In honor of Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, and New Year's, this is the last issue of Shelf Awareness Pro for 2024. We hope everyone has a much-needed rest after yet another unusual year, and we wish all a bright, happy New Year. We'll see you again on Thursday, January 2, 2025. (Feel free to send your holiday sales news and highlights, with pictures if possible, to news@shelf-awareness.com.)

Lovestruck Books, a romance bookstore, cafe, and wine bar, made its debut in Cambridge, Mass., last week.

Located at 44 Brattle St., near Harvard Square, the bookstore spans more than 5,000 square feet and offers romance titles along with a small children's section and a curated selection of non-romance reads. The cafe and wine bar are not yet open, but owner Rachel Kanter plans to have them up and running by the end of January. She also has an official opening weekend slated for January 17.

Kanter has already held some off-site events prior to the store's opening, and in July, she told Shelf Awareness that her event plans include book clubs, author talks, boudoir photo shoots, paint-and-sip nights, Drag Story Hour, and more.

Before launching Lovestruck, Kanter's only experience with bookstores was as an avid customer. Her professional background was in teaching, and she has taught English and worked at educational nonprofits. Following a return to Cambridge last year after about a decade away from Boston, she was dismayed to see a beloved local coffee shop closing.

She hoped someone would reopen it, and began considering the idea of doing it herself, as a cafe and romance bookstore. When the Ripped Bodice opened a second location, in Brooklyn, N.Y., she felt confident it was the right thing to do.

Hey Darling Bookstore, focusing on romance titles, has opened at 213 Main St N. in Austin, Minn. The Daily Herald reported that the shop made its debut in October "after a whirlwind run that started in August of this year. Demolition started in September and just a month later they were open with a soft opening."

"This is something the romance readers have desperately wanted. I'm really glad we can do it here," said owner Trish Marin. "It was a quick process. It wasn't something I was for sure planning on doing. The space fell into my lap. This is the universe telling me I have to do it myself."

Hey Darling's aim is to be "an area hub for people to find a variety of stories within the pages of books on her shelves," the Daily Herald noted, adding that the bookstore's space "is wide open and homey, inviting people in to browse the offerings on her shelves. It was important for her when conceiving of what Hey Darling would become that it would be a welcoming establishment without tightly cluttered spaces."

"I wanted something that's going to pull a customer to it and give them a sense of lingering," Marin said. "I just wanted it to feel like you weren't standing on top of each other."

As part of her goal to create community, she is hosting a book club, noting: "We usually pick a book and have a month to read it, and we all just meet and chat about the book. The turnout has been awesome."

Marin said she hopes that Hey Darling will feel personal to those who enter because it reflects her own long history of loving to read: "I want (customers) to know they can come in and talk to me," Marin said. "I want it to feel personal. That's why I made it really pretty and nice to look at. Every inch of my store has a piece of me in it.... I've been doing this long enough, I can do it myself," she said. "I feel like people have been super supportive and helpful and they want nothing but the best for our community to grow."

Swoon Books & Wine will open next year in the Shops of Oakwood at 2504 Far Hills Avenue, Oakwood, Ohio. Dayton Daily News reported that Swoon "will focus on romance books and offer wines by the glass as well as classic cocktails like martinis and spritz. The store will not have an on-site kitchen, but sweet and savory grab-and-go options will be available from local chefs and bakers."

Swoon owners Lindsay Woodruff and Lauren Gay

Owned by Lindsay Woodruff and Lauren Gay, the new business will be located in the former space of Maraluna, which was launched by Woodruff nine years ago to connect consumers with the makers of ethical and sustainable goods. Originally located in Troy, the store moved to Oakwood in 2022 and has since outgrown its space. In June, Maraluna moved two blocks north, to 2316 Far Hills Ave.

