Kellams: This is Ozarks at Large. June is Pride Month, and our friends at Pearl's Books in Fayetteville have several recommendations of fiction, poetry, nonfiction and more that dovetail well with Pride Month. Last week, Julia Paganelli Marín and Daniel Jordan with Pearl's sat down inside the store while it was closed and offered up some of their ideas for June reading.
Julia: My first suggestion is "Puck" by Samantha Allen. This is a retelling of Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream," told from the perspective of Puck, who is a nonbinary person, and they're a producer on a reality TV show called "Homewreckers." And they're very good at their job, which is to break people up on camera. So the book kind of opens and you're on set with them, and they are causing things to go horribly wrong for the contestants and horribly right for all of the TV viewers. And then you quickly see Puck go on vacation to visit with their best friends from college, and it's their best friend's wedding, and they get there and they're quickly like, "These people shouldn't be together. I'm going to break them up." It's a terrible idea. It's very manipulative, and it's very entertaining.
As a reader, this is a rom-com. I don't know if you read much romance, Kyle.
Kellams: I'm not opposed to it.
Julia: I think romance is really wonderful, because it's fun, right? Romance can make a great beachside read. And usually it's examining these really interesting interpersonal dynamics, where it's like, oh yeah, maybe that's not a situation I'd get into in my real life, but it's really entertaining to kind of imagine what it would be like to be in that situation. This book was just such a fun read. A little spice to it, I would say three chili peppers out of five. You gotta disclaim. But what a fun book for Pride. "Puck" by Samantha Allen.
Kellams: All right, Daniel, we're going to go from Shakespeare influence to, uh, not Shakespeare.
Daniel: This is "Greta & Valdin." It is a book by Rebecca K Reilly, a novel. It's set in New Zealand. Rebecca K Reilly is a bestselling author in New Zealand, but the book is about two queer siblings, Greta and Valdin, and they're navigating different crises in their 20s. So they live together for a little while, and then Valdin had a breakup that was pretty intense and pretty hard, and he gets pulled away from their house to a different country — I think Argentina — for a job. And that happens to be where his ex lives. So they're navigating these crises with different breakups, crushes, their career aspirations. Greta is in grad school and trying to figure out what she wants to do with her life.
But what I love about it is it's a book that has a lot of humor in it and can make you laugh, but it can also make you cry on the next page. And that's like a sweet spot for me. I love books that have that humor, but then also have like a deep emotional pull. I would say the last 50 or so pages of the book felt like a continuous shot in like a movie or a TV show, where you're zooming in from room to room from these different characters' perspectives. There's a big climactic scene that's happening, so you still feel really grounded in the scene, but you're seamlessly moving from character to character to get the perspective of everyone. The family dynamics of this family — it's so dysfunctional, but you love all of them for their different flaws, and they each bring something really cool to the story. It was a joy to read. "Greta & Valdin" by Rebecca K Reilly.
Kellams: All right, Julia, back to you.
Julia: The next book I have to offer is "The Duke" by Anna Cowan. It is a book that just came out a couple of months ago, and it's by an Australian author. It is a Regency romance, but it's in an alternate history England where women can hold political power. And the Duke is, of course, a woman. While "Puck" is more of a rom-com, this book is more dramatic. Think kind of Bridgerton vibes. I would again say like a three-level chili pepper spice. It is a lovers-to-enemies-to-lovers romance. So things get hot very quickly on the page, and then betrayal ensues. You have some time pass. Kate is the Duke of Howard, and Celine wants her to whisk her away to escape some political intrigue she's gotten wrapped up in. Kate refuses. She kind of escapes in the night after they connect for the first time. And then Celine finds some information about Kate — a dark secret, a dark past, which usually belongs to the male character in a book like this. And when Celine shows up on Kate's doorstep, she says, "I'm going to use this information against you if you don't cooperate with me. You have to introduce me into society."
It's just a wonderful book. The writing is stunning. The tension between the characters is so fun, so hot. It's a great time. Name of the book, "The Duke" by Anna Cowan.
