Lemuria Books – Page 67

Page 67 of 257

I’m not a kid. I’m a shark!

On May 20, 2015

So, I wandered into our graphic novels section (again). Guess what I found. Go on, guess. That’s right I found…

A quirky little comic book about a shape shifter, a knight, and a villain; Nimona is a really sweet and funny read. From bank robbing to little hijinks, this book provides it all. (I mean, who doesn’t love it when someone turns into a shark out of nowhere?)

Certainly not I. Ballister Blackheart is clearly one lucky villain to have Nimona for a sidekick, even if she causes more trouble than she helps. Together, they could destroy the world and the Institution that rules them all. Not that they do, I’m just saying they could despite any minor setbacks they may face.

Because they’ve got science AND magic on their side; who would dare try to take them on? (You know, other than the corrupt Institution and its leading knight, Goldenloin…)

I’d really recommend taking a look at this book. It’s simple and sweet, with just enough suspense to keep you on the edge of your seat. Who doesn’t need that in their life, especially now, right after finals? Even if you’re out of college, this makes for a great summer read. It’s quick and fun, trust me, you won’t regret it.

(Side note: our three main characters in a nutshell, ladies and gentlemen.)

See Y’all Later

By Former Lemurians

On May 19, 2015

In Staff Blog

As some of you know, I am coming to the end of my time at Lemuria bookstore. The nine months I’ve worked here have been life-giving and filled with fun, excitement, and so much love. I came to Lemuria burned out by the church, seeking a new cathedral filled with books, knowledge of all kinds, and a congregation of people who were not wrapped up in the politics of the church. As I’ve already said, Lemuria gave me new life. But, as we all know, every chapter in this book called life has an end, and at the turn of the page, a new chapter begins. My new adventure will take me to Greenville, Mississippi, where I will become the Senior Pastor at Greenville First United Methodist Church.

Some of you may be thinking, “uhm, you were burnt out by the church, so why are you going back?” Well, the answer to that question would take about 27 blog posts, so I’ll spare you the details. But what I can say is this: as burned out as I was by certain experiences in the church, my time away has given me space to see that I am called, ready, and willing to step back into a role of service for God and God’s people. In Searching for Sunday, Rachel Held Evans writes, “Imagine if every church became a place where everyone is safe, but no one is comfortable. Imagine if every church became a place where we told one another the truth. We might just create sanctuary.” This is what I’m ultimately called to do. And for the past nine months, Lemuria has been that sanctuary for me.

When John opened Lemuria bookstore 40 years ago, I’m not sure he ever thought of it being a sanctuary for people; and I’m sure for some, it hasn’t been. But it was exactly what I needed. I’ve always loved books, but working here has helped me fall in love with books all over again. My love for literature has also expanded. I never saw myself reading Southern Gothic novels, and now, I can’t put them down. There was one stretch where I read four in a row. I am grateful to my coworkers who told me about books I should read: some of them amazing (My Sunshine Away, The Thickety, The Glass Sentence), and some of them, not so amazing (I won’t put them here…). I am grateful that I was able to talk to customers about my favorite books, and hand sell many of them (Short Stories by Jesus, The Secret Wisdom of the Earth, God Help the Child).

I’ve enjoyed standing in the religion section and talking to people about the books that have impacted my life and hearing about the books that have impacted their lives. In thinking about books and their importance, Anne Lamott says it best in Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life: “For some of us, books are as important as almost anything else on earth. What a miracle it is that out of these small, flat, rigid squares of paper unfolds world after world after world, worlds that sing to you, comfort and quiet or excite you. Books help us understand who we are and how we are to behave. They show us what community and friendship mean; they show us how to live and die.”

Lemuria. Thank you so much for being you. Thanks so much for a being a place where people’s insatiable love for books can be fed with a bountiful feast of literature. Thanks for being the weird independent bookstore that celebrates children’s book week with a big Harry Potter Extravaganza, where parents can proudly proclaim, “my kid has found her people.”

And thank you customers. Thank you for coming in and talking to us booksellers. It’s amazing how much trust you put into us! The fact that many of you bought books that I recommended without a second question astounds me. I’m not that trusting of people.