Gay, who is a certified sommelier and owner of Joui Wine in downtown Dayton, told Dayton Daily News that Woodruff hadn't wanted to lose her original space and suggested the idea of a bookstore. Gay told her if she wanted to put a wine bar in the back to let her know. Now Swoon Books & Wine will become a reality. 

The shop will feature "a classic rococo vibe inspired by the Sofia Coppola film Marie Antoinette. The owners want to have a vintage feel with just enough modern touches thrown in to make customers contemplate 'this doesn't feel real,' " Dayton Daily News noted. A $60,000 crowdfunding campaign has been launched to help finance the venture and has raised nearly $12,000 so far. 

"I think the most important part of this thing is actually the ambiance that we're creating because the truth is you can buy a book anywhere," Gay said. "Online book sales are so easy, so why go somewhere to purchase a book? It's all about the ambiance and experience, hospitality, and our knowledge and expertise. It's placemaking. It's creating a really cool environment where you're not just purchasing a book, but you're sitting, hanging out, enjoying your quality time there."

"Storytelling and placemaking are things that can't be replicated online. That's why brick-and-mortars still exist," Woodruff added. "Going into a space is an experience. There's magic in that."

Barnes & Noble will be opening new stores next year in Stamford, Conn., and Naperville, Ill.

The Naperville store is expected to open in April, reported WBBM. It will feature a cafe and reside in a space in downtown Naperville that once housed a Pottery Barn. It will be around the corner from where B&N operated a store for 25 years, until its closure in January 2024.

The Stamford store, meanwhile, is expected to open in the High Ridge Shopping Center in May. Per CT Insider, it will occupy a space that previously housed a DSW and it will be the second B&N in Stamford. It will span two levels and include a cafe.

CT Insider noted that new stores are also slated to open next year in Cheshire, Conn., and Southbury, Conn.

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The Barnes & Noble in Spartanburg, S.C., at 1489 W.O. Ezell Boulevard, is closing January 19. On Instagram the store said that after 28 years at the location, its lease is ending. B&N is looking for another site in Spartanburg and invited customers to shop at its store in nearby Greenville in the meantime.

Veronica Liu is co-founder and general coordinator of the collective that operates Word Up Community Bookshop/Librería Comunitaria, a multilingual, general-interest, nonprofit bookshop and community space in Washington Heights in New York City. She attended the Guadalajara International Book Fair thanks to a fellowship from Books Across Borders, the nonprofit organization that aims to connect booksellers to the international world of publishing. Here is her report:

¡Saludos desde el otro lado de un increíble viaje a la Feria Internacional del Libro de Guadalajara (FIL)¡

As a 2024 Books Across Borders fellow, I had the pleasure of exploring FIL in Guadalajara, Mexico, alongside two current collective members from Word Up: Karina Ciprian, who grew up the next city over, a 20-minute drive away; and Emmanuel Abreu, who lived in the region a decade ago.

An even larger group of us from Word Up has wanted to attend FIL for a while, because, since we opened our Upper Manhattan shop in 2011, not a day has gone by without at least one monolingual or Spanish-language-dominant visitor coming in to look for books. We have Spanish in our full name for a reason--to signal to neighbors that they can find Spanish-language books, bilingual books, and/or booksellers who can communicate with them fluently (or who may at least be willing to futz around with a translation app). But while we have several bookcases of libros en español, covering categories like Ensayos, Salud, Política, and Cómics, we also never have enough. We maintain individual relationships with many Spanish-language indie presses across the Americas, and we're email-pitched a lot of frontlist and backlist from more mainstream distributors that we connected with in the days of BookExpo, yet the range of requests we get isn't close to being covered. So FIL has held a promise, all this time, of what could be.

