"We regret that we are currently unable to accept or ship orders to the US, while we establish options to be compliant with the new tariffs."

The American Booksellers Association "strongly opposes any potential acquisition of TikTok by Amazon," CEO Allison Hill wrote in a letter yesterday to the Justice Department. She urged the Department "to thoroughly investigate any proposal involving Amazon acquiring TikTok and to take decisive action to block it, should it arise. Preserving TikTok as an independent platform is essential to maintaining a competitive landscape in e-commerce, bookselling, and beyond, ensuring that consumers and businesses alike benefit from a diverse, dynamic, and fair marketplace."

Amazon has been named one of the potential suitors for TikTok, which by law needs to be shut down if it continues to be Chinese-owned. Vice President JD Vance said a plan would be announced tomorrow, according to the New York Times. Yesterday President Trump said the administration is close to a deal with "a very good group of people." That deal, the Times continued, may involve spinning TikTok into a new company that would include U.S. investors such as private equity and venture capital firms Blackstone, Andreessen Horowitz, and Silver Lake.

But Amazon is still interested. If the company prevails, the effect on the book world would be highly detrimental, Hill stated. She wrote, "Amazon's market share in the bookselling industry makes it, by any antitrust standard, a monopoly. An Amazon takeover of TikTok would prevent a fair market, deter healthy competition and innovation, and further entrench Amazon's monopoly power to the detriment of consumers, competition, and innovation. Amazon already has a chokehold on e-commerce--controlling a substantial share of online retail and dominating the bookselling market--and cloud computing and digital advertising--creating a sprawling network that competitors struggle to challenge."

"If Amazon were to acquire TikTok, it would not only eliminate its emerging rival--TikTok is a formidable player in e-commerce, empowering creators and small businesses to reach consumers directly--but also control TikTok's vast user data and algorithms, integrating it all into Amazon's existing operations. This would amplify Amazon's ability to manipulate markets, lock in customers, and squeeze out competitors--particularly in e-commerce, where TikTok's influence is expanding, and in bookselling, where Amazon could leverage TikTok's platform and its 'BookTok' community to tighten its stranglehold on the book industry. The long-term result will mean fewer choices for consumers, decline in sales for small businesses, and a loss in sales tax revenue and jobs for communities.

"Since the entire book industry is dependent on TikTok to drive sales and attract readers--and many independent bookstores rely on TikTok for their businesses to connect with readers, promote titles, and drive sales--an Amazon takeover of TikTok would force independent bookstores to allow their main competitor access to their analytics or to abandon an important and growing market channel. Moreover, Amazon would control the algorithms, prioritizing their own books or partnerships while de-prioritizing their competitors such as independent bookstores. Amazon's further monopolization of the book market would not only potentially increase prices for consumers as it does with any competitors, but it would also give too much power over authors and readers to a single corporation, reducing the range of books available and consumers' choice."

The letter is addressed to Abigail Slater, Assistant Attorney General for the Antitrust Division of the Justice Department, whose appointment was confirmed last month. Before that, she served as economic policy adviser to then-Senator JD Vance and was on the National Economic Council during the first Trump administration. She also worked as an antitrust lawyer at the Federal Trade Commission for 10 years as well as at law firm Freshfields, Fox Corporation, and Roku.

The Book Haus in New Braunfels, Tex., which closed in 2023, will reopen later this month. The Herald-Zeitung reported that owner Sabrina Caldwell plans to host a grand reopening celebration in its new location at 344 Landa Street on Saturday, April 26, Independent Bookstore Day.

"I'm [looking forward] to just getting back in the community, bringing books to people. It's nice just being able to interact with people," she said, adding that Indie Bookstore Day "is such an important [day] for bookstores, especially independent bookstores, because it [raises] awareness of supporting independent bookstores and showing what we can do for the community, how we give back. It's also supposed to be bigger than that... it's supposed to show that if you support a small business, like an independent bookstore, we can help the community, whereas if you buy books off of Amazon, you're supporting somebody who doesn't even help the community."

