Petals & Pages, a flower shop and bookstore, opened earlier this month in Custer, S.Dak, KOTA reported. 

The bookstore emerged out of a nearly 40-year-old business called Jenny's Floral, which Petals & Pages owner Carrie Moore purchased in 2022. Moore has moved, renamed, and expanded the business; it now resides at 21 N. Fourth St. and carries bouquets, gifts and decor items, along with new and used books. Moore also hosts floral classes, which is something Jenny's Floral has done for a long time.

Moore, who has been a florist for nearly a decade, told KOTA that before working at Jenny's, she was a regular customer who often hung out at the shop. The owner "was going on a trip, and she said, 'Hey, if you wouldn't mind working for me for the summer, get you trained so you can be here while I go on this trip that would be great.' I ended up just really liking it," Moore recalled.

She decided to add books because she felt that the community needed a bookstore, and "being able to bring that to Custer and my customers makes me feel really good."

Plenty Downtown Bookshop's new location

Plenty Downtown Bookshop, Cookeville, Tenn., has moved across the street from its previous location, doubling in size. Founded in 2022 as Plenty on Spring, the store moved in 2023 because of flooding problems and changed its name. The nonprofit bookstore is owned by Lisa and Dave Uhrik and Ashley Michael. The Uhriks also own Franklin Fixtures, the major supplier of display shelves and fixtures to independent bookstores and specialty retailers in North America.

The store quickly outgrew the second location, and what Lisa Uhrik called her "dream space" became available across the street. The new location, with lovely fixtures, is in a building where her great aunts used to work.

The Uhriks and Ashley Michael aim to continue their commitment to improving literacy and elevating book culture in the region. Plenty Downtown Bookshop hosted more than 400 events last year and recently partnered with a local winery, Delmonaco, to host Wine & Words. The book fair for grownups featured 20 authors and attracted more than 500 guests for a weekend of books, panels, and mixing wine and the power of the written word. Plenty has also donated thousands of books to the community, with books going to an expanding network of little book libraries, other nonprofit organizations, and local schools.

Sulfur Books will host a grand re-opening celebration at its new location, 2 West Main St., on Independent Bookstore Day this Saturday, April 26. The Rochester Democrat & Chronicle reported that Sulfur Books "is saying goodbye to the iconic black-and-white 'Book Store' mosaic tiles" that once marked the entryway to its former East Main St. location, which "has been home to local bookshops in the area for over 140 years."

Bookstore manager Sarah Butler said Sulfur Books opened there in 2019, but ultimately the shop outgrew the location and needed to move somewhere larger and more visible for customers.

"It was a hard decision because it's bittersweet leaving. It's just hard to leave the historic location, knowing how many years it had been there," she noted, adding: "It's just important in a small town for people to have access to books. Given that things are so easily accessible online, I think that it's important for people to see the importance of in-person conversations and community building through bookstores versus just relying on an algorithm to kind of provide you with content."

Sulfur Books is owned and managed by Main Street Arts, a nonprofit arts organization and art gallery in Clifton Springs. Anne Mancilla, v-p of the group's board of directors, was the owner of Explore the Bookstore, which was located in the East Main Street location before Sulfur Books moved in, the Democrat & Chronicle wrote. 

Sulfur Books is a general-interest bookstore with a selection of new and used books. Butler said the new location allows for an expanded selection of gifts and stationery products, as well as a larger space for the store's open mic nights and book clubs.

"It provides a safe place for people to share their own work," she added. "I think ultimately it comes back to community, and building community and having people feel like they have a place to go to share their thoughts and ideas."

Regarding the new store, Butler said, "It's just a stunning space. This new location is kind of iconic in itself. It's got stained glass windows right above the doorway, so it's just a very unique building."

Sam Keen, "a pop psychologist and philosopher whose bestselling book Fire in the Belly: On Being a Man urged men to get in touch with their primal masculinity and became a touchstone of the so-called men's movement of the 1990s," died March 19, the New York Times reported. He was 93.

Keen left academia in the 1960s for California, where he led self-help workshops and wrote more than a dozen books, becoming a well-known figure in the human potential movement of that era. The Times noted that during the 1970s, "he delivered lectures around the country with the mythology scholar Joseph Campbell. He also gave workshops at two of the wellsprings of the New Age: Esalen Institute in Big Sur, Calif., and Omega Institute in Rhinebeck, N.Y."

