Thanks to a group of contributors, donations made to the Book Industry Charitable (Binc) Foundation to help bookstores, comic stores, and their employees affected by the wildfires in Southern California and other natural disasters will be matched up to $45,000. The contributors are Dav Pilkey, Forefront Books, Ingram Content Group, Macmillan Publishers, and Mad Cave Studios. This follows a $10,000 matching fund announced late last week by Bookshop.org. which has already been met.

Binc noted that the California wildfires have "closed dozens of book and comic stores, forced many book and comic people to evacuate or shelter in place, and Binc is already aware of seven booksellers who have lost their homes. Free mental health wellness is being offered to anyone in need and the calls for help continue amidst widespread and ongoing devastation."

Binc executive director Pam French said, "We were still hearing from book and comic people devastated by hurricanes Helene and Milton last fall when the calls started to come as a result of the wildfires that hit just a week into the new year. We know from experience that the need will continue to grow as damage is assessed, the fires are contained, and the cleanup begins. We are so grateful for the support of our partners who quickly rallied to provide this generous matching gift."

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Zibby's Bookshop in Santa Monica, Calif., is organizing clothes and children's book giveaways in support of people affected by the devastating wildfires that broke out in Southern California last week.

The bookstore is partnering with nearly 30 clothing brands to provide free clothes to people who have lost their homes. Per Zibby's Bookshop owner Zibby Owens, the team will begin distributing donated clothes from the bookstore once they arrive, likely within the next week or two.

Owens and her team will also be giving away "all our children's book inventory to any families who would like the comfort of a familiar story during this horrific time," and they are working with local schools to organize book drives.

Zibby's Bookshop was in a mandatory evacuation zone in Santa Monica and has been closed since last week due to the Palisades fire. Owens reported that the store and her employees are all safe, and "we hope to reopen soon."

A romance bookstore called the Spicy Librarian is opening in Denver, Colo., later this month, the Denver Gazette reported.

Located at 3040 Blake St., in Denver's River North Arts District, the bookstore will carry a wide variety of romance subgenres. The space previously housed an office, and store owner Sydney Ivey has given some of the most popular subgenres, such as romantasy, their own rooms. There is also a space called "the Vault," which is located behind a hidden bookshelf and contains intimate wellness products for women.

Ivey, who previously had a career in education, was inspired by the Ripped Bodice, as well as the ongoing trend of romance bookstores opening nationwide, to open her own store. She told the Gazette her idea "was to help create a space that is very female positive, that creates no shame around women's pleasure and passions, whatever they may be."

The space features ample seating, and Ivey's plans for events include book clubs and author events as well as talks with sex therapists. Ivey is one of the organizers of the local chapter of the Silent Book Club, and she plans to host that in-store.

Opening day is scheduled for January 18. The first 100 customers will receive a free gift, and on January 20, Ivey will be giving away a special-edition copy of Onyx Storm by Rebecca Yarros. (The book is being released at midnight Eastern or 10 p.m., Monday night, in Denver.) On January 22, Ivey will host paranormal romance author Holly Roberts for a book signing.

After debuting as an online store and pop-up shop, the Cranford Bookstore in Cranford, N.J., is searching for a bricks-and-mortar home, TAPinto Cranford reported.

Store owners Lauren King and Kate Lydon have appeared as a pop-up at places like the Alluem Flea and the Cake Artist Cafe; they've also held storytime sessions at the latter. They sell general-interest titles for all ages, and they are looking for a suitable storefront where they will be able to host writing groups, workshops, book clubs, storytimes, and other events, and carry "something for everyone."

Lydon helped to found the Asbury Park Book Cooperative in Asbury Park, N.J., and has a background in finance and management. King was an English teacher in New York City Public Schools and has worked as a college professor and local realtor.

The pop-up events, Lydon told TAPinto Cranford, have been well received, particularly at the Cake Artist Cafe. "It could not have gone better. People coming in for pastry checked out the books, and folks coming for the books bought treats. It was really lovely."

While the search for a permanent home continues, King and Lydon will be hosting storytime sessions and pop-up sales at the Cake Artist Cafe, and in February they will host a Galentine's Day Party at Nic & Nick Home Atelier.

They hope to find a bricks-and-mortar location by fall 2025.

Keith Riegert, CEO of Ulysses Press and Perfect Bound, and Holly Schmidt and Bruce Lubin, co-founders of Spot Gloss Media, have together launched a new publishing company, Bluestone Books. The new house will specialize in popular culture, practical nonfiction, and concept-driven children's titles. Its inaugural list of nine books will be published in Summer 2025, and it plans to publish 25-30 titles annually. The first list includes Chicka Chicka Dorm Room, a parody of the bestselling board book tailored to college-bound students; You Can't Take It with You, a guide to decluttering before you die; and The Creative Game Master's Trivia & Activity Book, for fans of Dungeons & Dragons.

