The Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance has unveiled a new logo for the organization, noting that the updated design--the first in 20 years--is the initial step in an extensive update and rebranding project announced earlier this summer as part of the organization's 50th anniversary campaign, "A Bright Future." 

"The book industry has evolved and SIBA has evolved with it," said SIBA executive director Linda-Marie Barrett, "We want our new brand to reflect the forward-thinking and innovative nature of our diverse Southern bookselling community." 

Since its establishment in 1975 (as the Southeast Booksellers Association), the organization has changed its brand only one other time, when in 2005 it changed its name to Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance and dropped the original rural-focused design for a more modern look. 

Earlier this year, SIBA began working with Matchbook Marketing to create a new logo "that was brighter and more dynamic, better representing the organization and its membership as it exists today," the organization said. SIBA consulted with its membership and stakeholders during the six-month-long process, and they were instrumental in determining the final design: "Four colors instead of two, with the static book replaced by an open book and a rising sun, the new logo invites its booksellers into a community that excels in overcoming challenges."

The organization has begun updating the logo wherever it appears online. Booksellers attending SIBA's annual fall conference at New Voices New Rooms, beginning this Sunday, will have a chance to see the new logo "in the wild" on conference materials and signage, and be able to take home a celebratory 50th anniversary coffee mug. 

"We are excited about the new look," Barrett added, "and we're looking forward to having our rebranding fully integrated by the end of the year."

Northshire Bookstore's location in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., partially reopened Thursday after having been closed since July 4 due to sustained, significant water damage from a leak originating in one of the apartments above the store.  

In a statement, Northshire COO Scott Austin said (via WNYT): "We welcome back our loyal customers and first-time visitors alike, and thank everyone again for their patience these past few weeks while we worked around the clock to mitigate water damage caused by a unit in the floors above us. We are pleased to say that remediation efforts were successful and the environment has been tested and deemed safe for our staff and customers to occupy, browse and shop."

On Wednesday, Northshire posted on social media: "We're back, 'Toga!.... Over the past few weeks, our amazing team has shown incredible resilience. Because of their hard work, the store is refreshed, restocked, and ready to welcome you back. Come browse the shelves of the main floor, catch up with our booksellers, and find your next great read.... A heartfelt THANK YOU to our community for your continued patience and support--we've missed you!" 

The store's second-floor children's area is still under repair, but a number of children's items have been relocated to the main floor, "creating a Northshire Kids shop-within-a-shop," as the Northshire described it, adding that the hope is to  reopen this space in the coming weeks.

In an e-mail sent Thursday, Northshire noted that while the bookstore incurred significant losses to its book and gift inventory, all damaged items have been removed and booksellers "have meticulously inspected all items currently in our store to ensure they are in perfect, brand new condition."

At Amazon, net sales in the second quarter ended June 30 rose 13.3%, to $167.7 billion, and net income rose 34.9%, to $18.2 billion.

During the period sales in North America rose 11%, to $100.1 billion, while international sales rose 16%, to $36.8 billion, increasing 11%, excluding changes in foreign exchange rates. Sales in the AWS cloud computing services division rose 17.5%, to $30.9 billion.

The company predicted that net sales in the third quarter will grow 10%-13%, to between $174 billion and $179.5 billion, and operating income will be in a range of $15.5 billion and $20.5 billion, compared to $17.4 billion in the same period in 2024.

Revenue and net income in the quarter was higher than analysts' expectations. Nevertheless, Amazon stock fell 7% in after-market trading because, as the Wall Street Journal put it, "the cloud business wasn't growing as much as rivals'." It quoted Jefferies analyst Brent Thill, who said that Amazon's cloud business didn't accelerate much during the quarter compared to the period a year earlier and was "disappointing" given the momentum at Microsoft and Google's cloud-computing divisions.

Amazon president and CEO Andy Jassy indicated that currently AWS faces more demand than it can handle but is investing to meet that demand.

Consensus on Wall Street is that cloud computing, which is highly profitable and a growing source of Amazon revenue, is becoming ever more important compared to Amazon's huge retail operations.

In a statement about results, Andy Jassy emphasized the company's promotion of AI, saying, "Our conviction that AI will change every customer experience is starting to play out as we've expanded Alexa+ to millions of customers, continue to see our shopping agent used by many millions of customers, launched AI models like DeepFleet that optimize productivity paths for our 1M+ robots, made it much easier for software developers to write code with Kiro (our new agentic IDE), launched Strands to make it easier to build AI agents, and released Bedrock AgentCore to enable agents to be operated securely and scalably. Our AI progress across the board continues to improve our customer experiences, speed of innovation, operational efficiency, and business growth, and I'm excited for what lies ahead."

