I mentioned to John the other day that I was planning on blogging about Mark Bowden’s new book, Worm, and he told me that there was a review of it in the Wall Street Journal. John brought me the review and I read it. I was immediately conflicted. The review was…well, it wasn’t good. I began questioning my own judgment. The reviewer raised some valid concerns, not just minor annoyances, but problems at the very heart of the book. Could I still in good conscience write a positive recommendation for the book? Worse yet, would I be identifying myself as a numb and uncritical reader if I did?

It bothered me for a while, right up until I sat down to read and realized that, bad review or no, I found myself wanting to pick the book back up and finish it. Not out of duty, or as a challenge, or even out of spite — just because I had been enjoying it, and I wanted to continue the story. And really, that was enough.

So let’s just address some of the concerns. Yes, the book is about the spread of the Conficker computer virus (or, more appropriately, worm), and the efforts of a small team of computer security experts to defeat it. Yes, that is, to put it mildly, a rather nerdy topic for a serious book. And while Bowden does an admirable job of explaining the long-reaching consequences of such a potentially-damaging worm, he can’t quite escape the fact that he’s writing about security loopholes in Microsoft Windows and lines of code, instead of Army Rangers and Blackhawk helicopters.

The bigger issue to me, however, is that the Conficker worm just isn’t the best story available in computer warfare. Two years after the Conficker worm was discovered, a worm that became known as Stuxnet infected computers in the Iranian nuclear program, eventually sabotaging and damaging some 1000 enrichment centrifuges. I can’t help but wonder if Mark Bowden, already committed to his book and deep into his research, swore under his breath when the Stuxnet story broke.

The decision he faced in his research and writing is really the same decision we face in reading, I think. Somebody may write a book about the Stuxnet worm in the next few years. And it may be a perfectly readable book or even a great book. But we don’t have that book yet. What we do have is a very good book by Mark Bowden, one that covers a legitimately interesting story, and that features some excellent writing. I figure that if someone can point out all the flaws in a book, can list them out and discuss them in great detail, and at the end of it, I still pick the book up and enjoy what I’m reading, then there’s no reason to get worked up over a bad review. Just read and enjoy.

Come to The Night Circus Event with Erin Morgenstern Monday at 5:00!

Click here for more details.

I had never heard of Haruki Murakami before I started working at Lemuria about four years ago. Our wonderful foreign fiction section became mine to take care of and there were Murakami’s books. I couldn’t take my eyes off a hardback copy of After Dark. It had just come out that year in 2007.  Finally, I gave in and took a chance on an author I had never heard of and one that nobody I knew had ever read.

You know the feeling you get when you realize that not only did you find a good book but that you found a new author, a whole body of work in which to indulge? At that time, I could not exactly say yet what it was that was so different about Murakami’s writing. And maybe I am still trying to figure that out. And that’s part of what makes reading and finding other Murakami readers so much fun.

Eventually, other staff members members picked up on Murakami. Kaycie started with After Dark and she quickly came down with Murakami fever. Then Joe–he’s had a serious case of the fever, blazing through all of Murakami’s 14 books in six months!  And then I began to realize we had a few customers who were Murakami fans, but they were indeed few. But that was then. It is now Lemuria’s hope, and the hope of Random House publicity director Paul Bogaard’s, that 2011 is the year to expand Haruki Murakami’s American audience.

Fans all over the world have been waiting varying amounts of time since 1Q84 (published in three volumes) came out in Japan two years ago and sold over 4 million copies. The book has since been translated into 42 languages.

It took the teamwork of Jay Rubin and Philip Gabriel to translate the English edition. Knopf, an imprint of Random House, decided to publish 1Q84 in a single volume, feeling that Americans readers would value holding the entire story and conclusion in their hands. 1Q84 will hit the shelves October 25th.

Once I heard the first whisper about it, I began to make my plea for an advanced reader copy. Liz, our wonderful Random House rep, provided the treasure! But I could not have imagined the length: nearly a thousand pages. I was determined in my own daily swirl of reading temptation to finish Murakami’s 1Q84. Here is the joy: I am thrilled that it’s 928 pages long. It’s amazing and I’m on page 650 now. Fifty pages at a time fly by.

I’ll just tell you a little bit about the long awaited novel. 1Q84 is a twist on George Orwell’s dystopic novel, 1984. It is not necessary that you have read 1984, though I am sure that it does not hurt. The novel takes place primarily in Tokyo, Japan in the year 1984. The Q represents the Questions in the novel about time and space, the parallel realities that the reader discovers along with the characters. The sound [kyu] is the Japanese sound for the number nine. Neat, eh?

The storyline follows two characters, Aomame [ah-oh-mah-meh] and Tengo, as they navigate a world where a person can have two souls, where a night sky has two moons, and where the Little People mysteriously exert their power. 1Q84 is a love story, a mystery, a dystopia, a story of self-discovery, and a fantasy.

1Q84 the book was designed by the legendary Chip Kidd. The outside will feature a translucent jacket over a printed case and unique page design on the inside.

This is the beginning of a series of blogs about Haruki Murakami and his books. I hope, with the help of other readers, to share the Murakami love this fall on the occasion of what is said to be his magnum opus: 1Q84.

