It has come to my attention that a very important aspect of Lemuria life is receiving a limited amount of attention. People rave about our first edition copies, our signed books and our classic hardcovers and paperbacks. People love the signed photos of authors, the cozy nooks and the kooky reading glasses. But one thing no one talks about is our chairs.

The time has come to break the silence. The chairs at Lemuria are one of the most important parts of the store. Without the chairs, patrons and employees alike would have no place to sit and discreetly read an entire travel book (on a place they may or may not ever visit). Without the chairs, our story lady would be left standing in Oz every Saturday morning. Our chairs serve as an intristic part of our bookstore culture, providing those cozy nooks we know and love with a sublte personality and a slightly worn feel as if to say, “Give me your tired, your poor worn out back. I offer you a moment of peace. Now, take unto you that book with 102938109283 pictures of Porches. Dare, just for a moment, to dream.”

Maybe you think I am crazy. How much can a few chairs really offer? To reinforce my point, I would like to share a few pictures.

Exhibit A: The Garden Chair. This delightful number has a soft, velveteen cover and arms to prop your elbows on as you peruse the gardening section. Kelly today noted that once you sit down in this chair, it is difficult to convince yourself to move.

Exhibit B: the Oz chair. Although its most common tenant is rejected books that our younger patrons leave behind for us to reshelve, every Satruday morning you can find Miss JoAnn here sharing stories at 10:00 AM. My favorite part about the Oz chair is the welcoming wicker back, giving it a home-y look and feel.

Below you will notice Exhibit C.

This chair usually holds a few books from our car and pet section (a nook back near Oz and across from Travel and cookbooks). However, if you want to sit in a similar chair look no further than the Fiction room, home to this chair’s doppleganger (pictured below as Exhibit D).

This fantastic chair has more than once doubled as a stepladder for reaching the elusive copies up above us.

If you have come to browse with a friend, there is nothing finer than a chair for two (also known as a loveseat). One of the prettiest seats in the store lurks for you in southern fiction/culture.  Exhibit E: The Loveseat.

Below, Exhibit F: Not a chair.

Below, Exhibit G: A chair Yvonne refuses to sit in.

And don’t forget Exhibit H: The awkward chair situated dangeroulsy close to the Oz/Main store zone.

And finally, my favorite chair in the entire store: Exhibit I (get it?!), the chair located behind the registers that everyone should try the next time they are in the store!

-Nell

Many readers have been asking us what to read after The Help. Two books that have satisfied my soaring emotions after reading The Help were In Search of Our Mothers’ Gardens by Alice Walker and Tongues of Flame by Mary Ward Brown.

Walker’s book is a collection of essays written in the 60s and 70s about civil rights, Alice’s time spent in Jackson, essays written about Zora Neal Hurston and essays written about the act of writing. The title essay, “In Search of Our Mothers’ Gardens,” brought me to tears. It is about the African-American woman’s struggle for creative outlets throughout history. Alice writes of African-American women in the post-Reconstruction South: “exquisite butterflies trapped in an evil honey, toiling their lives away in an era, a century, that did not acknowledge them, except as ‘the mule of the world.’ They dreamed dreams no one knew–not even themselves, in any coherent fashion–and saw visions no one could understand. They wandered or sat by the countryside crooning lullabies to ghosts, and drawing the mother of Christ in charcoal on courthouse walls” (232).

Alice writes that these women “have handed on the creative spark, the seed of the flower they themselves never hoped to see” (240). Alice writes of her own mother, “ordering the universe in the image of her personal conception of Beauty” (241) in her garden, known three-counties-wide.

This is what brings me to tears: thinking of all the mothers, and grandmothers, and great grandmothers seeking creative outlets, avenues for expression of their own version of Beauty. Often this took place in the home. My own grandparents, son and daughter of German immigrants, were poor, a tiny house in the middle of dusty central Texas. My grandmother sewing by hand the quilts she would hand down to her children, grandchildren, great grandchildren . . .

Thinking about the stifling limits of slavery and segregation for African American women, thinking about the particular struggles of poor immigrant women is humbling. Their hands hold us up today, giving us the freedom to pursue any whim of creativity or self-exploration.

John wrote an earlier blog about Mary Ward Brown’s new memoir Fanning the Spark. This memoir actually connects beautifully to Alice’s essay “In Search of Our Mothers’ Gardens.” Mary writes about the security her parents afforded her by leaving her their land and house. The house, where she writes her short stories, she still lives in today.

*

Her first collection of short stories, Tongues of Flame, was published in 1986. Mary Ward Brown spent her earlier years caring for her family, reading, and earning a living. She opted to write and publish late in life. Tongues of Flame was awarded the Pen/Hemingway award for fiction.

What I find consoling about this collection, after reading The Help, is that she writes of the time following the civil rights movement and the evolving relationships between blacks and whites in the South. “Beyond New Forks” particularly echoes The Help as it captures the complexity of the relationship between a white woman and a black woman, Queen Esther. It was Queen’s mother who raised these two, side by side. Additionally, the story deals with a new generation of African Americans who must find a redefined place in society after desegregation. It is Queen’s daughter who struggles to find an identity in the rural South, which does not include cleaning and cooking for a white woman. Queen Esther and her white counterpart must both reconcile the societal changes they have witnessed in their lifetimes.

