In honor of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., we will not publish on Monday. We'll see you again on Tuesday morning, January 20.

"I know last time we talked a lot about DIESEL, A Bookstore, which is still my home away from home. And when we're allowed to announce [that The First Time I Saw Him is the #1 pick for January], I'm actually going to run over there so that I can share that with them immediately.

"For me, books are always like a coming home. I love them more than anything. One of the reasons I loved graduate school so much is it was a group of people with which you could talk about books (and reading and writing and poetry and plays) and they all cared. They all wanted to talk about it. And that's what an indie bookstore feels like.... Every town I go to, the indie bookstore is the first place I go."

Following its debut as a mobile bookstore, romance-focused BAGG Books has opened a bricks-and-mortar store in Kennewick, Wash., Apple Valley News reported.

BAGG Books held a grand opening celebration in its new home at 318 Kennewick Ave. on January 3. The shop carries a wide array of romance titles representing plenty of sub-genres, along with tote bags, stickers, pins, bookmarks, apparel, candles, and bath bombs. 

Store owners Katee Smith and Olivia Pierce first brought the mobile bookstore on the road in February 2025. They took the romance bookstore to coffee shops, restaurants, and other locations in Kennewick and the surrounding area. Eventually the pair chose to open a bricks-and-mortar store in order to have more stability throughout the year.

"We just figured it at least would put us somewhere where people can find us regularly and not have to worry, like, oh, there's ice, there's snow, they are not going to be out," Smith told Apple Valley News. "This is the right time to make this move for us, so that we can be somewhere where they can find us no matter what it's like outside."

Better Days Bookshop will open later this year at 515 Main St. in Cairo, N.Y. WTEN reported that the shop began as a longtime dream for founders Maya Prohovnik and Erik Price, adding that Prohovnik "had worked at an independent bookstore during high school and still considers it to be the best job she has ever had." They hope to open the bookshop sometime between April and June.

"This has been a lifelong dream for her and something the two of us have been fantasizing about for more than a decade," Price said.

Price and Prohovnik, who is a member of the Comprehensive Plan Committee, consider Cairo to be a great spot to open a business. "It's really difficult to get to any of these spots without driving right through Cairo," Price noted. "So we think that's why it works even when so many people are skeptical of opening a business here."

Better Days Books will feature a broad but curated selection of new books, and plans call for eventually hosting author events and book clubs. There will also be newspapers, zines, and seasonal merch for sale.

"There isn't a lot for kids to do in Cairo, especially in the cold months, so it's really important to us to be able to provide that space for younger readers and their families," they said.

In addition, Better Days Books will serve a selection of canned and bottled beers, wine and cider, as well as a limited food menu. "We've always loved bookstores that aren't just bookstores," Price said. "It's also a great way for us to combine our passions! Books and beers are the two things that we are almost always talking about or sharing with our friends."

Emrys Cove bookstore has opened at 111 Broadway in Fargo, N.Dak. InForum reported that the shop, which specializes in sci-fi, fantasy, and horror, is "tucked above Moonrise Cafe in the former Spirit Room space. Inside Emrys Cove, candlesticks and lanterns glow against dark shelves decorated with glass-jar bookends and hanging vines, giving the bookstore a Gothic yet inviting feel. Rather than carrying vast shelves of bestsellers, the bookstore emphasizes hidden gems--spotlighting indie authors and lesser-known titles that often get lost in larger stores."

"Once you kind of start going down that rabbit hole, you realize there's a whole other world of indie authors," said owner Irelyn "Lyn" Johnson-Fowler. "I want people to find something new."

In addition to being a lifelong reader, Johnson-Fowler has worked in the coffee industry for nearly a decade, most recently at Moonrise Cafe. When the Spirit Room vacated the upstairs space last September, Moonrise Cafe owners Emily Driscoll and Alexa Eugenio "took over the upstairs area and offered Johnson-Fowler the opportunity to bring the bookstore to life. While the collection had initially been considered for a small section within the coffee shop itself, it evolved into an independent bookstore," InForum noted.

"We've been talking about trying to find a way to maybe start the bookstore in Moonrise, then when Emily and Alexa took over the space, they asked if I wanted it," Johnson-Fowler recalled. Though Emrys Cove is just beginning, she already has plans for further growth.