I may be moving to Greenville to start this new adventure in life, but I will take all of you with me: in the conversations we’ve had, the books we’ve read together, the dreams I have of wrapping book after book after book after book during Christmas.

Lemuria will always be a second home to me, and even though I’ll be 2 ½ hours away, it is really not a farewell, but more like “see you later”. So, with that being said, see y’all later!

Summer is Coming.

By Former Lemurians

On May 18, 2015

In Fiction, Staff Blog

Summer is coming. It is time to pick out books to read. “I don’t have time to read”, you say? HA! Those who know me realize that I will not accept that answer. I find it ridiculous. If I find the time then you can also.

Here are a few suggestions….

Don’t watch so much TV. Don’t get me wrong. I love watching television and movies but like I said…summer is coming. All the shows will be in reruns. My suggestion is to read a novel that has been made into a movie. When you have finished it, then watch the movie. It’s fun to compare the two. Here are a few examples….

“I have to travel so much”, you say. Oh, I say, and your mode of transportation? Automobile? How about an audio book? I listen to audio books all the time even when I’m just riding around town, emptying the dishwasher, or knitting. Literary multi-tasking. Here are a few suggestions…

“Oh, I’m going to wait until that book comes out in paperback, then I will read it.” Guess what?!?!? It’s out in paperback! Lucky you!

I will see y’all soon and we can get your “to be read (or listened to) pile” together. After all, summer is coming.

“A Wrinkle in Time”: Quantum Physics and Philosophy for All Ages

By Lisa

On May 16, 2015

In Fiction, First Editions, Lisa's First Editions, OZ: Young Adult Fiction

“A Wrinkle in Time” by Madeleine L’Engle. New York, NY: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1962.

Madeleine L’Engle believed in writing for people:

“You have to write the book that wants to be written. And if the book will be too difficult for grown-ups, then you write it for children.”

After “A Wrinkle in Time” had been rejected by 26 publishers, a friend introduced L’Engle to John Farrar of Farrar, Straus and Giroux. Farrar had read L’Engle’s other books and was delighted to work on her new novel. Despite the publisher’s enthusiasm for the book, L’Engle noted their caution in her memoir, “A Circle of Quiet”: “Don’t be disappointed if it doesn’t do well . . . We’re publishing it because we love it.”

“A Wrinkle in Time” follows the time travel adventures of thirteen-year-old Meg, her little genius brother Charles Wallace and their new friend Calvin O’Keefe. The trio embark on a journey to find Meg and Charles’s father, a scientist who has been mysteriously missing for several years. The unforgettable Mrs. Whatsit, Mrs. Who and Mrs. Which assist them on their travels through space and time.

Madeleine L’Engle wrote “A Wrinkle in Time” between 1950 and 1960 after reading about quantum physics. Besides the space-time concept, L’Engle immerses her readers in a world controlled by one brain where its citizens work and play in unison. “The Dark Thing”–a mysterious presence affecting some planets and not others—presents questions of good and evil. All the while, Mrs. Who lends her philosophical wisdom to the time travelers in the form of famous quotes and common sense advice—only she first delivers the phrase in its original language—Latin, French, Italian, German, Greek. Early readers of the manuscript doubted a children’s book could successfully carry such heavy themes.

Since the book’s publication in 1962, “A Wrinkle in Time” has never gone out of print and has sold more than 14 million copies. The book also won the Newbery Medal for the Most Distinguished Contribution to American Literature for Children.

Collecting children’s literature can be difficult for the simple reason that children are reading and loving these pages, and finding copies in fine condition can be a challenge. Today a signed first edition of “A Wrinkle in Time” is a rare find and would be worth a year’s college education!

Special collector’s editions offer another way to collect this classic. The 25^th anniversary edition of “A Wrinkle in Time” was released by Farrar, Straus and Giroux in 1987 in a signed limited edition of 500 copies. The book is cloth bound with gilt lettering and housed in a red cloth slipcase. The book recently celebrated its 50^th anniversary in 2012 with another special edition. A film adaptation of “A Wrinkle in Time” is also in the works, and L’Engle’s granddaughter recently released three unpublished manuscript pages to The Wall Street Journal which highlight the book’s political and philosophical commentary. The love and relevance of “A Wrinkle in Time” continues to grow strong.

