How long have you worked at Lemuria?  6 months….going on 7!

What do you do at Lemuria?  I sell books! Plus a lot of other things….Mostly, I like to keep things organized around the store. Currently, I tend to the Mystery section, the Popular Fiction section, the Fantasy/Horror Section, the Graphic Novels section, and soon I will also have the Gardening section. (I say soon, technically it is my section….but it’s a bit of a mess right now, so I don’t want to claim it just yet.) I’m also about to start handling/making all of the displays in our main room, which I’m really excited about.

Talk to us about what you’re reading right now. I’m currently reading Katy Simpson Smith’s new novel Free Men (out February 2016). I’m not too far into this one, but so far so good! Check it out once it’s released!

What’s currently on your bedside table (book purgatory)?

I know it’s difficult, but give us your current top five books.

Room by Emma Donoghue (movie coming out in October!)

Our Souls at Night by Kent Haruf

The Girl of Fire and Thorns Series (three in one!) by Rae Carson

Gates of Evangeline by Hester Young

Where’d You Go Bernadette? by Maria Semple

Any particular genre that you’re especially in love with? No. And I don’t mean that in a harsh way. I think I’ve become known around the store as “Hillary, the girl who reads anything”. If I like it, I’m going to read it.

What did you do before you worked at Lemuria? Like….do you want me to start from birth? Or, like in the past year? I’ll just cover the past couple of years.  I graduated from Ole Miss with a degree in Psychology (cause, you know….why not?)

My husband still had a year left in Law School, so I worked as the adoption coordinator for the Oxford-Lafayette Humane Society for about a year and a half. Learned a lot from that experienced, gained three animals from that experience, too. Spay and neuter your pets, people!

Then my husband landed a job in the Jackson area, so we packed up our things (and animals) and moved on in!

If you could share lasagna with any author, dead or alive, who would it be? What would you ask them? Kent Haruf, who recently passed away. I wouldn’t really ask him anything, I’d just like to let him know how much I really enjoyed his last, perfect book.

If Lemuria could have ANY pet (mythical or real), what do you think it should be? Real: About 4 cats. Mythical: Fully-clothed free House Elves that can get books down (with magic) from the top shelf for me.

If you had the ability to teleport, where would you go first? Probably Switzerland. I mean, have you seen the Alps?

I’ll leave you with this…

How long have you worked at Lemuria? 3 yrs

What do you do at Lemuria? I’m the shipping and accounts manager.

Talk to us about what you’re reading right now. Fiction: The Scribe by Matthew Guinn, Fates and Furies by Lauren Groff. NonFic: Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason (I’m halfway through this. I will probably finish it mid 2016), Animal Liberation and Critical Theory edited by John Sanbonmatsu (This is a great collection of essays concerning the animal and the other), Fortunes of Feminism by Nancy Fraser

What’s currently on your bedside table (book purgatory)? Fifty Shades of Grey by E L James. It’s a good bedside table book.

I know it’s difficult, but give us your current top five books.

1. Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace

2. Moby-Dick; or, The Whale by Herman Melville

3. Molloy by Samuel Beckett

4. Dhalgren by Samuel R Delany

5. Dark Lies The Island by Kevin Barry

Favorite authors? Slavoj Zizek, Camille Paglia, Peter Heller, David Foster Wallace, Samuel Beckett, Kevin Barry

Any particular genre that you’re especially in love with? I’m in love with Science Fiction. It speaks to me.

What did you do before you worked at Lemuria? I cleaned Methamphetamine labs.

Why do you like working at Lemuria? Most things people sell are bullshit. When I sell a book I have the potential to change someone’s life in a big way. How many commodities pack in that potential for $30? You can get mentally gutted and reconfigured with a great book. How much does therapy cost per hour? It’s a lot. Here’s a book that can change your life for the price of a pizza. I love books.

If we could have any living author visit the store and do a reading, who would you want to come? Kevin Barry. He’s my favorite living author right now.

If Lemuria could have ANY pet (mythical or real), what do you think it should be? Goat.

If you had the ability to teleport, where would you go first? The Sun.

Austen sent both of these pictures of himself to me (Hannah), and I just couldn’t choose between the two of them.

It’s impossible to pick a favorite.

How long have you worked at Lemuria? I ventured into the world of Lemuria a little over four months ago.

What do you do at Lemuria?  I am the resident special order queen at Lemuria. When you order books that we don’t carry in the  store currently, it’s my voice that you hear on the phone letting you know your books are in! I enjoy getting to know our customers better in this capacity, and having them share the stories behind the books they order. Many of them make their way onto my own reading list, or reside in that special place  known as Lemuria memories, that I know I will carry with me through the remainder of my life.

Talk to us what you’re reading right now. If you have been anywhere near me recently, all I talk about is The Little Paris Bookshop by Nina George. It has been an international bestseller and recently translated and published stateside. It’s such a good one, folks! It hits that sweet endearing spot without being cheesy. C’mon into the store so I can tell you more about it, I might even act some of it out for you in my animation of it’s beauty, as some of my co-workers have already witnessed.

What’s currently on your bedside table (book purgatory)? Ahh. Unfortunately bedside purgatory is a very real thing in my life. I recently strategically redistributed  the stacks around my house to recede my stress level. The ones remaining on nightstand consists of  Mario Puzo’s The Godfather, The Story of Land and Sea by Jackson’s own Katy Simpson Smith, Flying Shoes, by Square Books’ own Lisa Howorth, and Richard Flanagan’s The Narrow Road to the Deep North.

