"It has been the joy and pride of my life to open public places dedicated to books in New York, to deepen the experience of our streets, to push into the streetscape and claim spaces for the life of the mind. Our first bookstore had been a mob front, our second a steel factory, our third an Ann Taylor, our fourth fallow and vacant since it was built, our fifth a bank, and the new SoHo store had been a parking garage. Small victories won by readers and booksellers. Writers make it possible, writers living and passed. Sappho helps us pay the rent. Solzhenitsyn helps us pay our booksellers. It's an extraordinary industry, everyone in it has a debt of gratitude to the body of work that in its totality is something called books. Bound pages, one of the most enduring technologies. The interior voice, disembodied and shared, one of the most extraordinary innovations.

It has been a joy. Thanks for keeping us going."

RiverRun Bookstore, Portsmouth, N.H., will close February 28, 2025, after 23 years in business. Owner Tom Holbrook plans to retire from bookselling, but will continue to focus on editing and publishing. 

"It's been an adventure, and a privilege," said Holbrook, who founded Riverrun in 2002 with two other local bookstore owners, Dan Chartrand and Bob Hugo. Over the years, the business has had multiple owners and investors but has always been managed by Holbrook.

"That's why I don't want to sell it. It's my baby," he noted. "It's also the legal home of my editing and publishing business, which I intend to continue full time once I'm retired from bookselling." He added that Piscataqua Press has published more than 200 local authors since its launch in 2013.

"We live in a community of amazing writers," Holbrook said. "My plan is to turn my attention to editing full time. I also intend to tackle my towering 'To Be Read' pile that I've been too busy to get to. But first, we are going to have a lot of celebration and a huge 2024 holiday season! We will have commemorative T-shirt, mugs, bags, and other fun stuff!"

Since it opened in 2002, RiverRun has hosted more than 1,000 author events, and was instrumental in launching the Writers on a New England Stage program at the Music Hall.

"RiverRun has been here for so long because the people who live in this community understand the importance of locally owned and operated businesses," Holbrook said. "I certainly hope that continues."

He also noted that first time and early career authors who are seeking editorial help can reach him at riverrunbookstore.com or at authorhelp.net. For authors who have published through Piscataqua Press, Holbrook added he will continue to maintain and promote those books.

The 2024 holiday shopping season has officially begun, and booksellers from around the country voice cautious optimism and report a reliable supply chain so far.

At the Book Stall in Winnetka, Ill., the holiday season has gotten off to a quick start, reported owner Stephanie Hochschild. Hochschild and her team began to "feel the buzz almost immediately after Halloween," thanks to some regular customers getting an early start. Sales have been "brisk and steady," and the store is on pace with 2023. Sales for Black Friday and Small Business Saturday "matched very closely" with last year's, with SBS being slightly stronger; Hochschild thanked local author Josh Noel (Malort: The Redemption of a Revered and Reviled Spirit) for stopping by and contributing.

Titles that are resonating particularly well with the Book Stall's shoppers this season include Tell Me Everything by Elizabeth Strout, James by Percival Everett, Orbital by Samantha Harvey, The Wedding People by Alison Espach, God of the Woods by Liz Moore, Be Ready When the Luck Happens by Ina Garten, and Patriot by Alexei Navalny. So far, Hochschild added, the supply chain has "been operating as expected this season." She and her team have prepared by ordering large quantities of popular titles, and "we haven't reached a panic moment on any one specific title yet."

Remarking on the late start to Hanukkah this year, Hochschild noted that Hanukkah buying is "always a significant aspect of our holiday sales," and this year she expects to see Hanukkah shopping to coincide with last-minute Christmas shopping "quite nicely." Looking ahead, she is optimistic about the holiday season, and all indications point to having a similar season to last year. She added: "If that is the case, we will be pleased."

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In Phoenix and Tempe, Ariz., Changing Hands Bookstore saw a busy Thanksgiving weekend with sales "up over last year." As in years past, co-owner Cindy Dach and the team created a holiday coupon, but this year Changing Hands promoted it earlier and a bit more "loudly." It has met with a good response and customers often pick up more items "to get to the next tier in the discount."

Many of the bestselling books of the season so far are award winners and nominees, including Martyr! by Kaveh Akbar, James, and The Serviceberry by Robin Wall Kimmerer. Kids' titles have done very well, with more than just the lead titles selling, and there has been a "significant uptick" in the store's books pertaining to social issues and "the shared learning of resistance." Titles on the "Changing Hands Holiday 100" list are also moving nicely.