Written by Lisa Newman, A version of this column was published in The Clarion-Ledger’s Sunday Mississippi Books page.

Books We Love That No One Will Buy

By Former Lemurians

On May 15, 2015

In Fiction, Graphic Novels, Nature, Staff Blog

The title says it all.

Here by Richard McGuire

Jacket (20) This lovely graphic novel chronicles the entire history of one small space of earth. In 8,000 BCE a bog trickles out to the edges of the page; while in 1989, a house has been built on that very spot and two couples share cocktails and jokes in front of a dated coffee table. The geographical location never wavers, but to watch time weave in and out, changing the curtains, Jacket (19) the rivers, and the wildlife- it feels so strange to have so much history sandwiched between so few pages. A mother stands in front of a window in the corner of the room and shows her baby the moon, and a bison sleeps exactly where the hearth will be in over 10,000 years.

I Was Told There’d Be Cake by Sloane Crosley

More books of essays, always, is my motto. Slone Crosley has set up camp with authors like David Sedaris, Kelly Oxford, and Jenny Lawson. In her perfectly hilarious collection of recollections and murmurings on her own life and the lives of those who surround her, Crosley salutes the normal, the every day, the stupid. There is a piece about toy ponies in a kitchen drawer.

Get In Trouble: Stories by Kelly Link

I already wrote a blog about how great this book is. Read it here.

My Favorite Things by Maira Kalman

Jacket (17) Okay people. Why does no one buy Maira Kalman’s books?? This is beyond me. Kalman, writer, painter, children’s book author and illustrator, collaborator, art lover, and student of life, has put out yet another thoughtful and heart-tugging book. My Favorite Things is a collection of thoughts, memories, and objects that have gathered significance over the years. Similar to And The Pursuit of Happiness and The Principles of Uncertainty, My Favorite Things attributes poignant meaning to even the smallest of things. Instead of feeling forced or overly emotional, Kalman keeps her thoughts short and simple.

“There is no reason to save tickets and stubs. They are tiny and inconsequential. But I do save them and remember that number twenty-three was from the coat check at the restaurant where I ate the lemon tart. The number is so elegant and honest. And the lemon tart was SO GOOD.”

The Who, the What, and the When by Jenny Volvovski, Julia Rothman, and Matt Lamothe

Jacket (16) This book sheds light on the lives of people who lived in the shadows of their famous spouses, bosses, friends, and neighbors. Each mini biography is a page long, paired with unique portraits from more than 40 artists. Included in this collection is Charles Bukowski’s editor, Coco Chanel’s lover, Al Capone’s mentor, and Emily Dickinson’s dog. Did you know that Rosalind Franklin discovered that DNA had two forms and her research allowed Francis Crick and James D. Watson to prove the helix shape of DNA? Yeah well, now you do.

The Enchanted by Rene Denfeld

Jacket (14) Rene Denfeld stuns with this crystal clear novel about a death row inmate during his last days and the movements of his death penalty investigator as she tries desperately to uncover the truth surrounding his case. This novel is an incredibly hard sell because of the subject matter, but never have I experienced a book so concisely and exquisitely written. In the words of a customer, “not a word is wasted”. The Enchanted is set in a timeless, fuzzy landscape that is intent on keeping to the background so that the characters can take the main stage. It is a quiet, still book, with gleaming bits of gold shining through the cracks.

The Book of Beetles: A Life-Size Guide to Six Hundred of Nature’s Gems edited by Patrice Bouchard

Jacket (15) I have spent hours looking at this book. Hours. When it was given to me as a birthday gift, I feared that it would simply sit on my shelf, collecting dust after one thorough looking-through, but in the few months since it was given to me, I have taken it back out and poured over it again and again. The encyclopedic collection documents hundreds of different types of beetles, their countries of origin, eating habits, mating rituals, significant physical markers, and include a life-size photo of each specimen. You guys, I don’t even like beetles. Except now I do. Strange how knowledge creates passionate curiosity. Please don’t shy away from this book just because you think bugs are icky. Pick it up, because nature is freaking awesome.