The Book Haus will primarily offer used books, along with a selection of popular and new titles as well as works by local authors. "That's always one of the fun things that we try to do," Caldwell said. "We try to have local authors out and support them, do anything we can to help them succeed."

The Book Haus opened in 2018 and closed two years ago when Caldwell's family moved away from New Braunfels.

"We were able to give back to the community--we had a great following," Caldwell recalled. "But then, our family decided we were going to move away for a little bit. We thought we were going to move permanently, but we were gone a year, basically, and I was like, 'Nope, I want to go back to New Braunfels.' "

After the move, she said many people asked her about reopening the store, and eventually she decided: "I'm gonna do it--I'm gonna see what happens." 

The crisis in reading for pleasure among children is dominating discussions at this week's Bologna Children's Book Fair, "with a focus on shorter books and illustrated titles for younger readers to help address the issue, as well as a call for pan-industry action," the Bookseller reported.

Noting that Bologna is "a time to celebrate the breadth of children's talent," Cally Poplak, managing director and publisher of HarperCollins Children's Books and Farshore, cautioned: "This year, I don't think we can ignore the reading crisis in our market.... I'm looking forward to discussing with publishers worldwide solutions to these challenges to ensure we have a passionate audience of readers of all ages for our authors and illustrators for years to come."

Claire Wilson, RCW agent and president of the U.K. Association of Authors' Agents, added: "Children's publishers are always champions of reading across any format. The message I am hearing is that for readers of any age, meeting them where they are is the key. If attention spans are shorter and reading confidence has dropped, it is our job to create books that will appeal in that context, so we don't lock a generation of readers out of the chance to discover the life-changing power of reading."

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Miriam Robinson (photo: Laura Edwards)

Miriam Robinson has been appointed head of strategy at the Booksellers Association of the U.K. & Ireland, effective June 5. She will succeed Alan Staton, who is retiring after more than 20 years with the BA. The Bookseller reported that Robinson began her book world career 17 years ago as a bookseller at Foyles' flagship store on Charing Cross Road. Since leaving Foyles in 2014 and embarking on a freelance career, she has worked with publishers and literary organizations as a marketer, brand consultant, creative facilitator, event chair, and programmer. 

BA managing director Meryl Halls said: "I couldn't be more thrilled to be welcoming Miriam to the BA team. She's someone I've worked with and admired for many years, and we are very excited to bring her unique skill set to our work with booksellers across the U.K. and Ireland. Miriam already knows the industry, knows many of our members and is a highly respected and influential player in our trade. I know she will bring her trademark energy, rigor, creative thinking and compassion to the role and, while we will take a long time to stop missing Alan Staton, from whom Miriam takes over in June, I can think of no one better qualified to do so."

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A maple-leaf bookmark initiative has been launched by a group of independent Canadian publisher-distributors to give booksellers a way to let customers know which books are Canadian-authored, Quill & Quire reported, adding that the design is simple: a white bookmark with a red maple leaf and the words "Canadian author" above.

Nimbus publisher Terrilee Bulger said Jim Lorimer of Lorimer Books first saw the bookmarks at indie bookstore Cedar Canoe Books, Huntsville, Ont., over the holidays. The bookshop has been using them to identify Canadian-authored titles for more than two years.

Lorimer "noticed just how good it looked," Bulger said, "and how well the books stood out over the other books--that they were obviously Canadian--so then when we were trying to think of a way for bookstores to be able to do the same thing as grocery stores to flag Canadian products, this was the idea that he brought forward, because it was just so effective at showing what books are actually from here." --Robert Gray

Alma Lee, a "passionate reader and champion of Canadian literature" who founded the Vancouver Writers Fest, died March 28, Quill & Quire reported. She was 84. Born in Edinburgh, Scotland, Lee immigrated to Canada in 1967 and launched her career in the book world in 1971 at House of Anansi Press, where she became general manager.

