Molly's Bookstore, Melrose, Mass., will open a second location, in Boston's Allston neighborhood at Allston Labworks, "a mixed-use development designed to bring together life science, retail, and residential spaces along the emerging Western Avenue corridor," Boston Real Estate Times reported

Molly's Bookstore in Melrose

"We're thrilled to be opening our second location at Allston Labworks and to bring our beloved bookstore experience to the Allston neighborhood," said owner Andrea Iriarte Dent. "Our vision has always been to create a welcoming place where people can gather, read, and connect--a true community space for all."

Molly's Bookstore launched its Melrose bookshop in 2023 and "the store has quickly become known for its thoughtfully curated selection of new and used books, inviting atmosphere, and commitment to building community," BRET noted, adding that the shop is named after Dent's rescue dog, Molly, and inspired by her global travels visiting independent bookstores.

Mike Diminico, managing director and partner at King Street Properties, said, "Allston Labworks was always envisioned as a destination where innovation and community thrive side by side. Welcoming Molly's Bookstore to the project reinforces our commitment to creating a dynamic neighborhood where culture and commerce enrich one another."

Molly's will occupy part of the project's 20,000 square feet of ground-floor retail space, spread across three buildings. "The expansion aligns with King Street's strategy to prioritize local, mission-driven businesses as foundational elements of the development," BRET wrote.

Ash L. O'Rourke

The Story Emporium & Book Shop, which has a mission that "is simple but powerful: to foster imagination, connection, and lifelong learning through the magic of storytelling," will open in November at 202 U.S. 79 in Hutto, Tex. 

Owner Ash L. O'Rourke, a writer, editor, publishing professional, and community builder, told Community Impact: "We'll be focused on highlighting local and independent authors whenever we can [and] we're going to carry artwork from local and independent artists as much as we can."

O'Rourke has launched a $30,000 IFundWomen campaign to raise money for bookshelves and cafe furnishings; furniture, seating, and décor; and equipment and technology. The campaign has raised almost $10,000 so far. Noting that the bookstore's total start-up cost is estimated to be $70,000, the crowdfunder "helps us take the first big leap toward.... We've built a smart, adaptable business model with multiple revenue streams--designed for long-term sustainability, not just survival."

In The Normalization of Book Banning, a new report documenting public school book bans over the 2024-2025 school year, PEN America cited alarming censorship pressures on school districts, including new federal efforts to restrict education that amplify rhetoric from state and local efforts to ban books; persistent attacks conflating LGBTQ+ identities as "sexually explicit"; and state-mandated bans or "no read" lists which prohibit specific titles statewide. 

"Censorship pressures have expanded and escalated, taking on different forms--laws, directives, guidance that sow confusion, lists of books mislabeled as 'explicit' materials, and 'do not buy' lists," said Kasey Meehan, director of PEN America's Freedom to Read program. "A disturbing 'everyday banning' and normalization of censorship has worsened and spread over the last four years. The result is unprecedented."

Noting that the unfettered book banning is reminiscent of the Red Scare of the 1950s, PEN America wrote in the report: "Never before in the life of any living American have so many books been systematically removed from school libraries across the country."

Between July 2024 and June 2025, the fourth school year of the book ban crisis nationwide, PEN America counted 6,870 instances of book bans across 23 states and 87 public school districts. For the third straight year, Florida was the number one state for book bans, with 2,304 instances of bans, followed by Texas with 1,781 bans and Tennessee with 1,622. Together, PEN America reports nearly 23,000 cases of book bans across 45 states and 451 public school districts since 2021.

"No book shelf will be left untouched if local and state book bans continue wreaking havoc on the freedom to read in public schools," said Sabrina Baêta, senior manager of PEN America's Freedom to Read program. "With the Trump White House now also driving a clear culture of censorship, our core principles of free speech, open inquiry, and access to diverse and inclusive books are severely at risk. Book bans stand in the way of a more just, informed and equitable world. They chill the freedom to read and restrict the rights of students to access information and read freely."

Bookshop.org has launched its new e-book platform in the U.K., allowing independent bookstores to sell digital books to customers while earning the profits from those sales. The new platform, available online via any web browser and through the Bookshop.org apps on Apple and Android, features a catalogue of more than a million e-books.

