"One of the biggest joys for me, in my long career of publishing twenty-something books, has been meeting the independent booksellers. It doesn't matter if you're in Houston, or Wichita, or Mobile, or Nashville, or Miami, or Portland--you get the point--If there's an independent bookstore, there's a cool community, because the independent bookstores serve those communities....

"The support I've gotten from indie booksellers is kind of unprecedented and it embodies the spirit of the yellow bus. It fills her with joy when she is serving others. And I feel like independent booksellers do that same thing. They get joy when they put a book into a customer's hand."

Derf and Mary Ann Maitland, longtime owners of the Reader's Cafe in Hanover, Pa., have sold the bookstore to new owners, the Hanover Evening Sun reported. The new owners, who officially take over on August 1, plan to change the store's name to Little Fox Coffee & Books.

In a Facebook post announcing the change, the Maitlands wrote: "After almost 29 years, we have decided to sell the Reader's Cafe. The support you have given us over the years has been overwhelming and the friendships we've made will be cherished always.

"As of August 1st we leave 125 Broadway in good hands, but under a new name and new ownership. We have always felt that we couldn't leave until the right people came along and we feel that that day has come. We won't give out too much information, for that is their story to write, but we can say it's like looking in a mirror 29 years ago as a young family with lots of ideas and a lot of excitement!"

The Maitlands noted that the new owners have always dreamed of opening a bookstore, and they encouraged Reader's Cafe customers to "embrace and support them as you have us, so that they can continue to give our community a great place to gather. So…as we quietly slip out the back door, please welcome them as they walk in the front door!"

In preparation for the change, the Reader's Cafe is running a sale until July 31. Used books are 50% off, new books are 40% off, and consignment books are 20% off.

Holt Bookshelf in Holt, Mich., will close by the end of the year, FOX47 reported.

After 12 years in business, owner Laura Spanburg has decided to close the store, which sold new and used books. In a Facebook post announcing the closure, she wrote: "The staff and myself have had a long and wonderful experience providing reading material to so many for the past 12 years. This has not been an easy decision for me but it is time for me to retire and spend some much needed, and well deserved, time with family and friends.

"It has been one of my greatest pleasures to serve the Holt/Lansing community for so long and I can honestly say that so many of you have become more than just a customer to me and the girls. So please know that the Bookshelf family will always adore and appreciate you all."

The bookstore will stay open until Christmas or until Spanburg sells the last of the remaining inventory. Starting July 22, everything at the Bookshelf was 20% off.

In Vineyard Haven, Mass., Bunch of Grapes Bookstore sells plenty of journals, with owner Molly Coogan reporting that there are options available in a variety of styles and at various price points. Some particularly popular brands include Bruno Visconti and Peter Pauper as well as Moleskine and Earthbound. The shop, which is located on Martha's Vineyard, also sells a "ton of greeting cards," and Coogan sources them from many different vendors in order to appeal to many different tastes. Cards range from sentimental to quirky, and she noted that cards and postcards made by local artists and photographers, or featuring local themes, always do well, especially in the summer.

Calendars at Bunch of Grapes

Calendars are also perennial sellers, and Coogan pointed to two particular calendars published by local photographers. One features photographs of the Vineyard paired with dates of Vineyard events and history. Started by the late Peter Simon, the tradition has been carried on by his wife. The store sells "hundreds of copies each year." Photographer Michael Blanchard does a Vineyard calendar that benefits a different local charity each year; Coogan said people are always "eager to support his work and mission."

Bunch of Grapes has had success selling Conscious Step socks, which are ethically and sustainably made and support organizations like the Trevor Project. Stickers are "having a moment," with Coogan mentioning Ace the Pitman and Mincing Mockingbird. The store can't keep items from Arcane Bullsh-t in stock, which include totes, stickers, and posters that feature public domain art and absurd text.

Being in a beach town, "rainy day items" are always popular, with some examples including puzzles from vendors like New York Puzzle Co., Pomegranate, and eeBoo, as well as board games and art supplies from eeBoo and Ooly.

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Sally Brewster, owner of Park Road Books in Charlotte, N.C., said booklights and reusable bags are the store's big sidelines sellers right now. She orders displays from Mighty Bright, and Baggu is the store's bestselling reusable bag. Brewster noted that she's been carrying Baggu for more than 10 years; in that time they've gotten very popular, and she and her team now need to preorder the designs they want. There are also canvas totes from Gibbs Smith, and Park Road Books recently brought in dog tags and charms from Quotable, which have been reordered twice. Brewster added that as a dog-friendly store, the latter's success makes sense.