At the fair (l.- r.): Karina Ciprian and Veronica Liu of Word Up; Terrie Akers of Books Across Borders and marketing director, Other Press; Armando Montes de Santiago (FIL's coordinator of exhibitors/professionals); and Emmanuel Abreu of Word Up.(photos by Emmanuel Abreu)

On our first morning at the fair, during the few days reserved for "professionals," David Unger led a tour for our Word Up crew and our stalwart guide, Books Across Borders' Terrie Akers. Walking the aisles of the exhibition halls with David was like following around the mayor: he would receive hugs or handshakes at every turn, then pack in fair facts in the short walks until the next greetings. It's his 31st year of working for the Guadalajara fair as the U.S. rep, and he was an attendee before that. I found it especially meaningful to have David give me this tour: many years ago, after I took his translation class as part of my MFA at City College, and then badgered him so I could get into a class in the Publishing Certificate Program that he directed for decades, he was one of the first people I told about my intentions to start Word Up. I asked where to get Spanish books, knowing they were essential to have any credibility as a shop in Washington Heights. Back then, he gave me a short list of publishers to research, but after that, whenever the question came up, his answer was, "You should attend FIL. Then you will see."

And so we finally did. We weren't prepared for the enormity of it! FIL is a heavily consumer-facing fair. In 2024, alongside 18,100 professional registrants, 907,300 people from the public attended! To compare: in October, Frankfurt saw 230,000 visitors total, half from the trade and half members of the public.

As we walked through the international area (BookExpo-enormous) and passed through to the national area (four times larger), David shared that there are only around 350 bookstores across all of Mexico, so FIL is both a major celebration of literary culture and an opportunity for hardcore bookselling. For instance, 40%-50% of Planeta's yearly sales happen during the nine days of the fair. PRH's booth was easily three times bigger than our store, and somehow two storeys high. Deal-making still has a place at Guadalajara, though: this year, 162 companies had tables at the Rights Center, but compared to the nearly 600 tables at Frankfurt, there are clearly other foci here, such as ... kids!

FIL Niños, the children's area, saw 194,239 people come through their separated exhibition space, where there was a remarkable amount of programming: a couple dozen stalls hosted scheduled activities for different age groups--story times, zine making, etc.--all shielded by 4.5-feet-high outer walls, so you could peek at the fun the kids were having without getting too close. The back walls of each stall featured giant dreamy and wondrous illustrations right out of kids' picture books. And a quote by Rebecca Solnit hung over the whole kids' programming schedule: "Donde hay resistencia, hay esperanza." ("Where there is resistance, there is hope.") Shortly before the professional hours ended at 5 p.m., the doors separating the children's area were pushed aside, and kids started streaming through to check out the entire exhibition floor. School groups, families, packs of teens--everyone clamored; watching such excitement (and book stacks!) around us was a constant reminder of why book access, starting with our youngest readers, is a near obsession at Word Up.

As invigorated as we were passing through the kids' zone, we just about died when we got to the comics area of FIL. We have a life-size Spider-Man inside our shop, which is within one to three blocks of a high school, four middle schools, and two elementary schools, and all day long these kids want comics, all the manga--and increasingly in Spanish. We learned that on the fifth day of FIL, at the tail end of the professional days, multiple aisles of the exhibition floor turn over and transform until they're all comics, for when the public returns for the final four days. Calvin Reid had happened to send us a greeting earlier that day, and I kept trying to position our crew for a photo to send back as a "hi," but we couldn't get a clear shot at all! Every comics room was mobbed, all shelves blocked, kids and adults zipping around long lines.

In general at FIL, we often saw something that a customer had just asked us for that we'd had a hard time sourcing in the U.S. Alternate translations. Sheet music. Language-learning books, but between Spanish and [the other language], instead of English and [the other language]. Authors and artists that our neighbors grew up with who don't have English-language translations. We also saw books by authors we had just hosted (like romance superstar Elísabet Benavent) or were about to host (like Susana Draper, at the Tinta Limón booth). We reconnected with distributors we've worked with, and set up accounts at others, like Editorial + Distribuidora Lenguaraz, whose whole booth we wanted to transport across the border to our shop. We plotted ways we could make sure to return to FIL.

