In honor of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., we will not publish on Monday. We'll see you again on Tuesday morning, January 21.

Bisbee Books & Music, Bisbee, Ariz. is now under new ownership. Tucson.com reported that "12 months after listing the store for sale, and 70 days after announcing its imminent closure, [Craig] Harzinski and co-partner Ken Mertes happily announced last week that buyers had finally been found for Bisbee's last remaining bookstore."

"It's an amazing thing," said Harzinski. "A man came in one day, wanting to buy a book. Next thing you know, he bought a bookstore."

Final papers were signed January 7, and the new owners will take over the day-to-day management of the store early next month.

In a Facebook post on signing day, Harzinski and Mertes noted: "Bisbee Books and Music Will Continue! We are very happy to announce the sale of Bisbee Books and Music to some quite wonderful people: Erik and Melissa. When we were looking at potential buyers, we wanted to find people who loved the store, loved Bisbee, and had a great vision on where to take the store next. And we have found them! We will be transitioning the store to Erik and Melissa for the next month or so as needed, so please stop by and let us say goodbye and, of course, meet the new owners of Bisbee Books and Music!"

Harzinski told Tucson.com that when they bought the store six years ago, their plan was to work for three more years and then retire, but "then Covid happened. All the uncertainty after Covid happened. Finally, about a year ago, Ken and I decided it was just time. We had taken the store as far as we knew how, and it was time for somebody else to make it even better."

He noted that while many people expressed interest and several contacted the broker, "I'd say we had two very serious buyers. The first couldn't quite get her financing together, and the second had a health issue come up at the last minute. By September, we were pretty much back where we started."

On October 29, the co-owners told customers the bookshop would close December 31 if a buyer did not come forward before then. "We both felt horrible about it," Harzinski  recalled. "We know how much the store means to the people who live here, but we had started to make other plans... thinking the store would be sold."

On November 22, however, Harzinski "was behind the counter when a man walked in looking for a book. He was moving to Bisbee from North Dakota, in town looking for a house, and had learned about our store from the library across the street. We began talking about Bisbee and books and the bookstore... and we've been talking pretty much ever since."

Harzinski and Mertes are planning an open house next month to introduce the new owners to the Bisbee community.

"We loved the time we spent in the store," Harzinsk said. "We met people from all over the world, looking for just the right book to take home. The best part was helping them find just the one they wanted, even though they didn't know it when they walked in."

Verb Bookstore and Café has reopened in a new location in downtown Jonesboro, Ark. Owner Sari Harlow told Jonesboro Right Now: "We're excited to be downtown and joining this part of the community. We're ready to grow into the next stage of what our little business has to offer Jonesboro."

Owner Sari Harlow outside Verb's new location.

With the move to 316 S. Main St., Verb is making some changes to its model, including implementing a self-serve drink station. "We now have what we're calling our BYOB, build your own beverage, section. We've got hot chocolate, espresso and K-Cups and we'll have hot tea selections as well. We're going to keep growing and expanding that area, but it's all self-serve," Harlow said.

She added: "We're just trying to get our focus back on being the best little independent bookstore that we can be. We're all about our mission, which is to read books, share stories and connect communities. We believe love is a verb."

Harlow recalled that after business difficulties last September, she decided something had to change: "That moment was definitely the catalyst to us understanding that we couldn't continue on as we were. We were at that crisis point of we either need to decide to make some big moves and shake things up and really, really change up how we're doing business, or it might be time to, as I put in a post, 'Hang up my book fairy wings.' "

Several opportunities presented themselves, including the availability of the new location. "Some friends that work downtown too, told us about it and it all just kind of lined up and worked out," she recalled. "I know some people have had concerns about us moving downtown because they assumed it cost so much more downtown, but it really isn't. It's the same as we were paying previously." 

Harlow noted that while she had some concerns about making the move, "I was like, 'Right now, downtown Jonesboro needs this extra little boost of life, and we need community.' We've got so many other small businesses around us, and we're really thrilled to make this move and see what 2025 brings for us."

Binc's matching gift pool for the California wildfires has increased by $10,000 thanks to Los Angeles publisher Tokyopop. This brings the pool to $55,000. 

"I've been an Angeleno since birth so this particular tragedy has hit home like no other," said Tokyopop founder Stu Levy. "As a Los Angeles-based publisher, Tokyopop literally lives and breathes this town and there is no one we trust more than Binc to deploy the resources to help our industry's local shops and colleagues. As our hearts go out to those affected by the fires, we are immensely grateful to everyone who has contributed to this mission-critical community effort."

