Howard Frank Mosher was at Lemuria last night signing his new book, Walking to Gatlinburg.  Though this was one of Lemuria’s more modest events, such a good time was had by us booksellers speaking to Mr. Mosher about his book tour and his new book that I wanted to share it with you.

Walking to Gatlinburg is about a young man named Morgan who journeys to the South from Vermont during the Civil War to find his brother, a doctor in the Union Army who has gone missing.  As Morgan’s chasing down his brother, he’s being chased himself by a band of escaped convicts who are desperate for something he’s got in his possession.  Along the way to Gatlinburg, he meets several eccentric characters, including a weeping elephant and a woman who lives in a tree.  He also meets a young slave girl, Slidell, whose mystery and beauty captivate him and who may hold the answer to why he’s being pursued.  Mr. Mosher told us the story that inspired him to write Walking to Gatlinburg, and then was eager to tell us about his next book, which he happened to be researching at the very moment he was chatting with us…

He’s going to write a book about his book tour!  He’s driving around the country in his beat-up sedan, popping into around 100 indie bookstores.  Ours was one he was really looking forward to, he said; he’s been here for some of his earlier books, and always loves exploring our store.  I enjoyed getting a sneak preview of some of his adventures — he told me a few nights ago his car broke down when he was ten miles from a stop on his tour, with thirty minutes to go till the curtain opened.  He unloaded his equipment, including a slide projector and a tripod screen, and hitchhiked to the bookstore.  Of course he was ignored by the first 200 or so motorists, but when he was finally picked up, the truck driver who gave him a lift shook his head in disbelief the whole way to the bookstore, thinking his publisher was making him hitchhike to his events!  After the event last night, I checked out Mr. Mosher’s blog and found that he gave me only a small taste of the antics he’s been involved in.

One of the best things about meeting so many authors is talking to them about books.  Writers are book lovers just like us, and it is such a treat to get to talk to them about their adventures in reading.  We have a wonderful time at all of our events; even when the attendance is not ideal, getting to make the connection between a book and the fascinating person who wrote it is great fun.

Literary Jackson indeed!  We hadn’t caught our breath from the Kathryn Stockett events before we were hit by another good one.  Yesterday evening we had Alan Lange and Tom Dawson, the two authors of Kings of Tort, pay us a visit.  In case you didn’t get this book for Christmas, Kings of Tort came out in December last year and is about the Dickie Scruggs/Paul Minor fiasco that embarrassed and stunned Mississippi and the rest of the country in 2007.  Read John’s blog about it, written just before it came out.

After simply being around this book so much, it was really nice to hear Dawson and Lange talk about it.  These are two men who have completely immersed themselves in this scandal for years now, and what was so pleasant about listening to them speak was witnessing how excited and involved they still get when they talk about it.   One thing I realized after last night is that not only is the Scruggs/Minor story itself fascinating, the story of how this book came about – and the wealth of research involved in writing it – is interesting.  John’s blog described it as a ‘must-read’ for inquiring Mississippians; he’s right.

Susie

Well, Jackson, MS has had quite the literary week!!  Kathryn Stockett, Jackson native and author of The Help, was in town and did two great programs that were standing room only.  Tuesday night, she was at Millsaps College for the Arts & Lecture Series along with Todd Sanders, author of Jackson’s North State Street, where they both talked about Jackson history through culture, lifestyle and architecture.  Then on Wednesday morning Kathryn stopped at the Eudora Welty Library for the Applause Series hosted by the library and the Jackson Friends of the Library. Lemuria was on site at both events selling  books and showing support for two authors that are great friends of the bookstore.   If you can tell anything by the decibel level of the crowd before, during Q&A and after both events, a fantastic time was had by everyone!!

WLBT stopped by the Library and interviewed Kathryn so I thought I would link it here for you….

Hello all of you “raring-to-go” gardeners! Surely, surely spring is here now after the longest winter any of us can ever remember in Mississippi! It’s not time yet, at least for the next two weeks, or until Easter passes, to put out bedding plants, but it is time to get the beds ready and to go to the numerous beautiful garden centers to whet your appetites. Planting containers is great for now, because the problem of the cold ground is absent, and if we do have that Easter cold snap, you can just throw some plastic over the pots and not worry about losing those tender bedding plants. So, to get your green thumbs ready, I’ve picked out a selection of my favorite “bibles” in the world of the gardener.

