I was looking at the calendar and realized that I had three blogs to do before Mother’s Day (Sunday, May 9) so I thought why not do some suggestions for “Yer Momma ‘n Dem”!!  These book suggestions hopefully will be a big hit with someone’s mom, grandmother and/or wife out there….

Savannah Style by Paula Deen and Brandon Branch

With its lush gardens, stately town houses, and sprawling plantations, Savannah is the epitome of old Southern style, and who better to give you the grand tour than Paula Deen, the city’s most famous resident and anointed Queen of Southern Cuisine?

In this gorgeous, richly illustrated book, Paula Deen shares a full year of Southern living. Whether it’s time to put out your best china and make a real fuss, or you’re just gathering for some sweet tea on the porch at dusk, Savannah style is about making folks feel welcome in your home. With the help of decorator and stylist Brandon Branch, you’ll learn how to bring a bit of Southern charm into homes from Minnesota to Mississippi. For each season, there are tips on decorating and entertaining. In the spring, you’ll learn how to make the most of your outdoor spaces, spruce up your porch, and make your garden inviting. In the summer, things get more casual with a dock party. Sleeping spaces, including, of course, the sleeping porch, are the focal point of this chapter. In the fall, cooler weather brings a return to more formal entertaining in the dining room, and in the winter, attention returns to the hearth, as Paula and her neighbors put out their best silver and show you how they celebrate the holidays.

Paula loves getting a peek at her neighbors’ parlors, so she’s included photographs of some of Savannah’s grandest homes. From the vast grounds of Lebanon Plantation to the whimsically restored cottages on Tybee Island, you’ll see the unique blend of old-world elegance and laid-back hospitality that charmed Paula the moment she arrived from Albany, Georgia, with nothing but two hundred dollars and a pair of mouths to feed. And she isn’t shy about giving you a window into her own world, either. From her farmhouse kitchen to her luxurious powder room, you’ll see how Paula lives when she’s not in front of the camera.

Packed with advice and nostalgia, Paula Deen’s Savannah Style makes it easy to bring gracious Southern living to homes north and south of the Mason-Dixon Line.

Roses by Leila Meacham

East Texas, 1916 When precocious 16-year-old Mary Toliver inherits cotton plantation Somerset from her father, the first seeds of familial discontent are sown. By becoming the new mistress of Somerset, Mary betrays her mother Darla and her brother Miles, and the Toliver dynasty will never recover. And when Mary and timber magnate Percy Warwick decide not to marry, though fiercely in love, it is a decision which will have sad and tragic consequences not only for them but for generations of their families to come. Set against a panoramic backdrop, Roses is a heartbreaking love story of sex, scandal and seduction. It covers 100 years and three generations of Texans.

In the Green Kitchen by Alice Waters

Alice Waters has been a champion of the sustainable, local cooking movement for decades.  To Alice, good food is a right, not a privilege.  In the Green Kitchen presents her essential cooking techniques to be learned by heart plus more than 50 recipes—for delicious fresh, local, and seasonal meals—from Alice and her friends.  She demystifies the basics including steaming a vegetable, dressing a salad, simmering stock, filleting a fish, roasting a chicken, and making bread. An indispensable cookbook, she gives you everything you need to bring out the truest flavor that the best ingredients of the season have to offer.

Contributors:  Darina Allen, Dan Barber, Lidia Bastianich, Rick Bayless, Paul Bertolli, David Chang, Traci Des Jardins, Angelo Garro, Joyce Goldstein, Tanya Holland, Thomas Keller, Niloufer Ichaporia King, Peggy Knicherbocker, Jim Lahey, Deborah Madison, Clodagh McKenna, Jean-Pierre Moulle, Joan Nathan, Scott Peacock, Cal Peternell, Gilbert Pilgram, Claire Ptak, Oliver Rowe, Amaryll Schwertner, Fanny Singer, David Tanis, Bryant Terry and Anna Lappe, Poppy Tooker, Charlie Trotter, Jerome Waag, and Beth Wells.

