Lemuria Books – Page 47

Page 47 of 257

by Andrew Hedglin

Michael Chabon has written a marvelous, lyrical, and haunting new novel, Moonglow, that comes out today, one week after the so-called supermoon. Chabon’s grandfather, the main character in the novel, is not just enraptured by the moon’s beauty, but he knows exactly why: “On the Moon there was no capital to grind the working moon man down. And on the Moon, 230,000 miles from the stench of history, there was no madness or memory of loss. The things that made space flight difficult was the thing that…made it beautiful: To reach escape velocity…any spacefarer would be obliged to leave almost everything behind…”

I didn’t start reading Chabon through his well-loved novels like The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, or The Yiddish Policeman’s Union (although I do hope to get to them soon), but rather through his lesser known 2009 collection of essays, Manhood for Amateurs, which captured snapshots of his present-day circumstances and life that lead up to it.

With Moonglow, though, you can read the best of both worlds: it’s a novel in structure and poetic license, but it tells the true life story of his maternal grandfather (whose name is never even revealed within the novel). The frame story revolves around the last week of Chabon’s grandfather’s life, in which the normally intensely private person starts to reveal his shrouded history to his grandson while he is under siege from powerful painkillers.

moon-phase By that time, Chabon had published his first book, so his grandfather knows exactly the dangerous type of individual he was talking to. In the middle of the story, the grandfather comes to a memory that makes him question the value of this confessional enterprise. Chabon counters that at least it’s a good story, to which the grandfather replies: “Yeah?…You can have it. I’m giving it to you. After I’m gone, write it down. Explain everything. Make it mean something. Use of lot of those fancy metaphors of yours. Put the whole thing in proper chronological order, not like this mishmash I’m making you.”

Fortunately, Chabon ignores this last dictum. The novel defies a normal dramatic arc, which is the only way to examine and come to the conclusion that Chabon does: that after his grandfather’s death, his life, with all of it’s problems, was a good one.

On the way to that verdict, Chabon tells the story of his grandfather’s life in a pretzel: lost jobs, his time in the army in World War II engaging in Operation Paperclip, his stint in prison for trying to murder his boss, his journey from engineer to modelmaker, and one last twilight romance between two widowers. He touches on the global (the crimes and triumphs of Wernher von Braun) and the personal (his grandmother’s post-Holocaust refugee life and grave mental illness) to tell the story of a life, one life, flickering under the glow of his grandfather’s beloved moon.

Signed first editions of Moonglow are available for order on our website.

Her Hardest Hue to Hold: ‘The Gold Seer Trilogy’ by Rae Carson

By Hillary

On November 16, 2016

In OZ: Young Adult Fiction

like-a-river-glorious I’ve been in a reading funk for a little bit. Yep, it even happens to us booksellers. I just couldn’t get into any of the books I was picking up lately. So, I did what I always do to get out of said “funk”…I went to our young adult section and asked Clara to just go nuts and hand me books. Because, hey…..that section is just plain fun. Sure enough, she handed me an advance copy of the second book in Rae Carson’s The Gold Seer Trilogy, Like A River Glorious! I read the first book in the trilogy when it came out last September and loved it, so I was pretty excited to get back into the world that Carson has created.

walk-on-earth-a-stranger The Gold Seer Trilogy begins with the first book, Walk on Earth a Stranger, which was long-listed for the National Book Award for Young People’s Literature last year. I’m just going to write an overview of both books, because I don’t want to spoil anything if you haven’t even started the series. Which, you obviously should. Like, now.

This series is very much historical fiction, as it is set during the Gold Rush-era in America; but, in true Carson form, there is also magic throughout. Lee Westfall, the protagonist, has a strong, loving family. She has a home that she loves and a loyal longtime friend, Jefferson—who might want to be something more than friends. She also has a secret which only her family, including her awful uncle, knows: she can sense gold in the world around her…small nuggets in a stream, veins deep within the earth, even gold dust under her fingernails.

