1. Who was the most reluctant famous Mississippian to be profiled (hint: this Mississippian owns all of his or her own photos — and didn’t want to give us permission to publish his or her likeness)?

2. What was the most expensive photograph to acquire for publication?

3. Who is the relatively unknown Mississippian who was the force behind Die Hard, 48 Hours, Predator, Point Break and Field of Dreams?

4. Who was the fastest man to ever play baseball – a name, perhaps, one we’ve never before heard?

5. What Mississippian sent comic skits scribbled on notebook paper to Saturday Night Live – and soon became head writer for the show?

6. What Mississippian has the largest collection of first-edition magazines in the world?

7. What Mississippians has one of the largest collections of blues photography in the world – and is one of the few non-musicians to be inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame?

8. What Mississippian was the first female African American postmaster in the U.S?

9. What Mississippian is the only American to live – with permission – in North Korea?

10. What Mississippian heads a company that will change the way Americans use electricity?

11. What African-American Mississippian was responsible for the Teddy Bear craze?

12. What Mississippian received the most nominations (this person is not featured in the book).

13. Who has been nominated for next year’s edition?

14. Who was intentionally left out of the 2010 edition?

Tonight at Lemuria Books, find the answers to these questions – and more!

Also, meet editor Neil White, as well as the Mississippians listed below (all are happy to inscribe for Christmas gifts):

1. Gary Grubbs, one of film and television’s most recognizable character actors.

2. John Maxwell, award-winning actor and playwright.

3. Martha Bergmark, found of the Mississippi Center for Justice, a group that is changing the legal landscape of Mississippi.

4. William Goodman, emerging visual artist

5. Mike and Cathy Stewart, America’s top dog trainers and breeders (their dogs sell for $12,000 each)

6. Howard Bahr, award-winning author.

In my previous blog post, I raved about Karen Russell’s short story collection St. Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised by Wolves. Since then I’ve received an advance copy of her new novel Swamplandia! which centers on a family from one of the St. Lucy’s stories.

Set in the swamplands of Florida, Russell’s novel focuses on the Bigtree family:  owners of the theme park Swamplandia!, faux Native-Americans, and alligator wrestlers.  The narration oscillates between the youngest Bigtree child Ava and her older brother Kiwi, and it explores the heartache of losing Hilola Bigtree, wife, mother, and alligator-wrestler extraordinaire, to cancer.

In addition to their grief, the family must cope with the loss of interest in Floridian swampland culture and history—essentially the Bigtree way of life and source of pride.  Tourists stop coming to see the Bigtrees wrestle their Seths (the Bigtree name for all of their alligators), preferring a new corporate-owned theme park called the World of Darkness in which you can go through a simulated water-park version of “hell.”  The World of Darkness becomes a hell for poor Kiwi Bigtree as he joins forces with his family’s enemy to send money home.  He suffers through bad food, poor living arrangements, shady co-workers, and a cruel boss for his minuscule paycheck.  Meanwhile back in the swamps, his sisters Ossie and Ava venture to their own version of hell through Ossie’s spiritualist ventures and dates with the dead.

I was touched by this quirky family’s heartache and how each of them copes with their hardships.  You will be too.  I urge you to grab a copy of this book when it’s released in February.  Bonus: Karen Russell will be here signing Swamplandia! on March 25, 2011.  So get it, read it, then discuss it with Karen Russell herself!

Read Zita’s take on Swamplandia! here.  -Kaycie

Earth by The Daily Show with Jon Stewart (Grand Central Publishing, September 2010)

Jon Stewart takes readers through a clever look at various aspects of earthly living.  With an Alien Preface, this guide is a handbook for post-human existence.  Stewart and the writers of the Daily Show take these planetary outsiders through the gamut of all things Earth: from our of understanding of planetary geography to weather to evolution to the human body to reproduction. Our views of politics, science, and social practices, such as religion and weddings, are explained.