The inaugural Pioneer Valley Bookstore Crawl was held recently in Western Mass., the Daily Hampshire Gazette reported.

The crawl began in July and continued until August 30. Seven bookstores participated: Amherst Books in Amherst; Booklink Booksellers in Northampton; Book Moon Books in Easthampton; Broadside Bookshop in Northampton; Carle Museum Bookshop in Amherst; High Five Books in Florence; and Odyssey Bookshop in South Hadley. 

Customers who completed their passports by visiting every store were entered in a drawing for the grand prize package of a $50 gift certificate for each store.

Organizers Kinsey Foreman, manager of High Five Books, and Laura Colodner, kids department coordinator at Odyssey Bookshop, were inspired to create a bookstore crawl for their own area after attending a New England Independent Booksellers Association panel about them.

They called the inaugural year a "prototype year," noting that they had intentionally started with a smaller group of bookstores. They also chose to have the bookstore crawl during the summer in the hopes that it boosts sales in an otherwise slow time of the year. 

The response has been strong, with Foreman telling the Gazette: "It gives me a lot of hope for it growing and getting even bigger next year."

The Booksellers Association of the U.K. & Ireland has raised concerns about business rates (property tax) bills increasing by as much as 170% after the government's revaluation, as well as a drop in Business Rates Relief, with 42% of the BA's members claiming an average jump of £9,431 (about $12,460). The Bookseller reported that the situation is "threatening the survival of their stores."

Richard Drake, co-owner of Drake The Bookshop in Stockton-on-Tees, told the Bookseller his bill had risen by 170% in one year and he had faced various issues with the government's Valuation Office Agency, which calculates business rates: "These [issues] had huge knock-on effects over the past few years and, to top it all off, they decided that if a town that is undergoing massive upheaval and improvement work--which ultimately will help the town bit in the short term is affecting footfall--it was acceptable to increase the valuation of the property (where the rent has not gone up for nine years and indeed I negotiated a reduction)."

Paul Thomas, who runs Westwood Books, Sedbergh, observed: "It's worth noting that it's not just the cutting of rate reliefs that is the issue. We recently had our rateable value reassessed as part of the VOA process and, despite retail being in a worse than ever before as an industry, we have lost our full business rates relief and now have to pay. This shows that business rates is a tax that looks at property values and not the business."

Laura McCormack, the BA's head of policy and public affairs, said: "We are deeply troubled by the rising number of independent bookshops across the U.K. now struggling under the impact of the recent cuts to Business and Non-Domestic Rates Relief. While we welcomed the Westminster Government's Budget commitment to address the longstanding imbalance between high street shops and giant online retailers in England, it is increasingly alarming that this much-needed reform will not be implemented until 2026/2027--too late for many businesses already under compounded pressure.... We urge the government to accelerate the timeline for introducing its planned reforms to ensure that bookshops--so often rightly praised for their resilience--are not left struggling to survive until help finally arrives."

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Booksellers Aotearoa New Zealand has appointed three new board members, while two existing members are departing the board, Books+Publishing reported. New appointees include Mary-Liz Corbett of Matakana Village Books; Alison Southby of Poppies Hamilton; and Robbie Egan, outgoing CEO at BookPeople Australia, who is stepping in as a new independent director for the organization. Departing board members are University Bookshop Canterbury manager Pene Whitty and Poppies Group director Tony Moores.

"Pene Whitty and Tony Moores served on the board through many years and many trials including Covid-19 and the development of BookHub," said association manager Renee Rowland. "Board positions are voluntary, so the time, energy, experience and knowledge given by Tony and Pene are effectively donations into our bank--donations we all benefit and draw on. It's been a personal and professional privilege of mine to work with them both."

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British retailer WH Smith is selling Funky Pigeon, its online personalized greeting cards business, to Card Factory for £24 million (about $32 million) "following a strategic review of this business," the company said, adding that the "transaction is consistent with the group's strategic focus on travel retail." The deal is expected to be completed before the end of the year.

Last March, WH Smith sold its 480 high street--or main street--stores to Modella Capital in order to focus on its travel business, particularly its 1,200 stores in airports, hospitals, railroad stations, and elsewhere in 32 countries. Earlier this month, the company announced it will be opening eight new stores at JFK International Airport in New York City, where it currently operates two stores in Terminal 5. --Robert Gray

Lovestruck Books, a romance-focused bookstore that opened in Cambridge, Mass., late last year, saw two marriage proposals in a single day.