During our trip, music was everywhere: the 20-piece mariachi band at the American Library Association dinner, the 10-piece cumbia group outside la Librería Carlos Fuentes, major concerts every night at 9 p.m. to end the fair day at the Expo, the kind FIL driver who freestyled on our journey from the airport to my hotel.

Our enchantment at FIL wasn't just due to the books and the music (or the tequila or the rum). Yes, we got lost in the books at each booth. But there were also little corners where you were meant to take a break--whether with ball games, cornhole, or a surprising CPR class in the middle of a lounge area--before going back to the books. Thousands of people having fun, as they walked around with piles of books, giving the sense that consuming and supporting literature was part of a whole, part of life.

Meghan and Rick Hauser, who have been setting up Act 4 Books, Perry, N.Y., and earlier this year were seeking a bookseller to take over the store eventually, have found a partner: Maggie Wheeler Peace, high school library media specialist in the Perry Central School District. Meghan Hauser said that the three have been "taking a crash course in bookselling by staging Act 4 Books Pop-Up Shop, open weekends Thanksgiving through the New Year. This living, learning retail lab has taught us so much and has also warmed local hearts to the idea of a community supported bookstore (CSB). Because things weren't humming at a fast enough pace, Maggie also got married during this window!

"After the last pop-up weekend, all the books will be boxed and shelves moved to the other side of the store so renovations can continue for our planned full-time opening in Spring 2025."

Pictured: (l.-r.) Maggie Wheeler Peace; Heather Jackson, Perry native and owner of Merit Badge Books in Hamburg, N.Y. (in town to host a boozy book fair at the local brewery); Meghan and Rick Hauser; and Ann Burlingham, who owned the former Burlingham Books in the same location.

Former President Barack Obama shared a list of his favorite books from last year, noting: "I always look forward to sharing my annual list of favorite books, movies, and music. Today I'll start by sharing some of the books that have stuck with me long after I finished reading them. Check them out this holiday season, preferably at an independent bookstore or library!" Obama's favorite reads were:

The Anxious Generation by Jonathan Haidt
Intermezzo by Sally Rooney
Patriot by Alexei Navalny
Orbital by Samantha Harvey
The Anthropologists by Ayşegül Savaş
Stolen Pride by Arlie Russell Hochschild
In Ascension by Martin MacInnes
Growth by Daniel Susskind
Someone Like Us by Dinaw Mengestu
The Work of Art by Adam Moss

"Red Balloon got to be a part of a very special event. Our very own staff member Lily said yes!! Congratulations to Cass and Lily!!" Red Balloon Bookshop, St. Paul, Minn., posted on Instagram.

"An important PSA from Tommy the Bookstore Dog and his sisters Dani and Belle: When your TBR stack gets this dangerously low, it's time for an emergency run to epilogue books. The experts at epilogue can help you rebuild your TBR stack to an acceptable, safe level," Epilogue Books, Rockford, Mich., posted on Facebook.

Posted on Instagram by White Whale Bookstore, Pittsburgh, Pa.: "White Christmas loading. Holly jolly en route. Santa on his way."

"Book recs: the bookseller is in." That was the Peanuts-themed holiday season sidewalk chalkboard message in front of Bards Alley Bookshop, Vienna, Va., which noted on Facebook: "Early birds, Jen will be opening the store at 10 a.m. today!! If you’re wandering Church St early, stop by because the bookseller is IN. This’ll give you the chance to get some last minute shopping done early! See you soon."

Today:
Today Show: Michael Solomonov, co-author of Zahav Home: Cooking for Friends & Family (Harvest, $40, 9780358697367).

Tamron Hall repeat: Ina Garten, author of Be Ready When the Luck Happens: A Memoir (Crown, $34, 9780593799895).

Kelly Clarkson Show repeat: Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson, co-author of The Accomplice: A Novel (Amistad, $27.99, 9780063312906).