And y’all….she is a badass. She basically loses everything due to her special ability and her terrifying uncle. She begins a very long and hard journey westward to California disguised as a boy to not only hide from her uncle, but also to keep herself safe from others and to be seen as an equal to all other traveling men. Lee swears to herself that she will never marry, because then she and anything she does will become the property of her husband. Jefferson heads west as well to get away from his own abusive home life and the two meet up in Missouri. On their journey, they face sickness and exhaustion, greedy gold seekers sent by Lee’s uncle, and stampedes of buffalo. Once in California, Lee and Jefferson finally have a new group of people to call their family and with Lee’s ability, they set up their homestead on plots of land rich with gold. But, with gold….comes more trouble.

dramatic-cat

Carson does such a great job balancing the magic with all of the historical aspects. She also makes Lee Westfall an awesome, strong female lead. This is a great series for girls ages 14 and up. If you haven’t read any Rae Carson, go to Lemuria, find me (I’m usually at the front desk) and then treat yourself to about three or four of her books. This is Carson’s second book series, her first is The Girl of Fire and Thorns series. READ IT. It is awesome as well.

Happy Reading!

Grisham’s ‘The Whistler’ balances social issues, storytelling

By Guest Author

On November 7, 2016

In Mystery, Southern Fiction

By Jim Ewing. Special to The Clarion-Ledger

Novelist John Grisham keeps churning out winners that manage to wrap social issues, the law, and intriguing characters into an explosive mix, with his latest, The Whistler, sure to be a controversial bestseller like many before.

Avid readers may recall his previous “issue” book Gray Mountain (2014) served as much to bring attention to the rapacious practices of coal mining destroying families, communities, and the environment, as it did to simply tell a gripping yarn.

The Whistler carries on that social issue imperative, following his previous more typical lawyer tale Rogue Lawyer (2015), by taking on casino gambling on American Indian reservations.

The locale is Florida, with its rich history of corruption. The culprits are a shadowy band of Southern criminals called The Catfish Mafia, which funds its web of lucrative, money-laundering strip malls, golf courses, gated communities, and condos with a crooked casino it helped found on an Indian reservation through murder and intimidation. The scheme relies on a circuit court judge all too willing to take bribes.

Enter a single woman lawyer named Lacy, mid-thirties, worried about the ticking of her biological clock, working for the sedate and respectable, if not boring, state Board on Judicial Conduct. She is suddenly thrust into the heart of the corruption and violence by a whistleblower.

The result is a masterpiece of criminal enterprise exposed in a methodical page-turner made all the more evocative for its subject matter. Tightly written, well crafted, the novel moves at a fast pace with whiplash plot twists.

The controversial aspect of “Whistler” is the unique nature of casino gambling as practiced on Indian reservations. Grisham portrays the tribe as being split initially on whether to allow gaming; some wanting the cash it would provide to bring them out of poverty; others worried that it would morally destroy the community. Both prove true.

Once the casino is up and running, many in the tribe suspect that corruption is taking place but are intimidated into silence by the fact that each member of the tribe profits to the tune of a check for $5,000 per month. The casino’s wealth has also provided good schools, roads, a health clinic, and jobs.

It provides an ethical dilemma: blow the whistle and risk losing everything–or look the other way and allow corruption, intimidation, even violence to flourish.

Grisham weaves his storyline through both the emotional and psychological aspects of this dilemma. He deftly describes the laws that govern tribes and casinos and how they as sovereign nations under treaty are — and aren’t — subject to judicial review or criminal restraint.

As a consequence, The Whistler provides not only a good read but serves to educate and provide plenty of fodder for discussion.

The Whistler yet again reveals Grisham as a premier mystery writer.

Jim Ewing, a former writer and editor at The Clarion-Ledger, is the author of seven books including his latest, Redefining Manhood: A Guide for Men and Those Who Love Them.

