Katerina Argyres, one of the owners of Folio Books, which closed in March after 10 years in business, is working with several former Folio booksellers to open another bookstore in Folio's old location in the Noe Valley neighborhood of San Francisco, Calif. The group, which includes Andrew McIntyre, Isaiah Scandrette, and Kit Fitzgerald, has created a GoFundMe campaign that has raised more than $20,000 toward its goal of $150,000.

"We are turning to you, the incredible literary community we have come to know and love, for help," Noe Valley Bookstore said on its GoFundMe page. "Please consider donating to our bookstore and spread the word that your local booksellers are returning home! Donations will be used for start-up costs including building maintenance, fixtures, inventory, and staffing."

The store also noted that "our most imminent costs are store maintenance and fixtures/bookshelves. Our building is old and in need of a LOT of TLC, from fixing leaks to deep cleaning to a fresh coat of paint. We will also use funds for initial inventory and staffing: two things we cannot open without."

Jeff Deutsch

Jeff Deutsch has left his position as executive director of Seminary Co-op Bookstores and 57th Street Books, Chicago, Ill. Deutsch joined the co-op in 2014, almost exactly a decade ago, after having been director of stores for the Stanford Bookstore Group for two years. Earlier he led the Cal Student Store at the University of California, Berkeley.

In 2019, Deutsch helped incorporate the Seminary Co-op Bookstores as the first not-for-profit bookstore whose mission is bookselling. In 2022, Princeton University Press published his In Praise of Good Bookstores, and this year, Ode Books, which the co-op co-founded and for which Deutsch still serves as co-publisher, released its first title, Reading the Room: A Bookseller's Tale by Paul Yamazaki of City Lights Bookstore, San Francisco, Calif.

He told Shelf Awareness his next project is founding the first official religion of books, the Temple for the Unchosen People of the Book, "for anyone who believes that books, bookspaces, and book sanctuaries provide spiritual meaning and enrichment." He's created a GoFundMe campaign to raise money for the sanctuary. (It is, he noted, an outgrowth of the Parallel Campaign, a guerrilla marketing campaign for Reading the Room.)

In an announcement, the Seminary Co-op Bookstores wished Deutsch "the very best in his future endeavors" and said that Noor Shawaf and Clancey D'Isa are serving as acting co-directors until an interim executive director is found. At that point, the board will launch "a more formal search" for a permanent executive director. Shawaf joined the co-op in 2022 as director of events and finance. D'Isa is managing director.

Deutsch may be reached via e-mail.

Custom candle from Elleinad Books

Puzzles "do really well at our store," said Danielle Eby, owner of children's bookstore Elleinad Books in Lincoln, Neb.; popular suppliers are Crocodile Creek and Mudpuppy. Warmies stuffed animals also sell well for Elleinad Books, and while they do a bit better during the colder months, they still move fairly well in the spring. Pens, markers, and art supplies by Ooly also prove popular.

Asked about locally or regionally made sidelines, Eby pointed to store-branded merchandise like bookmarks, earrings, and coffee mugs. She has also collaborated with a local candle maker, Wax Buffalo, to create a candle that smells like the bookstore. "Almost everybody who comes in the store comments on the smell, so I decided to capitalize on that and make a candle."

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Warmies at A Thousand Stories

In Herndon, Va., stickers and Warmies animals "always sell well" for A Thousand Stories, noted co-owner Michelle Ratto. Warmies in particular have remained popular since the store opened; she and co-owner Beth Luke source them from the wholesale website Faire. The store's favorite sticker vendor, Apartment 2, is also on Faire, and the pair recently brought in book fans sourced from the U.S. via Faire.

Ratto said the store doesn't carry many locally or regionally made sidelines, but Luke does make floral bouquets, both fresh and dried, as well as wreaths and a lantern-style decoration made from upcycled books. Seasonally, the shop also stocks chocolate from a local candy maker.

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Stickers and more at Ballast Book Company

At Ballast Book Company in Bremerton, Wash., enamel pins, socks, stickers, and washi tape are all selling well at the moment, reported store owner Kate Larson. Recently, Larson and her team brought in a line of role playing game-related sidelines from Weird Works, which they discovered at Emerald City Comic Con last year. Other new arrivals include patches, stickers, posters, and pins from Arcane Bullshit.

The store's locally made nonbook offerings include art and stickers from Stasia Burrington; book cozies by Summit and Sound; page holders from Casual Crafty Creations; and stickers made by a bookseller at Ballast Book Co. under the brand name the Rainbow Bookshelf, available on Faire. With summer coming up, the store has brought in more "small impulse kid purchases" in anticipation of children coming in with their adults and "wanting a Dog Man pencil or Pete the Cat squishy toy." And on the subject of store favorites, Larson pointed to Mustard Beetle water bottles, Plum Deluxe tea, and all manner of stickers. --Alex Mutter

If you are interested in having your store appear in a future Sidelines Snapshot article, please e-mail alex@shelf-awareness.com.

Caleb Carr

Caleb Carr, a military historian and author "whose experience of childhood abuse drove him to explore the roots of violence--most famously in his 1994 bestseller, The Alienist, a period thriller about the hunt for a serial killer in 19th-century Manhattan," died May 23, the New York Times reported. He was 68.

