The strike by unionized workers against the Strand Book Store, New York City, which began on Saturday, has ended after the Strand and UAW Local 2179 reached a tentative agreement yesterday. Members will return to work today.

On X, the union said it had won an increase of $5.90 an hour over four years, meaning approximately 30% raises for members, who must still vote on the tentative agreement. The Strand confirmed that an agreement had been reached.

After the strike started, shop steward and bookseller Brian Bermeo told WNYC's Gothamist that the union wanted a $2 hourly raise in its first year of the contract, followed by $1.50 per hour raise in each of the second and third years, but that management had offered 50 cents less for each year. The base pay this year has been $16 an hour, which is minimum wage.

The Strand had said that 95% of its staff of about 150 are full-time workers, all of whom receive benefits, and 94 of its employees are members of the union, and that "our total benefits package is above and beyond New York City retail standards."

Founded in 1927, the Strand is owned by Nancy Bass Wyden, wife of U.S. Senator Ron Wyden (D., Ore.), the third generation of the Bass family to own the store.

Nonprofit organization Literary Arts, which announced last spring that its new, 14,000-sq.-ft. headquarters at 716 SE Grand Ave. in Portland, Ore., would include a bookstore and cafe, hosted the grand opening of the Susan Hammer Center at Literary Arts on December 7. The festivities included a ribbon-cutting ceremony, refreshments, and holiday shopping at the bookshop, with almost 1,000 people coming through the space.

"Visitors shopped for themselves and others--starting conversations with strangers about what they were buying, toured the four-floor building, snacked on pastries and coffee, and generally imbibed the bookish vibe," Oregon Artswatch reported.

In an Instagram post, Literary Arts wrote: "Thank you to the HUNDREDS of people who joined us today to celebrate! We are so excited to share our new home with you all."

The building is named for a former Literary Arts board member and advocate for arts and culture in Portland, whose belief in the mission of Literary Arts resulted in a $3 million gift to purchase their new headquarters, the organization noted.

"Creating an inclusive and welcoming center for our community, where people can gather to tell and hear stories and exchange ideas freely, has long been our dream," said Andrew Proctor, executive director of Literary Arts. "Susan's gift, and the generosity of many other donors, enabled us to purchase the building outright, continuing our investment in Portland, a city that has been our home for four decades."

The Bookstore at Literary Arts is a general-interest shop with a selection of 12,000 books. Manager Dustin Kurtz said the inventory will cater to all ages and tastes, with a wide range of fiction, nonfiction and children's titles. The store will also have larger collections in the specialty areas of design and architecture, poetry and writing craft. Proceeds from the bookstore will benefit Literary Arts. 

In addition, the space incorporates movable bookshelves to accommodate author readings and community events for up to 75 guests. The four-story building also features multiple classrooms for in-person workshops and classes, café seating, staff offices, and a recording studio for the radio show and podcast The Archive Project. A café serving coffee, beer and food will open at a later date.

Built in 1904, the building was purchased in 2022 by Literary Arts, which partnered with Bora Architects, O'Neill Construction Group, and Edlen & Co. to reimagine the space as a literary center. Both Bora Architects and Edlen & Co. donated their professional services to the project.

"Throughout the design, we focused on how this building will be used by staff and those they serve--a diverse mix of readers, writers and youth," said Amy Donohue, architect and principal at Bora Architects and Literary Arts board chair. "The result is a space that is welcoming for all, irrespective of age, income, race, education or geographical background--a true cultural hub in our community."

"Literary Arts' contribution to the cultural vibrancy in our region is significant," said Jill Sherman, co-founder of Edlen & Co. "From early discussions visioning the potential of this historic building through project managing the design and construction, collaborating on the new Literary Arts headquarters aligns with our values to contribute to the quality of life in the communities in which we are invested. This project directly impacts the Central Eastside Industrial District and contributes to the ongoing revitalization of the urban core."

Joanne Berg (center) with new owners Hannah Davidson (l.) and Hilary Burg

Joanne Berg, owner of Mystery to Me, Madison, Wis., is selling the store to two employees, Hannah Davidson and Hilary Burg. The transition will occur early next year.

Berg founded Mystery to Me in 2013 after buying the inventory and bookshelves from Booked for Murder. Mystery to Me is a general bookstore that sells fiction, nonfiction, gift books, and more. A grant from James Patterson provided the impetus to begin selling children's books, too.

Berg said that leaving the store is bittersweet, but "it's time for a new chapter!" She plans to travel internationally as well as to Sedona, Ariz., with her wife, Sue Riseling.

