Dear Readers,
Welcome to our February/March edition of the Book Beat Newsletter!
Due to some website problems we were unable to send out newsletters last month. Hopefully those problems are behind us and have decided to combine February into our March newsletter.
February was Black History Month, and this year’s theme was “African Americans in the Arts,” a reminder to celebrate and educate yourself on the extensive traditions that make up African American arts today. Here at the store, we have a wide selection of titles on art, entertainment, fashion, and more that explore the work of artists and creatives past and present. New and recommended titles we have in stock now include Lena Horne: Goddess Reclaimed, Tupac Shakur: The Authorized Biography, and Black Artists in America: From Civil Rights to the Bicentennial.
Our repost is Letter from Herb Boyd from back in 2020. He speaks about African American literature and books necessary for any reader’s library. Boyd is a journalist, teacher, and author of many books, including Black Detroit: A People’s History of Self-Determination.
March is Women’s History Month, and here at the store we’re stocked up on plenty of fiction, non-fiction, and children’s books by woman authors, especially female artists. Come check out titles like Mina Loy: Strangeness Is Inevitable, Surreal Spaces: The Life and Art of Leonora Carrington, and Dana Shutz: Between Us.
During Women’s History Month we’d also like to point readers to the long neglected works of Detroit artist Cay Bahnmiller (1955-2007). “She was a painter and sculptor whose accumulative rhizomatic approach to object making incorporated Detroit’s material and psychic detritus, but she turned the aggressive stuff of the city into a visual language—tender, funny, sharp—that was uniquely hers.” —Lee Ambrozy, Art Forum A few years ago the local online journal Three Fold presented a multipart essay on her life and work: “Her journey through symbols and language was a mind unchained, producing a body of work that was dramatic, unique, frightening, neurotic, and beautiful in its surface complexity and intellectual depth.” —Doom & Glory in the Cass Corridor: A Dossier on Cay Bahnmiller by Cary Loren
Tom Bowden has taken a short sabbatical from his column, and we now include his February selection of small press book reviews, author interviews, and indie recommendations from i arrogantly recommend…
We are announcing a new book discussion group, The Sub-Rosa Book Club, focused on feminist, literary, surrealist and experimental fiction by and about women. Titles will be chosen by Book Beat staff and discounted 15%. Meetings will be held in person once a month from 6-7 p.m., held after hours on the first Saturday of the month at Book Beat. The first meeting will be held Saturday, May 4 at 6 p.m. The first discussion will be on The Bloater by Rosemary Tonks. If interested, please send us your email and we will add you to the list and notify you when books are available.
Thank you for your continued support.
Happy reading!
—Cary, Colleen, and the Book Beat staff
UPCOMING EVENTS
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 13: JACK CHENG AT THE ROYAL OAK PUBLIC LIBRARY
Critically acclaimed, award-winning author for youth, Jack Cheng, will join us at Royal Oak Public Library Wednesday, March 13 from 6:30 p.m. – 7:30 p.m. Born in Shanghai and Detroit-based, Jack will talk about his upbringing, his inspiration to become an author and how both enter into his works: See You in the Cosmos and The Many Masks of Andy Zhou. A question and answer period will follow Jack’s presentation, along with a book signing. Copies of Jack’s books will be available for purchase at the event courtesy of Book Beat. Registration is required. Read more about Jack and his books here.
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 27: READING GROUP
Our March reading group selection is A King Alone by Jean Giono. The reading group will meet Wednesday, March 27 at 7 p.m online via Zoom. The Zoom link will be sent on the afternoon of the meeting to anyone interested in attending. Email bookbeatorders@gmail.com to sign up. Books are expected to be in stock soon and discounted 15%. It is a shorter text this month and we will send another notification to reading group subscribers when copies arrive. The Book Beat reading group features international works in translation, and discussions are free and open to the public. Please call (248) 968-1190 for more information. Read more on our reading group post.
SLEEPER ALERTS, RECENT AND UPCOMING ARRIVALS
Martyr!
Kaveh Akbar
Knopf
A TIME MOST ANTICIPATED BOOK – A newly sober, orphaned son of Iranian immigrants, guided by the voices of artists, poets, and kings, embarks on a remarkable search for a family secret that leads him to a terminally ill painter living out her final days in the Brooklyn Museum. Electrifying, funny, and wholly original, Martyr! heralds the arrival of an essential new voice in contemporary fiction.