Tomorrow:
Live with Kelly and Mark: Cher, author of Cher: The Memoir: Part One (Dey Street, $36, 9780062863102).

Tamron Hall repeat: Venus Williams, author of Strive: 8 Steps to Find Your Awesome (Amistad, $29.99, 9780063278233).

Wednesday, December 25:
Good Morning America: Griffin Dunne, author of The Friday Afternoon Club: A Family Memoir (Penguin Press, $30, 9780593652824).

Today Show: Bryan Ford, author of Pan y Dulce: The Latin American Baking Book (Voracious, $40, 9780316293259).

Thursday, December 26:
Good Morning America: Rocco DiSpirito, author of Everyday Delicious: 30 Minute(ish) Home-Cooked Meals Made Simple (Rodale, $32.50, 9781984825230).

Late Show with Stephen Colbert repeat: Yulia Navalnaya discusses Patriot: A Memoir by her late husband Alexei Navalny (Knopf, $35, 9780593320969).

Late Night with Seth Meyers repeat: Tim O'Brien, author of America Fantastica: A Novel (Mariner, $19.99, 9780063318519).

Also on Late Night: Jenny Slate, author of Lifeform (Little, Brown, $29, 9780316263931).

Friday, December 27:
Today Show: Leanne Morgan, author of What in the World?!: A Southern Woman's Guide to Laughing at Life's Unexpected Curveballs and Beautiful Blessings (Convergent Books, $27, 9780593594391).

Monday, December 30:
Drew Barrymore Show repeat: Pamela Anderson, author of I Love You: Recipes from the Heart (Voracious, $35, 9780316573481).

Tuesday, December 31:
Sherri Shepherd Show repeat: Lena Waithe, author of What I Must Tell the World: How Lorraine Hansberry Found Her Voice (Zando-Hillman Grad Books, $19.99, 9781638930693).

Emerald Fennell's (Promising Young Woman, Saltburn) adaptation of Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights "has landed a romantic release date" of February 13, 2026 (Valentine's Day Weekend), IndieWire reported, noting that the movie "is already shaping up to be one of the more anticipated dramas despite being over a year away, but that's because the film stars Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi."

Hong Chau, Alison Oliver, and Shazad Latif co-star in the film, a production of Warner Bros. Pictures and MRC. Fennell is writing and directing the project, which is produced by Fennell, MRC, and Robbie's LuckyChap company.

Historical crime novelist Maureen Jennings, whose Detective Murdoch book series inspired the TV show Murdoch Mysteries, was named an officer of the Order of Canada by Governor General Mary Simon, Quill & Quire reported. Jennings was recognized for works that "explore important aspects of Canadian history, especially women's roles during the Second World War."

Karen Levine, the author of Hana's Suitcase, was named a member of the Order of Canada for her book as well as her four-decade-long career at CBC Radio.

Military historian Mark Zuehlke was also named a member of the Order of Canada, along with writers John Donald Longhurst, Joseph A. Schwarz, and Diane Sims.

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

Hardcover: An Indies Introduce Title
Only Here, Only Now: A Novel by Tom Newlands (HarperVia, $28.99, 9780063393455). "This debut is the thunderous announcement of a brilliant novelist with a keen wit. Like Derry Girls done by Dave Eggers, Only Here, Only Now is fiercely original, unabashedly Scottish, heartrendingly poignant, and hilarious to the point of tears." --Steve Iwanski, Charter Books, Newport, R.I.

Hardcover
I Might Be in Trouble: A Novel by Daniel Aleman (Grand Central, $29, 9781538766347). "Daniel Aleman nailed his adult debut. This book was funny, relatable, heart-wrenching, and heart-stopping. I'd recommend this book to damn near anyone--especially anyone who feels adrift and is looking for a book that will make them feel hopeful." --Renee Becher, The Crowded Bookshelf, Fort Collins, Colo.