The Chapter & Co. bookstore and cafe in New Braunfels, Tex., will soon move to a new location, CultureMap San Antonio reported. 

The bookstore, currently located at 278 W. San Antonio St., will leave that space at the end of the month. Co-owners and sisters Lilliana Brabham and Laura Hickman have not yet announced where the store's new home will be, but in a message to customers said they will continue to serve the Braunfels community "in a more sustainable storefront."

Hickman and Brabham opened the store in October 2024. Its book inventory focuses on romance and fantasy, and it sells a variety of gift items along with coffee drinks and snacks. Until January 17, the store is running a 50% off deal on coffee and a buy two, get two deal for books.

Buzz Books Spring/Summer 2026 will publish this coming Tuesday, January 20, and features 50 excerpts and 5 teasers from top Spring/Summer titles. Buzz Books Spring/Summer 2026 is offered free, in the U.S. and Canada, on all major e-book platforms. Buzz Books will hold two free virtual related events for booksellers, librarians, media, and other tastemakers. 

The first panel, focused on fiction, takes place at 7 p.m. Eastern on Tuesday, January 20, and features eight novelists in conversation with their editors. Hosted by Leigh Haber, most recently director of Oprah's Book Club and v-p of books for O, the Oprah Magazine, and Mary Ann Naples, COO of Publishers Marketplace, the panel is presented by Publishers Lunch. Register here.

The panelists:

• Tia Williams and editor Karen Kosztolnyik, Grand Central Publishing, discuss The Missed Connection, "an intensely romantic, deliciously sexy tale about a woman searching for her handsome seatmate on a European flight--and the unexpected places her hunt for love leads her." (Pub date: June 16.)
• Jan Saenz and editor Gabriella Mongelli, Little, Brown, discuss 200 Monas, "a whip-smart, irresistible novel about a college senior who has 48 hours to sell her recently deceased mother's surprise stash of rare pills, or suffer the consequences." (March 3.)
• Kelly Yang and editor Jennifer Monroe, Berkley, discuss The Take, "a provocative, fast-paced novel about two creative women--a young writer fighting to be heard and an older producer clinging to relevancy--and the age reversal treatment that intertwines both of their lives." (April 14.)
• Emma Straub and editor Sarah McGrath, Riverhead, discuss American Fantasy, "an irresistible story about what happens when your teenage fantasy comes true after you’re already an adult." (April 7.)
• Douglas Stuart and editor Peter Blackstock, Grove Atlantic, discuss John of John, "a vivid, moving novel following a young man returning to his Hebridean island home, a portrait of a father's expectations and a son's desires." (May 5.)
• Evelyn Clarke and editor Sarah Stein, Harper, discuss The Ending Writes Itself, "a propulsive debut mystery from Cat Clarke and V.E. Schwab." (April 7.)
• LJ Ross and editor Anna Michels, Poisoned Pen/Sourcebooks, discuss The Imposter, "a tense, atmospheric thriller that explores how far we'll go to understand--and survive--the darkness around us." (February 3.)

The nonfiction panel takes place on Tuesday, February 3, at 7 p.m. Eastern and is hosted by Mary Ann Naples, COO of Publishers Marketplace and presented by Publishers Lunch. Register here.

The panelists:

• Sue Aikens and editor Anna Michels, Sourcebooks, discuss North of Ordinary, "how one woman left it all behind for wilderness and wonder in Alaska's frozen frontier, from the breakout star of National Geographic's Life Below Zero." (March 10.)
• Casey Sherman and marketer Angela Corpus, Sourcebooks, discuss The Killer and Frank Lloyd Wright, "the true story of a mass murder in paradise." (May 26.)
• Sarah Wilson and editor Amy Sun, Penguin Life, discuss I Eat the Stars, "a deeply moving, wise guide to finding joy and meaning in a world that seems to be falling apart." (June 16.)
• Annabelle Gurwitch and editor Kathleen Harris, Zibby Books, discuss The End of My Life Is Killing Me, "a deftly comedic and deeply contemplative memoir about facing life's biggest curveball only to find resilience in the most unlikely places." (March 17.)
• Beth Howard and editor Eric Kerl, Haymarket Books, discuss Song for a Hard-Hit People, "an Appalachian organizer's excavation of the past, her own and her people's, to spark a collective fight for a future where we all have what we need and deserve, from the cultural strategist for Showing Up for Racial Justice (SURJ)." (April 21.)