Hannah Davidson has been with Mystery to Me since 2019 as a bookseller, children's book buyer, and store manager. Before joining Mystery to Me she taught high school English.

Hilary Burg has been with Mystery to Me since 2022 as a bookseller and subscription manager. She spent five years as a writer and managing editor for Travel Wisconsin before becoming a bookseller.

The store stated that Davidson and Burg "believe wholeheartedly in the value of independent bookstores, and in their power to be a force for good in their community." They plan to introduce a variety of new in-store events, strengthen partnerships with local organizations and schools, and prioritize personal recommendations to connect more readers with books they'll love.

Hooray for Books! in Alexandria, Va., will close at the end of the year, ALXnow reported.

"We will remain closed in 2025, because our landlord is not extending the bookstore's lease," owner Ellen Klein wrote in a message to customers. "They have plans to remodel the space for their own use. Hooray for Books! will not be sold or relocating--it's time to conclude our story."

Klein noted that the bookstore is fully stocked for the holidays, with some 14,000 books on hand as well as plenty of games, puzzles, and toys. Before the end of the year, there will be sales, giveaways, raffles, and thank-you gifts for shoppers.

"We're thankful for the support and love we've received from loyal customers and bookish friends during our nearly 17 years in business," Klein continued. "You've helped us survive the Great Recession, multiple flash floods, and the Covid pandemic. Endings are hard to write, but now's the time to do just that."

Founded in 2008, Hooray for Books! was originally a children's bookstore. Over the years, it added YA and adult sections.

Vald Svekis, former co-owner of Liberties Fine Books & Music in Boca Raton, Fla., died on November 12 at age 83 from complications of heart disease.

Vald Svekis

Svekis began his bookselling career in 1973 as v-p for Paperback Booksmith, leading its expansion into the Southeast. In 1979, he and his wife, Sherry, opened their first independent store, The Great American Book Company, with two $10,000 lines of credit. They expanded to owning book, music, and software stores, including one of each at the Boca Raton Mall, in downtown Boca Raton, Fla. When that mall was slated to become the more upscale Mizner Park, Svekis negotiated the three leases into a deal to build the store of their dreams.

Liberties Fine Books & Music opened on Valentine's Day in 1991. As Sherry Robinson Svekis remembered, "After almost 20 years of hard work, Vald and Sherry had an overnight success. The store was embraced for its selection, its staff, its ambience, and the continuous slate of author events. Vald's brilliantly zany marketing ideas brought renown to the store. Dan Quayle's appearance was promoted with campaign signs sprinkled around town; Gloria Steinem was greeted by a window display celebrating suffragettes and featuring her as the statue of Liberty; Dave Barry signed Dave Barry Does Japan while attended by two geishas; Madonna's Sex could only be viewed in a 'peep booth' for $1 a minute, with all money going to the American Foundation for AIDS Research. Publishers called, and the Liberties newsletter read like a who's who of authors destined to fill the store five or six nights a week. Other highlights included hundreds of children attending the birthday party for the book character Spot; several bands signing contracts after being discovered while performing at Liberties Cafe; and John Grisham signing more than 3,000 books as well as event T-shirts. Liberties was sold in 1994, allowing Vald and Sherry to retire to Sarasota with their children."

The beginning of Svekis's life was especially difficult: he was born in 1941 in Latvia, a year after it was occupied by the Soviet Union, and "at the age of two his mother put him in the basket of her bicycle for a trek across war-torn Europe that ended at a U.S. displaced persons camp. They emigrated to the U.S. in 1949."

"Robust elections definitely contribute to healthy democracies but what else is required, outside the voting booth, for democracy to flourish?" On its Digital Digest blog, the Association of University Presses attempts to answer that question by providing a long listing of books, journal articles, reading lists, and commentary from more than 40 member presses and their authors in a wide range of fields, "essential reading for all who seek to understand and nurture democracy."

"Stormy wants to know: what books are you thankful for?" Road Less Traveled Bookstore, Farmington, Mich., asked in a Facebook post.

This Is What Anxiety Looks Like: Relatable Stories, Targeted Solutions, and CBT Skills for Lasting Relief by David A. Clark (New Harbinger Publications).

Tomorrow:
The View: Bill Clinton, author of Citizen: My Life After the White House (Knopf, $38, 9780525521440).

Drew Barrymore Show: Nini Nguyen, author of Dac Biet: An Extra-Special Vietnamese Cookbook (Knopf, $38, 9780593535547).

