All Kinds of Books
The Nature of Reading Newsletter | Summer | Week 3
Dear readers,
Another week has somehow flown by, and it has been a wonderfully busy one!
It’s always great to see returning customers visit the shop for the first time and take everything in. Thanks to our summer intern Jo, we’ve been able to fill the shop much faster than I could have ever hoped, so there is much to see! As a perfectionist, it’s hard for me not to focus solely on all the things I still want to do, but seeing peoples’ lovely reactions to the shop helps me better appreciate all that we’ve accomplished so far.
In addition to unpacking, shelving, recommending, selling, shipping, and wrapping books, this week we’ve been working on establishing our base inventory and adding a few new categories to the shelves. As summer picks up and peoples’ travel plans carry them far from Madison, it’s a good time to work on inventory management and organize ourselves before fall and the holiday season arrive.
If you are traveling away from Madison and the shop this summer, we can still help fulfill your book needs! In addition to ordering directly from our website, you can order any book (nature-related or not) through our Bookshop.org storefront and have it shipped directly to you. Plus you can always purchase audiobooks from our storefront on Libro.fm. With Amazon Prime Day approaching, now is the perfect time to make the switch from Audible to Libro.fm—no one wants to support Jeff Bezos in times like these. Between audiobooks on Libro.fm and physical and e-books on Bookshop.org, we’ve got all your reading bases covered for wherever your summer travels take you.
Speaking of reading, I’m off to pick up one of the 12 different books I’m in the middle of and try to make the most of the rest of the holiday weekend. Alison is at the shop from 11am-4pm today, so do stop by if you’d like to browse for your next summer read!
All best wishes,
Hailey
Time for the next iteration of the lovely cross-stitch birds we’ve been working our way through over the past year! Whether you’ve cross-stitched with us for the spring, fall, or winter birds or whether it’s your first time, I’m happy to help all levels of crafters get started on this sweet cross-stitch project as we sip soothing cups of herbal tea. There’s a limited number of seats, so do get your ticket now if you know you’d like to attend! Grab a friend and join us for this wholesome evening of crafting, tea, and great company.
We’d love for you to join us for the next Seedlings Storytime! Join our bookseller Jo on Saturday morning, July 12th as she reads picture books to the kids. The storytime is recommended for 5-year-olds and younger, but all are welcome to attend, The event is free, but registration in advance is required (due to space, we can only fit about 4-6 families). We hope to see you there!
It’s time for our next joint event with the Madison Environmental Commission—join us on July 30th for a dark and mysterious discussion based on the book Night Magic by Leigh Ann Henion. After the book club meeting on Tuesday, July 29th, join us the following evening for a conversation with incredibly knowledgable panelists and a lengthy Q&A session where you can get any of your questions answered. With panelists speaking about bats and owls, fireflies and moths, salamanders and amphibians, and dark skies and human health, this is sure to be an event you won’t want to miss.
A genre-bending exploration of that most elemental force—water—through Indigenous storytelling, personal memory, and the work of influential artists and writers. In this inventive work, Simpson draws on Nishnaabeg origin stories while artfully weaving the work of influential writers and artists alongside her personal memories and experience—and in doing so, reimagines water as a catalyst for radical transformation, capable of birthing a new world. Theory of Water is a resonant exploration of an intricate, multi-layered relationship with the most abundant element on our planet—one that, as Simpson eloquently shows, is shaping our present even as it demands a radical rethinking of how we might achieve a just future.
Birds are beloved for their song and have featured in our own music for centuries. Singing Like Larks opens a rare window onto birdlife, folklore, traditional verse, and song writing, especially in the British Isles. In this charming volume, folklore, verse, and nature writing combine to explore why birds appear in so many folk songs, with song lyrics, history, and anecdotes drawing on a rich heritage. A treasury of bird-related folk songs, this is also an account of one young nature writer’s journey into the world of folk music, and a joyous celebration of song, the seasons, and our love of birds.
A captivating exploration of climate change that uses nine different emotions to better understand the science, history, and future of our evolving planet. Scientist Kate Marvel uses computer models to study climate change, where it’s easy to simulate rising temperatures, catastrophic outcomes, and bleak futures. Human Nature is a deeply felt inquiry into our rapidly changing Earth. In each chapter, Marvel uses a different emotion to explore the science and stories behind climate change. As expected, there is anger, fear, and grief—but also wonder, hope, and love. Hopeful, heartbreaking, and surprisingly funny, Human Nature is a vital, wondrous exploration of how it feels to live in a changing world.
July’s book for The Nature of Reading Book Club is Night Magic by Leigh Ann Henion. Join us on a journey through the nighttime wonders found within your own backyard. There are a lot of exciting complementary events that are taking place the week of July’s book club meeting—we’ve announced our event with the MEC, but there’s even more excitement coming soon! For now, get your ticket for the book club meeting and pick up the book at the shop or have it shipped to you.
