The first time I read Lauren Groff’s Monster’s of Templeton, I paused on the 1st  page to the realization that the last original plot had been written in the opening sentence–“the day I returned to Templeton steeped in disgrace, the fifty-foot corpse of a monster surfaced in Lake Glimmerglass”. So when I heard that Lauren Groff had released her second novel, I didn’t  know if I should anticipate a second book to rival the first, or disappointment. Nothing could have prepared me, however, for how quickly Arcadia swept me up.

Arcadia follows Bit, a boy born into a 1970s commune (from which the book derives its title), as he grows up in the microcosm of hippie culture and is spit out after the world his parents built collapses. Where many authors would revert to caricature, Lauren Groff weaves Arcadia a culture all its own, where “the women wash clothes and linens in the frigid river, beat wet fabric against the rocks. In the last light, shadows [grow] from their knees and the current sparkle[s] with suds”.

Bit has the honor of being the first child born into Arcadia, the son of two of the founding members. His childhood is one of springtime plantings, birthings, hungry winters, breakfasts of soy-eggs and fresh baked bread. He is witness to the rise and fall of Arcadia. The most steadfast of all the members.

The story jumps to the present. Bit has accustomed himself to the world outside of Arcadia and is living in post 9/11 New York City,  teaching the lost art of dark room photography. He is a man steeped in the past; caught in the dichotomy of his childhood and his present life.

The book concludes in 2018; the effects of global warming have begun to chip away at the culture with which we ourselves are familiar. Within Lauren Groff’s imagined future, we return one last time to Arcadia. “The sun and wind pour into the sheets on the line. There are bodies in the billowing, forms created and lost in a breath”.

Don’t you want to read a thriller series where the murders, highway chases, place names, etc. are right here in Mississippi?

Don’t you want to read about Mississippi small town Sheriff that can’t be bought by the local politicians?

Don’t you want to read about pick-up trucks and cigars and whiskey?

I loved The Ranger, but the new Ace Atkins book in The Ranger series – The Lost Ones – proves that Quinn Colson is a force to be reckoned with in Summer reading man-fiction. I’m telling you I couldn’t put this book down. We’ve got gun running and baby saving and woman kissing. It’s all here, for example:

A couple roustabouts had been asking about guns at the Tibbehah County Fair, but by the time the word had gotten back to Donnie Varner, they’d long since packed up their Ferris wheel , corn dog stands and shit, and boogie on down the highway. He’d tried for them at a rodeo up in Eupora and the fall festival over in Hernando, but it wasn’t until he pulled off the highway into a roadside carnival in Byhalia, Mississippi, that he knew he had the right spot.

I don’t usually say this kind of thing, but I can’t wait to see who plays The Ranger in the movie.

Come see Ace today at 5:00 for a signing and reading to follow at 5:30!

Richard Ford may well have been the first author reading I attended as a Lemuria employee. I know that I started here mid-January 2002 and his reading for A Multitude of Sins was mid-February. So I am certain that I was green when it came to bookselling, author events, and frankly just about everything. I don’t remember much but I do remember that I got off  work went home and then Wendy and I attended not as workers but more like customers. I remember coming into a jammed store where most people were already seated for the reading.

I don’t recall what was read but I do remember a specific answer that Ford gave to a customer question. I believe the question was what should a writer be reading – I could never pretend to imitate the eloquence with which Ford answered the question, but here’s how I took it: don’t read any bad books, but read as many good books as you can. Now I’m no writer – and have no desire to be one – but I am a bookseller and a reader so I took Ford’s answer and applied it to my own situation. If I want to be a good bookseller – a bookseller with credibility – a good reader – then I need to read a whole lot of really good books.

Fast forward ten years to the opening of Canada: First, I’ll tell about the robbery our parents committed. Then about the murders, which happened later. Wow, that’s a heck of a sentence. From that moment on the book is pregnant with the suspense of what robbery, what murders? (I swear it took me half of the book to realize that he did NOT say that his parents committed the murders.) It is a suspenseful book, but it’s also a quiet book – full of nuanced character development. The kind of book where the descriptions of the clothes the characters wear turn out to be crucial to their development within the novel – how tall they are, what kind of cigarettes the smoke, etc. Check this sentence out:

Any different way of looking at our life threatens to disparage the crucial, rational, commonplace part we lived, the part in which everything makes sense to those on the inside — and without which none of this is worth hearing about.

Point is – you should read this book.

Join us on Tuesday, June 12th for a signing and reading with Richard Ford at 5:00 and 5:30.

Over 20 years ago, I first met and became friends with John Grisham. We both had two joys that we shared in common: books and youth baseball. I’m not sure which mattered the most to us since they were both dear to our hearts. As John signed books, we talked mostly about reading books and baseball. We talked coaching, statistics, youth ball coaching humor, and ballpark trivia. We cared about our sons’ stats and their teams’ win/lose records. We dug our chatter and shared our love of the spirit of baseball and what it added to our lives.

When I received my inscribed copy of Calico Joe from John, I smiled. It reads: “Finally a baseball story” and indeed it is! Calico Joe is mostly set in 1973 and John uses real players and real team lineups to enhance the plot. At times this novel reads like a 1973 sports page enhancing the personalities through his fine, clever and very enjoyable plot.

As a longstanding Grisham fan, I must say this is one of his most enjoyable books. It reads with the heart and soul of a real baseball fan. Calico Joe feels like John wrote it for fans like himself–so much so that this might be the closest novel to his heart in a long time.

The relationship of a father and son through the spirit of baseball is an enduring link. In fact, countless hours of batting practice, all-star games and road trips are at the forefront of my lifetime memories. A window of time for father and son which so often lays the pathway and foundation for adult friendship. For the fathers of players, John has given us the perfect Dad’s Day present to share.

Not to be too sentimental, but I must note my heartfelt thanks to John. Lemuria can never repay the gifts of support John has given to our bookstore. With this in mind, thank you John for all you have done for Lemuria’s readers and booksellers.

I will, however, try to share your book with all baseball fans. I will hand sell Calico Joe to all who simply like a good story. I think this novel will stand the test of time and will remain on the top shelf of any baseball fiction bookcase.

John, I can only imagine the colorful comment that our ole pal Willie Morris would write on Calico Joe’s dust jacket.

When I first saw the title The End of Illness I feared that the contents of this book would tell me that everything  that I thought was healthy is actually not. Will I just be depressed? I read the first page and couldn’t stop reading. Everything I read was fascinating and encouraging and empowering.

Dr. Agus has three goals in writing The End of Illness: to change your view of the human body; to develop practical strategies to apply to this new way of thinking; and to inform you about the state of current medical research and where the latest research is taking us. As Dr. Agus puts it, this book is about getting to know yourself. The main idea I took away from The End of Illness is a new appreciation for the complexity of the body and the need to view the body as a whole system. Similarly, I have a new appreciation for the complexity of food and the need to eat whole foods.

Some of the topics and practical suggestions included in The End of Illness: an explanation of how vitamins work in whole foods and how little evidence there is that vitamins in pill form work and how they may actually be harming the body; an explanation of inflammation of the body and how we can prevent it; how to exercise and the benefits of keeping a schedule; how three inexpensive medicines are key to our health. Some of these arguments you may be familiar with, but Dr. Agus explains why and he does so in a way that is easy to understand and enjoyable to read.

If you read one book about your health this year, read this one. Then read Food Rules by Michael Pollan.

The End of Illness by David B. Agus, M.D.