"Now, I want to go beyond the books. Before, my whole thing was making sure that we had these books because there's research that shows fiction builds empathy. I also wanted to make sure not just Black and brown people had books they could see themselves in but that everybody had books they could see Black and brown people in, that was important. 

Within the last two years, I started discussions because I feel after 2020, yeah, you have these books but are we talking about them? What are we doing as a result of having these books? In 2020 there were 10 to 13 books that everybody was buying across the country but were we reading those books? And as a result of reading those books, what were we doing? 

Because how are we where we are now with books that are out there? How are we still in the same kind of divided place that we are now? So what I would like to do going forward is making sure these discussions are happening, making sure that I can see a change in the community and the neighborhood based on the readings and discussions of these books." 

Spellbound Sisters Bookstore & Cafe will host its grand opening this Friday, December 20, at 7095 Lockwood Blvd. in Boardman, Ohio, WKBN reported. The first 100 people through the doors will receive a Spellbound Sisters' swag bag. There will also be children's swag bags available. 

Noting that the bookstore's name was inspired by her two daughters, owner Caroline Kishton said, "It's essentially a legacy I want to pass down to them... they're five and seven and love to read. So it was one of those things that just kind of rolled into something that, eventually, it'll be theirs, but they're going to be here all the time because they love books." 

In addition to new and used books, the shop will feature games, coloring books, puzzles, crystals, and more. She added that one of the things that makes Spellbound Sisters stand out is that it is a destination, with dim lighting and comfortable seating with a fireplace and spaced-out shelves to make the store cozy and calming.

"We've put a lot of love and work into this, and it makes it so you're going to want to stay," she noted.

The cafe will open in late January, offering small charcuterie boards with meat and cheese or vegetable options, as well as popcorn and candy. "It's just going to have enough little snackies, especially when we are doing events like our book clubs and our date nights--and there'll be some nights where we have live music--it's just a nice little extra that you can come in and spend time and it's not loud, it's not a bar. It's somewhere to hang out that's a little bit more docile and is also family-friendly," Kishton said.

The bookstore will feature a "magical fairy garden" for young children to read and play in. "I always find that there is magic in reading, because it's not television, it's not social media," she noted. "It's something that's in your own head, that you can take what's in the book and make it your own.... We need to remember that all of these [books] for one person may be one thing, but for somebody else, they're different, and that's what makes it magical. It's not just you're watching the same screen that everybody else is watching. You take a book and it becomes yours."

With Christmas a week away, booksellers from around the U.S. offer their assessment of the holiday shopping season:

In Boulder, Colo., Boulder Book Store is on track to have "one of the strongest years we've had," reported head buyer and co-general manager Arsen Kashkashian. The store entered the holiday season coming off of a strong November, which Kashkashian noted was a little quiet closer to the election but picked up as the month went on. Despite the late start of the season, he and the Boulder Book Store team have not seen much of a difference in shopping patterns compared to past holiday seasons.

Asked about major titles so far, Kashkashian pointed to The Serviceberry by Robin Wall Kimmerer, and remarked that even without the sales from a 750-attendee event with Kimmerer, it would probably still be the store's bestselling book of the season. It has also been the only title that the store has been having trouble keeping in stock, though new orders have been coming in here and there. 

James by Percival Everett has been another big title for Boulder Book Store, with around 100 copies sold in December so far; Kashkashian said it was great to see literary fiction moving so well, and "wonderful" to "finally see [Everett] selling." Other big titles include Wind and Truth by Brandon Sanderson and The Wide Wide Sea by Hampton Sides, along with the other books on the top ten list from the New York Times. He added that some older nonfiction titles, including Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari and The Wager by David Grann, have rather unexpectedly done very well.

Kashkashian also touched on the idea that the election would have a strong negative impact on sales, which he said "hasn't been true for us." Even with the "contentious, news-sucking election season," and publishers perhaps "[shying] away from publishing into the election," sales have been very strong and the bookstore is shaping up to have one of its "two or three stronger years" ever.

On the subject of the late start to Hanukkah, Kashkashian noted that the span between Christmas and early January has "become a very strong stretch for us" in recent years. The late Hanukkah might make that same span "slightly stronger," though he didn't think it would have a major impact. Kashkashian pointed out that when it came to holiday ordering, he used to worry about having enough to make it to Christmas Eve; now he worries if the store "has enough to get to January 5."

