SRB, IOL, 3rd ptg, pb

Wed 29 Apr 2026 - Filed under: Not a Journal., , | Leave a Comment| Posted by: Gavin

In Other Lands cover - click to view full sizeThe third paperback printing of Sarah Rees Brennan’s novel In Other Lands is on the way from the printer, Versa Press, in East Peoria, IL, to the Consortium warehouse in Jackson, TN.

Not coincidentally, Sarah’s new excellently titled novel, All Hail Chaos, comes out here in the US in two weeks, Tuesday May 12th. That one is a sequel to Long Live Evil* which came out in August 2024. Will there be a third book? Only time will tell.

 

 

* Live Evil was a very satisfying palindromic 1982 Black Sabbath live album. Long Live Evil is just worrying, Sarah, worrying.


Indie Bookstore Day 2026

Sat 25 Apr 2026 - Filed under: Not a Journal., , | Posted by: Gavin

Should have posted this BKMN IBD update here. I’ll be over by one or so. Kelly a little later.

Will leave the Small Beer discount up until Monday morning:

We’ll have (some of these) exclusive goodies which will be available as of Saturday morning. If we don’t have them try some of our friends around the valley!

Audiobook specials: Libro.fm/ibd

    • Come in wearing any Book Moon T-shirt (including Read Books Punch Nazis shirts) and get 10% off everything (except: preorders, gift certificates, memberships).
    • We have exclusive books and freebies (they’ll appear like magic just below this image on Saturday). At least, they should.
    • We have a Libro.fm Golden Ticket hidden in the store: find it and win a year’s-worth of free audiobooks.
    • 33% off Small Beer hardcovers (not including limited editions) and paperbacks. (This is automagically turned on and shows up in the shopping cart)
    • Spend $50+ and get a free BKMN card with Kevin Huizenga’s illustration of the store.
    • Spend $100+ and also get a free BKMN Blackwing pencil.

Not coming by? Our shipping only site Bookshop.org is celebrating with free shipping on all orders on April 25th & 26th

Hope to see you on Saturday — and/or any time between 10-6 Monday to Saturday and 1-5 Sunday, when you will catch many excellent booksellers and very occasionally Gavin and/or Kelly.


A Stranger in the Sunday Times

Wed 22 Apr 2026 - Filed under: Not a Journal., | Posted by: Gavin

When I was a kid my dad liked getting a whole stack of Sunday newspapers — which was easier in early years in Ayrshire than in later years in Argyll. Walking, or occasionally biking, a mile down to pick up the Times, Observer, and Sunday Post(!) at the hotel once they’d arrived off the ferry wasn’t always a joy but the memories of afternoons reading those papers does mean teenage me gets a spark of joy to see Sofia Samatar’s A Stranger in Olondria in Jessie Lethaby’s “guide to great classic fantasy novels” in the London Sunday Times: 

Jevick is born on an insignificant island off the coast of Olondria, a land he has grown up listening to stories about. As the son of a merchant he is afforded a good education and eventually the chance to visit this place of his dreams. When he arrives he loses himself in the pleasures of cosmopolitan life after his backwater upbringing, but is ultimately drawn to the ghost of a girl from home, taking him across Olondria into its stranger and more disquieting corners. Sofia Samatar’s writing is unearthly and strange as she fully immerses you in her world, but she also plays with the reader’s expectations of what a hero’s journey should look like. In her emphasis on the magic of the written word and her utterly believable world-building, you can see echoes of Le Guin.