Sometimes, despite our best efforts, books just fall through the cracks. I suppose the sheer volume of books that pass through our hands makes this inevitable, but it’s never too late to make amends — so that’s what I’m doing now.

When The Best of Zane Grey was released in May of last year, we ordered a copy, and it got swallowed up on the shelf, as happens to books sometimes (even good books). It wasn’t until December that we sold it. When the replacement copy came in, I saw the great cover and stopped to flip through it.

Immediately, I thought it’d be a great book to talk about here, especially with Christmas coming up. Then I put it out on the shelf, forgot about it, and didn’t remember I wanted to blog about it till it sold and the next copy came in. By then, I had a couple other things I was planning to write about, and it got pushed down the list of priorities again.

Fortunately, the book was brought to my attention again, and I’m glad to (finally) share it with you. Zane Grey (born with one of the all-time great “A Boy Named Sue” names — Pearl Zane Grey) was one of the first (and one of the greatest) American Western writers. It’s too bad that Zane Grey didn’t live to see modern publishing — his early life seems tailor-made for the back flap of a dust jacket, with the now-ubiquitous practice of listing every bizarre job or failed career move in the author bio. Grey worked as a movie-theater usher, played minor league baseball, practiced dentistry, and spent a great amount of time away from home fishing and consorting with mistresses.

He even has a great rejection story. Harper had rejected Grey’s first three novels, and when he met with Harper’s editor Ripley Hitchcock after submitting his fourth novel, Hitchcock told him, “I do not see anything in this to convince me you can write either narrative or fiction.” This fourth novel (The Last of the Plainsman) was finally published by a sporting magazine, with the understanding that Grey would receive no payment at all unless the book sold well enough to require a second printing. Of course, history has vindicated Zane Grey as an immensely popular author as well as a pioneer in the Western genre.

This new collection from Trafalgar Square brings together three of Grey’s later novels: Riders of the Purple Sage, The Trail Driver, and Rangers of the Lone Star.  I think this is an excellent introduction to one of the original Western writers who popularized the genre and paved the way for Louis L’Amour, Larry McMurtry, and Cormac McCarthy’s great Western novels.

The Best of Zane Grey (Trafalgar Square, 2010)

This time of the year bookstores are visited by publisher sales representatives to sell the next season’s books, now mostly May-September. While trying to figure out the present book business upheaval, I ask myself this question: Is the publisher going to support independent book selling? I feel that the publisher might actually need good independent bookstores now, perhaps more than anytime since the 80s.

The publisher sales rep is the independent’s voice to the publisher and that same rep is the publisher’s voice to the bookstore. Now more than ever, this role is important. Last week, I worked with Liz Sullivan, our very fine Random House rep. (One of three–their other great reps are Toni Hetzel and Sarah Nasif.) We discussed her value as the link in helping the independent bookstore make judgments that affect both sides drastically, especially in using the art of selling to prevent costly mistakes for both her concerned customers–bookseller and publisher.

Think about the concept of the publisher’s sales rep as a publisher’s customer. I think it’s an interesting idea. (The publisher must sell the sales rep good books at a sales conference so the rep can pass the correct knowledge on to the bookstore.)

Rodney Crowell kicked off his bookstore tour in January for Chinaberry Sidewalks at Lemuria. Made possible by Liz’s savvy match-making of bookstore to author, Lemuria’s community of readers were captivated at the event.

Most Lemuria customers are unaware as to how much a good sales rep affects our local community’s reading. Her association with Lemuria affects Lemuria’s association to Jackson’s readers. Liz’s behind the scene work affects the authors and the inventory quality for which you the reader get to choose from and experience first hand. Liz’s job is to inform us of the best books for Lemuria and our job is to present them to you. Working together, our job is one of editing to bring a great selection of books to you, our readers.

Liz encouraged us to read The Invisible Bridge; Lemurians and customers will attest that this was a wise choice. Invisible Bridge is still one of our most popular books in the fiction room. We wrote more than one blog for this one, but here is one.

