Chapters Books & Gifts, Seward, Neb., has reopened in a temporary space at 647 Seward St. after an August 9 storm caused significant damage to its building at 548 Seward St. The exterior brick wall separated from the structure, rendering it structurally unsound.

Help quickly showed up to move inventory out of Chapters, which noted: "And you came with trucks, strong arms, quick thinking, and so much heart! We don't know when we'll be back in our building, but we do know this: our community is something worth celebrating."

On August 14, Chapters posted: "New Chapter, Same Bookstore Magic! While our original space gets some post-storm TLC, you can still find us just a few steps away at 647 Seward St! Our shelves are stocked, our smiles are ready, and we can't wait to see you here. @kylynrobbins window is pointing the way.... From boxes to a bookstore. This space is filled with more than books; it's filled with the love and support of our incredible community. Come see our temporary home!"

Cooks and Books, a cooking studio and bookstore, has opened in Meridian, Idaho, BoiseDev reported. 

Located at 2951 E. Overland Rd., Cooks and Books carries cookbooks as well as a selection of general-interest titles for all ages. With the help of other instructors, owner Alicia Mattera will host one-off cooking classes as well as four-week courses paired with cookbooks. There will be options for all ages, and classes will cover everything from decorating cupcakes to learning to make pad Thai.

Prior to opening Cooks and Books, Mattera taught cooking and life skills classes at a charter school for pregnant and parenting teens. She had always thought of opening a cooking studio of her own but wanted to pair that concept with something else. Eventually, she decided on a bookstore.

"I love bookstores," Mattera told BoiseDev. "I always go to bookstores. I don't know why it didn't come to me before."

The space on Overland Rd., she added, "fell into her lap" and proved to be just right for the store's business model. The store is open Tuesdays through Saturdays, 10 a.m.-6 p.m., with cooking classes held after hours.

Renita Bryant

Renita Bryant, author and founder and CEO of Mynd Matters Publishing in Atlanta, Ga., has been elected board chair of the Independent Book Publishers Association, effective August 30 through June 30, 2026. She succeeds Tieshena Davis, who is stepping down, effective August 29, after serving four years as a board director and one year as board chair.  Davis, founding publisher and CEO of Publish Your Gift, resigned to concentrate on new professional opportunities, including finalizing the sale of her publishing company and focusing on her consulting firm, Ekpansa.

Bryant has been IBPA's vice-chair and has been on the board for four years, including the executive committee and as membership committee chair. She was an Innovative Voices judge and member of the IBPA Independent magazine task force. She has more than a decade of experience leading a hybrid publishing company, championing independent voices. She is the author of Yesterday Mourning, Rihanna's Can-Do Adventures, and the Holidayville Adventures children's book series. She is also the founder of SightsSet, a firm specializing in data-driven multicultural consumer insights.

IBPA CEO Andrea Fleck-Nisbet said, "Renita's vision, strategic insight, and proven leadership make her the ideal person to guide IBPA during this exciting chapter. I have great confidence in her ability to steer the organization forward, and I look forward to working alongside her to serve our members and strengthen the independent publishing community."

Bryant said, "My journey on the board began over four years ago and has been defined by a deep commitment to equity, innovation, and data-driven solutions. I've always seen independent publishing as a vital engine of creativity and cultural vibrancy, and IBPA's work to support, educate, and advocate for this community is indispensable. Together, we will champion independent voices, foster sustainable and scalable business practices, and ensure that publishers of all sizes have the tools, resources, and opportunities to thrive in our dynamic and rapidly changing industry."

On August 13, Barnes & Noble opened a new bookstore in Clark, N.J., in the Clark Commons at 1255 Raritan Rd., with author Nisha Sharma cutting the ribbon and signing copies of her books. This marks the return of the retailer to the area since it closed a nearby location in June 2022. The new store offers about 10,000 square feet of retail space. 

"We are very pleased to return to Clark," B&N said. "When our previous lease ended in 2022 we were determined to find a new location nearby. Now we open this beautiful new Barnes & Noble just half a mile from where we served this community for nearly 25 years."

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Tomorrow, August 20, B&N will open a new store in Overland Park, Kan., with children's author Angela Cervantes cutting the ribbon and signing copies of her books, including her latest, The Cursed Moon (Scholastic Press). The 14,000-square-foot store is located in the new Bluhawk Mall at 7840 W. 161st St.

