by Kelly Pickerill

Working at Lemuria, we’re privileged to keep abreast of the publishing world; we get to read a book sometimes months before its release – many of us read The Help early and were already excited when Kathryn came for her first signing minutes, it seemed, after it appeared on the shelves.

We’re also enthusiastic book collectors; we salivate over signed first editions of the old standbys as well as those of promising new authors – this year, among many others, I’ve collected signed firsts of Tea Obreht’s debut The Tiger’s Wife (we sold out of the signed copies) and Geraldine Brooks’s latest Caleb’s Crossing (still available!).

I am a fanatic book collector, yes, but I was first simply a reader. So in the midst of reading all the newest books, I mix in the old ones I’ve always wanted to read. I get them in paperback, and I like to abuse them. Well, as much as it’s possible for me to abuse a book. I just finished The World According to Garp on the Fourth, and the copy ended up looking not read. But sometimes I do this while I’m reading a paperback:

and it’s extremely satisfying. I just enjoy books. I enjoy John Irving too, can’t tell you how much. I haven’t read anything new of his, just the old big ones. They’re some tasty books.

Now I’m reading Walker Percy’s The Moviegoer. I’d never read anything by him, and it was beginning to make me ashamed. I love it so far; I was just in New Orleans at the end of June, and because it was my third visit I’ve started to remember my way around, recognizing neighborhoods, able to picture where Magazine is in relation to Elysian Fields, which is fun when reading Percy’s novel.

Several of us have read through many of Haruki Murakami’s books. Kaycie’s expressed Murakami love, I recently devoured The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, I think Joe’s reading through them all in order. I may read Kafka on the Shore after I finish The Moviegoer.

During the summer, whether relaxing in the sun on the beach or in the backyard, isn’t greasing up a paperback with sweat and sunscreen is just the greatest? Come in, if you can, for more summer paperback recommendations. We’ll set you up.

Lately I’ve been having the urge to re-read a few books. This isn’t something that I do often because, quite frankly, I’ve got too many unread books living on my shelves. But sometimes you just want to hear a good story again.  Or maybe re-reading a certain book isn’t so much about the story but about getting back that feeling of however your life was going the first time you read it.

Right now I’m a little stressed out about all of the graduate loans I’m about to take out, signing the lease on an apartment in a city where I don’t know anyone, and packing up to move across the ocean.  All big exciting things, for sure, but needless to say I’ve given more than one longing glance at the novels that I loved last summer when I was first working at the bookstore with no big plans to put into action, only possibilities.  I could use a little dose of carefree right about now.

So the books of last summer that have been particularly drawn to (as you’ve probably guessed by the covers featured) have been Audrey Niffenegger’s Her Fearful Symmetry and Aimee Bender’s The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake.  You can read some of my co-worker’s takes on these two wonderful novels here, here, and here.

What are some of the books that you find yourself drawn to over and over again?  Is it solely for the story or maybe for a bit of comfort too?  -Kaycie

I lost a pet a little over a week ago and did not want to get into any fictional drama in my reading. I needed something comforting and wise. A copy of  The Chicken Chronicles had been laying on my bedside table. I knew it was finally time to read it.

I spent a long afternoon reading The Chicken Chronicles. It began with the recollection of growing up with chickens on her parents’ sharecropper farm in rural Georgia. The memory came to the surface when Alice was startled by a hen and her chicks crossing her path. She remarks that she felt as though she had never seen a chicken before. But if you know anything about Alice, you know that it can’t be true. She writes:

Though I grew up in the South where we raised chickens every year, for meat and for eggs, and where, from the time I was eight or nine, my job was to chase down the Sunday dinner chicken and wring its neck. But had those chickens been like this one? Why I hadn’t I noticed? Had I noticed?

Recalling those childhood memories Alice slowly began to realize that she missed chickens, chickens as “A Nation” she writes. And considering how often she ate eggs, she decided that she should learn more about them by having a few of her own.

Naming them curious names like Gertrude Stein, Agnes of God and Glorious, you’ll experience the ups and downs of caring for a brood of chickens and wonder at the chickens who regularly nap on her lap. You’ll think differently about eating meat, if you do so. You’ll reconsider the love you have for your animal friends. And Alice does all of this in her characteristically gentle way.

