László Krasznahorkai (photo: Nina Subin)

The Swedish Academy has awarded the 2025 Nobel Prize for Literature to Hungarian author László Krasznahorkai for his "compelling and visionary oeuvre that, in the midst of apocalyptic terror, reaffirms the power of art." The Academy called him "a great epic writer in the Central European tradition that extends through Kafka to Thomas Bernhard, and is characterised by absurdism and grotesque excess. But there are more strings to his bow, and he also looks to the East in adopting a more contemplative, finely calibrated tone."

Born in 1954, Krasznahorkai published Satantango, his first novel, in 1985, "a literary sensation in Hungary and the author's breakthrough work," the Academy wrote in a bio-bibliography. "The novel portrays, in powerfully suggestive terms, a destitute group of residents on an abandoned collective farm in the Hungarian countryside just before the fall of communism." (This and other titles below have been published in the U.S. by New Directions.)

Among his other titles is The Melancholy of Resistance (1998), "a feverish horror fantasy played out in a small Hungarian town nestled in a Carpathian valley, [where] the drama has been heightened even further." There is "a dizzying state of emergency. Ominous signs abound."

In War & War (2006) Krasznahorkai "shifts his attention beyond the borders of his Hungarian homeland in allowing the humble archivist Korin to decide, as his life's final act, to travel from the outskirts of Budapest to New York such that he might, for a moment, take his place at the centre of the world. Back home in the archives, he has found an exceptionally beautiful ancient epic about returning warriors that he hopes to make known to the world. Krasznahorkai's prose has developed towards the flowing syntax with long, winding sentences devoid of full stops that has become his signature."

In Baron Wenckheim's Homecoming (2019), "Dostoyevsky's idiot is reincarnated in the hopelessly infatuated baron with his gambling addiction. Now ruined, he is on his way home to Hungary having spent many years living in exile in Argentina. He hopes to be reunited with his childhood sweetheart, whom he is unable to forget. Unhappily, in the course of his journey, he places his life in the hands of the treacherous Dante, a rascal presented as a grimy version of Sancho Panza. The climax of the novel, which is in many ways its comic highlight, is the joyful reception laid on for the baron by the local community, which the melancholic protagonist seeks at any cost to avoid."

Herscht 07769: A Novel (2024) offers "a credible portrayal of a contemporary small town in Thüringen, Germany, which is nevertheless also afflicted by social anarchy, murder and arson. At the same time, the terror of the novel plays out against the backdrop of Johann Sebastian Bach's powerful legacy... Herscht 07769 has been described as a great contemporary German novel, on account of its accuracy in portraying the country's social unrest."

Krasznahorkai won the 2019 National Book Award for Translated Literature for Baron Wenckheim's Homecoming and the 2015 Man Booker International Prize for lifetime achievement. He also won two succeeding Best Translated Book Awards, in 2013 and 2014, for Satantango and Seiobo There Below, a short story collection, respectively.

After four days jam-packed with author breakfasts and luncheons, publisher presentations, peer-to-peer discussions, and fun literary mixers, the Mountains & Plains Independent Booksellers Association FallCon wrapped up yesterday with a series of education seminars (more coverage in upcoming issues).

This year's conference was attended by some 509 registered attendees, including booksellers, librarians, authors, volunteers, staff, and other industry people. More than 235 of those were booksellers, with an estimated 50 first-timers, according to Heather Duncan, executive director of the MPIBA. The organization currently represents 301 bookstores in a territory that spans 14 western and midwestern states. The number of bookstores represented at FallCon was 104.

Shelf Awareness was among the 133 vendors, publishers, and industry service providers present in the show's exhibit hall, which MPIBA marketing manager Jeremy Ellis was very pleased to report was fully sold out. The week may have started with wet and dreary weather, but everyone dispersed from a sunny, clear-skied Denver. --Dave Wheeler, senior editor, Shelf Awareness

MPIBA marketing manager Jeremy Ellis, operations manager Kelsey Myers, and executive director Heather Duncan enjoy a quiet moment before the show begins.

Courtney Yee, indie sales manager, Sourcebooks; Kelly Brown, Magic City Books, Tulsa, Okla.; and Aly Bratkovic, Bookworks, Albuquerque, N.Mex., at the Show Kick-off Mix and Mingle, sponsored by Shelf Awareness.