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At Books Are Magic in Brooklyn, N.Y., "the season has been going pretty well," reported co-owner Michael Fusco-Straub. With Thanksgiving so late, "it took a while to really get going," but since last weekend, it has "felt like the holidays of yore, and it's been quite lovely."

This year, the store created a holiday gift guide, available digitally and in print, based on the biggest pop albums of the year, such as Brat and The Tortured Poets Department. All Fours by Miranda July, James, The God of the Woods by Liz Moore, Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan, and Orbital by Samantha Harvey are all selling by the "boatloads." To make the store stand out a bit this year, Fusco-Straub said, they've ordered a lot of film and art titles from Idea Books and Mack Books, which have been "flying off the shelves," and he noted that hardcover screenplays from A24 make "such good gifts." The store also created some new merchandise for the holidays that has done very well.

Asked about supply-chain issues, Fusco-Straub said the usual problems have emerged, with delays in turnaround times and various things going out of stock. The key, he said, is to "roll with the punches" by finding as many copies of a hot seller as possible and then pivoting to other titles when they're gone. He also gave a special shout-out to Bookazine, saying that being able to call, talk to a person, and "have them tell me what their shipping schedule is has been so helpful with my reorders."

With Christmas and the start of Hanukkah so close, Fusco-Straub expects this weekend to be "bonkers bananas." He added: "I'm hoping it's a party for everyone who's here and we sell all the books and our customers are happy."

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At Prince Books in Norfolk, Va., the season is "going very well," reported owner Sarah Pishko. The store has been up 15% from November 1 through December 15, though Pishko cautioned that she doesn't like to project how things will wrap up in the end, especially with Hanukkah being so late. She noted too that since upgrading to IndieCommerce 2.0, "website sales have been up a lot."

Pishko remarked that The Serviceberry initially had a slow start for Prince Books but then "flew out," and Pishko finds herself wishing she had ordered more. Sales of Laurie Gilmore's Dream Harbor series seemed to "pop out of nowhere" in September and have continued going well. James and Erik Larson's The Demon of Unrest have both picked up recently, and other strong sellers include Intermezzo by Sally Rooney, The Berry Pickers by Amanda Peters, Never Whistle at Night, edited by Shane Hawk and Theodore C. Van Alst Jr., and Wicked by Gregory Maguire.

Pishko added that she "wasn't sure what to make" of Jordan Peterson's newest book selling well "right out of the gate. For gifts, the "World of" puzzles by Chronicle are doing extremely well.

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Amy Tan signing at Book Passage.

And in Corte Madera and San Francisco, Calif., the two Book Passage locations have been "packed with shoppers," said co-owner Elaine Petrocelli. The Book Passage team expects this December's sales to be the store's best since 2019, and Petrocelli noted that the bookstore has continued to host events and signings well into December. On Sunday, Book Passage hosted Amy Tan, and with 3,600 copies sold so far, The Backyard Bird Chronicles is the store's bestselling title of 2024.

Other big titles this season include James and Martyr! by Kaveh Akbar, which both happened to be picks for Book Passage's First Edition Club. This month's pick, The Magnificent Ruins by Nayantara Roy, is also doing well, and Petrocelli called it a "handselling dream." Other prominent titles include The Grey Wolf by Louise Penny, The Waiting by Michael Connelly, Every Valley by Charles King, A Walk in the Park by Kevin Fedarko, and Vanishing Treasures by Katherine Rundell. Petrocelli pointed out that while nonfiction books are still selling in general, political books stopped selling after November 5.

The store's biggest gift book is Fashion First by Diane Keaton, with Cher: Part One and Cats of the World by Andrew Marttila and Hannah Shaw also popular. Petrocelli added that the team could "open a store filled with just Taylor Swift books," but strongest right now is Taylor Swift Style by Sarah Chapelle. Among children's titles, strong performers include Perla the Mighty Dog by Isabel Allende (in both English and Spanish), Santa's First Christmas and How Does Santa Go Down the Chimney by Mac Barnett, and Impossible Treasures by Katherine Rundell.

Petrocelli said the store isn't "seeing many supply-chain nightmares this year." Some major publishers have even been more efficient this year than in recent holiday seasons. Looking ahead, Petrocelli hopes the late Hanukkah leads to a surge in after-Christmas sales. She also remarked that customers have been telling the Book Passage team "how much they appreciate us. In these uncertain times, I think people realize that carefully selected books are the best gifts." --Alex Mutter

Oldspeak Bar, a bookstore and taproom, will open in Garden City, Idaho, next year, Boise Dev reported. Co-owners Chelsea Major, Shelley Searle, and Adam Fleck have launched a crowdfunding campaign to help open Oldspeak that has so far raised more than $12,500.

