Dear Reader,
Welcome to Pride Month! LGBTQ+ Pride Month is currently celebrated each year in the month of June to honor the 1969 Stonewall Uprising in Manhattan. The first Pride march in New York City was held on June 28, 1970. Modern-day Pride Month both honors the movement for LGBTQ+ rights and celebrates LGBTQ+ culture.
The Stonewall Uprising, also known as the Stonewall Riots, was a series of spontaneous protests by members of the gay community in response to a police raid at Greenwich Village’s Stonewall Inn. Throughout the state it was illegal to serve alcohol to a gay person until 1966, and in 1969, homosexuality was still considered a criminal offense. Patrons of the Stonewall Inn, other Greenwich Village lesbian and gay bars, and neighborhood street people fought back in response to the police brutality. The riots are widely considered the watershed event that transformed the gay liberation movement and the fight for LGBTQ+ rights in the USA.
Footage from the first Christopher Street Liberation Day Parade, held in New York City on June 28, 1970:
The Book Beat staff recommends these LBTQ+ adjacent titles:
Non-Binary: A Memoir by Genesis P-Orridge, the final work and life story of the founder of Throbbing Gristle and Psychic TV.
On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong, the debut novel from the acclaimed poet.
The New Fuck You: Adventures in Lesbian Reading edited by Eileen Myles and Liz Kotz, a classic anthology with writing by Adele Bertei, Holly Hughes, Sapphire, Laurie Weeks, and more.
On Freedom by Maggie Nelson, a new book of critical essays by the author the The Argonauts.
The House in the Cerulean Sea by T.J. Klune, a contemporary fantasy novel.
Frankissstein by Jeanette Winterson, a love story that weaves together AI, transhumanism, and queer love.
Wayward Lives, Beautiful Experiments by Saidiya Hartman examines the revolution of black intimate life that unfolded in Philadelphia and New York at the beginning of the twentieth century. In wrestling with the question of what a free life is, many young black women created forms of intimacy and kinship indifferent to the dictates of respectability and outside the bounds of law.
Father’s Day is June 18. At Book Beat, we have Father’s Day cards and new titles in stock that would make great gifts! The Book Beat staff recommends these gift ideas:
The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder by David Grann, a page-turning story of survival and savagery. Signed copies available.
Chuck Berry: An American Life by RJ Smith, the definitive biography of the rock and roll legend.
How Basketball Can Save the World: 13 Guiding Principles for Reimagining What’s Possible by David Hollander, a thought-provoking exploration of how basketball can solve today’s most pressing issues.
Winston Churchill: His Times, His Crimes by Tariq Ali, a scathing portrait of the often celebrated wartime leader.
The Passenger Box Set: The Passenger, Stella Maris by Cormac McCarthy, the new two-volume story from the author of The Road and No Country for Old Men.
New York Magazine has put together a new list of The Best Books for Every Type of Dad.
Book Beat Upcoming Events
Tuesday, June 13: Jennifer Murphy presents Scarlet in Blue at Northville Township Hall
Michigan Notable Books Author Jennifer Murphy will present her new novel Scarlet in Blue at Northville Township Hall on June 13 from 7:00 PM – 8:30 PM. After the presentation there will be a Q&A followed by a book signing. Copies of the book will be made available by Book Beat. Registration is required. Read more about the event here.
Thursday June 22: Ebony LaDelle presents Love Radio at Oak Park Community Center
Michigan Notable Book author and Oak Park native Ebony LaDelle will present and sign her book Love Radio at the Oak Park Community Center in Recreation Room B on June 22 at 6:30 PM. Made possible with a grant from the Library of Michigan Foundation and Michigan Humanities, the Oak Park Public Library will be facilitating the event with copies of the book made available by Book Beat. Registration is required. Read more about the event here.
Sunday June 25: Frank Uhle and Cinema Ann Arbor at Book Beat
On June 25 from 3:00 – 4:00 PM Book Beat will host a talk with Frank Uhle, author of Cinema Ann Arbor. Uhle will discuss Ann Arbor’s reputation and history as a locus for underground and avant-garde film activities for nearly 100 years. Copies of Cinema Ann Arbor are available in the store. We highly recommend this deep dive into Ann Arbor’s gloried film scene. Book Beat is located at 26010 Greenfield in Oak Park, MI 48237. Read more about Frank Uhle and his book here.