The packed Children's Author and Illustrator Keynote Breakfast featured (from l.) Bryan Collier and Tami Charles (Together, United, Orchard); Brandon Mull (Guardians: Forbidden Mountain, Labyrinth Road); Sara Pennypacker (The Lion's Run, Balzer + Bray); Shannon Hale (Holly Jolly Kitty Corn, Abrams Books for Young Readers); Theresa Howell (Books on Bikes, Clarion); and Jasmine Warga (The Claiming, Scholastic Press).

Kai Burner of The Bookworm of Edwards, Edwards, Colo., and William Eakland of The King's English Bookshop, Salt Lake City, Utah, lead an "Expert Is In" discussion on inventory management.

Shelf Awareness partnership program manager Kristianne Huntsberger (l.) flips the coin for Binc's Heads or Tails game, which raised $765. The winner was Mollie Mitchell from HearthFire Bookstore in Evergreen, Colo., who received a $250 gift card provided by MPIBA. MPIBA also sells FallCon T-shirts and merchandise on Bonfire that support Binc. 

Books on Third will host a grand opening celebration this coming Saturday, October 11, at 1300 3rd St, S Unit 201 in Naples, Fla., "bringing more than 16,000 books to the shelves of the 3,000 square foot shop," Florida Weekly reported.

Owners Shan O'Fee-Byron and Lindsay Smith said there will be books for children, teens, and adults, along with gift items and a large selection of coffee-table books.

"We see it as a place to build community," O'Fee-Byron said. "People are looking for analog activities to take us away from all the tech that is consuming us.... We are just excited to invite everybody in and look at the store and take a browse around." 

The store "intends to become a literary hub for the community, building an inspiring and inviting independent bookstore that will be a haven for book lovers of all kinds," Florida Weekly noted.

Tommy Orange, author of There There (2018) and Wandering Stars (2024), has been named one of 22 recipients of this year's MacArthur Foundation "genius" grants. Each MacArthur Fellow receives a no-strings-attached, $800,000 award. 

Tommy Orange

The foundation lauded Orange as "a fiction writer capturing a diverse range of Native American experiences and lives in novels that traverse time, space, and narrative perspectives. Orange's novels center his characters' interior lives: their emotions, ideas, and realizations in moments of joy and pain. Through expansive casts of interconnected characters, he shows the many ways historical trauma and dislocation can rupture the fabric of everyday life....

"In both of Orange's novels, hope is subtle yet persistent. It is buried under the weight of history in his characters' search for connection, meaning, and a way forward. Through sweeping storytelling married to an intimate focus on interiority, Orange illuminates the richness and depth of contemporary Native American life."

Other writers receiving MacArthur fellowships this year include:

Hahrie Han, "a political scientist addressing critical questions about how and why people participate in civic and political life. Employing a range of ethnographic, sociological, experimental, and quantitative methods, she examines organizational structures and tactics that encourage individuals to interact across lines of difference and work together for change in the public sphere."

Han's books include Moved to Action: Motivation, Participation, and Inequality in American Politics (2009), How Organizations Develop Activists: Civic Associations and Leadership in the 21st Century (2014), and Undivided: The Quest for Racial Solidarity in an American Church (2024).

Ieva Jusionyte, "a cultural anthropologist exploring the political and moral ambiguities of border regions, where state policies regulate historically shifting distinctions between legal and illegal practices. Her ethnographic accounts are based on years of fieldwork and immersion among people whose occupations give them frontline vantage points on the ways border policies play out in the lives of individuals and communities. From these rarely observed perspectives, Jusionyte reveals how security mechanisms and cycles of violence perpetuate states of emergency and social fracture."

Jusionyte's books include Savage Frontier: Making News and Security on the Argentine Border (2015), Threshold: Emergency Responders on the U.S.-Mexico Border (2018), and Exit Wounds: How America's Guns Fuel Violence Across the Border (2024). 

To strengthen its sales organization, Hachette Book Group has created the Retail Sales Group, which will be led by Nicky Devaney, who has been promoted to v-p, retail sales. She will oversee the Barnes & Noble, Books-A-Million, and independent sales teams.