Indian bookseller Anup Bamhi, owner of Faqir Chand bookstore, who "was gently proud of his family-run establishment, one of Delhi's most iconic bookstores, located in the capital's upscale Khan Market," died January 10, the Hindustan Times reported. He was 64.

Although he was a lawyer, "the city knew him for his bookshop. He was very charming, always willing to strike up conversations with customers about books--and also about food..... In the bookstore, he would sit behind the counter with wife, Mamta, both infusing their bookstore with a mom-and-pop ambiance. At home, while hosting friends in their drawing room, husband and wife would sing duets from old Hindi films. Sometimes, they would sing in the bookstore, too."

Faqir Chand opened in 1931 as the Oriental Book Shop in Peshawar Cantonment, ThePrint reported. After partition in 1947, the owner moved to Delhi and set up a shop in Khan Market, where it was renamed Faqir Chand Book Shop in 1951. After Chand's death, the shop was overseen by his wife, Uma, and granddaughter Mamta. In 1992, Mamta married Bahmi, "and soon, the couple would become an inseparable part of the experience of the book shop. It had been a family tradition, one that continues through the ages, to spend the day at the shop, with a constant supply of chai."

Over the past two years, Mamta Bahmi and their youngest son, Abhinav Bahmi, were more available at the shop, but Anup Bahmi also made occasional appearances.

In a tribute, Congress leader Pawan Khera wrote: "Anup Bahmi will always be an institution for book lovers. Bookstores like Faqir Chand and Sons have made Delhi a loveable city. I have seen several bookstores close down due to assault by the online culture. I wish Faqir Chand and Sons continues to live on. That will be the real tribute to Anup and his life long affair with books." 

Journalist Katie Couric has launched her own book club with The Correspondent by Virginia Evans (Crown) as the inaugural selection. The first meeting of the Katie Couric Book Club will be held January 19 on Substack at 7:30 p.m. Eastern.

"As some of you might have heard, my 2026 resolution can be summed up in four words: scroll less, read more," Couric said in introducing her book club. "To that end, and in an effort to hold myself accountable, I've started a book club!! I'm so excited. My goal is to read in community, as they say, one book a month. (I've already passed that, but more on that in a moment.)"

At the first meeting, Evans will be discussing her bestselling book and Couric "will be channeling all of you with my questions," she noted, adding that questions for Evans can be sent to info@katiecouric.com or dropped in the Substack comments section. Paid Substack subscribers will be able to ask questions in real time in the comments. 

"We'll be at Wayne State [University] this Friday morning from 10 a.m.-12 p.m. to celebrate the Wayne State MLK Tribute," Source Booksellers in Detroit, Mich., posted on Facebook. "Join us as we honor the legacy of Dr. King alongside Jessica Care Moore, author of Your Crown Shines, and Keisha N. Blain, author of Without Fear. It's a powerful moment of reflection, conversation, and community--and we'd love to see you there. Come celebrate, learn, and uplift with us. We also have a large selection of books on MLK in store if you want to check those out to celebrate."

"It's snowy outside but as cozy as ever in the bookstore," Loganberry Books in Shaker Heights, Ohio, posted on Instagram. "As is tradition on the most wintery of winter days, we are offering FREE hot chocolate to customers and passers-by all day long. Come on in, browse some books, and grab a cup of cocoa."

"Warm up with a good book." That was the sidewalk chalkboard message in front of Columbus Bound Bookshop, Columbus, Ga., which noted: "Visit our friends @midtowncoffeehouse for a cuppa and then come see us at Columbus Bound Bookshop to knock the chill off!"

In the Knopf Marketing Department:

Emily Murphy is promoted to senior director and will lead the Knopf marketing team.

Matthew Sciarappa is promoted to director.

---

At the St. Martin's Publishing Group:

Zoë Miller has been promoted to senior publicist.

Kiara Ronaghan has been promoted to associate publicist.

Austin Adams has been promoted to associate marketing manager.

The Library of Congress, in partnership with its Affiliate Centers for the Book and PBS Books, has launched the new video series, American Stories: A Reading Road Trip. The cross-country streaming series "uncovers the literary treasures of individual states and territories within the U.S. and the expansive storied heritage of the country," the Library said.

