"I hope the world becomes a little more like independent bookstores. For me, one of the meaningful things about independent bookselling was always that these stores can be a little microcosm of the world you want to live in. You can champion books, and create community, and provide people with meaning, and education, and connection. I think back to my time working in stores, and some of the moments that stand out are the customers who shared that a book we sold them changed their life. Or that the bookstore was the place they came to on a really really bad day. Or they wanted to come talk to booksellers and to be in community during some big event."

Nook & Nowhere, a bookstore, bar, and cafe, has opened in Louisville, Ky., the Courier Journal reported.

The bookstore, which debuted on February 13, resides in a 2,200-square-foot space at 1149 Shelby St. and has an opening inventory of a few hundred titles. Owners Nicole Stipp and Kaitlyn Soligan Owens plan to grow that inventory in the months ahead while adding used titles. They also donate $1 from every book sold at Nook & Nowhere to the Louisville Free Public Library.

Nook & Nowhere is in the space that previously housed Trouble Bar, which Soligan Owens and Stipp also owned. They closed the bar late last year and announced their plans for the new bookstore, bar, and cafe, earlier this year.

Last month they told Louisville Business First that initially they'd been looking for another location for a business with a daytime concept. But after considering the success that Trouble Bar had with book events over the past few years, they decided to make use of the space already available to them.

The store's alcohol offerings include some drinks and cocktails that were especially popular at Trouble Bar, and the cafe serves drip coffee, espresso-based beverages, and an assortment of food items.

So far, Soligan Owens told the Courier Journal, the community response has been "so overwhelmingly positive."

Semicolon Books in Chicago, Ill., has launched a crowdfunding campaign to add a cafe to the nonprofit bookstore, the Tribe reported.

Owner Danielle Moore is looking to raise $25,000 by Sunday, March 16. So far, the Kickstarter campaign has already brought in more than $15,000. Money raised will go toward renovation and design work, buying coffee equipment, permits and licensing fees, hiring and training a cafe team, sourcing coffee beans, and other expenses. Backer rewards include bookmarks, mini-bags of coffee, placards featuring supporters' names, and more.

Earlier this year, Moore announced that she would be closing both Semicolon locations, with the Magnificent Mile store closing last month. The cafe, which will be called Junction Cafe, will open in the West Town location at 1355 W. Chicago Ave., and Moore hopes that it will allow the store to remain open.

Moore told Tribe that the cafe will be employee-owned and that the idea for it came from one of her team members. And after posting about the idea on social media, Kickstarter actually reached out to her.

Moore explained that while she was hesitant to go the crowdfunding route, she eventually was persuaded by her team and representatives from Kickstarter. Should the Kickstarter fail to reach its goal, she plans to continue with closing the bookstore.

"If it works, that's great," Moore said. "We can stay. We can create this coffee shop venture that is going to be employee-owned, so it's going to give the team--who deserves ownership--ownership."

She added that she's been heartened by the support the store has received, particularly by other independent booksellers in Chicago. "It was the outpouring from the Chicago booksellers. The Chicago booksellers are special. The indie booksellers in Chicago are special, and they're different. So it was just seeing the outpouring of love from them."

Womrath Bookshop in downtown Bronxville, N.Y., will close permanently at the end of the month. In a message to customers, Morin Bishop, who owns the store with Barbara Bishop, said the store has reached a point where "the cost of remaining in business--including a 37% increase in our rent--as well as the substantial debt we have taken on in our efforts to survive, has created a simply unsustainable situation." The Bishops bought the store in 2019.

Bishop added that the store has "struggled mightily" in recent years to find solutions to its financial difficulties, but several promising options were rendered "unworkable."

The store's last day in business will be February 28, and Womrath will stop accepting special orders today, February 20. Bishop encouraged customers to continue shopping through the end of the month, saying that sales will help cover a number of closing expenses and the store "still [has] many wonderful books in stock."

He noted too that although the future of the space at 76 Pondfield Rd. remains unclear, "there is a chance that the ultimate disposition will include book sales as a continuing part of the operation here. Here's hoping that's the case. Bronxville needs a bookstore!"