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"Let's help @altadenaseedlibrary reseed Altadena," Skylight Books in Los Angeles posted on Instagram. "Starting today we will be collecting native to Southern California plant seeds for them. Please stop by and donate if you have any. Seeds do not take up much space, so we can host this drive for a longer period of time :-) Again we must reiterate, NATIVE to SoCal plants seeds ONLY. Nina at @altadenaseedlibrary said, 'We are prioritizing seed that remediates soil, like CA Buckwheat, Telegraph weed, Bush Sunflower, and Mule Fat, but anything hyper-local is a close second, and anything native to Southern CA is also incredibly helpful.' We love you LA, we love you Altadena."

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On Wednesday, January 15, Island Books, Mercer Island, Wash., offered "a day of shopping to benefit World Central Kitchen, providing meals to those affected by the CA wildfires. We hope you’ll come in to buy a card, a book, some chocolate, toys/games or a gift card."

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North Figueroa Bookshop, Highland Park, Calif., created an Eaton Fires Laundry Fund, noting: "Need to wash the ash from your clothes. We have quarters and tide pods. Have quarters and tide pods? Drop them off to support your community."

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"Our hearts go out to those affected by the fires in L.A.," Camino Books in San Diego posted. "Help us help them by donating books to provide comfort and escapism in hard times and rebuild personal libraries."

Half Price Books is closing its Parmer Lane location in Austin, Tex., KXAN reported.

The bookstore, which has been in business in north Austin for 18 years, will have its last day in business on February 2. The company was unable to agree to terms for a new lease for that location and, in a letter to customers, Half Price Books wrote, "we appreciate all the kind words of support and the passion the community has shown our bookstore. Thank you and we look forward to many more years of reading recycling together."

The other six Half Price Books locations in central Texas will not be affected.

Harlequin Trade Publishing is merging its five imprints into three.

Currently, Harlequin publishes roughly 180 titles per year across Canary Street Press, Graydon House Books, Hanover Square Press, Mira Books, and Park Row Books. Following the merger, Harlequin will publish the same number of titles across Hanover Square Press, Mira, and Park Row Books, with Mira Books absorbing Canary Street Press and the Graydon House imprint being phased out over the course of this year. Staff counts will remain the same, the company noted, though some editors will move to other teams.

Mira Books will "return to its roots as a key publisher of romance and romantic fiction," while Park Row Books will "take a bigger position in the upmarket book club and narrative nonfiction spaces." Hanover Square Press is focused on nonfiction and high-concept fiction, and is adding horror and fantasy to its list.

The Book Industry Charitable Foundation has announced the 10 entrepreneurs who will make up the second cohort for BincTank. Launched in 2023, BincTank is a business incubator pilot program designed to increase equity in bookstore ownership by supporting BIPOC entrepreneurs.

The 10 entrepreneurs are:

• Aurora Anaya, who will launch a mobile bookstore and California native plant shop this spring.
• John McGregor, a publishing veteran who plans to open a bookstore in Harlem in New York City.
• Darnella McGuire-Nelson, a resident of Alexandria, Va., who advocates for minority-owned businesses and enriching the lives of the marginalized and disadvantaged.
• Priscilla Martinez, founder and owner of West Side Stories, a bookstore, bakeshop, and coffeehouse in Loudoun County, Virginia.
• Tamara Olmedo, co-founder of the Cuentos y Café BIPOC Bookstore, in Asheville, N.C.
• Tracy Ramey, an author, educator, and entrepreneur based in Columbus, Ohio, who plans to open a mobile bookstore.
• Rasheedah Rashada, a well-being and mental health advocate and social entrepreneur in San Diego, Calif.,
• Aminata Solammon, an Atlanta, Ga., native by way of Oakland, Calif., with a passion for youth development, children's literature, and fostering human connection.
• Selena Teems, founder of Successful YOU!, who provides self-published authors with coaching, training, and access to niche networks.
• Erica Wisely, owner and founder of Reid Wisely Books & Brew, a children's bookstore in Rockland County, N.Y.

"We are proud to support this group of entrepreneurs dedicated to opening bookstores in their community," said Binc executive director Pam French. "They bring a diversity of experience, skills and background to BincTank from community activism and bookselling to working in the publishing industry and writing books, and they share our commitment to and passion for closing the diversity gap in bookstore ownership. We look forward to visiting their stores."

The entrepreneurs were chosen anonymously from a pool of 25 applicants. They will begin Professional Bookselling School in March.