The store is B&N's third in Johnson County and second in Overland Park, near Kansas City.

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On August 30, B&N will open its new bookstore in West Ridge Market at 11500 Wayzata Blvd. in Minnetonka, Minn., with author William Kent Krueger cutting the ribbon and signing copies of his books. The more than 18,000-square-foot space is a relocation of the retailer's Ridgehaven Shopping Center location, which closed last month. 

"Our booksellers have been hard at work to ensure that we can open this beautiful new Barnes & Noble as soon as possible," B&N said. "Now, less than a month after closing our previous location, they are eager to welcome customers into their brand-new Minnetonka Barnes & Noble."

Seattle WorldCon 2025 took place August 13-17, the first time the World Science Fiction Convention was back in Seattle, Wash., since 1961. World Science Fiction Society members attended in person and online, celebrating the past, present, and future of SF and fantasy creators and fans. Attendees had a pick of panels, readings, discussion groups, and workshops in 44 tracks, with topics that included academics, comics, fandoms, costume, editing/publishing, non-Western literature, genre history, and more.

From left: Isabel Kim, John Scalzi, Becky Chambers, Neil Clarke, George R.R. Martin

Hundreds of attendees filled the Friday session "A Genre in Conversation with Itself" to hear Isabel Kim (Sublimation), John Scalzi (When the Moon Hits Your Eye), Becky Chambers (Monk and Robot series), George R.R. Martin (A Song of Ice and Fire series), and Neil Clarke (editor, Clarkesworld magazine) discuss science fiction's proclivity for tributes and critiques. Clarke said, "We're looking for things that add to the conversation... something that does something different or brings it to relevance to the next generation."

Scalzi quipped that the science fiction genre itself is like free-form jazz and added that not every response text is addressed to a previous written work. "It can be about a trend that you see going on or about a trope you see people using uncritically... all is up for response, criticism or commentary."

At the panel "Researching the Occult and Paranormal": (l-r.) Isabel Cañas Michele Ruiz Keil, Van Hoang.

The idea of scrutinizing tropes also came up in the panel "Researching the Occult and Paranormal" with Isabel Cañas (The Possession of Alba Díaz), Michele Ruiz Keil (Summer in the City of Roses), and Van Hoang (Girl Giant series). Cañas shared: "My characters are people of color who aren't often represented in mainstream American fiction... I want to take up space in a way that I believe humanizes us." The authors discussed how they balance culture responsibly with creative freedom, often consulting elders, folklore, and non-traditional archives.

In several panels, sci-fi and fantasy writers discussed how the metaphoric nature of their work addresses circumstances in the "real world." In the panel "Worldbuilding Through Geography and Environments," Martha Wells (The Murderbot Diaries) talked about how place shapes social structures and identity. "Time is laid down in layers," Wells said. "We live with the past all the time... cities are living organisms that change constantly."

Participants in the green room had their photos taken before Friday night's Seattle WorldCon Masquerade.

The panelists on the "Arcane Principles" panel also emphasized how their work addressed the current world. Terry Brooks (Shannara series) said, "I'm always writing about this world--about what I see happening in the world around me--about the human condition, just contexting it differently than how we live in this world."

Authors talked about shrinking the metaphorical distance between their work and the world we live in by focusing more directly on the present or near future or by making class, labor, and ordinary life more central. In the panel "Working Class Science Fiction," about shifting focus from epic heroes to ordinary people who navigate extraordinary futures, Becky Chambers (Wayfarer series) explained her early fascination with the people in the background: "Yes, I am interested in fantastical futures, but I want to know what it's like to just live there," which contributes to her own writing. "I'm interested in making everyone feel they have a place in the universe."

On the "Too Close to Home: Writing the Near Future" panel, Sylvia Park (Luminous) said, "We are writing sci-fi with the hopes that this is not where we're headed." She tries to avoid writing in a predictive mode, explaining, "We're not seers; we're trying to write about human nature." She did agree with the other panelists that there is an overwhelming feeling that the future is coming faster and "right now, so many of us have a hard time imagining that things could get better."

From left: SFWA executive director Isis Asare, with authors Analee Newitx, Charlie Jane Anders, Ada Palmer, and Andrea Hairston.