The Collected Songs of Cold Mountain

Translated by Red Pine

Copper Canyon Press (2000)

About five years ago during some troubles, a friend visited while he was reading The Collected Songs. Before he left, he gave me his copy with the inscription: “For John, who could use this book.” And I have: reading, rereading and rereading again.

China’s monk-poet, Han Shan “Cold Mountain” wrote these poems 1200 years ago on rocks, trees and mountain walls. From a secluded simple life in his cave, Cold Mountain wrote simple unpretentious poetry. His poems esteemed for their spiritual honesty, poignancy and humor were written for everyone not just the educated elite. When Cold Mountain disappeared into the cliffs, his poems were collected and preserved.

Red Pine’s (Bill Porter) translation of Cold Mountain’s work enhances the reader’s experience, adding interpretive depth. Red Pine leads the reader to self-exploration through Cold’s insightful gift.

This beautiful collection will be my life-long companion to revisit again and again, enhancing my days. My life has been touched by this book and is different today as a result. A life enhanced by a fine gift from one understanding reader to another. This blog is my thanks to a friend.

Read more about Cold Mountain in a previous post of mine.

The temptation to wax nostalgic exists in any sport. Baseball fans decry the rampant steroid use and remember when 50 home runs was a historic season. Basketball fans recall the great Lakers – Celtics rivalries and wonder if passing and defense will ever come back into style. And race fans pine for the days when the cars were beautiful and dangerous, not computer-laden pre-programmed speed appliances.

A. J. Baime’s book Go Like Hell recounts the battle between Ford and Ferrari at Le Mans in the late ’60s. The fight between the exclusive Italian marque and the American industry giant is at the center of the shift from the early days of unregulated automobile racing to the modern safety-conscious multi-billion dollar business that it has become.

More than just a book for race fans, Go Like Hell is really a lens into the clash of American and European cultures in the 1960s. Le Mans provides a focal point, but the story encompasses so much more — industrial globalization, the safety crusade led by Ralph Nader, and a personal battle between Enzo Ferrari and Henry Ford II.

I am home from Sarasota, Florida.  I did a fair amount of reading while I was away, and I’ve got a few recommendations for everyone.

Due to the upcoming event with Elmore Leonard, I decided it was time to check out the man’s work.  I wanted to start with a critically acclaimed earlier novel of Leonard’s.  Killshot caught my eye.  After reading only a few chapters, I understood why Leonard is so highly praised.  He is a great writer, and has a knack for telling a gripping story.

Killshot is the story of Carmen and Wayne Colson, a married couple who manage to find themselves in the wrong place at the wrong time.  Their paths cross with that of Armand Degas, a hitman also known as the Blackbird, and Richie Nix, a demented bank robber and killer.  The two criminals, in fear of the Colson’s ability to identify them, set about to kill them in spite of police involvement and the witness protection program.  However, the Colson’s are not the average couple, and Degas and Nix discover that they may be unable to meet the challenge.

I was hooked by Killshot from chapter one, and I would recommend the novel for first-time Leonard readers.  Leonard’s character development is great, his language is creative and original, and the story is worth your time.  Even if you don’t like crime fiction or mysteries, if you are a fan of fiction at all, you won’t be disappointed by this book.

Moving forward, since I was at the beach I figured reading a pirate novel made sense.  Some months back, John informed me that John Steinbeck’s first novel, Cup of Gold, was an excellent book to read while looking at water.  Being a fan of Steinbeck already, I decided to take the book along with me.  I’m glad I did, the novel was entertaining and informative, giving a concise and readable account of the life and adventures of Captain Henry Morgan.

My first experience with Steinbeck came through reading Cannery Row.  That novel helped propel me into my love for reading, and I have revered Steinbeck ever since.  Cup of Gold is interesting because it allows the reader to see Steinbeck in his earliest years as a published writer.  I read a few reviews of the novel, and some have suggested that Cup of Gold is an excellent book for young writers to read in order to see a great writer’s humble beginnings.  Check this novel out if you want to see Steinbeck in historical fiction action, or if you’re interested in seeing his transition from a good writer to a fantastic one.

Lastly, treading nonfiction territory, I’ve been reading Francis S. Collins’s The Language of God.  Collins is a devout Christian and devout evolutionist.  He is head of the Human Genome Project, and is renowned in the scientific community.  His book attempts to bridge the gap between the communities of faith and science.  The Language of God spells out Collins’s reasons for subscribing to Darwinian evolution.  At the same time, Collins delves into philosophical territory, acknowledging the fact that science will never be able to answer the fundamental questions of what it means to be human–his reason for practicing faith.  Collins also spells out his reasoning for being a theistic evolutionist, and how these terms do not have to clash.

The book spells out many of the terms kicked around between scientists and believers, including Young Earth Creationism, Intelligent Design, and Theistic Evolution.  Regardless of where one stands in relation to evolution, creationism, intelligent design, etc., Collin’s book is intelligent, elegant, and respectful.  He is a refreshing and much-needed voice for the clashing communities of faith and science.

-Ellis