Springtime is certainly a wonderful time of year. From the extra-fragrant whiffs around every corner to the sudden increased numbers in the bird chorus, it’s hard to stay inside and miss the unfolding of a new season. The warming weather is my queue to get outside and into some potting soil.

Last year, I started a mini container garden that provided me with endless hours of enjoyment. I find that simply sitting outside and pruning a potted plant or two can provide a great space for many activities from meditation to a nice spot to eat dinner and reflect on the day.

A few weeks ago, I picked up several new plants to spruce up my collection of the winter-worn plants that somehow didn’t make it inside during the cold. My garden gnome Alice stays on guard while I’m away, but I’m not sure how attentive he is. Here’s a picture of my “Top Step” Garden, showing that you can have garden anywhere there’s sun light access!

Two books I’ve recently bought are showing me the possibilities beyond container gardens, even about gardening on the roof! Planting Green Roofs and Living Walls by Nigel Dunnett and Noel Kingsbury is a fascinating guide to the whys and the hows of planting sustainable gardens in unlikely places. Check out this read for rooftop greening options that provide better drainage, insulation, and a better overall use of our planet’s resources.

Garden Stone: Creative Landscaping with Plants and Stone by Barbara Pleasant has gotten me thinking about other aspects of garden design. She provides several great ideas of blending various plants and stones throughout the garden to create a sense of balanced energy.

Drop by our store to see our great selection of gardening books from Southern gardening to floral arrangements and DIY backyard spaces!

-Peyton

Q: You published your first book, Flights, in 1983. Over twenty years later, how do you think you have changed as a writer? Do you feel that your voice or process has changed or progressed at all?

A: Ha! I love that “at all.” Now I’m demoralized. I think I’ve gotten significantly more ambitious, and wilder with my subject matter.

The above quotes are taken from Knopf’s Q & A series, specifically from a recent conversation they had with Jim Shepard about the release of his latest collection of short stories You Think That’s Bad. This book is Shepard’s fourth collection of short stories (he has also written six novels), and our May First Editions Club pick.

While I can’t personally speak for the ambition and wildness in Shepard’s earlier work, this new collection is certainly ambitious. Several of us Lemurians were reading You Think That’s Bad while debating May’s FEC pick, and though none of us had the same opinion on the stories, we could all definitely agree that they were unlike anything we’d read before.  Don’t be intimidated by this fact though–Shepard’s collection is fun, and it’s so exciting for us Lemurians to encounter something we haven’t seen before.

The New York Times recently hailed Shepard as the “master of the historical short story,” and I think that’s a perfect title for him. Many of the stories in You Think That’s Bad are based on the lives of real historical figures including Freya Stark (a British travel writer most well known for being the first Western woman to travel through the Arabian deserts), Eiji Tsuburaya (the special effects director for many Japanese sci-fi films, including Godzilla), and Gilles de Rais (Breton knight, companion-in-arms to Joan of Arc, and serial killer who targeted young boys). Many of Shepard’s stories are “research dependent” (another NY Times comment), making the collection not a pure escapism read, but should you be willing to do the work, you will be rewarded. It’s worth it to see Shepard’s mastery in play and perhaps you’ll even learn a little bit of history while you’re at it.

Going back to that interview question, I don’t think Shepard should feel demoralized at all. He’s quite a talent, and I personally cannot wait to meet Mr. Shepard and ask him more about his writing style and topic choices in person. I feel sure that it will be a fascinating discussion.

Jim Shepard’s third story collection, Like You’d Understand, Anyway, was a finalist for the National Book Award and won The Story Prize.  Project X won the 2005 Library of Congress/Massachusetts Book Award for Fiction, as well as the ALEX Award from the American Library Association.