Timed with America's 250th birthday, each installment of American Stories: A Reading Road Trip will showcase the influence that local writers, poets, and raconteurs have had on the cultural identity of their region, inviting viewers to explore the heart, history and creative spirit of the U.S. through the lens of books and storytelling. Episodes include iconic authors, books, hidden-gem bookstores, libraries, and the locations that inspired great works.

In addition, each episode will share highlights from local programs and events hosted by each state's Affiliate Center for the Book, as well as showcase items in a variety of media from the online collections of the Library of Congress--maps, photographs, sheet music and more--that help illustrate the stories and reveal surprising connections.

"We are delighted by this partnership and the resulting programs," said Lee Ann Potter, director of Professional Learning and Outreach Initiatives at the Library. "It embodies 'E pluribus unum' ('Out of many, one'). Each episode is unique, just like the state or territory it focuses on, and together the series will present a full-length literary portrait of our nation at its semiquincentennial."

Thus far, the series has featured seven states: Rhode Island, Georgia, Ohio, Wyoming, Louisiana, Alaska, and Indiana. Episodes launching in early 2026 feature Washington state (scheduled to air February 4), the U.S. Virgin Islands, Arkansas, Iowa, and Nevada.

Episodes can be viewed at the Library's Center for the Book webpage, and the series is streaming from PBS Books. All future episodes will be added to the Library's website once they are released.

Winners have been unveiled in four categories for the Nero Book Awards, celebrating exceptional writing by authors in the U.K. and Ireland. Sponsored by Caffè Nero, the prizes are run in partnership with the Booksellers Association and Brunel University London. This year's Nero Book Awards category winners are: 

Fiction: Seascraper by Benjamin Wood
Nonfiction: Death of an Ordinary Man by Sarah Perry
Debut fiction: A Family Matter by Claire Lynch
Children's fiction: My Soul, A Shining Tree by Jamila Gavin

From these four category winners, one book will be selected as the overall winner and recipient of the Nero Gold Prize for Book of the Year, to be named March 4 in London. The overall winner receives £30,000 (about $40,290), while the other category winners get £5,000 (about $6,715) each.

Margot Douaihy's debut mystery, Scorched Grace, won the Pinckley Prize for Crime Fiction and was named one of the Best Crime Novels of the Year by the New York Times, the Guardian, CrimeReads, and others. Her second mystery, Blessed Water, was also named a New York Times Best Crime Novel of the Year (2024) and won the Publishing Triangle Award for LGBTQ Crime Fiction. The third mystery in her series, Divine Ruin (Gillian Flynn/Zando, January 13, 2026), continues the story of Sister Holiday in her darkest and most shocking case yet. Douaihy is an assistant professor in the Popular Fiction MFA at Emerson College in Boston.

Handsell readers your book in 25 words or less:

A hardboiled nun goes undercover in a Garden of Eden noir. She uses her rosary as brass knuckles only when needed.

On your nightstand now:

Murder Takes a Vacation by Laura Lippman. Darkly funny and melancholy. Lippman writes about aging brilliantly, and she pokes at the crimes behind the crimes in a sharp way.

Favorite book when you were a child:

And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie. Read it too young and never recovered. What a gift of a puzzler. Oh that Golden Age puzzler and off-the-page carnage!

Your top five authors:

Only five? Cruel. I'd start with S.A. Cosby, Gillian Flynn, Megan Abbott, Tana French, and Raymond Chandler. I envy folks who are reading their books for the first time. And each one shows us how a genre novel can be a delicious instrument of social critique as well as a gripping, soaring, rip-roaring page-turner. (Though entertainment is healing too.) Who knew crime could be so cathartic? To quote Libby Day in Dark Places: "I have a meanness inside me, real as an organ." That line is a poem to me.

Book you've faked reading:

Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace. Sorry not sorry. I tried and quit. Hey, I love footnotes as much as the next gal, but....

Book you're an evangelist for:

Meander, Spiral, Explode: Design and Pattern in Narrative by Jane Alison. It rewired how I think about story structure, and it freed me to love structure. (Organic, experimental, nonlinear storytelling is structure.) This book helped me think about structure in crime fiction and how to design them to best honor exigent stakes and play with conventions. Case in point: I love Tzvetan Todorov's theory of genre that sees a whodunit as a dual narrative structure, with one story focused on the crime (the past), and the other story focused on the investigation of that crime (future-facing).

