My reading of late has been about as scattered as everything else going on in the holidays. I have a host of books that I am picking up and reading for a little bit and then picking up another one. The holiday grind seems to have significantly shortened my attention span, and courage as I am only reading books that have proven themselves and I know that I will enjoy them. This has left me with only snippits of several books. So here are the little quotes that I liked, taken out of the context for which the authors worked so hard to build. They are still good though.

“The good of a book is in its being read. A book is made up of signs that speak of other signs which in their turn speak to things. Without an eye to read them, a book contains signs that produce no concepts, therefore it is dumb”

The Name of the Rose, Umberto Eco

Probably my current favorite quote about writing

“He was a ritual tea smoker and very puritanical about junk the way some teaheads are. He claimed tea put him in touch with supra blue gravitational fields.”

Naked Lunch, William S. Burroughs

This book was put into my hands by one of my favorite customers, I am finally working into it. It will put hair somewhere on your body…probably the bottom of your foot or something.

“The hidden life of love is in the most inward depths, unfathomable, and still has an unfathomable relationship with the whole of existence. As the quiet lake is fed deep down by the flow of hidden springs, which no eye sees, so a human being’s love is grounded, still more deeply, in God’s love.”

Works of Love, Soren Kierkegaard

Lately I have liked learning that I don’t know.

“The consciousness of having something to say as the consciousness of nothing: not the poorest but most oppressed of consciousness.”

Writing and Difference, Jacques Derrida

-John P.

With just a few days left in the year, I decided that it’s a good time to review my favorite books of 2010. I’m probably forgetting a couple of good books here, but as I thought back over what I’ve read, these are the books that stuck out in my mind.

Intellectuals and Society, by Thomas Sowell — Clear, precise, and insightful, as I’ve come to expect from Sowell.

Are We Winning?, by Will Leitch — A pleasant surprise from Leitch. Thoughtful, without lapsing into the sentimentality too common in sports memoirs.

The Big Short, by Michael Lewis — Demonstration that Lewis can make the most difficult and convoluted story into something compelling.

Blind Descent, by James Tabor — The best of the various pop science/adventure books I read this year.

The Passage, by Justin Cronin — I can’t say it better than Maggie: These aren’t your angst-ridden, emo teen vampires.

The Game from Where I Stand, by Doug Glanville — If I could have been a ballplayer, this is the book I would have wanted to write.

The Fall of the House of Zeus, by Curtis Wilkie — What more must be said about this book? Read it.

It’s going to be a pretty big week next week at Lemuria. It’s the week before Christmas, so please let us help you pick out books for your friends and family. We also have a whole bunch of book signings going on. Come get a book inscribed as a gift or for yourself. Here’s what is going on-

Monday:

From Bags to Riches by Jeff Duncan. Introduction by Deuce McAllister.

Yes, Deuce is going to be signing in the bookstore. Jeff Duncan is a reporter for the Times-Picayune in New Orleans and his new book covers the Saints’ rise from post-Katrina to Super Bowl Champs. Deuce, the former Ole Miss hero and Saints’ all time rushing leader, wrote the introduction. They both will be here Monday starting at 4:00 to sign From Bags to Riches. They promise to stay until everyone gets their book signed.

Tuesday:

Wild Abundance Edited by Susan Schadt. Photography by Lisa Buser

This is the hunting camp cookbook that everyone has been talking about. These are the same folks that put out the hunting camp book First Shooting Light two years ago. This book is a blend of great chiefs (some from Mississippi) with hunting camps and great photography. Our signing will feature the author and editor and Jackson’s Derek Emerson of Walker’s and Local 463 fame. They’ll be here starting at 5:00.

Wednesday:

The Fall of the House of Zeus by Curtis Wilkie

If you live in Mississippi and you don’t know about this one then you need to come out a little more often. This is Curtis Wilkie’s great new book about Dickie Scruggs. It’s a huge Mississippi bestseller and must-read. It’s not only a must-read, but a must-talk about book. Curtis will be back for his second signing for Zeus at Lemuria. He’ll be here at 4:00.

Thursday:

Gridiron Gold: Celebrating Over 100 Years of Mississippi High School Football

This is a great book for Mississippians. It’s photography from the past 100 years of High School football. In a way this is a sequel to the Frascogna’s book Gridiron Gold. While they were researching their earlier book about the rich High School football tradition in Mississippi, they came across so many great photographs that they decided to compile them into one really fun book. A great gift for husband, sons, or uncles. On Thursday evening starting at 4:00, many of the great coaches from Mississippi High School football will be here to sign.

Friday:

The Longview by Roger Parrott

We’re pleased to host Dr. Roger Parrott, president of Belhaven University, for his first book signing at Lemuria. His book The Longview is a book on leadership with a long term perspective.

Saturday:

Oh! That Reminds Me: More Mississippi Homegrown Stories by Walt Grayson

Everyone around here knows Walt. He’ll be back on Saturday morning at 11:00 to sign his most recent book. And of course he’ll be happy to sign any of his DVDs as well, or just sit and talk a while. Come see Walt at 11am.