"When we launched Bookshop.org, the vision was to support local bookstores in their battle against Amazon and other online retailers," said CEO Andy Hunter. "Our e-book launch furthers our commitment to help bookstores flourish in the digital age. After introducing our e-book platform in the U.S. earlier this year, we are thrilled to see how e-book sales are going for bookshops. We are already a year ahead of our original plan, and e-books make up 5% of our overall sales in the U.S. We are looking forward to e-books expanding to the U.K., empowering stores across the pond to be even more competitive."

Nic Bottomley of Mr. B's Emporium in Bath said: "We are absolutely thrilled that the good people of Bookshop.org have crafted a way for our customers to support Mr. B's (and all high street bookshops) whenever they want to buy a book in digital form. Our true love might be print, but e-books are an important part of the lives of so many readers and it's going to be fantastic to add into our mix a seamless e-book service."

C.P. Hunter of the Folkestone Bookshop, commented: "As a reader who travels a lot, being able to access e-books from more platforms than just my local library is brilliant, and even more exciting that it's from the ethical platform that is Bookshop.org. As a bookseller, making books even more accessible while still supporting independent shops is nothing but great news! Bookshop.org are an incredible resource and a company that truly support indies so another way to work with them and share more books with our customers all over the country is really important."

Nicole Vanderbilt, managing director of Bookshop.org UK, commented: "We're beyond excited to be adding this revolutionary offering to our platform. Digital readers don't depend on Amazon's monopoly anymore, now that they can find e-books at the same price on Bookshop.org. Meanwhile, bookshops now have an additional tool in their fight against Amazon, in line with our mission of helping them succeed in the age of e-commerce."

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Julie Belgrado

Julie Belgrado is stepping down as director of the European and International Booksellers Federation to become CEO of the Federation of European Screen Directors. She has been with EIBF for 10 years, becoming director in 2018. Earlier she was EIBF's EU affairs and communication officer.

EIBF noted that during her time at EIBF, Belgrado has played "a central role in guiding the Federation through a period of growth, transformation and achievement. Under her leadership, EIBF strengthened its presence in European cultural policy and ensured that the voice of booksellers was heard at the highest political levels. She oversaw the expansion of the Secretariat in Brussels, led the launch of the Creative Europe-funded RISE Bookselling network, and fostered collaboration among bookseller associations across Europe and beyond. Julie also championed initiatives promoting literacy, sustainability and resilience within the bookselling sector. Her tenure has been characterised by openness, collaboration and innovation, and by a deep conviction that booksellers thrive when they connect, share knowledge and stand together."

Belgrado commented: "Over the past years, EIBF has been much more than a job to me. It's been a place of learning, passion, and growth--where I was trusted to try new ideas, supported to bring them to life, and encouraged to share knowledge with others. I'm proud of the legacy I leave behind, and grateful for the extraordinary commitment and support of EIBF members, especially the executive committee. Despite challenges along the way, I take with me wonderful memories: inspiring encounters across the globe, the passion and kindness of booksellers, their resilience, creativity, and strong sense of community. It has been an honour and privilege to represent their voice over the past ten years and ensure they are heard where it matters most."

EIBF president Fabian Paagman, owner of Paagman bookshops in the Netherlands, said, "On behalf of the executive committee and our entire network, I want to express my deepest gratitude to Julie for her exceptional leadership, vision and dedication over the past decade. She has strengthened the role and visibility of EIBF at the European and international level, while always putting booksellers at the heart of our mission. We are sad to see her go, but also proud of what has been achieved under her guidance, and we wish her every success for the future."

EIBF's executive committee will soon launch the process of finding and appointing a new director.

Jane Goodall (photo: Andrew Zuckerman)

Jane Goodall, "one of the world's most revered conservationists, who earned scientific stature and global celebrity by chronicling the distinctive behavior of wild chimpanzees in East Africa--primates that made and used tools, ate meat, held rain dances, and engaged in organized warfare," died October 1, the New York Times reported. She was 91.

Her death has sparked tributes worldwide for her lifelong dedication to her work in the field, but the Times also noted that "long before focus groups, message discipline and communications plans became crucial tools in advancing high-profile careers and alerting the world to significant discoveries in and outside of science, Dr. Goodall understood the benefits of being the principal narrator and star of her own story of discovery."

A significant part of that communication was through her work as a writer. She was 29 in 1963 when National Geographic magazine published her 7,500-word, 37-page account of the lives of primates she had observed in the Gombe Stream Chimpanzee Reserve in what is now Tanzania. 

