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.

Half of the homes featured in Journey are in Mississippi and one of these is the House of Light and Shadow in Jackson, Mississippi. Ken Tate elaborates on the architecture of this understated work:

“This is not one of those Southern houses with big columns that say ‘Come on in,’ over the door. You have to follow a circuitous path just to get to the front door.”

He also mentions the Argentinian writer Jean Luis Borges as an inspiration for this home:

“Borges’ writing is very non-linear and contrary to Western rational intelligence. He had a fine understanding of mystery, and he was also very sensual. His descriptions of quintessential Latin American spaces are exquisite.”

“‘It is lovely to live in the dark friendliness of covered entranceway, arbor, and wellhead.’ I thought of that line as I designed the ‘dark friendliness’ of the porch. The whole experience of walking through this house is a bit lit reading a Borges story. There is a narrative that unfolds as you move through the dark passages toward bright, wide open spaces where the soul expands, the mind breathes, and the senses take over or toward duskier ones, filled with contemplation and interior dialogue.”

Ellen has been in a couple of Tate’s homes in Jackson. She has this to say:

“In Ken Tate’s homes you truly feel like you are standing in something that is built to last, while not looking like a bunker. I once heard architecture described as the most logical form of art and I think Ken’s style is just that and more. It is logical, functional and beautiful. The trifecta if you will.”

I cannot resist concluding with Ken Tate’s closing excerpt from The House of Breath by William Goyen. I am afraid that Ken Tate’s book has an appeal to lovers of literature as well.

That people could come into the world

in a place they could not at first

even name and had never known before;

And that out of a nameless and unknown place

they could grow and move around in it

until its name they knew and called

with love, and called it home,

and put roots there and love others there;

so that whenever they left this place

they would sing homesick songs about it

and write poems of yearning for it . . .

and forever be returning to it or leaving it again!

Join us Saturday as Ken Tate signs A Classical Journey at 1:00.

You know, some things just take on a life of their own. There seems to be a whole lot of bloggers out there in the world and a whole lot of people who read them and every once in awhile, something extraordinary happens. A blog hits the big time…goes viral…changes the world and starts its own revolution. That’s what happened to Ree Drummond, (The Pioneer Woman) who lives on a working cattle ranch in Pawhuska, Oklahoma.

Drummond explains, “I planned to attend law school in Chicago and live in a big city, but plans changed when I met and married my husband, Ladd Drummond, a fourth-generation member of a cattle ranching family, whom I call “the Marlboro Man.”

She began blogging in 2006 on topics ranging from ranch life; her transition from city girl to country girl; her four children to her very cute husband. After about a year she posted her first recipe on “How to Cook a Steak” accompanied by 20 photos explaining the cooking process step by step and the rest as they say is history. Her blogs are filled with family stories; country living, and step-by-step cooking instructions. Not to forget her elaborate food; life and ranch photography. Her blog, Confessions of a Pioneer Woman, won honors at the Weblog Awards in 2007, 2008, and 2009, and in 2009 it took the top prize as Weblog of the Year. As of September 2009, Drummond’s blog reportedly receives 13 million page views per month. (You might want to read that again).

In 2009, she published a cookbook, The Pioneer Woman Cooks: Recipes from an Accidental Country Girl which shot to the top of the New York Times Best Sellers List. It exudes her trademark charm, pictures and really great recipes!

On her blog, she also wrote a series titled: “From Black Heels to Tractor Wheels – A Love Story” which detailed her move from Los Angeles to Chicago after she met said rancher/ cowboy and changed her life plans. That series has just been published as a book on Valentine’s Day 2011.

On the fly leaf, Ree explains the book this way:

“Read along as I recount the rip-roaring details of my unlikely romance with a chaps-wearing cowboy, from the early days of our courtship (complete with cows, horses, prairie fire, and passion) all the way through the first year of our marriage, which would be filled with more challenge and strife—and manure—than I ever could have expected. This isn’t just my love story; it’s a universal tale of passion, romance, and all-encompassing love that sweeps us off our feet. It’s the story of a cowboy…and Wranglers…and chaps…and the girl who fell in love with them.”

To make all this even more fun the movie rights have been sold to Columbia Pictures. Reese Witherspoon is rumored to be playing Ree. How cool is that. -Norma

John and I have been talking a lot about the physical experience of the book and of the bookstore. Ironically, the e-book and increased fascination with all sort of digital gadgets, puts a bookstore like Lemuria in the light again as we are so different from what main stream media and culture pushes at the individual.

Over the past week several weeks I have been tossing around several sources of input which all cause me to consider the physical as opposed to intangible world of cyberspace and electronic media and Birkerts concept of horizontal time as opposed to vertical or “deep time.”