The Strand Book Store, New York City, hosted the launch of Sen. Ron Wyden's (D.-Ore.) book, It Takes Chutzpah: How to Fight Fearlessly for Progressive Change (Grand Central); he was in conversation with journalist Ezra Klein. The store reported, "The Rare Book Room hasn't been this full in years, with nearly 200 people in attendance! It was a special evening for [owner] Nancy Bass Wyden, as well, being able to host her husband's first book launch." Pictured: Sen. Ron Wyden, Nancy Bass Wyden, Ezra Klein.

"Bookseller Booker T is ready to recommend! we're back to regular hours--thanks for your patience while we conducted our inventory!" Wild Rumpus Books, Minneapolis, Minn., posted on Facebook.

"The weather outside is frightful, but our bookstore is so delightful." That was the sidewalk chalkboard message in front of From My Shelf Books & Gifts, Wellsboro, Pa.

At Scholastic:

April Garnock, formerly an intern at Writers House, has joined Scholastic as sales assistant.

Annie Krege, formerly national accounts coordinator, is being promoted to executive assistant, divisional project manager.

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Sofia Szyfer has joined Kensington Publishing as a publicity & marketing assistant.

Activating Our 12-Stranded DNA: Secrets of Dodecahedral DNA for Completing Our Human Evolution by Ruslana Remennikova (Park Street Press/Inner Traditions).

French director Jean-Pierre Jeunet (Amélie) is adapting Valérie Perrin's bestselling novel Changer l'eau des fleurs (Fresh Water for Flowers), with Leïla Bekhti starring "as a beloved cemetery caretaker with a tragic backstory," Deadline reported. The project is due to start shooting in May 2025.

"She is a character filled with light, even for me who does not have a peaceful relationship with death," Bekhti told Paris Match. "She is timeless, resilient. I like these characters who are extremely unique and at the same time who speak to you. There is nothing more beautiful and more poetic than seeking life through death."

Italian company Palomar, which acquired adaptation rights in 2021, is leading the production with 24 25 Films in Paris, Deadline noted. Studiocanal is co-producing and will also distribute the film in France and handle international sales, while Canal+ and Netflix are backing the production.

The longlist has been selected for the $35,000 Republic of Consciousness Prize, United States and Canada, honoring "the commitment of small presses to exceptional literary merit."

The longlist was selected by a jury of independent booksellers and small press enthusiasts: Luis Alberto Correa (White Whale Bookstore, Pittsburgh, Pa.), James Crossley (Leviathan Bookstore, St. Louis, Mo.), Lori Feathers, chair (Interabang Books, Dallas, Tex.), Rebekah Rine (Watermark Books & Cafe, Wichita, Kan.), Dorian Stuber (Hendrix College, Little Rock, Ark.), and Chris Via (Leaf by Leaf lit vlog, North Carolina).

A virtual party celebrating the longlist, with publishers, authors, and translators, will take place on Wednesday, February 19, at 6 p.m. Central. The shortlist of five books will be announced on February 27, and the winner on March 12.

Each press with a longlisted book will receive $2,000. Five shortlisted books will be given an additional $3,000 each, split equally between publisher and author, or publisher, author, and translator.

The longlist:

Like a Sky Inside by Jakuta Alikavazovic, translated by Daniel Levin Becker (Fern)
To & Fro by Leah Hager Cohen (Bellevue Literary Press)
Melvill by Rodrigo Fresán, translated by Will Vanderhyden (Open Letter)
Lesser Ruins by Mark Haber (Coffee House Press)
Tidal Lock by Lindsay Hill (McPherson & Company)
Overstaying by Ariane Koch, translated by Damion Searls (Dorothy, a publishing project)
The Case of Cem by Vera Mutafchieva, translated by Angela Rodel (Sandorf Passage)
Your Absence Is Darkness by Jón Kalman Stefánsson, translated by Philip Roughton (Biblioasis)
Gifted by Suzumi Suzuki, translated by Allison Markin Powell (Transit Books)
Lublin by Manya Wilkinson (And Other Stories)

photo: Charm Cataag

Samantha Sotto Yambao is a professional daydreamer, aspiring time traveler, and speculative fiction writer living in Manila, Philippines. She is the author of Before Ever After, Love and Gravity, A Dream of Trees, and The Beginning of Always. Her new novel, Water Moon (Del Rey), is a dreamlike fantasy about a charming young physicist who embarks on a magical quest.

Handsell readers your book in 25 words or less:

What if I told you that I know about a pawnshop where you can sell your regrets? Would you like its address?

On your nightstand now:

I'm currently working on my edits for my next book, and so the only things I have on my nightstand are my phone charger, water bottle, and hand cream. I have the worst memory, and I would hate to read someone else's amazing book and have their lines creep into my writing by mistake!

Favorite book when you were a child:

Green Eggs and Ham by Dr. Seuss. I owe this book my mantra in life: try anything (as long it's legal, cruelty-free, and not a questionable mushroom) once.

