I fell in love with Alan Bradley and his precocious 11 year old sleuth main character, Flavia de Luce, when I first read The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie in 2009.  I know that you are thinking, “Maggie, you like slice and dice mysteries…why are you reading these Nancy Drew’s for adults?” My answer is they are so much fun!  Sometimes I just need to trip over the body in the cucumber patch!

In I Am Half-Sick of Shadows, we find Flavia up to her old tricks in the chemistry lab (built by her Uncle) but this time she is trying to make a concoction of very sticky birdlime to coat the chimney of Buckshaw mansion.  The reason behind this is to prove once and for all to her older sisters, Ophelia and Daphne, that Father Christmas is not a hoax.  She intends to then free him from the chimney and invite Father Christmas to stay for the glorious fireworks display that she has also been working on in the the laboratory.

Flavia’s father, due to his increasing debt, has agreed to let a movie production company use the family estate as a movie set which means that Buckshaw will not be decorated for Christmas, which is disappointing,but Flavia soon learns she will have all sorts of mischief to get into with the stars and film crew roaming around.

The vicar arranges for the entire town of Bishop’s Lacey to come to Buckshaw for a special performance of the balcony scene of Romeo and Juliet to raise money to repair the church roof.  In true English mystery fashion, a blizzard ensues snowing everyone in and setting the scene for MURDER!  Flavia, of course, has found the body and even after several warnings not to meddle with the investigation just cannot help herself.  A grand “who dunnit” begins and soon concludes on Christmas Eve.

I recommend this as a fun and uproarious holiday read whether you have read the others in the series or not and guarantee you will be asking Father Christmas for the entire collection!

Dear Listener,

I have never understood the quite spoken rivalry between The Beatles and the Rolling Stones.  I remember being a ten year old who loved the White Album.  I was frequently chastised by stupid petty adults for being anti-Rolling Stones.  Why would liking The Beatles make me anti-Rolling Stones?  Why would anyone have to choose a side? I’ve always considered them rigidly different bands.  My favorite Rolling Stones album is Some Girls.  I consider Some Girls to be the most folky jangly country Americana album any non American has ever released.  Trying to compare that to Revolver, my favorite Beatles album, would be like comparing light bulbs to blankets.  No one would like light bulbs more than blankets or vice versa.  No one would ever consider the two synonymous enough to pick a favorite.

With that said, George is my favorite Beatle.  He always has been.  His persona (at least how I imagine it) was always quiet, talented, emotional, and empathetic.  While in The Beatles, he was often overpowered by John and Paul, and had only a handful of his songs make it to the album.  It wasn’t because he didn’t write songs.  Far less than a year after The Beatles called it quits, George released his triple album All Things Must Pass.  A TRIPLE album.  Considering, I empathize with George.  He will always be my favorite.

I am writing this on November 29, 2011.  Ten years ago today George Harrison died of cancer at the age of 58.  

Martin Scorsese recently directed a documentary for HBO on George Harrison called George Harrison: Living in the Material World.  There is a book by the same name that was written by George’s widow Olivia Harrison.  In the forward, Martin Scorsese writes

Something beautiful happened whenever George played the guitar – I’m thinking of that lyrical break on “You’re Gonna Lose That Girl’, among so many other magical moments with The Beatles – and here he was reveling in a newfound freedom, making music that was all his own.  There was real joy in the sheer act of creativity.  I remember feeling that it had the grandeur of liturgical music, of the bells used in Tibetan Buddhist ceremonies.  The wonder I felt the first time I heard that music has never left me.

To see original pictures, drawings, and lyrical sheets from George Harrison that encompass this book, come check our music section.  You know we have a copy.

by Simon

Here is a book that I really liked, but haven’t written anything about. The Marriage Plot by Jeffrey Eugenides.

I got my hands on an early copy and read it this past July on vacation.

This book came out last month with much fan fare. If you missed it here is a shot of the billboard from Times Square:

Crazy for a literary book. eh?

Well, I don’t know if the billboard sold books, but this one deserves to be widely read. This is Eugenides attempt (successful in my book) at a postmodern love story. Madeleine and Leonard are young and in love – it’s the 1980s and they are steeped in college life. But while Leonard is quite brilliant he also tends to be very erratic. Meanwhile the Religious Studies student Mitchell has been in love with Madeleine since freshman year. I won’t tell you who ends up with who.

