"Working at the Institute for Local Self-Reliance, with a broader view of small businesses and their importance, I realize just how much of a leader bookstores are in this movement. A lot of these discussions started at bookstores because we were Amazon's first victims. 

"They started by selling books, so we've known about their threat for the longest. A lot of other people have come under the tent, which is good, but I think bookstores are leaders in getting out the message of the importance of small business to communities.

"Not only did we survive Amazon, but we managed to basically start a campaign and be a crucial voice in the Buy Local movement. It's a testament to the creativity and persistence of booksellers.... Bookselling is a minefield of challenges, so it's just so much more amazing that people are doing such great work."

TBR Books & Tea will open this spring in Baton Rouge, La., the Advocate reported.

Store owner Jamie Freeman, who worked as a consultant for nonprofits prior to becoming a bookseller, has found a 2,500-square-foot space at 7276 Highland Rd. She'll carry a general-interest, all-ages inventory with a strong children's section, and the store will serve coffee, tea, and baked goods.

Freeman, a lifelong voracious reader, always dreamed of owning a bookstore. She is also the co-host of a podcast called Ink Drinkers, which features book discussions over tea. Last year she decided to take the plunge and stepped back from her previous career, and in October she found TBR's future home.

She told the Advocate that she has relied on help from her family, including even her four-year-old niece and nine-year-old nephew. After asking them for recommendations, "they both gave me lists of books they want me to stock. I just think that's adorable. The whole family is really involved!"

Freeman expects the store to be open in April.

Bookshelf on Church's current location

The Bookshelf on Church, Kilmarnock, Va., will move next month to a new location. The all-ages bookstore is relocating from 53 W. Church St. across the street to a larger space at 28 W. Church St. Owner Lisa McLaughlin noted that the new space has a better layout for events and "big, beautiful windows to let the sunshine in."

McLaughlin hopes to be closed for no more than a week during the move. A grand reopening celebration will follow on April 26, Independent Bookstore Day, that will include giveaways, a scavenger hunt, and other activities.

The Bookshelf on Church sells new titles and has a two-fold mission: getting books to children and to people who are incarcerated. It made its debut as a single-shelf pop-up at a coffee shop in Irvington, Va., before opening a bricks-and-mortar space of its own in early 2024.

Coco Zephir is a bookseller at The Flying Pig Bookstore in Shelburne, Vt., a freelance writer, book reviewer, and social media manager. She sent this report about the recent Love Y'all Romance Book Fest, focusing on one of the hottest book genres.

Have you always wanted to go axe throwing with your favorite romance author? Is your dream to experience high tea with a group of historical romance authors? Then the Love Y'all Romance Book Fest was the place to be. Nestled in the heart of Decatur, Ga., Love Y'all rang in its second year with more than 700 attendees and more than 80 authors hosting events and panels. With the growing popularity of romance, events celebrating the genre have been popping up all over the country and, in my opinion, none do it better than Love Y'all.

"Five Chili Peppers" author-panelists: (from l.) moderator Laura Piper Lee, Ashley Herring Blake, Jillian Meadows, Tati Richardson, Julie Soto, and Katie Duggan.

Created by four book industry professionals--Vania Stoyanova, Preet Singh, Hannah Morgan Teachout, and Jo Schulte--the conference is held annually on Valentine's Day weekend and is packed with panels, author events, vendors, and signing lines. For conference organizer Teachout, "Love Y'all is about bringing together authors, independent bookstores, and the readers who make it all possible in one space to celebrate love, a fitting theme for Valentine's."

As a bookseller, I was drawn to this conference because of the organizers' experience as booksellers themselves. At the heart of the conference are four local independent bookstores, Brave and Kind Bookshop, Decatur; Read It Again Books, Suwanee; Eagle Eye Books, Decatur; and Charis Books, Decatur, all with tables full of attending authors' books and offering signed pre-orders.

Sonora Reyes, author of The Broposal, and Julian Winters, author of I Think They Love You, kicked off the conference with the opening keynote, followed by panels and author signings. I particularly enjoyed the day one panel "Building the Multicultural Romance Canon," which was moderated by author Danica Nava and featured authors Adib Khorram, Naina Kumar, Ava Raini, Ambar Cordova, and Jessica Parra. Day two of the conference began with "Battle of the Tropes/Author Truth or Dare" and was followed by panels and author discussions. The conference closed with a lively discussion between Amalie Howard, author of The Starlight Heir, and Ali Hazelwood, author of Deep End.