As explained by Lauren Monaco, Hachette's executive v-p, Group sales director, "The new Retail Sales Group reflects our growth mindset: the belief that with curiosity, collaboration, and focus, we can unlock new opportunities for our authors, our accounts, and our readers. Nicky embodies this mindset. Her passion for books, deep commitment to customers, and ability to inspire her teams make her the ideal leader to shape this next chapter."

In related news:

Mackenzie Bronk, recently promoted to director of sales, B&N/BAM, will now report directly to Devaney. 

Derek Meehan is being promoted to the newly created role of director, field strategy & operations.

Devaney will be recruiting a new director of field sales to succeed her in that role. 

Chrissy Heleine is returning from maternity leave on October 16. During the past 16 months, she has stepped in to lead the B&N/BAM team while continuing to manage her existing responsibilities. She will continue to oversee the Retail Strategy team and expand her leadership to include the newest sales team members, Jeffrey Chin, associate director, sales analytics, and Conor Mintzer, director of sales operations.

Industry veterans Kristen Gilligan and Len Vlahos have formed Left Field Publishing, which launches with two titles on November 3 and aims to combine the best elements of traditional publishing with the best elements of independent publishing. Left Field will publish a range of fiction, nonfiction, YA, and kids books with both literary merit and commercial appeal by "genre-defying voices" that the pair are passionate about. They want "every Left Field book to feel like a discovery for the reader." The house also is putting an emphasis on collaboration--with its authors as well as other partners in the publishing process. Left Field shares essential out-of-pocket costs--production, editorial, marketing and publicity--evenly with authors, doesn't charge for its own services, and once sales begin, will pay back expenses to both parties, after which authors receive a very generous royalty. Left Field Publishing will be distributed by IPG and aims to publish 3-5 titles a year. Its lead fall 2026 is a debut novel by Shelf Awareness's own John Mutter. (See more about that below.)

Left Field Publishing exhibited at MPIBA FallCon this week. From right: Len Vlahos, Kristen Gilligan, and consultant Cameron Berry.

Not surprisingly, considering Gilligan's and Vlahos's indie bookstore backgrounds, Left Field intends "to put bookstores and their communities front and center" through grassroots programs with store that include free stock, staff reads, social media promotion, and collaborative visibility.

Among its other initiatives, Left Field is creating a Readers Collective, a volunteer community of passionate readers, early supporters, and literary advocates--"a kind of backstage pass to the publisher's story"; a writing group that will convene regularly virtually or locally; and a literary salon in Denver that will include live discussions, author guests, literary-themed drinks, and a chance to connect with like-minded readers and writers (which may also have a virtual component).

Left Field's name refers to Gilligan and Vlahos's regular reference to anything unexpected, as well as to their home's location just beyond the left field fence of the neighboring school's baseball field. 

Gilligan, who is Left Field's CEO, spent most of her career at the American Booksellers Association, where, among many roles, she was director of meetings and events and co-created the Winter Institute. She is also the former co-owner of the Tattered Cover Bookstores in Denver, Colo., where she focused on creating opportunities to get kids to read. She brought more than 100 authors each year to public and private schools in Colorado, started two Teen Advisory Boards and a teen writing group, created the Colorado Teen Book Con, hosted many Educator Nights, created the statewide Colorado Big Summer Read, and the Colorado Book & Arts Festival. She also was a judge for the National Book Award for Young Readers.

Vlahos was also a longtime ABA executive, including chief operating officer, where he oversaw the development of Indie Commerce and was a co-creator of Winter Institute. He is also former executive director of the Book Industry Study Group and former co-owner, with Gilligan, of the Tattered Cover. He currently works for ReedPop, a division of Reed Exhibitions, overseeing literary programming at some of the largest pop culture events in the U.S., including New York Comic Con and BookCon. He is also the author of six traditionally published novels for young adults, including The Scar Boys (Lerner), a finalist for the American Library Association's William C Morris Award for Best Debut Teen Fiction; Life in a Fishbowl (Bloomsbury), which was published in 10 languages and 18 countries; and Hard Wired (Bloomsbury).

One of Left Field's two debut titles is Vlahos's The Story of Oog: Or, A New Thinker's Guide to the Forest, a fable for ages 14-104. Left Field describes it as "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy meets Gulliver's Travels... with cavemen. When Oog's new-found powers of thought fail him, and he accidentally causes his village's fire to go out, Oog will have to learn to navigate the complex world of thinking as he goes in search of fire to save his people. Part philosophical satire, part bedtime story for adults and teens, Oog's journey--a tale of pragmatism over dogma that is incredibly relevant in today's world–will make you laugh and warm your heart."