Watch What Happens Live: Heather Gay, author of Good Time Girl (Gallery Books, $29.99, 9781668049808)

Sky has released a first-look image of Matt Smith "as you've never seen him before," playing the title character in a TV adaptation of iconic singer Nick Cave's novel, The Death of Bunny Munro. Deadline reported that the actor "can be seen complete with cigarette in a launderette alongside newcomer Rafael Mathé, who plays Bunny Junior."
 
Airing next year, the series is written by Pete Jackson (Somewhere Boy) and directed by Isabella Eklöf (Industry, Holiday). It is produced by Clerkenwell Films in association with Sky Studios. Cave is executive producing.

The Frozen River by Ariel Lawhon (Doubleday; Vintage paperback) has won the Nero Award, sponsored by the Wolfe Pack: the Official Nero Wolfe Literary Society, and honoring "the best American mystery written in the tradition of Rex Stout's Nero Wolfe stories."

"Double Take" by T.M. Bradshaw (to be published in the July 2025 issue of Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine) has won the Black Orchid Novella Award, sponsored by the Wolfe Pack and Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine to celebrate the novella format popularized by Rex Stout.

Black Orchid Novella honorable mentions were Peter Hoppock's "Precipice," Andrew Kass's "Deadline," Jenny Ramaley's "Workplace Rules for a Fire-Breathing Dragon," and Ella Rutledge's "Murder at the Y.T.D."

Brigitte Giraud, the author of more than a dozen novels, won the 2022 Prix Goncourt for Vivre vite. Published in the U.S. under the title Live Fast, this is Giraud's first book to be translated from French to English. The highly autobiographical novel examines the 1999 death of the narrator's 41-year-old husband, Claude, in a motorcycle accident. She writes: "There was only one thing I was truly obsessed with, and I'd kept it secret so as not to frighten those around me... because after two or three years, it would have seemed suspicious if I'd persisted in trying to understand how the accident happened.... My brain had never stopped running wild."

Brief, taut, and tortured, Live Fast begins as the narrator, Brigitte, sells the house she and Claude had been moving into at the time of his death 20 years earlier. Letting the house go is significant, but she has never let go of her confusion and despair over her loss. "The house is at the heart of what caused the accident," she insists, then embarks on a list of hypotheticals, such as "If only I hadn't wanted to sell the apartment," "if only my mother hadn't called my brother to tell him we had a garage," "if only it had rained," and on and on. These wishes form the novel's chapter titles, and Brigitte compulsively dissects each point on a diagram about cause and effect that she's been plotting for years.

In this way, as though she's conducting an incisive postmortem accounting, Giraud analyzes the events that led up to Claude's inexplicable death. Their family--Brigitte, Claude, and their eight-year-old son--were moving house. They got the keys early; they had access to a garage; Brigitte's brother needed to store a motorcycle. Readers are treated to detailed descriptions of the Honda CBR900 Fireblade and Honda's famed engineer Tadio Baba, as well as what song Claude may have chosen to end his final workday with. Giraud even postulates that had Stephen King died--rather than being seriously injured--when he was struck by a minivan in Maine three days before Claude's accident, Claude might have been spared.

This is a novel about obsessive, repetitive investigation: "You rewind and then you rewind again. You become a specialist in causal relationships. You hunt down clues.... You want to know all there is to know about human nature, about the individual and collective springs from which events gush forth. You can't tell if you're a sociologist, a cop, or a writer. You go mad." In examining these large and small, exceptional and mundane events, Giraud maps grief and yearning as much as the tragic death of a beloved husband and father. Cory Stockwell's stark translation blends emotion and analysis in the voice of a woman as bereft as ever. Live Fast is a pained but lucid look at loss in its long term. --Julia Kastner, blogger at pagesofjulia

Shelf Talker: Brigitte Giraud's Prix Goncourt-winning Live Fast is a powerful and concise study of love, loss, and the small decisions and turning points that shape life and death.

The bestselling self-published books last week as compiled by IndieReader.com:

1. Haunting Adeline by H.D. Carlton
2. God of Pain by Rina Kent
3. The Boyfriend by Freida McFadden
4. Hunting Adeline by H.D. Carlton
5. Twisted Games by Ana Huang
6. Butcher & Blackbird by Brynne Weaver
7. There's Treasure Inside by Jon Collins-Black
8. I'll Be Home... by Tate James and Heather Long
9. The Front Runner by Elsie Silver
10. My December Darling by Lauren Asher

[Many thanks to IndieReader.com!]