So far, Changing Hands has not experienced any supply-chain issues. The store "went deep" with book buying and created significant overstock; the team employed a similar strategy with gift purchasing, and they are "well-stocked with many things."

Overall, Dach said the team is "cautiously optimistic." They are finding that community members are introducing new neighbors and friends to the bookstores, and they expect the late Hanukkah start to remind people of both holidays and "perhaps the need to double up on some gift giving."

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Valerie Koehler, owner of Blue Willow Bookshop in Houston, Tex., said the store had a great Thanksgiving weekend even though Small Business Saturday was down slightly. It helped that the Saturday before Thanksgiving was great, which Koehler suspected might have been a result of Thanksgiving being so late this year.

Asked about breakaway titles, Koehler said there has yet to be anything "huge," though James and The Demon of Unrest by Erik Larson have sold very well, and The Women by Kristin Hannah "sells out weekly." Koehler noted that publishers have been very good about getting orders to the store "in a timely manner," though she is sure that when "the morning shows come out with their holiday gift-giving guides, I will have missed a few," as happens every year.

The store expects a "solid holiday season," with Koehler remarking that they've already had good sales on both Hanukkah and Christmas titles. She added, "We fully expect to be doing a lot of gift wrapping."

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And at Third Place Books, with stores in Lake Forest Park, Seward Park, and Ravenna, Wash., the season has been off to a strong start, despite the loss of four days of business at the Lake Forest Park location in November due to a power outage, reported managing partner Robert Sindelar. Sales at all three Third Place Books locations were up for Black Friday and Small Business Saturday.

Prior to Thanksgiving, the store posted a list of the staff's 10 favorite books of the year; sales for all have picked up after the list was posted, particularly James and Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley. Serviceberry has also been "flying."

So far the store has not encountered any supply-chain issues, and despite the shorter season between Thanksgiving and Christmas, Third Place Books projects that it will be up over 2023. --Alex Mutter

If you are interested in having your store appear in a future Holiday Hum article, please e-mail alex@shelf-awareness.com.

Barnes & Noble College has entered into a partnership agreement with Syracuse University to manage all course materials, retail and e-commerce operations for the university's campus store. Prior to the new partnership, the campus store and in-venue athletics retail were operated by the university. The transition is happening now.

"We are excited to welcome Barnes & Noble College to Syracuse University and look forward to our partnership," said John Papazoglou, senior v-p and COO for the university. "Their expertise will be invaluable as the University continues to focus on delivering affordable, accessible course materials to its students and making sure they have what they need to excel in the classroom."

B&N Education CEO Jonathan Shar said the company "will transform the campus store into a destination that delivers best-in-class omni-channel retail experiences and provide course material solutions that underscore our commitment to removing barriers to access, improving affordability and enhancing student academic outcomes."

Hal Lindsey, "a onetime Mississippi Delta tugboat captain who became a campus preacher and improbably vaulted to fame and riches by writing that the world would soon end with natural catastrophes and ruinous wars, followed by the return of Jesus Christ," died November 25, the New York Times reported. He was 95.

The Late Great Planet Earth, co-authored with C.C. Carlson though "some Lindsey followers said it was ghostwritten by her," was released in 1970 by Zondervan, the Times noted, adding that a Bantam Books editor thought this first book "had sales potential, so she acquired the mass-market paperback rights."

The book went on to be the bestselling nonfiction title of the 1970s, with estimated sales of about 35 million copies by 1999. It was translated into some 50 languages and adapted for a documentary film narrated by Orson Welles in 1978.

Although Lindsey's doomsday predictions did not come true, he was a harbinger of a movement he helped create. The late historian Paul S. Boyer once wrote: "Hal Lindsey is one of the most fascinating figures in the whole history of contemporary prophecy belief.... [He] "represents another one of those moments of breakthrough, when interest in Bible prophecy spills out beyond just the ranks of the true believers and becomes a broader cultural phenomenon."

Melani McAlister, a professor of American studies at George Washington University who followed Lindsey's career, said in a 2015 interview for the Times obituary that she found his tone "weirdly gleeful" considering its central notion, "that there are going to be rivers of blood everywhere."

Lindsey wrote other books dealing with Satan and the impending end of the world. They were successful, though not as much as The Late Great Planet Earth.

"What Hal Lindsey forged with his foray into modernized prophecy talk," McAlister wrote in 2001, "was a new kind of evangelicalism in which cultural conservatism, political worldliness and spiritualist enthusiasm would not only coexist but would revitalize and reinforce each other. In that sense, his vision was prophetic indeed."