As a bookseller who sells primarily romance and fantasy titles, I was able to speak with some of my all-time favorite authors, including Ali Hazelwood, Amalie Howard, Julie Soto, Danica Nava, Elizabeth Everett, Ashley Poston, Denise Williams, Julian Winters, and Constance Fay. I was also thrilled to connect with authors who were new to me, such as Sonora Reyes, TJ Alexander, Adib Khorram, Betty Corello, and Kalie Cassidy. Much like their inclusive genre, romance authors are some of the kindest, most welcoming folks I've ever met. Conference organizer Hannah Teachout has similar thoughts on the genre after the weekend: "No other crowd can match the passion of the people who read romance. And in this climate, it's more important than ever to celebrate love. It's the corner of publishing where we see hope, and inspire change, because what's more revolutionary than love, especially love found in spite of adversity?"

I left the conference with a stack of new books and new authors on my buy list. I've read two books I picked up at the conference that readers will be singing about all summer. The first is from debut author Kalie Cassidy, In the Veins of the Drowning, out in July from Little, Brown. Cassidy's book is a siren romantasy with a scorching romance and incredible pacing.

The second title is Danica Nava's sophomore romance, Love Is a War Song, which follows a Muscogee pop star after she is cancelled and must reconnect to her roots on a horse ranch in Oklahoma. It's out in July from Berkley.

If you're a bookseller or buyer looking for an immersive Romance Book Fest experience on the East Coast with some top-tier authors, then check out Love Y'all.

Felice Picano, "who in the 1970s and '80s helped usher in a golden age of gay literature as the author of groundbreaking novels and memoirs and as the publisher of dozens of books by gay writers," died March 12, the New York Times reported. He was 81.

Picano published 17 novels and eight volumes of memoirs. His first three books, including Eyes (1975), did not have gay themes or characters, but that changed with The Lure (1979) about a straight man who goes undercover in the gay world to help solve a murder. In 1995, he published an epic novel, Like People in History, which followed two cousins, one gay and one bisexual, from early childhood through middle age. 

Picano was a member of the Violet Quill, "a group of seven gay male writers who met regularly in Manhattan and on Fire Island in the early 1980s to discuss their works in progress, at a time when gay literature was just entering the mainstream," the Times wrote. Two members of the group survive him: Andrew Holleran and Edmund White. The others--Christopher Cox, Robert Ferro, Michael Grumley, and George Whitmore--died of AIDS by 1990.

Picano's 1985 memoir, Ambidextrous: The Secret Lives of Children, included a teacher who brutalized him for writing with both hands, as well as his sexual encounters with both boys and girls, starting at age 11. 

With Dr. Charles Silverstein (author, with Edmund White, of The Joy of Gay Sex in 1977), he wrote The New Joy of Gay Sex (1992) and The Joy of Gay Sex: Fully Revised and Expanded Third Edition (2003). 

Picano established Sea Horse Press in 1977 to publish the work of other gay writers. In 1981, he co-founded Gay Presses of New York. Over 18 years, the two presses released 78 books, including Harvey Fierstein's Torch Song Trilogy, Dennis Cooper's Safe and Closer, and Brad Gooch's Jailbait and Other Stories. The companies also reissued older works. 

After graduating from Queens College in 1964, Picano worked as a social worker, a magazine editor, an astrologer, and a bookseller at the Rizzoli bookstore on Fifth Avenue. "After leaving work, he would often write all night," the Times noted, adding that in addition to his books, he produced articles and reviews for many publications.

Of his fellow Violet Quill members, Picano recently observed: "We shared the hope that one day any lesbian or gay teenager could go into any bookstore or library and get a book about his or her own kind. Our dream has come true!"

Steve Stern, author most recently of the novel A Fool's Kabbalah (Melville House), returned to his hometown last week for a reading and signing event at Burke's Book Store, Memphis, Tenn., which is owned by his friend and fellow author Corey Mesler. 

"Lucky you! Books, stickers, cards, gifts... & more inside!" That was the St. Patrick's Day-inspired message on the sidewalk chalkboard in front of Reads & Company Bookshop, Phoenixville, Pa., which noted: "You don't have to be Irish to find the gold at the end of the reading rainbow. Stop in today to find your next treasured book."

As the NCAA basketball playoffs begin, Books on the Square, Providence, R.I., is launching "March Madness: Book Edition! Which book will sell the most this month at Books on the Square? We'll be doing something a little bit more fun on our display behind the counter. Which book do you think will be the champion?"

Joseph Montagne has been promoted to v-p and publisher of Abrams ComicArts. After eight years working in global media businesses for Média-Participations in France and Belgium, he joined Abrams ComicArts as v-p, associate publisher when Abrams established the division in 2023.

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Deborah Orgel Hudson has been named marketing and sales director of the University of Pittsburgh Press. She was formerly director of strategic engagement at Rowman & Littlefield, where she worked for 16 years.

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At Crown, George Widmer has been promoted to associate director, advertising and promotions, Potter and Ten Speed Press.