“For Earth, weather was the physical manifestation of daily and yearly fluctuations of the atmosphere. For us, weather was the topic of choice used to fill the myriad of awkward silences that plagued our daily lives.  No other shared experience evoked this kind of elemental empathy. Weather reminded us that we were all in this together, that for all our differences, rich and poor, black and white, zealot and atheist could all agree that yes, last Wednesday was, in fact, cold enough for us.”

Interspersed throughout are helpful FAQs (Future Alien Questions).  A few of my favorites include:

“Q: What was the happiest period in a human’s life?

A: Either the one immediately preceding the period one was currently in, or the one immediately following it.”

“Q: In a population of billions, how did you decide whom to marry?

A: Most of us believed we had one perfect soul mate somewhere on earth. Luckily for us, that person usually lived not too far away, spoke the same language, was of an equivalent level of physical attractiveness, and shared our love of mountain biking.”

-Peyton

First of all I would just like to thank all of the crafters out there in the world for dedicating their lives to be surrounded by precious handmade things. Second of all I have made it my life’s mission to join their ranks. The next time you walk through the doors of Lemuria be sure to check out the most awesome craft section at the far end of the front desk.

Within the past month and a half I have become obsessed with embroidery. Not just any embroidery though, this is Jenny Hart embroidery. Jenny Hart is the queen of the crafters. She has her own company online called Sublime Stitching where you can buy all kinds of hip patterns. Or better yet, you can buy her books! We have two of her books in the store and they are great!

She can teach the most beginner of beginner embroiderers how to stitch. She includes easy to understand how-to illustrations of a number of popular stitches, along with super cute projects. Her first book is called Sublime Stitching, which is great and has a TON of reusable embroidery transfers. However, her newest book Embroidered Effects is my favorite!

Seriously, the cuteness is unending. There is such a variety of patterns that you will want to make something for everyone you know. Inexpensive Christmas gifts perhaps? Well that is what everyone is getting from me! And might I add I will be creating all these awesome handmade goodies in the crafting room I have set up in my house. I know, I know.

But honestly Jenny Hart is not the only crafter with some great books out there. Our craft shelves have some of the best. -Ellen

Flipping through the galley of Mississippians, I gratefully acknowledged the bios and pictures of Mississippi greats so familiar from literature, racial reconciliation history, music, education and art in this comprehensive Hall of Fame.

Then I saw the dogs, dogs standing at attention next to a handsome, outdoorsy looking fellow named Mike Stewart, owner and trainer at Wildrose Kennels right up in old Oxpatch, 143 acres of field just for training and housing English labs whose genetic make up comes from dogs with such regal sounding homes as Queensbury Estate in Scotland and Arley Hall Estates in England.

Ranked by Forbes magazine (April 2009, complete with pictures of Mike and labs) as one of the best recession proof businesses in the USA, Wildrose Kennels specializes in training labs to do just about anything you can imagine and more. One of the newer programs is training in diabetic alert.

These dogs are taught to retrieve, to hunt, to play, to obey. They can even major in adventure. Lucky dogs. Rather expensive dogs, ($1,500 for a pup, $15,000 for a fully trained adult), Mike says the dogs don’t cost as much as a big fine car which you swap out every four years or so. These dogs are now living all over the world and people fly in from near and far to be a part of the training and purchasing of these fine working and companion dogs.

Mr. Stewart was Ole Miss Chief of Police from 1981-2000 and equates training dogs with keeping students well behaved at the University, quipping that dogs and college kids both need consistency and repetition to be good citizens.

Character wise, I will say this fella is way up there. Who, owning kennels in Oxford, Arkansas and Colorado, has time to call an admiring, blogging bookseller in Jackson, MS for an inteview over the phone? He does. And he’s prompt. He even invited me up to train any shelter puppy from my own copious list on www.sitstay.petfinder.com. Lucky me. Thanks, Neil White, for introducing me to this hospitable, gentlemanly entrepreneur whose passion for dogs equals my own and many others in this gone-to-the-dogs world.

-Pat