Spot Gloss Media's writers, editors, and art directors will oversee all creative development for Bluestone Books, while Riegert brings the distribution relationship with Simon & Schuster, publicity and marketing expertise, and the title management and printing marketplace capabilities of Perfect Bound.

Riegert said, "Over the past two decades, Ulysses Press and Spot Gloss Media have collaborated on dozens of fantastic titles, and Bluestone is the natural next step in this incredibly creative partnership."

Lubin said, "When Keith approached us with the idea to join forces on a new business, I was excited by the opportunity to operate as an entrepreneurial independent publisher, but with the distribution might of S&S."

Schmidt added: "Keith brings a lot to the table in terms of technological acumen and data analytics skills, and the three of us share a vision for bringing books to a broad readership through creative concepts and packaging."

Books-A-Million is closing its store in the Waynesboro Town Center in Waynesboro, Va., the News Virginian reported.

A going-out-of-business sale will run until January 18, which will be the shop's final day in business. Per the News Virginian, Books-A-Million did not specify a reason for the closure.

Bruce Joshua Miller, founder and longtime head of Miller Trade Book Marketing and an editor, died on January 11. He was 70.

Bruce Joshua Miller

Miller founded the commission rep group Miller Trade Book Marketing in 1985 and was known for his strong support of bricks-and-mortar stores and university presses. In 2012, he and Ned Stuckey-French led efforts to keep the University of Missouri from shutting down the University of Missouri Press. He was recognized for that battle the next year when he was named Publishers Weekly's Rep of the Year.

Miller was an accomplished editor, with works such as Curiosity's Cats: Writers on Research, published by the Minnesota Historical Society Press.

Miller came from a book family. His late parents, Jordan and Anita Miller, founded Academy Press in 1976. In the early 1980s, they changed the name to Academy Chicago Publishers and, in 2014, sold the company to Chicago Review Press.

Miller's brother Eric Lincoln Miller was involved in Miller Trade Book Marketing for many years, was publisher of Wicker Park Books, and is now head of 3iBooks. His other brother, Mark Crispin Miller, is an author and professor of media studies at New York University.

For the book world, a highlight of the NFL playoff game Sunday between the Philadelphia Eagles and Green Bay Packers came late in the game when the camera focused on Eagles wide receiver A.J. Brown on the bench reading a copy of Inner Excellence: Train Your Mind for Extraordinary Performance and the Best Possible Life by Jim Murphy (Academy of Excellence). Game commentators seemed surprised, and one of them, Tom Brady, said, "I haven't seen too many people read books [on the bench during a game], but I've seen a quarterback eat a hot dog."

After the game, NFL reporter James Palmer recounted, "Brown handed me a beaten up paperback copy of Inner Excellence. Full of handwritten notes and highlighted sections. He has it with him every game and you can tell it's been knocked off benches on sidelines week after week. Brown then showed me the passage he reads between drives. It calms his mind." In the locker room Sunday, Brown spoke about the book and told reporters, among other things, "I like to read."

Author Jim Murphy told Sports Illustrated that his phone lit up with messages after the game and said, "It's really an honor to be a part of [Brown's] life and to have a meaningful place in anyone's life."

The book scored yesterday on a certain online retailer, becoming the No. 1 overall title, bumping even pre-orders for Onyx Storm by Rebecca Yarros.

"We wanted to share a most joyous moment at the shop! We had the honor of being chosen as the place for a surprise proposal in November and are so excited to share the photos they sent us!" Subterranean Books, St. Louis, Mo., posted. 

The couple said, "Subterranean was the first bookstore we went to together so it was only right we got engaged there!"

"It is such an honor they chose our bookstore to play a part in such a milestone of their lives," the store added. "Sending congratulations and all the happiness in the world to both of you, Tori and Tori! We're so happy for you!"

Sarah Bode has joined Holt as associate director of marketing. She was previously at Penguin Random House.

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Annie Lowell has been promoted to assistant marketing director, brands & licensing, Random House Worlds in the Random House Publishing Group.

The Art of Embroidery Design: A Workshop for Developing Your Own Original Stitching by Christi Johnson (Storey Publishing).

Tomorrow:
CBS Mornings: Jinger Duggar Vuolo, author of People Pleaser: Breaking Free from the Burden of Imaginary Expectations (Thomas Nelson, $29.99, 9781400341719).

Good Morning America: Keke Palmer, author of Master of Me: The Secret to Controlling Your Narrative (Flatiron, $27.99, 9781250372512).