My thoughts go back again and again to a book I read a long time ago called The Gutenberg Elegies by Sven Birkerts. Elegies was published in 1994, long before most of us began to think about how computer technology was changing our lives. Birkerts’ thinking on “deep time” has stuck with me over the years.

“The explosion of data–along with general societal secularization and the collapse of what theorists call the ‘master narratives’ . . . has all but destroyed the premise of understandability. Inundated by perspectives, by lateral vistas of information stretch endlessly in every direction, we no longer accept the possibility of assembling the complete picture. Instead of carrying on the ancient project of philosophy–attempting to discover the ‘truth’ of things–we direct our energies to managing information. The computer, our high-speed, accessing, storing, and sorting tool, appears a godsend. It increasingly determines what kind of information we are willing to track in; if something cannot be written in code and transmitted, it cannot be important.”

“Resonance–there is no wisdom without it. Resonance is a natural phenomenon, the shadow of import alongside the body of  fact, and it cannot flourish except in deep time. Where time has been commodified, flattened, turned into yet another thing measured, there is no chance that any piece of information can unfold its potential significance. We are destroying this deep time . . . Where the electronic impulse rules, and where the psyche is conditioned to work with data, the experience of deep time is impossible. No deep time, no resonance; no resonance no wisdom.”

There are many deep time experiences to be had at Lemuria. One that comes to mind is the experience of meeting John Bemelmans Marciano and Joseph O’Connor. I think it qualifies as a deep time experience–or at least it was the seed for one for many who attended these two events which happened to occur the same evening a few weeks ago.

My intention was to write a “great” blog about it, but the more I thought about it, the less I felt able to write about it. And then the less I wanted to write about it.

Blogs in general are usually updated daily and often written quickly, and they are not necessarily known for quality or accuracy. I would say that they do not lend themselves to deep time contemplation. Because of this, and out of respect for the deep time experience we had with Joseph O’Connor, I just decided to the let the event blog go. I had begun to feel strongly that it was just too bad if you weren’t there. The experience lies between Joseph O’Connor and the individuals who committed their time that Friday evening. The experience resonated with many people days and weeks after the event.

The title of an article in The Wall Street Journal reads:

“Writer’s Get Close on the Web: Simon & Schuster Bets Authors’ Video Interview Can Build Readership, Sales” (Monday, March 7, 2011)

Simon & Schuster gives the example of an interview with Lisa McCann which appears on their VYou video player. The authors talk in front of their web cams in their own homes in response to questions posted by readers on the VYou website. You can watch Lisa Genova, author of Still Alice, while she holds her baby. Chris Cleave, author of Little Bee, is drinking coffee. Lisa McCann, best-selling author of teen thrillers, is dancing in her seat. McCann says that the videos will never replace an actual author event. For her, one of the main advantages is convenience: “You can take 10 minutes and answer five questions on the day you have your hair looking nice.”

While I believe there is an immense value in all the information available to me on the Internet, it also makes me value even more the non-electronic experiences I have. It may be funny, informative to listen to Lisa McCann on her webcam, but want I ultimately want is her, in front of me, in a context that was not completely controlled by her, but instead left to the natural occurrences and energy of the moment.

Booksellers, Lemuria readers:

Do you remember when Audrey Niffenegger came last July and her aura as she browsed our bookstore?

Who could forget Lucas McCarty and the choir at the event for Mockingbird Press’ first book Year of Our Lord?

Do you remember the energy in the room as Barry Gifford made an unforgettable introduction to Karl Marlantes, connecting one of his short stories relating to Vietnam to the subject matter of Matterhorn?

While we gain so much from new technology, I do think there is cause to pause and think about the effects. Birkerts inspires me to think and write about many changes in our culture and how they affect our thinking and consuming. Here, I acknowledge that this blog is incomplete and there are other viewpoints to be considered. Hopefully, the Bookstore Keys series on the changes facing readers and professionals in the book industry is an ongoing consideration, a way to remain thoughtfully engaged while being bombarded by news everyday.

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The Bookstore Key Series on Changes in the Book Industry

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)

Unbroken by Lauren Hillenbrand (Random House, November, 2010)

Right up front, I will suggest you read this book. I won’t say you must read this book. Shoulds often breed contempt, rebellion or a secret suspicion that said bookseller is out to make a sale. This being said, you should read this book.

It’s the true story of Louis Zamperini, a wayward boy who spent his youthful energy being the local hood until he channeled it all into running which ultimately got him a spot in the 1936 Berlin Olympics. He became the beloved hometown hero.

In 1941, with history marching toward the attack on Pearl Harbor, Louis joined the Army Air Corps, shortly left it due to air sickness, then got drafted and joined the army. He ultimately ended up as s Second Lieutenant in the Air Corps. This was the beginning of events that would send him into the air in a B-24 which crashed in the Pacific. He survived only to end up as a Japanese POW without any of the rights guaranteed to POWs by the Geneva Convention. This is the story of a man literally unbroken by deprivation, a psychotic Japanese corporal named Mutsuhiro Watanabe, shark infested waters circling a damaged life raft after the plane crash. Never giving into despair, he maintained a sense of self dignity.