Cure Your Halloween Hangover with ‘The Hike’ and ‘Girls on Fire’

By Former Lemurians

On October 31, 2016

In Fiction, Horror, Mystery

by Andrew Hedglin

Halloween. It’s finally here!

skeletons

But that means it’s almost over, as well. But if you’re the kind of person who loves to hear the fallen leaves rustle against your window pane as you curl up under your blanket on a couch watching a scary movie, the thrills don’t have to end when October does. I’m here with two books that came out this year that you may have overlooked, that are sure to keep on giving you chills and goosebumps long after your Halloween candy gives out.

the-hike The first book I’d like to talk about is The Hike by Drew Magary. I have become a fan of Magary over the past couple of years through his columns on Deadspin, which come across a mixture of self-aware dad/bro humor (trust me, it’s not as cringe-inducing as that sounds) with a lot of talk about football. So when I heard he had a book coming out, I was thrilled. When I heard it was a novel about a guy who gets lost on a walk in the woods and finds himself in a horror-esque wonderland, I was…less thrilled.

Drew Magary

But when I finally gave it a chance, I was really drawn in. Ben, the main character, must face down the traumas and disappointments of his past, as well as the contents of his nightmares, to achieve self-actualization. If he ever leaves the Path, he will die. If he stays on the path, he will encounter dog-faced men, a talking crab, a friendly giant cannibal, and a monster lord. He must come to grips with existential dread and isolation from what he misses most in the world–his wife and three children. The whole experience of reading the book was surprisingly moving without ever losing its page-turning momentum.

girls-on-fire The second book I’d like to recommend is Girls on Fire by Robin Wasserman. The story begins on Halloween night in 1991 with the apparent suicide of a local jock in the woods near a small Pennsylvania town, and ends one year later in the same place with a meeting of three girls who know the truth. In between, average girl Hannah Dexter (who would be played by 1990s Thora Birch, if I was adapting this movie) is used as a pawn in a game between queen bee Nikki Drummond and outcast, Kurt Cobain-obsessed rebel Lacey Champlain. Hannah must
discover who she is and who she can trust, before it’s too late. thora-birch Set against the “Satanic Panic” of the era (that also underlined the excellent Only Love Can Break Your Heart from earlier this year), the novel shows that sometimes the monster lies not without, but within. The atmospherics in the book are just off the charts.

So, after you’re done throwing away your jack-o-lanterns, taking down your decorations, putting up your costumes, getting the toilet paper out of your trees, and eating all of your candy, bundle up with this two books and keep the Halloween flame flickering long into November.

Be More Present with ‘Present Over Perfect’ by Shauna Niequist

By Former Lemurians

On October 25, 2016

In Religion

by Abbie Walker

Are you constantly on the move? Do you wish you could feel more connected to the people around you? Do you feel like you have settled for “busy”?

present-over-perfect Well, Shauna Niequist knows how you feel. Her new Christian non-fiction book, Present Over Perfect, dives right into the idea that a busy life doesn’t necessarily mean a full life.

After decades of hustling to keep her life together, Shauna realized she was falling apart. What she thought was giving her meaning was actually robbing her of experiencing contentment and love. So, Shauna began to rebuild her life on the idea that purpose doesn’t necessarily come from busyness. Instead, she set out to reclaim a more still and present way of being.

The tagline, “leaving behind frantic for a simpler, more soulful way of living,” accurately sums up this book. Shauna tells her story in a natural, honest way that I couldn’t help but identify with. From the moment that I saw the opening Mary Oliver poem, I knew I was going to like this book, and it definitely has been what I needed to read during this season of my life.

Through beautiful anecdotes and water analogies, Shauna explains the mess and the beauty of this “sea-change”—the transformation from a person of productivity into a person of moments. She explains how she had to relearn what it meant to live a meaningful life and where we find our identity and worth.

She discusses the idea that business and work are usually our way of outrunning pain and heartache in our lives. We don’t want to stop, because we are afraid of what we will see and hear and feel if we do. “I learned a long time ago that if I hustle fast enough, the emptiness will never catch up with me,” Shauna says. “Hustle is the opposite of heart.”

Shauna says she was “trusting [her] ability to hustle more than God’s ability to heal.” She identifies how Christians so often get burnt out and justify their busyness in the church, and admits that she is guilty of “fake resting.” She stresses the importance of self-care and how productivity can become an idol that keeps us from loving ourselves—and the ones around us—well.