Keyring from My City Souvenirs

For local merchandise, Park Road Books works with My City Souvenirs and carries items like magnets and playing cards with Charlotte landmarks and North Carolina themes. Postcards featuring images of Charlotte have also seen a rise in popularity lately.

Puzzles and greeting cards "sell constantly." For puzzles, Brewster orders from Heritage Puzzle, which is local, as well as New York Puzzle Co., Gallison, White Mountain Puzzles, Pomegranate, and Springbok Puzzles. The biggest seller for boxed cards, meanwhile, is Earth Sky + Water. Brewster said they are "incredible to work with." --Alex Mutter

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

Rosa Ross, a Hong Kong-born chef "who, despite lacking even basic kitchen knowledge into her 20s, became a noted cookbook author, Chinese cooking instructor and restaurateur on the North Fork of Long Island," died June 28, the New York Times reported. She was 86. Drawing from the culinary influences of her youth--Chinese, English, Indian, Malaysian--Ross began her rise in the food world in the early 1980s by traveling to homes around New York City to provide Chinese cooking lessons with a business called Wok on Wheels.

She published the first of her four cookbooks, 365 Ways to Cook Chinese, in 1994. Ten years later, after moving to Greenport, N.Y., she launched the restaurant Scrimshaw, "an early farm-to-table American restaurant that blended in elements of the Asian cuisine of her youth, including heritage-pork dumplings and duck-confit spring rolls that became the stuff of local legend," the Times noted. The restaurant, which closed in 2016, also showcased Italian fare, which she first learned to make while living in Milan and honed under the tutelage of her friend Marcella Hazan, author of The Classic Italian Cook Book.

Ross fashioned a prominent, if unlikely, career in food after she eloped to London with Ronald Ross, a radio disc jockey from Australia, in 1961. "I was in my 20s when I left Hong Kong and I didn't know how to cook," she said in an interview last year with Northforker magazine. 

In 1963, two years after their arrival in London, her husband took a job in Milan. At a dinner party, Ross was seated next to Hazan, the only other person there who spoke English. As their friendship developed, Hazan began teaching her the basics of cooking, including her buttery red sauce, which would become famous.

After moving to Los Angeles in 1967, Ross began to get in touch with the cuisine of her youth by exploring the city's Chinese markets and restaurants. The quest continued when she moved to New York in 1977, and evolved into a business when friends told her they were taking classes from Grace Zia Chu, a noted Chinese cooking instructor. Wok on Wheels thrived for a decade, branching off into a successful catering business. 

Ross's other cookbooks include New Wok Cooking: Easy, Healthy, One-Pot Meals; Beyond Bok Choy: A Cook's Guide to Asian Vegetables; and Chinese Healing Foods (with Suzanne LeVert). She also wrote for major food publications, including Food & Wine and Saveur, as well as ghostwrote and tested books for well-known personalities. 

Shelf Awareness for Readers, our weekly consumer-facing publication featuring adult and children's book reviews, author interviews, backlist recommendations, and fun news items, is being published today. Starred review highlights include Heavyweight, "the vulnerably illuminating debut memoir" by Solomon J. Brager, which ambitiously excavates personal, familial, and global histories; and Putty Pygmalion by Lonnie Garcia, a "surprisingly tender" depiction of quirky characters learning that true affection cannot be coerced. Plus, for young readers, Wings of an Eagle: The Gold Medal Dreams of Billy Mills documents the Olympic gold medalist's "impassioned tale of determination and grit" in achieving greatness despite adversity, paired with "striking artwork" by S.D. Nelson. And in a special feature, we take a deeper look at Comics Bear Witness to History, with recommendations for manga (Japan), manhwa (Korea), and manhua (China), including Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas's JAJ, Susumu Higa's Okinawa, and more. Plus, rediscover the late journalist and author Evan Wright, whose experiences embedded with American soldiers during the Iraq invasion in 2003 became the book and HBO miniseries Generation Kill.

Today's issue of Shelf Awareness for Readers is going to more than 690,000 customers of 251 independent bookstores. Stores interested in learning more can contact our partnership program team via e-mail. To see today's issue, click here.