Both occurred on Sunday, July 27, and per WBZ NewsRadio, the first was a complete surprise. It was also the first proposal to happen at the bookstore since it opened. The bookstore knew about the second proposal in advance, which involved a custom-made book recounting the couple's love story. 

"We're so happy that anyone is just reaching out to us and making sure that we're a place that they can come to have their love stories," event manager Riley Mulroy told WBZ. "We're so happy to be part of anyone's happily ever afters."

Annie Bloom's Books, Portland, Ore., shared a photo on Instagram of the shop's storefront window display, noting: "Bookstore Romance Day is just around the corner... Tag someone you think should come to our Bookstore Romance Day festivities.... (We're apparently starting a tradition of one-upping our fancy R on this sign every year.)."

Posted on Instagram by Secret World Books, Highland Park, Ill.: "Sometimes we take a moment to pause and think 'Wow, we really created a beautiful bookstore!' It still feels so dreamy and magical to us. Thank you for helping our dream come true."

Sean Hynes has joined Cottage Door Press as executive v-p of sales. He has more than 30 years of experience in sales in the toy and consumer products industries, most recently as senior v-p of sales at VTech. He has also held senior leadership roles at Bandai Namco Toys, Irwin Toy, Hedstrom Corporation, and American Greetings. Among other responsibilities, Hynes will expand Cottage Door Press's presence in the toy market, particularly with its launch of Luna StoryTime Projector.

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Erica Gelbard has joined Union Square & Co. as executive director of publicity. She most recently was associate director of publicity at Chronicle Books and earlier held publicity positions at Clarkson Potter and Ten Speed Press, Grand Central, and Simon & Schuster.

Today:
Fresh Air: Griffin Dunne, author of The Friday Afternoon Club: A Family Memoir (Penguin Books, $21, 9780593652848).

Mia Carragher (One Night in Istanbul, The Gathering) will star as Katniss Everdeen in The Hunger Games: On Stage, the live stage production adapted by playwright Conor McPherson from Suzanne Collins's first novel in the bestselling series, Variety reported. She joins a cast that includes Euan Garrett (Quadrophenia: a Mod Ballet) as Peeta Mellark and Joshua Lacey (All the Old Knives) as Haymitch Abernathy.

Directed by Matthew Dunster (2:22--A Ghost Story), the play begins performances on October 20 at the Troubadour Canary Wharf Theatre in London. 

"I'm really excited to play Katniss. I relate to her quite a lot," Carragher said in the video clip via Instagram. "I think she's very fearless, but then she's also got that nurturing quality about her. Everyone needs to come and watch The Hunger Games: On Stage because it's going to be nothing like you've ever seen."

Dunster said: "We searched far and wide, and comprehensively, for our Katniss. It is not easy to step into Suzanne Collins' amazing creation and only one actor combined Katniss' charisma and combat skills--her quiet, tough determination and her brilliant creativity, athleticism and humor. We've found our Katniss in Mia Carragher, and we can't wait for audiences to see her."

The Society of Children's Book Writers & Illustrators announced winners and honor books for the C2025 Crystal Kite Awards, which are peer-voted and recognize "outstanding books created by SCBWI members across 15 international regions." 

"These awards mean so much because they're chosen by fellow creators, people who really understand what goes into making children's books," said SCBWI executive director Sarah Baker. "The Crystal Kite Awards celebrate the amazing talent in our community and the stories that move and inspire young readers all over the world." This year's Crystal Kite regional division winners are:

