpowered Future (Simon & Schuster, $29.99, 9781668053324).

The shortlist has been released for the C$100,000 (about US$72,940) Giller Prize, which honors "the best Canadian novel, graphic novel or short story collection published in English." The finalists receive C$10,000 (about $7,295) each. The winner will be named November 18. The Giller Prize is sponsored by Scotiabank, CBC Books, Mantella Corporation, Indigo, and the Azrieli Foundation. This year's shortlisted titles are:

What I Know About You by Éric Chacour, translated by Pablo Strauss 
Curiosities by Anne Fleming 
Prairie Edge by Conor Kerr
Held by Anne Michaels 
Peacocks of Instagram by Deepa Rajagopalan 

Giller Prize executive director Elana Rabinovitch commented: "For more than three decades, the Giller Prize has helped bring ideas to life by celebrating Canadian fiction and has inspired generations of writers to put pen to paper and share their creativity with the world. This year is no different; the five titles on the shortlist are exceptional works of art that inhabit entire worlds and reflect them back to us, granting us a much-needed pause to meditate about preconceived notions, ideas and the status quo." 

Selected new titles appearing next Tuesday, October 15:

War by Bob Woodward (Simon & Schuster, $32, 9781668052273) explores the presidential election and the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East.

Sonny Boy: A Memoir by Al Pacino (Penguin Press, $35, 9780593655115) is the memoir of the iconic actor.

The Waiting: A Ballard and Bosch Novel by Michael Connelly (Little, Brown, $30, 9780316563796) is the sixth mystery with Harry Bosch and LAPD Detective Renée Ballard.

A Christmas Duet by Debbie Macomber (Ballantine, $24, 9780593725337) is a romantic Christmas novel about an aspiring musician.

The Great Hippopotamus Hotel by Alexander McCall Smith (Pantheon, $28, 9780593701768) is the 25th No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency mystery.

What I Ate in One Year (and related thoughts) by Stanley Tucci (Gallery, $35, 9781668055687) is a culinary memoir by an actor and food writer.

Alliance Unbound by C.J. Cherryh and Jane S. Fancher (DAW, $30, 9780756415969) is book two in the sci-fi Hinder Stars series, set in Cherryh's Alliance-Union Universe.

Polostan: Volume One of Bomb Light by Neal Stephenson (Morrow, $32, 9780062334497) is the first entry in a new espionage series set at the dawn of the Atomic Age.

Uncanny: The Origins of Fear by Junji Ito, trans. by Jocelyne Allen (VIZ Media, $28, 9781974747306) is a memoir chronicling the career of a horror manga master.

Bi-Polar: Photographs from an Unquiet Mind by Cory Richards (Ten Speed Press, $50, 9781984862419) collects 300 photographs from the career of a bipolar National Geographic photographer.

Bella Ballerina by Sharon M. Draper, illus. by Ebony Glenn (Atheneum, $18.99, 9781534463967) is the author's first picture book and features a shy ballerina who is steadied by the help of her friends.

Legend of the White Snake by Sher Lee (Quill Tree, $19.99, 9780063327191) features a snake spirit who transforms into a boy and falls in love with a prince.

Paperbacks:
If I Stopped Haunting You by Colby Wilkens (St. Martin's Griffin, $18, 9781250292902).

Creepy Crafts: 60 Macabre Projects for Peculiar Adults by Ashley Voortman (Page Street Publishing, $22.99, 9798890031037).

H.P. Lovecraft's The Call of Cthulhu Manga, adapted and illus. by Gou Tanabe, trans. by Zack Davisson (Dark Horse Manga, $19.99, 9781506741406).

The Kids Are All Right: Parenting with Confidence in an Uncertain World by Gabrielle Stanley Blair and Ben Blair (Workman Publishing, $17.99, 9781523526505).

Lover Girl by Raegan Fordemwalt (Andrews McMeel, $18, 9781524895112).

From last week's Indie bestseller lists, available at IndieBound.org, here are the recommended titles, which are also Indie Next Great Reads:

Hardcover
A Sunny Place for Shady People: Stories by Mariana Enríquez, trans. by Megan McDowell (Hogarth, $28, 9780593733257). "Mariana Enríquez is willing and able to explore the darkness simmering in both Buenos Aires and the Argentinean countryside. Be prepared for her mesmerizing storytelling and otherworldly horrors." --Elizabeth Ahlquist, Blue Cypress Books, New Orleans, La.

