(courtesy Cal Fire)

Bookstores near the wildfires in Los Angeles have responded in a variety of ways to the devastation, becoming centers for the community to gather, help, and comfort one another, and to begin to try to deal with the terrible events of the past week.

Octavia's Bookshelf in Pasadena has done amazing work in the days since the Eaton fire destroyed much of nearby Altadena. The store has become an impromptu center for distribution of all kinds of items needed by people affected by the wildfires, especially those who lost their homes. Donated and frequently requested items have included toiletries, first aid kits, towels, water, blankets, pillow cases, non-perishable food, and more. The store, which opened two years ago and emphasizes books by BIPOC authors, is also delivering items to the elderly, disabled, and vulnerable.

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Vroman's Bookstore in Pasadena reopened on Friday, saying in part, "Our hearts go out to the entire community of Pasadena, Altadena, and everyone impacted by the fires. Just like you, we are trying to make sense of the tremendous loss and uncertainty of the last few days and the near future.

At Vroman's, Steve Ross (aka storyteller Mr. Steve) bringing children's books to the evacuation center at the Pasadena Convention Center.

"We continue to take this situation one day at a time with an awareness of the role books and bookstores play in the community we serve. Both can offer a place of refuge and engagement that people may need or want in a time of difficulty... Come visit if you need a change of scenery, a place to meet friends, to browse or see a friendly face."

Vroman's added that customers, who have been able to donate to their favorite local nonprofits through Vroman's Gives Back, now have the option also to support the Pasadena Community Foundation's Eaton Canyon Fire Relief and Recovery Fund.

"We love you Pasadena, Altadena, Sierra Madre, San Marino, South Pas, Monrovia, Arcadia, La Cañada-Flintridge, and surrounds. #strongertogether"

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Book Soup, West Hollywood, owned by Vroman's, offered similar sentiments, and  customers can round up purchases to donate to Direct Relief. The store added, "We believe Los Angeles is the greatest city in the world. We love you. We love you. We love you."

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On Saturday, Flintridge Bookstore, La Cañada Flintridge, posted on X: "Our dear friends, we are happy to announce that we will be open today and moving forward!! If you are craving a bit of normalcy during these unprecedented times or a book to escape in to, please stop by!"

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The Last Bookstore in Studio City posted on Instagram Friday: "BYOC (bring your own charger + coffee) and stay awhile. We'll charge your device and provide free Wi-Fi for anyone needing a place to read, regroup, and recharge. While our staff and resources are limited, our hearts and doors are wide open. (well, actually, they're closed because of the smoke, but you get the idea).... To better serve you all, we're seeking strategic partners and sponsors who share our passion for impact and can help us expand our reach in the community. DM us to start the conversation."

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The Pacific Palisades branch of the Los Angeles Public Library was destroyed by the fire. Palisades Branch senior librarian Mary Hopf posted this note: "Thank you to everyone for your kind words, concern, and support. Our staff is family and we are sad for our community and our library. We have the most beautiful memories of the Palisades Library and all the people who have made it wonderful. Please stay safe!"

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Among the many things destroyed by the wildfires was the personal library of Gary Indiana, the novelist, cultural critic, playwright, and artist who died last fall. The library had been moved from Indiana's home in New York City to a house in Altadena, where it was going to be the center of an artists' residence. It arrived on Tuesday, the day before the fire destroyed much of Altadena--and the house where the library had been delivered.

In an essay in the London Review of Books about his own experiences when the wildfire destroyed much of Altadena, Colm Tóibín wrote, "On Tuesday, 7 January Gary Indiana's personal library arrived in LA from New York. Gary died in his apartment in the East Village in New York on 23 October. His books had been three-deep on his shelves. It was decided to take his library to Altadena, to a place that was to be used as a residence for artists. It would be the core library for the house. The books were put into boxes, carried down six floors to the street in the East Village and then taken across America....

"On Tuesday when Gary Indiana's library came to Los Angeles, it rested for a while in the appointed house in Altadena. But it was the wrong day. If they--the signed editions, the rare art books, the weird books, the books Gary treasured--had come a day later, there would have been no address to deliver them to, so they would have been saved. But on that Tuesday, unfortunately, there still was an address."

Richard Turner, owner of Diesel Bookstore in Brentwood, which he bought last year from founders John Evans and Alison Reid, said the store is continuing "to support the community in this time of need and terrible tragedy. Diesel is a touchstone in the neighborhood and seems to be providing a small sense of normalcy for those displaced by the fire. In addition to those who've come in for the comfort the bookstore provides--some of whom aren't even looking for a book, just a friendly and familiar face--many just call to hear the news that we are intact and open.

DIESEL owner Richard Turner with author Robert Crais, whose signing at the store was postponed because of the fire.