Carr was 39 when he published The Alienist, a book he had first pitched as nonfiction. It wasn't, but read that way because of the exhaustive research he had done into the period and the historical figures who featured as characters. The Alienist was an immediate hit and earned glowing reviews. Even before it was published, the movie rights were acquired, though the project never made it to the big screen. In 2018, however, a 10-episode mini-series was released on TNT.  

Magazine writers were captivated by Carr's "downtown cool--he lived on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, had been in a local punk band, wore black high-top sneakers and had shoulder-length hair--and by his literary provenance. His father was Lucien Carr, a journalist who was muse to and best friends with Beat royalty: the writers Jack Kerouac, William S. Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg. Beautiful and charismatic as a young man, 'Lou was the glue,' Ginsberg once said, that held the group together," the Times wrote.

Lucien Carr was also an alcoholic, and his son grew up in bohemian chaos, with his father raging at his wife and three sons but directing his most terrifying outbursts at Caleb, his middle child, whom he singled out for physical abuse. 

"There's no question that I have a lifelong fascination with violence," Caleb Carr told Stephen Dubner of New York magazine in 1994, just before The Alienist was published. "Part of it was a desire to find violence that was, in the first place, directed toward some purposeful end, and second, governed by a definable ethical code. And I think it's fairly obvious why I would want to do that."

His father had been sexually molested by his Boy Scout master, David Kammerer, who followed Lucien Carr when he entered Columbia University. In 1944, Lucien Carr killed his longtime predator in Riverside Park, stabbing him with his Boy Scout knife and rolling him into the Hudson River. Kerouac helped him dispose of the knife. Carr turned himself in the next day and served two years for manslaughter in a reformatory.

Kerouac and Burroughs wrote about the incident in a novel, And the Hippos Were Boiled in Their Tanks, which was rejected by publishers and then mired in legalities before finally being published in 2008, when all the principals were dead. In 2013, the incident was the subject of a film, Kill Your Darlings, starring Daniel Radcliffe as Ginsberg.

Before The Alienist was published, Caleb Carr had been writing on military subjects, including a book with James Chace about national security and, on his own, a biography of an American soldier of fortune who became a Chinese military hero in the mid-19th century. In 1997, Carr published The Angel of Darkness, a sequel to The Alienist. His other works include The Italian Secretary (2005), Surrender, New York (2016), and Lessons of Terror: A History of Warfare Against Civilians (2002). His last book, published in April, was My Beloved Monster: Masha, the Half-Wild Rescue Cat Who Rescued Me. 

"I have a grim outlook on the world, and in particular on humanity," he told Joyce Wadler of the Times in 2005. "I spent years denying it, but I am very misanthropic. And I live alone on a mountain for a reason."

This year, the New Press is celebrating the 50th anniversary of the publication of Working: People Talk About What They Do All Day and How They Feel About What They Do, Studs Terkel's classic oral history on the subject. Already, the New Press has compiled quotations from Terkel and others about his Working as well as links to some of the many interviews Terkel conducted over 50 years on WFMT in Chicago of a range of people.

In addition, the New Press has partnered with the North Figueroa Bookshop in Los Angeles on a mural honoring the book. (One of the building's outside walls is used for murals.) Appropriately the publisher has a special work connection with the store, which is a joint venture of Unnamed Press and Rare Bird: Unnamed publisher and co-founder Chris Heiser was a New Press intern in the 1990s, in the Press's early days.

"We were delighted earlier this week to be a part of an Indie Press Social organized by @glibabooksellers and @siba_books," Carmichael's Bookstore, Louisville, Ky., posted on Instagram, along with a few photos from the event. "This great event brought together booksellers and small presses to dialogue, learn together, build community, and have fun!

"Our staff who attended had high praise for the day (they were too into it to snap many photos). Folks got to spend the day touring Sarabande Books and celebrating the press turning 30(!) this year, hearing from independent presses at our Crescent Hill store, and then dining and bowling at @vernonlanes. We're grateful to have been part of the Louisville welcome wagon for booksellers and publishers."

"Well, our sign did say 'Hear the sirens, grab your books!' Our thoughts are with those that suffered damage and flooding and hope everyone stayed safe during the storms yesterday evening. The sun is shining today and we are open normal hours for the holiday," Subterranean Books, St. Louis, Mo., posted on Instagram.

The Lost Forest: An Unexpected Discovery Beneath the Waves by Jennifer Swanson (Millbrook Press).

Today:
CBS Mornings: John Grisham, author of Camino Ghosts: A Novel (Doubleday, $29.95, 9780385545990). He will also appear tomorrow on the View.

Today Show: Darius Rucker, author of Life's Too Short: A Memoir (Dey Street, $29.99, 9780063238749).

The Talk: Paul Scheer, author of Joyful Recollections of Trauma (HarperOne, $29.99, 9780063293717).

Drew Barrymore Show: Sara Jane Ho, author of Mind Your Manners: How to Be Your Best Self in Any Situation (Hachette Go, $29.49, 9780306832833).