Alma Lee

Lee went on to build literary organizations in Canada. She was the first executive director of the Writers' Union of Canada, which she helped found in 1973, and was founding executive director of the Writers' Trust of Canada, Q&Q noted. She moved to British Columbia in 1984, where she launched the Vancouver Writers Fest four years later with the help of literary friends and colleagues. 

Lee ran the festival for 17 years, retiring in 2005, though she remained an ambassador for the festival and provided "guidance and insight," the organization posted on social media, adding: "A lifelong advocate for arts and culture who founded multiple pillars of Canada's literary community, Alma was an esteemed leader and friend, whose vision and dedication put Vancouver on the literary map.... There are few people who have made as great an impact on the Canadian literary world as Alma Lee. Her legacy lives on in the form of enduring funding, support, and stages for countless writers from coast to coast.... Alma will be deeply missed and lovingly remembered by her family, friends, peers, mentees, and the literary community at large. She has touched the lives of tens of thousands of readers and writers, and her impact will continue to shape many future generations."

Author Margaret Atwood, who worked with Lee in the 1970s to help form the Writers' Union of Canada, told CBC News: "She was absolutely essential to the writers' union and she founded the Readers and Writers Festival in Vancouver. These things all take a lot of work and a lot of networking, and she was very good at that.... Nobody knew anything about contracts at that time. We didn't know what was supposed to be in them. There weren't any agents.... Those were some of our problems, and that's why we formed the union and Alma was the person who organized it all and kept everything going."

Lee was named a member of the Order of Canada in 2004 for her work as "a passionate and effective champion of Canadian authors."

This past week, Shelf Awareness sent our monthly pre-order e-blast to more than 940,000 of the country's best book readers. The e-blast went to 944,439 customers of 265 participating independent bookstores.

The mailing features 11 upcoming titles selected by Shelf Awareness editors and a sponsored title. Customers can buy these books via "pre-order" buttons that lead directly to the purchase page for the title on each sending store's website. A key feature is that bookstore partners can easily change title selections to best reflect the tastes of their customers and can customize the mailing with links, images and promotional copy of their own.

The pre-order e-blasts are sent the last Wednesday of each month; the next will go out on Wednesday, April 30. Stores interested in learning more can visit our program registration page or contact our partner program team via e-mail.

For a sample of the March pre-order e-blast, see this one from Anderson's Bookshops, Naperville, Ill.

The titles highlighted in the pre-order e-blast were:

The Emperor of Gladness by Ocean Vuong (Penguin Press)
My Name Is Emilia del Valle by Isabel Allende (Ballantine)
Fever Beach by Carl Hiaasen (Knopf)
Run for the Hills by Kevin Wilson (Ecco)
Never Flinch by Stephen King (Scribner)
Old School Indian by Aaron John Curtis (Zando/Hillman Grad Books)
Hidden Nature by Nora Roberts (St. Martin's)
Harmattan Season by Tochi Onyebuchi (Tor)
My Friends by Fredrik Backman (Atria)
Chaos King (Infinity Alchemist #2) by Kacen Callender (Tor Teen)
Fearless (The Powerless Trilogy #3) by Lauren Roberts (Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers)

Author Jefferson Fisher visited Brazos Bookstore in Houston, Tex., for a signing event for his book The Next Conversation (Tarcher). Some 300 people lined up around the store and down the block to attend. Pictured: (from l.) Brazos staffers Kateri Gutierrez, Amy Shaughnessy, Jefferson Fisher, general manager Randi Null, and Jeffrey Merino.

Barnes & Noble has chosen Rabbit Moon by Jennifer Haigh (Little, Brown) as its April national book club pick. In a live virtual event on Tuesday, May 6, at 3 p.m. Eastern, Haigh will be in conversation with Lexie Smyth, category manager for fiction at B&N.