"Three of our booksellers have been evacuated and each of them have come to work a shift or two (or many more) to gain a foothold, find their routine and feel useful. And they have indeed been showered with love and affection and some serious support from customers and booksellers alike."

John Evans, co-founder of Diesel, visited the store on Saturday and reported: "Customers, displaced by the fire, or on the edge of being evacuated, came in to the store as a refuge. Several I spoke with had lost their houses and came to the store for comfort, one staying in an empty apartment, with an air mattress and her dog, picking up a couple books to read over the coming days. Another testifying to her love of Los Angeles, as many of us have, and the tragedy of the loss of their communities, neighborhoods, and homes.

"The booksellers were solid, handling with compassion and kindness, the confusions and confessions of the customers coming in one after another to share the trauma of the fire--had you lost your home; where are you staying; have you heard yet or I lost mine on Tuesday; I had to abandon my car; I never got to my home before it burned down.

John Evans

"One customer offered money and support to a bookseller he heard lost her home. Another bought a $1,000 gift certificate to be used to pay for books being bought for children who had lost theirs in the fire. It didn't take long for a man who lost his home, his children so upset at the loss of their favorite series of books, to come in to purchase them. When he came up to the counter and went to pay, Joey could say, 'It's covered.' Everyone was very moved and touched by this simple, but telling, event.

"I know this is happening at every bookstore throughout L.A., but there was a special poignancy of it being a bookstore we built and love, and which Richard Turner is capably carrying on with the help of tried and true booksellers. I know, too, this is happening with all sorts of businesses outside the evacuation zone throughout Los Angeles and Altadena, so heavily hit by the fires but trying to do their best to buoy a community beset by such horrible devastation.

"The gratitude, relief, and reassurance the customers felt at Diesel being open, and what Diesel had come to mean to them and their community was palpable. And this where so much of what they knew and loved had gone up in smoke.

"It moved Alison to tears and we were so proud that what we had created was continuing to serve the community in its time of need."

The Little Nook Bookstore has opened in the Shoppes at East Wind at 5768 NY-25A, Suite V2, in Wading River, N.Y., on the North Shore of Long Island. A longtime dream of owner Stephanie DiSanto, the shop's bookshelves "are lined with a carefully curated selection of titles," Northforker reported. "While the store was originally set for launch in 2023, DiSanto delayed her plans when she became pregnant with her second child. Now, she's finally ready to share her love of reading with the community."

"It's something I've wanted to do for so long," DiSanto said. "I love reading and I feel like that's what people are looking for these days: a smaller bookstore that's a small business, not owned by a corporation.... I'd been home for the last four years. I needed to do something I love, and that's what pushed me to start my adventure."

The title selection at Little Nook includes a variety of genres, as well as works by local authors. DiSanto plans to host readings with more local writers in the future. She is also particularly interested in books for young readers. 

Bibliophiles entering the bookshop "can expect a cozy, relaxed browsing experience," Northforker wrote, noting that customers "can find recent releases, beloved classics, a coffee and tea station and some comfy chairs to sit and read."

After the bookshop's launch last month, DiSanto posted on Instagram: "Such a successful opening weekend. I am overwhelmed with the love & patience I received this weekend, you guys are truly amazing! So happy to finally be open & become your new favorite store."

At the American Booksellers Association, Philomena Polefrone has been promoted from advocacy associate manager to associate director of American Booksellers for Free Expression, Bookselling This Week reported.

Philomena Polefrone

Polefrone said, "I've been so lucky to learn and grow under the guidance of Dave Grogan, Ray Daniels, Allison Hill, and so many ABA staff members, free expression allies, and booksellers around the country who have helped me succeed. In all likelihood, the coming years will be one of the most challenging periods for free expression since ABFE was founded in 1990. We will be ready to meet these challenges on several fronts, through our education, legislative advocacy, legal challenges, and direct support for impacted stores."

Director of ABFE, advocacy & public policy David Grogan said, "Since joining ABA last year, Philomena has done outstanding work in defending the free expression rights of ABA member booksellers. This promotion is well deserved, and is a testament to ABA's support of the freedom to read. I look forward to Philomena's commitment to fighting for booksellers' right to free expression, and against ongoing and future book bans in schools, libraries, and bookstores occurring in communities across the country."

Barry Malzberg, who wrote "some of the most ambitious, challenging and profound yet pessimistic and isolating novels," died December 19, the Guardian reported. He was 85. In 1965, Malzberg decided that "the career he sought as a literary writer was closed to him--the magazines were impenetrable, the control of editors at publishing houses absolute--and that science fiction, which he had read in his youth, was the path he would pursue into writing" the Guardian noted.