This past week, Shelf Awareness sent our monthly pre-order e-blast to more than 880,000 of the country's best book readers. The e-blast went to 880,440 customers of 260 participating independent bookstores.

The mailing features 11 upcoming titles selected by Shelf Awareness editors and a sponsored title. Customers can buy these books via "pre-order" buttons that lead directly to the purchase page for the title on each sending store's website. A key feature is that bookstore partners can easily change title selections to best reflect the tastes of their customers and can customize the mailing with links, images and promotional copy of their own.

The pre-order e-blasts are sent the last Wednesday of each month; the next will go out on Wednesday, December 25. Stores interested in learning more can visit our program registration page or contact our partner program team via e-mail.

For a sample of the November pre-order e-blast, see this one from Moore Books, Havertown, Pa.

The titles highlighted in the pre-order e-blast were:

We Do Not Part by Han Kang (Hogarth)
The Heart of Winter by Jonathan Evison (Dutton)
Three Wild Dogs (and the Truth) by Markus Zusak (Harper)
The Life of Herod the Great by Zora Neal Hurston (Amistad)
Mothers and Sons by Adam Haslett (Little, Brown)
Death of the Author by Nnedi Okorafor (Morrow)
Babylonia by Costanza Casati (Sourcebooks)
Dare I Say It: Everything I Wish I'd Known about Menopause by Naomi Watts (Crown)
Head Cases by John McMahon (Minotaur)
A Dangerous Idea: The Scopes Trial, the Original Fight over Science in Schools by Debbie Levy (Bloomsbury)
So Let Them Burn by Cole Kamilah (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers)

Scholastic Corp. rang the Nasdaq opening bell at the Nasdaq MarketSite in Times Square, New York City, in celebration of the December 3 release of the 13th book in Dav Pilkey's Dog Man series: Dog Man: Big Jim Begins. With a five million copy first printing, the book went on sale in the U.S., U.K., Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. Pictured are Scholastic employees and their children, the Dog Man character, and Ellie Berger, executive v-p and president, trade publishing (center), who rang the bell and provided opening remarks. To commemorate the event, all children in attendance received a copy of the new book. (photo courtesy Nasdaq, Inc.)

Oprah Winfrey has chosen Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan (Grove Press) as her 109th Oprah's Book Club Pick. 

Claire Keegan and Oprah Winfrey

"To know that Oprah Winfrey took pleasure in reading my book is the most exquisite compliment that will last a lifetime," Keegan said. "May her wonderful book club encourage people to read for years and years to come."

Winfrey also announced the launch of The Oprah Podcast: Presented by Starbucks, a new weekly podcast series featuring Winfrey in conversations with thought leaders, global newsmakers, bestselling authors, visionaries and cultural changemakers. As part of the podcast, a monthly interview with Oprah's Book Club authors kicks off with Claire Keegan at the Starbucks Reserve Empire State Building store in New York City. 

"Connecting with people about what matters to us in this moment, so we can all continue to reach our highest, truest potential is what I'm most interested in offering at this time in my life," said Winfrey. "As one of my greatest pride and joys this past 30 years has been introducing books to new audiences. I am delighted to partner with Starbucks as we craft this new podcast. It is the perfect opportunity to bring together readers around things we both love: books, coffee and conversation."

"There's no place like local for the holidays." That was the seasonally appropriate message on the chalkboard at the Story Collective, St. Joseph, Mo.

Carrie Bloxson

Carrie Bloxson has been named chief human resources officer at Hachette Book Group. In this new role, Bloxson will lead and amplify talent development, recruitment, retention, training, office culture, business processes, and more, while continuing to oversee one of Hachette's touchstone business pillars, Changing the Story, while proactively strengthening the company's mission to make it easy for everyone to discover new worlds of ideas, learning, entertainment, and opportunity. Andrea Weinzimer, currently senior v-p, human resources, is leaving the company at the end of the year.

In April, Bloxson was promoted to senior v-p of culture and diversity, equity, and inclusion, supporting both the U.S. and U.K. offices of Hachette. Before that, she was HBG's inaugural chief diversity officer.

David Shelley, CEO of Hachette Book Group and Hachette UK, said, "Carrie Bloxson is one of the superstars of our industry. She has made an enormous impact in the last three years at Hachette Book Group, particularly in advancing our DEI initiatives, and in her new role will be even more instrumental in evolving our culture and in helping us achieve our mission as a company."