Over in the Garden by Janna Matthies, illustrated by Tisha Lee (Doubleday Books for Young Readers). The trailer's song is sung by Matthies; the trailer was created by her brother Mark Dawson.

Today:
CBS Mornings: John Green, author of Everything Is Tuberculosis: The History and Persistence of Our Deadliest Infection (Crash Course Books, $28, 9780525426059). He will also appear on Morning Joe.

Also on CBS Mornings: Michael Lewis, editor of Who Is Government?: The Untold Story of Public Service (Riverhead, $30, 9798217047802).

Fresh Air: Clay Risen, author of Red Scare: Blacklists, McCarthyism, and the Making of Modern America (Scribner, $31, 9781982141806).

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

Tomorrow:
Here and Now: Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson, authors of Abundance (Avid Reader Press, $30, 9781668023488). They will also appear on the Daily Show.

Willa Fitzgerald (Strange Darling) has been added to the cast of Paramount Pictures' film adaptation of the bestselling novel Regretting You by Colleen Hoover. Deadline reported that Josh Boone (The Fault in Our Stars) is directing and wrote the latest draft of the script. The movie hits theaters October 24.

Fitzgerald joins a cast that includes Allison Williams (Get Out, M3GAN), Dave Franco (Now You See Me, The Disaster Artist), Mckenna Grace (PAW Patrol: The Mighty Movie, Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire), and Mason Thames (Black Phone). 

Robert Kulzer is producing for Constantin Film alongside Brunson Green of Harbinger Pictures, Anna Todd of Frayed Pages Media, and Flavia Viotti. Hoover, Williams, Franco, and Grace are exec producers.

Combee: Harriet Tubman, the Combahee River Raid, and Black Freedom During the Civil War by Edda L. Fields-Black (Oxford University Press) has won the $50,000 2025 Gilder Lehrman Lincoln Prize, given to a book that "enhances the general public's understanding of Abraham Lincoln, the American Civil War soldier, or the American Civil War era."

Organizers said that Combee offers "an untold story about the Civil War and Civil War soldiers. Most readers know Harriet Tubman as the abolitionist who worked tirelessly to liberate enslaved people. Yet Tubman's work as a spy and scout for the Union Army during the Civil War has been little explored, including her role in the 1863 Combahee River Raid. The US 2nd South Carolina, a regiment of formerly enslaved men, destroyed the region's rice plantations, while nearly 800 enslaved people boarded Union ships."

The jury said, in part, that Combee "is distinguished by extraordinary research, doubly remarkable because the records of Combahee River plantations were destroyed in the raid, and most of the Black participants (including Tubman) were illiterate. Fields-Black's genius ... is to mine the veterans' testimony in Civil War pension files, poring over the claims of 150 Black men who participated, then enlisted in the United States Colored Troops, along with the claims of wives, friends, and neighbors."

In her first book, What We Value, neuroscientist Emily Falk presents a meticulously researched yet practical exploration into the science behind making decisions--how value systems shape those choices, for better or worse, and how they can be changed. By probing the scientific workings of the mind, Falk shows how the brain navigates and sorts through personal experiences and self-will.

The idea of "value calculation" (how the brain naturally weighs and deals with options based on who each person is at their core) resides at the heart of this comprehensive, easy-to-read guide. Case studies of decision-making in student groups and large swaths of people demonstrate hands-on ways to use past experiences and current needs in order to bring choice-making, in work and in relationships, into greater awareness. In one of the examples using notable people, including journalists and sports figures, Falk delineates the steps basketball superstar LeBron James took in determining whether or not to stay with his hometown team, the Cleveland Cavaliers, which had yet to win a championship.

Falk explores how people can better create a sense of value for themselves and others by deliberately and mindfully charting the nuances of decision-making in order to expand "possibilities for choosing." She examines the impacts of defensive habits, social relevance, how choices come to define a person, and the role of cultural backgrounds. All of this enables understanding how the operating systems of others can affect their personal choices and learning how to connect with those who might have differing points of view. By seamlessly melding science with identifiable personal values, motivations, and goals, Falk offers beneficial strategies to tap into reasoning patterns--with the end goals of working toward greater self-insight and fostering better communication.

Falk's organized, analytical approach is refreshingly down to earth. The many well-conceived, well-crafted storylines, case studies, and anecdotes offer diagnostic approaches that show exactly how decisions and choices are made amid the stressors of real time in daily life. Through understanding individual motivations behind decision-making and the many variables that can ultimately align toward bigger-picture goals and values, Falk empowers readers to make more consciously attuned choices. -- Kathleen Gerard, blogger at Reading Between the Lines

Shelf Talker: A thoroughly researched, empowering examination about how the brain--along with personal, societal, and cultural influences--affects decision-making.