The story is captivating and the writing is never to wordy or verbose – I actually tended to think that Middlesex had some boring sections.

The secret to The Marriage Plot is that it makes the reader feel smarter. While you are reading about Madeleine’s post modern fiction class you feel like you are engaging with the Derrida or Barthes. Everyone in the store that has read this book has rushed over to the foreign fiction shelf and picked up Barthes’ A Lover’s Discourse thinking they would read it as soon as they finished The Marriage Plot only to be thwarted by lines like “Everything follow from this principle: that the lover is not to be reduced to a simple symptomal subject, but rather that we hear in his voice what is “unreal” – sheesh.

At any rate, you should pick The Marriage Plot up, you won’t regret it.

When Robert Olen Butler’s last novel Hell was published a couple of years ago, I realized that I had the opportunity to read one of the preeminent writers of our time.  After all, he had won the Pulitzer in 1992,  for a collection of short stories entitled Good Scent from Strange Mountain.

After I finished the last chapter of Hell, I realized that I had read one of the best satires of the times. In fact, when a customer comes in Lemuria these days asking for a humorous book, I take him or her to look at Hell. Ranking in my mind just after the funny factor of  Confederacy of Dunces, Hell is a laugh out loud novel, which takes the reader to “Hell” to meet the Clintons, the Bushes, and even the Pope, since, after all, no one on earth has been perfect, so all end up in Hell, but rarely know why.

So, suffice it to say that when I got a copy of Butler’s new novel A Small Hotel, I was rather expecting some satire and humor, but after a couple of chapters, I realized that my expectations were way wrong. Instead, I realized that I had happened upon a very depressing book. In case you, reader, are wondering why I would want to read such a depressingly dark novel, please keep reading because that is precisely what I did, and I am very happy that I did.

As far as subject matter, Butler handles the break up of a long term relationship with clarity and poignancy and empathy, but, and that is a big “but”, his time treatment is what makes the novel remarkable, as well as its ending. We all know that few writers can handle simultaneous time with skill. In other words reporting on what is happening at the exact same time with two characters who are not in the same proximity, requires talent to avoid redundancy and triteness. Robert Olen Butler achieves this without confusing the reader, nor boring him.

Because the novel is primarily set in New Orleans, particularly in the French Quarter, in “a small hotel”, the Southern reader feels right at home. Also, since some of the main action of the novel,  occurs during the craziness of Mardi Gras, the reader feels a certain connectedness. As the novel progresses, it becomes clear that a lack of communication thwarts the lives of the protagonist and her husband, or vice versa, depending on perspective. In particular, the power of the word “love”, said  out loud, or the lack thereof, becomes more and more powerful.

Toward the end of the novel, the action takes a fast turn forward, which is interesting, since heretofore, a large majority of the action takes place in the past. Once again, Butler’s treatment of time emerges as one of his most valued assets. Without giving away the ending,  I will say that this initially depressing book ends with hope for the future. How Butler gets to this hope remains, once again, as a valued talent, for it is in the telling of the story that the reader finds gratitude.

See Kelly’s post on A Small Hotel.

See Nan’s post on Hell.

We still have signed first editions of A Small Hotel. Click here.

-Nan

A Guest Blog by Author Mike Frascogna

Love it or hate it, Mississippi JUCO football is unique. The League, while considered by some to be rogue, has produced literally thousands of players who have gone on the compete at the Division I and professional levels.

Hidden in all the glamor of big-time college and professional football are the staggering number of high school and college coaches produced by the JUCO system. Not much attention is given to the players who ended their playing careers at the JUCO level but used their experience to advance their skills as coaches.

Additionally, little attention is given to the student side of the player’s experience. For many of the players in the past, as it is today, JUCO ball allowed them an opportunity to continue their education simply because it was financially affordable. After completing two years of community college, many of the students, whether or not they continue to play football, go on to complete their degree requirements at four year colleges and universities.

JUCOS: The Toughest Football League in America
Signing: Thursday, December 15 at 6:00

 See all JUCO blogs.