Vlahos and his agent had tried to find a home for The Story of Oog, but while many editors liked the book, it didn't fit it neatly into a category, an experience that led to the founding of Left Field.

In the same vein, Left Field's other debut book, The Dealmaker's Will: The Story of One Deal--And the 7 Rules That Made It Happen by Denver real estate developer Walker Thrash also didn't fit into neat categories. It's a business book in the form of a novel, described by Left Field as "a book on the art of negotiation told in the form of a novel. It's Michael Lewis meets John Grisham. A perfect example of our multi-genre philosophy: fiction and non-fiction!... Will Powell's real estate dreams have stalled, leaving him desperate and vulnerable. Enter Julian Darrow: brilliant, wealthy, and dangerously persuasive. Drawn into Julian's world of ruthless deals, shadowy ethics, and rules, Will finds success within reach--but at what cost?"

In the spring, Left Field will publish one title, The Crimson Traveler by Matt Strollo, "a gritty, literary supernatural horror thriller. True Blood meets The Wire with hints of The Witcher. A heroin-addicted ex-Marine in modern-day Philadelphia and a lineage of cursed werewolf royalty spanning decades are drawn together by a supernatural plague--and the forgotten war their bloodlines were born to finish. A collision of gothic horror, drug-fueled realism, and intergenerational myth, The Crimson Traveler is both a violent thrill ride and a raw meditation on family, loyalty, and the monsters inside us." Strollo has a degree in screenwriting and is an English teacher.

The lead title for fall 2026 is Fortune and Glass, a debut novel by Shelf Awareness editor-in-chief John Mutter. Set mostly in Berlin, it's inspired by the real-life story of Fritz Kolbe, a German Foreign Ministry official who became one of the U.S.'s most valuable spies during the war. "As Berlin descends into tyranny, a principled civil servant secretly passes Nazi intelligence to the Allies, even as the woman he loves--a brilliant Jewish Berliner--fights to survive the regime determined to erase her family and her world." It's a story about how to continue to live morally under brutal circumstances and how to fight back against a totalitarian regime.

Czech writer Ivan Klima, "whose survival of two totalitarian regimes--one Nazi, the other communist--made him one of Eastern Europe's most perceptive distillers of the human condition under authoritarianism," died October 4, the New York Times reported. He was 94.

Ivan Klima

The author of more than 40 books, Klima was deeply affected by his incarceration as a boy, from 1941 to 1945, by the Nazis at Terezin concentration camp north of Prague. He lived with the daily prospect of being transported to Auschwitz. The Times noted, however, that his writing "dwelled most heavily on the communist era, including the aftermath of the Prague Spring in 1968, a period of relative freedom when he and other intellectuals supported the reformist efforts of the leader Alexander Dubček, who hoped to create a 'Socialism with a human face' in Czechoslovakia. Their optimism was thwarted when the Soviets sent an estimated 750,000 Warsaw Pact troops to suppress the Prague reforms later that year."

After Klima returned to Prague in 1970 from a sabbatical in the U.S., he became a publisher of underground texts, smuggling some to Western publishers. He also organized a clandestine literary salon, attended by other dissident writers, including playwright and future president Vaclav Havel.

"Ivan Klima is one of the greatest Czech writers and, having experienced concentration camps and the communist period, is a walking symbol of what our country endured in this century," said Jiri Pehe, director of New York University in Prague. "He was more than a literary figure, he played a crucial role in publishing banned works and challenging the communist regime."

As a dissident, Klima had to take menial jobs, an experience he later turned into the story collection My Golden Trades. Some of the stories were published in "samizdat" copies and circulated in Prague.

After the fall of the Communist regime in 1989, Klima "depicted the lives of those who had obediently served the dictatorship, only to find themselves adrift and lost amid the newfound freedoms of a newly democratic country," the Times noted. His books My Merry Mornings and Love and Garbage were rushed into print and sold more than 100,000 copies each. His work has since been translated into dozens of languages. 

