She Walks in Beauty: A Woman’s Journey Through Poems by Caroline Kennedy (Harper, April 2011)

I enjoyed Caroline Kennedy’s talk with David Letterman this week. I was even more charmed when I flipped through this collection of poetry. As Kennedy notes in the introduction, poetry “shapes an endless conversation about the most important things in life.” She has collected poems familiar and unfamiliar and arranged them into sections which mark the stages of a woman’s life. Beautiful.

The Paris Wife by Paula McClain (Random House, February 2011)

I have not heard one negative comment about this book. Our staff and many of our customers LOVE this book. Nan had this to say in her blog:

“Told from the point of view of Hadley, the first wife, or the “Paris wife”, this novel gives an “up close and personal” view of  Hemingway, the man, and his newly emerging career. As he and Hadley travel throughout Europe, and particularly Spain, the reader watches as the writer gathers details for his first short story collection In Our Time, and for his first novel The Sun Also Rises”

This is a fantastic read for fans of Hemingway or readers who are just looking for a “good” read. Read more of Nan’s blog here.

A Classical Journey: The Houses of Ken Tate (January 2011)

With A Classical Journey Ken Tate gives us his first book since 2005. Filled with photographs of homes across Mississippi, Louisiana, Kentucky and Tennessee, Journey sets an easy pace into Tate’s world of “intuitive classicism” with beautiful foldout reflections, poetry, quotations and mini-interviews. Read more on Ken Tate here.

Caleb’s Crossing by Geraldine Brooks (Penguin, May 2011)

I couldn’t put this one down. Brooks inspiration for the novel stems from this one historical fact: In 1665, a young man becomes the first native American to graduate from Harvard College. Her story revolves around this young man, Caleb, and a young woman named Bethia who befriends Caleb at a young age. As they both grow up, they must make cultural choices that will affect them for the rest of their lives.

Two Wonderful Cookbooks: A Southerly Course by Martha Hall Foose and Sara Foster’s Southern Kitchen (both new this April)

A Southerly Course has beautiful photography, recipes and stories by Martha. Sara Foster’s Southern Kitchen stays true to the simple southern tradition of cooking. I would have a hard time picking between this two. I’d want both!

Even though I live a few miles away from Jackson in a semi country-side, I have never had trouble with deer eating any of my flowers or plants, UNTIL this past fall. I guess I bragged to my neighbors, who had been battling the deer non-stop for many years, too much! So, I planted my beautiful yellow pansies one weekend last fall, and a couple of nights later, when I got home from work after dark, I noticed that  they had all wilted even though I had watered them. Correction….I THOUGHT they had wilted.

Well, the next morning, I was in for a surprise: the pansies had not wilted, the delicate flowers had been EATEN and only the leaves remained. Boy, was I mad! I had liked deer up until then, being an animal lover, and I would often slow down, roll down my window and gaze at their beauty, but now, I don’t feel as lovable toward them as I did! I am told that pansies are like candy to deer. Well, if they like that kind of candy, I can’t satisfy their wish!

So, now I am in the category of other gardeners who try to plant deer resistant flowers and plants. We are really lucky in one area at least: deer hate daffodils and other bulbs, so at least I’m safe there. But, now I have to think about one more thing besides light and water requirements when I buy new flowers: I have to think about the deer too!  To help my search with deer proof vegetation, I use two books we have in the gardening section at Lemuria: Deerproofing Your Yard & Garden by Rhonda Massingham Hart and Deer Resistant Landscaping:Proven Advice and Strategies for Outwitting Deer and Other Pesky Mammals by Neil Soderstrom.

Deer Resistant Landscaping includes chapters on how to outwit other pesks  such as voles, which Mississippi gardeners battle often, and crafty squirrels as well! In both of these excellent comprehensive manuals, many plant lists appear which help the gardener make wise choices. So, if we have another hot summer, which, of course, is a given, and if we experience a drought, which also may be a given, then the deer will be hungry and thirsty. Make them find somewhere else besides your yard to have their next feast! Come take a look at these books–I think you’ll want both on your gardening bookshelf.  -Nan

Erik Larson is back again but this time it is 1933, Hitler is rising to power and William E. Dodd has been assigned to Berlin as the United States Ambassador to Germany.

Dodd is a frugal professor from Chicago and brings his wife, son and daughter, Martha, along with him to have the opportunity of a lifetime.  Very soon, Martha becomes seduced by the extravagance of the ‘New Germany’ and becomes involved with many men including the first chief of the Gestapo and a Soviet spy.  Dodd, of course, comes into contact with many high ranking Nazi officials including Hitler and while having to attend all these glittering parties becomes gradually suspicious and some might say paranoid that what is being presented to him might just not be all there is to this “New Germany”.

Meanwhile, back at the State Department there is a growing faction of people working against Dodd and they continue to ignore his letters and telegraphs that voice these concerns.  Dodd and Martha continue through the year to find their  lives gradually transformed and beliefs changed until the fateful night that reveals to the world Hitler’s true character.  Larson has once again written an excellent historical narrative that “sheds fresh light on why America stood by as Hitler rose to power”.

Even if you normally do not read nonfiction but are interested in this era of history, you will certainly find this book informative and simply thrilling to read.

In the Garden of Beasts will be available on May 10.