Oldspeak owners Chelsea Major, Shelley Searle, and Adam Fleck

Located at 3640 W. Chinden Blvd., Oldspeak is the combination of two local businesses: craft brewery Alliteration Ales and independent bookstore the Lit Room. Oldspeak will become the new home for the Lit Room, which previously had its own bricks-and-mortar location.

Oldspeak's book inventory will include new and used titles with a focus on small presses and global literature. The bar will serve beer brewed by Alliteration Ales and other craft breweries, as well as wine, kombucha, switchels, and tea and coffee. Food options are being considered.

Major, Searle, and Fleck plan for the bookstore and bar to be open late, and events will  include author talks, book clubs, live music, educational discussions, yoga classes, tea tastings, and more.

Major founded the Lit Room as a mobile bookstore, hosting pop-ups at local breweries, markets, and other businesses. Last year, she and Searle teamed up to create a banned book vending machine in response to efforts to ban or restrict around 50 titles in the local library. Major also created a banned book club and night market before opening a bricks-and-mortar location in Garden City in fall 2023. The additional space at Oldspeak will allow Major to stock a larger assortment of titles and host bigger events.

"I really imagine us doing more conversations, and I honestly want to see education or curiosity-forward events," Major told Boise Dev.

Searle and Major met at a networking event in 2021 and hit it off, giving each other advice and helping each other with their respective businesses. In 2022, Searle and Fleck created Alliteration Ales. Searle noted that they did not have the ability to create a taproom in their brewery building due to permitting, and they've been "chomping at the bit" to have a storefront and taproom.

The owners hope to have Oldspeak Bar open in early 2025.

The Book Industry Charitable Foundation is offering two $750 scholarships to comic book store owners and their employees to attend the 2025 ComicsPro Industry Meeting in Glendale, Calif., scheduled for February 20-22. 

The funds may be used for travel, replacement wages, lodging and meals; ComicsPRO will cover the registration fee for the meeting. Scholarship guidelines and the application form are available here. The deadline to apply is December 31, at 5 p.m. Eastern. 

"We are proud to continue our support for comic retailers with this professional development scholarship that provides comic people access to networking and education opportunities," said Binc executive director Pam French.

Gary Chassman, founder of Chassman & Bem Booksellers, Burlington, Vt., as well as Verve Editions, died December 8. He was 84. "He had a vivacious spirit, a quick wit, and a deep commitment to his passions," his obituary noted. "Gary was an adventurous traveler, a lover of music, and made literature, art, and photography his life's work."

Gary Chassman

Chassman worked at the Brentano's bookstore in the Prudential Center in Boston before moving to Claremont, Calif., to manage the Claremont Colleges bookstore. He was later hired by Aperture, the American photography publishing company, where "he was able to refine his artistic eye and learn about the steps of conceiving and developing book production projects from start to finish."

He later opened Chassman & Bem Booksellers in Burlington, Vt., which for two decades served as a hub for readers, forging relationships with writers, artists, musicians, and community members in the area. 

After selling the store, he launched Verve Editions. For more than 25 years, Chassman and collaborating authors, artists, photographers, and designers "conceived of, developed, and produced scores of original and beautifully made books," according to his obituary.

In the Spirit of Martin, a Verve Editions book that included art and writing inspired by Martin Luther King Jr., also inspired a partnership with the Smithsonian traveling art exhibition that toured museums and galleries in the U.S., including the Smithsonian Gallery in Washington, D.C.

A celebration of Chassman's life will be held at 6 p.m. tomorrow, December 19, at the Chabad House, 57 S. Williams St. in Burlington. 

The Library of Congress and Every Child a Reader celebrated the completion of Meg Medina's two-year term as National Ambassador for Young People's Literature with a special closing event for local students in the Washington, D.C., area on December 12.

"Meg Medina's tenure as ambassador was extraordinary," said Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden. "Not only did Meg show us how talking about books develops our reading lives, but she also crisscrossed the country, holding dynamic events in schools and public libraries, built an 18-part video series, and personally connected students and their families to unique Library of Congress resources. Meg's service to our nation’s children and teens, coupled with her deep belief in the Library's mission to advance knowledge and creativity, put her in a new tier of what is possible as an ambassador."

Medina, who was inaugurated as the eighth National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature on January 18, 2023, is the first Latina to hold the role.