After graduating from Charles University in Prague in 1956, Klima worked at a publishing house for five years. His first novel, An Hour of Silence, was published in 1963. He was editor of Literarni Noviny, the leading publication of the liberal communist intellectuals, from 1964 to 1967, when he switched to Literarni List.

In 1967, he "greeted the annual assembly of the Czechoslovak Literary Association with the words 'respected friends,' rather than the customary 'comrades,' as he called for elimination of censorship," the Times wrote. Two months later, he was expelled from the Party and barred from publishing, a ban that lasted until 1989. Judge on Trial was written during his 20 years of enforced silence. Completed in 1986 and distributed underground, it was not published until 1991.

After 1989, Klima withdrew from public life and focused for the next 20 years on his writing, including a two-volume memoir, My Crazy Century, which journalist and author Paul Berman described in the Times as having "a bellowing anger at what has happened to many millions of people, himself included, victims of the serial horrors that used to be known, and maybe still are known, as totalitarianism."

Politics and Prose, Washington, D.C., hosted "Community Teach-In: Climate Change in the Era of Trump," part of a series of discussions "meant to keep our community informed and engaged during this exceptional period in our nation’s political history."

Moderated by (l.-r.) Ally Coll, experts Neela Banerjee, Manish Bapna, and Monica Medina discussed what's been done, or undone, so far and what actions can be taken to push back through legal challenges, advocacy, state-level moves, and private-sector efforts.

Posted on Instagram earlier this week by High Five Books, Florence, Mass.: "Today's New Book Tuesday falls on Prime Day, which sure is scary for indie bookstores like ours. Friends, we cannot beat Amazon's prices (or marketing budget, for sure): They don't need to make money on their books. And no, we just can't get our titles to you faster than they can: Their monolithic, omnipresent sales centers dwarf our independent regional book warehouses.

"But we will always have the newest, most joyful and inclusive books on our shelves for you right here at our shop in Florence, today and every New Book Tuesday. We'll be here when you zoom in a gift for that birthday party you're late for. We'll (try! very hard!) to remember your and your reader's names, and ask how that last book you bought was.

"Let's be real: This is an immensely difficult moment for small retail businesses like ours, when giants silently threaten to squash us with their 'unbeatable' deals. Please help us prove we're an indelible resource in this community."

Andrea Gochnauer has been promoted to associate director of academic marketing at Simon & Schuster.

Facing Infinity: Black Holes and Our Place on Earth by Jonas Enander (The Experiment).

Tomorrow:
CBS Mornings: Logan Jugler and Boone Hogg, founders of Stick Nation and authors of Sticks: A Collection of Sticks & the People Who Love Them (Ten Speed Press, $16.99, 9780593837528).

Good Morning America: Michael J. Fox, author of Future Boy: Back to the Future and My Journey Through the Space-Time Continuum (Flatiron, $26.99, 9781250866783).

Drew Barrymore Show: Aubrey Plaza, co-author of Luna and the Witch Throw a Halloween Party (Viking Books for Young Readers, $19.99, 9780593693018).

Sherri Shepherd Show: Henry Winkler, author of Detective Duck: The Mystery at Emerald Pond (Amulet Books, $14.99, 9781419780486).

Book TV airs on C-Span 2 this weekend from 8 a.m. Saturday to 8 a.m. Monday and focuses on political and historical books as well as the book industry. The following are highlights for this coming weekend. For more information, go to Book TV's website.

Saturday, October 11
9:35 a.m. Kate Storey, author of White House by the Sea: A Century of the Kennedys at Hyannis Port (Scribner, $30, 9781982159184). (Re-airs Saturday at 9:35 p.m.)

2 p.m. Calvin Schermerhorn, author of The Plunder of Black America: How the Racial Wealth Gap Was Made (Yale University Press, $30, 9780300258950).

2:50 p.m. Justene Hill Edwards, author of Savings and Trust: The Rise and Betrayal of the Freedman's Bank (W.W. Norton, $19.99, 9781324123484). 

Sunday, October 12
8 a.m. Tom Johnson, author of Driven: A Life in Public Service and Journalism from LBJ to CNN (‎University of Georgia Press, $34.95, 9780820374536), at Politics and Prose in Washington, D.C. (Re-airs Sunday at 8 p.m.)

12:10 p.m. Cass R. Sunstein, author of On Liberalism: In Defense of Freedom (‎The MIT Press, $29.95, 9780262049771), at Politics and Prose in Washington, D.C.