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The point of all this is to make you aware of how valuable the publisher is in enabling the bookstore to survive and create a joint identity for reading in their local communities. Lemuria is fortunate in that we get to “make” books; sometimes Lemuria is the first step in introducing many authors not only to Jackson but also to our region. We want Jackson and Mississippi to continue to be a hot bed for literary events, magnetizing our region with the best books for each season. Why shouldn’t great writers and great books evolve out of Mississippi?

Lemuria’s close work with Random House/Crown enabled Mississippians to get the most out of this important book with our sneak previews and events with Curtis Wilkie.  Zeus was one of six books we worked on with Random House to secure for our First Editions Club 2010.

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Another question I ask: Where would e-reading books be if authors, reps, publishers and bookstores were not in sync and vital? E-books could be the best invention to re-establish the need for good bookstores and good publisher reps. Does this sound strange? Not to me, more people may be reading in January/February 2011 than in a long time and I hope they are enjoying good books in whatever format they choose to read them. If readers enjoy what they are reading, they read more.

For March of this year, we have been working intensely on these two debut novelists, Téa Obreht and Karen Russell, both of whom are already receiving copious amounts of national praise. Lemurians loved reading both of these books. As a result of Toni and Liz’s work, we picked them for our First Editions Club and secured author visits with Karen Russell and Téa Obreht in late March. Lemurians could not even wait until Swamplandia came out; Kaycie and Zita were blogging about it in 2010. (Many thanks to Toni and Liz!)

Will more readers cause more excitement to be created about authors visiting Mississippi? As far as e-books go, at present Lemuria has no desire to sell e-books and may never, but who knows what the winds of change or what the future will bring.

However, I can assure you that Liz and the Lemuria staff worked hard last week to associate Random House through Lemuria with the goal of giving Jackson the best possible book selection. We strove to arrange prime author appearances (regional and national) for our local community and Mississippi. Enjoy reading and loving books. It’s a decent way to live.

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)

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If you’ve been following our blog, you probably already know that I made a New Year’s Resolution to read 50 books this year.  And if you didn’t already know that, then you can read about it here.

One month has passed and I needed to read at least five books by the end of it.  Well, I’m going to go ahead and pat myself on the back because I ended up reading eight books by January 28. Since I had decided to make my progress on this reading resolution public, I thought I’d tell you guys about what I’ve read and also what my favorites were.

Here’s the list:

1. My Mother She Killed Me, My Father He Ate Me: 40 New Fairy Tales edited by Kate Bernheimer

2. The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami (I talked about this book a little bit in my first New Year’s resolutions post.)

3. Penny Dreadful by Laurel Snyder

4. Five Quarters of the Orange by Joanne Harris (read my take on that here)

5. The Woman Who Wouldn’t by Gene Wilder (yes, that Gene Wilder, you know, Willy Wonka from Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory)

6. We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson

7. My Horizontal Life by Chelsea Handler

8. Alice I Have Been by Melanie Benjamin (read Ellen’s take on this book here)

I must admit that it was pretty hard to choose a favorite out of what I read last month since I read a few different genres–fiction, humor, and children’s literature.  So I have a tie.  And the winners are…We Have Always Lived in the Castle, The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, and Penny Dreadful.  They’re all quite different from each other, but I finished both We Have Always Lived in the Castle and Penny Dreadful in one day.  I couldn’t put either of them down.  Shirley Jackson’s novel was perfectly constructed and delightfully twisted while Laurel Snyder’s Penny Dreadful was precious and heartwarming. And as for The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, well, it’s just hard to beat Murakami in my book.

I hope your own New Year’s resolutions are coming along nicely.  Please do let me know if you have any suggestions for my reading quest. I would love to hear from you (in fact most of this month’s books were suggestions from my fellow Lemurians).  -Kaycie

Whether it’s the googly-eyed peanuts or the braided hair door handles, Amy Sedaris shares her well-honed hospitality skills in I Like You: Hospitality Under the Influence.