If you have read Murakami, you’d better leave me a comment!

“Most American readers who like Haruki Murakami’s stories do not merely like them. They fall in love. They cling to the meanings they find, they caress the books. They see in Murakami narratives the tones and colors of their own dreams, expressions of something lyrical yet pure, and partly ineffable. Something they know and feel, but maybe cannot explain.”

-Roland Kelts, “What We Talk About When We Talk About Murakami,” A Wild Haruki Chase: Reading Murakami Around the World

Click here to reserve your copy of 1Q84.

Click here to see all of Haruki Murakami’s books.

hmhm

Chuck Palahniuk’s skill of observation seems to be the root of his creativity. His experiences spark his imagination through his writing. Are his novels really fiction? Yes, but let’s think about what might be happening here. Could this cutting-edge fiction have something to say about our daily lives in Jackson, Mississippi?

On the surface, we are affected by the oddity or perhaps insanity of his character and plots. He pulls the reader into an array  of bizarre situations–for me at least. As Jung might say, Chuck’s images present archetypes we can use to examine our own subconscious life. He digs into myths, fables and images we all have in common.

In reading Chuck, I feel we are reading something bigger than appears on the surface. Is reading Chuck like putting on training wheels to understand our lives better? Is he perhaps trying to wake us up, or open our eyes wider, as we shape our future?

Right: Chuck Palahniuk has been involved with The Cacophony Society, “a randomly gathered network of individuals united in the pursuit of experiences beyond the pale of mainstream society through subversion, pranks, art, fringe explorations and meaningless madness.” Or not so meaningless?

Often in real life, we may be confronted by issues we don’t understand and perhaps fear. (I’m not sure Chuck has any fears left.) The fast world we live in may restrict our inner selves from addressing serious issues thoroughly, and we may just give up, not understanding what’s going on and move on down the road to our next situation or connection.

I believe Chuck is consciously directing his skill of observation and metaphorical expertise of writing, in attempting to cause us to free up ourselves, to free up the reader from his/her own limited ego. He wants us to expand into our wholeness. He wants us to dig into who we already are, into the depths of ourselves.

Left: Stranger Than Fiction, a collection of true stories, a showcase for Chuck’s keen sense of observation.

We Jacksonians (and Mississippians) come up with many reasons to live our lives as is, not consciously trying to activate our creativity. We can deny the possibility of successfully creating change and blame it on something or someone else. We can choose to complain about everything or everybody. Through pretensions are we keeping ourselves down? How authentic are we living our lives to create “our” sense of place, for ourselves and our community? We can stop living so much as a reaction to circumstances and start activating the force of control and awareness of what could be? Can we?

Special events in the life can go by too fast and our memories can be too short to have solid effects of change. However, I believe that if we shed our fears and pool our creative efforts, we can help create our vision of Jackson. We sold our first book on October 20, 1975. What are the possibilities in 2011?

Celebrate Chuck October 20, 2011.

JX///RX

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cpcp

Philippa Gregory continues telling the stories of the women of the War of the Roses.

With The Lady of the Rivers  she lets us into the the world of Jacquetta, the Duchess of Bedford.  Jacquetta is a descendant of Melusina, the river goddess, and like many of her family before her has inherited the ‘gift’ of second sight.  As advised by her aunt, Jacquetta tries to keep her powers a secret but soon catches the eye of the Duke of Bedford.  After their marriage, he introduces her to the mysterious world of alchemy and tries to use her ‘sight’ to keep the English in control of France.

While in his household, Jacquetta befriends her husbands squire, Richard Woodville, and after the Dukes death secretly marries Woodville.  The Woodvilles return to England and take their place at the Lancastrian court where Jacquetta becomes a close friend and loyal subject to the new Queen Margaret.  Jacquetta and Richard are leading a very happy life at court and their home full of children until King Henry VI  falls into a mysterious sleep and the Queen turns to advisors who may not have the kingdom best interest at heart.

War ensues between the Lancasters and the Yorks for the throne and Jacquetta does her best to fight for her King and Queen but also the best interest of her children especially her daughter, Elizabeth.  She has sensed a very fortunate turn of events for Elizabeth’s future which mysteriously involves the white rose of York.

The Lady of the Rivers is a prequel to Gregory’s previous books in The Cousin’s War series, The White Queen about Elizabeth Woodville and The Red Queen about Margaret Beaufort.  This series tells the story of the Plantagenets, the houses of York and Lancaster, who ruled and constantly were at war for the crown before the Tudors came into power.

I have throughly enjoyed reading Gregory’s novels about both the families of the War of the Roses and the Tudors. I try to always read some non-fiction about the characters that I read in all the historical fiction that I read so I was pleased to see that along side the publication of this new novel Philippa Gregory along with David Baldwin and Michael Jones have published a book with historical essays about the three women of The Cousin’s War Series.

What is also interesting is that Gregory discusses the differences in history and historical fiction and just exactly how speculation plays a role in writing each.  Anyone who has any interest at all in this time period will be well served to pick up this book also.  The Women of the Cousin’s War is on my beside table at this very moment.