Womrath Bookshop has operated in Bronxville for 87 years. In the 1930s, Womrath had some 50 stores in the New York metropolitan area whose main business was renting books. Over time, especially with the expansion of paperbacks, the rental business declined, and in 1947 the company sold its stores as franchises to focus on distribution. In 2016, Womrath's Bookstore, Tenafly, N.J., closed, and we believe the Bronxville store is the last Womrath.

Mahmoud Muna (l.) and Ahmad Muna

Publisher Saqi Books has launched a GoFundMe campaign to support the Educational Bookshop in Jerusalem, which was raided recently by Israeli police, who arrested the owners and confiscated books from their store, the Bookseller reported.

Mahmoud Muna and his nephew Ahmad Muna, who are Palestinian, were released under house arrest on February 11, two days after their  arrest. They were initially charged with "inciting and supporting terrorism" and then for "disturbing the public order" during the interrogation.

The crowdfunding campaign has already exceeded its goal, raising almost £30,000 (about $37,740). The money will go toward replacing the books that were seized during the arrest; fixing material damages done to the bookshop; and payment to interim booksellers until Mahmoud Muna and Ahmad Muna are allowed to return to work, which could take a minimum of 20 days.

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Last Friday, police in Indian-controlled Kashmir began raiding bookstores "and seized hundreds of books linked to a major Islamic organization in the disputed region, where strict controls on the press have escalated in recent years," the Associated Press reported.

In a post on social media, the police said they acted "based on credible intelligence regarding the clandestine sale and distribution of literature promoting the ideology of a banned organization" in seizing 668 books.

Booksellers said the works were primarily published by Markazi Maktaba Islami Publishers in New Delhi, "which is affiliated with the Indian branch of one of the largest Islamic and political organizations in the Indian subcontinent, Jamaat-e-Islami Hind," the AP noted.

Several Jamaat leaders called the seizure of these books "unjust, unconstitutional and a violation of fundamental rights." In a statement, they said the seized books were legally published in New Delhi and lawfully distributed to bookstores across the region.

Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, a resistance leader in Kashmir, observed: "Policing thought by seizing books is absurd to say the least, in the time of access to all information on virtual highways."

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In Singapore, Books Kinokuniya's flagship store in Takashimaya Shopping Centre on Orchard Road is downsizing after rental negotiations with landlord Toshin Development, the Straits Times reported, adding that it was "unclear at the moment what percentage of the 38,000 sq ft store will be returned to the landlord."

In a statement, the company said that "challenges are ever present for book retailers. Our Singapore main store continues to evolve while remaining true to our core values, offering an extensive collection of quality titles housed in a pleasant ambience."

Toshin Development noted that Books Kinokuniya will "refine its book collection while incorporating a lifestyle element." The changes will include a new cafe not tied to the bookstore chain. --Robert Gray

British author Geoff Nicholson, "whose work examined the links between emotions, behavior, and location, notably in his novel Bleeding London," died January 18, the Guardian reported. He was 71. In 2014, Londoners and visitors were asked to follow the book’s main character Stuart London and walk the entire 58,000 streets of the A to Z. An exhibition was later held at City Hall and prompted imitation by camera enthusiasts elsewhere in Europe. 

Geoff Nicholson

Nicholson published 17 novels, 10 works of nonfiction, many short stories and anthology contributions, and several popular blogs. "His surreal, complex and sometimes transgressive comedies were only erratically successful from a commercial point of view," though his third novel, What We Did on Our Holidays, was adapted into the 2007 film Permanent Vacation. 

His early books include Street Sleeper, Bedlam Burning, and Day Trips to the Desert, but Nicholson "did not capitalize on these early successes and remained... something of an outsider, at least in the U.K.. But his work attracted a cult following, nowhere more so than in Los Angeles, where he lived and worked between 2006 and 2018," the Guardian noted. Other works include Footsucker and Sex Collectors, but as he got older, Nicholson turned his attention to walking, the theme of five of his last eight published works.