I'm a strong believer in living outside your comfort zone and that green things, except mold, are good for you.

Your top five authors:

Agatha Christie. Anne Rice. Douglas Adams. Anthony Doerr. Emily Brontë.

Book you've faked reading:

The Shining Girls by Lauren Beukes. I had to read it for a book club and wasn't able to finish it in time for our meeting. I spent that evening nodding, sipping wine, and forming vague sentences. I'm sorry.

Book you're an evangelist for:

Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes. It's required reading before departing this planet. Completely and utterly depressing, but also beautiful and beyond perfection. And did I mention that it was depressing?

Book you've bought for the cover:

Griffin & Sabine: An Extraordinary Correspondence by Nick Bantock. I'm a simple person. A parrot, a strange postcard, and a handwritten letter? Take my money. I'd frame the cover and every page of that book and hang it on my wall if I could.

Book you hid from your parents:

The Sleeping Beauty series by Anne Rice. Explaining how this was not the Disney fairytale version would have been very awkward.

Book that changed your life:

I'm sorry, but I'm going to have to break the rules and choose two books. The Belgariad series by David Eddings (I know, I know. It's a series, not a book. I'm a rebel.) and The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger.

Minutes into a date that wasn't a date, my now husband of 25 years and I geeked out over The Belgariad and our love for Aunt Pol's bacon and realized that we had met our person. So yeah, I'd say The Belgariad pretty much set the course of my life from that night forward.

The Time Traveler's Wife, meanwhile, gave me the worst book hangover. I felt so bad about Henry's death that I swore if I ever wrote a book, my main character would never die. And so I did. And it became my debut novel, Before Ever After.

Favorite line from a book:

"Time is an illusion. Lunchtime doubly so."--Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

Five books you'll never part with:

My library is mostly digital because dust and I are not friends--but allergies be damned, I will never say goodbye to the storybooks my kids insisted that my husband and I read to them on repeat. Goodnight Moon (Margaret Wise Brown), Jesse Bear, What Will You Wear? (Nancy White Carlstrom),  Disney's Mickey's Alphabet Soup (Wendy Wax), Golden Books' The Good Humor Man (Kathleen N. Daly, illustrated by Tibor Gergely), and Green Eggs and Ham will forever have a place on my bookshelf.

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

Agatha Christie's Murder on the Orient Express. I remember reading this book as a kid and having my jaw drop on the floor. There are few things I enjoy more than a plot twist that catches me completely by surprise. I live to gasp.

Diana McCaulay's sixth novel, A House for Miss Pauline, features an indomitable 99-year-old woman in rural Jamaica, trying to reconcile rights and wrongs near the end of a long life. Miss Pauline exhibits a brave honesty that endears her to readers as she wrestles with not only her own actions but centuries of wrongdoings on an island steeped in sugar and slavery. Kingston native McCaulay (Gone to Drift) evokes a rich setting through the food, climate, and other details, such as her characters' Jamaican patwa, which brings them to vibrant life.

Miss Pauline is less than a month away from her 100th birthday when the stones of her home begin to shiver, shake, whisper, and howl to her. She has lived in the village of Mason Hall in Jamaica's St. Mary parish all her life, having borne two children with her beloved (long-dead) partner, had many friends and lovers, and been an elder to the town. The village is built largely of stone salvaged from a plantation big house Miss Pauline once discovered and designated for reuse in building her own home and many other structures.

In this literal and symbolic rebuilding, she led her community in reclaiming what had been stolen: land, human lives, freedom. She is certain now that the stones are prompting her to reckon with her own life's work: community building, but also the unresolved disappearance of a white man who came to Mason Hall decades ago to challenge Miss Pauline for the ownership of her land. A House for Miss Pauline is a deeply captivating story of one complicated, admirable life and the nuanced history of Jamaica. It grapples with how people are connected to place, and how that plays a role in the concept of land ownership and responsibility. "Does the cotton tree judge her for what she did? Surely it has seen worse? How to evaluate crimes, one against the other?"

Miss Pauline turns first to her granddaughter in New York, and then enlists a local teen, Lamont, for help with the mysteries of the Internet and a smartphone. Lamont, who's alone in life, will play a role beyond research assistant for the near-centenarian, prompting consideration of what constitutes family. In her attempts to establish the future of her home and her land, Miss Pauline will also face surprises about her own history: "Maybe you have to go into the past to make the present right. Maybe the long ago is demanding something of the here and now." Thoughtful, defiant, and just, the frightened but fierce Miss Pauline is uncowed in the face of youth and change; she's a hero for readers of all backgrounds. --Julia Kastner, blogger at pagesofjulia

Shelf Talker: Near her 100th birthday, a rural Jamaican woman faces the good works and wrongdoings of her own life and her island's history in this richly written novel of vivid characters and big themes.

