There are certain books that sit on my shelf for the sole purpose of fond remeniscence. Sure, I may read them again at a later or very distant later time. But really they are there to serve as a snapshot of the wonderful time I spent reading through it’s pages. I had a moment today where I passed by my very valueless copy of A Death in the Family written by James Agee. (click here)

Yes, It would be great to have a crisp, first edition of this truly amazing novel but because I spent time pouring over this particular copy I want to keep it forever. Just looking at it’s cover makes me want to jump back into it and reread certain sections. Especially the opening essay entitled Knoxville: Summer, 1915 which is absolutely lovely and transports me to the very place Agee writes about. This is probably not too far of a stretch because I spent several years living just down the street from the place that he describes. So even though I am, if only slightly, biased I think that I could share the same visceral experience that his writing brings with someone who has never known this town.

This is one of the saddest novels I have ever read. It is full of raw, pure emotion from the perspectives of such a thoughtful variety of characters. It is unusual to read narrative from a young child that is believable but Agee does a tremendous job doing just that. It is the type of prose that one senses can only come from personal experience.

I highly recommend A Death in the Family and wonder if there are others out there who cherish their copy of this fine classic novel as much as I do.

We are talking now of summer evenings in Knoxville, Tennessee, in the time that I lived there so successfully disguised to myself as a child…

Let me pour mounds of praise upon this excellent novel set in the mountains of North Carolina in 1929. This is one of the few books I’ve read recently that I wanted to pick up and read again as soon as I finished. I think this, as well as Rash’s One Foot in Eden, is especially enjoyable and hits a personal note because it is set in an Eastern rural Mountain Community which is where “my people” are from. The story is built around the conflict between those who are in favor and those who are against The Great Smokey Mountain National Park. Which is a place I’ve spent countless hours swimming by waterfalls, hiking by deer and bear cubs, and cruising down steep hills on my bike. The conflict between the logging industry, namely Serena and her husband George, and others building wealth off of the the land’s natural resources verses those that want to preserve the land while removing many unwilling families. Although this is a fictional story the issues of bringing the park to fruition is thought provoking. This preserved, beautiful place came at a price. But what is really at the heart of the story, and that Rash so masterfully unfolds, is the searing relationship between Serena and George. The commonly portrayed dilemmas of greed and power are here but done so with such a delicate interest and attention to detail that you think not only of these beautifully rendered characters but also of the inherent weakness of the human heart

Set in the depression years in the woods of North Carolina, the Permberton husband/wife team is courageous, cunning and ruthless. Even the men of the timber camp fear this white stallion riding, eagle training, tougher than nails beautiful pioneer woman. All is well until Serena’s husband tries to protect his illegitimate son. The suspense that ensues keeps the reader on the edge of his or her chair! Do not stop reading until the unpredictable end is reached! Rash is at his best! Come hear him read at Lemuria and get your book signed on Wednesday, November 5 at 5 p.m.

-Nan

City of Refuge: A Novel

Tom Piazza

Harper: August 19, 2008

Three years ago, so many lives in Deep Dixie were affected by Katrina. Many nonfiction books of essay, memoir, photo-essay, history and commentary have been published about this life-changing hurricane. Refuge, I believe, is the first piece of serious fiction to come out about this time. Ambitious and successful, I celebrate this novel’s publication by choosing it for our September 2008 First Edition Club Selection.

Refuge deals with two families (one 9th ward and one uptown) as we see windows into their lives and their souls. We live with these folks, as if they are real, which is a magical quality of very good fiction. Their story is told in this familiar plot as if they are breathing and somehow Tom maintains his vision of truth in fiction. Refuge is writing without too much sentimentality, neurosis and without contriteness that plagues many factual situational novels. His characters live and speak and you feel alive as a reader in knowing them. Their joys, their problems and plainly just their human ways of living and surviving.

I’m excited to be involved with promoting this novel, Tom’s my pal and I thought this book might be too much for him, I was so wrong. He excels.

