Bookstores are reopening, cautiously, with some changes.

Barnes & Noble requires face coverings and opens an hour early daily for senior citizens and others who are most at risk. Although events are not being held inside the stores, there’s a lot going on virtually for young adult and adult readers. Hours have been shortened.

Its book club has resumed, on B&N Facebook. The next bookclub pick is “Florence Adler Swims Forever” by Rachel Beanland, a session that begins at 7 p.m. Aug. 4. Beanland will be live on the program, with best-selling author Ann Hood. To get in on it, check BN.com/bookclub. There’s a YA book club as well. Some events are held on Instagram.

Café is open for take-out orders only — there’s no seating.

Worcester’s Bedlam Book Café, 138 Green St., (within the Crompton Collective) is forging ahead after reopening its in-store services at the middle of June. To tweak the experience, the store has begun to sell a curated selection of new books, in addition to its used collection.

“These will be books that we find topical, urgent or necessary to the current time. They’ll be books that we feel you shouldn’t wait until the books start showing up at used book sales to read,” said Nicole DiCello. Books include Ibram X Kendi’s “How to be an Antiracist” and Naomi Klein’s “On Fire: The Burning Case for a Green New Deal.” This shop carries unusual titles across a variety of genres, and offers a great place to browse.

Or, customers may browse online from Bedlam’s storefront on Bookshop.org, a site designed to help booksellers and indie bookstores. Customers can also use the book find form on Bedlam’s home page for used, rare, out-of-print books, and arrange to have the book shipped to their home. Also, book checkout includes a contactless credit card system.

Masks are expected here, as well, and there’s hand sanitizer to be used when entering. Café orders are handled online (bedlambookcafe@gmail.com), with curbside pick-up available; the menu is online at bedlambookcafe.com. Alternatively, customers can order in the shop and take their selections outside to the courtyard tables behind the building.

Root & Press, 623 Chandler St., Worcester, offers Zoom book clubs for both fiction and nonfiction fans. Upcoming dates are July 15 and July 28 at 6:30 p.m. See https://rootandpress.com for book selections. There’s also an online menu for the café at www.instagram.com/rootandpress. Outdoor tables are available for take-out sandwiches or drinks, and the bookstore recently reopened.

TidePool Bookshop, operated by Jo and Huck Truesdell, is nearby, at 372 Chandler St., but the store is still listed as closed. Its website, www.tidepoolbookshop.com, offers reading group suggestions and, in better times, brings in regional authors to speak. Also on Facebook. Offers curbside pickup.

Reader favorite:

Charles Innis of Paxton says pandemic withdrawal has allowed him to catch up on books he’s acquired but hasn’t read. “My son gave me Erik Larson’s ‘The Splendid and the Vile.’ It is a very good description of the events of the year after Winston Churchill was created prime minister — including the Dunkirk evacuation, Anglo-American politics, the Blitz, the German reactions, and Churchill family stresses, personal stories as well as historical events.” Innis found the book well written, in fact “an easy read, hard to put down. It seems an appropriate choice for the 75th anniversary of the end of the war in Europe,” he said.

New on the shelves:

“Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents” by Isabel Wilkerson (author of “The Warm of Other Suns”) is an examination of the mostly hidden hierarchies of power going beyond race and class in America and resulting in the deep divisions of today. Focused on narratives from real people, Wilkerson compares American castes to those across other nations and times. The Pulitzer Prize winner has earned praise across a variety of book critics, including Massachusetts historian Jill Lepore and Janet Maslin of The New York Times.

Book groups:

NOW Women’s Issues Book Group will meet at the Nu Kitchen, 335 Chandler St., Worcester, at 7 p.m. July 13 on the patio. Bring a face mask. Discussion is about Virginia Woolf’s “Orlando.” There is also an online meeting July 20 at 7, for those who can’t make the first meeting. Books can be obtained through the Worcester Public Library’s curbside pick-up service.

O’Connor’s Books, Brews & Banter Reading Group has elected to meet weekly, Wednesdays at 6:30 p.m. via Zoom. Members should contact host Elizabeth. Share a book you are currently reading.

O’Connor’s will also host “The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek” by Kim Michele Richardson at 6:30 p.m. Aug. 5, an online event. A link has been sent to the group’s attendees.

Read It and Reap is published the second and final Sundays of each month. Send book comments or club updates to ann.frantz@gmail.com.