Shauna realized that her relationships were suffering because she wasn’t fully present. By breaking down her life to what is most important to her, she found some life-changing truth: “Now I know that the best thing I can offer to this world is not my force or energy, but a well-tended spirit, a wise and brave soul.”

Staying still in a world that praises busyness and mindless work is a courageous act, according to Shauna. “Sometimes being brave is being quiet. Being brave is getting off the drug of performance,” she says. I love that she talked about how hard it is to say “no,” yet how essential it is. She challenges the reader to go against what we’ve come to accept as the correct way to live and get to the heart of what’s important.

Shauna paints a beautiful picture of her life after this change. Shooting hoops with her two boys, family time out on the lake, lazy Saturday mornings with her husband. She is able to capture and experience more. What seem like insignificant moments are what she now holds most dear. But Shauna explains that this journey is a process: “What I’m learning, essentially, is to stand where I am, plain and sometimes tired. Unflashy, profoundly unspectacular. But present and connected and grounded deeply in the love of God, which is changing everything.”

While this book centers around Shauna’s faith and is written for a Christian audience, I think even those who are not religious would enjoy it because it is about simplifying and finding joy in the small scenes of life—something I think we are all in need of. Fans of Brene Brown and Elizabeth Gilbert will eat up Shauna’s words and soon be highlighting paragraphs like I did.

If you enjoy Present Over Perfect, be sure to check out Shauna Niequist’s other books: Cold Tangerines, Bittersweet, Bread & Wine, and her Savor devotional.

The Table as Communion

By Jamie

On October 21, 2016

In Lemuria Culture

Last weekend, I was in the store buying some gifts with my 5-year-old, and as is tradition, he and I sat at the booth and read. Sometimes I buy a book for him, and sometimes I don’t, but we always sit at the booth and go through a children’s book together.

On the Sunday in question, he picked out the mind-tingling Shark vs. Train by Chris Barton and Tom Lichtenheld. It was, as you can imagine, a goofball kids book. I really like Lichtenheld’s illustrations (he drew a favorite, Goodnight, Goodnight, Construction Site) and the story that Barton has made in Shark vs. Train is a wonderful game of speculation and silliness.

But was it okay to read this on the table in the back corner of the store?

jaime clara booth

I love that table. Its finish has been worn from the sliding of thousands of books over its surface. It’s where our visiting authors cozy up to put their autographs in our stock; it’s where customers get a chance to meet that writer, share a quick story, and get a note jotted for themselves on the title page. Signed books make great gifts: a former student of mine is currently whooping leukemia’s butt, and her husband got Greg Iles’ The Bone Tree for her to read while taking her chemo. The note Greg wrote was heartfelt and sincere, the value of the book surpassing the mere monetary price.

Pulitzer Prize winners have signed on this table, our beloved Ms. Welty being one of them. Authors at the beginning of their careers or those who have had lifetimes of publishing have sat in the booth alike. Jerks and angels; hometown heroes or folks whose first visit to Jackson has been to sign; authors who are still among us, and those who have passed on. Writers who have signed books. Writers who have touched souls.

So is this table (altar?) really the right place to read books about sharks and trains?

Yes.

Undeniably, yes.

Because reading is so important, it doesn’t always matter what is being read. The distinction between high-brow and popular literature is one that I’m aware of, but also one that I don’t mind crossing. I love Shakespeare and John Milton, but I’ll never forget the joy of the Little Golden Book The Color Kittens and the cool, calm that washed over me when hearing the lines “Green as cat’s eyes. Green as grass by streams of water as green as glass.” Hamlet belongs on the same shelf as The Color Kittens. That table will hold memories and majesty just as easily as simple children’s picture books.

So come, sit a while. Read something at that table. You’ll fit right in.