Caught by Harlan Coben

17-year-old Haley McWaid is a good girl, the pride of her suburban New Jersey family, captain of the lacrosse team, headed off to college next year with all the hopes and dreams her doting parents can pin on her. Which is why, when her mother wakes one morning to find that Haley never came home the night before, and three months quickly pass without word from the girl, the community assumes the worst.

Wendy Tynes is a reporter on a mission, to identify and bring down sexual predators via elaborate—and nationally televised—sting operations. Working with local police on her news program Caught in the Act, Wendy and her team have publicly shamed dozens of men by the time she encounters her latest target. Dan Mercer is a social worker known as a friend to troubled teens, but his story soon becomes more complicated than Wendy could have imagined.

In a novel that challenges as much as it thrills, filled with the astonishing tension and unseen suburban machinations that have become Coben’s trademark, Caught tells the story of a missing girl, the community stunned by her loss, the predator who may have taken her, and the reporter who suddenly realizes she can’t trust her own instincts about this story—or the motives of the people around her.

In an effort to get more reading time I’ve asked my son to step it up around the house and do some yard work. I’ve blogged about what I’ve been reading here and then again two weeks ago here. Of the dozen or so books I’ve written about I’ve finished the Chang-rae Lee, The Male Brain,  the Stewart O’Nan book, Matterhorn, several Harlan Coben books, the Brad Watson book, a couple more Lee Child books, and the parenting book about raising boys. I was planning to complain about not getting to read enough but… Anyway, I’ve not been able to even crack the Ian McEwan or the gifted child book although I plan on starting that one tonight. I think I feel like I’m not getting to read enough because I’ve reached one of those ebbs where I was trying so hard to finish a couple of things that I was really committed to that now I feel like I’m not sure where to start next. Here are a few things I’m thinking about getting into:

Morkan’s Quarry by Steve Yates

This is the first novel by a really good friend of mine and of the store. Steve works for the University Press of Mississippi, but most of all he’s a really great guy and really fun to talk with about books. I respect his opinion and am really looking forward to digging into this – I’ve read the first couple of pages, but have been waiting until the signing was a little closer. Plus I’ve been reading on Matterhorn every night for a month.

Sailor & Lula: The Complete Novels by Barry Gifford

I’ve read the first Novel, Wild at Heart, and didn’t realize that I’m a fool if I don’t keep reading. I’ve met Barry a couple of times and he’s truly a treat to get to hang out with – he’s somehow like hanging out with a beat writer, a historian, and your best buddy all at the same time. He’s always read something that you want to read or hung out with someone you wish you could. But more importantly he’s a really good writer which is what we’re looking for isn’t it?

Mr. Peanut by Adam Ross

This is supposed to be the big hot book at the end of the summer. It’s published by Knopf and edited by Gary Fisketjon. The author, Adam Ross,  is coming to Lemuria the week after the book comes out. It may very well be our July First Editions Club pick, but I’ve got to read it first. It looks really good, violence, love, and death, but I guess we’ll find out – more on that later.

War by Sebastian Junger

I really enjoyed A Death in Belmont, it’s hard to believe that was four years ago. I felt like I would probably read this book about Junger being embedded as a journalist in Afghanistan, but when I read his review of Matterhorn in the Times I knew that I would read Junger’s book. After reading his review I’ll probably never talk about Matterhorn without referencing Junger.

Echo Burning by Lee Child

This is where I am on my Lee Child reading project – it’s his fifth book. I’m almost done and will start Without Fail in the next couple of days. It looks like a really good one – Jack Reacher is the man.

by Kelly Pickerill

This year’s Pulitzer prizes were awarded today! Congrats to the winners!

Tinkers by Paul Harding (Bellevue Literary Press) won for fiction; the judges called it “a powerful celebration of life in which a New England father and son, through suffering and joy, transcend their imprisoning lives and offer new ways of perceiving the world and mortality.”

Definitely a surprise win, Harding’s novel was published by a small, non-profit publisher affiliated with the NYU School of Medicine.  It originally sold 15,000 copies.  It’s now in paperback, but Bellevue plans on reprinting the hardcover.