Posted on Facebook by Bridgeside Books, Waterbury, Vt.: "Hi, I'm Ralph, and I approve this message. I'm the unofficial bookstore dog, but Mom says that even at 7 years old I have too much energy to hang out for the day. Mostly I just come for the dog treats (I've really been working on my sad puppy eyes). Sometimes she uses them to make me take photos, which is fine by me cuz I still get the TREAT! A lot of people ask me what I'm made of, so here's the rundown: border collie, lab, pittie, beagle, and a smattering if other random DNA.... I like to chase rabbits in the yard and fetch balls and snuggle on the couch. I hope to meet you soon. Will you have a treat in your pocket for me??"

Corey Mesler, author and co-owner of Burke's Bookstore, Memphis, Tenn., shared a photo of the sidewalk chalkboard in front of the shop highlighting his reading and book signing event last night, noting: "Thanks to Amanda Bearden for this delightful chalkboard. And I promise this is my last reminder about Thursday night."

"Take a break from the heat and stop in to find your next read!" White River Books, Carbondale, Colo., advised on Instagram. 

At St. Martin's Publishing Group:

Stephen Erickson is promoted to marketing manager.

Ana Couto is promoted to associate, marketing.

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At Berkley:

Chelsea Pascoe has been promoted to senior publicist.

Tina Joell has been promoted to senior publicist.

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Alexa Rosenberg has joined Sourcebooks as sales associate.

A comedy series based on Grady Hendrix's 2021 bestselling novel The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires has landed at HBO, with the author writing alongside Danny McBride and Edi Patterson (The Righteous Gemstones). Deadline reported that the project "was previously in development at Amazon with Patrick Moran's PKM Productions but has now moved to the Warner Bros. Discovery premium network without Moran's involvement."

Hendrix, McBride, and Patterson will executive produce, alongside Brandon James for McBride's Rough House Pictures. Quirk Books, which published the novel, will have an exec producer credit as well.

The Alliance of Radical Booksellers has released a shortlist for the £2,000 (about $2,580) Little Rebels Award for Radical Children's Fiction, which recognizes" the rich tradition of radical publishing for children in the U.K."

Currently restricted to fiction targeted at children up to age 12, the award is administered by Letterbox Library and Housmans Bookshop in London. The winner will be named at a ceremony in October. This year's shortlisted titles are:

A Hero Like Me by Angela Joy, Jen Reid, and Leire Salaberria 
Grandad's Pride by Harry Woodgate 
Is That Your Mama? by Patrice Lawrence and Diane Ewen 
Man-Man and the Tree of Memories by Yaba Badoe and Joelle Avelino 
The Lizzie and Belle Mysteries: Portraits and Poison by J.T. Williams, illustrated by Simone Douglas 
The Piano at the Station by Helen Rutter, illustrated by Elisa Paganelli 
We Are Here by Kate Rafiq 
You're So Amazing! by James and Lucy Catchpole, illustrated by Karen George 

photo: Joseph Sebastia Photography

Elise Bryant is the NAACP Image Award-nominated author of Happily Ever Afters, One True Loves, and Reggie and Delilah's Year of Falling. For many years, Bryant had the joy of working as a special education teacher. It's Elementary (Berkley, July 9, 2024), a delightful cozy mystery romp, is her first novel for adults.

Handsell readers your book in 25 words or less:

PTA MOM MURDER (?) MYSTERY!

On your nightstand now:

I read the first few chapters of All the Sinners Bleed by S.A. Cosby before my alarm this morning and my heartrate still hasn't returned to normal. I'll probably ignore all my other responsibilities and finish it this afternoon because I can't think about anything else.

Favorite book when you were a child:

I used to play Little Women (Louisa May Alcott) with my friends at recess in third grade. We'd all fight over who got to be Jo, and the worst was getting Beth because then you'd just have to lie down on the grass all lunch recess.

Your top five authors:

My answer to this question changes constantly because I'm always finding new favorite authors, but currently Emily Henry, Tia Williams, Becky Albertalli, Richard Osman, and Attica Locke.

Book you've faked reading:

All the Shakespeare my teachers assigned.

Book you're an evangelist for:

Killing Me by Michelle Gagnon. This book was a totally bonkers delight that had me alternating between gasps and giggles. I suggested it to everyone for months just so I could hear their reactions to that perfect first chapter.