Shortly after he returned to Britain in 2018, Nicholson was diagnosed with a rare blood cancer. For the most part it was controlled and he "went out walking, every day, padding streets near and far. Always armed with a camera, he did his research, took photos, picked up items of interest--an unusually colored rock, a discarded magazine or an item in a junk shop that took his eye," the Guardian wrote. These observations found their way into The Suburbanist (2021).

In his final work, Walking on Thin Air: A Life's Journey in 99 Steps (2023), he wrote "candidly about his illness, although it was more a celebration of life than of mortality," the Guardian noted. "He did not expect this to be his swansong, but proved to be a prophetic subtitle."

The two most popular books in January at Reading Group Choices were Grace of the Empire State by Gemma Tizzard (Gallery Books) and What to Do When You Get Dumped: A Guide to Unbreaking Your Heart by Suzy Hopkins, illustrated by Hallie Bateman (Bloomsbury).

"It's so freaking cold outside!!!! The only appropriate activity today would be to come sit in a sunny bookstore nook and read by the fireplace. We'll be here until 6!" Rooted Books and Gifts, Grand Island, Neb., posted on Instagram.

Monica Shah is joining HarperCollins as v-p of children's sales, effective February 24. She was formerly at Abrams, most recently as v-p of sales and sales operations.

The Highly Sensitive Teen: Using Your Hidden Powers to Balance Emotions, Set Boundaries, and Embrace Who You Are by Lea Noring (New Harbinger).

Today:
Here & Now: Linda Holmes, author of Back After This: A Novel (Ballantine, $28, 9780593599259).

Fresh Air: Rich Benjamin, author of Talk to Me: Lessons from a Family Forged by History (Pantheon, $29, 9780593317396).

Tomorrow:
Good Morning America: George E. Johnson, author of Afro Sheen: How I Revolutionized an Industry with the Golden Rule, from Soul Train to Wall Street (Little, Brown, $30, 9780316577342).

Book TV airs on C-Span 2 this weekend from 8 a.m. Saturday to 8 a.m. Monday and focuses on political and historical books as well as the book industry. The following are highlights for this coming weekend. For more information, go to Book TV's website.

Sunday, February 23
10 a.m. Eve L. Ewing, author of Original Sins: The (Mis)education of Black and Native Children and the Construction of American Racism (One World, $32, 9780593243701). (Re-airs Sunday at 10 p.m.)

2 p.m. Todd Stern, author of Landing the Paris Climate Agreement: How It Happened, Why It Matters, and What Comes Next (The MIT Press, $32.95, 9780262049146), at the Harvard Book Store in Cambridge, Mass.

4 p.m. Nicol Turner Lee, author of Digitally Invisible: How the Internet Is Creating the New Underclass (‎Brookings Institution Press, $27, 9780815738985).

6:53 p.m. Luis Miranda, Jr., author of Relentless: My Story of the Latino Spirit That Is Transforming America (Grand Central, $30, 9780306833229).

Finalists have been named for the 45th annual Los Angeles Times Book Prizes, which will be awarded April 25, on the eve of the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books. See the complete list of finalists here.

The Robert Kirsch Award for lifetime achievement, which recognizes a writer whose work focuses on the American West, will be presented to Pico Iyer, who was described by Ann Binney, Times associate director of events and book prizes administrator, as "a treasure. While he travels the world, he always finds his way back to California. I have known Pico for many years, and it is such an honor to recognize him with the Robert Kirsch Award. His beautiful words sharing his own experience of loss and recovery offer us welcome comfort, especially during this time as we recover from our recent devastating wildfires." 

Poet Amanda Gorman will be honored with the Innovator's Award recognizing her work to "bring books, publishing and storytelling into the future." Times executive editor Terry Tang called Gorman "an eloquent voice for the next generation. Her skillful use of poetry to motivate, inspire and enact social change is incredibly powerful. We are thrilled to be honoring Gorman with this year's Innovator's Award and to shine a light on the work she has done--and continues to do--in promoting literacy to empower the youth to get involved."