I read on Alice’s website about the chicken on the cover of the book. She notes the missing toenail and how she thought about sticking on a little fake one. But she then thought better of it and reflects on how she starting writing this book and the unexpected lessons she learned from her chickens :

Life gives us broken toenails and worse to let us remember where we’ve been and the struggles we’ve overcome . . . this is the book that grew on this blog, as I sat with my chickens in the outback of Mendocino, California.  I sat with them expecting nothing and over the months they pecked open places I hadn’t been able to enter by myself.  All of my “girls” have their toenails but occasionally, and though it is shocking it is natural, they lose their  feathers. (Source: Alice Walker’s official website)

I suppose I felt like I had lost all my feathers when I lost my beloved animal friend. Reading about the blessings, the memories and sorrows she has had with her chickens, I took away an intention to be more mindful of the animals who bring us the miracle of unconditional love.

The Chicken Chronicles by Alice Walker (New Press, May 2011)

Beer: A Genuine Collection of Cans Photography & Design by Dan Becker and Lance Wilson (Chronicle Books, 2011)

As a fifth grader in 1975, Josh Russo began his collection of  beer cans. Josh became hooked from his first day of searching. His dad, a traveling businessman, fed this collecting compulsion, picking up various cans in the cities he traveled. Even on vacation, Josh fed his obsession. For his 14th birthday, Josh requested the book Beer Can Collecting. From there his collection and obsession grew. When he got married his understanding wife suggested he build shelves to display his collection. This fun book is full of neat examples representing his efforts, spanning cans over 60 years and 30 countries.

Ballantines Export, packaged for soldiers, was colored to avoid reflecting light so as not to reveal soldier’s location to the enemy at night.

Boston Light Ale features the Boston lighthouse, the first lighthouse in North America.

Buckeye Pilsener features the “Bucky” mascot for Otto bases Buckeye Brewing company. The company was in operation for 130 years.

Budweiser used the bald eagle for the first time in 1872 and remains the Budweiser symbol today.

Gluek’s was founded as the Mississippi Brewery Company in Minneapolis and later changed to Gluek’s Beer. Before refrigeration, Gluek’s was lagered in caves on Nicolette island on the Mississippi river.

Not only is Beer fun as you learn beer trivia, but many old memories are brought back to life.

When James Dickey visited Lemuria, we decided we needed a pit stop as we left the airport. J.D. bought two tall boy 6-packs of Colt 45 for his motel room without a fridge. Two days later when he left Jackson, J.D. had two hot ones left which he drank on the ride to Oxford.

No Taxation without Representation: I love the Falstaff can quote, still holds up today in my opinion. Bring back the can and I’ll get some to ice down!

I grew up watching black & white baseball games on Saturday afternoon. Old Diz and Pee Wee loved their Falstaff and it’s no doubt they sipped a few during the broadcast.

Reading Beer is total fun while you enjoy your beers of choice. I couldn’t help but pop open the one can of beer I had in the fridge.

.

My favorite and and only can I have in my collection is from 1979. “We Are Family” world champs. A great token to bring back memories for a life long Pirates fan.

And finally, my last example, Jax Beer. I dedicate this blog to my closest and favorite now gone first cousin Paul. He was my best friend when my dad died. I had just turned 12. He cut up a bit and would take me to roadhouse beer joints, where you rolled down the windows to attach the serving tray, turned on your blinker and ordered beer to drink in the parking lot shadows.

I suspect my first taste of beer came with him at these spots. My memory tells me Jax empties rolled around in the floorboards of his red & white ’56 Mercury. He taught me what beer drinking was all about. My first “sneaky underage beer” was at the old Cherokee Drive-In. In the very same way Paul taught me at 14! I’m pretty sure it was a Falstaff.

Glory to the beer gods for this fun book. If your dad drinks beer, get this book and a 6-pack and sip a few this Sunday afternoon. Share some old times and bright moments with Pop.

This post, despite the misleading title, is more of a query rather than a how-to.  I, like many readers I know, keep a large stack of unread books nearby so I have plenty to choose from each time I finish something. This habit can get a bit out of hand when I’m leaving my house for vacation or even just to go to a coffee shop for a few quiet hours, and I end up lugging a heavy bag of two or three books…just in case.

I don’t have any tricks for choosing my next read.  I just look at my shelves and wait for one of the books to pop out at me.  Naturally I want to read them all (or I wouldn’t have acquired them), but that doesn’t mean I want to read all of them at this exact moment.  Sometimes the first book that sticks out isn’t the right one, I’ll read a few pages and put it aside for another time and go back to the shelves.  This habit exasperates my boyfriend who likes to taunt me by saying that he still reads in the “old-fashioned one book at a time” manner.