1:30 to 8 p.m. Coverage of the 2025 Mississippi Book Festival in Jackson, Miss., which took place in September.

The shortlist has been released for the C$100,000 (about US$71,620) Giller Prize, which honors "the best Canadian novel, graphic novel, or short story collection published in English." The finalists receive C$10,000 (about US$7,160) each. The winner will be named November 17. This year's shortlisted titles are:

We Love You, Bunny by Mona Awad 
The Tiger and the Cosmonaut by Eddy Boudel Tan
The Paris Express by Emma Donoghue 
The Life Cycle of the Common Octopus by Emma Knight 
Pick a Colour by Souvankham Thammavongsa 

Giller Prize executive director Elana Rabinovitch commented: "For more than 30 years, the Giller Prize has elevated Canadian storytelling and inspired generations of writers to contribute to Canada's legacy as a cultural hotbed for outstanding literature. This year is no different; the five titles on the shortlist are highly readable, deeply immersive, and profoundly unique works of art that build distinctive worlds and craft striking characters to inspire us, challenge us, and to push the medium of literary fiction forward."

Selected new titles appearing next Tuesday, October 14:

Gone Before Goodbye by Harlan Coben and Reese Witherspoon (Grand Central, $32, 9781538774700) is a conspiracy thriller starring a former Army surgeon.

Remain: A Supernatural Love Story by Nicholas Sparks and M. Night Shyamalan (Random House, $30, 9798217154043) follows a troubled architect designing a house on Cape Cod.

The Picasso Heist by James Patterson and Howard Roughan (Little, Brown, $32, 9781538758434) is a thriller about a previously unknown Picasso painting.

Boleyn Traitor: A Novel by Philippa Gregory (Morrow, $32, 9780063439689) is historical fiction set in the court of Henry VIII.

Red City by Marie Lu (Tor Books, $29.99, 9781250885678) is book one in the New Alchemists fantasy series.

Future Boy: Back to the Future and My Journey Through the Space-Time Continuum by Michael J. Fox and Nelle Fortenberry (Flatiron, $26.99, 9781250866783) is a memoir about acting in Family Ties and Back to the Future at the same time.

1929: Inside the Greatest Crash in Wall Street History--And How It Shattered a Nation (Viking, $35, 9780593296967) dives into the beginning of the Great Depression.

Joyride: A Memoir by Susan Orlean (Avid Reader Press, $32, 9781982135164) is the memoir of the author and New Yorker writer.

The Zorg: A Tale of Greed and Murder That Inspired the Abolition of Slavery by Siddharth Kara (St. Martin's Press, $30, 9781250348227) chronicles a 1780 slave ship massacre and its aftermath.

Milk Street Shorts: Recipes That Pack a Punch by Christopher Kimball (Voracious, $37.50, 9780316582094) includes 150 short recipes with big flavors.

Coach by Jason Reynolds (Atheneum/Dlouhy, $17.99, 9798347102372) is a companion middle-grade novel to the Track series featuring the kids' coach as a boy.

Rock Paper Incisors: A Skunk and Badger Story by Amy Timberlake, illus. by Jon Klassen (Little, Brown, $18.99, 9781643750071) features the titular roommates adopting two orphaned rat pups. 

Paperbacks:
The Keeper of Magical Things by Julie Leong (Ace, $19, 9780593815946).

And Then There Was the One: A Novel by Martha Waters (Atria, $19, 9781668069578). 

Revolve by Bal Khabra (Berkley, $19, 9780593818305).

From last week's Indie bestseller lists, available at IndieBound.org, here are the recommended titles, which are also Indie Next Great Reads:

Hardcover
Middle Spoon: A Novel by Alejandro Varela (Viking, $30, 9780593835173). "A beautiful exploration of heartbreak, polyamory, and life. Varela's inventive novel is a collection of e-mails sent to the main character's ex, therapist, and anyone who will provide relief from the pain of loss." --Reid Ransom, The Little Gay Shop, Austin, Tex.

A Truce That Is Not Peace by Miriam Toews (Bloomsbury, $26.99, 9781639734740). "In this brilliant memoir, Toews explores her grief and guilt about her sister's suicide. As in her fiction, she balances profound sorrow with humor, reflecting the contradictions we all encounter as we traverse life." --Nancy Sims-West, Raven Book Store, Lawrence, Kan.