Those of you who live in Mississippi will probably agree with me that three of the very best garden books to have on your shelf for proven plants and flowers which can actually endure through our long, hot, humid summers were written by natives of the area: Felder Rushing, Norman Winter, and Nellie Neal.  I have used all of these excellent manuals  for quite some time.

Tough Plants for Southern Gardens: Low Care, No Care, Tried and True Winners by Felder Rushing gives lots of applicable information about “unkillable” plants. Vivid photographs, sidebars full of detailed information, plus notes on soil, sun, or shade requirements accompany each entry.

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Tough as Nails Flowers for the South by Norman Winter offers over 170 proven performers of plants, bushes, and flowers. Each entry gives the origin of the flower, the method of propagation, light requirements and landscape use.  Also of added delight are the colorful photographs and a list of the color varieties of each plant and flower.

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For those gardeners who are interested in learning how to grow what they eat, then Nellie Neal’s Organic Gardening Down South is a must. With chapters on essential soil preparation, growing strategies, and pests, this tiny, paperback, “no-fluff” manual gives much needed information.

I have two large excellent  reference books, which I use when I need to know the background and requirements of a particular flower, bulb, plant, bush, or tree.  Mid South Garden Guide: The Essential Reference Tool for Every Gardener published by the Memphis Garden Club,  now in its seventh edition, is a book which my mother introduced me to about 25 years ago, and I still use her earlier edition as well.   The second reference book, which I recommend every gardener have on his or her shelf, is Neil Odenwald and James Turner’s Identification, Selection, and Use of Southern Plants for Landscape Design, now in its fourth edition. Though only black and white photos accompany the large quantity of flowers and plants represented, the text is what is important in these two encyclopedic publications which will be of tremendous value for the serious gardener who researches each flower or plant to be purchased.

If you need help in Lemuria’s garden section, just ask for Nan. I have arranged the garden section with various categories and sub categories, so that books can be easily be found. There is a garden book for each and every want or need, and new publications are coming in fast and furiously each week right now. Come in the store and pick out a new gardening book to use this season, or if you can’t get in the store, call me or order a new garden book on line from our web site.  And as most gardeners know, garden books might great gifts for family members and friends. All gardeners know that we have a small window of  glorious opportunity from now in late March until mid June for fun designing and planting before gardening becomes too hot and uncomfortable in July and August.

……………………..Happy Gardening!  -Nan

Chang-rae Lee lit up Lemuria Monday evening. Over 30 people attended the event, some devoted readers of Lee and some new to his work.

Lee, who immigrated to the United States from Korea with his parents at the age of three, talked about one of his motivations for writing a novel about the Korean War. His father had once told him the story of how he struggled to escape the violence of the Korean War as a child, of how he lost his younger brother to a gruesome fall from a boxcar crowded with others desperate to get away. As an accomplished novelist and teacher of creative writing at Princeton University, Chang-rae Lee patiently answered many eager questions from the audience.

After the event, I kept thinking about the excitement an author event generates. Why did I feel so giddy? I certainly was not the only one. Many of us on the staff at Lemuria–and certainly some of those in the audience–felt the same way.

Even though we may finish a novel and place it on the shelf, our experience with the novel goes on. It is what Sven Birkerts calls “the shadow life of reading”–we carry the book everywhere, our experience of the book and all of our life experience that relates to it. If we are lucky, we add to that experience the meeting of the author and other readers.

As Lee commented that evening, a novel is a work of art. We all know that anyone who cares about writing and books knows that an author shares a work full of heart and soul and commitment. When the reader meets the author, how can she not feel a little emotional? The author has touched the reader in some way and suddenly the author is there in front of you for a short period of time. Many authors, like Chang-rae Lee, are sincere and patient enough to give space to those of us full of curiosity and enthusiasm, full of stories, reflections and questions regarding the author’s work.

I had never read Chang-rae Lee before but after the first page I was a fan. The pages kept turning even though I was not initially ready to get into a big novel with such heavy themes.

The Surrendered is about the cost of war, in this case the Korean War. Lee follows three characters: Hector, a young man sent to fight in the war; June, a young Korean girl who must make heart-wrenching decisions during the war; and Sylvie, an American missionary working in an orphanage. Their lives intersect with all the heavy weight of the war burdening their daily struggles, and of course, the weight they carry for the rest of their lives.