L'Oreal Thompson Payton

Zora's Place, a Black feminist bookstore and community hub, opened Saturday in Evanston, Ill., the Evanston RoundTable reported.

Named for Zora Neale Hurston, the bookstore is one of several local businesses residing in the AUX, a Black-owned wellness collective and business hub. It sells fiction and nonfiction with an emphasis on Black women authors, artists, and entrepreneurs. In addition to books, Zora's Place carries journals, soaps, and other items made by Black-owned businesses, and owner L'Oreal Thompson Payton plans to host storytime sessions, author talks, open mic nights, book clubs, and other events. 

"I saw the space, and it was literally love at first sight," Thompson Payton told the Evanston RoundTable. "I was like, 'this is where it needs to be.' I saw everything immediately--the furniture, the orange sofa, the bookshelves and, more than that, just this community space."

Earlier this spring, Thompson Payton launched a crowdfunding campaign to help her open the store that raised more than $11,000. She said at the time that owning a bookstore had been a retirement dream for her, but after visiting Café con Libros in Brooklyn, N.Y., and seeing Call & Response Books open in Chicago, Ill., she was inspired to open her own store in Evanston.

Following a successful crowdfunding campaign, Plot Twist Cafe is set to open in Maryville, Mo., this November, the Northwest Missourian reported.

The bookstore and cafe, located at 214 W. Fifth St., will carry new and used titles for all ages. Alongside books, owner and author Bailey Harms will stock nonbook items like mugs, tote bags, and enamel pins, with board games also available. The cafe will serve coffee, tea, lemonade, and an assortment of baked goods. 

Plot Twist will have a library lounge space featuring a selection of books and board games that customers are welcome to use. Harms's event plans include book clubs, author signings, D&D sessions, and more.

"I want it to be a community and family-friendly space that people can enjoy while sipping drinks," Harms told the Northwest Missourian. "It's also just more access to books. Making literature accessible to the public is never bad. It's always a positive."

In late July, Harms launched a Kickstarter campaign looking to raise $15,000. It concluded having raised $15,160, and Harms plans to put that money toward building out and licensing the cafe, buying books and shelving, buying decor and furniture, and covering other expenses.

Harms has been in the area ever since attending Northwest Missouri State University, and throughout that time she has felt the community needed an independent bookstore.

"There hasn't been one since long before I started here, so I've just really never known Maryville with a bookstore," she said. "This spring, I got the idea to open a bookstore."

Fulton Street Books & Coffee, Tulsa, Okla., which specializes in titles by people of color as well as other marginalized segments of society, plans to close in the next month, Tulsa World reported. Owner Onikah Asamoa-Caesar first opened at 211 W. Latimer St. in 2020, before moving in 2023 to the current location at 21 N. Greenwood Ave., next door to the Greenwood Rising Black Wall Street History Center.

The bookstore marked its fifth anniversary on Thursday, September 18, with its annual Adult Book Fair. In an e-mail announcing the event, Asamoa-Caesar wrote: "When we opened Fulton Street Books & Coffee five years ago, we didn't just open a bookstore. We rooted ourselves in community. We built something beautiful. We told stories--ours and yours--and we created a space where literacy, culture, coffee, and connection could thrive under one roof. 

"Now, five years later, we're writing our final Tulsa chapter. That's a hard sentence to write--but it's one held with deep gratitude, a lot of pride, and a full heart. We're so thankful for every person who bought a book, came to storytime, joined a book club, grabbed a coffee, donated, volunteered, or simply believed in what we were trying to build.... This chapter is closing--but the story isn't over. We'll be sharing more soon about what's next for Fulton Street. Stay close. Big things are ahead."

Occidental College in Los Angeles, Calif., has launched a new partnership with Barnes & Noble College to upgrade the old systems being used in the bookstore, the Occidental reported. While the school still owns the store and building, B&N College is operating the inside of the bookstore.

"The bookstore is an underperforming cost center," said Erik Russell, assistant v-p of hospitality and auxiliary services. "What Barnes & Noble brings to the table in terms of the operations is the tools, the systems and the efficiencies that we simply didn't have."

Bookstore manager Donna Huebner said the partnership with B&N College allows the bookstore to have access to a wider range of book selections: "They're able to go in and negotiate with some of these publishers to be able to get books in digital format. So in a lot of ways, for textbooks especially, it's been better for us."

