Jo Powers illustration for a 1999 Book Beat holiday card.
Dear Readers,
As we approach the end of the year, we want to thank you for supporting Book Beat. Your commitment to independent bookstores—through visits, conversations, and shared love of books—means more than we can say. Because of you, our shop remains a place for discovery, ideas, and community.
We recently connected with the book Ikigai: The Japanese Secret for a Long and Happy Life offering suggestions on beginning the new year with a fresh start. Ikigai is a Japanese word that means reason for living.
Ikigai has been on international bestseller lists for the past two years with over two million copies in print. The book takes inspiration from the Okinawan Japanese villages located in one of the Blue Zones where retirement is unheard of and whose population contains the highest percentage of those living high quality and happy lives above 100 years on the planet. Here are some of the 10 key principles or “rules” of Ikigai:
• Stay active (don’t retire).
• Take it slow (leave urgency behind).
• Don’t fill your stomach (eat to 80% full).
• Surround yourself with good friends.
• Get in shape through gentle exercise.
• Smile and be grateful.
• Reconnect with nature.
• Give thanks for everything.
• Live in the moment (find your flow).
• Uncover your Ikigai (your reason to get up).
Every library needs care and pruning now and then, but certain books we read and collect help form the core of our identity. This was the focus of a recent New York Times opinion page Before You Toss That Book… by author Roger Rosenblatt. He writes, “Every book you have is a story of who you are and who you were when you acquired it. And who you became when you read it. It’s part of you, your present and your history. We may think we finish with books, but they don’t finish with us.” This was one of the ideas behind the exhibition Noise, Vision & Ruins, at the Main Detroit Public LIbrary. The exhibit is up through March 1st on the third floor of the Library.
On Thursday, January 29th, from 6:30-7:30 pm, Book Beat co-owner Cary Loren will give a gallery talk and walk through the exhibit Mythic Chaos: 50 Years of Destroy All Monsters. The talk is free and open to the public. If interested in attending please rsvp to the link at: Cranbrook Museum of Art.
We’re pleased to share a double serving of new small-press book reviews by Tom Bowden, highlighting thoughtful, overlooked, and independent publications—voices we believe deserve attention as we head into the new year.
Our reading groups offer two book discussions for January. Sub Rosa is reading Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights and the “old timers” lit in translation group is discussing Death in the Andes by Nobel Laureate Mario Vargas Llosa. Both titles are in stock and available at a 15% discount.
Lastly, to leave you with a poem, “I Am In Need Of Music” by Elizabeth Bishop:
I am in need of music that would flow
Over my fretful, feeling fingertips,
Over my bitter-tainted, trembling lips,
With melody, deep, clear, and liquid-slow.
Oh, for the healing swaying, old and low,
Of some song sung to rest the tired dead,
A song to fall like water on my head,
And over quivering limbs, dream flushed to glow!
There is a magic made by melody:
A spell of rest, and quiet breath, and cool
Heart, that sinks through fading colors deep
To the subaqueous stillness of the sea,
And floats forever in a moon-green pool,
Held in the arms of rhythm and of sleep.
Thank you again for reading, supporting, and showing up. We look forward to reading more and turning the page with you in the new year ahead. We will be closing at 5 PM on Dec. 31st. Wishing you all good health and a Happy New Year!
Warmly,
~Cary, Colleen, and the staff at Book Beat
Sunday, January 25: Cheryl Neely and Tana Jenkins on Black Female Crime Victims
Recent Additions to the Backroom Gallery
Interview With The Vampire: 20th Anniversary Limited Edition
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Gratitude for gifts,
Even Snow on my bedspread
A gift from the Pure Land.–Kobayashi Issa, from Spring of My Life