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Ernest & Hadley Opens for Business

Customers peruse the shelves at Ernest & Hadley on opening day.
Customers peruse the shelves at Ernest & Hadley on opening day.

On December 11, Ernest & Hadley Booksellers in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, opened its doors to the community. “We had a spectacular opening,” said owner Easty Lambert-Brown, who also owns Borgo Publishing.

Ernest & Hadley’s approach to featuring titles is unique: The store will shelve books chronologically, rather than alphabetically or by genre. Lambert-Brown also plans to highlight different eras in literature at different times, based on customer feedback, and will provide a space for local authors to sell their titles and meet customers.

McNally Jackson Opens Second Location of Goods for the Study

McNally Jackson Goods for the Study.
McNally Jackson Goods for the Study.

A second location of McNally Jackson Goods for the Study, McNally Jackson Books’ sister shop that features stationery, furniture, lighting, and other items for the home, has opened in New York City’s Greenwich Village.

McNally Jackson Books opened in 2004 in Manhattan’s Nolita neighborhood, where McNally Jackson Goods for the Study and McNally Jackson Picture Room, which specializes in artwork, are also located.

Greenlight Sets Grand Opening for Second Location

Greenlight Bookstore in Brooklyn, New York, will celebrate the grand opening of its second location, in Prospect Lefferts Gardens, on January 7. Greenlight’s first location, in Fort Greene, Brooklyn, opened in 2009 under Jessica Stockton Bagnulo and Rebecca Fitting.

The celebration will kick off with a party for kids in the afternoon followed by a cocktail party and ribbon-cutting at 7:30 p.m., featuring music, toasts, and special guests, including local authors, neighborhood representatives, and elected officials.

The new 2,100-square-foot location carries more than 8,000 titles in fiction, children’s books, cookbooks and lifestyle books, history and biography, visual and performing arts, and other categories. In the coming months, the store will host authors Ottessa Moshfegh, A. O. Scott, Kaitlyn Greenidge, Jami Attenberg, and Jim Shepard, as well as children’s story times on Saturday afternoons and monthly book club meetings.

“We’re excited to be launching a brand-new space for literary events, conversations, and neighborhood connections, and we look forward to growing in Prospect Lefferts Gardens for years to come,” said Bagnulo.

Charis Books Moving to Decatur

Charis Books & More, a feminist bookstore in Atlanta, Georgia, is moving from its longtime home to nearby Decatur due to the sale of its building, reported Atlanta INtown.

Elizabeth Anderson, executive director of the bookstore’s nonprofit arm, Charis Circle, told Atlanta INtown that the new location, a Victorian-style house across from Agnes Scott College, will be larger and will have space for daytime events, reading groups, and social gatherings.

“Now, more than ever, we need a secure physical place to gather, to explore ideas, plan for the future, build new strategies, and fight the coming tide of oppression and violence, which threatens our already marginalized communities,” Anderson said. “For 42 years, Charis has been a shelter, a sanctuary, a home. Please dig deep and give as generously as you are able this year so that we can help ensure that safer spaces like Charis Circle can exist, grow, and thrive in these unprecedentedly dangerous times.”

The Lit. Bar Top Vendor at Holiday Market

The Lit. Bar owner Noelle Santos at the Bronx Museum Holiday Market.
The Lit. Bar owner Noelle Santos at the Bronx Museum Holiday Market.

On December 10, The Lit. Bar, a bookstore and wine bar coming to the Bronx in 2017, made its debut at the Bronx Museum of the Art’s holiday market. In a blog post, owner Noelle Santos reported that the bookstore was the number-one seller at the market, which featured more than 50 vendors.

The store’s booth sold 122 books and 80 gift items over the course of 92 transactions in two days. Ahead of the event, volunteers helped Santos pick up, sort, and price a donation of bestselling titles that came from the New York Public Library’s Science, Industry, and Business Library.

One of the most popular items at the booth was the Blind Date With a Book display, which repeatedly sold out, wrote Santos. “Who buys books they can’t see, lol? Lesson learned.”

Strand Book Store Hosts Bernie Sanders

Strand staff with Senator Bernie Sanders.
Strand staff with Senator Bernie Sanders.

On December 13, Senator Bernie Sanders visited the Cooper Union in New York City for a sold-out event hosted by Strand Book Store as part of his book tour for Our Revolution: A Future to Believe In (Thomas Dunne Books).

Sanders was joined by civil rights activist Harry Belafonte, Nobel Laureate Joseph Stiglitz, and Strand co-owners Fred Bass and Nancy Bass Wyden. Sanders’ speech covered issues including his progressive platform, the media, and President-elect Donald Trump. The event can be seen in its entirety on the Huffington Post’s Facebook page.

McIntyre’s Books Raises Donations for Schoolchildren

Dr. Amanda Hartness and Carrie Little of Chatham County Schools with Sarah Carr and Keebe Fitch of McIntyre’s Books.
Dr. Amanda Hartness and Carrie Little of Chatham County Schools with Sarah Carr and Keebe Fitch of McIntyre’s Books.

McIntyre’s Books in Pittsboro, North Carolina, launched its Reindeer Readers program on November 25, and since then has raised enough donations to provide every kindergarten and first-grade student in Chatham County public schools with a book, just in time for the holidays. Sponsors of the program donated $40 each.

“The gift of literacy is irreplaceable and benefits us all,” said McIntyre’s Books Manager Keebe Fitch. “Donors have been so excited about the prospects of sharing books with Chatham’s youngest students that we are considering doing this again before school lets out. Looks like we might have to change the program’s name!”

Donations will go to a total of 1,228 students. Between December 4 and 15, volunteers joined bookstore staff to wrap the books before sending them to classrooms.