Pictured: Medina with students Reginaed Davis and James Muie, who took part in book talks with her as the event's designated cuentistas. (photo: Shawn Miller for the Library of Congress)

"We had a proposal in our store!" Watchung Booksellers, Montclair, N.J., posted on Instagram. "Right next to the romance section, too! Congratulations Anthony and Erin, and thank you for sharing this moment with us! The lovely photo is by @niniphotography_."

"Is there anywhere cozier than a bookstore during the holidays?" asked BookPeople bookstore, Austin, Tex.

Jenn Northington has been promoted to director of marketing and communications at Above the Treeline (Edelweiss). She was formerly advertising and promotions manager. She earlier worked at Book Riot, WORD Bookstores, Brooklyn, N.Y., and Jersey City, N.J., and other independents.

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Vanessa Genao has been promoted to assistant publicist at Catapult Book Group.

Tomorrow:
Late Night with Seth Meyers: Simon Rich, author of Glory Days: Stories (Little, Brown, $28, 9780316569002).

Michele Morrone (365 Days) has joined the cast of The Housemaid, based on Freida McFadden's novel. Deadline reported that she joins Sydney Sweeney, Amanda Seyfried, and Brandon Sklenar for the film, which will be directed by Paul Feig and produced by Hidden Pictures/Feigco Entertainment.

In Rebecca Sonnenshine's adaptation, Sweeney plays Millie, "a struggling young woman who is relieved to get a fresh start as a housemaid to Nina (Seyfried) and Andrew (Sklenar), an upscale, wealthy couple. She soon learns that the family's secrets are far more dangerous than her own," Deadline noted.

Todd Lieberman of Hidden Pictures will produce. Feigco's Paul Feig and Laura Fischer are also producing. Sweeney and Seyfried are exec producers alongside Alex Young and McFadden.

Alexis Wright won the 2024 Voss Literary Prize, which is judged by the Australian University Heads of English and honors the best novel from the previous year, for Praiseworthy, published in the U.S. by New Directions. The book has also won the Miles Franklin Award, the Stella Prize, and the James Tait Black Prize.

The judging panel described Praiseworthy as "a work for the ages, a capacious Aboriginal epic based in the Queensland Gulf Country.... In asserting the healing possibilities of story, Wright eviscerates its opposite, that particular Canberra narrative, amplified by social media, about the abuse of alcohol and children in Aboriginal communities. This material, which describes the breakdown of Aboriginal culture and society, is so ubiquitous that the residents of the tiny town of Praiseworthy are sucked in by it: they want to trade their integrity for the trinkets of white lifestyle and minor positions of authority.... 

"Much has been written about Praiseworthy and the awards it has garnered for its poetic and expansive language, its exceptional mastery of craft and astonishing emotional range. Wright has gifted her readers a total life-world, a fantastical imaginary that challenges western knowledge, logic and expectations, enriches Australian literature, and gives sovereignty to Indigenous voices."

photo: Nina Subin

Kenneth C. Davis is the author of America's Hidden History and Don't Know Much About History, which gave rise to his Don't Know Much About series. In addition to his books, Davis's writing has appeared in the New York Times, the Washington Post, and Smithsonian magazine, among other publications. He has appeared on CBS Mornings, Today, and NPR, and was featured in a CNN Special Report on the 1918 influenza outbreak. The World in Books: 52 Works of Great Short Nonfiction (Scribner, October 8, 2024), brings together his twin passions for books and history. Davis lives in New York City with his wife, Joann Davis.

Handsell readers your book in 25 words or less:

The World in Books is an intellectual starter kit for the curious, an accessible introduction to 52 of history's greatest short nonfiction books.

On your nightstand now:

Household Saints by Francine Prose--a marvelous novel about faith and food set in New York's Little Italy.

On Freedom by Timothy Snyder--an insightful exploration of the global political threats we face.

Favorite book when you were a child:

Hard to choose. But probably a book that I think was called Minute Biographies. It was a collection of brief, illustrated portraits of the famous and infamous. It made me love history and biography. And even then, I knew short is beautiful.

Your top five authors:

James Joyce, Charles Dickens, Elena Ferrante, David McCullough, and William Manchester. Five is a hard ask, but these five authors influenced my reading and writing, and I keep coming back to them. I must also mention James Baldwin, Daniel J. Boorstin, John McPhee, Toni Morrison, and John Steinbeck.

Book you've faked reading:

Never. Not ever. I honestly cannot think of one. There is a term, "bullcrit," for fake readers. Why miss out on the learning and the pleasure?