The last time a small publisher’s book won the Pulitzer for fiction was in 1981, when Louisiana University Press’s A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole won.

For history, the winner was Lords of Finance: The Bankers Who Broke the World by Liaquat Ahamed (Penguin).

In the Sunday NYT Book Review, Joe Nocera reviewed Ahamed’s book about the four bankers who effectively triggered the Great Depression but ultimately transformed the United States into the powerful financial leader it is today, calling it “a grand, sweeping narrative of immense scope and power, describing a world that long ago receded from memory: the West after World War I, a time of economic fragility, of bubbles followed by busts and of a cascading series of events that led to the Great Depression.”

For biography, the winner was  a book that’s been on my radar for some time now, The First Tycoon: The Epic Life of Cornelius Vanderbilt by T.J. Stiles (Knopf). I’ve always been fascinated by Vanderbilt’s life, how in a pre-financial-regulation America he made the rules up as he went along, ending up one of the richest, most influential men of the 19th century.

The Pulitzer judges called Stiles’s book “a penetrating portrait of a complex, self-made titan who revolutionized transportation, amassed vast wealth and shaped the economic world in ways still felt today” (Pulitzer.org).

The winner for poetry was Versed by Rae Armantrout (Wesleyan University Press).

I’d never read any of Armantrout’s poems before today, but after picking up a copy of Versed and reading a poem here and there I have to say I really like it.  I went through an E. E. Cummings-obsessed phase in early high school — I loved the way his poems were a physical picture of their content.  Armantrout’s poetry affects me in a similar way — her imagery is furthered by the style of her poems, which are by turns whimsically simple and existentially weighty.

And for general nonfiction, the winner was The Dead Hand: The Untold Story of the Cold War Arms Race and Its Dangerous Legacy by David E. Hoffman (Doubleday).

“In the first full account of how the arms race finally ended, The Dead Hand provides an unprecedented look at the inner motives and secret decisions of each side. Drawing on top-secret documents from deep inside the Kremlin, memoirs, and interviews in both Russia and the United States, David E. Hoffman introduces the scientists, soldiers, diplomats, and spies who saw the world sliding toward disaster and tells the gripping story of how Reagan, Gorbachev, and many others struggled to bring the madness to an end. When the Soviet Union dissolved, the danger continued, and the United States began a race against time to keep nuclear and biological weapons out of the hands of terrorists and rogue states” (thedeadhandbook.com).

I got this email from the American Booksellers Association  this morning and I thought I would share it with you!!  Independent Bookstores across the country voted on their favorite books and these are the results.  I am pleased with them all and know you will be also!!  Of course,  we are so excited for Kathrine Stockett!!

The American Booksellers Association today announces the winners of the 2010 Indies Choice Book Awards, reflecting the spirit of independent bookstores nationwide and the IndieBound movement.

This year’s winners were chosen by the owners and staff at ABA member stores nationwide in more than four weeks of voting. Book of the Year winners and Honor Award recipients are all titles appearing on the 2009 Indie Next Lists.

The 2010 Book of the Year winners are:

• Adult Fiction: Cutting for Stone, by Abraham Verghese (Knopf)
• Adult Nonfiction: The Lost City of Z, by David Grann (Doubleday)
• Adult Debut: The Help, by Kathryn Stockett (Amy Einhorn Books/Putnam)
• Young Adult: Catching Fire, by Suzanne Collins (Scholastic)
• Middle Reader: When You Reach Me, by Rebecca Stead (Wendy Lamb Books)
• New Picture Book: The Lion and the Mouse, by Jerry Pinkney (Little, Brown)

Kate DiCamillo was voted Most Engaging Author both for being an in-store star and for having a strong sense of the importance of indie booksellers to their local communities.

ABA members also inducted three of their all-time favorites into the Indies Choice Book Awards Picture Book Hall of Fame:

• Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good Very Bad Day, by Judith Viorst and Ray Cruz (Atheneum)
• Madeline, by Ludwig Bemelmans (Viking)
• The Story of Ferdinand, by Munro Leaf and Robert Lawson (Viking)

“Our sincere congratulations go out to all of the 2010 winners,” said ABA CEO Oren Teicher. “Every one of these authors has created a truly unique work that independent booksellers have enthusiastically supported and enjoyed handselling during the past year. We look forward to honoring each of them at the Celebration of Bookselling Lunch at BEA.”

