Final Chapter

With ReaderLink’s purchase of Baker & Taylor called off, B&T owner and CEO Aman Kochar said during a town hall meeting that the wholesaler has begun winding down its operations, starting with the layoffs of 520 employees yesterday. The Philadelphia-based Quirk Books has been acquired by Andrews McMeel, several months after announcing a six-month publishing pause and laying off a large portion of its staff. The finalists for this year’s National Book Awards have been revealed, with winners to be named next month. HarperCollins UK CEO Charlie Redmayne has resigned after 12 years leading the company, with Kate Elton stepping into the role on an interim basis. And in Denver, accessibility to books and the freedom to read were among the top talking points at the Mountains and Plains Independent Booksellers Association’s annual FallCon. In a seven-figure deal, Disney has won the rights to adapt Katherine Rundell’s blockbuster middle grade series Impossible Creatures, reports Deadline. Education experts and aggrieved parents in North Carolina are locked in a stalemate over book banning efforts, which Carolina Public Press reports are gathering steam thanks to the state’s Parents’ Bill of Rights. The Washington Post speculates who will win the Nobel Prize for Literature, to be announced on Thursday. The Guardian talks with author SenLinYu—whose dark fantasy novel Alchemised topped our hardcover fiction list this week—about their roots as a fanfiction writer. And British romance author Jilly Cooper and Czech novelist Ivan Klima have died at 88 and 94, respectively.