We’ve been on a break due to the shop move, but fear not—Attending Together will be resuming this July with the release of our discussion of Jenny Odell’s works! Order your copies of How to Do Nothing and Saving Time and read along with us.
We’ve had two Seedlings Storytime sessions so far and they’ve been loads of fun! Our first was tree themed, and the second garden themed. Here are some of the sweet books Jo read to the kids who came to our Saturday morning sessions. If you’d like to join us next Saturday, sign up here!
The Best Garden in the World by Alice Courtley
The Best Garden In The World follows Steve, a squirrel from the city, as he moves to the forest with a mission: to create the best garden in the world. He's got his vision in mind, his tools at hand, and his rules for visitors ready. So, why don't the forest folk seem to enjoy his garden as much as he does? Steve sets off to find out, and with each forest neighbor he meets, Steve discovers that perhaps what he thought was "best" might have been missing a thing or two. This funny animal story celebrates diversity in nature, and shows that "best" is a matter of perspective.
Tree: A Peek-Through Picture Book by Britta Teckentrup
Through a hole in the book’s cover, an owl invites you inside to meet a majestic tree and all its forest inhabitants during the changing seasons. With clever peekaboo holes throughout, each page reveals a new set of animals playing and living in the tree—baby bears frolicking in the spring, bees buzzing around apples in the summer, squirrels storing nuts in the fall, and finally the lone owl keeping warm during the winter chill—until another year begins. Watch the tree change with the seasons as each page is turned in this beautiful and educational book for curious young minds.
Everyone Starts Small by Liz Garton Scanlon
Spring rains change Water from a tumbling creek to a roaring river and bring Tree nutrients it needs to stretch toward the sky. As Sun’s rays intensify, the sprouts and fruits and insects of the forest grow and bloom and develop, all working together in harmony. Even Fire, whose work causes Tree to ache from the inside, brings opportunity for the next generation of flora and fauna. Paired with the vivid, organic imagery of Dominique Ramsey, Liz Garton Scanlon’s poetic tribute to our planet’s resilience is a resonant story of life, death, and regeneration.
As the news cycle continues to spiral downwards, let’s take breaks with some comforting reads. This is a new section we’ve added to the shop, something Jo and I struggled a bit to put together since we tend to gravitate towards heavy and/or depressing reads…But we also enjoy books that bring the light! And so we’ve put together a section with about a dozen comfort reads for your browsing pleasure. If you have any recommendations for well-written, upbeat books, we’d love to hear them! Just reply to this email or let us know the next time you stop by the shop.
Seventeen-year-old Cassandra Mortmain and her family may live in a ramshackle old English castle, but that's about as romantic as her life gets. While her beautiful older sister, Rose, longs to live in a Jane Austen novel, Cassandra knows that meeting an eligible man to marry isn't in either of their futures when their home is crumbling and they have to sell their furniture for food. So Cassandra instead strives to hone her writing skills in her journals. Until one day when their new landlords move in, which include two (very handsome) sons, and the lives of the Mortmain sisters change forever. Through Cassandra's sharply funny, yet poignant, journal entries, she chronicles the great changes that take place within the castle's walls, and her own first descent into love. By the time she pens her final entry, she has "captured the castle" - and the heart of the reader - in one of literature's most enchanting novels.
After life threw Maggie Walker a few curveballs, she’s happy to be back in the small, Berkshires town where she spent so much time as a child. Marlowe holds many memories for her, and now it also offers a fresh start. Maggie has always loved gardening, so it’s only natural to sign on to help Violet Bloom set up a community garden. When opening day arrives, Violet is nowhere to be found, and the gardeners are restless. Things go from bad to worse when Maggie finds a boot buried in one of the plots… and there’s a body attached to it. Suddenly, the police are looking for a killer and they keep asking questions about Violet. Maggie doesn’t believe her friend could do this, and she’s going to dig up the dirt needed to prove it.
It’s been a year since his ex-boyfriend dumped him and moved from Auckland to Buenos Aires, and Valdin is doing fine and living in a flat with his sister Greta. But when work sends him to Argentina and he’s thrown back in his former lover’s orbit, Valdin is forced to confront the feelings he’s been trying to ignore—and the future he wants. Greta is not letting her painfully unrequited crush get her down. She would love to focus on the charming fellow grad student she meets at a party and her friendships with a circle of similarly floundering twenty-somethings, but her chaotic family life won’t stop intruding. Greta & Valdin careens us through the siblings’ misadventures and the messy dramas of their sprawling, eccentric Māori-Russian-Catalonian family. Reilly’s novel is fresh, joyful, and alive with the possibility of love in its many mystifying forms.
This week has again been filled with much gardening—perhaps too much, as I seem to have been rather unpleasantly burned yesterday by the scorching sun. Wandering around the community garden and looking at everyone’s plots is a great way to find inspiration for ours, and just to enjoy the beauty of others’ hard work. Look at these lovely zinnias! The bright colors of the flowers do much to lighten my mood in these often dark times. I highly recommend a stroll around the garden, which you can find right next to the Madison Recreation Complex.