If, as one reviewer claims, the best criteria for judging a memoir is whether it’s as good as a novel, then Mary Karr’s latest memoir, Lit, definitely makes the cut. Displaying the precise insights of the poet that she is, along with her trademark wit, Karr once again proves what an amazingly gifted writer she is. Though not quite the wild ride that her first two (The Liar’s Club and Cherry) were, Lit manages to be just as compelling in its own way with a poignancy and depth that was perhaps lacking in her earlier works.

The book opens with Karr leaving her Texas roots and striking out on her own. It ends with her a successful writer and teacher. In between, the book follows her as she pursues a rather sketchy college career, becomes a graduate student and teacher, marries a fellow poet (whom she later divorces), has a child, and becomes an alcoholic. Eventually acknowledging her addiction, she joins AA where she manages to get sober and finally rather surprisingly (even to herself) embraces Christianity and converts to Catholicism.

Perhaps the most harrowing parts of the book come when she revisits the alcoholic daze she inhabited while raising her infant son, trying to hold together a failing marriage and at the same time pursue her career as a poet, teacher and writer. Never, however, through all of this does she portray herself as a victim, observing at one point that this would be quite a different story if told through the eyes of her husband. It is this brutal honesty and striking self-awareness that infuses her story with a freshness and life not seen in the usual shopworn accounts of addiction and recovery. Thus the redemption she achieves through her faith feels particularly solid and real, allowing her to finally make peace with her family and her childhood memories in a very moving and beautiful way.

Valerie Sayers writing for The Washington Post sums it up quite well:

“This is a story not just of alcoholism but of coming to terms with families past and present, with a needy self, with a spiritual longing Karr didn’t even know she possessed.”

-Billie

Mary Karr was at Lemuria on Wednesday, July 14, 2010 for a signing and reading.

Since 2006, many of us have read the The Blind Side by Michael Lewis, and since this past fall, many of us have seen the movie “Blind Side” with Sandra Bullock, Tim McGraw and Quinton Aaron.

Many of us have also followed the amazing football career of Michael Oher as he played for Ole Miss and continues to play offensive tackle for the NFL’s Baltimore Ravens.

Finally, we’re going back to the start and learning the story firsthand from Leigh Anne and Sean Tuohy.

In a Heartbeat: Sharing the Power of Cheerful Giving is an inspiring and humorous story of how the Tuohy family welcomed a homeless African-American boy, Michael Oher, into their hearts and home.

Leigh Anne and Sean were committed to making their home a place where faith, love and giving provided a strong foundation for life. The Tuohys were so true to this faith in their daily lives and in raising their two children that they knew exactly what to do when Michael Oher came along.

We’re so excited that Leigh Anne and Sean Tuohy will be at Lemuria on Wednesday, July 21st from 4:00-6:00 for a signing. Come out and join us for this inspiring event!

Please click here to read the rules for the event!

Click here to read Joe’s blog about In a Heartbeat.

wow.  i’m not too sure what to say about this one.  i know that i can’t get enough of chelsea handler.  i’ve read her two previous books and laughed my ass off the whole way through.  i truly hope that she doesn’t make this stuff up and at the same time can’t imagine a life in which these nutty things happen constantly.  if ever in need of a good belly-aching laugh, pick up any of her books and turn to any page and read for a line or two, i promise at the least a chuckle with be soon coming.

by Zita

After I had  moved to Jackson about three years ago, I noticed that my fiancé got kind of excited about the local news. He said, “Let’s see what Barbie has to say about the weather!” And he would comment if Maggie (or Howard or Roslyn) was on that night. I thought how silly. Who’s Maggie and Barbie? And who cares about their local news team? Well, it didn’t take very long before I started caring because I realized that WLBT is a hometown team. They’re more like family for Jackson and I imagine this is also true for many across the entire state of Mississippi. So when I saw that Barbie had written a book, I grabbed the first copy that I could get my hands on and started reading.

When Barbie was at Lemuria yesterday I shared this thought with her as it related to her book: “I don’t know how to put this, but I think we are two very different women,  although we are nearly the same age . . . ”

Barbie has spent most of her life in Mississippi; I landed in Mississippi not long ago and have lived in some rather different places. She has been married for a good while and has three kids; I am just getting to the married part and have no children yet. Barbie is very active in her church; I am not-so-much these days.

Forecasts and Faith is a book about how one person has dealt with the challenges of life. Certainly, we all have tough times in life and we all spend a good deal of time listening to how others deal with their own tough times, whether it be amongst friends, through television shows, coworkers or faith groups.  Barbie is just somebody who is a very familiar face to us and has taken the time to not just tell her story to her community but to also share her heart and the different ways her faith has helped her get along in life. As Barbie hopes, I believe her book does inspire and reach out to a broad audience of readers.

Barbie expressed some amazement that so many people would want to read her book. I am not surprised at all because most of us hunger for connection with others. I think stories have the power to connect so many different people, and soon the world becomes less isolating and bewildering. Individuals become community when their stories are told, and Barbie has sincerely shared hers with us.

Me and Barbie!

See Barbie’s website and blog for more information about her life and work and upcoming events.

Letters to Jackie . . . I wish I had written this book….seriously. Never mind that I am a Republican. Never mind that I am not all that crazy about John Kennedy. Never mind that I am not all that crazy about Jackie Kennedy. I still wish I had written this book.

