Having finished reading my advanced reader’s copy of native Jacksonian Kathryn Stockett’s  new novel The Help last week, I have not been able to get it off my mind. Those of us who grew up in the ’60s in Mississippi will have a slightly different viewpoint from those who were born in later decades. Since I was in actuality slightly less than a decade younger than the protagonist “Skeeter”, I was able to identify with her feelings, her rising independence, and even her dresses from Jackson’s premiere fashion store “Kennington’s”, or New Orleans’ pride, “Maison Blanche” where I often traveled to shop with my mother.  The very close friendship I was fortunate to have with my family’s help(ers), I recalled while reading this novel, often with smiles close to tears at times. Poignant scenes, all very accurately detailed and true in regard to racial relations of the times, caused me to remember with great sadness those hard times. This is a novel that had been waiting to be written, and Stockett has handled often delicate matters with kindness and fairness. Jacksonians will understand this novel and recognize its many characters, locations, and customs better than anyone else in the country, and therefore, will reap the greatest rewards for having read it. Heartstrings will be pulled with this one. Stockett’s upcoming reading on February 17 should not be missed. I predict an overflowing crowd and a sellout!

-Nan

I hate to preempt to publication of novels because I worry people will come in asking for the book and get disappointed but I want to be the first to tell everyone that I absolutely fell in LOVE with the characters from Kathryn Stockett’s first novel, The Help. It doesn’t come out until February 10th but I got to read an early printing and it was by far my favorite work of fiction that I read last year.

The Help is set in Jackson, MS which made it especially fun for me to read; not to mention the fact that lots of the characters live in Belhaven so it’s fun to imagine the story as it goes along in a familiar setting with a familiar cast of background characters like WLBT’s long time weather man Woody Assaf. 

In spite of the fact that The Help is set in Civil Rights Era Jackson, it is happy, sad, serious and fun all in one. There were several instances when I found myself almost in tears from laughing so hard… All I have to say is just WAIT for the toilet scene!!

-Caroline

Any of the sports fans out there that read Bill Simmons’  “Sports Guy” column on ESPN.com may have noticed this section in his recent NFL Power Poll:

Gift No. 7: Books. You can’t go wrong with any of these (all of which I loved): “The Chris Farley Show” (superb oral history of Farley’s life) … “Born Standing Up” (Steve Martin’s insightful memoir about his earlier life as a standup comic) … “Alphabet Juice” (Roy Blount’s one-of-a-kind take on his favorite words) … “Boys Will Be Boys” (Jeff Pearlman’s rollicking tale of the ’90s Cowboys) … “The Best Game Ever” (Mark Bowden’s take on the ’58 NFL title game) … “Outliers” (Malcolm Gladwell’s new one, a must-read as always) … “Loose Balls” (Terry Pluto’s oral history of the ABA, finally back in print) … and “Nixonland” (an amazingly well-done book if you like American history even a little). So there you go.

We have all of these books in stock — and we have signed copies of Alphabet Juice and Outliers. If you’re struggling for those last few Christmas gifts (or if you haven’t even started yet), come by the store and I bet we can find something for everyone on your list.

One of the best photography books of our scenic Mississippi available this Christmas is Ken Murphy’s Mississippi. Featured sites from around the state are presented so vividly in this book that they will transport you to the lush woodlands of the Natchez Trace or the solitary waters of the Mississippi coast. Murphy’s book showcases such pleasant pictures that any Mississippian would be proud to display it in his or her house as a testament to the beauty and distinctiveness of Mississippi.

Ken Murphy uses his gift to immortalize local haunts that will always bring fond recollections to those who pass through their doors and to visit the memories of many coastal structures that, because of Hurricane Katrina, no longer stand. Murphy, a resident of Bay St. Louis, traveled the state to tell its story with dignity and to capture its character in this fantastic book.

Mississippi is available in its original brown cover, but also in six different covers, each one an image from the book. The different color covers display the Natchez trace in the fall, old pier posts in the Gulf in Bay St. Louis, Taylor Grocery near Oxford, the Old Capitol in Jackson, Ground Zero in Clarksdale, and sunflowers near Rolling Fork. Signed copies of Mississippi are available at Lemuria Books in Jackson, MS, and Ken Murphy will be signing at Lemuria on December 20th at 1:00pm.

These are the books that I think that everyone should get for  Christmas!!! These are not in any particular order.

The Story of Edgar Sawtelle  by David Wroblewski

People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks

City of Refuge by Tom Piazza

The Little Book by Selden Edwards

December by Elizabeth Hartley Winthrop

Child 44 by Tom Rob Smith

The Other Queen by Philippa Gregory

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Steig Larsson

The Master of the Delta by Thomas Cook

You are Where You Eat by Elsa Hahne

Blue Dixie by Bob Moser

Serena by Ron Rash

Goodnight Bush by Erich Origen and Gan Golan

The Condition by Jennifer Haigh

Vintage Ole Miss Calendar

Mom Agenda