Book you've bought for the cover:

Big by Vashti Harrison. It's my eight-year-old's favorite book, and I try not to cry too much when I read it to her.

Book you hid from your parents:

Helter Skelter by Vincent Bugliosi and Curt Gentry. My mom said it would give me nightmares, but I was 16 and resented her assumption that she knew anything about my psyche. (Also I started sneaking her Faye Kellerman novels at a very young age! I was tough!) So, I read it late at night after she went to sleep... and still have nightmares about it to this day.

Book that changed your life:

The Princess Diaries by Meg Cabot. I was in sixth grade when I read this book for the first time, and I remember thinking, you're allowed to write like this? And it'll be published? It was so voice-y and snarky and fun and completely unlike all the books people were always telling me were important--but it became the most important book to me. I found my own writing voice through reading Mia Thermopolis's.

Favorite line from a book:

This is impossible for me to answer. I can't even remember any lines from the books I have written. Seriously, I'll get tagged in quotes that are apparently from my novels, and I'm like, I wrote that? Are you sure?

Five books you'll never part with:

An American Marriage by Tayari Jones--I don't think any other book has ever made me feel this much.

Kindred by Octavia Butler--I read this in college and it opened up my mind to a whole 'nother dimension of possibilities for Black stories.

The Black Kids by Christina Hammonds Reed--After reading this book, I made Christina become my best friend because it was immediately clear how freakishly aligned our brains and upbringings were.

1000 Words by Jami Attenberg--Jami's #1000wordsofsummer movement has become an essential part of my writing practice, and I don't think I've underlined so many lines in any book, ever.

The Upside of Unrequited by Becky Albertalli--I picked this book up when I was teaching high school, and it brought me back to YA after a long time away. It was so authentic and earnest and swoony, and it made me want to start writing again, too. The next year, I started drafting my own YA novel, which would become my debut, Happily Ever Afters. When my editor sent me a blurb from Becky, I cried for days.

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

The Final Revival of Opal & Nev by Dawnie Walton--all I really remember about this book is the feeling it left me with: total awe. I rarely reread books, but I want to experience that again.

Stacy Sivinski's first novel, The Crescent Moon Tearoom, is a sweet, wise balm of a story about family, change, and coming into oneself.

The Quigley triplets, Anne, Violet, and Beatrix, have always been close. Their beloved mother was a powerful Diviner, able to read the future in various signs. Her daughters put the same skill to use in the Crescent Moon Tearoom, where the three young witches sell magical teas and delectable baked goods and tell fortunes to hordes of Chicago's women and witches. The tearoom (run out of the family home, itself an endearing character with a will and magic of its own) does a booming business, but all is not well with the Quigley sisters. A challenge comes from the Council of Witches: the younger three must help three older witches discover their Tasks, which is a witch's very reason for existence and is imperative to complete before a witch passes, or she's "doomed to linger as a spirit for all eternity." If they fail, the Council will close their shop. The events entwine with a potential curse on the sisters, threatening to undo everything the sisters love.

Although nearly identical in appearance, the Quigleys are quite different individuals. Their mother used to say, "Violet has her head in the clouds, and Beatrix's nose is in a book. But [Anne's] feet are always planted firmly on the ground." While Violet (the family baker) is volatile and in constant, foot-tapping motion, Beatrix is shy and dreamy. Anne is the caretaker, the brewer of teas, and has secretly been holding back her own magical powers so as not to surpass her sisters. They "had been locked in their web of affection and dependence for so long now. Their bonds had taken shape during childhood and seemed to be coated in bronze." As they struggle with the ominous Council's extraordinary demands, their differences are highlighted, even as each sister finds opportunities for new growth.

Sivinski's droll telling details the lovable Quigleys with all their quirk and charm, each with their own moving emotional arc. Chapters are headed with signs and symbols, as one might find in tea leaves at the bottom of a cup, with brief descriptions of their meaning: a fan suggests flirting with temptation; a bat foreshadows a fruitless endeavor. Each line captivates: "As seers, the Quigleys had long ago accepted that questioning what they saw in the remnants of their customers' tea was about as useful as trying to wash cherry jelly out of a silk blouse." With its sweetness, realistic challenges, and satisfying resolution, The Crescent Moon Tearoom is a rare pleasure. Readers will miss the Quigley sisters at this novel's end. --Julia Kastner, librarian and blogger at pagesofjulia

Shelf Talker: This entrancing debut stars triplet witches who can see the future, but must work together and individually to grasp their own.

