Pittsburgh nonprofit City of Asylum, which is devoted to writers in exile, will open its new bookstore on Saturday, January 14. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported the store will offer a “carefully curated selection of 8,000 volumes by authors from all over the world” in a renovated Masonic hall now called Alphabet City. “It was a lot of fun to put this collection together,” noted store manager Lesley Rains, who previously owned East End Book Exchange in Bloomfield, PA. (Rains sold the Bloomfield, PA store last June after four years in operation.) Wider Than The Sky in Newport, VT will close […]
Bookstores
People, Etc.
Tom Thompson has joined SMP as vp, creative services and advertising. Thompson most recently was svp, digital strategy/group director of Verso Advertising, where he worked for 10 years. At William Morrow, Emily Krump has been promoted to senior editor. Bookselling Barnes & Noble will close their downtown Minneapolis store at Nicollet Mall in May when the lease expires. The company admitted that the two-floor, 25,000-square-foot store is too big and unsuccessfully tried to negotiate with the landlord for a 14,000 to 16,000-square foot space on one floor. It’s yet another sign that the bookseller is looking to reshape its store […]
Bookselling: Another Amazon Store Planned for Paramus, NJ; BookMarc in Bangor, ME To Close
Following on the news that Amazon will open a physical bookstore in Manhattan’s Shops at Columbus Circle later this spring — in the same place where Borders had a store from 2003 through 2011 — the company announced plans to open its eighth store, in Paramus, NJ. BookMarc‘s in Bangor, ME will close on January 31 after 28 years in business. Owner Marc Berlin told the Bangor Daily News: “I’m ready to retire. You suddenly realize there are a lot of things you’d like to do. I’ve been putting it off for a couple of years. It’s been a very […]
Mastai Tops February Indie Next List
For the second month in a row, a debut novel (and a title featured in our Buzz Books Fall/Winter edition) — All Our Wrong Todays by Elan Mastai — tops the Indie Next list. The full February list includes: Pachinko, by Min Jin Lee Lincoln in the Bardo, by George Saunders Lillian Boxfish Takes a Walk, by Kathleen Rooney The Girl Before, by J.P. Delaney The Impossible Fortress, by Jason Rekulak A Separation, by Katie Kitamura Behind Her Eyes, by Sarah Pinborough Perfect Little World, by Kevin Wilson Swimming Lessons, by Claire Fuller 4 3 2 1, by Paul Auster […]
Amazon Plans Manhattan Bookstore at Time Warner Center for Spring
With Amazon set to open their fourth and fifth bookstores in Chicago and Dedham, MA shortly, the company now says they expect to open a store in New York’s Time Warner Center at Columbus Circle this spring. The WSJ reports that the company confirmed plans for 4,000-square-foot store in the building’s retail mall. Last July, the NY Post had reported that Amazon was preparing to lease in the Hudson Yards development on the West Side, but that space would not open until late 2018 or early 2019. They also have been hiring for second Boston-area books store, north of the […]
January Bookseller Picks
Amazon made Douglas Preston’s new book their spotlight pick for January, with the Indie Next No. 1 debut novel from Emily Fridlund as their featured debut. (Our new spinoff free sampler January Buzz Books features read-it-now excerpts from Fridlund and another Amazon pick from Shanthi Sekaran’s Lucky Boy, plus three others and our big preview of forthcoming January books. Get it at Amazon, iBooks and Google Play, or from NetGalley). Amazon’s full monthly picks: The Lost City of the Monkey God, Douglas Preston History of Wolves, Emily Fridlund The Bear and the Nightingale, Katherine Arden The Dry, Jane Harper Lillian Boxfish Takes a […]