April 2024 | Rooted in Community | |
Welcome back, Sunlight! (Photo taken before the snows/rains/cold) |
Tsundoku, Stack One (New Books)
Tsundoku is Japanese for the act of acquiring reading materials and letting them pile up in one’s home. We thought it a perfect heading, so much so that we have two stacks, one for new books and one for used. If you’re like us, tsundoku is a constant state of being.
Otherlands, Thomas Halliday, $22
The subtitle of this one is A Journey Through Earth's Extinct Worlds, which if you think about for even 1/100 of the amount of time that Halliday has thought about it--it's wild. Truly wild. To imagine Earth's flora and fauna through varying extinctions and deep transitions, along with the creatures then alive, with names like sharovipterygid (a small flying lizard) and madygenerpeton (alligator-esque), you have to really, really plumb the depths of imagination within the parameters of science. It's impressive, and like the cover states, very close to time travel.
To Banish Forever, Cathy Coats, $19.95
This book was recently published by the Minnesota Historical Society Press, coming along in the shadow of the film version of Killers of the Flower Moon. The similarities echo, which is good; our ears should ring as we continue to reckon with our country's past. This story starts in Mankato (infamous for their mass hanging of 38 Dakota men in 1862), focusing on a group of white men who in 1863 formed a secret society bent on banishing the Ho-Chunk people from the rich farmland of the Blue Earth Reservation. P.S. The author will be giving a talk at the Ho-Chunk Nation Three Rivers House (724 Main St) in La Crosse on Saturday, April 13, at 11 am.
The Age of Deer, Erika Howsare, $28
Every time I flipped open this book to peruse the narrative, I had trouble pulling away--the angles and topics Howsare takes on are so intriguing. Sometimes they're so commonplace they never warranted second-thought, other times, she's exploring some cultural aspect that borders between absurd and grotesque. From farmed deer in restaurants to the troubles of roadkill, from mythology and art to team-building hunts: it's all here, deer.
The Turtle of Michigan, Naomi Shihab Nye, $9.99
April is National Arab American Heritage Month and National Poetry Month, so while this isn't a poetry book, the author is a poet, as well as Arab American, so it's kind of a perfect book for celebrating two in one. Nye's follow-up to The Turtle of Oman, the children's book from 2009, this is the story of Aref, a young boy immigrating from Oman to Michigan with his family. The book is geared for young, middle-grade readers, filled with sweetness.
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Lignin, the stuff that prevents all trees from adopting the weeping habit, is a polymer made up of units that are closely related to vanillin. When made into paper and stored for years, it breaks down and smells good. Which is how divine providence has arranged for secondhand bookstores to smell like good quality vanilla absolute, subliminally stoking a hunger for knowledge in all of us.
—Luca Turin and Tania Sanchez,
from Perfumes: The Guide
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Tsundoku, Stack Two (Used Books)
This portion of our Tsundoku section plays by different rules, since it deals in used books rather than new. With new books, we have a general sense of what we order and stock, but our used books are totally free range, flowing in and out of the store on their own mysterious tides. So while a book may get mentioned here, it could be gone in a heartbeat. But maybe you'll get curious...
New Garden Book, Better Homes and Gardens, $12
This book came in an eclectic collection of vintage car collector books (his) and novels in Swedish (hers). It's one of those gardening books designed as a fancified 5-ring binder, making it easy to flip open and lay flat while you dig in the dirt. The best thing, though, is that the former owner made it her own; she added magazine and newspaper clippings that she found relevant/useful, complete with hole punches, many of them in Swedish. Flipping through the pages, you feel the gentle touch of a creative mind.
Transformer, Ezra Furman, $10
This is one of three used books we currently have, all part of a series from Bloomsbury Publishing called 33 and 1/3--the rotation speed of a vinyl record. Each small book (there are about 70 books in the series) features one album, as discussed by one author. This one is about Lou Reed's Transformer, written by Ezra Furman, also a musician. I'm utterly smitten with these (I ordered several once I learned of their existence): their design is sharp and just plain cool, and each offers a solid deep dive into a pivotal album in popular music's soundscape.
If Walls Could Talk, Lucy Worsley, $9
Subtitle: An Intimate History of the Home. Intimate, indeed, because what a cheeky little book this is! It would pair well with any of the new animal culture books we have at the front of the store, and the animals would measure as highest society, because what have we (in this case we means the British, as this is heavily focused on England) been up to behind closed doors? Cooking small dogs in spits and blood-letting in bed, it seems.
Gunflint: Reflections on the Trail, Justine Kerfoot, $15
If you've spent any time in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, you're likely familiar with the Gunflint Trail, a common access point for this watery wonderland. Kerfoot's book came in with the Ides of March, on a blustery Sunday, and from her first paragraph, you trust her entirely. Her voice, matter-of-fact and tinged with patient humor, is clearly carved from her six decades living along the Gunflint. Published in 1991 and signed by the author, this is one of those cool stumble-upon treasures we love.
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I am rereading On Indigenuity: Learning the Lessons of Mother Earth to be prepared for Daniel Wildcat's visit on Sunday the 7th. His visit to our bookstore is a milestone event for me. This book, along with Red Alert, is packed with centuries of wisdom and practices that give me hope. Now, if only we are willing to apply ancient Indigenous wisdom and practices coupled with science to the current problems facing our shared earth. I am also reading Thich Nhat Hanh's book, Love Letter to the Earth. | I am right in the middle of reading Birnam Wood by Eleanor Catton. This eco-thriller is chock full of eco-idealism fighting disgusting wealth. The perfect read for Anti-Multizillionaire Month. | And finally, I am almost done with Daniel Nayeri's new book, The Many Assassinations of Samir, the Seller of Dreams. Naveri, author of one of my favorite books, Everything Sad is Untrue (A True Story) is an amazing storyteller. A perfect read for anyone between the ages of 10 and 100. | |  |
Customer Corner:
Kelly Sultzbach
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Just seeing the lovely front windows lit up with books and inspiring messages creates a glow of good feeling. This story-filled haven is my community happy-place. I bring all my relatives and friends here when they visit and I can’t even count the number of gift certificates I’ve given as gifts.
As for myself, you are likely to find me scanning the literature and poetry shelves. I remember once finding a whole stash of hard-to-find used volumes related to W.H. Auden and his poetry—better than a bottle of champagne! (You might know Auden for “Funeral Blues”: “Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone . . . He was my North, my South, my East, my West.”) Other favorites of mine include the poetry of Kay Ryan, Toni Morrison’s Jazz (which I often read at PSB’s annual birthday party for Morrison and Audre Lorde), Virginia Woolf’s To the Lighthouse, Anthony Doerr’s Cloud Cuckoo Land, and Robin Wall Kimmerer’s Braiding Sweetgrass. For cold nights, I recommend Golden Age of Detective Fiction author Dorothy Sayers.
I have come to rely on the cleverly curated front tables to introduce me to new authors and ideas. Who can resist picking up a gorgeous cover to peruse the book-flap? Sometimes I take my stash over to Jules or curl up on one of the armchairs in the upstairs loft. I have more photos of the view from up there—sun shining on the wood of floor-to-ceiling bookshelves and the beloved wheeled ladder—than I care to admit. And the people… everyone on staff is a friend: a friend to the books themselves, a friend of collective goodwill, and a friend of bibliophiles everywhere.
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