Refuge is fresh, real and a serious page-turner. Oddly enough, I’m reminded of my first reading of John Grisham’s The Firm, many years ago. Good people make mistakes and you identify with their shortcomings. Troubled folks can learn how to enhance their lives and all the time, you the reader, are part of the feelings of pain, joy and truth. To the last page, Tom is successful and especially with the ending, no sentimental sap here. Just the guts of survival.

In reading Refuge, I feel the heart of New Orleans vibrate with humanity and the livable party spirit which those of us who visit value and enjoy.

Anyone touched by the pain of association with this great storm, should enjoy the wisdom of this novel. And be motivated to get off your ass and go to New Orleans and party, and may you find Chief Bo and his band of Indians chanting joy over the drums and rhythm, relishing in the spirit of rebirth.

See Nan’s Blog on City of Refuge

See Sarah’s Blog on City of Refuge

Pelican Road: A Novel
By Howard Bahr
Macadam Cage: May 9, 2008

Howard Bahr is a train man.  Pelican Road, Howard’s first non-Civil War fiction, is a literary train novel.  This is the only serious railroad fiction that I know of.

Pelican Road is the train route from Meridian, MS to New Orleans.  Set around 1940, Howard captures the personalities; the way folks lived; their meanness and their cares; their moments of good fortune and their unfortunate times.

Through the eyes of the people in this era, we learn about the ways of the railroad:  the trains themselves and their workings; train jobs and their responsibilities; the real-life characteristics of railroad men; and insight into the joys and hardships of the railroad life.

I especially like the way Howard worked WWI (“Doughboy War”) into this novel.  Dealing with flashbacks gives Howard’s Civil War fiction fans just enough.  Pelican Road extends Howard’s fiction into a new, broader era offering insight into the 2nd generation, post-Civil War life.

My favorite aspect of this fine novel laid in Howard’s ability to relate the sheer power and force of the train itself and the way the machine is revered in language.

There is no doubt, in his heart, Howard is truly a railroad man.

Ok Folks, Here are some more books that I think that you will enjoy on your summer vacations or if on a “staycation” these books will transport you to another time and place!!

Murder of a Medici Princess by Caroline P. Murphy
“Like the Kennedys or Windsors, the Medicis are a dynasty brimming with biographical
gold, and this supple, smart account of a lesser-known daughter will engage modern
readers as it vivifies both Renaissance Florence and an extraordianary women who paid
ultimate price for flouting her era’s traditional gender roles.” –Publisher’s Weekly

The Commoner by John Burnham Schwartz
” A unique literary adventure, intimate, exotic; wonderfully imagined and achieved.
The narrative impels the reader from first to last, immersing us in its flow of ancient
acceptances and new demands. Splendid.”–Shirley Hazard, author of The Transit
of Venus and The Great Fire

The Monster of Florence by Douglas Preston with Mario Spezi
“Douglas Preston fulfilled a lifelong dream when he moved with his family to a villa in
Florence. Upon meeting celebrated journalist Mario Spezi, Preston was stunned to
learn that the olive grove next to his home had been the scene of a horrific double
murder committed by one of the most infamous figures in Italian history. A serial
killer who ritually murdered fourteen young lovers, he has never been caught. He is
known as the Monster of Florence.”
FYI: Thomas Harris based his character Hannibal Lector on
The Monster of Florence and the surrounding circumstances.

The Dummy Line by Bobby Cole
“Jake Crosby, a troubled stockbroker, has planned a weekend escape at his hunting
camp with his nine-year-old daughter, Katy. In the middle of the night, a gang of
redneck drug dealers attempts to break into the remote camp. The gang’s display of
heinous intentions toward Jake and Katy causes Jake to make gut-wrenching
decisions.”

The House at Riverton by Kate Morton
“The House of Riverton is a sweeping debut novel set in England between the
wars. It is the story of an aristocratic family, a house, a mysterious death and a
vanishing way of life, told by a woman who witnessed it all and kept a secret for a
lifetime.”

