The reviews of Wilkie’s Zeus are starting to appear in our local publications. Adam Lynch of the Jackson Free Press makes comparisons between Zeus and Lange/Dawson’s Kings of Tort published in 2009. Read Lynch’s review here. Bill Minor also wrote a review on Zeus in The Clarion Ledger. Read it here. Read more reviews for Kings of Tort here.

Read Both Books & Form Your Own Opinion

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With The Fall of the House of Zeus, Curtis Wilkie has given us a portrait of Mississippi’s political and legal climate over the last 40 years. Zeus truly is a modern classic of Mississippi history. Zeus will endure, be taught in schools and considered by many as the primary study of these Mississippi times.

We all know the Scruggs story, but Wilkie weaves a path through the people with whom this powerful man came in contact. Political influences by those in charge are more intricate than the newspaper followers of the story, like myself, are aware of. Wilkie gives us first-hand insight into how this powerful game of charades seemed to be played. He exposes not just the flaws of legal character but the flaws of political gamesmanship as well. The quilt Curtis sews covers the gambit of a Mississippi Who’s Who of these two professions. It’s amazing how many characters are a part of the Scruggs web and how many willingly signed on or fell into the trap of Scruggs’s powerful ride to the top. It seemed there was no limit to how many Scruggs influenced with his personal display and hand-me-out payola.

Zeus drips with the sleaze of our system with its players constantly taking advantage of how it works for so much private gain. It appears Zeus hid behind the sharing of wealth for good causes, feeding his ego with the power his success bought. However, this is a confusing character front as Zeus slip-sided his way through the system’s maze to generate huge wealth. Wilkie exposes as much as he can figure out about Scruggs’s personal side, the public image he gave, and his ego.

Five months ago when I finished reading House of Zeus for the first time, I called Curtis to tell him how much I liked and appreciated his hard work. We both loved Willie Morris, and I told Curtis that Willie would have loved this book and would be very proud for him. I wished Willie were alive to experience the reactions to Zeus’s publication.

As I am now rereading House of Zeus, I believe Curtis Wilkie has given Mississippi a great enduring chronicle of our time. It’s impressive Mississippi journalism at its height. I’m very pleased to work on this fine book which I believe every Mississippian should read and talk about. The Fall of the House of Zeus could have long range positive effects on our system and how it should and should not work.

Click here to see other profiles in Mississippians. Editor Neil White will be signing Mississippians at Lemuria on  Thursday, October 28th. Purchase a copy online or call the bookstore 601/800.366.7619.

We hope to see you at the signing/reading event for The Fall of the House of Zeus with Curtis Wilkie on Thursday, October 21st. If you cannot attend, you can reserve a signed copy online.

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i saw this book come in a few weeks ago and immediately fell in love with the looks of it and had to have it.  they say you shouldn’t judge a book by it’s cover but i say phooey.  cover judging is how i’ve found most of my favorite books including this little gem.

the books starts off with skippy’s dramatic death scene in a doughnut shop which i thought would just ruin the whole story but boy was i wrong.  this is one hell of a “coming of age” story that delves into your normal growing up misadventures and goes on to other dimensions almost literally.

by Zita

The Fall of the House of Zeus by Curtis Wilkie (Crown, October 19, 2010)

“In late May 1994, the case to recover damages from Big Tobacco for Mississippi was filed in chancery court in Pascagoula, the home of Moore and Scruggs.” (page 58)

“For Mississippi, Moore would serve as the public official representing the state’s interests, while Scruggs would emerge as the principle voice for the plaintiffs. They worked in tandem, backed by the investments of others in the group . . . They called themselves the ‘Health Advocates Litigation Team’–HALT for short.” (page 58)

“Scruggs’s practice of making lone decisions for the partnership annoyed some of his associates. His freewheeling style and his propensity to make secret side payments to people such as P. L. Blake also ate into his own resources.” (page 59)

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We hope to see you at the signing/reading event with Curtis Wilkie on Thursday, October 21st, but if you cannot attend, you can reserve a signed copy online.

Click here to open an account on our website and we can save your information for future visits to LemuriaBooks.com.

You can also call the bookstore at 601/800.366.7619 and we can put your name on our reserve list.

Read other excerpts from The Fall of the House of Zeus.

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The current #1 movie in the country is The Social Network – if you don’t already know, it’s the movie about the making of Facebook. (don’t be ashamed if you didn’t know – I’m so in the dark that I haven’t actually seen a single ad for this movie although I’m certain they are everywhere – curiously not during football games though) So, what does the bookstore nerd do when a big movie comes out? Especially since I don’t really do movies anymore – I haven’t watched an entire movie in probably a year. Well, of course the bookstore nerd doesn’t go to the movie – he reads the book. The Social Network is based on Ben Mezrich’s 2009 book Accidental Billionaires. (Mezrich is the guy who wrote Bringing Down the House – the book about the M.I.T. students who beat Vegas)

Lemuria has been trying very hard lately to figure out how to give the best service we can to our customers on Facebook – I actually think it’s a great tool for us to communicate with you. Facebook is trying to help you put your social experience online. 500 million people are on Facebook – that’s one in 14 on the planet. So, a lot of people are on Facebook, but also folks are  logging in more often and stay on Facebook longer than any other site. We know you’re on there, so please “like us” on Facebook and dialog with us so we can learn how to give you the best service that we can on Facebook.

But what about the book? Accidental Billionaires is fast paced, sexy, and gives you all of the inside scoop about the “social network” of friends who started the ultimate “social network” website. (Mark Zuckerberg, Eduardo Saverin, and friends) It illustrates very well the excitement of those first days. There seems to be no question that the original idea came from Zuckerberg’s frustrations with the dating scene on the Harvard campus. I think it has a few faults – it’s hard to tell what Facebook was in those first days. It sounds like it was just a profile that others could view – a pure ego site.  I know the actual evolution of the site doesn’t make for a page turner, but a little bit of info would have been nice. My other criticism is in the origin of the title, Accidental Billionaires, I think the idea that Zuckerberg just stumbled onto this idea is false. The book downplays all of the continued work and creativity still going on that keeps Facebook vibrant and constantly in the media – it may be that all of those who got rich by being “friends” with Zuckerberg got “accidentally” rich, but I don’t believe for a second that it was an accident for Zuckerberg himself.

So, enjoy the movie and if our bookstore is important to you then consider letting us into your social media world by “liking” us here. Thanks