Why? Well, my dream would sound something like this (substitute me for author Ellen Fitzpatrick): Some time ago, Fitzpatrick was at the Kennedy library researching a different book about JFK when she asked to see some of the condolence letters from Kennedy’s death in hopes of getting a sense of how he was perceived by Americans in his own time. She remembered back to when she was a young girl and saw Mrs. Kennedy on television thanking Americans for sending letters of condolence. Ms. Fitzpatrick found the letters and started culling through them.

“It was like the roof came off the building, the walls dropped away, the floor came out from under me. I was absolutely floored by what I’d begun to read,” she said Friday. “I have been teaching American history for 30 years, and I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a collection as powerful and that represented so many ordinary people speaking from the heart about their views about American society, and politics, and the president.” (Ellen Fitzpatrick)

Jackie received more than 800,000 condolence letters immediately after Kennedy was assassinated in 1963. By 1965, she’d received more than 1.5 million. The White House received 45,000 on the Monday following his death on Friday! I mean, think about that for a minute….what in the world would you do with that much stuff??!! The White House created a special team of volunteers who responded not only to each letter but also to requests for photos etc. The sheer numbers of boxes were destroyed leaving a “representative sample” that numbered 200,000 pages. These were categorized but despite all of this care, no historian had ever read through the entire collection in the forty six years since JFK’s assassination. That is until Ellen Fitzpatrick. That’s the part that is my dream! Being a history nut, I can’t think of anything much more exciting than coming across boxes and boxes of unseen archival ‘anythings’ that I could bring to life!!!! I would have sat in that library and cried over every one of the 200,000 pages of notes!

Some examples: 

“I’m just an average American – average mentality, average housewife, average housing, average size family, a year younger than you and perhaps a little more sensitive than some, but I will always have a warm spot in my heart for both of you as long as I live.”

This was written by Marilyn Davenport of New York, who included her phone number “if you ever want to talk.”

“Mrs. John Kennedy
I extend to you and your family my sincerest condolence on the tragic death of your husband. I know words can be of little comfort now for I lost my husband on June 12th in the same way. The entire world shares your great loss and sorrow.
Mrs. Medgar Evers”

The note below was from Mrs. J.D. Tippitt of Dallas whose husband was the police officer murdered by Lee Harvey Oswald forty-five minutes after the Kennedy shooting. He spotted Oswald on the street and confronted him. Oswald pulled a gun and shot him four times at point blank range.

“May I add my sympathy to that of people all over the world?  My personal loss in this great tragedy prepares me to sympathize more deeply with you.”

This tragedy was so much more than merely an assassination. It was the killing of a new attitude; a new start, a new dream of a better world for everyone. For our nation, hope really did die that day.

And finally Mrs. George Sherman:

“…how do you end a letter to a ‘First Lady’? I don’t know…I just want to thank you for a job well done. The country will miss you.”

-Norma

I have just finished reading All Things at Once by Mika Brzezinski.

Name sound a little bit familiar?

Currently, she is the co-host of MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” with Joe Scarborough, but she also happens to be the daughter of Zbigniew Brzezinski, national security advisor, during the Jimmy Carter administration. Her book, says The New York Times Book Review,  “is a candid and inspiring motivational book that will help women of all ages confront the unique professional and personal challenges they face in the key moments of their lives.” In other words, she throws in her 2 cents on how or if a woman actually can have it all! She has a very strong voice but doesn’t preach, all the while stating very clearly how her own drive to achieve success professionally and personally led her through some very dark times. As a motivational speaker, she talks to girls and women of all ages about adjusting their expectations and ambitions as well as giving practical advice on accomplishing as much as possible.

She became somewhat infamous in June of 2007, when she refused to read a report about Paris Hilton’s release from jail. One hour later during another news break, her producer again pushed the story as the lead, ranking it over a story having to do with a development concerning President Bush and the Iraq war. After several sarcastic remarks from host Joe Scarborough, she attempted to light the story’s script on fire on the air! She then tore up the script. The incident was quickly popularized on the Internet, and in the days that followed Mika received large quantities of fan mail supporting her on-air protest as a commentary on the tension between ‘hard news’ and ‘entertainment news’.

Don’t you just love that???

Initially, I was more interested in her background than her subject matter. She has wonderful stories of growing up with her brilliant father and artistic mother who she lovingly describes as eccentric! Being European, her parent’s attitude on raising children is in stark contrast to today’s. Now, it seems, we are more inclined to be less stringent and have lower expectations. We want our children to be huge successes but are afraid to put too many demands or restrictions on them! They, on the other hand, expected their children to be very independent, interesting and knowledgeable about the world around them. There was no television to distract them from the myriad of projects and interests they pursued. The children were always included at their parents’ dinner parties for dignitaries around Washington and beyond. Mika tells several great stories about some of those occasions and I loved her account of playing with Amy Carter in the White House and how Rosalyn was always running after her trying to wash her face!

I found her mother to be especially interesting. Her name is Emilie Benes Brzezinski. She is a sculptor and a grandniece of Czechoslovakia’s former president Edvard Benes. It is from her that Mika is primed to search out the highs and lows of a life passionately invested in both family and career. When her father was named national security advisor, the family moved to Washington, leaving her mother’s studio far behind in Englewood, New Jersey, where her father had taught at Columbia. Emilie put her career on hold for those four years and was very open to her children about the personal struggle that caused her. Later, she returned to her art but that dilemma is obviously one every generation of women has confronted.

This book is a quick read but an enjoyable one, especially if you are a young woman in the throws of figuring out this ever present balancing act!