A long conversation with journalist Bill Moyers on PBS in 1991 brought him national exposure the month that Fire in the Belly was published. Keen said he had spent much of his early life trying to meet expectations about masculinity, especially those placed on him by women: "They were the audience before whom I dramatized my life, and their applause and their approval was crucial for my sense of manhood."

Fire in the Belly joined Robert Bly's Iron John (1990) as "the twin handbooks of the men's movement, a psychological response to the gains made by feminism," the Times wrote, adding that the men's movement of the 1990s might have sowed some early seeds of what became the current 'manosphere,' the world of misogynistic influencers who celebrate harassment and violence toward women."

Keen, however, embraced feminism, writing that women's liberation was "a model for the changes men are beginning to experience."

He went on to become a guru of the flying trapeze, encouraging men and women to overcome their psychological fears in his book Learning to Fly: Trapeze--Reflections on Fear, Trust, and the Joy of Letting Go (1999).

Keen was a freelance journalist earlier in his life, writing for Psychology Today and other magazines. His book To a Dancing God (1970) described his rejection of conservative Christianity and embrace of direct spiritual experience. Faces of the Enemy (1986), a study of the use of propaganda to prepare citizens for war, was made into a PBS documentary.

Mrs. Dalloway's, Berkeley, Calif., was the bookseller for W. Kamau Bell's sold-out stand-up comedy shows over six nights at Berkeley Rep's Peet's Theater. Following the hour-and-a-half performances, Bell signed books and engaged with appreciative theatergoers. Here he poses with Mrs. Dalloway's owners Eric and Jessica Green, holding Bell's books Who Is Government? The Untold Story of Public Service (Riverhead), edited by Michael Lewis and for which Bell is one of the six contributors; Do the Work!: An Antiracist Activity Book (Workman), which Bell co-authored with Kate Schatz; and The Awkward Thoughts of W. Kamau Bell: Tales of a 6' 4", African American, Heterosexual, Cisgender, Left-Leaning, Asthmatic, Black and Proud Blerd, Mama's Boy, Dad, and Stand-Up Comedian (Dutton). 

"Congratulations, Emily and Brooke, on your engagement! Thanks for letting us be part of your story. Wishing you a lifetime of happiness," Thank You Books, Birmingham, Ala., posted on Instagram.

Kathleen Quinlan has joined Little, Brown as director of marketing.

The Dalai Lama's Smile: Stories by Paula Closson Buck (Acre Books).

Today:
NPR's Here & Now: Jeanne Carstensen, author of A Greek Tragedy: One Day, a Deadly Shipwreck, and the Human Cost of the Refugee Crisis (Atria/One Signal, $28.99, 9781668083147).

Fresh Air: Steven Levitsky, co-author of How Democracies Die (Crown, $19, 9781524762940).

Tomorrow:
CBS Mornings: Tina Knowles, author of Matriarch: A Memoir (One World, $35, 9780593597408).

Good Morning America: Tika Sumpter, author of I Got It From My Mama (Genius Cat Books, $18.99, 9781962447232).

Today: Suleika Jaouad, author of The Book of Alchemy: A Creative Practice for an Inspired Life (Random House, $30, 9780593734636).

Drew Barrymore Show: Kristen Kish, author of Accidentally on Purpose (Little, Brown, $30, 9780316580915).

The View: Sen. Raphael Warnock, author of We're in This Together: Leo's Lunch Box (Philomel, $19.99, 9780593691526).

Watch What Happens Live: Paige DeSorbo, co-author of How to Giggle: A Guide to Taking Life Less Seriously (Simon Element/S&S, $28.99, 9781668056004).

CNN's the Lead with Jake Tapper: David Zweig, author of An Abundance of Caution: American Schools, the Virus, and a Story of Bad Decisions (The MIT Press, $39.95, 9780262549158).

Jimmy Kimmel Live: Danny Ricker, author of Wow, You Look Terrible!: How to Parent Less and Live More (Hyperion Avenue, $26.99, 9781368110914).