Missing

By Former Lemurians

On May 14, 2015

In Staff Blog

Great acts of destruction haunt us: photographs of Nazi book burnings, piles of shoes, the loose paper that floated in the air after the Twin Towers were attacked. These losses find order in lists. We engrave the names of our dead in war monuments. We catalog our libraries and museums in order to notice loss.

I have been reading through French poet, Henri Lefebvre’s recently translated list poem, “The Missing Pieces.” Compiled from various sources, it is an 83 page list of objects, memories, and people that have been lost, destroyed, or never made.

In some instances the losses are heartbreaking—“Totally deaf, the father of the writer Regis Jauffret never heard the voice of his son”—but other times, the loss is also a creation—“In 1961, the sculptor Arman pulverizes a contrabass in front of Japanese television cameras.”

We are captivated by lost treasure, unsolved mysteries, the compelling questions of what happened and what could have been. It seems that every year another headline touts the discovery of a garage sale painting that is a missing masterpiece. Vivian Maier lived her entire life in obscurity; her photographs were very nearly lost. Vincent Van Gogh’s brother bought all of his paintings in order to bankroll his brother’s lifestyle. In so doing, he kept them safe from destruction.

To be lost is Biblical. We are found in Christ. But what about the things that have faded away? The never-was? The never-again-will-be? What did we lose the three days Christ was dead? But also, what did we gain?

Ezra Pound wrote a sonnet a day for a year. At the end of the year, he destroyed them all.

The sonnets are lost. But the process of making them—of rhyming and metering and twisting the phrase—was gained. The ghosts of art linger.

Austrian artist Otto Muehl said, “I cannot imagine anything significant if nothing is sacrificed, burned, destroyed.”

The True First Edition of The Collected Stories of Katherine Anne Porter

By Lisa

On May 12, 2015

In Fiction, First Editions, Lisa's First Editions, Southern Fiction

The Collected Stories of Katherine Anne Porter. London, UK: Jonathan Cape, 1964.

Callie Russell Porter was one of four children born in 1890 in Indian Creek, Texas, a small community in West Central Texas. Her mother died in childbirth when Callie was just two-years-old so her father moved the children to live with his mother in Kyle, Texas. Callie’s grandmother, Catherine Anne Porter made a strong impression on her, with a love for the finer things in life when much was to be had and even concocted family stories of rich plantations and waiting servants. Callie eventually changed her name to Katherine Anne Porter and also adopted her grandmother’s belief in using whatever means she had to make her dreams come true.

Porter married for the first time at age 16 and received no formal education beyond grammar school. She left an abusive marriage, worked as an actress, singer, and newspaper journalist, finally enduring a severe case of bronchitis in a rough span of about 10 years. After a two-year stay in the sanatorium, she decided to turn her artistic ambitions toward writing, and in 1930 her first collection, “Flowering Judas,” was published with literary acclaim but little commercial success.
Porter was a leading literary figure of the time and she happened to be Eudora Welty’s first notable literary connection in 1938. Welty would go on to write the title essay, “The Eye of the Story,” on Porter’s short stories:

“All the stories she has written are moral stories about love and the hate that is love’s twin, love’s impostor and enemy and death. Rejection, betrayal, desertion, theft roam the pages of her stories as they roam the world . . . [Her work] has shown me a thing or two about the eye of fiction, about fiction’s visibility and invisibility, about its clarity, its radiance . . . Katherine Anne Porter shows us that we do not have to see a story happen to know what is taking place. For all we are to know, she is not looking at it happen herself when she writes it; for her eyes are looking through the gauze of the passing scene, not distracted by the immediate and transitory; her vision is reflective.”

Porter’s stories vary greatly in place—from Texas to Mexico to Berlin—but the intensity of Porter’s inner reflection is always constant and a great magnet for the reader.