Emily Witt will receive the Christopher Isherwood Prize for autobiographical prose for her memoir Health and Safety: A Breakdown. "Emily Witt exposes a country in the throes of ongoing trauma in a coming-of-age memoir--keenly observed, unapologetically told--that feels scarily emblematic of our life and times," the Isherwood Prize judges said.

Selected new titles appearing next Tuesday, February 25:

All or Nothing: How Trump Recaptured America by Michael Wolff (Crown, $32, 9780593735381) is an account of the Trump campaign in 2024 from the author of Fire and Fury.

Show Don't Tell: Stories by Curtis Sittenfeld (Random House, $28, 9780593446737) collects 12 new short stories.

Battle Mountain by C.J. Box (Putnam, $32, 9780593851050) is the 25th Joe Pickett thriller.

Wild Cards: House Rules: A Novel in Stories, edited by George R.R. Martin (Random House Worlds, $30, 9780593357729) contains six connected stories set in the Wild Cards sci-fi/fantasy universe.

Swordheart by T. Kingfisher (Bramble, $28.99, 9781250400222) is a romantasy about a girl with an enchanted sword.

Close Your Eyes and Count to 10 by Lisa Unger (Park Row, $30, 9780778333364) is a thriller about a deadly game of hide-and-seek on a remote island.

I'll Have What She's Having by Chelsea Handler (The Dial Press, $32, 9780593596579) contains autobiographical essays by the comedian.

One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This by Omar El Akkad (Knopf, $28, 9780593804148) is a memoir arguing that Western ideals of freedom and justice for all are mostly falsehoods.

The Folly of Realism: How the West Deceived Itself About Russia and Betrayed Ukraine by Alexander Vindman (PublicAffairs, $30, 9781541705043) examines Russia's invasion of Ukraine--from the former Lt. Colonel who testified in 2019 in the first impeachment proceedings against President Trump.

Unholy Kingdom: Religion, Corruption and Violence in Saudi Arabia by Malise Ruthven (Verso, $34.95, 9781839760105) reveals the brutal authoritarianism underlying Saudi Arabia's image of a liberalizing nation.

Waste Wars: The Wild Afterlife of Your Trash by Alexander Clapp (Little, Brown, $32, 9780316459020) digs into the global garbage trade.

The Gift of the Great Buffalo by Carole Lindstrom, illus. by Aly McKnight (Bloomsbury, $18.99, 9781547606887) is a picture book about how Indigenous families lived in the late 1800s.

Max in the Land of Lies by Adam Gidwitz (Dutton, $18.99, 9780593112113) is the sequel to Max in the House of Spies and concludes young Max Bretzfeld's personal and governmental missions.

Paperbacks:
Killing Me Soufflé: A Bakeshop Mystery by Ellie Alexander (Minotaur, $9.99, 9781250326218).

The Perfect Mismatch: A Novel by Debbie Macomber (Mira, $10.99, 9780778368496).

Eyes on Gaza: Witnessing Annihilation by Khaled A. Beydoun and Mohammad Sabaaneh (Street Noise Books, $16.99, 9781951491413).

The Charlie Method: Campus Diaries Book 3 by Elle Kennedy (Bloom Books, $17.99, 9781464219351).

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

Hardcover
We Could Be Rats: A Novel by Emily Austin (Atria Books, 9781668058145, $27.99). "In her latest novel, Austin captures the bittersweet heart of growing up and growing apart. Told over the course of Sigrid's attempts at a suicide note, Austin guides the reader though Sigrid's disenchantment with equal humor and heartbreak." --Alea Lopes, The Oxford Exchange, Tampa, Fla.

Penitence: A Novel by Kristin Koval (Celadon Books, $28.99, 9781250342997). "Penitence tells the story of a small town Colorado murder, woven with the guilt and anger of another loss from many years ago. Touching on youth incarceration, families, love, and trust, this debut makes me want to see what Kristin Koval will bring next." --Gail Dickson, The Bookstore of Glen Ellyn, Glen Ellyn, Ill.

