August Word From Wellers 📚

WORD FROM WELLERS | AUGUST 2020

A Word from Catherine

In a non-CoViD universe I would have written about Independent Bookstore Day (IBD or Bookstore Day) in April. That’s the day Weller Book Works joins indie bookstores across the country in a mass celebration of books, indie booksellers, and the people who make it possible for stores like Weller Book Works to exist – you. I’m happy to report IBD wasn’t cancelled, just postponed and reimagined for the current CoViD universe.

Bookstore Day is now the last Saturday in August, the 29^th. We’ll still celebrate all the things we love about indie bookstores, but we’ll be doing it virtually. After all, the qualities that make independent bookstores special – community involvement, commitment to the written word and the universe of ideas books allow us to explore, spaces unique in their expressions of the fierce spirits of their booksellers, our intelligent and dedicated customers – deserve to be celebrated. Remember when you couldn’t order books on Amazon because of the coronavirus emergency? Remember when you thought the indie bookstore sector would evaporate due first to corporate colonialism, then online pillaging, and then to the economic effects of the coronavirus? Well, we’re still here, still feisty, and still ready to serve readers safely. So let’s have a virtual party!!!

Visit our website on August 29 to take part in a virtual scavenger hunt! All who do will be entered into a drawing for a $50 gift certificate for Weller Book Works. You’ll also see an offer from our friends at LibroFM: record a short video about how Indie Bookstores are significant to your reading life and receive a credit for a free audiobook as well as chances at other goodies. While we can't have events in-store, you can attend a number of virtual events for kids and adults with authors such as Gene Luen Yang on drawing for older kids, and a launch for the new Elena Ferrante book, The Lying Life of Adults. You'll find more information about and links to them on our website." And the merch you ask? What about the special IBD merch? You’ll be able to purchase it on our website this year. So you too can be the proud owner of a pair of Open a Book, Open Your Mind socks or an exclusive Bookstore Day candle with the scent of Sandalwood/Oak/Dry Leaves. There’s more, of course. But you’ll have to visit our website on Independent Bookstore Day to see it.

Music from Rare Books

By Tony Weller

It’s obvious to our readers that books play a huge role in my life. Possibly less obvious is my lifelong passion for music. I am not a musician but have been an active and deep listener since the age of five when Sam Weller brought home to me the LP, Meet the Beatles, which he had acquired with a used book deal. Since 1967, music has been the soundtrack of my life and the accumulation of recorded music, along with books, my biggest challenges to my philosophical reservations about materialism.

In the rare book department, we have a small section dedicated to scarce books about music. Here are some that catch my attention.

Our autographed copy of Henri Martin Barzun’s 1945 book, Orpheus XXXIV Choric Education is worn and stained too. It’s a paper bound quarto with very strange and enchanting hand-drawn notes… or are they outlines that stretch one’s mind even before the reading. $40

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I listen more broadly today but my first love was rock and roll and I am less attracted to music without clear rhythmic structure, which is not a statement limited to percussion. James Blades’ 500 page 1970 book Percussion Instruments and Their History is a history of percussion from primitive to modern times. Drums, bells, cymbals, dulcimer, clappers, vibraphone, tambourine, cow-bells, I am nearly dancing. $100

The Musician’s Guide to Perception and Cognition. This 1992 Schirmer publication by David Butler is deep and wonky. The first section is titled Psychophysics of Musical Sound. It comes with a CD with examples. $75

Rock My Religion is a collection of 18 writings and art projects published between 1965 and 1990 by art, culture and music critic Dan Graham. The scope of this cool well illustrated book from MIT is broader than music. I love its green and purple design. Maybe I will buy it before you do. $45

Gallery of Great Composers is a very attractive James R. Osgood gift volume from 1876. This small quarto is bound in brown cloth with embossed lettering and décor in black and gilt. It contains twelve biographical essays by Edward F. Rimbault on Bach, Mozart, Wagner and others. Illustrated with steel engraved portraits by Carl Jӓger. $65

Requiem: Music of Mourning and Consolation is a 300 page study published by Praeger in 1967. Author Alec Robertson covers funerary music from antiquity through the 1960s. It’s a well-made narrow octavo with a purple dust jacket and satisfying in the hand. $65

Events

MONDAY AUGUST 10

1PM

A Facebook Live Discussion of

The King of Confidence

with author Miles Harvey

In the summer of 1843, James Strang, a charismatic young lawyer and avowed atheist, vanished from a rural town in New York. Months later he reappeared on the Midwestern frontier and converted to a burgeoning religious movement known as Mormonism. In the wake of the murder of the sect's leader, Joseph Smith, Strang unveiled a letter purportedly from the prophet naming him successor, and persuaded hundreds of fellow converts to follow him to an island in Lake Michigan, where he declared himself a divine king.

