June - What's on your summer reading list?

June 2023 | Rooted in Community

Bits from Beth

Happy June! Summer begins. Travel plans are born. For me, books are not only my favorite travel companion, they also happen to be one of my favorite ways to travel the world. Specifically, I love works in translation. Many people enjoy works in translation without even realizing it (e.g. Isabelle Allende, Stieg Larsson, Fredrik Backman).

Curating an interesting Works in Translation section at Pearl Street Books is a priority for me. It may even be my favorite section at the store! If you haven't browsed it yet, you will find it by the counter/big blue trunk. Not all translated works are there - more fiction can be found in the general fiction section.

I just finished reading Whale, by Cheon Myeong-Kwan and translated from Korean by Chi-Young Kim. What an epic tale! Oh my gosh...I didn't want it to end! If you are searching for a fun graduation gift, How Do You Live? by Genzaburo Yoshino and translated by Bruno Navasky is a perfect option!. It is a deeply thoughtful Japanese classic. Hayao Miyazaki (Spirited Away, My Neighbor Totoro, Howl's Moving Castle) plans to make it the basis of his last film.

Here are some reasons to expand your reading list to beyond native English writers.

1) Translation allows literature (and you) to travel.

2) Reading authors from other places brings us new ideas and new terms.

3) Translated work exposes us to exciting and creative styles of writing.

4) Translated work introduces us to two authors - the writer and the translator.

5) Works in translation provide opportunity to read the best writing from another language and culture.

6) A good translated book is truly a work of art!

I would be remiss if I didn't challenge us to consider the impact of colonization and imperialism when selecting works in translation. Colonizers usually imposed their language on the peoples they colonized and forbid them to speak their mother tongues. As such, many authors writing in post colonial and still colonized spaces, write in English.This is why you will notice such places in the world not represented in our Works in Translation section. These authors are still very important reads and will be in our general fiction section.

May your June be filled with lots of travel via books! Happy Reading! ~ Beth

Tsundoku

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 for this section, as we’ll feature books that are new or popular in the store. If you’re like us, tsundoku is a constant state of being.

Emotional Labor: The Invisible Work Shaping Our Lives and How to Claim Our Power, Rose Hackman, $28.99

Hackman defines emotional labor as "identifying or anticipating other people's emotions, adapting yours in consequence, and then managing to positively effect other people's emotions." This book, innovative and intensely researched, lays out how emotional labor is intensive, pervasive, and undervalued, often falling on women and people of color. A necessary exposé.

Six-Legged Sex: The Erotic Lives of Bugs, James K. Wangberg, $17.95

This fun, kinky bug book is one of several books we carry from Fulcrum Publishing, an independent press from Colorado we've formed a cool relationship with here at the store. Delightfully illustrated and full of fascinating facts about our six-legged friends, this book will broaden your horizons just as summer comes on and the bugs go wild.

The Line Tender, Kate Allen, $8.99

From Minneapolis-based author Kate Allen comes this heart-rending book about grief and sharks, written for readers ages 9 to 12, but engaging regardless of age. The story follows 12-year-old Lucy as she navigates life without her mother, who she lost at age 7. The tragic events of Lucy's young life lead her to take up her mom's unfinished research on great white sharks. A story of resilience and connection.

Yellowface, R. F. Kuang, $30.00

Pretty much everyone who works here is taken with this book, the latest novel from R.F. Kuang. Yellowface is a deviation from Kuang's tendency to write within the fantasy genre, and the deviation proves pitch perfect. Compellingly propulsive and capitalism-vicious from the very first sentence, this book is worth staying up late to binge as needed.

The Creative Act: A Way of Being, Rick Rubin, $32.00

If you've not heard of Rick Rubin and his music business Midas touch, well, this book is still great. After a jam-packed life of creative successes, Rubin has distilled his wisdom into this contemplative, thought-provoking meditation full of inspiration. A great book to have within reach when you need a creative push.

Ask a Booktender

Our goal for this section is to have a regular dialogue amongst our booksellers (booktenders, if you will) and our customers. Feel free to send us a message via email, Facebook, or Instagram asking about books, genres, plots, characters, anything (within reason).

Hi, I'm Maya! I've been learning the ropes at the bookstore the past couple weeks and have loved slowly exploring all the nooks and crannies. (Did you know there's a "Canning, Pickling, and Fermenting" section?!) When I'm not in the bookstore, I'm trying to photosynthesize or I'm taste testing brews. I just moved back to the area, so I'm re-learning local birds, too.

I read whatever Beth recommends, but after her book selections leave me emotionally devastated, I usually pick up some pop science or nature reads. My favorite book for all ages is How to Hold Animals -- I'd love to see your wonky animal finds!

Image: Maya sitting on floor behind stacks of books.

Monthly Pearl

Featuring our Community

Here’s our chance to play Mr. Rogers and be a good neighbor. This month we're featuring The Root Note.

Straight up Pearl Street and a few storefronts north on Fourth (aw, look at that natural rhyme), you'll find yourself at the Root Note, the bright and elegant coffeehouse that is reincarnated from it's former self. Its a great space, and as book lovers, we love a great space for holing up, reading, and sipping on delicious drinks.

And since coffee and books are such a delicious pairing, we have an idea brewing (get it? coffee, brewing, dang we're so witty) between our two businesses--look for that team-up coming this summer. We'll give a hint: as far as buying books goes, it's something of a blast from the past. Again, think reincarnation--always a general theme when it comes to new life in historic downtown spaces. Save the date: Tuesday, July 18, and watch our social media and website for more detail.

[Image of empty bar space at The Root Note awaiting our future shared event.]

Customer Corner: Tushar

Kon’nichiwa, hajimemashite! Hello, nice to meet you! I have lived in La Crosse for almost a decade now, mainly teaching and studying mathematics. I was born and spent my first many moons in Calcutta, now Kolkata, near The Bay of Bengal and Bangladesh. Hobbies from my boyhood days have included piano, poetry, and photography… more recently, I have started learning tennis and Japanese. The latter at my favorite bookstore, a reassembled forest of books filled with garrulous gnomes and elfin helpers, and which I love wandering into often with scant intention. I’m guessing you might want to know a few of my favorite Pearl St Books. The list goes on for miles, yet I will run out of characters soon: The Bluest Eye, A Pale View of Hills, If Beale Street Could Talk, The Driver’s Seat, The Reader, Smilla’s Sense of Snow, Breast and Eggs, The Hearing Trumpet, The Housekeeper and the Professor, Haroun and the Sea of Stories, The Marvelous Arithmetics of Distance…

[Below image of Tushar in mathematically-sliced sunlight]

Happy Reading!

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