His innate ability to survive under any circumstances benefited many of his friends and fellow prisoners. Once he volunteered to starch the Japanese’ shirts which were soaked in rice water as the starching agent. He would filter the tiny bits of rice through the shirt threads and pass them among the other starving comrades. Hillenbrand weaves the action and the facts seamlessly with a steady clip. The facts in this novel-like book become as compelling as the sensational storyline.

Right: Louis Zamperini welcomed home by loved ones. For more photographs and another extensive interview see this Wall Street Journal article.

The B-24, cockpit, Louis’ home in the sky, was once described as “like sitting on the front porch and flying the house. Accidents, even on the homefront, were common with this massive air machine. In the Army Air Forces, there were 52,651 stateside aircraft accidents, killing 14,093 personnel.” But the B-24 didn’t kill Louis.

The author drives us reading passengers through air, land and sea in a literary way similar (to me) to Curtis Wilkie’s style in Fall of the House of Zeus. Her galloping sentences never wax into poetry or flowery prose yet they paint an unforgettable picture that entices readers of both genders, old and young. Do any of you remember back, a very long time ago, a television program called You are There? That’s how this author writes, as though we are there, right in the cockpit, in the endless Pacific, in the prisons.

Having been primarily a fiction reader during my twenty something years at Lemuria, I have recently discovered the joys of reading current nonfiction literature. If you like this book which is #1 on the bestseller’s list in this week’s Sunday paper, I would like to suggest two other “over the top” nonfiction reads, Eric Metaxas’ Bonhoeffer (see Norma’s blogs) and John Valliant’s The Tiger. You really should read these books.

-Pat

My renewed interest in the great writer Hemingway was ignited when I read the revised edition of A Moveable Feast, released in 2009, so when I learned that The Paris Wife chronicles the years that the writer spent in Paris with his first wife, Hadley, new interest arose. Those readers who love to read about the lives of famous writers will be intrigued, as will those who always enjoy historical fiction.

Largely based on facts that Paula McLain uncovered about the exciting and tumultuous times of the writer in the ’20s in Jazz Age Paris,  this new release opens a window, not only into the lives of the Hemingways and their adorable baby, whom they nicknamed “Mr. Bumby,” but also into the lives of such well known personalities as Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald, Ezra Pound, and Gertrude Stein among others. Those readers who have studied this time period already know of the magic, excitement, and intellectual pursuits which characterized the expatriates’  lives. The Paris Wife rounds out the picture with eloquence and carefully researched details.

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.

Hemingway’s 1921 passport used to travel with Hadley. (Photo: JFK Library.)

Since Hadley tells the story, we see the events through her eyes and feel her pain when the writer becomes moody and irritable and unfaithful.We also see her joy and pride as her husband rises in fame. The reader feels as if he or she is right there on the scene, watching through a peep hole encountering the private life of one of the world’s best writers as Hemingway develops his art, draws friends, and repulses new enemies. I could hardly put this book down in order to eat or sleep!

Hadley Richardson Hemingway 1891-1979. (Photo: JFK Library.)

Nancy Horan, best selling author of Loving Frank says,

“The Paris Wife is mesmerizing. Hadley Hemingway’s voice, lean and lyrical, kept me in my seat, unable to take my eyes and ears away from these young lovers.Paula McLain is a first rate writer who creates a world you don’t want to leave. I loved this book.”

Here’s hoping that Paula McLain, who received her MFA from the University of Michigan and has already written another novel, as well as collections of poetry, will take on the research it would take to look into the lives of  Hemingway’s other three wives and tell their stories. Just think of the uniqueness of a  collection like that, if she should do so. I know that I’d be reading all of them.

I highly recommend this novel The Paris Wife. We have already sold over a dozen copies even though the book has only been at Lemuria for a week or so. Nationally, The Paris Wife is also doing well. I am sure that I will chose it for our book club “Atlantis” as one of the future selections.

The Paris Wife by Paul Mclain (Random House/Ballantine, 2011)

A Moveable Feast is a collection of essays concerning the years of 1921-26 when Hemingway was in Paris with Hadley. Published posthumously, the 1964 first edition of A Moveable Feast opens with this memorable quotation:

“If you are lucky enough to have lived in Paris as a young man, then wherever you go for the rest of your life, it stays with you, for Paris is a moveable feast.”

-Ernest Hemingway, to a friend, 1950

A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway (Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1964)

See Lisa’s blog on the 2009 edition of A Moveable Feast.

See Norma’s blog on her Unexpected Trip to Hemingway’s Key West Home

-Nan