Saturday:

Oxford in the Civil War by Stephen Enzweiler

Here’s a great little book by a Mississippi native that any Ole Miss grad is going to need. Stephen will sign at 1:00 on Saturday.

Saturday:

Seems to Me by Cary Hudson

No, this isn’t a book. This falls into the “anything can happen at Lemuria” category. Cary is known for his solo work and his work with alt-country band Blue Mountain. He’ll be playing live in our Dot Com building at 4:00 to promote his brand new CD. No question that this will be a fun time. Plus there is no cover and our famous $1 beer.

I like the idea of giving big books for Christmas — big glossy books seem slightly extravagant, something you might not buy for yourself very often, but would be happy once you owned it. DK books make some of the best “big books” on the market, and I often can’t help but flip through them when we get a DK order in. And this last time, after flipping through them, I decided I had to take a couple of them home with me. I think either would make a great Christmas gift.

My wife and I became first-time homeowners a year ago, and since then I’ve started collecting books about home repair and home improvement (it’s slightly cheaper and infinitely easier to buy books about a subject than to actually do that thing). What I’ve found is that pretty much all the books cover about 90% of the same material, but each book will have something unique — maybe a topic that isn’t covered in the other books, or a set of instructions that are slightly more in depth than the other books, or even just a single photograph or illustration that saves the day when you are well past the point of no return in a repair or project.

DK’s Do It Yourself: Home Improvement is one of the best guides I’ve seen. Every repair or project has full-color photographs for every step in the process. Materials, tools, construction…everything is laid out with clear, concise descriptions and instructions. Whether you need your first home improvement guide, or just want to add another to your library, this is a great choice.

The title on the cover reads Natural History, but it’s the subtitle that gives it away: “The Ultimate Visual Guide to Everything on Earth”. Rocks and minerals, bacteria, plant life, and the entire spectrum of the animal kingdom is contained in this book, with sharp full-color photos and descriptions. This is the kind of book that I would flip through for hours as a kid, though I don’t remember any books that looked this good or were this complete. I bought this as a Christmas present for my intensely inquisitive nephew (nobody tell him!), and my hope is that he will find a lot of answers and a lot of new questions in this book.

by Kelly Pickerill

Black Swan Green by David Mitchell

Though there’s been so much David Mitchell Love at Lemuria over the past few months I’ve just now ventured to read him. After listening to the relative merits of each of his books — I’m pretty sure between the two, Susie and John P., they’ve read them all — I chose carefully with which novel I would begin to develop my reading relationship with Mr. Mitchell. I picked Black Swan Green because the narrator, a thirteen year old boy with a stammer, won my heart just hearing about him. Mitchell is a master at capturing the mood of adolescence and this book is just plain delightful to read.

Through the Language Glass by Guy Deutscher

My nerd love of language prompted me to pick Deutscher’s first book up, The Unfolding of Language, a few years ago. Deutscher is decidedly not in the camp with linguists like Noam Chomsky who believe grammar is an innate skill, and in this book he presents an argument for the evolution of all languages from a proto-european ancestor language.

In his new book, Deutscher quibbles with the general consensus again, this time presenting evidence that language can affect culture. The cocktail conversation that you hear about this theory, that the French are lovers because of their language for example, he rightly calls silly. But he does present a good argument for subtle ways that our language affects the way we perceive our world.

The Fall of the House of Zeus by Curtis Wilkie

I’m not going to say much about this book here, for a couple reasons. First, John, Joe, and Lisa have all been posting excerpts and thoughts on the book and the event — I don’t know that I can improve much on what they’ve already done and said. Second, I’ve been posting my thoughts on the book as I read it on our store Facebook page. I decided that rather than hurrying through the book and then trying to construct some overall perspective on it, I’d just take it day by day, and point out the parts I found especially interesting. You know how, when you’re reading and someone else is in the room, you’ll occasionally stop and say, “Hey — listen to this” and then read a couple sentences out loud? That’s what I wanted to do. Check out our Facebook and tell me what you are finding interesting in Wilkie’s book.

Running Blind by Lee Child

The Lee Child train rolls on — this is the 4th book in the series, and I honestly feel the the first 3 books got successively better. We just got signed copies of the most recent book in the series, Worth Dying For, and even though it’ll be some time before I’m ready to read it, I went ahead and bought one before they are gone.

Present at the Creation by Amir D. Aczel

I’m a sucker for a good pop science book and when this arrived in the store the other day, I ordered another copy for myself. The subject of the book is the Large Hadron Collider, a 17 mile circumference particle collider that spans the France-Switzerland border. It is the largest and most powerful particle collider ever built, and is capable of creating events not seen in this universe since the first moments after the Big Bang. When the construction was nearly completed and the CERN facility was preparing for the first tests in September 2008, there were a lot of these kinds of jokes circulating the Internet:

So far, the physicists have managed to avoid creating any black holes, but the immense power and level of complexity of the Large Hadron Collider make for a compelling story.