So, dear readers, I want to know how you choose your next reading adventure.  Do you use the same method I do, scanning the shelves for “the one?”  Do you set out to read certain books one after another and keep yourself to it? Do you venture into the bookstore and ask your favorite bookseller?  All suggestions and comments are welcome, but please don’t tell me to get an e-reader to alleviate the pain of carrying so many books around.  I want a real book that I can throw in my bag and fold its pages and write in and stretch out with on a picnic blanket on a warm summer day.  -Kaycie

My sweetheart and I had been wanting to see the river at Vicksburg ever since it crested last week. Well, we finally got in the car this past Sunday. And I finally had an excuse to toss our brand new Mississippi Atlas in the car. We didn’t need the map to get to Vicksburg. The map was to guide us to some of the interesting places in between Jackson and Vicksburg.

The one place in between that we wanted to see was the area where the Battle of Champion Hill was fought. Even though these country roads right are outside of Jackson, you immediately get a sense of place and the feeling that something momentous happened there. We were not sure, however, exactly where Champion Hill was. When we saw a man on the side of the road, we had a feeling that it was a man we had read about: Sid Champion V. We couldn’t resist stopping and it was indeed Sid who was so kind to talk to us about the area, his family’s history and his efforts to preserve the battlefield.

Standing across the road from Champion Hill, it takes some work to imagine the thousands of soldiers killed, the hospital set up in the Champion home; Battle of Champion Hill, William C. Everhart, Harper's Weekly, 1863

We couldn’t go on without stopping at the Battle of of the Big Black river, which eventually led us to Edwards and Bovina.

The 1927 railroad crossing at Big Black River; You can still see some of the old pilings from the civil war constructions. There are many more stories to tell about this area.

Earl's Art Shop in Bovina

The old Yazoo & Mississippi Valley Railroad Station in Vicksburg

Looks like America has more recovery work to do now.

Finally, we made it to Vicksburg to see the river at sunset. We even got to see the train coming across the bridge just after sunset.

All of the places we visited warrant another visit, if not more. We Mississippians have so much history in our own back yard and much of it will tickle your brain with adventure and mystery if you only leave your house to explore.

The Kansas City Southern on its way to Jackson.

Hopefully, you are able to get away for some type of vacation this summer–whether it be some place exotic or your backyard. I am leaving for vacation next week and was wondering what the great Lemuria readers would recommend.

What is the best book you ever read on vacation?

Put your title and author in the comments section below.

As I had mentioned in my previous post, Lemuria…Out and About, I have been having a grand and glorious time going around the metro meeting people in the community and letting them know what is going on at Lemuria Bookstore.  I have been lucky enough to hear some great speakers and talking to “book people” and learning just what people are reading out there in the real world.  I thought I might let you know what I have been up to these past two months.

You will usually find me at the Mississippi Department of Archives—History at Lunch program and at the Eudora Welty Library for their Applause program.  These two programs are great especially if you are interested in Mississippi history and Mississippi authors and are both a wonderful way to spend your lunch hour. I hope that you will click on the above links and I will see you at one or both in the next few months. I was also lucky enough to be invited by the Daughters of the King at Chapel Cross to a lovely dinner and talk by Neil White, author of In the Sanctuary of Outcasts and editor of Mississippians. Neil laughs that the only other person who has heard his story more than me is his wife!  I really continue to enjoy his redemptive tale every time I hear it.

Did you know that there was a devastating flood in Paris in 1910?  Well neither did I until the Alliance Francaise deJackson invited Jeffery Jackson to speak to them about his book Paris Under Water and I was there to help him have a book signing.  It is really an amazing story and the comparisons to Katrina in New Orleans and even the Easter ’79 Flood in Jackson were interesting.  One of the things that I really thought was amazing were the raised wood walkways that were built so that the people could still get around the city.

Let me tell you something, Peggy Brent and the folks out at Hinds Community College  did a wonderful job last week with the Mississippi and the Arts Week.  I was out there helping put on the book signings for Neil White, Culpepper Webb, Benjamin Cloyd and Curtis Wilkie.  It was great to see all the students so excited to have these authors right there to listen to and then able to ask them questions about their various experiences and their writing process.