His short fiction has appeared in, among other magazines, Harper’s, McSweeney’s, The Paris Review, The Atlantic Monthly, Esquire, DoubleTake, the New Yorker, Granta, Zoetrope: All-Story, and Playboy, and he was a columnist on film for the magazine The Believer.   Four of his stories have been chosen for the Best American Short Stories, and one for a Pushcart Prize.  He teaches at Williams College and in the Warren Wilson MFA program, and lives in Williamstown with his wife Karen Shepard, his three children, and two beagles. (Bio Source: http://jimshepard.wordpress.com/)

-Kaycie

Jim Shepard will be here on Monday, May 2, 2011.

The signing will be at 5pm and the reading at 5:30.

You Think That’s Bad is published by Knopf with a first printing of 30,000.

Street.com published an eye-popping article today for anybody with an interest in the tumultuous book market.

The headline reads: Barnes & Noble to Go Bankrupt Next, Poll Says

Source: Bankruptcy Scores: 20 Riskiest Retailers

We’ve watched B & N stock lose close to half its market value over the past 12 months and it remains the company no one wants to buy. But bankrupt? Here’s the scoop from The Street.

Street.com has analyzed retailers using the 1968 Altman Z-score, a formula which has shown to be 72% accurate in predicting bankruptcy within 2 years. Twenty retailers, one of them B & N, were found to be in the danger zone for bankruptcy.

Then Street.com polled its readers with this question: Which retailer (out of the 20 retailers) do you think is most likely to file for bankruptcy?

Barnes and Noble won the prize with 31% of the votes. The poll also showed that readers did not think that Barnes & Noble’s great hope, The Nook, would be enough to ward off bankruptcy.

Click here to read the full article. You can also learn about some of the other 20 retailers who were in the the Altman zone for bankruptcy here.

The Bookstore Key Series on Changes in the Book Industry

Decluttering the Book Market: Ads on the latest Kindle (April 14) Independents on the Exposed End of the Titantic? (April 6th) Border’s Bonuses (March 30) The Experience of Holding a Book (March15) Finding “Deep Time” in a Bookstore (March 8th) Reading The New Rules of Retail by Lewis & Dart (March 3) The Future Price of the Physical Book (Feb 18) Borders Declares Bankruptcy (Feb 16) How Great Things Happen at Lemuria (Feb 8th) The Jackson Area Book Market (Jan 25) What’s in Store for Local Bookselling Markets? (Jan 18) Selling Books Is a People Business (Jan 14) A Shift in Southern Bookselling? (Jan 13) The Changing Book Industry (Jan 11)

This evening come to Lemuria for an unusual diversion.

The Book: Panther Tract is about efforts to control the population of the wild hog in Mississippi. Published by University Press of Mississippi, the photography is beautiful and the stories have been collected from boar hunters across Mississippi and beyond. Chef John Folse has also contributed his best recipes.

Visit with some of the many story contributors in full hunting attire, the owner of Panther Tract, Howard Brent (left), and the photographer Melody Golding.

Some of the diversions will include a movie, beer, maybe some music, two wild boar heads, and a few hard working hog dogs.

If you’re not familiar to the lifestyle of hunting, you might ask as Hank Burdine did in the introduction to Panther Tract:

“Why do we hunt the wild boar when we can go to Kroger and buy all the bacon and hams we want?”

Come on over this evening and get the stories! It all starts at 5:00.

Lemurians were elevated Monday as Greg Iles came to visit us.

I’m happy to report our time together was like old times, yakking about books and the current book business confusion. Just out of the hospital after a car wreck, Greg is back but he’s got a tough row to hoe this spring sportin’ around his ole self physically. When it comes to his own books, he was juiced about giving his fans two new books due out in 2012. Though most importantly, the joy of being alive radiated off his being.

The curtain was opened yesterday on Greg’s health. He is alive with desire and Lemurians were overjoyed and inspired  by his presence of will. Now is the time for good words and good thoughts from his readers he’s touched. Feel free to share your love and care with a message to cheer him onward: giles34@gmail.com

Lemuria is overjoyed to lead this charge of support for Greg.

Man-o-man I can’t tell you the joy I felt when I saw the smile on Greg’s face as he looked around and talked books in our bookstore.