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Ann Patchett Touts Indie Bookstores on CBS Sunday Morning

Author Ann Patchett was interviewed by Lesley Stahl of 60 Minutes on CBS Sunday Morning about her bookstore, Parnassus Books in Nashville, Tennessee, and her role as the “patron saint of independent bookstores.”

“It’s not just Parnassus Books in Nashville that I promote. I really promote independent bookstores,” Patchett told Stahl.

ABA CEO Oren Teicher, who was interviewed for the segment earlier this year at BookExpo 2017, spoke to the value of indie bookstores. “You can’t discover books online,” he said. “When you browse the shelves of a bookstore, you’re going to find out about books you didn’t know about.”

After Hurricane, The Book Cellar Delays Opening Until October

The Book Cellar Lake Worth is planning to open on October 6.Hurricane Irma has pushed back the opening of a new independent bookstore in Lake Worth, Florida.

Originally hoping for a September opening, The Book Cellar Lake Worth is now planning to open on October 6, according to a post on the store’s Facebook page.

Co-owner Tamara Ayraud told the Palm Beach Post that the store didn’t suffer damages but that general disruption of services in the city caused the delay.

The store will offer classic titles, modern literature, and children’s books, and Ayraud plans to set up a café serving coffee, sandwiches, beer, and wine within the store next year. “There’s interest out there and it’s really awesome,” she told the Post.

Duende District Pops Up to Celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month

Duende District, a mobile bookstore in the Washington, D.C., area, is running a pop-up bookstore in Hyattsville, Maryland, from September 21 to September 30 to help celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month.

Owner Angela Maria Spring, formerly of Politics and Prose, told Hyattsville Life & Times that the event is the biggest effort yet for her fledgling bookselling business, which launched in February.

“Everyone I’ve worked with in Hyattsville has been amazing and excited to bring this bookstore and its mission of uplifting voices of color to the community,” Spring told Hyattsville Life & Times.

The bookstore specializes in a variety of books by authors and illustrators of color.

Over the summer, Spring told Washington City Paper that she is testing the bookstore via pop-up shops in several communities to determine where to open a brick-and-mortar location.

Arizona’s Book Vault Gets Bigger

The Book Vault in Mesa, Arizona, has moved into a 43,000-square-foot space, nearly five times the size of the previous store.

Owners Kay and Steve Albrecht told Shelf Awareness that the move into the former Sports Authority space allowed them to expand their books, music, and movie inventory and add new gaming and comic departments.

Eastwind Books Named Small Business of the Month

Eastwind Books of Berkeley, California, is the first small business to be honored in a new monthly initiative by city Councilwoman Kate Harrison.

The bookstore has been in business since 1982 selling titles related to Asian language learning, traditional Chinese medicine, martial arts, Asia Studies, Asian American and Asian Diaspora Studies, and other subjects.

A “Small Business of the Month” reception will be held on October 12 to highlight the importance of Eastwind Books to the community, according to a report in the East Bay Times.

Scattered Books’ Video Goes Viral

Scattered Books of Chappaqua, New York, has been making headlines and generating buzz on social media in the past week after Hillary Clinton shared a music video set to “Fight Song” by Rachel Platten that the store created to celebrate the publication of her new memoir, What Happened (Simon & Schuster), and the illustrated children’s version of her 1996 book, It Takes a Village.

The store pinned Clinton’s tweet to the top of its Twitter page: “This video from my local bookstore @scatteredbooks in Chappaqua put a smile on my face! Love the soundtrack, too.”

Earlier this year, Scattered Books created a promotional music video for the April 29 celebration of Independent Bookstore Day, which featured a local dance troupe and a song composed to the tune of Justin Timberlake’s hit single “SexyBack.”