Master of the Delta by Thomas Cook
“Cook writes powerful layered novels, with original heroes who choose to walk down
paths that quietly, inexorably, lead them to even darker places in the human heart,
and ultimately to breathtaking and revelatory surprises at their journey’s end.”
–Minneapolis Star Tribune

The Red Leather Diary–Lily Koppel
Lilly Koppel ‘rescued’ a red leather diary from the garbage dumpster in front of her
apartment building in New York. She took it home and after reading it realized she
must find this girl who wrote it. She hired an investigator and the rest is history!
“The young woman who emerged from the diary’s pages had huge ambitions, even if
chasing them proved daunting. February 21, 1931. Went to the Museum of
Modern Art and almost passed out from sheer jealousy-I can’t even paint an
apple yet-it’s heartbreaking! January 16, 1932. I couldn’t study today & went to
museum to pass a morning of agonizing beauty-Blown glass, jade and exquisite
embroideries. April 10, 1932. Wrote all day-and my story is still incomplete.
September 2, 1934. Planning a play on Wordsworth-possibilities are infinite.
October 12, 1934. How I love to inflict pain on my characters!
What she craved most was to be enveloped in a grand passion that would
transform her life. July 3, 1932. Five hours of tennis and glorious happiness-all I
want is someone to love-I feel incomplete.”

Our friend Ron Rash has a new novel coming out in October — so that gives you 3 months to pick up his last book, Chemistry and Other Stories. Ron has full mastery of the short story format in this great little paperback, and the brevity of each story lends greater weight to each word and phrase. There’s 13 stories, so it’ll last you a week if you read one or two every day. Pick one up on your next trip into the store (or add one to your next web order).

This summer I am going to compile a list of the books that I am reading and suggest that you read for “Summer Reading”. I think that all books are “Beach Books” so there will something on the list for everyone. These are the books that I read in May…I will update the list at least twice a month from now on.

Oh, these books are in no particular order….

A Dangerous Age––Ellen Gilchrist
“The winner of the National Book Award returns with a moving story of a family of women drawn together by the terrors and trials of the times.”

American Eve: Evelyn Nesbit, Stanford White The Birth of the “It” Girl and the Crime of the Century—Paula Uruburu
“Paula Uruburu serves up an intriguing and meticulously researched slice of American history. Evelyn Nesbit typifies the glorious excesses of the Gilded Age, and this story has everything: sex, deception, drama, and a lurid love triangle, all culminating in the crime of the century.”
–Karen Abbott, author of Sin in the Second City

The Resurrectionist—Jack O’Connell
“The Resurrectionist-a brilliantly turned, mesmerizing labyrinth of a quasi-real world as only as master artist could draw it–will jazz you, floor you, grab you, shake you, and leave you hung out to dry. A brilliant breakthrough novel.”
—James Ellroy

The Billionaire’s Vinegar: The Mystery of the World’s Most Expensive Bottle of Wine—Benjamin Wallace
“It is the fine details–the bouquet, the body, the notes, the finish–that make this book such a lasting pleasure, to be savored and remembered long after the last page is turned. Ben Wallace has told a splendid story just wonderfully, his touch light and deft, his instinct pitch perfect. Of all the marvelous legends of the wine trade, this curiously unforgettable saga most amply deserves the appellation: a classic.”–Simon Winchester

The Somnambulist—Jonathan Barnes
“A comic extravaganza, deftly plotted, fiendishly clever, and wonderfully funny. Jonathan Barnes combines a love of Victorian absurdity worth of Edward Gorey with the surrealistic invention of a London-obsessed Garcia Marquez. This parody penny dreadful is one of the classiest entertainments I’ve read in a long, long time.”–Christopher Bram, author of Exiles in America

Child 44–Tom Rob Smith
“This is a truly remarkable debut novel. Child 44 is a rare blend of great insight, excellent writing, and a refreshingly original story. Favorable comparisons to Gorky Park are inevitable, but Child 44 is in a class of its own.” –Nelson DeMille

Ok, as I was compiling my list I realized that I might have read one or two of these in April but I want you all to know about them anyway!! So come on in and see me because we have a long hot summer ahead and there are lots of good books coming out.

I’m reading as fast as I can!!!!