Marian Burros

Marian Burros, a journalist and cookbook author whose reporting "gave new urgency to safety and health issues regarding food," died September 20, the New York Times reported. She was 92. As food editor of the Washington Star and the Washington Post in the 1970s, Burros "made consumer protection and food safety topics a focus, expanding the boundaries of traditional women's-page food writing to include not just recipes but also reporting on nutrition, truth in advertising and government policy."

Marion Nestle, an emeritus professor of nutrition, food studies, and public health at New York University, noted that Burros "was hugely ahead of her time in writing about the importance of food choices that not only improve health but also are sustainable and protect the environment. She was writing about the politics of food long before anyone dreamed that a food movement might exist."

After graduating from Wellesley College with an English degree in 1954, Burros and Lois Levine, a friend, printed a collection of their home recipes on a mimeograph machine and sold it to local bookstores and through Wellesley's clubs nationwide. The collection was eventually published by Collier Books as Elegant but Easy: A Cookbook for Hostesses (1961), which sold half a million copies. A revised and updated version, The New Elegant but Easy Cookbook, was released in 1998.

She also collaborated with Levine on Second Helpings (1963) and Freeze With Ease (1965). Burros's own books include The Summertime Cookbook: Elegant but Easy Dining Indoors and Out (1972), Pure and Simple: Delicious Recipes for Additive-Free Cooking (1978), Eating Well Is the Best Revenge (1995), and Cooking for Comfort (2003).

Burros began writing a food column for Maryland News in 1962, and went on to become food editor at the Washington Daily News and the Washington Star before the Washington Post hired her as its food editor in 1974. She joined the Times in 1981 and continued to employ her approach that combined recipe writing with investigative reporting. 

"She might offer a recipe for, say, Martha Washington's Great Cake, usually in the weekly De Gustibus column, which she took over in 1983, while reporting on a sodium labeling bill being debated in Congress or regulatory battles over the wording of federal dietary guidelines," the Times wrote. 

Her plum torte was one of the most popular recipes in the history of the newspaper. "It is beyond understanding why fans of the recipe do not just save it from year to year, instead of depending on its appearance in this column," she wrote when the torte ended its seven-year run in 1989. "Yet one of this year's requests read, 'Isn't it about time for the plum torte recipe?' "

Burros retired in 2008, but continued writing freelance articles. "Her reporting made her a leading voice in the rising consumer movement. She was known as a ruthless interrogator of food industry claims and a highly skeptical reader of ingredient labels," the Times noted.

"I saw so many things over a period of time that made me think that all was not right in the world of food," she told Wellesley magazine in 2016. "There was a lot of fraud, a lot of cover-ups, and I wanted people to have all the facts so that they could make informed decisions."

At Kepler’s 70th anniversary block party: CEO Praveen Madan (r.) with staff.

Congratulations to Kepler's Books, Menlo Park, Calif., which celebrated its 70th anniversary on Saturday afternoon with a block party featuring live music from the band Effie Zilch, a retro photo booth, food vendors, children's activities, and an anniversary cake. An estimated 700 people participated. 

State senator Josh Becker presented the store with a Certificate of Recognition, which said, in part, that "since its founding in 1955 by Roy Kepler, Kepler's has become one of America's most beloved bookstores--renowned for its thoughtfully curated collection, legendary author events, and unwavering dedication to fostering curiosity, creativity, and community. On this milestone occasion, we recognize your enduring contributions to literature, learning, and the cultural fabric of the Peninsula."

CEO Praveen Madan told the Mercury News that Kepler's will continue these traditions, but continue to evolve, saying, "In a time of polarization and disinformation, places like Kepler's are even more important as trusted community spaces where people can gather, think critically, and engage with ideas together. So, we plan to keep reimagining what our bookstore can be while staying vibrant, inclusive, committed to honoring free expression, and rooted in the joy of discovery."

"Hey readers--looking forward to seeing you come in for your next read!" the Green Dragon Bookshop, Fort Dodge, Iowa, posted on Instagram.

At Abrams:

Gracie Munson has joined the company as brand manager.

Kate McManus has joined the company as assistant manager, school and library sales.

Dasher and the Polar Bear by Matt Tavares (Candlewick).

Today:
All Things Considered: Patricia Lockwood, author of Will There Ever Be Another You: A Novel (Riverhead, $29, 9780593718551).

Tomorrow:
Today: Ken Follett, author of Circle of Days (Grand Central, $40, 9781538772775).

The View: Priscilla Presley, co-author of Softly, As I Leave You: Life After Elvis (Grand Central, $32, 9780306836480).