Ann Patchett’s ‘Commonwealth’ is a treasure

By Former Lemurians

On October 19, 2016

In Fiction

When I read my first Ann Patchett book when I was about 19, it was love from the very start. My grandmother, Bebe, insisted that I read this book, Truth and Beauty. She gave me her paperback copy, but we left it at that. I kept it for several months until one day, for whatever reason, I decided to read it. Little did I know I would carry that story with me forever. I think of Ann Patchett’s telling of her friendship with poet Lucy Grealy at least once a week; such is the way that Ann Patchett’s telling of anything haunts me.
Whenever the store gets an advanced reader copy of Ann Patchett’s work, I am one of the first to try and snatch it up. I do love her simple, no-fuss style of writing that is also beautiful and highly literary at the same time. She is an absolute master of what she does and that was never more apparent to me than while I was reading Commonwealth a few months ago.

This novel starts off with a christening party for a second child in Southern California in the late 1960s. Franny, the guest of honor, is proclaimed to be the most beautiful baby to have ever lived by nearly everyone in attendance, including the uninvited acquaintance Bert Cousins. Even more beautiful than baby Franny is her gorgeous blonde mother, Beverly. Everyone gets drunk on gin and juice from the oranges that grow in the backyard. Toward the end of the party, Bert and Beverly share a kiss in the bedroom where all the children at the party lie sleeping. This one event will end two marriages and create a new blended family that spans the country. Every summer one set of children will have to fly the lengt orange h of the country in order to spend the summer with their father in Virginia. The Keating and Cousins children are a formidable group who will leave their sleeping, hungover parents asleep in a motel while they, the children, claim the gun from the car, a bottle of liquor, and the Benadryl that one of them is required to keep on them at all times. More will be revealed about that situation if you read the book.

Skipping forward, Franny, the youngest daughter, is a cocktail waitress in Chicago when she meets her author idol in her bar one night. They embark on a multi-year affair, during which he writes a novel that is HEAVILY based on the story of Franny’s family. The book is called Commonwealth and is wildly successful. Needless to say, her family is not pleased about this public divulging of all their personal history.

So this is the part where I tell you that this book is Ann Patchett’s autobiographical masterpiece. When meeting her in the store a month ago, she talked about how she had struggled with actually doing this because she feared the backlash of writing about her life and family. But she said the people she was worried about couldn’t have cared less and she couldn’t care less about the people who were. It’s funny how things work out. Now, she did not tell us exactly which parts were autobiographical, so we get to imagine that for ourselves. But, honestly, this book is a must read. We have all read thousands of family sagas, but no one can write one quite like Ann Patchett. Maybe this is because this story is so close to her heart, Commonwealth comes off as particularly emotionally-charged. You can tell when reading it that these characters mean something to her, even more so than just imagined ones.

I could gush about this book for hours, but I will only suggest that you read this book and enjoy every moment of its simple brilliance.

Signed first editions of Commonwealth are still available. Click here to purchase your copy today.

Get to Know Erica

By Former Lemurians

On October 17, 2016

In Get to Know...

So, to start, I love young adult fiction and beautiful children’s illustrations. All I really want from a book is for it to drag me in, give me the romance I want, and have pretty pictures. I’m still a kid when it comes down to it.

How long have you worked at Lemuria? Just about a year now.

What do you do at Lemuria? I work in OZ, our children’s section. I mainly handle the different displays, and the other everyday duties. Hopefully I can help out more after school is out.

What I’m reading now.. Okay, so this is the sad part: I’m in a reading funk right now. The beginning of school this year has just taken over my life and I haven’t read as much as I would like. I’ve just finished A Shadow Dark and Burning by Jessica Cluess and really enjoyed her magic- and destruction-ridden Old England. I’ve started about three other YA (young adult) books, but haven’t gotten deep enough into any of them to really say anything about them yet.

erica

What’s currently on your bedside table (book purgatory)? I’ve actually started all the ones on my table, but am switching around, willing at least one to kick me out of my book funk. So my books are Spare and Found Parts by Sarah Griffin, Vassa in the Night by Sarah Porter and Kids of Appetite by David Arnold.