The first full trailer has been released for The Life of Chuck, writer-director Mike Flanagan's "latest feature take on Stephen King material Gerald's Game (2017) and Doctor Sleep (2019), this taken from the pages of the horrormeister's 2020 novella If It Bleeds," Deadline reported. 

The cast includes Chiwetel Ejiofor, Karen Gillan, Matthew Lillard, Carl Lumbly, Benjamin Pajak, Jacob Tremblay, and Heather Langenkamp, with Nick Offerman as the narrator. The Life of Chuck hits theaters June 6 via Neon, which acquired the film at the Toronto International Film Festival, where it won the People's Choice Award.

Susie Taylor is the winner of the BMO Winterset Award for her short story collection, Vigil. In celebration of the prize's 25th anniversary, a one-time nonfiction prize was introduced and awarded to co-authors Lisa Moore and Jack Whalen for their book, Invisible Prisons.

Celebrating excellence in Newfoundland and Labrador writing, the BMO Winterset Award presented C$12,500 (about US$9,030) for each of the winning books. The two finalists were given C$3,000 (about US$2,170) each: Sara Power for fiction (Art of Camouflage) and Ashleigh Matthews for nonfiction (Otherwise Grossly Unremarkable).

Freya Sampson's witty, warmhearted fourth novel, The Busybody Book Club, follows an ill-assorted group of avid readers with strong literary opinions who are determined to save their beloved community center--and maybe solve a murder (or two) in the process. Sampson (The Last Chance Library; Nosy Neighbors) paints a quirky, nuanced picture of small-town English life, replete with archetypes who turn out to be much more complex than they first appear.

The motley members of a book club in St. Tredock, Cornwall, are stunned when the newest among them, Michael, sprints out of a meeting and then disappears--along with £10,000 in cash meant to fund the community center's much-needed new roof. But transplanted Londoner Nova, the book club chair, may have left the door to the money unlocked. Already juggling work and wedding plans, she's now blamed for the theft.

When a dead body is discovered at Michael's house, the other club members--retired farmer Arthur, shy Star Wars-loving teenager Ash, and cranky Phyllis, who never goes anywhere without her flatulent bulldog, Craddock--begin investigating. The crew uncovers a nest of secrets, some of which bear surprising connections to Phyllis's past, but they must get to the bottom of the case if they're going to salvage Nova's job (and the community center) in the present.

Sampson gently explores each of her characters' backgrounds, from Arthur's decades-long love story with his Ghanaian wife, Esi, to Ash's desperate need to be liked and equally desperate need to remain invisible. Nova, though she's determined to make a go of life in Cornwall and marriage to her boyfriend, Craig, misses her bohemian London life and chafes at the expectations placed on her by Craig's parents, particularly his buttoned-up mother. And Phyllis, though she insists she's happy on her own, carries a deep loneliness from her early years with a cold and distant mother and a traumatic experience in her teens.

As the book club members careen around the countryside, making multiple hilarious blunders in their crime-solving (despite Phyllis's encyclopedic knowledge of Agatha Christie), they gradually begin to trust one another with their secrets. Sampson explores the longstanding effects of guilt and secrecy; the difference between obligation and love; and the surprising turns a person's story can take, if they remain open to new characters and plot twists. Eventually, despite a few Miss Marple moments gone wrong, the book club gets closer to a solution--and to forming genuine friendships.

Packed with a range of book references (Bridgerton, Ursula K. Le Guin, and Shakespeare, to name a few), The Busybody Book Club is a testament to the delights of unexpected community and the power of stories to draw people together. --Katie Noah Gibson, blogger at Cakes, Tea and Dreams

Shelf Talker: Freya Sampson's witty, warmhearted fourth novel follows the mystery-solving adventures of a quirky book club in Cornwall, England.

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

1. Den of Vipers by K.A. Knight
2. Haunting Adeline by H.D. Carlton
3. Kiss of the Basilisk by Lindsay Straube
4. The Midnight Arrow by Zoey Draven
5. The Conditions of Will by Jessa Hastings
6. Little Stranger by Leigh Rivers
7. Hunting Adeline by H.D. Carlton
8. Charming Your Dad by Sarah Blue
9. Be Bold Today by Leigh Burgess
10. Phantom by H.D. Carlton

[Many thanks to IndieReader.com!]