B&N described the book this way: "Set against the backdrop of the bustling and unforgiving streets of Shanghai, Lindsay--the daughter of divorced parents and confidant of her adopted Chinese-born sister, Grace--finds herself the victim of a drunk driving accident that leaves her comatose. Told throughout various points in time, we learn the messy family history that Lindsay sought to escape. Unfortunately, where she found herself was no safe haven. Harrowing, tender and poignant--Haigh's newest novel is sure to carve out a space in readers' hearts as well as their bookshelves."

Click here to join the May 6 event.

The two most popular books in March at Reading Group Choices were A Girl Within a Girl Within a Girl by Nanda Reddy (Zibby Publishing) and When We Grow Up by Angelica Baker (Flatiron Books).

Simon & Schuster has begun distribution to the book market of UDON Entertainment, which previously had a book market distribution arrangement with Diamond Book Distributors. Simon & Schuster is handling new releases and backlist titles for all UDON books for the book trade worldwide (where licenses permit). For comic book specialty retailers, aka the direct market, UDON Entertainment titles will also be available through Lunar Distribution, Universal Distribution, and Diamond Comics Distribution.

UDON Entertainment publishes art books, manga, and graphic novels, featuring some of the most iconic properties in gaming, anime, and pop culture, including Street Fighter, Mega Man, Monster Hunter, Persona, Elden Ring, Dark Souls, Bloodborne, Evangelion, The Rose of Versailles, Fate, Atelier Ryza, Manga Biographies, and many more.

UDON chief of operations Erik Ko said, "With this new partnership we are aiming to enhance the availability and accessibility of our many titles, to ensure readers can easily find their favorite UDON books on bookstore shelves. We would also like to thank Diamond Book Distributors and their hardworking crew for all of the support they have offered us for the past 20 years, helping us secure a solid footing in the book market."

Michael Perlman, senior v-p of Simon & Schuster Publishing Services, said, "We're delighted to be working with UDON Entertainment to expand their reach and connect with more consumers around the world."

Our Food Grows by Sarah M. White, illustrated by Tessa Gibbs (the Collective Book Studio).

Apple TV+ has greenlighted The Husbands, based on Holly Gramazio's bestselling 2024 debut novel and starring Juno Temple (Ted Lasso, Fargo), Deadline reported. Miriam Battye (Succession, Beef) is lead writer for the eight-episode series from A24, and lead director is Craig Gillespie (Your Friends & Neighbors, Pam & Tommy).

"The Husbands, with Temple attached, has been percolating for awhile," Deadline noted. "On a parallel track to its series order coming together over the past couple of months, Temple also has been negotiating her return to another Apple TV+ series, hit comedy Ted Lasso, with producing studio Warner Bros. TV." 

Irish publisher Bullaun Press won the Republic of Consciousness Prize for small presses in the U.K. and Ireland for Gaëlle Bélem's There's a Monster Behind the Door, translated from French by Karen Fleetwood and Laëtitia Saint-Loubert, the Guardian reported. 

Judge Houman Barekat called the book a "rollicking, sardonic picaresque. The novel has important things to say about colonialism and society, but it's also tremendous fun--darkly funny, acerbic, energetic." Judge Jude Cook described it as "a compact, comic tour-de-force. It interrogates postcolonial legacies, domestic abuse and a young girl's rite of passage into adulthood with the lightest of touches." 

Bélem's "tragi-comedy novel disrupts the tired trope of the trauma novel and is equally brutal in its critique of postcolonial narratives," said judge Alice Jolly. "The writing is lively, supple and vigorous. The work of the translators who have brought this book to English-speaking audiences must also be celebrated."

All longlisted presses received £500 (about $655) each. The shortlisted presses were awarded an additional £1,000 (about $1,310) each, with 70% going to the press and 30% to the writer and translator.

