Lots of people know about Lemuria’s stellar reputation for carrying First Editions and signed books but what some may not realize is that we also have some rare collectibles. If you’re a book collector or a collector of collectibles who likes to collect, you should definitely check out our First Editions room and our Fine First Editions room. Customers are always welcome to browse (AND BUY!) from these special collections. Don’t be intimidated by the fact that both rooms double as offices… just come on in and shop!

It helps to know what you’re getting into before you take on Lemuria’s First Editions Rooms. Our primary First Editions Room consists of both signed and unsigned books including First Editions, Advanced Readers Copies, Uncorrected Proofs and Limited Editions. The books in the First Editions Room start at the retail price and go up to $100-$200, whereas the books in the Fine First Editions Room begin at $100-$200 and higher.

Over the years John has accrued a wide variety of super cool things… everything from signed baseballs, books and posters to signed Bibles. There are lots of cheesy quips I could make about the “signed Bible” but I figure I’ll just explain that in 1999 Barry Moser published the only 20th century edition of the King James Bible that is illustrated by just one artist. Moser’s Holy Bible has an original illustration for every book of the Old and New Testaments. The limited edition of the book is two hand-bound volumes. Each volume is laid into its own linen covered tray case and the bindings are full limp vellum (animal hide) with titles stamped in 24-karat gold on the cover and spine. Only 400 copies of the limited edition were printed and they currently sell for $12,500 a piece… yes, you read that correctly, $12,500! According to Moser, the paper for each book of the Bible is made up of one goat… so you can understand why the limited edition is worth this much.

However, if the limited edition is out of your price range you may want to check out the facsimile of the book, also published in 1999 by Viking Press. Viking’s edition is much more affordable at $175 but needless to say, is not quite as rare. You can find a copy of Viking’s edition of The Holy Bible in the ART CASE…

The Art Case is one of the most neglected treasures in Lemuria. It provides a home for rare and out of print art books as well as oversized books that don’t fit on other shelves and may otherwise be overlooked on displays around the store.

Some other cool books you might find if you browse through the art case include:

Le Corbusier’s Sketchbooks in volumes three and four which are both out of print

Venice: The Grand Canal, by Daniele Resini, a photography book that is made up of one continual page that extends from the book’s case and exhibits each side of the canal in its entirety, one side on the front page and the other side of the canal on the back page.

Later Chinese Painting and Calligraphy: 1800-1950 by Robert Hatfield Ellsworth

If you’re a book collector or a collector of collectibles who likes to collect, you should definitely check out our First Editions Room, Fine First Editions Room and our beautiful selection of books in the art section and particularly, in the Art Case.

Ok folks hold onto your hats…it has been confirmed today that in our store, Lemuria, we will have at the same time some of the best crime fiction writers in the world!  Are you ready…Elmore Leonard, Michael Connelly, George Pelecanos, and Peter Leonard will be here on June 15, 2009.  They will be signing at 5:30 and then down in the DotCom building at 6:30 there will be a panel discussion and you can ask all the questions that you want to!!!  Can you believe it?!?!?  I will be off that week because I will have gotten married on June 13 but I just might have to come up here for this event.

Elmore Leonard is back with his first contemporary novel since 2004.  In Road Dogs, Leonard brings back some of his favorite characters.  Jack Foley from Out of Sight is serving out the rest of his 30 year sentence for bank robbery and has made a friend in the Miami Penitentiary who might be able to help him out with that problem.  Cundo Rey from LaBrava, a former transvestite go-go dancer and now Foley’s fellow wealthy inmate, arranges for Foley’s sentence to be reduced, released a week before himself and a place to live (in his pink house).  Waiting at home for Rey, is his common-law wife and psychic, Dawn Navarro from Riding the Rap.  She has her own motives for waiting for Cundo to come home mainly his money.  She wants it all!!  When Jack arrives at the house she thinks she might have found the perfect partner to help her with her plans.  Cundo is Jack’s good friend but can he trust him and can either of them trust Dawn?  Road Dogs is typical Leonard and you will love seeing Cundo, Jack, and Dawn back in action and working together…or are they?