"In articles and books, her lucid prose carried vivid descriptions, some lighthearted, of the numerous perils she encountered in the African rainforest," the Times wrote. Her writing gained more attention from three long National Geographic articles during the 1960s and '70s and three well-received books: My Friends, the Wild Chimpanzees (1967), In the Shadow of Man (1971), and Through a Window (1990).

Goodall's mother was an author and novelist who wrote under the name Vanne Morris-Goodall and accompanied her daughter to the Gombe reserve at the start of Jane Goodall's study in 1960. She also became a leading character in her daughter's writing, the Times noted.

Goodall wrote 32 books, 15 of them for children, including Chimpanzees I Love: Saving Their World and Ours (2001) and Rickie and Henri: A True Story (2004, with Alan Marks). Her adult books include Beyond Innocence: An Autobiography in Letters, the Later Years (2001, edited by Dale Peterson), The Ten Trusts: What We Must Do to Care for the Animals We Love (2002, with Marc Bekoff), Harvest for Hope: A Guide to Mindful Eating (2005), Hope for Animals and Their World: How Endangered Species Are Being Rescued from the Brink (2009), and Seeds of Hope: Wisdom and Wonder from the World of Plants (2013, with Gail Hudson). 

In her last work, The Book of Hope: A Survival Guide for Trying Times (2021, with Douglas Abrams & Gail Hudson), she wrote of her optimism about the future of humankind.

For a remembrance in the Free Press, Evan Gardner spoke with Richard W. Wrangham, the Ruth Moore Professor of Biological Anthropology, Emeritus, at Harvard, who spent the formative years of his career researching chimpanzees in Tanzania and working as a protégé to Goodall. 

Asked about her legacy, Wrangham said: "As a scientist she was, of course, the first person to document the lives of chimpanzees in the wild, and she did so absolutely beautifully. Her 1986 book, The Chimpanzees of Gombe: Patterns of Behavior was a masterpiece of description of the complicated species with many different angles, and it was a very sophisticated description that people still cite, probably more than anything, despite the fact that there are far more people now studying chimps in many different places than during her time. So she set the standard, and she built the foundation for the study of chimpanzees in a really terrific way. That's one aspect of her legacy."

When asked what the one thing is that we should all remember her for, he replied: "I think that the phrase that she would use--she was talking both with respect to chimps and humans--is that every individual matters."

Mystery Lovers Bookshop in Oakmont, Pa., hosted a group of authors for a Kensington Mini Cozy Mystery Con. From left: Traci Hall (Murder at the Scottish Games), Lynn Cahoon (Confessions of an Amateur Sleuth), Valerie Burns (Icing on the Murder), and Amanda Flower (Truffle Trouble).

White River Books, Carbondale, Colo., posted on Instagram: "It's my FAVORITE project of the year!! The Giving Tree is back for the 4th year in a row, and this time we are focusing on local middle schoolers. Stop by and buy a book from one of the tags on the tree, and it will go straight into the hands of a child in Carbondale who needs it. I've got big ambitions that this fall we can donate 2 books to every child on the list. Come help me make it happen!"

Posted by Annie Bloom's Books, Portland, Ore.:

"Fall is official bookstore season; we don't make the rules*.

  *We DO make the rules and every season is bookstore season."

Lost & Bound Bookstore & Soda Bar, Oklahoma City, Okla., shared a photo of the sidewealk signboard in front of the shop, which featured a Fall Checklist:

 "Read cozy books
 Watch spooky movies
 Carve pumpkins
 Bake lots of treats
 Support Your local bookstore"

John Malkovich has joined the cast of London's upcoming The Hunger Games stage play, adapted by Conor McPherson from the first in Suzanne Collins's dystopian novel series. Playbill reported that Malkovich "will appear as President Snow in filmed scenes that play on screens at every performance."

"I'm delighted to join the world premiere production of The Hunger Games in London, bringing this iconic story to the stage," says Malkovich in a statement. "Playing President Coriolanus Snow will be thrilling, because I have long been an admirer of Suzanne Collins's novels, the films, and Conor McPherson's writing, and it is a privilege to take on this role."

Mia Carragher (One Night in Istanbul, The Gathering) stars as Katniss Everdeen, with Euan Garrett (Quadrophenia: a Mod Ballet) as Peeta Mellark, and Joshua Lacey (All the Old Knives) as Haymitch Abernathy. 