Paperback
Tehrangeles: A Novel by Porochista Khakpour (Vintage, $19, 9780525564706). "Porochista Khakpour's turn to fiction is no less smart and biting. Couched in this larger-than-life novel about an uber-rich Iranian American family on the brink of reality TV fame, Khakpour's satire doubles as deluxe, ridiculous, heartfelt fun." --Melinda Powers, Bookshop Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz, Calif.

Ages 4-8
Seven Ways Through the Woods by Jenn Reese, illus. by Devin Elle Kurtz (Greenwillow, $19.99, 9780063356269). "Can I please, please, please live in these Woods? This story and illustrations are so lush and breathtaking; I cannot wait to share this with the world." --Rebecca Crosswhite, Rediscovered Books, Boise, Idaho

Ages 9-13: An Indies Introduce Title
Zeyna Lost and Found by Shafaq Khan (Carolrhoda, $19.99, 9798765639139). "Zeyna is an eminently relatable twelve-year-old in 1970, visiting Pakistan (and maybe some other countries, too!) who always wants a mystery to solve... and finds a real one. Shafaq's voice really comes through in such delightful ways in this super fun historical fiction mystery." --Grace Lane, Linden Tree Children's Books, Los Altos, Calif.

Ages 14+: An Indies Introduce Title
Reasons to Hate Me by Susan Metallo (Candlewick, $18.99, 9781536240351). "After months of being cyberbullied for hooking up with her best friend's boyfriend, unrepentant theater nerd Jess Lanza starts a retaliatory blog in this heartfelt, hilarious, and sometimes heartbreaking debut novel." --Matilda McNeely, Little Shop of Stories, Decatur, Ga.

[Many thanks to IndieBound and the ABA!]

Julie Doar's first novel, The Gallagher Place, investigates old and new mysteries within a compelling family drama set in a striking landscape.

Protagonist Marlowe Fisher is an illustrator living on the Upper West Side and a loner, even surrounded by her powerful family and their estate. When she and her two brothers, as adults, discover a body on their property, the case reopens old wounds. Decades earlier, Marlowe's childhood best friend vanished without a trace. The freshly murdered man and the long-missing teenaged girl do not initially appear linked, but the surrounding community has long harbored suspicions about the wealthy Fishers. Marlowe has always yearned to know what happened to Nora, although that desire presents new conflicts, having come under investigation once again.

The Fishers have always used the Gray House in upstate New York as a weekend and holiday retreat, "a wholesome family sanctuary to escape the crowded city life and the bittersweet pain of growing up too fast. A haven, her father sometimes called it. If that was the case, why did bad things still happen?" And bad things do happen, especially the disappearance of Nora Miller. Marlowe has never had another relationship as meaningful as her friendship with Nora, a local girl and an honorary, if part-time, fourth Fisher sibling, who wished desperately to escape her rural roots. Marlowe feels strongly: "Nothing mattered as much as the two of us." The loss of Nora has shadowed Marlowe's life ever since, culminating in a carefully hidden drinking problem.

The recent murder, and accompanying investigation into Nora's disappearance, is both galvanizing and disturbing. As Marlowe embarks on her own inquiries, more thoroughly than ever before, she not only refreshes old pains but discovers new risks. To search for Nora means to interrogate her own memory, to learn uncomfortable truths about herself and her family, to confront class differences, privilege, and inheritances. This discomfiting process takes place in two timelines, against the backdrop of Dutchess County, N.Y., in the summers of the 1990s (when Nora and Marlowe were teenagers) and in the present winter of 2018. The Fisher property defines Marlowe's greatest trauma and coming of age; she remains devoted to "the spirit of landscape" that inspires her art. A strong sense of place is central to this chilling novel about old secrets and what one might choose to uncover or keep hidden. The Gallagher Place is dramatically atmospheric, expertly paced, and haunting. --Julia Kastner, blogger at pagesofjulia

Shelf Talker: In this moody debut novel, new and old crimes on her family's estate in upstate New York force a quietly struggling woman to confront loyalties and conflicts among family and friends.

Book bans aren't about the books. They're about the ideas inside--and the power stories have to expand minds, spark questions, and encourage critical thinking. At Powell's, we've supported and celebrated independent thinking since our inception, which means continuing to stock and sell books others have labeled "offensive" or "inappropriate." We will always fight for your right to read anything you want.