The Wildes: A Novel in Five Acts by Louis Bayard (Algonquin, $29, 9781643755304). "Bayard transports us to the British countryside, an Italian villa, the trenches of France, and back to London. Told in the language of the late 19th & early 20th centuries, The Wildes involves the entire Wilde family and the scandalous drama that ensues." --Mindy Ostrow, the river's end bookstore, Oswego, N.Y.

Paperback
A Dark and Drowning Tide: A Novel by Allison Saft (Del Rey, $18.99, 9780593722343). "Mesmerizing, romantic, and charged through poignant critiques of nationalistic literature. Saft's adult debut challenges the dark origins of twisted fairytales with empathy while weaving a tense web of sapphic yearning. A new favorite!" --Isabel Agajanian, The Oxford Exchange, Tampa, Fla.

Ages 3-7
Oak: The Littlest Leaf Girl by Lucy Fleming (Candlewick, $18.99, 9781536238822). "Adorable! With beautiful illustrations that I'm sure will captivate the imagination of many littles, and a story that is heartwarming and so kind in its conversation about change! I can't wait to add this title to my little's shelf!" --Elizabeth Bosscher, Schuler Books, Grand Rapids, Mich.

Ages 10-14
Pearl: A Graphic Novel by Sherri L. Smith, illus. by Christine Norrie (Graphix, $12.99, 9781338029420). "A poignant, moving story about a Japanese American girl living in Japan during World War II. Introduces a rarely seen point-of-view that challenges much of what we've learned about Japan during the war. A must-read for its history and character complexity." --Chris Abouzeid, Belmont Books, Belmont, Mass.

Teen Readers
Morgana and Oz: Volume One by Miyuli (WEBTOON Unscrolled, $18.99, 9781998854837). "I loved this book! The art is fantastic and cute. I adored the story line of Morgana and Oz; it seemed simple but I loved how it flushed into this complex world. A 10/10!" --Kimmy Rocca, Your Brother's Bookstore, Evansville, Ind.

[Many thanks to IndieBound and the ABA!]

Amid the daily news of war, politics, and the economy, few people likely spend much time reflecting on Europe in the early Middle Ages. Matthew Gabriele and David M. Perry's Oathbreakers, a history of the decline of the Frankish Empire, and specifically its Carolingian dynasty, offers a good reason to put aside the rush of current events for a time and pay a visit to that crucial epoch in the history of Western civilization.

As they did in their myth-busting book The Bright Ages: A New History of Medieval Europe, Gabriele, a medieval studies professor, and Perry, a historian and journalist, approach their subject from an iconoclastic perspective. At the height of the empire on Christmas Day 800 CE, when the mighty Charlemagne was crowned by Pope Leo III as Roman emperor at a court that was "a magnet for some of the most brilliant minds in Europe," the Franks exercised supremacy over a large swath of Western Europe. Their domination "rivaled Rome at its height," and they regarded themselves as successors to the Israelites as a new chosen people.

Four decades later, that peak was a dim memory. At the bloody Battle of Fontenoy, on June 25, 841, the empire descended into an open civil war for the first time, pitting two of Charlemagne's grandsons--Louis the German and the Charles the Bald--against their brother Lothar, the emperor. Gabriele and Perry efficiently reconstruct the battle from a variety of roughly contemporary sources. The savage clash, whose "carnage staggered the observers, leaving a bloodstain on the fields of Fontenoy that the Carolingians never washed away," was the opening act in a drama that exposed "how fragile even the mightiest regime can be and how quickly everything can fall apart." In this fast-moving account of the abortive insurrections and failed diplomacy that led up to what ultimately seemed an unavoidable confrontation among the competing brothers and the splintering of the empire that followed, Gabriele and Perry describe the "series of events that punctured a bright, shining lie that the Franks had been telling about themselves (and largely to themselves)."

The authors provide an abbreviated timeline and cast of characters to help keep key events in perspective and to aid in sorting out the multiple Charleses, Louises, and Bernards who populate the age. Though the events in Oathbreakers are distant in time, Gabriele and Perry describe them with an immediacy that's both informative and entertaining. Without making any overt effort to do so, they reveal that the emotions driving the actors in the Carolingian drama--ambition, greed, and the lust for power--are in fact as timely as today's headlines. --Harvey Freedenberg, freelance reviewer

Shelf Talker: Matthew Gabriele and David M. Perry team up again in an informative and entertaining story that connects the disintegration of Charlemagne's empire to the rise of modern Europe.