Atlantic 
Tricky Chopsticks by Sylvia Chen, illustrated by Fanny Liem (Atheneum Books for Young Readers)
Honor: Wind Is a Dance by Debra Shumaker, illustrated by Josée Bisaillon 
(Kids Can Press)
California/Hawaii 
The Man Who Didn't Like Animals by Deborah Underwood, illustrated by LeUyen Pham (Clarion Books)
Honor: The Night Market by Seina Wedlick, illustrated by Briana Mukodiri Uchendu (Random House Studios)
Midwest
A Little Like Magic, written and illustrated by Sarah Kurpiel (Rocky Pond Books)
Honor: Seeker of Truth: Kailash Satyarthi's Fight to End Child Labor by Srividhya Venkat, illustrated by Danica da Silva Pereira (little bee books) 
Midsouth
The Last Day Julian Was My Best Friend by Jody Jensen Shaffer (Two Lions)
Honor: Strong at the Seams by Shannon Stocker (Harper Collins)
New England
Small Things Mended by Casey W. Robinson, illustrated by Nancy Whitesides (Rocky Pond Books)
Honor: The Tree of Life: How a Holocaust Sapling Inspired the World by Elisa Boxer, illustrated by Alianna Rozentsveig (Rocky Pond Books)
New York
Five Stories, written and illustrated by Ellen Weinstein (Holiday House)
Honor: Building a Beak: How a Toucan's Rescue Inspired the World by Becca McMurdie (Page Street Publishing)
Southeast
Abuelita's Gift: A Día de Muertos Story by Mariana Ríos Ramírez, illustrated by Sara Palacios (Knopf Books for Young Readers)
Honor: Trunk Goes Thunk! by Heather Morris, illustrated by Chantelle Thorne and Burgen Thorne (Gnome Road Publishing)
Southwest
The Ofrenda That We Built by Jolene Gutiérrez & Shaian Gutiérrez, illustrated by Gabby Zapata (Chronicle Books)
Honor: Cactus Queen: Minerva Hoyt Establishes Joshua Tree National Park by Lori Alexander, illustrated by Jenn Ely (Astra Young Readers)
Texas/Oklahoma
Lupita's Brown Ballet Slippers by Steena Hernandez, illustrated by Melissa Castillo (Beaming Books)
Honor: They Built Me for Freedom: The Story of Juneteenth and Houston's Emancipation Park by Tonya Duncan Ellis, illustrated by Jenin Mohammed (Balzer + Bray)
West
One Day This Tree Will Fall by Leslie Barnard Booth, illustrated by Stephanie Fizer Coleman (Margaret K. McElderry Books)
Honor: A Voice of Hope by Nadia Salomon, illustrated by London Ladd (Penguin Random House)
Australia/NZ/Oceania
Happy All Over, written and illustrated by Emma Quay (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers)
Honor: Glow by Ross Morgan (Walker Books)
Canada & North America
Up, Up, Ever Up! Junko Tabei: A Life in the Mountains by Anita Yasuda, illustrated by Yuko Shimizu (Clarion Books)
Honor: Making Sense of Dog Senses: How Our Furry Friends Experience the World by Stephanie Gibeault, illustrated by Raz Latif (Owlkids)
Europe, Central/South/Latin America, and Africa: Bear's Big Idea by Sandra Nickel, illustrated by Il Sung Na (Carolrhoda Books)
Honor: HaiCuba / HaiKuba by Lawrence Schimel & Carlos Pintado, illustrated by Juan José Colsa (NorthSouth Books)
Middle & East Asia
Listening to Trees by Holly Thompson, illustrated by Toshiki Nakamura (Neal Porter Books)
Honor: Good Old Days Grandpa by Shirley Waisman (Tal-May)
U.K./Ireland
East Asian Folktales, Myths and Legends by Eva Wong Nava (Scholastic)
Honor: 12 Ways to Get a Ticket to Space by Kate Peridot, illustrated by Terri Po

Sally Blakely studied theater, media arts, English, and education at the University of Montana. When she's not writing, she's reading, or making far too many playlists. She lives in Montana with her husband. Her debut, Friends to Lovers (Canary Street Press, July 22, 2025), is a dual-narrative novel about two childhood best friends who agree to be each other's plus-ones every year for wedding season in order to stay in touch.

Handsell readers your book in 25 words or less:

People We Meet on Vacation meets The Summer I Turned Pretty. Two lifelong best friends have one last summer to fall in love!

On your nightstand now:

Silverborn by Jessica Townsend. This is one of my favorite middle-grade series of all time and I've been counting down the days for the U.S. release of this book! Jessica Townsend is such an incredible voice in the fantasy space.

Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reid. Daisy Jones & the Six is one of my all-time favorite books, and in another life I dream of going to space, so I'm particularly thrilled about this latest from TJR.

It's a Love Story by Annabel Monaghan. I love Annabel! She so kindly read and blurbed Friends to Lovers and I've been looking forward to this book since she released her last one.

Favorite book when you were a child:

This is so hard to narrow down! I read and re-read the Enchanted Forest Chronicles by Patricia C. Wrede and particularly loved when a romance was introduced in the second book, Searching for Dragons, which probably should have told me something about the genre I'd most love writing later. From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E.L. Konigsburg is a lifelong favorite.

Your top five authors:

This feels equally hard to narrow down, but five who are particularly important to me or have impacted my reading/writing life in some way are Sarah Dessen, Emily Henry, Alice Hoffman, Maud Hart Lovelace, and Ray Bradbury.

