Everywhere Siobhan goes readers echo their own experiences of military life as did many at her reading last night. However, there are those readers who have never been close to military life at all and read her book in one sitting.

A 10-city tour for a collection of short stories? Short stories as a Lemuria First Editions Club pick? Amy Einhorn, an imprint of Penguin, definitely has a remarkable ability for picking fresh new talent. It was just two years ago that Kathryn Stockett made her debut with The Help. In both cases, Lemuria was lucky enough to work with these authors.

Even though Siobhan is wrapping up her tour today, independent booksellers will continue the buzz just as we at Lemuria spread the word:

“I just read a great book . . .”

Joe writes about selecting You Know When the Men Are Gone for our January First Editions Club selection here. Lisa writes about the special appeal this collection of short stories will have to military families, and Lemuria customer Donna Evans shares her connection to the book–read all about it here.

My parents have this great library in their house.  While I was in college and could not afford to really buy books I would ‘borrow’ books from them.  One of the authors that I happened upon was Reynolds Price.  My dad had his trilogy, A Great Circle, which includes– The Surface of Earth, The Source of Light and The Promise of  Rest. I was completely sucked into this saga of the Mayfield family.   This past week I was sad to learn that Reynolds Price had passed away from complications due to a heart attack.

Price was a wonderful Southern writer.  His books were mainly let in North Carolina where he was from.  Once when asked  why North Carolina was were he lived he said “It’s the place about which I have perfect pitch.”  Eudora Welty was one of his mentors early in his writing career in face she helped him get his first books published by sending some of his work to her own publisher. Reynolds Price was often compared to William Faulkner which annoyed him greatly because he always considered himself a literary heir to Miss Welty.   In 1984, Price was diagnosed with cancer which left him paralyzed for the rest of his life.  He continued to teach and to write including his memoir, Clear Pictures in 1989 which he was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize.   There is no question that the literary world lost a giant last week and that Reynolds Price will be missed but his work will continue to please generations from now on.

by Kelly Pickerill

Emily just returned from the Winter Institute book conference in D.C. and brought me a gift from one of the bookstores there: an old Yale Shakespeare copy of The Tempest. The book itself isn’t extremely rare or valuable or anything, but it has character, and best of all, it is small. I had been wanting to read the play again because of the Julie Taymor film that’s coming out soon, and all I had was a complete works that I was not about to put in my bag. I was in the play as a young high schooler — this was me:

I know, we had great costuming for a community theatre, right? Reading the play again brought back many great memories and faces that I hadn’t thought of in a long time.

There’s something about an old book that’s so different from a new — worn in, well worn, but not worn out. The “old books” at Lemuria are what I like to think of as vintage; they’ve been weathering the passage of time, getting better (read: more valuable) as they grow older. The best books at Lemuria are our signed first editions, rare and special books that you can’t find just anywhere, those books that are important because of more than just their content. I love seeking out these unique books. One of my favorite things to do while I’m traveling is to browse independent bookstores, those places, like Lemuria, where you can find first editions and old books.

Books I’ve happened upon at other bookshops:

A 1963 edition of Herman Melville’s Typee, illustrated and in a slipcase, found in a bookstore in Champaign, Illinois

A dustjacketless first edition of Clock Without Hands by Carson McCullers found on my most recent trip to Chicago

well…have you?  no?  why not?  i’m willing to bet that i haven’t gone a day without touching at least one book in over ten years.  i wouldn’t have it any other way.

i’m not one of those folks who can read from a screen for very long.  if there is something on the internet that i want to read i have to print it out.  i may not be saving the environment in that way but my eyes sure do thank me.  like i said in my last blog, there’s not much out there that tops the smell and feel of a book.

it may take me several lifetimes to read all of the books that i want to read.  i have an entire bookshelf of books that i have yet to read (this doesn’t include the books that i haven’t brought home from work yet so as to not scare my boyfriend even more).  non book lovers may not understand why someone would have such a massive collection of books they haven’t read yet.  they just don’t get it.  i love surrounding myself with books.  a house built of books is a dream of mine.

by Zita

Were you one of the lucky ones who came to hear Jeannette Walls speak last night? If you’re like me, maybe you’re still in the wow-phase.

What a classy, genuine woman.

Here are a couple of things that stood out in my mind:

In response to those who say memoirists are exhibitionists Jeannette said that her readers can read about her life and maybe learn something without actually having to go through it. And isn’t that why we all read? A good book is a good book–whether it is fiction or nonfiction.

She reminded us of the age-old tradition of story telling and urged us to tell our own stories, the stories of our grandparents and great grandparents as these earlier generations were true pioneers where hardship was the norm.

Writer Susan Cushman wrote in her blog this morning:

“Don’t you love it when you get more than you expected? That’s what happened on Wednesday, when I drove down to Jackson . . . First of all, I loved Walls’ first book, The Glass Castle, but I hadn’t gotten around to reading her second one, Half Broke Horses yet, although I purchased it when it came out in 2009. But the fact that she was still touring and reading (to packed houses, like she did at Lemuria last night) fifteen months after the book’s debut is a tribute to its staying power—and hers.”

“What I also didn’t expect was the powerful, inspirational talk she gave after her book signing. She didn’t read from either of her books, but talked about both of them and answered questions. Her enthusiasm reminded me of my friend, River Jordan, especially when she talked about “the power of storytelling.”I didn’t expect her to look up from the books she was signing for me and listen—as though there was no one else in line—to my brief personal story of trying to write a memoir and now a novel. She encouraged me on several personal and professional levels, like a life coach and mentor might do.”

I imagine many of you who were there are still running over fragments of the evening in your mind, feeling inspired, too.