I take being a reader for granted; so do you, I suspect. Not reading seems like not breathing, though of the two I'm aware it ranks (a close) second. On the other hand, I know many non-readers, or, to be more specific, non-book readers: friends, family, casual acquaintances, etc. Most of them seem to get along in the world just fine, and have long been as puzzled by my bookish nature as I am by their booklessness. 

On a crowded street, you couldn't tell the difference between readers and non-readers unless the former were visibly packing a novel. Because of my profession and my long life as a reader of books, I know more readers than perhaps the average person does. That's not a provable theory, of course, though circumstantial evidence would seem to point in that direction.

As a book reader and a writer who focuses on other bookish folk, I sometimes feel like I live under a kind of sci-fi dome-world, a global village in which we all, readers and non-readers alike, move among each other freely, yet the book reading villagers have this secret power. 

On the other hand, non-readers intrigue me. Maybe that's why as I read through a couple of recent reading studies, I was drawn to stats about the people who don't read and why they live that life.

Earlier this week, a new Reading Agency survey, The State of the Nation's Adult Reading, reported that half of U.K. adults do not regularly read and 15% have never read regularly for pleasure, while 35% used to read but have stopped. Attention is an issue overall, with 28% of U.K. adults saying they have difficulty focusing on reading for more than a few minutes.

Comparing this data with a study conducted in 2015, the Reading Agency's research found that these figures mark not just a notable decrease in the number of U.K. adults reading regularly, but also a stark increase in the number of non-readers. With only 50% of the nation now saying they read regularly, down from 58% in 2015, the decline has gathered momentum in recent years, with 15% of the nation now saying they do not currently read for pleasure and have never done so regularly. That's a rise of 88% since 2015, when just 8% of U.K. adults were non-readers." 

The research also indicates a potential for this trend to continue growing, with younger adults being less likely to read than all other age groups. One-quarter of young people across the U.K. (aged 16-24) say they've never been regular readers, while an additional 44% already identify as "lapsed readers." 

Lack of free time was often cited as a barrier, but non-readers said they haven't picked up a reading habit because they struggle with reading (13%), can't focus on it (49%), don't enjoy it (25%), or can't find things that interest them (16%), while 57% said they only read when they have to. 

The reader/non-reader dome is international. While exploring the Reading Agency study, I also happened to notice a Maeil Business Newspaper article, headlined "In the Age of Not Reading, International Book Fair Is a Box Office Hit." The piece noted the irony of a recent study that found half of South Korean adults do not read books, contrasted with a photo of a visitor to the Seoul International Book Fair filling a bag with books. Both were currently coexisting on social media. 

The 2023 National Reading Survey, released by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism earlier this year, showed that during the year studied (Sept. 2022 to Aug. 2023), 57% of Korean adults had not read a book. Over the past decade, the overall reading trend has been steadily decreasing, with 24.4% of adults citing work and 20.6%  "using media other than books" as the biggest reasons why it was difficult to read.

By contrast, the 2024 Seoul International Book Fair, held June 26-30, hosted 452 participants from 19 countries (330 domestic and 122 foreign companies) and presented more than 450 programs, including exhibitions, side events, lectures and seminars, and on-site events. Maeil Business Newspaper noted that this year's book fair recorded 150,000 visitors,  20,000 increase from 2023. On the weekend, the number of people entering was concentrated, and the waiting time alone took about an hour.

We're all wandering around under the same dome, readers and non-readers alike. Of course the Internet, and particularly social media, can sometimes feel like an echo chamber if the majority of your connections (well, mine, to own it) are bookworld people. 

In a 2017 Guardian piece headlined "This Christmas, don't give books to non-readers," David Barnett observed that living inside our readers' echo chamber "can lull a person into a false sense that the world is full of happy bibliophiles. And that perhaps makes it harder for us to understand why people don’t read books, and even mistrust them.

"Which is a very curious thing. Books expand our minds and give us a greater understanding of the world around us; yet, a lot of readers persist in looking down on those who don’t read. And there might be many, many reasons for why they don’t.... But some people just don’t need books."

What a concept. I should read more about that.