Top 5 books:

Ahh! Let’s see, if we’re talking currently favorites then it would have to be

The Book Thiefby Markus Zusak (It will always hold top place for me)
An Ember in the Ashesby Sabaa Tahir
The Dream Thieves(from The Raven Cycle) by Maggie Stiefvater
The Diabolic(comes out Nov. 2016) by S. J. Kincaid
A Child of Booksby Oliver Jeffers and Sam Winston (because I’m still a child at heart)

Favorite Authors This is a bit harder than picking favorite books. I’m not the best with names, so, sadly, I don’t always remember them. I don’t necessarily find one author that I like and then go read all their books, but I do love Markus Zusak, William Joyce, Oliver Jeffers, Maggie Stiefvater and Sabaa Tahir.

Any particular genre that you’re especially in love with?Ha, yes! I love YA and have no shame in saying it. It’s really the majority of what I read. I also have a huge love for children’s picture books. I’m an artist and am a sucker for beautiful illustration.

What did you do before you worked at Lemuria? I’m still a college student and thought I had a work study job, until I didn’t. Besides that, I have worked at two libraries and as a pool assistant.

If you could share lasagna with any author, dead or alive, who would it be? What would you ask them? Maggie Stiefvater, I just finished her Raven Cycle books. I want to know what lead her to ending the series the way she did. It took me by surprise in the quietest and best way possible.

If we could have any living author visit the store and do a reading, who would you want to come? I would LOVE Sabaa Tahir to come and do a reading. By far, An Ember in the Ashes is one of my all time favorite books. She creates beautiful and broken worlds with the most vibrant and often violent characters. I’m always captivated by her books and I can’t wait to see what she does next.

If Lemuria could have ANY pet (mythical or real), what do you think it should be? I have this feeling that Lemuria is being haunted by a friendly but mischievous ghost that likes to rearrange displays and push books off the shelves right when you walk out of the room.

If you had the ability to teleport, where would you go first? Cancun, Mexico. They have sunken underwater coral reef statues that I would love to see. Really though, I’m just a total beach bum at heart and winter is coming soon in Jackson. I would give anything to feel hot sand between my toes

Winston Groom’s ‘El Paso’ has a cinematic sweep

By Former Lemurians

On October 12, 2016

In Historical Fiction, Western

by Andrew Hedglin

el paso On the back of the beautifully-bound El Paso by Winston Groom, you see a list of historical personages promised to star in the book, laid out like a star-studded movie poster: Pancho Villa…Tom Mix…Ambrose Bierce…George Patton. These historical cameos add rich color to the book, but the real star is a character of Groom’s own imagining: Arthur Shaughnessy Jr.

Arthur is the adopted son of a fading railroad tycoon. His father has some very Theodore Roosevelt-esque ideas about manliness, but Arthur seems to keep disappointing him. Although Arthur is studious and good at managing what is left of their business, he can’t match his father’s temperament and interests. Whereas his father is impulsive, Arthur likes to plan. Instead of hunting for big game on African safaris, Arthur prefers to hunt for butterflies for his collection. Instead of riding around in trains (the family business!), he is fascinated by the new field of aviation.

When the Mexican Revolution begins to threaten the Shaughnessy holdings in Chihuahua, Shaughnessy Sr. decides to go down there to see how things are going for himself. However, he also decides to bring his whole family. While both Arthurs are away on a desperate cattle drive, the tycoon’s grandchildren, Katherine and Timmy, are kidnapped by Pancho Villa’s army and held for ransom.

Arthur, the son, must make a passage of his own, literally through the Sierra Madres as he and his impromptu band hunt for the famed bandit general, and metaphorically as he becomes the masculine paragon of a hero that his father always wanted him to be.

This feels like just the bare bones of the story. I don’t have space to tell you about the matador Johnny Ollas searching for his lost love, or the journalists Ambrose Bierce and John Reed trading barbs and philosophies as they travel with Villa, or Mix finding out the price of fame. This book is loaded with characters and plot, but moves along swiftly and breathlessly. It’s full of improbable coincidences and historical cameos (a trademark of Groom, author of Forrest Gump), without feeling corny or eye-rolling. The book is a delicate balancing act, passing between the U.S. and Mexico, city and wilderness, and even the boundaries of fact and fiction themselves.