I mentally sorted through a ridiculous number of books to get this post down to five favorites, but I think they’re all good starting points for non-genre readers. If I had to hand someone a stack of books that would be guaranteed to get them to come back for more, these would be it.

The Sparrow by Maria Doria Russell

When I first read this book, someone described it as “Jesuits in space”. While that description is technically true, this book has endured as one of my favorite books in any genre.

When eerily beautiful music is picked up by an observation station, Father Emilio Sandoz is charged with the task of going to find the people (or non-people) who wrote it. Along with a kind but raggedy band of scientists and linguists, he sets off for Rakhat. What follows is an alternatively gentle and violent meditation on religion, humanity, colonization, and how even our best intentions can destroy the things we love.

Russell is a consistently poetic and thoughtful writer, and her own questions regarding religion and culture shine through in the book. What is our duty to each other? When do you really understand people who are different from you? Ultimately, The Sparrow supplies very few definitive answers, but will stick with you long after you’ve read it.

Blackout/All Clear by Connie Willis

These two books are listed together because they represent one very long manuscript that was split in two for publication. A word to the wise: there is no cliffhanger at the end of Blackout, and no recap in All Clear.

These books are also up for every big science fiction award this year, and are two of the best books I’ve read in years.

Polly, Eileen, and Mike are graduate students studying WW2. As time traveling historians, they can go back in time and observe, but are protected by the static laws of time travel. Eileen is sent to the countryside to observe the evacuated children, while Polly works as a shop girl during the Blitz. Mike is embedded as a reporter at Dunkirk so he can study every day heroes. It quickly becomes clear that something has gone terribly wrong. Their return routes won’t open, and one or all of them may have done something to change the outcome of the war.

The book is more a study of the courage and chaos that ordinary people displayed during the Blitz, as well as a great historical novel that focuses on how individual actions can have a huge effect on history. The characters are likeable, and the dangers seem very real. If you’re into WW2 history, this is a great way to see it in a new light.

Cordelia’s Honor by Lois McMaster Bujold

Lois McMaster Bujold is singlehandedly reinventing the space opera genre with her Miles Vorkosigan series. Instead of focusing on high drama with aliens, she’s written a lengthy series that puts character, plot, and great writing above the hallmarks of the genre. She’s got some great female heroines as well.

Cordelia Naismith is a biologist exploring new eco-systems. Aral Vokosigan is affectionately known on his planet as “The Butcher of Komarr”, and has been left for dead by his mutinous crew on the same far off planet as Cordelia. They’re from entirely different cultures politically and ideologically, and as in most great romances, hate each other on sight. However, the desire to live can overcome many obstacles, so they end up working together to outsmart both assassins and a political coup to return home.

The strength of these books isn’t the plot (which is a light take on the normal political scheming and murder that you find in space opera), but the characters. Cordelia and Aral are real people with thoughts and opinions, and Bujold smartly explores the cultural and political differences between them.

Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman

Neil Gaiman is a literary star, and Neverwhere is a fantastic example of why he is so popular. Originally a BBC miniseries, it was turned into a wonderful novel later on.

Richard Mayhew is an average London executive whose life is turned upside down when he nurses an injured homeless woman back to health in his apartment. The next day, he discovers that no one seems to be able to see him and that his job and his apartment have been given away to other people. He embarks on a quest to find Door and discovers a world where abandoned tube stations contain a community of people who are not what they seem.

Neverwhere is full of memorably creepy characters and an innovative use of the London subway system. You’ll never look at a map of London the same way again.

Rose Daughter by Robin McKinley

Rose Daughter is the most traditional science fiction/fantasy book on this whole list, and Robin McKinley is a first rate fairy tale goddess. YA readers may know her as the author of the classic “The Hero and the Crown”, but she also writes stunning adult novels.

Rose Daughter is based on Beauty and the Beast, so don’t expect to be surprised by the plot. The meat of the story is in the characters and the incredibly detailed settings (the botanical descriptions are lengthy and gorgeous). Beauty and her three sisters move to a small cottage with a garden full of dead roses. Each of the sisters is struggling with themselves: Beauty is timid and hides out with her flowers, Lionheart is a tomboy, and Jeweltongue is too smart for the men in the town to take seriously. When Beauty finds herself traded for her father’s freedom, she also finds another garden that can be brought back to life. At its heart, Rose Daughter is a book about unconventional passions, whether that be flowers or Beasts or books. -HJ

Last week Lisa wrote a blog entitled It’s not your typical day at Lemuria about our event with Melody Golding and the Panther Tract crew. Well, she was right, it wasn’t any kind of normal around here. The Panther Tract folks have been touring all over the state in the last week and if you haven’t heard of the book, here’s the deal: the books is full of photographs and stories of the tradition of boar hunting in Mississippi – it’s wild boar, hunting dogs, knives, guns, horses, but most of all the people who love the sport.

So, to get the idea of the book project across to those of us who are uninitiated Melody isn’t just doing signings, no, she’s bringing the boar hunting culture to each event. That’s right, a whole bunch of hunters showed up in their hunting garb with a mounted boar head, a video of the hunt, they decorated the store with prints from the book and bamboo, and they were all guzzling beer and telling tall tales and hunting stories. I think you get the idea. I’ll tell you what though, this book is a cool document of a part of southern culture, but it’s also documentary evidence of what all Mississippians believe – it’s all about the people. Thanks Melody.