Dystopian fatigue and real-world crisis came up also in the panel "Feminist Futurism vs. Project 2025," moderated by Isis Asare, the new executive director of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association. Panelists Analee Newitz (Automatic Noodle), Charlie Jane Anders (Lessons in Magic and Disaster), Ada Palmer (Inventing the Renaissance), and Andrea Hairston (Archangels of Funk) made a case for stories of hope, sustainability, and community-based futures. Anders said it was "hopeful in a way to be comfortable with things being complicated... Rather than cautionary tales, I want to see more stories that advance the theory of human nature that help us survive as a species."

The authors referred to the emphasis on hope, connection, and transformation in the romance genre, contrasted with what Palmer called a "paucity of collective action narratives" in sci-fi and fantasy, which often focus on struggles of a lone protagonist. She added that "realistic literature is focused on 'we are powerless and all we can do is despair.' "

"Realism is just what we're willing to believe." Hairston chimed in. "Normal is the secret weapon of the empire... if you actually have the knowledge then you have the hope." --Kristianne Huntsberger

On August 14, the Twig Book Shop in San Antonio, Tex., celebrated the birthday of Davy Crockett with new books about the frontiersman, congressman, and defender of the Alamo. Pictured: (from l.) Stoney Creek Publishing founder Loren Steffy; Eileen Dolan of the Twig; Max Knight, author of Ghostly Bugles: A Novel of the Alamo (Hill Country Press, a Stoney Creek imprint); and David Barnett Goldman, author of The Bugbear Hunter: Or the Seduction and Redemption of Congressman David Crockett (Hill Country Press). (photo: Leslie Barrett)

Posted by Books & Books, Coral Gables, Fla.: "📚+💍 = Happily Ever After. Congratulations to our beautiful couple who said 'yes' right here with us!"

At Chooseco, publisher of the Choose Your Own Adventure book series:

Lizzi Middleman, who started her career in publishing as the editorial intern at Chooseco in 2014, has been named associate publisher. From 2014-2021, Middleman grew from intern to marketing manager, learning every facet of the organization, and built the company's marketing department from scratch. She left Chooseco to work at Gibbs Smith and Hachette Book Group (Algonquin) before returning to Chooseco in 2024 as marketing director and will continue in that role.

Samantha Ferguson has joined Chooseco as director of sales. With more than 20 years of industry experience, Ferguson was most recently associate director of gift and specialty sales at Quarto.

You Are Not Your Trauma: An ACT Guide for Healing from Within by Robyn D. Walser and Darrah Westrup (Guilford Press).

Today:
All Things Considered: Raymond Antrobus, author of The Quiet Ear: An Investigation of Missing Sound: A Memoir (Hogarth, $29, 9780593732106).

Tomorrow:
The View repeat: Geri Halliwell-Horner, author of Rosie Frost: Ice on Fire (Philomel Books, $18.99, 9780593624005).

Tamron Hall repeat: Amerie, author of This Is Not a Ghost Story: A Novel (Morrow, $30, 9780358653080).

David Gyasi (The Diplomat) will star in The Bard, a film about George Moses Horton, "the first Black poet to be published in America while enslaved, a feat punishable by death," Variety reported. Horton wrote love poems and anti-slavery protests, and "was assisted by the white wife of a University of North Carolina Chapel Hill professor, who eventually became an anti-abolitionist." 

The project will be directed by Kevin Willmott, who won an Oscar for co-writing BlacKkKlansman with Spike Lee, and also wrote and directed The 24th. Willmott is working from a script he wrote with E. Paul Edwards. The Bard, which is currently shooting in North Carolina, is being produced by Kim Zubick, Lauren Vilchik, Roland Waddell, Paul Edwards, and Ksana Golod. Executive producers are Frigate Filmworks and Chase McNaughton, with Bernice Miller an associate producer.
 
"This film is also at its heart a love story, in which two people are afforded a rare glimpse into what their lives might be like if they were released from the social norms of the time," said the producers. "Lastly, it provokes us to examine how far we would go to reject social injustice when our own position is in peril."

