Old Firehouse Books suggests a diverse array topics for December

Each week as part of SunLit — The Sun’s literature section — we feature staff recommendations from book stores across Colorado. This week, the staff from Old Firehouse Books in Fort Collins recommends a tale of self-improvement, an Indigenous mystery and a biography of George Washington Carver.

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From the publisher: Comics and cultural superstar Alison Bechdel delivers a deeply layered story of her fascination, from childhood to adulthood, with every fitness craze to come down the pike: from Jack LaLanne in the 60s (“Outlandish jumpsuit! Cantaloupe-sized guns!”) to the existential oddness of present-day spin class. Readers will see their athletic or semi-active pasts flash before their eyes through an ever-evolving panoply of running shoes, bicycles, skis, and sundry other gear.

But the more Bechdel tries to improve herself, the more her self appears to be the thing in her way. She turns for enlightenment to Eastern philosophers and literary figures, including Beat writer Jack Kerouac, whose search for self-transcendence in the great outdoors appears in moving conversation with the author’s own. This gifted artist and not-getting-any-younger exerciser comes to a soulful conclusion. The secret to superhuman strength lies not in six-pack abs, but in something much less clearly defined: facing her own non-transcendent but all-important interdependence with others.

From Dany, bookseller: When the weather turns cold the very last thing a book lover would want to do is go running. I mean, it’s basically a cliché how we all curl up with our books and a cup of tea the moment the temperature drops below 60. In her autobiographical graphic novel Alison Bechdel flips our cozy clique on its head and shows that really the most literary thing you could do is suffer outside in the cold, exercising!

Bechdel takes us through waves of exercise trends that she has witnessed first hand: the first joggers in the ’70s, the emergence of yoga and karate in the ’80s, and the gear revolution of the ’90s! So take inspiration from some of the greats: Wordsworth, Coleridge, Emerson, Kerouac, and many more of the transcendentalist writers that Bechdel references and GO OUTSIDE!

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From the publisher: On the surface, Alice is exactly where she thinks she should be: She’s just given birth to a beautiful baby girl, Dawn; her charming husband, Steve — a white academic whose area of study is conveniently her own Mohawk culture — is nothing but supportive; and they’ve moved into a new home in a posh Toronto neighborhood. But Alice could not feel like more of an impostor. She isn’t connecting with her daughter, a struggle made even more difficult by the recent loss of her own mother, and every waking moment is spent hiding her despair from Steve and their ever-watchful neighbors, among whom she’s the sole Indigenous resident. Even when she does have a minute to herself, her perpetual self-doubt hinders the one vestige of her old life she has left: her goal of writing a modern retelling of the Haudenosaunee creation story.

Then, as if all that wasn’t enough, strange things start to happen. She finds herself losing bits of time and hearing voices she can’t explain, all while her neighbors’ passive-aggressive behavior begins to morph into something far more threatening. Though Steve assures her this is all in her head, Alice cannot fight the feeling that something is very, very wrong, and that in her creation story lies the key to her and Dawn’s survival…. She just has to finish it before it’s too late.

From Teresa, bookseller: This book stunned me…I was not expecting the twists and turns it took to get to the ending but I loved every single word on the pages. A strong, unflinching take on motherhood, mental illness, generational trauma and fake allyship are also some of the heavy topics that Elliott writes about in a beautifully crafted way. I can’t stop thinking about the Disney version of Pocahontas, thanks to this book and I have a feeling that I won’t for a long time.

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From the publisher: Christina Vella offers a thorough biography of George Washington Carver, including in-depth details of his relationships with his friends, colleagues, supporters, and those he loved. Despite the exceptional trajectory of his career, Carver was not immune to the racism of the Jim Crow era or the privations and hardships of the Great Depression and two world wars. Yet throughout this tumultuous period, his scientific achievements aligned him with equally extraordinary friends, including Teddy Roosevelt, Mohandas Gandhi, Henry A. Wallace, and Henry Ford.

A prodigious and generous scholar whose life was shaped by struggle and heartbreak as well as success and fame, George Washington Carver remains a key figure in the history of southern agriculture, botanical advancement, and the struggle for civil rights. Vella’s extensively researched biography offers a complex and compelling portrait of one of the most brilliant men of the last century.

From Sterling, bookseller: Explore the life of one of the most incredible, fascinating and criminally overlooked historical figures to have been alive at the turn of the 20th century. George Washington Carver was a leading Black artist, professor, and scientist of the time, who used his incredible drive almost entirely in the service of improving his communities’ lives. This biography offers an affordable price point for a thorough examination of his life, including his romantic pursuits and what little is known of the enigma of his youth. 

Carver was so much more than just “the peanut man”; he was skilled in every type of handicraft he ever pursued and at the forefront of agricultural sciences that are only now being rediscovered as the dire need to move away from petrol-chemical farming methods becomes ever more apparent.