Book you've faked reading:

This is one of my more embarrassing stories, but in grad school we were reading The Tempest in this great class called Shakespeare and Film. It was also taught by my favorite professor, which makes the whole thing worse. Before we started reading, I thought he asked who was looking forward to reading The Tempest, so I raised my hand and was pretty confused when no one else did. Turns out, he asked who had already read The Tempest and he of course asked what I thought of it when I read it and instead of owning up to my mistake I just sort of blacked out and stumbled through some answer along the lines of "Yeah, I enjoyed it. Kind of crazy!" Oof.

Book you're an evangelist for:

I have two! (Not that I think these books need me to be an evangelist for them, but I'll never stop talking about them.)

Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt--so far, I haven't recommended this to someone who hasn't loved it.

The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune--this book feels like a hug. Would die for Arthur Parnassus.

Book you've bought for the cover:

Probably more than I realize, but I can't seem to think of a specific one right now. There are so many talented people designing cover art and so many gorgeous covers out there that I think picking up a book because it catches your eye is totally valid.

Book you hid from your parents:

I don't think I ever hid books from my parents! I didn't grow up around a lot of romance readers so I maybe didn't discuss those books with them as much once I started reading them, but definitely never hid them.

Book that changed your life:

Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel García Márquez. We read it my senior year of high school and I had strong opinions that I shared, loudly, during discussion. That class is what made me want to be an English teacher and where I started to feel more comfortable discussing books and stories. I remember buying a new copy for the school so I could keep my heavily annotated and dog-eared one.

Favorite line from a book:

From Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt: "Humans. For the most part, you are dull and blundering. But occasionally, you can be remarkably bright creatures."

Five books you'll never part with:

Practical Magic by Alice Hoffman, because even if I'm reading it for the 10th time, it feels as absorbing as the first.

This Lullaby by Sarah Dessen, because it's what I based the first book-shaped thing I wrote around, at 13.

Emily of Deep Valley by Maud Hart Lovelace. I loved reading from the perspective of this other character in the Deep Valley world, and my sister gifted me this book at a time I very much needed to read about Emily finding her way in the world. I return to it almost every winter.

Fifteen by Beverly Cleary. I read this so much as a kid! Jane and her qualms. I'm always on the lookout for the exact version my library had, but for now my paperback is just fine.

And honestly, that copy of Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel García Márquez. It feels like a time capsule. It has roughly 100 little tabs sticking out of its yellowing pages, and all these notes in the margins that sound a little silly now, but that felt like profound discoveries back then. I love having this tangible evidence of caring so much about something.

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

The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller. I'm probably an evangelist for this book too, honestly. Would read it and erase it from my memory and read it again 1,000 times if I could.

A soulful first novel by the award-winning poet and short story writer Souvankham Thammavongsa, Pick a Color follows the enigmatic proprietor of a nail salon over the course of an eventful summer day. It is a skillful, witty portrait of a woman composed of intriguing contradictions, the cracks in her hard outer shell exposing depths her clients will never know.

Ning is the astute, dry-humored narrator and the owner of "Susan's." A former boxer in her early 40s, she projects a wary detachment and sizes people up as if they are potential competitors in the ring. In fact, she is soft-hearted and sensitive, eager to be included but unwilling to expose her vulnerabilities. Thammavongsa is marvelously adept at showcasing her protagonist's almost pathological need for control and the dark, swirling mysteries of her troubled past.

A Laotian Canadian writer, Thammavongsa (How to Pronounce Knife) takes an experience readers may be familiar with as customers and invites them to view it from an entirely different perspective. It is a delight to immerse oneself in the everyday drama of the salon's "brightly lit box" with the rhythmic cadence of Thammavongsa's storytelling and the narrative spaces she creates for readers' imaginations to ignite.

Ning and her employees dress in generic black outfits and sport identical haircuts. Mai is second in command, Noi is the new girl, Annie is slow but reliable, and Nok has stopped showing up for her shifts. Each wears a name tag printed with the name Susan; it's easy to pronounce and it means "the clients will never be wrong when they ask for Susan." The salon is located in an unnamed North American city.

The banter between Ning and Mai in their mother tongue in front of clients makes for brilliant comedy, their private shop talk revealing a playful side. One of their regulars is a well-known baseball player, an arrogant pitcher who comes in before and after every game. Ning can expertly maneuver him toward adding more services to his tab and it is endlessly entertaining to watch her stroke his ego.

There is no dramatic ending here but Ning's day, as it comes to a close, is full of quiet victories. People who get their nails done are "hopeful," she observes, because they think they can change their lives for the better. One can say the same for Ning--the salon is her proof of a solid future, a buffer against the terrifying impermanence of life. --Shahina Piyarali

Shelf Talker: A nail salon owner navigates an eventful summer day in this witty debut novel by a Laotian-Canadian writer.