Read an interview with Frank Uhle at Dreaming in the Dark.
Wednesday June 28: Book Beat Reading Group
The Book Beat reading group selection for June is The Crystal World by J.G. Ballard. Our discussion will be held Wednesday, June 28 at 7:00 PM online via Zoom. We may possibly be also meeting in person depending on the new location of Goldfish Tea opening in time. We will try and meet both ways. The Zoom link will be sent the afternoon of the meeting to anyone interested in attending. Email bookbeatorders@gmail.com to sign up. Books are in stock now and discounted 15%. Please call (248) 968-1190 for more information.
SLEEPER ALERTS & RECENT ARRIVALS
Two recent books by master photographer W. Eugene Smith arrived this week. First up is The Jazz Loft Project. In 1957, Eugene Smith walked away from his longtime job at Life and the home he shared with his wife and four children to move into a dilapidated, five-story loft building at 821 Sixth Avenue in New York City’s wholesale flower district. The loft was the late-night haunt of musicians, including some of the biggest names in jazz—Charles Mingus, Zoot Sims, Bill Evans, and Thelonious Monk among them. Here, from 1957 to 1965, he made nearly 40,000 photographs and approximately 4,000 hours of recordings of musicians. Smith found solace in the chaotic, somnambulistic world of the loft and its artists, and he turned his documentary impulses away from work on his major Pittsburg photo essay and toward his new surroundings.
Smith’s The Jazz Loft Project has been legendary in the worlds of art, photography, and music for more than forty years, but until the publication of this book, no one had seen his extraordinary photographs or read any of the firsthand accounts of those who were there and lived to tell the tales. Please note: this book is a reprint of the Knopf edition published in 2009, with a new forward by Robin D.G. Kelley.
Dream Street: In 1955, having just resigned from his high-profile but stormy career with Life Magazine, W. Eugene Smith was commissioned to spend three weeks in Pittsburgh and produce one hundred photographs for noted journalist and author Stefan Lorant’s book commemorating the city’s bicentennial. Smith ended up staying a year, compiling twenty thousand images for what would be the most ambitious photographic essay of his life. But only a fragment of this work was ever seen, despite Smith’s lifelong conviction that it was his greatest collection of photographs.
In 2001, Sam Stephenson published for the first time an assemblage of the core images from this project, selections that Smith asserted were the “synthesis of the whole,” presenting not only a portrayal of Pittsburgh but of postwar America. This new edition, updated with a foreword by the poet Ross Gay, offers a fresh vision of Smith’s masterpiece.
Don’t Tell Anybody the Secrets I Told You: A Memoir by Lucinda Williams, the new book from the iconic singer-songwriter about her life journey in music. Signed copies available at Book Beat while supplies last!
Rogue Justice by Stacey Abrams, a legal thriller drawn from today’s headlines and Abrams’ own insider perspective on government. Signed copies available while supplies last!
Bruno Schulz: An Artist, a Murder, and the Hijacking of History by Benjamin Balint, a portrait of the Polish artist and literary figure with an important accounting of Schulz’s legacy.
• Summer is here and so are sale books! We have tables of recently discounted books outside the store, and a whole section of them inside. Stop in for good deals on both popular and more esoteric titles.
• Read small press book reviews, author interviews, and indie recommendations from our resident bibliophile Tom Bowden in his latest June column i arrogantly recommend…
• Lastly we asked open AI the question of how AI could effect reading habits. The “AI discussion” generated was perceptive, humane, and even included some negative privacy concerns.
June newsletter updates: check out our list of gift books for grads and a another list in celebration of Junteenth.
Summer calls on us to relax, explore, learn, and expand our intellectual and emotional horizons. So grab a book, find a comfortable spot, and let your imagination soar! Happy Pride Month, happy Father’s Day, and happy summer! Thank you for your continued support.
— Cary, Colleen, and the Book Beat Staff
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“You think your pain and your heartbreak are unprecedented in the history of the world, but then you read. It was books that taught me that the things that tormented me most were the very things that connected me with all the people who were alive, who had ever been alive.” ~James Baldwin