Kellams: Okay, we've had six total chili peppers from nearly a half — I wish I could bring some chili peppers to the party, but I don't have any. What's your next selection?
Daniel: Okay, my next one is a book in the 33⅓ series by Bloomsbury. So this is a series that has books written about specific albums. This album is "Carrie & Lowell" by Sufjan Stevens. The author of the book is Joel Mayward. So the title of the book, I guess, is "Carrie & Lowell" by Joel Mayward. But the book is about an album that Sufjan Stevens released in 2015, shortly after the death of his mother, Carrie. Lowell is his stepfather. He was raised by them. So the album is a beautiful portrayal of grief and what life looks like in the immediate aftermath of a huge loss. And what Joel, the author, does here is look at how the album was received. There are two groups that loved the album for very different reasons: the queer community and evangelical Christians. And what's really interesting is the way Sufjan approaches this in his interviews and in just the lyrics of the music — he embraces both, and he can hold both at the same time. He is very good at balancing those two things.
This album is very meaningful to me. It was at the time, and it is now — I've revisited it recently. I lost my mom when I was young, and then I lost my wife last year. So seeing how grief can influence art is beautiful, and it helps me find different parts of myself that I wouldn't find on my own, experiencing either poetry or music or a book about music. But yeah, what I love is how Sufjan, in particular, holds two things at once. It's a 33⅓ series book, "Carrie & Lowell" by Joel Mayward.
Kellams: All right.
Julia: My third book is what all of your therapists are reading right now, which is "What It Takes to Heal" by Prentis Hemphill. Prentis is really interesting — they're one of the founding members of Black Lives Matter, and they're a therapist. This book is really wonderful because it's in conversation with a lot of Bessel van der Kolk's work, based on polyvagal theory. It's about feeling something in your body, and also, how do we heal collectively, and then in our individual relationships? I would also say that this book is deeply in conversation with Black feminist thought and works by adrienne maree brown, like "Pleasure Activism" and "Emergent Strategy."
I spent some time with this book when it came out first in 2024. The paperback is out now. But in Fayetteville, I just see therapists coming in, and they're like, "Yes, this book," and it's like, "Yes, good, I'm so glad you're reading this." It's such a wonderful read, and I think it's good for folks who are interested in self-help, psychology and social science. It kind of really runs the gamut. I think a couple of things I took away from this book were how healing happens in relationship — just like we get hurt in relationships or experience trauma interpersonally, that's also the site of healing. So being with each other is really important. I also really resonated with one of the quotes that Prentis has, about how healing is often a lifelong process that takes us toward belonging, dignity and safety. Again, it's not like an arrival point where it's like, "Oh yes, finally I'm healed." It is kind of this journey — we move toward healing, we sometimes get hurt, and then we move back toward healing. Now in paperback, "What It Takes to Heal" by Prentis Hemphill.
Daniel: Okay, I have another sad book. This is "Time Is a Mother" by Ocean Vuong. It's a collection of poetry. Ocean is one of my favorite authors. I recommend looking him up and listening to some interviews — his voice is so tender and so kind, and I feel like he's really in touch with the most tender parts of himself, and the way that he talks encourages me to do the same.
This is a book that was written also after his mother died, and kind of, how do we sit with grief and then move forward, and how do we do that? And then also, his immigrant experience, his queer experience — all of that affects how he grieves. There's a poem in the collection called "Snow Theory" that touches on memory, loss and his mother in just a few spare lines — I won't read the whole thing here, but I'd really encourage folks to pick it up and find it themselves. I love the way he wields language. He also has a couple of novels — I've only read one of them, but "The Emperor of Gladness" is also just — every sentence is dripping, and I love it. So, name of the book is "Time Is a Mother" by Ocean Vuong.
Kellams: All right. Now, you've each had three solo selections, but I believe you have a shared selection.
Daniel: This is "Open Throat" by Henry Hoke.
Julia: Yeah, it's also our most recent pick for our book club.
Kyle: That's the Wednesday, Thursday, Friday book club.