Paperback
elseship: an unrequited affair by Tree Abraham (Soft Skull, $19.95, 9781593767853). "Tree Abraham's elseship recounts a tale of unrequited love between her and her housemate via striking prose and mixed media visuals. This book serves as both an emotional autopsy of the heart and a case study of true unconditional love." --Emma Fong, Books Inc., San Francisco, Calif.

Ages 7-10
Ten-Word Tiny Tales of Love by Joseph Coelho, illus. by Various (Candlewick, $18.99, 9781536241297). "What if you had to condense your adoration into just ten words? I absolutely love this coffee table worthy picture book with ten-word expressions of love. Stunningly illustrated by some of the best, it's a perfect gift for anyone who makes your heart sing." --Angie Tally, The Country Bookshop, Southern Pines, N.C.

Ages 8-12
Inkbound: Meticulous Jones and the Skull Tattoo by Philippa Leathley (HarperCollins, $19.99, 9780063376519). "The start of a great new fantasy series! I can't wait for the sequel!" --Chris Abouzeid, Belmont Books, Belmont, Mass.

Teen Readers
No Place Left to Hide by Megan Lally (Sourcebooks Fire, $12.99, 9781728270142). "Buckle up! You're in for a wild ride. No Place Left to Hide is a gripping thriller full of twists and turns, both figuratively and literally." --Alyssa Leibow, Beach Books, Seaside, Ore.

[Many thanks to IndieBound and the ABA!]

It's been a considerable wait for Karen Russell--author of highly praised and eclectic short story collections including St. Lucy's Home for Girls Raised by Wolves--to produce another novel since her first, Swamplandia!, was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 2012. Happily, The Antidote, a deeply imagined blend of gritty realism and alluring fantasy about the American Midwest in the Dust Bowl era, will amply reward readers for their patience.

On April 14, 1935--Black Sunday--a catastrophic "black blizzard" swept across the already beleaguered Great Plains of the United States. Russell's locus for her account of that devastating dust storm and its aftermath is the tiny fictional southwestern Nebraska town of Uz, an "ugly and uninviting place" that shares its name with Job's biblical homeland. The town, whose desperate citizens are "all in the market for miracles," is home to bachelor farmer Harp Oletsky and his 15-year-old basketball-obsessed niece, Asphodel, who becomes his ward when her mother falls victim to a serial killer terrorizing the region.

Another resident is immigrant Antonina Rossi, a "prairie witch" whose pseudonym provides the novel's title and who claims to store the memories townspeople share with her for a fee in her "Vault." They're joined by Cleo Allfrey, a young Black photographer who's been dispatched by the Roosevelt administration to document the farmers' plight in hopes of persuading Congress to fund New Deal aid programs.

Shifting among the voices of these characters, supplemented by periodic brief contributions from a sentient scarecrow, Russell exposes the scars they each bear from the events of their pasts and the hardships of daily life in a dying town. Most moving are the stories of Antonina's longing to be reunited with the son taken from her after she gave birth to him as a 15-year-old in a home for unwed mothers, and Asphodel's ache for the mother she barely knew. Russell energizes the plot with a brilliantly conceived, profoundly moving dose of magical realism involving Cleo's photography that becomes central to an effort to derail the reelection bid of Uz's corrupt sheriff and save an innocent young man from execution.

But like Cleo changing her lens from portrait to wide angle, Russell skillfully pulls back from the travails of her characters to excavate out of the formerly rich soil of this barren earth the story of how immigrants like Harp's Polish parents--fleeing German oppression in their homeland--ruthlessly displaced the Pawnee and other Native American tribes and then exploited the land in ways that set the stage for its eventual ruin. In doing so, Russell has created both a tender story of how our memories sustain us in the face of significant loss and a frank reckoning with a painful period of American history. --Harvey Freedenberg, freelance reviewer

Shelf Talker: Through the stories of four characters in a small Nebraska town, Karen Russell paints a moving and memorable portrait of the Dust Bowl era.