Five Honor Award recipients were also named in each category, except Picture Book Hall of Fame.

Adult Fiction Honor Award recipients:

• Border Songs, by Jim Lynch (Knopf)
• Brooklyn, by Colm Toibin (Scribner)
• The Children’s Book, by A.S. Byatt (Knopf)
• Generosity: An Enhancement, by Richard Powers (FSG)
• Wolf Hall, by Hilary Mantel (Holt)

Adult Nonfiction Honor Award recipients:

• Animals Make Us Human, by Temple Grandin and Catherine Johnson (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)
• Lit: A Memoir, by Mary Karr (HarperCollins)
• Stitches: A Memoir, by David Small (W.W. Norton)
• Strength in What Remains, by Tracy Kidder (Random House)
• When Everything Changed, by Gail Collins (Little, Brown)

Adult Debut Honor Award recipients:

• The Earth Hums in B Flat, by Mari Strachan (Canongate)
• The Piano Teacher, by Y.K. Lee (Viking)
• The Selected Works of T.S. Spivet, by Reif Larson (Penguin Press)
• Still Alice, by Lisa Genova (Pocket)
• Tinkers, by Paul Harding (Bellevue Literary Press)

Young Adult Honor Award recipients:

• Going Bovine, by Libba Bray (Delacorte Books for Young Readers)
• If I Stay, by Gayle Forman (Dutton Juvenile)
• Leviathan, by Scott Westerfeld, Keith Thompson (illus.) (Simon Pulse)
• Shiver, by Maggie Stiefvater (Scholastic)
• Wintergirls, by Laurie Halse Anderson (Viking Juvenile)

Middle Reader Honor Award recipients:

• Al Capone Shines My Shoes, by Gennifer Choldenko (Dial)
• The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate, by Jacqueline Kelly (Holt)
• Odd and the Frost Giants, by Neil Gaiman (HarperCollins)
• A Season of Gifts, by Richard Peck (Dial)
• Where the Mountain Meets the Moon, by Grace Lin (Little, Brown)

New Picture Book Honor Award recipients:

• All the World, by Liz Garton Scanlon, Maria Frazee (illus.) (Beach Lane Books)
• The Curious Garden, by Peter Brown (Little, Brown)
• Listen to the Wind, by Greg Mortenson, Susan Roth (illus.) (Dial)
• Moonshot: The Flight of Apollo 11, by Brian Floca (Richard Jackson Books)
• Otis, by Loren Long (Philomel)

Most Engaging Author Honor Award recipients:

• Isabel Allende
• Laurie Halse Anderson
• Libba Bray
• Michael Chabon
• Abraham Verghese

All of the Indies Choice Book Award winners and Honor Award recipients are being invited to the Celebration of Bookselling Lunch on Wednesday, May 26, at New York’s Javits Convention Center. The event is free and open exclusively to two booksellers from each ABA member store. Booksellers who would like to attend should register individually as soon as possible via an electronic reservation form on Bookweb.org. Questions regarding the lunch should be addressed to Mark Nichols, ABA industry relations officer, at mark@bookweb.org.



This is what I have stacked up on my nightstand right now.

In order, from the top:

Burning Bright, Ron Rash
The Unfair Advantage, Mark Donohue
Are We Winning?, Will Leitch (due May 2010)
Bounce, Matthew Syed (due April 2010)
Intellectuals and Society, Thomas Sowell
Mark Donohue: Technical Excellence at Speed, Michael Argetsinger
Linchpin, Seth Godin

I finished The Unfair Advantage by Mark Donohue a few weeks ago — its appeal is pretty narrow, and I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone but an avid racing fan, but within that niche it is a must-read. Published the same year Donohue died in a Formula One practice session, it follows Donohue’s racing career from his first amateur races to the year just before his death, and focuses primarily on development work on the cars and how he and his team adapted with each new challenge.