You may not know this about me (or I don’t know, maybe you do), but in addition to English literature, I majored in French while in college.  Whenever people ask me why, all I can tell them is…well, I just really like French, the language, the culture, everything.  I’m a Francophile.

So, if you’re anything like me, you might be interested to know that Lemuria has an interesting selection of books for French-loving people.  Here are a few of my recent favorites:

1.  The Flea Markets of France by Sandy Price (photographs by Emily Laxer)

This book lives in our travel section on France.  Though I can’t necessarily afford to go back to France in the near future, I still really enjoyed looking at Laxer’s beautiful photographs and reading Price’s research about where the great French flea markets are and what each has to offer.  And when the day of my next trip to France finally arrives, I’ll know that the Marché Vernaison in Paris is where the real ambiance can be found (as well as a nice assortment of linens, lace, jewelry, toys, books, clocks, lamps, etc., etc.).  Can you tell I’m already looking forward to this indeterminate date?

2. Parisians: An Adventure History of Paris by Graham Robb

Next up, a history book.  I mean, how could I resist this one?  Its title is Parisians: An Adventure History of Paris.  Adventure. In Paris.  The first sentence of the dust jacket sold me: “This it the Paris you never knew. From the Revolution to the present, Graham Robb has distilled a series of astonishing true narratives, all stranger than fiction…” I haven’t had a chance to dive into this one just yet, but I really can’t wait to learn more about Marie Antoinette, Napoleon Bonaparte, and Charles de Gaulle…and just what they were up to that was “stranger than fiction” in La Ville-Lumière (City of Light).

3. Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi

Last but not least is the graphic novel Persepolis.  This book (or series of books) has gotten some attention after the French animated film that was made from them won the Jury Prize at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival and was also nominated for an Academy Award.  This graphic novel is not set in France, but was written by French writer Marjane Satrapi who was born in Iran.  The graphic novel chronicles her life growing up in Iran during the Islamic Revolution.  So, funny, political comics by a French writer who provides fascinating insight into the Islamic Revolution and daily life in Iran–need I say more?  If you’re a fan of Persepolis, don’t miss out on Satrapi’s other graphic novels–Persepolis 2, Embroideries, and Chicken with Plums.

À demain!  -Kaycie

A few days ago my wonderful sister-in-law in Tennessee wrote a very nice blog about Lemuria. (check it out)  Some of you may know that she is a very popular parenting blogger. She mentioned that I have my brother’s dream job. Maybe so. One of the great things about working at Lemuria is the author events. We get to meet some of the world’s most interesting people. Historians, celebrities, prize winning fiction writers and on and on. This summer I hung out with John Grisham, Lee Child, and Leigh Anne and Sean Tuohy – and that’s during our slow time. Funny thing is, you could hang out with these folks too – and without even having to work here. (honestly, actually working here isn’t all that glamorous – I move books from one stack to another for a living) and here’s another secret – come hear the reading and see if you are interested in reading the book. If you do end up buying the book then you get days and days of enjoyment, enjoyment enhanced by actually having met the author, and if you don’t (gasp) buy the book then at least you had free entertainment and (another added bonus) cheap beverage.

One author event coming up that looks to be pretty interesting is first time novelist Bruce Machart. Here is a quote from an interview that I can’t find online to link – it reminds me very much of something that Matterhorn author Karl Marlantes said here – this is in response to the question “what inspired you to start writing?” – Machart’s answer:

“I read Eudora Welty’s story Powerhouse, which is fittingly titled. It blew my away. It triggered in me an intellectual curiosity that I hadn’t felt before. I only knew that it worked, that it was a masterpiece, but I couldn’t begin to say why. I also knew that if I could do that–if I could learn how and why stories worked, if I could make something so affecting–I would be doing the most rewarding work I could imagine.”

Come see Bruce Machart on Wed., September 29 when he signs and reads from The Wake of Forgiveness.

Walk with me for a moment, won’t you?

Up the stairs we go…

Follow me across the parking lot…

What’s that on the ground over there?

Ah, of course. A wok and a salad spinner. On the pavement. Outside our freight door.

Are you missing a wok and a salad spinner? These two items appeared a couple weeks ago. They seemed rather sad sitting out in the parking lot, but we left them out there, thinking that surely their owner would soon notice their absence, and would want to swing back and pick them up with the minimum of embarrassment.

Unfortunately, it seems that the absent-minded owner hasn’t missed them at all so far — or, at least, cannot recall in what parking lot the wok and salad spinner were left behind. If you recognize these items, please alert the appropriate person. It’d be a shame to wait until the owner had a craving for stir fry to re-unite him or her with the missing kitchenry.

Rejected Titles:

Wok This Way
Wok Don’t Run
A Wok in the Sun
The Drunkard’s Wok
A Good Wok Spoiled
Salad Days (it’s really hard to come up with a good salad spinner joke)