Need to know the best way to usher you and your girlfriends into a proper Ladies’ Night? You’ve got to get the right wig, apparently, so there’s a chart included.  Or maybe how to appropriately entertain the elderly? Study her suggestions; they’re tried and true. For instance, on the geriatric menu, don’t forget “three gin-soaked raisins. This is good to have every day because it helps with arthritis.”

With my love of sweets, I enjoyed the “Cavity-Hole” chapter.  Here are hilarious ideas to brighten up any celebration.  From the Band-Aid shaped “We Can Fix It” cake to a “Happy Coming Out” cake, Amy Sedaris presents such an amusing mixture of comedy and her culturally aware insights to produce this handbook of sorts. The “Gift-Giving” chapter is also fun; a topic she expounds upon in her latest book Simple Times: Crafts for Poor People. These books are straight funny! Check them out!

-Peyton

Festooned by a calligraphic black spill across the dust jacket, white block letters announce that this book is “The International Bestseller” written by a very young Italian who just happens to also be a physicist. Against a stark pure white background are two slightly wet peas in a green pod and the title in uneven black block letters.

There is a reason for spending time describing the dust jacket. First, the jacket itself is a metaphor for the whole story inside, a kind of meditation of the whole reduced to the one page you see first (e-books are simply not as good at enticing the reader). The three toned cover is an artistic invitation inviting us to gently enter. Do come in, it says.

Secondly, after finishing the book last night, I can assure you that just reflecting on this cover will remind you of the beautiful language inside that propels us almost imperceptibly. The pace comes from an emotional yet unsentimental rhythm that keeps us afloat in spite of all apparent circumstances.

The two “peas” of this book are Alice Della Rocca, just nine-years-old, forced by her domineering father to attend ski school every morning, supposedly somewhere in the Italian Alps. The ski instructor, like her father, are success driven types who disdain slackers. Alice has just had breakfast and the milk was spoiled. Needless to say, once she’s mummified into her ski clothes and left for the morning where she simply doesn’t want to be, things get a little out of hand. She feels a little sick and needs a bathroom but such silliness is verboten in this snowfilled outdoor classroom.

She disappears into the white snow and blinding fog, searching for a private space. She suffers an injury to her leg that will isolate her from most of the joys of growing up while creating psychic wounds that make coping a world weary struggle.

The other “pea” is Mattias Balossino, gifted intellectually and mathematically, whose twin sister was born with severe mental disabilities. Mattias is his sister’s keeper. That being his duty, these two live mostly on the fringe of childhood. One day, they are both invited, rather reluctantly, to a classmate’s birthday party. Mattias, the perennial caregiver to his mentally challenged sister, makes an impulsive decision to leave Michela, his twin, in the park while he attends the party by himself. This choice will alter the course of his life, leaving him with both visible and invisible wounds, rendering his psyche, like Alice’s, damaged.

This brings us to the third reason to note how the cover mirrors the story inside. This is a love story. A timely blog to honor cupid’s own Valentine’s Day. You just might figure the love part of this book while noting the two green peas in a singular green pea pod, broken off its branch. If it weren’t for this emerald, verdant green on the front, the colors would be just black and white perhaps suggesting that the story inside is an almost unbearable story of sadness and missed opportunities, which it is, partly.

But you see, this is a story fueled by love, surprising types of love. Not just the romantic kind that sees stars and feels desire. It is a story about two damaged people who somehow support each other through the agonies of adolescence, isolated from the crowd. A bullying young girl plots an encounter between Alice and Mattias, knowing the results will be humiliating for the two of them. Her plot turns on her and instead of triumph, she feels jealousy. Not all love stories end up happily ever after. But some leave us with a more satisfying hope of good things yet to come.

Also see Kelly’s blog on Prime Numbers

The Solitude of Prime Numbers by Paolo Giordano (Penguin, 2010)

-Pat