Next up was Intellectuals and Society by Thomas Sowell. It’s 100% classic Sowell, carefully and clearly laying out his case. It reminded me a lot of Sowell’s The Vision of the Anointed — very readable with frequent cultural and historical examples throughout.

Every few days I pick away at Seth Godin’s Linchpin, a chapter at a time.

Ron Rash’s new book of stories is next up, but I’m waiting for an evening when I have a few hours to relax and enjoy it.

People seemed to like my last blog about what I was reading while my kids where out of town and had tons of reading time so I thought I would try to do regular blogs about my reading life. Of course now that they are back I don’t get so much reading time. In fact when I try to find some time to read I get looks like this:

The truth is that this picture has nothing to do with either reading or this blog, but I love to shamelessly post pictures of my kids, both because they are cute and basically to get attention.

Anyway, this is a post about what I am reading now or have just finished. I’m hoping that I can keep my reading life vibrant enough to do a post once a month or so about what I am reading. Hopefully I’ll be reading something different a month from now.

Aliens in the Prime of their Live: Stories by Brad Watson

I put this one at the top because when I don’t have much time for reading I love to read short stories. If I’m feeling stressed because I haven’t had much time to really enjoy a book I can sit down and read one short story and have a completely satisfying experience. I’ve actually finished this book and there’s a couple of humdinger’s in here. Brad will be here on Friday.

Boys Should Be Boys by Meg Meeker

This is a book that I mentioned that I was thinking about reading in my last blog. I started it sometime during spring break and have almost finished it. I loved her previous book Strong Fathers, Strong Daughters and blogged it here. I’ve been obsessed with parenting books for the last, hmmm, four plus years – it’s the way I react to life – big issue = read a bunch of books. So, I welcome any suggestions/discussion – I’ve read a bunch of parenting books and probably won’t stop reading them for a while.

Tell No One by Harlan Coben

Coben was here yesterday and I’ve been reading his stuff for the last couple of months – it’s kind of addictive. I’ve read 8 of them and Tell No One was one of my favorites. Anyway, as Susie said in her blog he was really funny and fun and talked a lot about writing – I do have to disagree with Susie though – he did talk about his new book Caught – he explained how he came up with the plot by watching while watching one of those catch a predator shows. “I knew opening that red door would destroy my life.”

Solar by Ian McEwan

This is the book that I had to put down to read Matterhorn and then The Gesture Life and I thought I wouldn’t be able to pick it up again just because it’s tough to start back up in the middle of a novel – but it starts out so well that I’m not having any trouble just starting over again. I’ve read the last four or five McEwan novels but On Chesil Beach is by far my favorite. We have signed copies of Solar.

Beatrice and Virgil by Yann Martel

I wasn’t even the biggest fan of Life of Pi – I actually remember that first signing when nobody had heard of the book and nobody much showed up – but I never really got into the book and didn’t plan on reading the new book. Then I started hearing the talk and read the first sentence or two and can’t wait to get home and read it – we’ll have signed copies soon.

61 Hours by Lee Child

Haven’t read this one yet, but I’ve read the first three in the series and I may well read the whole series before he gets here on May 19. These are really great guy books – the main Character is Jack Reacher. He’s an ex-military police guy – it kind of reminds me of Stephen Hunter. I’ll be starting number four tonight – Running Blind.

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The Drama of the Gifted Child by Alice Miller

Guess why I’m interested in this one.

Well, Jackson, MS has had quite the literary week!!  Kathryn Stockett, Jackson native and author of The Help, was in town and did two great programs that were standing room only.  Tuesday night, she was at Millsaps College for the Arts & Lecture Series along with Todd Sanders, author of Jackson’s North State Street, where they both talked about Jackson history through culture, lifestyle and architecture.  Then on Wednesday morning Kathryn stopped at the Eudora Welty Library for the Applause Series hosted by the library and the Jackson Friends of the Library. Lemuria was on site at both events selling  books and showing support for two authors that are great friends of the bookstore.   If you can tell anything by the decibel level of the crowd before, during Q&A and after both events, a fantastic time was had by everyone!!