Fresh Air: Rachel Somerstein, author of Invisible Labor: The Untold Story of the Cesarean Section (Ecco, $32, 9780063264410).

Late Show with Stephen Colbert repeat: Jen Psaki, author of Say More: Lessons from Work, the White House, and the World (Scribner, $28.99, 9781668019856).

Tomorrow:
CBS Mornings: Constance Wu, author of Making a Scene (Scribner, $18.99, 9781982188559).

Today Show: Rachel Khong, author of Real Americans: A Novel (Knopf, $29, 9780593537251).

Sherri Shepherd Show: Steve Guttenberg, author of Time to Thank: Caregiving for My Hero (Post Hill Press, $30, 9798888451465).

A trailer has been released for Jon M. Chu's two-part film adaptation of the Tony award-winning Broadway musical Wicked, which was based on Gregory Maguire's 1995 novel Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West. Ariana Grande "is returning to her child-star roots" to play Glinda the Good Witch, with Cynthia Erivo as Elphaba (later known as the Wicked Witch of the West), Jonathan Bailey as Prince Fiyero, and Jeff Goldblum as the Wizard, IndieWire reported. 

The cast also includes Michelle Yeoh, Bowen Yang, Peter Dinklage, Adam James, Keala Settle, Bronwyn James, Ethan Slater, and Colin Michael Carmichael. Wicked: Part One premieres November 27 in theaters, with a 2025 holiday season release anticipated for part two.

Chu (In the Heights, Crazy Rich Asians) directs the project, written by Tony nominee Winnie Holzman. "We decided to give ourselves a bigger canvas and make not just one Wicked movie but two!" Chu noted. "With more space, we can tell the story of Wicked as it was meant to be told while bringing even more depth and surprise to the journeys for these beloved characters."

A shortlist has been released for the C$25,000 (about US$18,345) Stephen Leacock Memorial Medal for Humor, which honors "the best Canadian book of literary humor published in the previous year." The winner will be named June 22 at the Leacock Medal Gala Dinner, where all three finalists will be celebrated. This year's shortlisted titles are:

Coq by Ali Bryan
The Librarianist by Patrick deWitt
Girlfriend on Mars by Deborah Willis

Jane Alison's fifth novel, Villa E, is an impressionistic work of historical fiction that imagines the fraught relationship between Irish designer Eileen Gray and Le Corbusier, the Swiss-French giant of modernist architecture, surrounding a house on France's Côte d'Azur. The intriguing story of the clash between these two strong-willed artists, despite its brevity, raises some vexing questions about gender relations, creativity, and professional rivalry.

In chapters that shift between the perspectives of Eileen and Le Corbusier (known here as "Le Grand"), Alison (Meander, Spiral, Explode), who teaches creative writing at the University of Virginia, describes the self-taught architect Eileen's innovative design of a house that is "intimate and modern but not a machine," that sits above the Ligurian Sea "like a slim white yacht on the rock." One of the house's most striking features is a "spiral staircase like the whorl of a whelk."

In the late 1930s Le Corbusier is invited to lunch by Jean Badovici (identified as "Bado" in the novel), Eileen's sometime lover and collaborator on the house known as E-1027 (its name combining Eileen's and Jean's names in code), and immediately is seized by the distinctive qualities of this "alarmingly elegant, intelligent place" that's "made not only in Le G's own style but an experiment and critique of his work." When Bado invites him for an extended stay alone at the house, he takes the shocking step of covering some of its stark white walls with sexually explicit drawings. Eileen learns of this desecration from Bado, who refuses to remove his friend's work, establishing a stalemate that's not resolved before German soldiers occupy the house during World War II, preventing Eileen from returning. Only decades later does she see the house again, reflecting on the strangeness of "how places that have been sublimated into memory nevertheless still exist in the world."

In framing this controversial encounter, Alison shapes vivid interior lives for her two principal characters. Of the pair, Le Corbusier's is the more substantial, as he oscillates between admiration for Eileen's work and profound creative jealousy. The famed architect also reflects on his marriage and a long history of infidelity that appears to color his view of Eileen and her work. Le Corbusier's obsession with Eileen's creation is so strong that he constructs for himself a small cabin and shack nearby--his "three skinny pine trees and four square meters of sand"--where he lives and works for years. It was there that he died on August 27, 1965, while swimming in the gorgeous sea below. Eileen lived on until 1976. Alison's novel is a provocative glimpse of the short but intense intersection of these two deeply creative and idiosyncratic lives. --Harvey Freedenberg, freelance reviewer

Shelf Talker: Jane Alison's fifth novel is a brief character study of the clash between two key figures of modernist architecture--Le Corbusier and Eileen Gray.

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

1. Fire in the Hole! by Bob Parsons
2. The Dixon Rule by Elle Kennedy
3. King of Sloth by Ana Huang
4. Haunting Adeline by H.D. Carlton
5. Twisted Love by Ana Huang
6. King of Wrath by Ana Huang
7. The Teacher by Freida McFadden
8. The Inmate by Freida McFadden
9. Hunting Adeline by H.D. Carlton
10. The Ritual by Shantel Tessier

[Many thanks to IndieReader.com!]