Candice Millard’s ‘Hero of the Empire’ sheds light on forgotten Churchill history

By Guest Author

On October 10, 2016

In Biography/Memoir, History, War

By Jim Ewing. Special to The Clarion-Ledger.

Embedded in America’s consciousness is the picture of a rotund, cigar-chomping Winston Churchill, grimly resolving to fight the Nazis on land, sea and air during the darkest days of World War II.

hero-of-the-empire With Candice Millard’s latest biography Hero of the Empire, Churchill’s image could well be shattered to superimpose a portrait of him as a young and daring adventurer.

Subtitled “The Boer War, a Daring Escape and the Making of Winston Churchill,” Millard’s biography zeroes in on Churchill when he was 24. Itching to go to war, the descendant of the 1st Duke of Marlborough and privileged friend to the Prince of Wales was desperate to prove himself on the battlefield.

No stranger to bloodshed even at this young age, the young aristocrat already had taken part in wars on three continents — Cuba, British India and the Sudan. But the Boer War in South Africa would thrust him on the world stage.

“Hero” chronicles his fighting as a supposed noncombatant journalist, his capture as a prisoner of war, and his grueling escape from behind enemy lines that captivated a nation.

Churchill, as “Hero” reveals, was larger than life and a study in contrasts. Impulsive, opinionated, an “opportunist, braggart and blowhard,” he also proved fearless, brave, heroic and forgiving of others, including former foes.

Churchill is known for his oratory, but few may recall that he first made his mark as a writer. Indeed, contemporary author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, who created Sherlock Holmes, called Churchill “the greatest living master of English prose.”

Hero is punctuated by fascinating details. For example, Churchill’s American mother was of Native American descent and of such dazzling beauty that literally thousands would attend any event where they could catch a glimpse of her. Churchill, the book relates, sought to hide a speech impediment (difficulty with the letter s) his entire life.

Situated in 1899, the Boer War does not meet much historical attention, stuck as it is between the American Civil War and the World Wars. But “Hero” deftly explains its importance to the past, present and future.

The Boers were farmers and didn’t fight in orderly fashion, but hid behind every rock and shrub. Before them was amassed the greatest fighting force the world had ever known — the mighty British Empire. The fighting scenes are enthralling as the immovable object of hidden and entrenched Boers fighting for their adopted homeland meet the irresistible force of the British Army.

But, again in contrast, Churchill’s escape is aided in part by the fact that the white Boers despised the black native majority they ruled, which sided with the British who had helped ban slavery on the continent. The parallels between the Civil War, the fortunes of empires, and the rise of mechanistic death over previously accepted rules of war as would rend the globe in years to come are absorbing.

Within the grand sweep of this bloody milieu, the harrowing tale of a young journalist hiding in ditches and boarding boxcars under cover of night, provides a saga of such magnitude as to be astounding in its scope. Major motion picture material here!

Meticulously documented with nearly 40 pages of notes, Hero is a gripping read, rivaling the finest fiction. Except, if it were fiction, no one would believe it — or that its improbable hero would come to be known as Britain’s iconic leader.

Jim Ewing, a former writer and editor at The Clarion-Ledger, is the author of seven books including Redefining Manhood: A Guide for Men and Those Who Love Them, now in bookstores.

Candice Millard will be here on Tuesday, October 11 at 5:00 to sign the October 2016 First Edition Club selection, Hero of the Empire.

Page 47 of 257

Pages of Pale Fire: Michael Chabon’s ‘Moonglow’

Her Hardest Hue to Hold: ‘The Gold Seer Trilogy’ by Rae Carson

Grisham’s ‘The Whistler’ balances social issues, storytelling

Cure Your Halloween Hangover with ‘The Hike’ and ‘Girls on Fire’

Be More Present with ‘Present Over Perfect’ by Shauna Niequist

The Table as Communion

Ann Patchett’s ‘Commonwealth’ is a treasure

Get to Know Erica

Winston Groom’s ‘El Paso’ has a cinematic sweep

Candice Millard’s ‘Hero of the Empire’ sheds light on forgotten Churchill history

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