Paperback
An Earthquake Is a Shaking of the Surface of the Earth: A Novel by Anna Moschovakis (Soft Skull, $16.95, 9781593767839). "A glimpse into the fractured psyche of a former actress living in a city where the Earth shakes. The dystopian otherworldliness takes a backseat to the obsessive unwellness of our unnamed narrator. Part sci-fi, part mystery, deeply literary." --Andrew Preston, CoffeeTree Books, Morehead, Ken.

Ages 3-6
Bert, the Bowerbird: The Small Bird with a Big Heart by Julia Donaldson, illus. by Catherine Rayner (Boxer Books, $18.99, 9781915801845). "With adorable rhymes from Julia Donaldson (author of The Gruffalo and Room on the Broom) and gorgeous illustrations by Catherine Rayner, Bert, the Bowerbird is a wonderful tale of bird-based romance and self-acceptance. Don't settle, Bert!" --Charlie Marks, Fountain Bookstore, Richmond, Va.

Ages 8-12
Jasmine Is Haunted by Mark Oshiro (Starscape, $18.99, 9781250337290). "Latinx main characters! Age-appropriate LGBTQ+ themes! Paranormal activity! Mark Oshiro beautifully delivers this story of grief, moving on, and finding community who understands." --Karen Fiorini, Little Shop of Stories, Decatur, Ga.

Teen Readers
What the Woods Took by Courtney Gould (Wednesday Books, $20, 9781250340672). "Five teens are forced into a wilderness trek masqueraded as a cure to them being 'troubled teens.' When their guides disappear, they begin to suspect there's something wrong in this forest. I couldn't stop reading this deliciously dark and queer story." --Katlin Kerrison, Story on the Square, McDonough, Ga.

[Many thanks to IndieBound and the ABA!]

What is education for, or, better yet, who is it for? This is the central question that Eve L. Ewing, associate professor in University of Chicago's Department of Race, Diaspora, and Indigeneity, asks in Original Sins: The (Mis)Education of Black and Native Children and the Construction of American Racism. Ewing calls readers to consider not just what they assume educational space to be, but to examine the historical contexts of the development of formal and institutional education for Indigenous and Black children in the United States. She thoroughly and carefully outlines that educational spaces were and still are often carceral spaces for Native and Black children, how this was deliberately constructed, and, crucially, what paths forward might yet exist radically to reimagine education.

Ewing traces how education has become tied to conceptions of the American Dream, and how that dream, and the foundation of the country itself, is built on "two cornerstones": "the genocide and displacement of Indigenous peoples, and the institution of chattel slavery that held African people in bondage." "The schoolhouse," she writes, has not been "uninvolved with the construction of racial hierarchy" but instead "played a central role in furthering the work begun by slavery and settler colonialism." She goes on to outline the history of how schools were designed to propagate the idea of the intellectual superiority of whiteness from the beginning of American education, starting with Thomas Jefferson. Ewing then demonstrates through stories, anecdotes of teaching, and copious research how that racialized dynamic exists still, and is demonstrated through contemporary teaching practices. She skillfully connects the normalization of standardized testing, academic tracking, under-resourcing, and various disciplinary policies and their unequal application to eugenics, race science, and policies of disenfranchisement with the intention of limiting the possibilities and potentials for Black and Indigenous students.

Ewing makes a convincing argument through her analysis and unparalleled storytelling that unless education in the United States is radically reconsidered, schools will simply continue to maintain the legacy of inequality at the core of the nation. Importantly, she concludes with suggestions for ways forward, including pointing out that none of the habits of cruelty are inevitable: "people made it, and people can unmake it." Ewing challenges readers to reimagine schools that will help Americans to reimagine the world, so long as they go forward with the knowledge of the past, and actively reconstruct it. --Michelle Anya Anjirbag, freelance reviewer

Shelf Talker: Eve L. Ewing takes a historical view to argue that the U.S. education system needs a drastic overhaul, convincingly examining who it serves and who it continues to oppress.