A preshow trailer screening in some 10,000 theaters where Gladiator II has opened focuses on the book that inspired the Gladiator movie franchise: The Way of the Gladiator by Daniel P. Mannix. David Franzoni, screenwriter of Gladiator and producer of Gladiator II, discovered the book years ago while traveling through Europe on a motorcycle and marveling at the many ancient coliseums. Long out of print, the book is back in print under Open Road Integrated Media's Re-Discovery Lit program, which republishes out-of-print and reverted books.

Tomorrow:
Late Show with Stephen Colbert: Kate McKinnon, author of The Millicent Quibb School of Etiquette for Young Ladies of Mad Science (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, $17.99, 9780316554732).

Colin Callender's production company Playground has acquired the rights to Alan Moore's The Great When "in a competitive bidding situation," Deadline reported, noting that the book is the first in Moore's planned five-volume Long London series of epic fantasy novels that Playground plans to "adapt into a tentpole, multi-season event series."

"For the first time in my career, I'm genuinely excited and enthusiastic about a work of mine... one that I own, and believe could work marvelously in a different medium... being adapted for the screen," Moore said, adding: "In Playground, I feel that I've connected with people who respect both me and the narrative and are receptive to such input as I can offer. And, given Playground's track record, I have little doubt that this will be anything short of spectacular. It's taken me some time, but I think at last I'm ready for my closeup."

David Stern, joint managing director of Playground, commented: "Alan Moore's The Great When is an extraordinary work of imagination, combining elements of history, fantasy, and mystery to create a world that is both epic and intimate, strange yet deeply human. This project represents the type of storytelling we at Playground are passionate about, and we couldn't be more thrilled to be working with Alan, one of the most influential writers of our time, to bring this remarkable work to television."

Libro.fm has announced the winners of the inaugural Bookseller Choice Awards, the best audiobooks of the year, chosen by booksellers from around the world:

Audiobook of the Year: James by Percival Everett, narrated by Dominic Hoffman (Penguin Random House Audio Publishing Group)
Best Audiobook for a Long Trip: The Third Gilmore Girl by Kelly Bishop, narrated by Kelly Bishop (Simon & Schuster Audio)
Read to Make You Fall in Love With Audiobooks: Funny Story by Emily Henry, narrated by Julia Whelan (Penguin Random House Audio Publishing Group)
Audiobook to Inspire a Better World: The Message by Ta-Nehisi Coates, narrated by Ta-Nehisi Coates (Penguin Random House Audio Publishing Group)
Best Under-the-Radar Audiobook: The Dead Cat Tail Assassins by P. Djèlí Clark, narrated by Lynnette R. Freeman (Recorded Books)

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Eight shortlists have been unveiled for the Society of Authors' Translation Prizes, honoring translations of prose, poetry, and nonfiction, spanning a range of genres. A prize fund of more than £30,000 (about $37,955) will be shared among the winners at an awards ceremony February 12 in London. Check out the complete shortlists here.

photo: Angela Yuan

Jane Pek was born and grew up in Singapore. Her debut novel, The Verifiers, was a New York Times Editors' Choice and one of the Washington Post's best mysteries of the year. The Rivals (Vintage, December 3) follows up with Claudia Lin in a novel that blends the murder mystery genre with the espionage narrative. Pek's short fiction has appeared twice in The Best American Short Stories. She lives in New York, where she works as a lawyer at a global investment company.

Handsell readers your book in a handful of words:

An online-dating detective agency looks into a suspicious death and uncovers a far-reaching AI conspiracy. Spy tropes, dysfunctional family dynamics, and finding love in our digital age.

On your nightstand now:

I have a terrible habit of trying to read too many books at once. Right now:

Destiny and Desire by Carlos Fuentes--I was in Mexico City recently and love reading books set in places that I'm visiting.

Counter-Clock World by Philip K. Dick--I have been doing some research into time travel (in furtherance of writing about it, not inventing it), and want to see how he pulls off writing a world where time runs backwards(!).

Beyond Measure by James Vincent--the history of how and why we measure the world we live in. It's fascinating!

The Imposition of Unnecessary Obstacles by Malka Older--I love this series, which combines space opera, cozy mystery, dry humor, and sapphic romance; I'm in awe of how intelligent Older's writing is.

On Tennis by David Foster Wallace--tennis is my new obsessive hobby, plus I've been endeavoring to read more personal essays (a genre I'm not that familiar with): win-win.