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Winners have been named for this year's Christopher Awards, which celebrate writers, producers, directors, authors, and illustrators whose work "affirms the highest values of the human spirit" and reflects the Christopher motto, "It's better to light one candle than to curse the darkness." The winners are:

Books for Adults:
American Mother by Colum McCann with Diane Foley (Etruscan Press) 
The Boys of Riverside by Thomas Fuller (Doubleday)
Grieving Room by Leanne Friesen (Broadleaf Books/1517 Media)
I Can Fix This by Kristina Kuzmič (Viking)
Tears of Gold by Hannah Rose Thomas (Plough Publishing House)
Time to Thank by Steve Guttenberg (Post Hill Press/Simon & Schuster) 

Books for Young People:
Manoli the Greek Mouse by George Psomas, illustrated by Penny Serrano (preschool & up, Mascot Books)
Small Things Mended by Casey W. Robinson, illustrated by Nancy Whitesides (kindergarten & up, Rocky Pond Books/Penguin Young Readers)
Grace Heard a Whisper by Kathy Izard, illustrated by Aniella Ernández (six & up, Grace Press).
Dive Deep: 40 Days with God at Sea by Sister Orianne Pietra René Dyck, FSP, illustrated by Romi Caron (eight & up, Pauline Books and Media)
Untangling Hope by Johnna Stein (YA, Promise686)
The Ballerina of Auschwitz by Edith Eva Eger, with Esmé Schwall (YA, Atheneum/S&S Children’s Publishing), 

photo: Can Etrogan

Mary G. Thompson is the author of The Word, Flicker, Mist, and other novels for children and young adults, and the contemporary adult thriller Amy Chelsea Stacie Dee. Her short fiction has appeared in Dark Matter magazine, Apex magazine, and others. Thompson attended the University of Oregon School of Law and practiced law for seven years, including five years in the U.S. Navy JAGC, and now works as a law librarian. She holds an MFA in Writing for Children from the New School and completed the UCLA School of Theater, Film & Television's Professional Program in Screenwriting. She lives in Washington, D.C. Her sci-fi novella One Level Down (Tachyon Publications, April 1) explores identity autonomy in a story about a resourceful woman who risks death from a simulated word.

Handsell readers your book in 25 words or less:

Have you ever felt like you're in a terrible simulated universe that you want to escape? Then this book is for you!

On your nightstand now:

We Lived on the Horizon by Erika Swyler. I'm only halfway through, but I love the choice of characters who are the entrance point for the story.

Favorite book when you were a child:

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum. My favorite part about the Oz books is that unlike in the movie, the fantasy world is 100% real and taken seriously. Dorothy eventually moves to Oz permanently! That was my dream!

Your top five authors:

Greg Bear because he was probably my introduction to sci-fi as a kid. I'll never forget reading Eon and Eternity--they changed my life! Greg Egan because he's not afraid to challenge his readers. I never understand everything, but it's always worth trying. Diana Wynne Jones because Archer's Goon and Witch Week absolutely blew my mind when I was in middle school. And her work still holds up as original and unique. Frances Hardinge, who is one of the most original YA writers working today. Terry Pratchett has to make the list for sheer number of his books I've read!

Book you've faked reading:

Not a thing! I would never do this.

Book you're an evangelist for:

Here Be Monsters! by Alan Snow. This is the book the animated movie The Boxtrolls was based on. Read the book instead! And its sequel, Worse Things Happen at Sea! The humor in these books is right up my alley.

Book you've bought for the cover:

I'm not sure about this, but I'll take the opportunity to plug one of my favorite graphic novels, Elmer by Gerry Alanguilan. This book is about a world where the chickens suddenly become sentient. Seriously, you just have to read it.

Book you hid from your parents:

I never had to hide books from my parents, but my grandmother once tried to convince my dad to take Horses of Heaven by Gillian Bradshaw away from me. I guess she thought that based on the title, it must have sex in it. I don't remember whether it did or didn't! Fortunately, my dad thought that was a dumb idea.

Book that changed your life:

Outrun the Dark by Cecilia Bartholomew. It was a thriller about a young woman who was just released from an institution she'd been confined in because of a murder she allegedly committed as a child. I read this book as a kid and have taken it with me everywhere. It probably helped inspire me to write my contemporary thrillers.