Julia: That's exactly right. We're very vigorous readers. We meet every three months for a book that just makes you go, "Wait, what just happened?" So the pick that we just read was "Open Throat" by Henry Hoke.
Daniel: It is a book about a gay mountain lion that lives behind the Hollywood sign and observes humans. It's written in verse. It's another book where every word means something, but it's a lot lighter, and it's very funny.
Kellams: You had me at gay mountain lion that lives behind the Hollywood sign. Do you wonder, as a reader, when you're reading something that's especially in the WTF book club, how did this even begin for this author? What's the nugget of inspiration?
Julia: This one is actually based on a real mountain lion that lived near LA. One of the things that we talk about in this book club is, what is the WTF-ness? Like, what makes this book so weird? And I think for me, the weird thing about this book is that Henry Hoke makes you pretend to be a mountain lion for — I don't know, it's a short book — for about 150 pages. He makes you pretend to be a mountain lion and think about a mountain lion's feelings. And that's the weird stuff.
Daniel: That's good. Yeah, it's a pleasure. This read is short and light, but it's also about, like, what does it mean to be alone? It's thinking about climate — there's a fire in the book. Human connection is another big part of it, and what humans are capable of, on a positive side, of connection and love and care and kindness, and then also destructive. There's a quote I have — a couple that I'd like to read, maybe — but this one in particular embraces that. A lot of what you see in the first half of the book, at least, is the mountain lion observing humans, seeing the humans that walk by, what they're doing, what kind of people they are. So this one, he's watching two men walk by: "I watch their hands while they walk away, hands that could be grabbing bottles and throwing, but instead are wrapped together and connected." I just think that's such a beautiful line.
Julia: Yeah, I love that too. You said you had one more.
Daniel: I love that you've dog-eared the pages here. Yeah, well, so there's a lot of it that's really funny too, and I really like to laugh when I read, and it really keeps the book going for me — in certain genres, of course. And this next one — he's considering crossing the highway, so what does he call it? He calls it a river, or river of cars, or the big death — a long, long death, the long death. But he's saying, "I can't do another crossing. I'm not about to die on an empty stomach. What good would that do?" Which is funny, but also tender.
Julia: Yeah, yeah, yeah. I think there are so many moments — I think whenever you get a novel in verse, you really get lines that stand by themselves because the whole book is one long poem. So you get these moments that are like, "Oof!" And then you're also laughing at the same time.
Kellams: Yeah. And the name is "Open Throat," Henry Hoke. Each of these seven books, in some way, it sounds like, is tied to connection — to someone you've lost, or to someone you're trying to gain. And I'm thinking that one of the great things about talking about books is connection. You've already mentioned a couple of book clubs that you all have — you have the music book club that apparently meets at Sidecar — the WTF book club. Where can people find out about the book clubs that Pearl's supports?
Julia: Yeah, we have a bunch of different book clubs, and you can come by the shop and talk to us. We have a physical sign in the store. You can also visit our Instagram — we update that every month — or give us a call, and we'll talk to you about what book club might be the best fit for you. We have so many different genres. They're run by a bunch of different people — sometimes staff members, sometimes members of the community. And it's just a great way to get plugged in and to learn about yourself and learn about the great folks we have here.
Daniel: We like to talk to people. So yeah, we just love to gab. Come in and ask us, and we'll chat with you. We had a book club mixer about a month ago, which was really fun, for folks who have never been to a book club, or were already active members of a book club, just to kind of get to know each other and maybe find some connection in a book club they want to attend. And we've already had folks attending new book clubs, or new folks attending. So it's been fun.
Kellams: Well, thank you both for your recommendations and, happy Pride.
Julia Paganelli Marín and Daniel Jordan from Pearl's Books in downtown Fayetteville made their Pride Month reading recommendations from inside the store on a recent Monday — that's the one day of the week Pearl's is closed. This is Ozarks at Large.
Ozarks at Large transcripts are created on a rush deadline and edited for length and clarity. Copy editors utilize AI tools to review work. KUAF does not publish content created by AI. Please reach out to kuafinfo@uark.edu to report an issue. The audio version is the authoritative record of KUAF programming.