Michael Connelly brings back Jack McEvoy from The Poet to a thriller that is just as creepy!  In The Scarecrow , Jack is still a crime beat reporter but he has just been laid off from the Times.  The same day he receives this news he gets a phone call from a lady saying that he is a liar.  Ms. Sessums’ drug dealing grandson, Alonzo Winslow, has been arrested and confessed to the murder of a young woman found strangled in the trunk of her car.  Ms. Sessums swears he is innocent and wants Jack to recant his article he had written the week before.  Since he is being forced to leave the paper he decides to go out with a bang and begins to investigate the murder and uncovers that the confession is bogus and connects this murder with an earlier murder in Las Vegas.  Jack begins to realize that this might be his biggest story since the Poet murders, which jump-started his career, but what he doesn’t know is that the killer is on to him and is waiting and watching his every move.

George Pelecanos has been called “one of the most literary of America’s crime writers”  In The Way Home Chris Flynn a “bad kid from a good family” has been given a second chance.  With the help of his loving parents he had started a new life after spending a good bit of his teenage years in juvenile prison.  While at his new job of laying carpet he and a co-worker, a “juvie friend” find a satchel of money.  At first, they leave it where they found but soon find the temptation is too great and both are drawn back into the life they had hoped to leave behind.  Chris’s father, Thomas Flynn, owns the carpet buisness and soon realizes that something is wrong but knows that he cannot always protect his son from the world’s evils and you just have to let them find thier own way home.  This is a unforgettable novel of fathers’ hopes and sons’s ambitions, of love, drive, and forgiveness.

Peter Leonard is a new author to the mystery genre.  His father is Elmore Leonard but Peter can stand on his own.  The South Florida Sun-Sentinel says “Peter Leonard’s energetic style makes one forget the name Elmore and concentrate on the Leonard…Good writing may be in his genes, but the style’s all his own”. In Trust Me, Karen Delaney has made two mistakes, first she entrusted $300,00 to her boyfriend, Samir, the head of a illegal bookmaking operations and second she broke up with him.  After Karen’s home is broken into, she enlists the thieves to steal her money back but she soon realizes that she is in way over her head.  Karen is being chased by an ex-con/ex-cop, O’Clair, who wants the money so he can retire, by Ricky, Samir’s nephew, who needs the money for his gambling debts, by the two thieves who have double-crossed and by two hit men who want thier piece of the American dream.  Peter Leonard made a splash with his debut, Quiver, and now he reaches for new heights with Trust Me, a thriller loaded with double- and triple-crosses.

I love to read first hand accounts….memoirs and such. I always have and I love all kinds.

Stories about cancer patients who are 16 or just been married a week before they were diagnosed or brave quadriplegics who learned to paint or type with a stick in their mouth….or people who climbed Mt. Everest and lost their fingers and toes and tried to call their spouse on their cell phone right before they die and the line is busy or the spouse talks to them while they slowly die in some deep crevasse…

Memoirs make me weep.

A lot of other people must enjoy them too because I can’t remember a time when there were so many! There is something so special about slipping into someone else’s life; whether happy or sad, tragic or victorious. People are fascinating and I love to see how others have done…LIFE.

The books I am talking about this week are certainly not light beach reading but if you or someone in your world is an addict or is mentally ill, there are some really good books out right now that might interest you. Or if you just want to be better informed about an ever growing segment of our population, here are some suggestions….
Michael Greenberg has written Hurry down Sunshine which is the story of his own daughter, Sally, who at the age of fifteen, was “struck mad” as her father puts it. Their harrowing and painful journey began on a seemingly ordinary day which ends with Sally being committed to a Manhattan psychiatric ward. As she said, “I feel like I’m traveling and traveling with nowhere to go back to.” This book is a diary of their family’s journey and Greenberg allows us to experience a fraction of the confusion and desperateness of their situation. Nothing happens to just one person within a family; there are effects and repercussions felt immediately and for years to come. This is a powerful and heartbreaking story.
Beautiful Boy by David Sheff is another recounting of a child and a family in crisis as the author writes about his son, Nic, who began his life of addiction as a teenager. Sheff writes, “Before Nic became addicted to crystal meth, he was adored by his two younger siblings. After meth, he was a trembling wraith who lied repeatedly, stole money from his eight year old brother, and lived on the streets.” The author traces this tragedy from its very first warning signs and walks us through as Nic falls deeper and deeper into addiction. At one point, Sheff felt like his total preoccupation with Nic became an addiction in and of itself. His perspective as both a father and a journalist help him create this unforgettable story. It grew out of an article he wrote for “The New York Times” magazine and is unforgettable as it shows how love looks and feels when you and your child are mired deep down in the trenches.
The Addict by Dr. Michael Stein is the story of a remarkable relationship between a patient and a caring committed doctor. The journey they make together over the course of one year of intense structure and rehab follows Lucy from the start of her treatment, through relapse, to her eventual long term recovery. It is also the story of a doctor, the author, who has devoted his life to reclaiming lost souls. This unusual account will leave you with lots of thoughts and questions to wrestle with and attempt to understand.