Book you've bought for the cover:

The Art of Mystery: The Search for Questions by Maud Casey. Its simple cover felt like it was letting me in on a big secret (and it's a tiny pocket-sized book). It unlocks something true about the holiness of uncertainty, and it's helped me think more deeply about how to craft compelling mysteries. The crime stories I love the most are puzzles to solve and questions that crack us open, and this book helped me find the techniques to hold all of that.

Book you hid from your parents:

James Baldwin's Giovanni's Room changed everything for me.

Book that changed your life:

Giovanni's Room, again. Voice. Place. Queer recognition. Also, Frankenstein. The longing to be seen and the devastation of rejection. Both books feel so experimental even now, and they continue to inform my own aesthetic interest in the Burkean sublime (the dialect of beauty and terror).

Favorite line from a book:

"Love is a kind of killing" by Megan Abbott in Dare Me. This book refuses to quit and it refuses to lie about the allure of the abyss. Such a luscious book that suffuses the known and familiar with the feral. Every line is a banger.

Five books you'll never part with:

Razorblade Tears by S.A. Cosby (Ike Randolph and Buddy Lee live rent-free in my head). Dark Places by Gillian Flynn, for all the reasons, especially the risks she takes in this story, and that last scene with Libby's and Ben's hands on the glass. The Secret History by Donna Tartt. Shadow Tag by Louise Erdrich. My Sister, the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite. The Long Goodbye by Raymond Chandler. Philip Marlowe, with his snarky exterior and melancholic interior, still speaks to me. His love of whiskey, his voice, his sad/mad vibe, that fetishized hat and gun. As a queer kid, I adored Marlowe's swagger and tragic humanity, but I could never ignore the gap between us. I came of age during the Don't Ask, Don't Tell era, and Marlowe's freedom was a dangerous fantasy I yearned for but couldn't quite grab.

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

Without a doubt it's Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn. Camille Preaker's journey and her need to feel words. I just adore the dark poetry of chapter 16: "Traces of which were found in my toxicology tests."

A topic you could talk about for 30 minutes with zero prep:

Noir. Noir's lineage. Noir as theme. Noir's bracing questions. Noir might be the most honest love language we have.

When restaurant Chai Pani opened in Asheville, N.C., in 2009, Indian street food was hardly on the U.S. foodie scene. But since then, chef Meherwan Irani and his wife and business partner--and now author--Molly Irani have not only opened multiple locations but also expanded into spin-off businesses Botiwalla and Spicewalla. Service Ready: A Story of Love, Restaurants, and the Power of Hospitality is Molly Irani's exploration of both the human story behind the founding of the restaurant and the leadership techniques and strategies that she and Meherwan developed as they dreamed of running a restaurant differently.

"I wanted the world to know the real story of everyday restaurateurs. Our story is not unique; it's similar to so many other independent, underfunded, bootstrapped restaurants built the hard way--with a lot of love, resilience, commitment, and work," writes Irani. She dovetails the story of Chai Pani with the story of their lives, and she emphasizes the importance of being part of a community and local ecosystems rather than being just a business. She makes clear how her and her husband's leadership principles come from lived practices, shared values, and even the rocky moments, when they realized that following conventional wisdom could ruin their marriage or their business. To that end, she shows the difficulties of balancing their individual strengths and weaknesses; meeting the needs of their family, their employees, and their customers; and (eventually) preserving space for their life together. Chai Pani became a place where the Iranis put their ideals into action, such as embracing an attitude of working with what they had and cultivating a philosophy of "mindblasting" hospitality that "goes above and beyond in taking care of our guests, our community, and each other."

Irani's advice can scale to any enterprise and any leadership structure. This is in part because she demonstrates how consistent employee mentorship and review of business management practices and habits is a recipe for resilience. This resilience was not only proved in the lows of normal restaurant woes and the highs of winning a James Beard Award but also in the face of pandemic lockdowns and the devastating flooding that resulted from Hurricane Helene in 2024. Chai Pani's story inviting and heartening story is ultimately one of community and creative thinking. --Michelle Anya Anjirbag, freelance reviewer

Shelf Talker: Restaurateur Molly Irani reflects on the journey and practices that helped to make Chai Pani not only a runaway business success, but a key part of the local community.