Directed by Matthew Dunster (Hangmen), the play begins performances on October 20 at Troubadour Canary Wharf Theatre, a purpose-built venue created especially for the production. Opening night is November 12.

Wicker, a "twisted romance" movie adapted from the short story "The Wicker Husband" by Ursula Wills-Jones, has now wrapped, Variety reported. Directed by Alex Huston Fischer and Eleanor Wilson from their script, the film was shot by Oscar-winning cinematographer Lol Crawley (The Brutalist). The cast includes Alexander Skarsgard, Peter Dinklage, Elizabeth Debicki, and Olivia Colman.

The story follows Colman as a "smelly, single and perpetually ridiculed" fisherwoman living on the outskirts of a village by the sea, Variety noted. "One day, fed up with her stuffy, small-minded neighbors, she commissions the local basketmaker to build her a husband entirely from wicker, with their relationship sparking 'outrage, jealousy and chaos.' "

Finalists have been selected for the 2025 Cercador Prize for Literature in Translation. The winning title will be announced November 17, and the winning translator will receive $1,000.

The finalists:
A Carnival of Atrocities by Natalia García Freire, translated from the Spanish by Victor Meadowcroft (World Editions)
dd's Umbrella by Hwang Jungeun, translated from the Korean by e. yaewon (Tilted Axis)
The Deserters by Mathias Énard, translated from the French by Charlotte Mandell (New Directions)
I Gave You Eyes and You Looked Toward Darkness by Irene Solà, translated from the Catalan by Mara Faye Lethem (Graywolf Press)
Sakina's Kiss by Vivek Shanbhag, translated from the Kannada by Srinath Perur (McNally Editions)
Chilco by Daniela Catrileo, translated from the Spanish by Jacob Edelstein (FSG Originals)
Restoration by Ave Barrera, translated from the Spanish by Ellen Jones and Robin Myers (Charco Press)
Cécé by Emmelie Prophète, translated from the French by Aidan Rooney (Archipelago Books)
Smoke by Gabriela Alemán, translated from the Spanish by Dick Cluster (City Lights Publishing)
The Queen of Swords by Jazmina Barrera, translated from the Spanish by Christina MacSweeney (Two Lines Press)

The prize's five committee members for 2025 are Javi Tapia of Third Place Books, Seattle, Wash., Dylan McGonigle of Wayfinder Bookshop, Fairfax, Calif., Beatriz Quiroz García of Skylight Books, Los Angeles, Calif., C. Rees of Alienated Majesty Books, Austin, Tex., and chair Emily Tarr of Thank You Books, Atlanta, Ga.

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The shortlist has been selected for the £50,000 (about $67,500) Wolfson History Prize, "the U.K.'s most prestigious history writing prize." The winner will be announced December 2. 

The shortlist:
Embers of the Hands: Hidden Histories of the Viking Age by Eleanor Barraclough
The Eagle and the Hart: The Tragedy of Richard II and Henry IV by Helen Castor
Multicultural Britain: A People's History by Kieran Connell
Survivors: The Lost Stories of the Last Captives of the Atlantic Slave Trade by Hannah Durkin
The Gravity of Feathers: Fame, Fortune and the Story of St Kilda by Andrew Fleming
The Mysterious Case of the Victorian Female Detective by Sara Lodge

photo: Sylvie Rosokoff

Yume Kitasei is the author of The Stardust Grail and The Deep Sky. She is Japanese and American and grew up between two cultures--the same space where her stories reside. She lives in Brooklyn, N.Y., with two cats. Her new book, Saltcrop (Flatiron, September 30, 2025), is an epic tale of two sisters that takes place in Earth's not too distant future, when seas consume coastal cities. Along with its release, she's organized a Traveling Science Fiction and Fantasy Book Festival--eight nights, eight cities, eight panel conversations at local bookstores involving a rotating group of 13 authors discussing genre.

Handsell readers your book in 25 words or less:

Saltcrop is a dystopian novel about two sisters who sail across a climate-ravaged world in search of their missing sister.

On your nightstand now:

I have 45 books on my nightstand right now. Oops. I'm reading my way through the 13 books on the Booker longlist, as I do every year with friends. I just finished Seascraper by Benjamin Wood. It's a remarkable novel that does less with more: sketching a dreamy, captivating landscape with spare prose, and building a painful tension that belies its slim length. Also, if you listen to the audiobook narrated by the author, you'll hear him play and sing music he composed himself.