Powell's Books, Portland, Ore.

As a word guy, I confess for a long time I was a bit uneasy about the use of celebrate to describe what we all do during Banned Books Week. I knew what we meant by the usage; we're not celebrating the bans so much as our active response to them. So, I gradually came to terms with the term, seeing it, as Powell's does, as a way to support and celebrate independent thinking. In fact, there are so many fierce, fun, and creative ways to celebrate our support for outlawed titles that now I can't think of a better word to use. 

For example, City Lights Books, San Francisco, Calif., celebrated with a little historical perspective by digging into its video archives: "Who better to celebrate Banned Books Week with than author & filmmaker John Waters? Hear him reading from the often banned LADY CHATTERLEY'S LOVER by DH Lawrence, recorded in the publishing offices at City Lights, 2013."

On the Side Books, Bradford, Pa., offered a series of banned book mug shots.

And in a report headlined "Custer Bookstore Celebrates Banned Books Week," Carrie Moore, owner of Petals & Pages in Custer, S.Dak., told KOTA: "I was really shocked to find out some of my childhood favorites had once been banned. It's just so funny because I don't remember that as the message; I took away something different. So, what message is someone not wanting you to read about or hear about? Also celebrating the authors who have written these books, their voice, and the message they want to portray."

Index on Censorship has relaunched Banned Books Week UK this year, noting: "While it's a time to celebrate the freedom to read, it's also about standing in solidarity with writers, booksellers, librarians and publishers who are being increasingly silenced or facing pressure to withdraw books."

Booksellers at Secret World Books, Highland Park, Ill., showed off their topical T-shirts.

'"We just want to celebrate stories," Charlie Hunts, owner of Charlie's Queer Books, Seattle, Wash., told KUOW. "We see a ton of people coming from red states who have already seen the effects of these book bans, whether it's in their schools or in their bookstores. They stock up with us. They bring it home. They share it amongst their community, they even bring it to their schools to share with other parents. We're seen as a resource in this moment.... We just want to share really amazing, imaginative ways of being in the world with other people. We recognize the role that books have played in our lives."

Celebrating Banned Books Week is, of course, a longstanding independent bookstore tradition, with the stakes seeming to get higher each year. Among indies getting into the spirit this week:

At Bookstore on the Square

Bookstore on the Square, Fort Collins, Colo.: "Today is the beginning of Banned Books Week 2025! A celebration of reading freely. The American Library Association has been bringing awareness to book censorship since 1982. Banning & challenging books in the US has surged in recent years. Check out ALA.org for more information!"

Alibi Bookshop, Vallejo, Calif.: "Today is the first day of Banned Books Week (October 5th-11th) which celebrates our freedom to read.... We have so many banned books--from Charlotte's Web to A Clockwork Orange (the most challenged book in 2024!)--that there were too many to display in the window, and I had to stack them up. And even then a lot of them didn't fit! I'll bet you can find a few of your favorites in the piles, which I will happily dismantle for you.... So be sure you stop by this week and celebrate your freedom to read.... Ignorance is not strength."

Anderson's Bookshop, Naperville & Downers Grove, Ill.: "In celebration of National Banned Books Week we are using our social media to help amplify the latest data-driven information about the state of censorship in America all week. Tune in daily to access resources to help you learn more!"

The Little BOHO Bookshop, Bayonne, N.J.: "The Little Boho Bookshop celebrates our freedom to read. We support diverse representation and own voice writing as stories that feature characters with diverse ethnicities and sexualities remain at the top of challenged books lists.... Celebrate your freedom to read.... READ A BANNED BOOK TODAY!"

Art by Larry Law

Theodore's Books, Oyster Bay, N.Y.: "Our bookseller Chloe is kicking off Banned Books Week by sharing her favorite banned book, and why it still matters today. Come visit our Banned Books display and celebrate the stories that challenge, inspire, and remind us why the freedom to read is worth protecting."

And if you're looking to get into the true spirit of the celebration, Larry Law, executive director at Great Lakes Independent Booksellers Association and an artist, has captured it with his latest creation, noting: "Happy Banned Books Week! Celebrate accordingly." 

Celebrate that, book banners!