In 1894, Octave Uzanne published a story in Scribner's magazine titled "The End of Books," which recounts a meeting in London of "a group of book-lovers, artists, men of science and of learning" after they had attended a disturbing Royal Institute lecture at which the presenter had said that "the end of the terrestrial globe and of the human race was mathematically certain to occur in precisely ten million years."

The narrator, known as the Bibliophile, tells his companions: "I do not believe (and the progress of electricity and modern mechanism forbids me to believe) that Gutenberg's invention can do otherwise than sooner or later fall into desuetude. Printing, which since 1436 has reigned despotically over the mind of man, is, in my opinion, threatened with death by the various devices for registering sound which have lately been invented, and which little by little will go on to perfection."

The Bibliophile predicts that what we now call audiobooks, and the various ways we listen to them--will be the downfall of printed books. He anticipates a "pocket apparatus" that can be "kept in a simple opera-glass case" and make reading portable. "At home, walking, sightseeing , fortunate hearers will experience the ineffable delight of reconciling hygiene with instruction; of nourishing their minds while exercising their muscles." 

Open Culture, which recently highlighted Uzanne's story, wrote that "however striking his prescience in other respects, the Bibliophile didn't know--though Uzanne may have--that books would persist through it all."

Just before I encountered the Open Culture piece, I'd read the Bookseller's annual survey of forecasts by book trade folks, headlined: "Predictions: what lies ahead for the book trade in 2025?" 

Now while I'm really more of an adapt-and-survive kind of guy, I do have a bit of a fondness for predictions at the beginning of each year. For those people speaking to the Bookseller, "prediction" may have been an exaggeration, since much of their focus was understandably on current concerns like the influence of AI on the book trade, the ongoing power of BookTok as a sales tool, uncertainties about government support/interference, and the decline in numbers regarding children reading for pleasure. Here's a sampling of what some of them told the Bookseller:

Meryl Halls

"The new government seems to have a genuine desire to see high streets thrive," said Meryl Halls, managing director of the Booksellers Association of the U.K. & Ireland, "and has already signaled thoughtful policies around digital dominance, business rates and communities, but the transition period--especially in the rates arena--will be painful for some in the short term. Medium term, impacts on the cost of doing business from the Budget will kick in and may put the brakes on bookshop expansion, and will require booksellers to run ever faster to keep up.

"Brexit fallout will continue to make life difficult in relation to the EU, and for our Irish members, Amazon's arrival and the ongoing impact from school-book provision will continue to test the mettle of our Irish members. At the Booksellers Association, we obviously have plans to continue to advocate for bookselling as loudly as ever across government and the industry, with plans to help diversify--and drive excellence in--bookselling.

"It is likely we will see a step change in the availability in audiobook and e-books for the indie sector, which could help drive sales. In geopolitics, uncertainty will reign as the Trump presidency beds in. Hold onto your hats."

Nicole Vanderbilt

Nicole Vanderbilt, managing director of Bookshop.org UK, observed: "We predict that in 2025, indies will defy the odds once again, despite being up against even more difficult conditions.... Indie bookshops will need to find new ways to grow reader support online and off--be that through growing their digital footprint or more enhanced in-store experiences. We know they will continue to play pivotal roles in their communities and in the lives of readers."

Waterstones COO Kate Skipper said that while AI "will inevitably continue to spew out self-published drivel, we watch with interest to see how publishing can harness its power more productively."

Bloomsbury Publishing CEO Nigel Newton said, "Culture wars are certain to continue to be waged in 2025 with people making accusations of each other which are simply not true. Book publishers will have to have courage in dealing with this as it is only likely to intensify under a Trump presidency changing the world balance of power and AI spreading false information."

David Shelley, CEO of Hachette UK and Hachette Book Group, expressed "a hope rather than a prediction in 2025... that as an industry we can help encourage more people to read aloud to children and start them in the habit of reading for pleasure."

Literary agent Silé Edwards of Andrew Nurnberg Associates noted that trying to predict how 2025 will look "after the chaos that was 2024 feels unwise, but after a year of seismic shifts culturally, politically and economically I feel safe in saying that the next year for publishing will largely about seeking stability."

In "The End of Books," the Bibliophile concludes with this bold prediction: "Be all this as it may, I think that if books have a destiny, that destiny is on the eve of being accomplished; the printed book is about to disappear. After us the last of books, gentlemen!"

Oops.