He attended Syracuse University, but left to join the Scott Meredith Literary Agency, where he read and reported on up to 50 manuscripts a week from fee-paying newcomers. After being fired in 1967, he briefly became managing editor of the men's magazine Escapade and the science fiction magazines Amazing Stories and Fantastic, but was fired again after arguing with the publisher.

Malzberg made his first sale in sci-fi in 1967 under the name K.M. O'Donnell. Over the next seven years, he published 23 novels and six short-story collections. His novel Beyond Apollo (1972), which he described as "dystopian, anti-NASA, anti-space, enormously cynical about technology," won the John W. Campbell Memorial award, opening doors to publishers.

While working at the Scott Meredith Literary Agency, he published the novel Love Doll under the name Mel Johnson in 1967. The Guardian noted that it "was followed by two dozen more softcore porn books until the market collapsed."

Malzberg returned to sci-fi novels, including The Falling Astronauts (1971), Revelations (1972), Herovit's World (1973), In the Enclosure (1973), Tactics of Conquest (1974), The Destruction of the Temple (1974), On a Planet Alien (1974), Guernica Night (1975), and Galaxies (1975). He also wrote adventure novels (the Lone Wolf series as Mike Barry), novelizations (Phase IV, Kung Fu), and adult novels (as Lee W. Mason).

Although he announced his retirement in 1976, he continued to write fiction, including thrillers and crime stories with Bill Pronzini, as well as one final sci-fi novel, The Remaking of Sigmund Freud (1985), and many short stories. He also compiled anthologies and collections.

In a tribute from the Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers Association, author Robert J. Sawyer said, "Barry N. Malzberg was a true mensch. He believed fervently in the power of science fiction and fought for it to transcend being a commercial category of mere escapism. The field has lost not only one of its greatest authors but also one of its fiercest champions. Barry's published writings were often caustic, but whenever I needed a friend, he was always there with kindness and unflagging support."

Posted on Facebook by Big Red Books, Nyack, N.Y.: "Freddy does all the heavy lifting at Big Red Books. I’m so thankful for Freddy's help, professionalism, and daily banter. Take care of your delivery people. It's cold out there. #upsdriver"

Porter Square Books, Cambridge, Mass., shared a photo of its new mural, noting on Facebook: "We now have a mural. Shoutout to @sarahegan.art for the gorgeous artwork. Come on by Porter Square Books: Cambridge Edition to check it out!"

Barnes & Noble has chosen The Life Cycle of the Common Octopus by Emma Knight (Pamela Dorman Books) as its January national book club pick. In a live virtual event on Tuesday, February 4, at 3 p.m. Eastern, Knight will be in conversation with Lexie Smyth, category manager for fiction at B&N.

Smyth said, "Our heroine, Pen, a young Canadian woman starting her first year at University of Edinburgh, is determined to uncover the secrets she believes her divorced parents are keeping from her. Searching for answers, she finds herself swept up in the wealthy and eccentric family of Lord Lennox, a famous writer and friend of her father. Both a campus novel and a story of pastoral wealth reminiscent of Evelyn Waugh, this warm, funny, and sparkling novel will give readers so much to talk about."

For more information, click here.

The Psychosis Workbook: Understand What You're Going Through, Take an Active Role in Your Recovery, and Prevent Relapse by Laura Dewhirst and Jessica Murakami-Brundage (New Harbinger Publications).

Today:
CBS Mornings: Graham Norton, author of Frankie: A Novel (HarperVia, $18.99, 9780063436473).

Good Morning America: Ramit Sethi, author of Money for Couples: No More Stress. No More Fights. Just a 10-Step Plan to Create Your Rich Life Together. (Workman, $19.99, 9781523523689).

Today: Keila Shaheen, author of The Book of Shadow Work (Atria/Primero Sueno Press, $28.99, 9781668069943).

The View: Brooke Shields, author of Brooke Shields Is Not Allowed to Get Old: Thoughts on Aging as a Woman (Flatiron, $29.99, 9781250346940). She will also appear on Live with Kelly and Mark.

Late Show with Stephen Colbert: Kwame Alexander, author of How Sweet the Sound (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, $18.99, 9780316442497).

Tomorrow:
CBS Mornings: Trisha Tobias, author of Honeysuckle and Bone (Zando/Sweet July Books, $19.99, 9781638931027).

Good Morning America: Anne Marie Anderson, author of Cultivating Audacity: Dismantle Doubt and Let Yourself Win (Ideapress Publishing, $32.95, 9781646871698).

Today: Josh Gad, author of In Gad We Trust: A Tell-Some (Gallery Books, $28.99, 9781668050521). He will also appear on the View and the Late Show with Stephen Colbert.

Drew Barrymore Show: Jamie Oliver, author of Simply Jamie: Fast & Simple Food (Flatiron, $39.99, 9781250374004).