Favorite book when you were a child:

I devoured massive quantities of literature about kids going on fantastical adventures, which were delightful and whimsical and also faintly wistful in the way British children's authors do so well (and, as an adult thinking about this in 2024, problematic in all sorts of ways). Perhaps the book that best encapsulates what I loved about those stories is The Enchanted Wood by Enid Blyton. Three siblings climb a gigantic enchanted tree, meet assorted magical beings who live in it, and visit a rotating series of lands in the sky.

Your top five authors:

I have way more than five, but I'll go with a few authors who have been formative or aspirational for me in one way and at one time or another: Virginia Woolf, Graham Greene, Michael Ondaatje, Haruki Murakami, and Tana French.

Book you've faked reading:

Any number of legal texts.

Book you're an evangelist for:

Who Is Vera Kelly? by Rosalie Knecht. A CIA spy and closeted lesbian finds herself trapped in Buenos Aires when the Argentine Revolution of 1966 breaks out. The novel is as much a coming-of-age story as a spy thriller, it's beautifully written, and Vera is a character I wish I could stay with forever.

Book you've bought for the cover:

Despite my penchant for superficiality, I can't think of an instance where I have!

Book you hid from your parents:

My parents never really paid attention to what I was reading, so I never had to.

Book that changed your life:

Annie on My Mind by Nancy Garden. I read it as a mopey 15-year-old in Singapore, and honestly until then I don't think I believed two girls could be in love with each other.

Favorite line from a book:

"Even a broken heart doesn't warrant a waste of good paper." I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith. That book helped get me through a heartbreak; and she was right.

Five books you'll never part with:

I Capture the Castle, again.
Breakfast at Tiffany's by Truman Capote
The Neverending Story by Michael Ende
Paper Girls by Brian K. Vaughan and Cliff Chiang
The Periodic Table by Primo Levi

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

There are so many. Possibly Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein, which is a YA novel about the friendship between two girls working for the British forces during World War II, although I'm not sure if I could take being emotionally devastated all over again.

In the radiant Make a Pretty Sound, author Traci N. Todd (Nina) and illustrator Eleanor Davis (Flop to the Top) reverently capture the legacy of singer/songwriter Ella Jenkins, who revolutionized children's music. Todd frames the story by beginning with Ella's childhood in Chicago's Bronzeville neighborhood and closes with an elderly Ella, who traveled "farther than she has ever been" to perform onstage for children in Indonesia.

Todd and Davis explore the influences that shaped young Ella into the renowned children's musician she became: playground chants, her favorite record shop, the blues music her Uncle Flood introduced her to, and the Bronzeville music halls where she once saw Cab Calloway engage in his call-and-response songs. As young Ella walks the city streets of Chicago and "whistles with the birds," Todd brings the story to life with a distinctive rhythm and vivid sensory details: "Ella is a South Side girl, a Bronzeville bird, skipping in streets that smell of sweets and black-eyed peas."

After moving to San Francisco, Ella becomes a teacher, encouraging children to play with "anything to make a pretty sound" (oatmeal boxes, tins cans, and the like). Todd highlights Jenkins's performance at Martin Luther King Jr.'s 1964 Soldier Field rally, but emphasizes that Ella's songs were "for the children, for the hope she feels when she hears their voices." Many of Davis's illustrations feature kids, including young Ella herself, with mouths wide open, eyes closed: they sing and shout with full abandon, their voices ringing out freely and joyfully. Davis also portrays Ella as larger than life, a kind of pied piper to children, who are excited to make music and amplify their voices. Her art, which is reminiscent of Rafael López's illustrations in Drum Dream Girl, features a palette bursting with grainy crimsons, greens, and coppers. One such spread, depicting Armando Peraza--"the great conguero who tumbles from rumble! to smack!, from pop! to paaaah!"--exemplifies Davis's elegant compositions, accomplished linework, and dynamic body language. Although Peraza becomes a mentor to Ella, her greatest excitement lies in sharing what she learns: "And she can hardly wait to show the children," eager for them to experience the joy of making music for themselves. "The children," in turn, "can hardly wait to see her." Todd and Davis's stellar collaboration is an exceptional, enthusiastic dedication to the work of Jenkins, the "First Lady of Children's Music," a woman who spent her life bringing joy and music to children through timeless songs. --Julie Danielson

Shelf Talker: The joyful Make a Pretty Sound pays tribute to Ella Jenkins, the singer-songwriter who revolutionized children's music.