Drew Barrymore Show: Hoda Kotb, author of Jump and Find Joy: Embracing Change in Every Season of Life (Putnam, $30, 9798217043880).

Netflix is in early development on a movie adaptation of the children's book Miss Nelson Is Missing by Harry Allard, illustrated by James Marshall. Deadline reported that Melissa McCarthy is starring in the project, which will be written by Brad Copeland (Ferdinand, Spies in Disguise, Jerry and Marge Go Large).

The classic book series is about "a misbehaving class whose teacher is mysteriously absent from school one day. But after a week with their strict substitute, Viola Swamp, the kids can't wait for Miss Nelson to come back. Sources say McCarthy would play both Nelson and Swamp in the film," Deadline noted.

Reese Witherspoon and Lauren Neustadter will produce for Hello Sunshine. Other producers include Lawrence Grey for Grey Matter, Caroline Fraser under the HarperCollins banner, and McCarthy and Ben Falcone under their On the Day Productions banner. 

The shortlist has been chosen for the $5,000 Crook's Corner Book Prize, honoring the best debut novel set in the American South. The winner will be announced in January. The finalists: 

Sky Full of Elephants by Cebo Campbell (Simon & Schuster)
Oye by Melissa Mogollon (Hogarth)
Like Happiness by Ursula Villarreal-Moura (Celadon Books)

With The White Hot, Quiara Alegría Hudes (My Broken Language; Pulitzer Prize-winner for the play Water by the Spoonful) offers an expansive, surprising coming-of-age story about both a mother and a daughter. The novel opens on Noelle's 18th birthday, when she receives an envelope. "It wasn't the handwriting that dinged memory's bell so much as the pen's feral indentations." Since she was 10, when her mother disappeared, Noelle has lived with her father, stepmother, and two half-brothers in New Jersey. Readers have just met the teenager when the voice shifts. "Dear Noelle... I am not going to send this," the letter begins. What at first masquerades as an interlude quickly takes over the book. Breathlessly, alongside Noelle, readers take in April Soto's story.

"That awful day began with your classroom art show." At age 26, April is weary. Her 10-year-old daughter is precocious, an artistic and academic genius, and disturbingly observant of her mother's shortcomings. Their household comprises four generations of Soto women: Abuela Omara (who emigrated from Puerto Rico), Mamá Suset, April, and Noelle, "not a speck of dust--or man--in sight." April is undone by her child's gimlet eye, her own unrealized potential, her lack of options, and daily drudgery, and in the wake of a scene at the dinner table, she simply walks away from their Philadelphia home.

What follows is an epic and astonishing journey of self-discovery. April muses on the influence of Hermann Hesse, Charles Mingus, sex as revelation, violences witnessed and perpetrated; she undertakes a wilderness trek (profoundly unprepared in sandals and sequins), and experiences painful, blissful realizations via blisters and hunger. She tells her child she knows her leaving was a betrayal, but hopes she has also offered choice. By book's end, the briefest return to Noelle's own 20s presents a full-circle perspective of the parallels in these two lives, and the significant differences.

April's narrative is astounding and vibrant. In her best and worst moments, she describes being cracked open, experiencing epiphanies: "She felt an un-looming, a separation into threads, some of which rose and drifted through nearby windows whose unseen inhabitants shimmered inside her, too." These, as well as the mundane, yield stunning, lightning-bolt prose: "Within this deluge, the frog and the oak, the tuba and congregants were not discrete phenomena but native to each other, and I to them. That I of all creatures should be tapped for a glimpse? A bewilderment." The White Hot is wide-ranging, thought-provoking, tender, and raw--unforgettable. --Julia Kastner, blogger at pagesofjulia

Shelf Talker: Delightful, unpredictable, and often harrowing, this mother-daughter tale of growing and learning will keep any reader riveted.

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

1. Invest Like a Billionaire: Unlocking the Wealth Secrets of the Ultra-Rich by Bob Fraser
2. How to Be Free: A Proven Guide to Escaping Life's Hidden Prisons by Shaka Senghor
3. Lights Out by Navessa Allen
4. Caught Up by Navessa Allen
5. Holler at Your Dreams: Dangerously Inspiring Ideas for the Wildly Dope Soul by Judi Holler
6. Haunting Adeline by H.D. Carlton
7. Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros 
8. At the Edge of Surrender by A.L. Jackson
9. Grasslands by Debra Seely
10. Hunting Adeline by H.D. Carlton

[Many thanks to IndieReader.com!]