The winners of the 2025 Hugo Awards, voted on by members of the World Science Fiction Convention:

Best Novel: The Tainted Cup by Robert Jackson Bennet (Del Rey)
Lodestar Award for Best Young Adult Book: Sheine Lende by Darcie Little Badger (Levine Querido)
Best Novella: The Tusks of Extinction by Ray Nayler (Tordotcom)
Best Novelette: "The Four Sisters Overlooking the Sea" by Naomi Kritzer (Asimov's, September/October 2024)
Best Short Story: "Stitched to Skin Like Family Is" by Nghi Vo (Uncanny magazine, issue 57)
Best Poem (Seattle Special Hugo Award): "A War of Words" by Marie Brennan (Strange Horizons, September 2024)
Best Series: Between Earth and Sky by Rebecca Roanhorse (Saga Press)
Best Graphic Story or Comic: Star Trek: Lower Decks: Warp Your Own Way written by Ryan North, art by Chris Fenoglio (IDW Publishing)
Best Related Work: Speculative Whiteness: Science Fiction and the Alt-Right by Jordan S. Carroll (University of Minnesota Press)
Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form: Dune: Part Two, Screenplay by Denis Villeneuve and Jon Spaihts, directed by Denis Villeneuve (Legendary Pictures/Warner Bros)
Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form: Star Trek: Lower Decks: "The New Next Generation" created and written by Mike McMahan, based on Star Trek, created by Gene Roddenberry, directed by Megan Lloyd (CBS Eye Animated Productions for Paramount+)
Best Editor, Short Form: Neil Clarke
Best Editor, Long Form: Diana M. Pho
Astounding Award for Best New Writer: Moniquill Blackgoose
Best Game or Interactive Work: Caves of Qud, Freehold Games
Best Professional Artist: Alyssa Winans
Best Semiprozine: Uncanny magazine
Best Fanzine: Black Nerd Problems
Best Fancast: Eight Days of Diana Wynne Jones
Best Fan Writer: Abigail Nussenbaum
Best Fan Artist: Sara Felix

When Susan Orlean chose the title for her memoir, it wasn't merely an apt description of the "joyride of a life" she's lived as a journalist for nearly 50 years. It also teases the pleasure her readers will derive from a book that illuminates her fascinating career while serving as a textbook of sorts for anyone eager to look behind the scenes at a highly accomplished writer's craft.

For Orlean, the drive to write has always seemed as elemental as the need to eat or sleep. After graduating from the University of Michigan in 1978, she headed to Portland, Ore., fending off her father's pressure to follow him into the legal profession. Thanks to her talent and dogged persistence, she progressed from working for publications like Portland's Willamette Week--where she profiled the controversial guru Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh and his cult--to a staff writer position with the New Yorker in 1992, where she remains to this day.

Orlean divides her work into two categories: "who knew?" stories that involve "a subculture I didn't know, a hobby that came as a complete surprise," and "hiding in plain sight" stories, "the kinds of things that were familiar, even mundane, but once examined closely, turned out to be much more unexpected and fascinating." In either case, she writes, "the story is in charge," and the writer always must be prepared to put aside the assumptions she brought to the project. Joyride is packed with tips like these for aspiring writers, among them the importance of constantly cultivating story ideas, and the lesson her Willamette Week editor taught that the process of writing has three parts: "reporting, then thinking, and then writing." If either of the first two are ignored, she's learned from hard experience, the third is destined to fail.

Orlean candidly describes the sometimes bumpy road her books traveled through multiple publishers and editors to publication. The most engaging of these accounts is the story of The Orchid Thief, her book that took on a radically different shape in the movie Adaptation, starring Meryl Streep as Orlean.

Joyride concludes with an appendix containing a handful of Orlean's articles, including "The American Man Age Ten," her first article for Esquire magazine that she says was "a defining moment for me," and "Devotion Road," a New Yorker story about her travels across the American South with a male gospel group, the Jackson Southernaires, that raised some intriguing questions of journalistic ethics. These few pieces only hint at the variety of her work, and, as Orlean suggests, even after a lifetime of writing she hasn't lost her zest for finding the next great story. --Harvey Freedenberg, freelance reviewer

Shelf Talker: Longtime New Yorker journalist Susan Orlean shares the story of her lengthy, diverse career along with a revealing look into how she fashions her intriguing stories.

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

1. The Fallen and the Kiss of Dusk by Carissa Broadbent
2. Mobility for Life by Jeff Bailey
3. Haunting Adeline by H.D. Carlton
4. Profit Generating Pipeline by Leslie Venetz
5. Orchestrating Connection by Noah Askin and David Homan
6. Take It All Apart by Lindsay Leahy
7. Hunting Adeline by H.D. Carlton
8. No Woman Left Behind by Kate Grant
9. Insatiable by Leigh Rivers
10. Accidental Mile High Daddy by Mia Mara 

[Many thanks to IndieReader.com!]