Book you're an evangelist for:

If This Is a Man (also published under the title Survival in Auschwitz) by Primo Levi. The Holocaust is one of the most significant catastrophes in human history and this memoir by an Italian-Jewish writer deported to Auschwitz is one of the finest and most moving books on the subject.

Book you've bought for the cover:

Light on Stone: Greek and Roman Sculpture in the Metropolitan Museum of Art (photographs by Joseph Coscia, Jr., text by Elizabeth J. Milleker). I love photography books, and this is a glorious black-and-white photo essay about one of my favorite rooms in the Met.

Book you hid from your parents:

Candy by Terry Southern and Mason Hoffenberg. I didn't know anything about Voltaire's Candide when I read this satire as a boy. It was, to say the least, very spicy! The Story of O by Anne Desclos (under the pen name Pauline Réage) would be a close second.

Book that changed your life:

Just one? A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce for the writing, a sense of the mythical and mystical in life, and the idea that a writer can and must speak the truth. But I must add David McCullough's Mornings on Horseback. A biography of young Theodore Roosevelt, it inspired me to write history that emphasized humanity.

Favorite line from a book:

"Where's Papa going with that ax?" from Charlotte's Web by E.B. White. I try to reread this perfect novel often. It is so much more than a "children's book." It always brings me to tears.

Five books you'll never part with:

Dubliners and A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce
Charlotte's Web by E.B. White
The Elements of Style by William Strunk, Jr. and E.B. White
Finally, My Brilliant Friend (first in the four Neapolitan Novels) by Elena Ferrante.

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

David Copperfield by Charles Dickens. There is no author quite like Dickens for creating a world filled with characters we love to love--and hate. I also have a copy of W. Somerset Maugham's Of Human Bondage on my desk, first read nearly 50 years ago, waiting to be reread.

Why read?

Because reading is a true balm for the spirits, an antidote to the problems of "doomscrolling" and short attention spans, and it provides insight, instruction, illumination, and "that glimpse of truth for which you have forgotten to ask," as Joseph Conrad once wrote.

Author Ben Kahn (Renegade Rule) and illustrator Georgeo Brooks (Immortals Fenyx Rising) reunite for the lively, diverting middle-grade graphic novel Mr. Muffins: Defender of the Stars.

Eleven-year-old, brown-skinned Reuben Mahmoud, in an effort to avoid finishing homework, takes his corgi, Mr. Muffins, to the park. At first, when Mr. Muffins begins barking at the sky, Reuben is confused. Then a spaceship slams into the ground with a mighty "KRASH!" A bipedal purple alien with axolotl-like features steps out of the smoking craft. Lt. Cassara of the Voltarian Alliance is "on a mission of galactic importance": to retrieve the spirit of the champion of light and bring it back to their people. Cassara claims Mr. Muffins is harboring the spirit and then attempts to steal the dog. But a ship of Hakarians, the Voltarians' enemy, arrives moments later to try to destroy the light spirit. A grand laser battle ensues in the park and, when all seems lost, Mr. Muffins shields Reuben with his force field and blasts the Hakar with his laser bark. So, Mr. Muffins does have powers: "But he's not some weapon for you to fire. He's my friend. He's a good boy. If he goes to space, I go to space." Cassara relents but tells the boy he does not understand the danger. "And you," Reuben replies, "don't understand how much I don't want to do my homework." Reuben, Cassara, and Mr. Muffins steal the Hakarians' ship, leaving the trio of enemy aliens stranded on Earth.

Kahn and Brooks present the unwavering love between a boy and his dog: Reuben and Mr. Muffins are ceaselessly loyal to one another and stand by each other's side no matter the trouble. When the two are forced to separate, Mr. Muffins is so frightened, he shuts down in the middle of a fight. Brooks's thickly lined panels create a seamless flow, his characters are large-eyed and expressive, and his art highlights angles and perspectives. For example, when Reuben talks about helping Mr. Muffins, he is shown from the back, his shirt blowing in the wind like a cape, creating a visual that is both heroic and cinematic.

Throughout the action-packed and emotional scenes, there are a ton of silly asides and direct visual and textual jokes. Mr. Muffins truly has it all: epic space battles, heartwarming moments, and a super-powered corgi. --Kharissa Kenner, library media specialist, Churchill School and Center

Shelf Talker: Ben Kahn and Georgeo Brooks deliver a hilariously mesmerizing graphic novel about the bond between a boy and his alien spirit-harboring corgi.