Escape from Bellevue by Christopher John Campion is a memoir that deals with mental illness and at the same time keeps a strong sense of humor! Campion was the lead singer of a New York ‘indie’ rock band called the Knockout Drops. They found quite a huge local following and at the very height of the band’s success, Campion began his downward spiral into alcohol and addiction. He chronicles life on the street and shares stories about the people he meets on his long road back. He enters a psychiatric hospital, Bellevue Hospital, and starts the difficult but sometimes hysterical life of a recovering addict. He also became the first patient since 1963 who escaped from Bellevue’s locked ward!! This book is one wild ride…..
The last title is Voluntary Madness by Norah Vincent who also wrote Self Made Man; which appeared on the New York Times Best Sellers List. In her new book, Vincent talks about the world of madness in which she lived and knowingly immersed herself in the hope of finding mental equilibrium on the other side. Over the course of several years, she committed herself to three different psychiatric facilities, each of varying socio-economic levels, and brings into our lives the people she meets along the way. It is a raw, incredibly vulnerable account of a life none of us would ever choose but is very much a reality for many people who are hurting but who have chosen to attempt real change.
There is so much we can learn from each other…..

Me!

Apparently, staycations are a part of the new frugality. However, I have always enjoyed just staying around the house when I am not working. It is a time when I can actually just sit in my own home and not have to concern myself with going anywhere at all.

Books and staying at home are good combination, especially when it’s raining. Since I read all the time anyway, I like to read less challenging books during a staycation. In fact, I have not been planning to read anything at all this past week. I did almost finish reading Demons in the Spring by Joe Meno . . . which came so highly recommended by Zita. I must add that just because Demons in the Spring does not break my brain does not mean it is not quality writing, it was pure joy . . . . okay, back to the remaining hours of my staycation. (what a horrible word . . . hopefully it does not make it into the dictionary.)

Where the World Does Not Follow: Buddhist China in Picture and Poem

Translated by Mike O’Connor / Photography by Steven R. Johnson

Wisdom Publications: Boston (2002)

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O’Connor’s translation of ancient poems, alongside Johnson’s breathtaking photography, bring these ancient words to the present. Zen and Taoist poetry coupled with timeless images make for this wonderful book, which I slowly read; when I finished, I started over.

Reading clearly translated timeless poetry is relaxing and yields satisfaction. This anthology, associated with photography, stands out: Old words giving old truths, a modern translation with interpretive meaning for all time, with the association of the modern art form of photos. All mix together for a moving reading experience.

I enjoy rereading Chinese poetry, presented in different ways, which give alternate understanding and renewed depth. Blending art forms give another insight into the mind.

For instance: From “On Hearing a Bell” by Chiao-Jan:

“When the bell sounded

It was my mind”

Opposite page: a photo of the of the entrance of cold mountain’s home

On the next page a poem from “A Thousand Clouds, Ten Thousand Streams” by Han Shan:

“No dust can gather

Happy,

Clinging to nothing.”

Opposite page: a photo of cold mountain’s cave looking out

These examples especially moved me. This book being beautiful, is full of touching reading moments. Words from old with photos from the present add to each readers time with place, resonating in our hearts of an age gone by.

Sunday November 9, 2008, I close with a touching excerpt from a Jen Fan Poem.

“No wine I know

Can melt

This night.”