Kelly Clarkson Show: Brooke Shields, author of Brooke Shields Is Not Allowed to Get Old: Thoughts on Aging as a Woman (Flatiron, $29.99, 9781250346940).

A trailer has been released for The Performance, based on a short story by Arthur Miller. IndieWire reported that the film, starring Jeremy Piven, "centers on a dance troupe that is asked to travel from New York City to Berlin in 1937 to perform for the Nazis. However, Piven's character Harold May is Jewish, and amid the rise of Hitler in Germany, his ability to pass as a gentile could be a matter of life and death." 

Directed by Shira Piven (Fully Loaded, Welcome to Me), who co-wrote the script with Josh Salzberg, the project's cast also includes Maimie McCoy, Adam Garcia, Isaac Gryn, and Lara Wolf. The Performance premieres February 28 in theaters.

"Shira shared the story with me, and it captivated me from the pitch," Salzberg said. "We talked about turning it into a kind of folktale, like, did you hear the one about the Jewish guy who went and tap danced for Hitler? It's a larger-than-life concept, it's not some stodgy period piece."

Peter Gizzi's Fierce Elegy has won the £25,000 (about $30,435) T.S. Eliot Prize, sponsored by the T.S. Eliot Foundation and honoring "the best new poetry collection published in the U.K. or Ireland." Chair of judges Mimi Khalvati described Gizzi's collection as "infinitely sad, yet resolute, and so alive in body and spirit."

Gizzi's brother, Michael, was also a poet, the Guardian reported, adding that they "founded the former U.S. literary magazine oblék. Michael died in 2010, and Gizzi's other brother, Tom, in 2018. Gizzi himself was diagnosed with a rare form of blood disease in 2021."

In a statement, the judging panel noted: "Written in the aftermath of grief, Peter Gizzi's Fierce Elegy brings us poems that revel in minutiae but also brave the large questions in a lyric sequence of transcendental beauty."

The Café with No Name by Austrian writer Robert Seethaler (The Field; The Tobacconist) opens in 1966 Vienna. Robert Simon is 31 years old and about to embark upon the quiet dream of his lifetime. It's his final day at the market where he's worked for seven years, as he begins to clean out and shape up a long-empty café across the street. Simon is a solitary, steady, and kind man who was orphaned as a young child during the war and is now a reliable worker who keeps to himself. "For a while he worked as a glass clearer and brush boy in the Prater beer gardens, and perhaps it was there--as he roamed between the tables in search of empty glasses, chicken bones and cigarette stubs in the light of the coloured lanterns--that he first felt a nascent germ of yearning: to do something that would give his life a decisive affirmation. To one day stand behind the bar of his own establishment." He realizes this modest ambition with the café on the edge of the bustling market, where Simon serves blue-collar workers like himself. He offers beer, wine, coffee, and raspberry soda; bread with drippings and gherkins; and a place of respite. He is soon joined by a single employee, a loner like himself. Mila, too, finds a home in the café with no name.

Seethaler's tender novel follows Simon and his café for the 10 years that they operate, until a change in the building's ownership pushes the small business out again. These years see Simon's Vienna neighborhood rebuild from postwar austerity, its population and workforce swell and change, and cultural patterns begin to shift. The café is a microcosm of these evolutions.

The Café with No Name does not have a plot filled with action, conflict, and resolution; instead, it focuses on mundane details of life. "Simon couldn't help smiling at the thought of all the lost souls who came together in his café every day." An aging prizefighter, two older ladies who drink and chat in the afternoons, the cheese shop proprietor and her painter boyfriend, and Simon's friend the butcher are among the regulars; they and others experience death and dismemberment, quiet violences, loss, and alcoholism, but also uplifting moments of humanity, friendship, and love. There are, remarkably, no villains in this novel, only people struggling against ordinary human challenges. While Seethaler's characters face significant difficulties, the story never feels grim, but rather steadfast and even hopeful. Katy Derbyshire translates Seethaler's prose from the German with calm delivery, charming descriptions, and understated humor. This lovely novel sweetly and simply emphasizes built family, resilience, and rebirth. --Julia Kastner, blogger at pagesofjulia

Shelf Talker: A humble café in post-World War II Vienna serves as backdrop for all the large and small dramas of everyday life in this subtly scintillating novel.

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

1. Haunting Adeline by H.D. Carlton
2. Hunting Adeline by H.D. Carlton
3. The Boyfriend by Freida McFadden
4. Twisted Love by Ana Huang
5. God of Malice by Rina Kent
6. God of Wrath by Rina Kent
7. The Ritual by Shantel Tessier
8. Between Two Fires by Christopher Buehlman
9. Butcher & Blackbird by Brynne Weaver
10. Brutal Prince by Sophie Lark

[Many thanks to IndieReader.com!]