How many books do you usually read at a time? I have a bad habit of reading by mood, which equals several books at a time. I progress more slowly  than I would like this way, but there is something so satisfying in being able to pick up exactly what you  are in the mood for at any given time. I generally like to read both fiction and non-fiction at the same time.

Favorite authors? I will always have such a love for Louisa May Alcott, Jane Austen, and L.M. Montgomery. These amazing women have brought loveliness into my life for twenty-four years now. Nina George is my current rockstar at the moment, and I think Katy Simpson Smith might be in the running when I eventually get back to that book….

Any particular genre that you’re especially in love with? I love history as it has always resonated as so important to me, and therefore historical fiction. If you throw in a little politics and economics at any given point, I’m all over it.

What did you do before you worked at Lemuria? The last job I held before working at Lemuria was as a medical office assistant for an orthopedic surgeon in Jackson. Talk about grass roots knowledge of  healthcare by immersion. It was intense, man, and such a mess. I was so thankful to walk away from the world of screwed up insurance, inefficient government programs, and uneducated patients. I know that sounds harsh, but that field is so rough, and only getting progressively worse (pun intended).

If you could share lasagna with any author, dead or alive, who would it be? What would you ask them? Mario Puzo, hands down. I just want to hear what kind of offer he would make me…

Why do you like working at Lemuria? I love working at Lemuria because of the knowledge to be gained from the books on the walls as well as from my co-workers. We are a pretty diverse crew, and I love the ways I’ve been pushed out of my comfort zone in the four short months that I’ve worked here.

If Lemuria could have ANY pet (mythical or real), what do you think it should be? I have the perfect idea for a store pet, and it would be incredibly useful! A magical food transporting carrier pigeon, that brings nourishment to us Lemurians that are always ALWAYS hungry throughout the day. Hannah can verify. Except for that one day, I’m always hungry. 😉

Pssst. Drew Daywalt (author of The Day the Crayons Came Home) will be at Lemuria on September 15 at 3:30!

How long have you worked at Lemuria? In my current position, I’ve been at Lemuria for 1 year, although I worked here in the summers in high school. It is definitely the best job I’ve had and I’m glad to be back.

What do you do at Lemuria? Most days I’m Dorothy who has been spit out of the tornado. On good days I’m Glinda the Good Witch, and on AWESOME days I’m the Wizard of Oz. Oz, for those of you not familiar with Lemuria, is our children’s book section! I order all the books for newborns all the way up to teens. I also arrange for authors who write books for kids to visit Jackson. You can catch what children’s books I review each Sunday in The Clarion Ledger!

Talk to us about what you’re reading right now.

I just finished Fates and Furies by Lauren Groff. For every 10-20 children’s books I read, I try to read one adult book, and this one was a winner.

Anna and the Swallow Man by Gavriel Savit. A WW2 story told from Anna’s perspective, who at the beginning of the story has just turned 7. Her father, an intellectual linguistics professor in Poland, leaves for work one day and never returns. The Swallow Man finds her and an incredible journey ensues.

Drowning is Inevitable by Shalanda Stanley. Four teens find themselves in a heap of trouble in Louisiana and set off to New Orleans. A little Kate Chopin, a lot of Southern Gothic, and I love it.

After Alice by Gregory Maguire. We all know the story of ALICE, but what happened to the other girl listening to Carroll’s story, Ada? This is her story, and the book will be out just in time for the 150th anniversary of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.

The Blackthorn Key by Kevin Sands. Kevin Sands will be at Lemuria September 18! This is a fast-paced adventure and mystery story set in London, and Christopher Rowe is an apprentice to Master Benedict Blackthorn, an apothecary. When Master Blackthorn is murdered, Christopher is left behind to unlock the key, or code. Really fun, and I can’t wait for the event.

I know it’s difficult, but give us your current top five books. THIS IS SO HARD. This fall in particular there are so many debut authors whose books I am obsessed with, so come talk to me about them because the list is too long.

1. Illuminae by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff (out in October!)

2. Wolf Wilder by Katherine Rundell

3. Haroun and the Sea of Stories by Salman Rushdie is always in my top five and

has been ever since I read it in 5th grade. It’s his only children’s book.

4. The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

5. The Nonsense Show by Eric Carle

What did you do before you worked at Lemuria? I was a student at Vanderbilt University in Nashville (anchor down!), a student in Florence, Italy, a substitute teacher, a Spanish tutor, a painter at Old Tyme Commissary, a hostess, a research intern at the Mississippi Museum of Art, a magazine editor for Mississippi Magazine and a receptionist in a doctor’s office.

Why do you like working at Lemuria? When you take an author to a school and see the effect they can have on a child, it’s wonderful. Also, finding that perfect book for the perfect person is all the more rewarding when it’s a child who has just discovered reading.

If we could have any living author visit the store and do a reading, who would you want to come? J.K. ROWLING!!! I think I would die.

If Lemuria could have ANY pet (mythical or real), what do you think it should be? Hedwig!! I would love receiving mail by owl post.

If you had the ability to teleport, where would you go first? You mean apparate? Hogwarts, duh. Except not in Hogwarts (nobody’s able to apparate into Hogwarts grounds) but I’d apparate to Hogsmeade.