Life changed greatly for Porter when she published her first and only novel “Ship of Fools” in 1962. Although it was not a literary success, the novel became a bestseller and the talk of the nation. According to biographer Joan Givner, it was even the conversation of Presidential inaugural dinner between President John F. Kennedy and Mary Hemingway. It was not until after “Ship of Fools” that Porter published “The Collected Stories.”

The American edition published in 1965 by Harcourt won the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award that year. However, the English edition published by Jonathan Cape in 1964 oddly remains the true first edition. In this unusual situation, the collector might want both editions. The English is less common than the American edition and signed copies are extremely scarce.

See all of Lemuria’s current first editions inventory for Katherine Anne Porter here.

Written by Lisa Newman, A version of this column was published in The Clarion-Ledger’s Sunday Mississippi Books page.

A Boundary-less Life: From Brokenness to Healing

By Abigail

On May 12, 2015

In Health, Psychology, Staff Blog

There is no denying that books have the power to change our lives. The extent to which their contents affects us may vary, but there is not a one that has not gifted me with additional insight, understanding, and knowledge. I have come to realize that books are like people; you learn something from even the worst of them.

While viewing all books as an opportunity for personal enrichment, I must also distinguish those that have affected my life more deeply than others. The book, Boundaries, by Dr. Henry Cloud and Dr. John Townsend is one that not only impacted me deeply, but changed my life. I read it after graduating from college the summer of 2014. I walked away from Boundaries a different person, a much healthier person. My only regret is that I didn’t read it sooner; that it wasn’t recommended to me sooner. I have spent the last year shouting its merit from every available rooftop, and I am thrilled to be able to share its impact on me with those that walk through the door at Lemuria.

The book claims that it tells you “when to say yes, how to say no, to take control of your life.” The claim is not made falsely. In reading its pages, I found both healing and empowerment for the broken person I had become. With the best of intentions, I had drained my personal resources to a scary number well below zero. With a naturally empathetic heart, I had taken on my shoulders the responsibility for those around me. They needed my help. They needed to be shown what it looked like to be loved and cared for, because I truly loved and cared for them. Most importantly in my mind, and also the most draining and difficult: I needed to be what they needed me to be for them. These were all lovely ideas, that ended badly for me. They were unsustainable, as all unhealthiness generally is. I ran into the foundational principle of economics, in that we are faced with scarce resources; and I realized first hand that that principle not only applies to the market place, but to my personal life as well. I am so thankful for the brokenness in my life that led a dear friend to loan me her copy of Boundaries.

I hope that everyone discovers their own personal boundaries sooner than I did, via this book or from another source. I also do know that there are some people out there that do not struggle with boundaries as much I did, but I still recommend this book to you. I firmly believe that there is something valuable in its contents to be gleaned for everyone. For those that do struggle like I did (and do), I hope that the knowledge of personal boundaries and their necessity for healthy relationships can be understood sooner and in a more pretty fashion than mine were. I recommend the contents of Boundaries to both the young and old. I cannot think of a season in life where boundaries are not important. I particularly challenge you to consider buying this book for the young people in your lives, that are just embarking on their path in life. You never know, you might gift them with something incredible; you might change their life.

Vivian Maier and the Art of Taking Pictures of Strangers

By Former Lemurians

On May 11, 2015

In Art/Photography, Gift Books, Staff Blog

As you may remember, I’m currently enrolled at Millsaps College, which means homework––endless stacks of homework. Oh, the piles. Luckily it’s not all math or science, I’m also taking a photography class.

In said class, I was assigned to choose a photographer to riff for a presentation. I went with Vivian Maier since I love black and white photography. Here’s the thing though, she takes pictures of complete strangers. Now, photography is hard; and creeping on strangers for street photography is weird, but I did what I had to. Luckily, Adie tagged along on one of my ventures in Fondren, which made the experience more fun.