Many of you probably saw me at the CrossRoads Film Festival this past weekend.  I was there with Mary Murphy, author of Scout, Atticus and Boo and film maker of Hey, Boo. I was so pleased to meet Mary who was celebrating the 50th anniversary of Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird which happens to be one of my all time favorite books.  I saw many people there who must agree with me because they all came out of the film with huge smiles on there faces!

My favorite thing I did, because you all know I love talking about books, was speaking to the Elisnore Garden Club.  We met in the DotCom building and had a fantastic time talking about books that would make great spring and summer reading and ate some great food while we were at it.  I thought I might share a few of the titles that we talked about:

The Tiger’s Wife by Tea Obreht

Georgia Bottoms by Mark Childress

What There Is to Say We Have Said: The Correspondence of Eudora Welty and William Maxwell by Suzanne Marrs

The Weird Sisters by Eleanor Brown

In the Garden of Beasts by Erik Larson

These are just a few of the titles so I guess you will just have to swing by the bookstore and see me to get the rest of the list. If you would like me to speak to a group whether it be a luncheon club or just a group of friends getting together, shoot me an email at maggiel@lemuriabooks.com or a call 601.366.7619.

Ask for Maggie ’cause I got books and will travel….

if you don’t know about mcsweeney’s you are in for a treat.  mcsweeney’s is something i didn’t know about until i started working at lemuria and am more than jazzed about every time a new issue comes out.  here’s a little about mcsweeney’s taken from their website:

“McSweeney’s began in 1998 as a literary journal, edited by Dave Eggers, that published only works rejected by other magazines.  But after the first issue, the journal began to publish pieces primarily written with McSweeney’s in mind.  Since then, McSweeney’s has attracted works from some of the finest writers in the country, including Denis Johnson, William T. Vollmann, Rick Moody, Joyce Carol Oates, Heidi Julavits, Jonathan Lethem, Michael Chabon, Ben Marcus, Susan Straight, Roddy Doyle, T.C. Boyle, Steven Millhauser, Gabe Hudson, Robert Coover, Ann Beattie, and many others.”

“Today, McSweeney’s has grown to be one of the country’s best-read and widely-circulated literary journals, with an expanding, loyal subscriber base and strong independent bookstore following. As a small publishing house, McSweeney’s is committed to finding new voices—Gabe Hudson, Paul Collins, Neal Pollack, J.T. Leroy, John Hodgman, Amy Fusselman, Salvador Plascencia and Sean Wilsey are among those whose early work appeared in McSweeney’s—and promoting the work of gifted but underappreciated writers, such as Lydia Davis and Stephen Dixon.”

“Recent books and journals have appeared on bestseller lists around the country and have won multiple literary and design awards, including stories selected for the Best American Poetry, Best American Travel Writing, the O. Henry Awards, and the Best American Short Stories. Two of our books were finalists for the National Book Critics Circle Awards. Design awards include AIGA 50 Books Award, AIGA 365 Illustration Award, and the Print Design Regional Award. McSweeney’s books have appeared in design exhibits at the Smithsonian Museum and the Pasadena Museum.”

i’ve only been collecting mcsweeney’s issues for a couple of years and have only read a couple of them.  mcsweeney’s isn’t just collected for the words inside the issues but also for the amazing packaging that they come in.

“McSweeney’s Quarterly Concern publishes on a roughly quarterly schedule, and we try to make each issue very different from the last. One issue came in a box, one was Icelandic, and one looks like a pile of mail. In all, we give you groundbreaking fiction and much more.”

i collect the quarterly concern but that’s not all that they publish in the least.  they also have two other publications, a paper magazine and a dvd magazine.  

“The Believer is a monthly magazine where length is no object. There are book reviews that are not necessarily timely, and that are very often very long. There are interviews that are also very long. The Believer is printed in four colors on heavy stock paper.”

“Wholphin is a quarterly DVD magazine featuring short films, documentaries, animation, and instructional videos that have not, for whatever reason, found wide release. Recent issues of Wholphin have included films by Spike Jonze, David O. Russell, Miranda July, Miguel Arteta, Errol Morris, and Steven Soderbergh, and performances from John C. Reilly, Selma Blair, Patton Oswalt, Andy Richter, a monkey-faced eel, and many others.”

and just to top it off, they also publish books.  one of our first editions club picks from last year, Citrus County by John Brandon was published by mcsweeney’s.

by Zita