“Kaveh Akbar is one of my favorite writers. Ever.” —Tommy Orange, Pulitzer Prize-nominated author of There There
“The best novel you’ll ever read about the joy of language, addiction, displacement, martyrdom, belonging, homesickness.” —Lauren Groff, best-selling author of Matrix and Fates and Furies
SIGNED COPIES AVAILABLE
The Future
Catherine LeRoux; Susan Ouriou (trans.)
Biblioasis
In an alternate history in which the French never surrendered Detroit, children protect their own kingdom in the trees.
“This atmospheric novel elevates disparate voices, drawing a complex picture of community-focused life beyond the family unit.”
—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
“Leroux skillfully reveals the inner worlds of her achingly human characters and the intricate bonds that connect them to each other. Images from this beautiful and moving book will haunt readers.”
—Publishers Weekly
I Heard Her Call My Name: A Memoir of Transition
Lucy Sante
Penguin Press
An iconic writer’s lapidary memoir of a life spent pursuing a dream of artistic truth while evading the truth of her own gender identity, until, finally, she turned to face who she really was.
“Reading this book is a joy. Sante is funny and warm . . . I Heard Her Call My Name has much to say about the trans journey and will undoubtedly become a standard for those in need of guidance. But the book speaks to a wider audience, too: for anyone who needs to break out of their self-imposed ‘prison of denial, ‘ as Sante puts it, or to stop punishing themselves for wanting what they want.” —The Washington Post
“A timely but timeless memoir . . . At its heart, I Heard Her Call My Name is a poignant but forceful portrait of a life liberated from shame and fear . . . Emblematic of someone who has straddled cultures, languages, and genders, Sante’s bold devotion to complexity and clarity makes this an exemplary memoir. It is a clarion call to live one’s most authentic life.” —The Boston Globe
Raised by Wolves: Fifty Poets on Fifty Poems, a Graywolf Anthology
Graywolf Press
Raised by Wolves is a unique and vibrant gathering of poems from Graywolf Press’s fifty years. The anthology is conceived as a community document: fifty Graywolf poets have selected fifty poems by Graywolf poets, offering insightful prose reflections on their selections. What arises is a choral arrangement of voices and lineages across decades, languages, styles, and divergences, inspiring a shared vision for the future.
Included here are established and emerging poets, international poets and poets in translation, and many of the most significant poets of our time.
The Annual Banquet of the Gravediggers’ Guild
Mathias Énard
New Directions
Brimming with Mathias Énard’s characteristic wit and encyclopedic brilliance, The Annual Banquet of the Gravediggers’ Guild is a riotous novel where the edges between past and present are constantly dissolving against a Rabelaisian backdrop of excess.
“All of Énard’s books share the hope of transposing prose into the empyrean of pure sound, where words can never correspond to stable meanings. He’s the composer of a discomposing age.”–Joshua Cohen, The New York Times Book Review
Time’s Undoing
Cheryl A. Head
Dutton
A searing and tender novel about a young Black journalist’s search for answers in the unsolved murder of her great-grandfather in segregated Birmingham, Alabama, decades ago—inspired by the author’s own family history.
“Head excels in this great pleasure of a crime novel. She infuses her challenging subject with a finely calibrated balance of vulnerability, care, and empowerment; the effect is galvanizing. . . . Few books feel more timely or needed than this one.”—The Atlantic
“The parallel narratives work with poignancy and righteous rage. So many decades gone, so few inroads made into the racism at the foundation of United States history. Head and her Black colleagues in this genre are lifting up new stories, to everyone’s benefit.”—NPR
SIGNED COPIES AVAILABLE
Book Beat Hours, Contact & Ordering Info
• Book Beat store hours are: Mon – Sat 10:00 AM – 6:00 PM, Sun 12:00 – 5:00 PM.
• Subscribe to our newsletter here.
• Order Direct: for books or questions, call us at (248) 968-1190 or email us anytime at bookbeatorders@gmail.com.
• Book Beat Backroom is our store central with News Events and all things Book Beat.
• Order almost any book in print from our affiliate page at Bookshop.org.
• Shop our selection of rare and out-of-print books at biblio.com.
• Shop a selection of signed books, art, rarities, and local authors at Book Beat Gallery.
• Audiobooks purchased at Libro.fm will help support Book Beat.