I’ve been the First Editions Club manager since 2007 and have thoroughly enjoyed seeing the books that John and Joe and all of the rest of the Lemuria staff have gotten behind and supported as FEC picks.  Here are my top 5 favorite picks (in no particular order) since I’ve been a part of this amazing club;

Mr. Sebastion and the Negro Magician by Daniel Wallace.  From the author of “Big Fish” comes this haunting, tender story that weaves a tragic secret, a mysterious meeting with the Devil, and a family of charming circus freaks recounting the extraordinary adventures of their friend Henry Walker, the Negro Magician.

 

Dear American Airlines by Jonathan Miles. Bennie Ford, a fifty-three-year-old failed poet turned translator, is traveling to his estranged daughter’s wedding when his flight is canceled. Stuck with thousands of fuming passengers in the purgatory of O’Hare Airport, he watches the clock tick and realizes that he will miss the ceremony. Frustrated, irate, and helpless, Bennie does the only thing he can: he starts to write a letter.

 

Await Your Reply by Dan Chaon.  The lives of three strangers interconnect in unforeseen ways-and with unexpected consequences-in acclaimed author Dan Chaon’s gripping, brilliantly written new novel.
Longing to get on with his life, Miles Cheshire nevertheless can’t stop searching for his troubled twin brother, Hayden, who has been missing for ten years. Hayden has covered his tracks skillfully, moving stealthily from place to place, managing along the way to hold down various jobs and seem, to the people he meets, entirely normal. But some version of the truth is always concealed.

Mr. Peanut by Adam Ross.  David Pepin has loved his wife since the moment they met, and after thirteen years of marriage he still can’t imagine living without her–yet he obsessively contemplates her demise. Soon she “is “dead, and he’s both deeply distraught and the prime suspect.

The officers investigating her death are intimately familiar with conjugal enigmas. Detective Ward Hastroll was happily, complacently married until his wife became inexplicably, voluntarily, and militantly bedridden. And Detective Sam Sheppard is especially sensitive to marital guilt, having decades before been convicted and then declared innocent of his wife’s brutal murder.

Swamplandia by Karen Russell.  Ava, a resourceful but terrified twelve, must manage seventy gators and the vast, inscrutable landscape of her own grief. Her mother, Swamp landia!’s legendary headliner, has just died; her sister is having an affair with a ghost called the Dredgeman; her brother has secretly defected to the World of Darkness in a last-ditch effort to keep their sinking family afloat; and her father, Chief Bigtree, is AWOL. To save her family, Ava must journey on her own to a perilous part of the swamp called the Underworld, a harrowing odyssey from which she emerges a true heroine.

by Zita

We’ve been getting some interesting new running books in this summer — here’s two I thought were worth highlighting.

Eat and Run — Remember Scott Jurek from Christopher McDougall’s Born to Run? He’s written his own book, Eat and Run, about his career as an ultramarathoner while eating only a vegan diet. He covers his childhood, his early success in running, the transition to veganism, and the addiction to races that test not just his physical ability but his psychological strength. A good read from one of the most prominent ultramarathoners.

Running with the Kenyans — It’s difficult not to compare Adharanand Finn’s book to Born to Run. It’s largely the same formula: journalist seeks to regain his love for running by visiting a tribe/country renowned for near-mythical running ability, meets characters, finds wisdom. But this formula works. The reader ends up with a nice mix of a travel memoir and a sports/adventure book, with a little inspirational wisdom tossed in. I’m looking forward to this one.

Y’all,

Much like the rest of the store, the music section has seen a recent influx of great books.  I think everyone already knows about the new James Brown biography The One and Gregg Allman’s new memoir My Cross to Bear, but here are a few you might not have heard about.  

With Woody Guthrie’s 100th birthday just around the corner (July 14), daughter Nora Guthrie with the Woody Guthrie Archives have  published My Name is New York: Ramblin’ Around Woody Guthrie’s Town.  “Highlighting 19 significant locations with historic photos, lyrics, artwork, documents, and diaries – including a day-to-day chronological listing of song titles – this little guide provides an expansive yet intimate portrait of Woody Guthrie’s NYC life.”  My Name is New York is the perfect book for the Woody Guthrie fan about to jet set to the Big Apple, or someone who needs a little more geographical information on the famed folk singer. ($12.95 powerHouse Books)

For an indie rock fan looking for a historical guide, their day has arrived.  From journalist Jesse Jarnow comes Big Day Coming: Yo La Tengo and the Rise of Indie Rock, a biography not just on the band but on the movement and world they came from.  “Their story winds through rock history, from guitarist Ira Kaplan’s days as a rock-obsessive teen through his start as a twenty-year-old columnist reporting on the mid-1970s New York punk scene; from Yo La Tengo’s patient early 1980s gestation in slightly off-the-map Hoboken to the birth of a new kind that was actually deserving of the name indie.  As the music industry changed, Yo La Tengo and their associates consistently questioned and reclaimed the notions of independence, even as the meaning of indie continued to mutate.” ($18.00 Gotham Books)