Photograph by Adie Smith

Vivian’s stuff’s great. You should come take a look at her books: Vivian Maier Street Photographer, Vivian Maier A Photographer Found, and Vivian Maier: Self Portraits. Someone has also made a documentary about her because she is the bee’s knees right now; but that’s what happens when never-before seen photography is found in a random storage facility. Mystery. Intrigue. All that jazz.

Personally, I’m interested in how a few of the children she nannied helped take care of her financially once they were old enough; but that’s just me. If you’d like to know more about her, then you should give her some time and take a look at her work- learn her story. Or not, whatever, deprive yourself of the finer things in life; it’s completely your choice.

Photograph by Elizabeth Parkes

Southern troubadour, Frank Stanford, finally speaks from the grave in ‘What About This’

By Former Lemurians

On May 7, 2015

In Poetry, Staff Blog

1978, the poet Frank Stanford shot himself three times in the heart. His second wife and his lover were in the next room.

During his lifetime, Stanford’s poetry never found a broad audience. The rare and worn copies of his published works were passed poet to poet. His short, autobiographical film, It Wasn’t a Dream, It Was A Flood has never been digitized.

What About This is the first collection of Stanford’s published and unpublished work in one volume. It is important not just for readers already familiar with Stanford’s poetry, but for the rest of us who have never seen our South with such a sharp eye nor heard it recorded by a pitch-perfect ear. His poems are pinched from the world around him, changed just enough that the lines are both familiar and strange.

Born in Richton, Mississippi, Stanford lived in an orphanage until Dorothy Gilbert Alter, a single mother, adopted him. In 1952 she married Albert Franklin Stanford, a levee engineer from Memphis and shortly afterward, the family moved to Arkansas. Showing poetic promise, Stanford was asked to enroll in graduate level courses in creative writing as an undergraduate student. But he never finished college.

It is easy for the exploits of a poet’s life and death to overshadow their work. The life and death of Frank Stanford is no exception. His self-destruction hums on every page. Death stalks his lines:

I am not asleep, but I see

a limb, the fingers of death, the ghost

of an anonymous painter

leaving the prints of death

on the wall… –from the “Transcendence of Janus”

Frank Stanford is a disguised intellectual. He is among us when we are knee-deep in mud and grass, he sits beside us on the front porch and cracks one open, he’s in the hot summer nights and the still air, and he watches as nothing much happens except the slow close of day. He sifts the banality of the every-day for poems that are more then they are.

His poems wade through dreams and reality. They are a surrealist vision of the muck and grime of life. Of the workingman. Of juke joints and women and rivers that govern the pace of living.

Throughout the collection, Stanford appropriates from Southern heritage. Jimmie Rodger’s Blue Yodel’s are reimagined into ballads of the hard life. In “Blue Yodel a Prairie,” Stanford captures the spirit of Jimmie Roger’s down-and-out songs, but with a poet’s sensibility toward images heavy with meaning:

Whenever I think of the shadows

Two oranges cast on the piano

When the sun drives a horse mad in a dry spell

I think of Virginia Day

Hanging up sheets in her backyard

She has a pair of blue jeans and a brassiere on

Holding the prairie

With a clothespin in her lips

A 20^th century Walt Whitman, Frank Stanford sings of the South. In a place overflowing with literary voices, Stanford holds his own alongside James Dickey and Faulkner. He is a troubadour of the Mississippi Delta.

Nearly forty-years after his death, Stanford’s poetry is still a poignant and accurate depiction of the South. Our traditions hold us close to the ground. Our rivers roar and crawl, they overrun their banks and seep into the earth, but we keep a record; we remember our past.

So have respect for the dead my dear

And watch your heart like a jukebox. –from “The Visitors of Night”

Page 67 of 257

I’m not a kid. I’m a shark!

See Y’all Later

Summer is Coming.

“A Wrinkle in Time”: Quantum Physics and Philosophy for All Ages

Books We Love That No One Will Buy

Missing

The True First Edition of The Collected Stories of Katherine Anne Porter

A Boundary-less Life: From Brokenness to Healing

Vivian Maier and the Art of Taking Pictures of Strangers

Southern troubadour, Frank Stanford, finally speaks from the grave in ‘What About This’

Authors

Categories

Tags