WLBT stopped by the Library and interviewed Kathryn so I thought I would link it here for you….

Well, the kiddos (and their mama) are out of town for spring break and for me that means one thing – all the time in the world to read. I get up in the morning and read before work – then after work it’s straight home to read until I can’t stay awake. I figure I’ll spend more time reading this week than I will sleeping or working – I’m shooting for more than 8 hours a day – more on Saturday. Below is a partial list of what I’m reading – some of it I’ll finish, but there are other books that I’ll read that didn’t make the list, and still others that I have no idea right now that I’ll be reading, but I’ll get there. I’ll miss the family, but I’m going to enjoy the reading time as much as I possibly can. Anyway, here’s what I’m reading:

Matterhorn: A Novel of the Vietnam War by Karl Marlantes.

This is the big literary buzz book right now. It’s getting great reviews everywhere. I’ve already blogged about it here. It comes out next week and Karl will be here on May 12th. It’s also our May First Editions Club pick. It’s already into a second printing so by May it ought to be a much sought after First Edition. Matterhorn is a great big war novel, but it doesn’t read long – it also doesn’t read like just another war novel. Don’t get me wrong, it is about war, the characters are at war, but it’s really a novel like any other great novel – it’s a novel about people in different situations and how they handle tough situations. I’ve been reading for a couple of weeks and really enjoying it – I started it so that we could be sure that we want to pick it for the club, but I’m glad that I have this week to finish it because I need to start reading a book that I should have read months ago – the author is going to be here next week…

The Surrendered by Chang-rae Lee.

As soon as I finish Matterhorn, I’m going to start reading Chang-rae Lee. The Surrendered is our April First Editions Club pick. Maggie has already written a blog about it here and Lisa read it a few weeks ago and loved it – she’s planning on writing a blog on it soon. I’ve personally never read Chang-rae Lee, but heard about him from my friends Matt and Zack – they are big fans of Lee’s second novel The Gesture Life. John has said to me–and I believe it to be true–that the bookstore is built book by book–one book leads to another–we suggest a book to you and you suggest a book to us. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve bought books on customer suggestions and that makes our store a better store. I can’t wait to get into this book. Chang-rae Lee will be signing at the bookstore on March 22nd.

Caught by Harlan Coben.

Harlan Coben is coming to the store on Monday, March 29. When they called me about setting this up I was familiar with his writing, but had never read him – now I’m an addict. I’ve been reading them back to back to back – I think I’ve read 6 or 7 of them and I’m not stopping. Caught is great, but so is The Woods and Hold Tight. I think Harlan Coben is the master of the cliff hanger or the twist. It seems like every book twists and turns so much and each chapter leaves you hanging on for more. Another added bonus with Coben is that in his author photo he has a completely shaven head – whenever my two year old son sees it he exclaims da da.

The Male Brain by Louann Brizendine.

I can honestly say that Dr. Brizendine’s earlier book on The Female Brain has affected my parenting more than any other book. Not because it gives any parenting rules or advice, but because I’m able to understand the basic difference between girls and boys enough to not be too worried. I promise that I would have thought that my son had something wrong with him if I had not read The Female Brain. After having a little girl who is so relational and connective – and she learned to talk so fast – I honestly would have been concerned when my second child was a boy who still can’t really communicate his needs. Reading The Female Brain made me immediately aware that these developmental differences have nothing to do with the intelligence of the particular child, but are physical differences due to brain chemistry. My little boy will catch up eventually.  The Male Brain is along the same lines from the opposite point of view. And yes, the male brain is exactly where you think it is. John blogged on The Female Brain here when it was a new book in 2007.

A Prayer for the Dying by Stewart O’nan.

This is the book that my book club is reading and we’re meeting on Friday night so I’d better get home and start reading.

my cousin brandi and i taking a cake break at the hal and mal’s birthday throw down.  check out maggie’s blog about the 25th anniversary shindig.

also, take a look at the article about my dad’s parade that’s in the new v.i.p. jackson.

by Zita