Favorite line from a book:

"The universe is the way it is, whether we like it or not." --from the preface to A Universe from Nothing by Lawrence Krauss. This is one of those seminal popular science books that everyone should read.

Five books you'll never part with:

In addition to Horses of Heaven (1991)--just because it makes me giggle that my grandma wanted to ban it--and Outrun the Dark (1977): Waverly Place by Susan Brownmiller (1989) was another one that stuck with me as a kid that I take with me everywhere. It's about domestic abuse, and if you want to know what kind of kid likes this stuff, I don't know--I can't help you! Making Half Whole is a YA book by Terry Wolfe Phelan (1985), which is about a girl who befriends a pair of twins, one of whom needs a kidney transplant. I recently dug it out of my storage unit and said, "I have to take this home with me." I'll add in Gnomon by Nick Harkaway (2017) as a modern selection because when you spend so much time reading something, you have to keep it!

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

Witch Week by Diana Wynne Jones. It has a message that really blew me away at the time.

What are a few other books you've recently read and loved?

Unity by Elly Bangs. This is a really well-constructed post-apocalyptic sci-fi thriller that blew me away. Grey Dog by Elliott Gish, a historical horror novel with a distinct perspective. Doors of Sleep by Tim Pratt, a fun sci-fi adventure. Life and Death on Mars by Edward M. Lerner, a realistic near-future story. And I can't leave without mentioning The Blueprint by Rae Giana Rashad, which is an alternate history in which the U.S. has a modern version of slavery. These are just a few of the books I've read recently--there are too many to name!

Written amid one of the world's worst pandemics in a century and published in the wake of catastrophic California wildfires, journalist Lizzie Wade's Apocalypse widens the lens to describe vividly how multiple societies have experienced massive upheavals and have emerged altered in sometimes unexpected ways. Combining extensive research and reporting with some speculative digressions, Wade travels from prehistoric Europe to the contemporary West for stories of extreme hardship and humankind's response to it.

Wade, a correspondent for Science, defines "apocalypse" as a "rapid, collective loss that fundamentally changes a society's way of life and sense of identity." It can be triggered by climate change, disease, and foreign invasion. In her view, "apocalypses are not endings. They are transformations," a perspective that makes them more fascinating objects of study than catastrophic, but localized, natural disasters.

With these criteria as her touchstones, representative of Wade's portraits is that of the Neanderthals, who occupied the earth for some 350,000 years before disappearing around 40,000 years ago. She describes recent discoveries that may remove some of the pejorative quality attached to their name and goes on to explain how radiocarbon dating has revealed their potential contact with Homo sapiens over a period of up to 5,400 years. After summarizing these investigations, she suggests that "we might give ourselves and our ancestors the gift of imagining a different kind of story about the apocalypse of their extinction," and then proceeds to do so in a creative but realistic sounding description of a possible encounter between tribes of Neanderthals and Homo sapiens.

Among the other epochal changes with radically different outcomes that Wade describes are those affecting a region known as Doggerland, once occupied by tribes of hunter-gatherers and now submerged below the North Sea; the demise from persistent drought of the thriving city of Harappa, once the center of the Indus River Valley civilization in what is today Pakistan's Punjab region; and the scourge of the Black Death that wiped out 30%-60% of the population of Europe and simultaneously laid the foundation for the Renaissance. She devotes considerable attention to the fall of the Aztec civilization in the 1520s and to the evidence of its existence that survives beneath the streets of modern Mexico City, where she lives. It's only one of the admiring descriptions she offers of the work of contemporary archeologists, who are among the heroes of her story.

One comes away from Apocalypse with mingled feelings of empathy for all the suffering--both self-inflicted and imposed from outside--that humanity has endured over the millennia and of admiration for the resilience we have shown in the face of it. Lizzie Wade has done an impressive job recounting some of these stories. ---Harvey Freedenberg, freelance reviewer

Shelf Talker: Science journalist Lizzie Wade takes readers on a tour of cataclysmic change and the transformations it engenders.