Favorite book when you were a child:

Sabriel by Garth Nix--a young woman, armed with a bandolier of bells that can bind the dead, searching for her father in the often scary land beyond the wall. Also The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by Frank Baum, for completely opposite vibes.

Your top five authors:

Kazuo Ishiguro, Banana Yoshimoto, Rebecca Roanhorse, S.A. Cosby, and Agatha Christie.

Book you've faked reading:

I... what?

Book you're an evangelist for:

Most recently, The Memory Hunters by Mia Tsai--a "memory hunter" and her guard discover all is not what it seems in a world where people use mushrooms to procure memories of lost cultures and preserve lock them away in a museum. It's dark, moody, adventurous, and romantic. I also recently loved and have been recommending The Lighthouse at the Edge of the World by J.R. Dawson--I love sister stories, what can I say--and The Library at Hellebore by Cassandra Khaw, which is absolutely disgusting and yet somehow beautiful.

Book you've bought for the cover:

Veronica Roth's When Among Crows. I've preordered To Clutch a Razor--I'm a sucker for gold, what can I say? They're really good though. No regrets.

Book you hid from your parents:

I read A Game of Thrones in middle school. I don't think my parents realized how explicit it was.

Books that changed your life:

The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro: the first time I laughed and cried reading a book.
Wild Seed by Octavia E. Butler: the first book I read and didn't fully understand (I was also very young) but liked anyway.
Dandelion Wine by Ray Bradbury: made me love short stories.

Favorite line from a book:

"Don't panic." --The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams.

Five books you'll never part with:

Books by friends that made me think, "Hot damn, I know a brilliant writer":
On Earth as It Is on Television by Emily Jane
The Runaway Restaurant by Tessa Yang
The Keeper of Night by Kylie Lee Baker
Forged by Blood by Ehigbor Okosun
I'd Rather Burn than Bloom by Shannon C.F. Rogers.

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

Ducks, Newburyport by Lucy Ellmann, which blew my mind and I absolutely loved--and would never be able to read again. IYKYK.

Book you are excited for people to read that's not out yet:

The Bog Queen by Anna North, out this month, October 2025--a delicate and tender story about a body found in a bog.

Friends and Liars by Kit Frick (I Killed Zoe Spanos) sees a foursome of estranged friends reunite at a luxurious private Italian palazzo for an extravagant weeklong vacation to remember their fifth, heiress Clare Monroe. Clare was 21 when she drowned in Lake Como on New Year's Eve. Now she would be 27.

Luca, Harper, Sirina, and David gather for an itinerary organized (and paid for) by Clare's family, the famous and secretive Monroes of Hollywood. Luca is foundering in small-town Florida, recently dropped by his sugar daddy for a younger model. Harper has a nearly five-year-old son with her perfect husband, and she's the only one of the group to have settled down directly after college. Sirina is hard at work building her acting career. And David--Clare's boyfriend at the time of her death--is enjoying a successful career in directing, with another girlfriend whose father is well-connected. The friends still care for each other, but have been out of touch since that terrible New Year's Eve. Clare's tragic death is all bound up with secrets that each of them would rather not confront again--the lies and betrayals that contributed to her demise.

But, for various personal reasons, none is able to resist the invitation to return to the Palazzo Mella for another series of opulent events orchestrated by Clare's icy Aunt Catherine. Immediately, their uneasiness is intensified by the appearance of taunting "gifts" and notes left for them in the guest quarters. The message is clear: someone knows what happened on that New Year's Eve and has come for revenge. The old friends must band together and face their own worst behaviors to solve a compound mystery: Who knows what they've each done? Who is preying upon their guilt? What really happened that night, and who will pay for it now?

Friends and Liars achieves a delicious balance of emotional complication, layered deceptions, and consummate psychological drama. Lush with the accoutrements of affluence and charged with the machinations of aspiring creatives, the lavish setting near Bellagio distills to a locked-room mystery. The surviving Monroes, a few family friends, Clare's four ride-or-die college buddies and their two plus-ones, as well as the household staff, make for colorful suspects in a plot with rising stakes. Heart-racing suspense, compelling characters and relationships, and great danger add up to a highly satisfying puzzle of a novel, which saves surprises for its final pages. --Julia Kastner, blogger at pagesofjulia

Shelf Talker: Estranged college friends are drawn back to the palatial Italian estate where old secrets are buried and one of them died in this electric tale of friendship, deceit, and suspense.