Another cool book recently released is the new Jimi Hendrix biography written by his brother Leon aptly titled Jimi Hendrix: A Brother’s Story.  “Leon Hendrix takes us back to the days before Jimi’s amazing rise to fame, beginning with their tough childhood in Seattle, when their fascination with science fiction and UFOs helped them escape a difficult family life.  The author reveals Jimi’s early fascination with sound, from his experiments with plucking wires attached to bedposts to the time he got in trouble for taking about the family radio (‘I was looking for the music,’ he explained).”  Jimi Hendrix: A Brother’s Story is the perfect book for the Hendrix fan attempting to understand the origins of his genius. ($25.99 Thomas Dunne Books, St. Martin’s Press)

One last reminder.  If you didn’t pick up Preston Lauterbach’s The Chitlin’ Circuit and the Road to Rock’n’Roll fear not!  We recently received a shipment of the book in the newly published paperback.  If you’re interested in reading the new James Brown biography The One by R.J. Smith this book is a perfect companion.  ($16.95 W.W. Norton)

 

 

 

 

by Simon

July 1, 2012, will probably be known as the “clink” heard ’round Mississippi!  All across the state people where raising their pint glasses in appreciation to Raise Your Pints.  RYP is a grassroots organization whose mission is “to promote and enhance craft beer culture in Mississippi by working to lift the ban on high gravity beer; clarify the status of homebrewing as a legal, fun, and wholesome hobby; promote Mississippi’s beer, brewpub, and brewing industries and small businesses; and work to broaden the appreciation of craft beer for all Mississippians.”

Raise your Pints was successful with their lobbying the MS State Legislature in having Bill #2878 pass to increase the amount of alcohol in beer from 5% by weight to 8% by weight and now we are all anxiously awaiting the ‘new beer’ that is rolling into to town as I type this!  I find this to be very exciting!

One of my favorites is Abita Beer.  I basically love all their beers but especially the Amber.  One of my favorite cookbooks is the Abita Beer Cooking Louisiana True.  Louisiana chefs have been using Abita in their recipes for years and now you can also create at home wonderful dishes from Emeril’s, Commander’s Palace and Chefs Paul Prudhomme, Susan Spicer, John Folse and Abita beer lovers around the country.  Another great addition to this book is that you learn how beer is made, the history of brewing and how to pair food with Abita beer.

ABITA POT ROAST

CHAD OLIVARD-WYOMISSING, PENNSYLVANIA

6 SERVINGS           suggested pairings: TURBODOG, CHRISTMAS ALE OR AMBER  made with AMBER

INGREDIENTS

• 1 4lb boneless beef chuck roast
• Kosher salt, freshly ground black pepper and garlic powder, to taste
• 3 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
• 1 onion, chopped
• 12 ounces fresh button mushrooms, sliced
• 4 to 5 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 (10.5 ounce) can condensed beef broth
• 1 (12 ounce) bottle Abita Amber

DIRECTIONS

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Season the roast evenly with the salt, pepper and garlic powder. Heat the oil in a large, heavy pot (preferably cast iron) over medium heat.  Coat the roast evenly with the flour.  Brown the roast evenly on all sides.

Transfer the roast to a platter and set aside.  Pour off the excess oil from the pot, leaving about 1 tablespoon.  Add the onion, mushrooms and garlic; cook, stirring,  until the onions are soft, 3 to 4 minutes.  Return roast to pot.  Pour the beef broth and beer over roast.  Season with salt and pepper.  Bring the mixture to a boil.  cover pot and place in 350-degree oven.  Bake, basting occasionally, until the roast is tender, about 3 hours.

Remove the pot  from the oven.  Let meat rest for a few minutes before slicing it to serve with the pan gravy.

 

 

I am the kind of person who is absolutely bereft if I don’t have something on hand to read at all times. Be it a classic work of literature or a celebrity gossip magazine, I am just happy to have some form of the written word in my hand. So when I recently traveled to New York, I had a book at the ready in my tote bag. Which book occupied me for the duration of my plane ride? The Chaperone by Laura Moriarty.  It is partially set in New York, so I figured it would be a great read for my trip. Luckily, I was not disappointed.

The story involves two women who could not be more different. Fifteen-year-old Louise Brooks, the silent-film star of the 1920s and 30s, and Cora, her voluntary chaperone, embark on a summer trip to New York, where Louise will study at the avant-garde Denishawn school of dance. Louise is strikingly beautiful and possesses an equally striking wit for a young woman of her age. She is willful to say the least, and Cora realizes from the moment they step on the train to New York that her charge does not subscribe to the same moral standards that Cora blindly accepts and even promotes. As Cora desperately tries to defend Louise’s honor as a young woman, Louise boldly disregards Cora’s efforts and manages to thwart her quite a few times. Every time Cora lets Louise out of her sights, Louise runs off to shamelessly flirt with an older man or tries to get away with wearing rouged cheeks and lips in public. While Cora never ceases to be frustrated by Louise’s appalling behavior, she did not volunteer to chaperone Louise merely to interject some much needed mothering in the girl’s routine. Cora has some questions that can only be answered by a trip to New York, questions whose answers change her life in ways she could never have fathomed.

Moriarty’s work of historical fiction delivers a poignant story with rich character development and takes the reader into a past where historical events help to shape and enhance each character’s intrinsic values. Readers of Paula McLain’s The Paris Wife and Rules of Civility by Amor Towles will also enjoy this beautifully written story of two very different women who actually share a hunger for more in life.

by Anna