The King of Confidence tells this fascinating but largely forgotten story. Centering his narrative on this charlatan's turbulent twelve years in power, Miles Harvey gets to the root of a timeless American original: the Confidence Man. Full of adventure, bad behavior, and insight into a crucial period of antebellum history, The King of Confidence brings us a compulsively readable account of one of the country's boldest con men and the era that allowed him to thrive.

SATURDAY AUGUST 29

INDEPENDENT BOOKSTORE DAY

Remember Independent Bookstore Day...? The day we celebrate indie bookstores and you, the people who make our existence possible? It was scheduled for the end of April and was postponed due to the COVID outbreak. Well mark your calendars! Independent Bookstore Day will be Saturday, August 29. You'll be able to purchase exclusive IBD merch like the chapbook of Elena Ferrante's latest, Lying Life of Adults on our website, and attend virtual events with authors like Amor Towles and Tayari Jones. Check our website for more details!

Join Catherine and the crafters of Weller Book Works on Zoom for 40 minutes of casual bookish conversation and snacks. All crafts and crafters are welcome. BYOB.

Email catherine@wellerbookworks.com for an invitation to attend.

Lit Knit is held the 2nd and 4th Wednesdays of monthly.

Fresh New Book Arrivals

and Upcoming Goodness

By Salem Rogers

The Only Good Indians

Stephen Graham Jones

Gallery / Saga Press

Hardcover $26.99

9781982136451

Indigenous history and culture has been appropriated, sanitized, and twisted by scores of lazy white horror writers seeking to exploit racist fear and fetishization of the "other". Jones’ latest novel is a happy departure from the destructive clichés that have plagued so much of canonized horror, exploring the supernatural fears we’ve come to expect from the genre, alongside the nuances of cultural identity, guilt, and the irrevocable connections between our pasts and ourselves.

Microplastics and Me

By Anna Du

Tumblehome, Inc.

Hardcover $16.99

9781943431502

Fueled by passion and a very real sense of urgency, many of the voices leading the modern-day movement for climate justice and environmental protection are remarkably young. Among these is Anna Du, a middle schooler who invented a robot capable of detecting microplastics in the ocean. In Microplastics and Me, she aims to educate other young activists about the devastating impact of microplastics, and inspire them to develop and fight for solutions.

Finna: Poems

By Nate Marshall

One World

Paperback $17.00

9780593132456

Poetry, at times, has the unfortunate connotation of being elitist, exclusionary, and incomprehensible, but truly great poets understand colloquialisms as innovations in language, and the urgency of clarity in resonating with an audience. Nate Marshall is one such poet, and at its heart, Finna is a critique as much as it is a celebration of language. Marshall explores the terrifying power of language to incite violence, as well as the radical potential of Black vernacular to name and give space to Black experience, thought, and dreams.

Disfigured: On Fairy Tales, Disability, and Making Space

By Amanda Leduc

Coach House Books

Paperback $16.95

9781552453957

In this striking piece of literary criticism, Amanda Leduc asks that we turn our gaze to the familiar fairy tales that informed our childhoods, and examine the lasting impact of casting characters with disability as monsters or hopeless wretches. Through allegory and personal anecdotes, Leduc reminds us disability in and of itself is not sad, pitiful, or horrific; the ableist refusal to make adjustments for disability in daily life and the narratives we share.

Bookseller Thoughts and Reviews

Intimations: Six Essays

By Zadie Smith

Penguin Books

Paperback $10.95

9780593297612

Reviewed by Lila Ann Weller

I had the pleasure of listening to this softly concise collection of essays on Libro.fm, a wonderful audiobook service through which you can support your favorite indie bookstores by listening to stunning works like Intimations. The best part of this experience was that Smith is the reader on the audio format, and I don't believe anyone could read her words with the firm, yet affable timbre she does.

Intimations is swift, powerful, and personal. Smith clarifies early on that these relatively brief, concept-dense pieces inspired by a multitude of 2020 experiences are not an attempt to surmise this deeply strange year thus far; after all, it isn't even close to ending. Instead, Intimations is intended as purely a collection of experiences in this remarkable era. These pieces are extremely varied, each emotional, ponderous, and existentially intense. Through Smith's personal lens, we delve into the grim realities of systemic racism and violence, privilege and overlapping identities in a desperate era, capitalism and its effect on culture and self, and far more.

In contrast to its potent content, there are many moments in this book that had me chuckling due Smith's distinguished, dry turn of phrase. Her way with words is both crisp and smoothly organic. If you haven't yet explored her work, hop on it! For this reader, at least, her voice and thoughts are both steadying and invigorating in the midst of all this anomie.

You can purchase the audiobook by clicking here