A trailer has been released for In the Lost Lands, based on the George R.R. Martin short story. Entertainment Weekly reported that the project, starring Milla Jovovich and Dave Bautista, is directed by Paul W.S. Anderson and will premiere March 7. 

"In the Lost Lands" is one of Martin's earliest fantasy stories, first published in 1982 as part of the Amazons II anthology. In a November blog entry, Martin described the movie as "dark and twisted and atmospheric, and a lot of fun.... A long time ago, I had hoped to write a series of stories about Gray Alys and those bold enough to buy from her... but life and other stories intervened, and somehow I never got around to writing that second tale. But who knows? If the film does well enough, maybe I will finally write that sequel. In my copious spare time."

Martin's story is one of three that filmmaker Constantin Werner optioned years ago, including "The Lonely Songs of Laren Dorr" and "Bitterblooms." Werner wrote the screenplay for In the Lost Lands with Anderson.

Nominations have been made for the 2025 Philip K. Dick Award, sponsored by the Philadelphia Science Fiction Society and the Philip K. Dick Trust and honoring the best science fiction published in paperback original form in the U.S. in the previous year. The award ceremony, sponsored by the Northwest Science Fiction Society, will take place on April 18 at Norwescon 47. This year's nominees are:
 
City of Dancing Gargoyles by Tara Campbell (Santa Fe Writers Project)
Your Utopia: Stories by Bora Chung, translated by Anton Hur (Algonquin Books)
Time's Agent by Brenda Peynado (Tordotcom)
The Practice, the Horizon, and the Chain by Sofia Samatar (Tordotcom)
Alien Clay by Adrian Tchaikovsky (Orbit)
Triangulum by Subodhana Wijeyeratne (Rosarium Publishing)

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Three finalists have been selected for the Story Prize. The winner will be announced March 25 at a private event that will be livestreamed, feature readings by and interviews with the finalists, capped by the announcement of the winner. The winner receives $20,000 and an engraved silver bowl; the two runners-up each receive $5,000. The finalists:

Highway Thirteen by Fiona McFarlane (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
There Is a Rio Grande in Heaven by Ruben Reyes Jr. (Mariner Books)
Ghost Pains by Jessi Jezewska Stevens (And Other Stories)

This year's judges are bookseller Lucy Yu, owner of Yu & Me Books, New York City; author Maurice Carlos Ruffin; and writer and editor Elliott Holt.

Before he became a revered film auteur, Lee Chang-dong was a teacher and writer who published his first short story, "War Trophy," in 1983. That and six additional stories compose his breathtaking first collection published for English-language readers in the U.S., Snowy Day and Other Stories, fluidly translated from the Korean by novelist and academic Heinz Insu Fenkl and Fenkl's former student, Yoosup Chang. Each of Lee's deeply introspective narratives moves between its characters' pasts and their present moments, repeatedly underscoring the consequential connections between the two, both personally and historically. Meanwhile, though some characters make monumental public gestures--protests, grandstanding, self-immolation--most of Lee's protagonists are just trying to survive.

Readers already familiar with Lee's uncanny ability to create precise yet multilayered film imagery will detect that impressive skill in these pages. In the titular story, about a young soldier enduring military conscription, the simple observation that "the snow has stopped falling" becomes rife with poignant meaning about historical consequences, failed connections, moments of inhumanity, and unbearable disappointment. In "Fire & Dust," a taxi driver responds, "It's only the precious kids who die" to news about the death of a student protestor, unaware that his passenger's young son died exactly one year prior. The insult "You dogs!" resounds through "War Trophy" as two former students reunite after the gruesome death of an intimate mutual friend. The title of the story "There's a Lot of Shit in Nokcheon" is both observation and prophecy about an unexpected temporary reconciliation between estranged brothers. Money--in the forms of privilege and utter necessity--drives "A Lamp in the Sky," about a suspended student arrested and brutalized by the police.

Referencing--without explicitly naming--Korea's 1980 Gwangju Uprising, when "hundreds of citizens resisting a military coup were massacred in Korea," Lee's author's note explains his literary impetus: "I had to write my stories as a way to avoid escaping reality," particularly during Korea's dictatorships, which terrorized and punished its people but transformed a postwar economy into a global power. In rereading these stories "a very long time" later, Lee reveals how "my heart ached as if I were reading an old diary... because [these stories] are based on my actual experiences in those days... and some are even written just as they happened, with very little fictionalizing." Fenkl, in a translator's note, highlights the timelessness of Lee's "masterful" stories: they "come to us when we are experiencing our own volatile times." That recognition, that empathy, should turn aficionados of Lee's films into literary admirers, deservedly expanding his international presence. --Terry Hong

Shelf Talker: Internationally lauded filmmaker Lee Chang-dong makes his translated literary debut with a powerful collection of seven timeless narratives in Snowy Day and Other Stories.