Never miss another first edition!
Join the
First Editions Club
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Sign up for the First Editions Club.
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Receive a select, signed First Edition every month.
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That’s it! Enjoy the read!
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First Editions Club FAQ's
Why would I want to join Lemuria's First Edition Club?
The First Editions Club is a great way to build a collectible library of contemporary books that will not only accrue in value, but that you will want to pull off the shelf and read.
Every month we hand-select a first edition that we believe is worth more than the paper it's printed on. We especially look for collectible southern authors, debut authors' first novels, and books that knock us out of our chairs.
Over the last two decades, we have had the privilege of selecting novels that have gained national and international praise. Adam Johnson's debut novel, The Orphan Master's Son, our January 2012 pick, went on to win the Pulitzer Prize. And in 1997, Charles Frazier's then obscure novel, Cold Mountain, was awarded the National Book Award. After its author was plucked from anonymity, a signed first edition of Cold Mountain is now worth over $300.
What is a first edition?
The term "first edition" refers to the first printing of the earliest edition of a book. First printing copies are unique because they are the first published record of a book. For collectors, the first edition of a book is the most desired edition, especially if it is signed. If a book wins an award or otherwise earns acclaim or popularity and the book's first printing was relatively small, copies of the first edition can become very valuable, and signed copies even more so.
What is the First Editions Club?
We select one new book (sometimes two) every month. With few exceptions, each book is signed in the store. We want to meet the authors of our favorite books, and we want to give you a chance to meet them, too.
When preparing the books for shipment, we first protect the book's dust jacket with an archival mylar cover to help maintain its value. Then we wrap the book in butcher paper, and pack it carefully in a box ‐ never in an envelope. We've selected the most pristine copies of the book for the club, and we want them to be delivered to you in the same pristine condition.
How much does it cost to join?
There is no cost to join. Every month you will be charged only the cover price of the book plus $5 shipping. Each month a new first edition will be delivered right to your doorstep. If you are local you may also choose to pick up your selections and avoid the shipping charge.
What if I don't like the book that is selected?
No problem. Call the store or email us at fec@lemuriabooks.com and we will happily exchange the book.
What are the other perks of the First Editions Club?
Once a month we send an email to all of our FEC members giving them first dibs on any notable signed first edition that we have in the store. So even if you live in another city or state, you can still have access to rare signed first editions. If you want to add a book to your FEC shipment, the shipping cost is reduced to one additional dollar a book. We also protect each dust jacket in an archival mylar cover to help maintain its value.
What if I want more information?
Please give us a call at (800) 366-7619 or send us an email!
View Previous Years
Previous Picks
The Big Seven $26.00
New York, NY: Grove Press (2015)
As new in dust jacket.
Jim Harrison is one of our most renowned and popular authors, and his last novel,The Great Leader, was one of the most successful in a decorated career: it appeared on theNew York Times extended bestseller list, and was a national bestseller with rapturous reviews. His darkly comic follow-up,The Big Seven, sends Detective Sunderson to confront his new neighbors, a gun-nut family who live outside the law in rural Michigan.
Detective Sunderson has fled troubles on the home front and bought himself a hunting cabin in a remote area of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. No sooner has he settled in than he realizes his new neighbors are creating even more havoc than the Great Leader did. A family of outlaws, armed to the teeth, the Ameses have local law enforcement too intimidated to take them on. Then Sunderson’s cleaning lady, a comely young Ames woman, is murdered, and black sheep brother Lemuel Ames seeks Sunderson’s advice on a crime novel he’s writing which may not be fiction. Sunderson must struggle with the evil within himself and the far greater, more expansive evil of his neighbor.
In a story shot through with wit, bedlam, and Sunderson’s attempts to enumerate and master the seven deadly sins,The Big Seven is a superb reminder of why Jim Harrison is one of America’s most irrepressible writers.
Tuesday June 2, 2015
Signing: 5:00
Reading: 5:30
A Slant of Light $27.00
New York, NY: Bloomsbury (2015) As new in dust jacket.
At the close of the Civil War, weary veteran Malcolm Hopeton returns to his home in western New York State to find his wife and hired man missing and his farm in disrepair. A double murder ensues, the repercussions of which ripple through a community with spiritual roots in the Second Great Awakening. Hopeton has gone from the horrors of war to those far worse, and arrayed around him are a host of other people struggling to make sense of his crime. Among them is Enoch Stone, the lawyer for the community, whose spiritual dedication is subverted by his lust for power; August Swarthout, whose wife has left earthly time and whose eye is set on eternity; and a boy who must straddle two worlds as he finds his own truth and strength. Always there is love and the memory of love--as haunting as the American Eden that Jeffrey Lent has so exquisitely rendered in this unforgettable novel.
A Slant of Light is a novel of earthly pleasure and deep love, of loss and war, of prophets and followers, of theft and revenge, in an American moment where a seemingly golden age has been shattered. This is Jeffrey Lent on his home ground and at the height of his powers.
Monday April 27, 2015
Signing: 5:00
Reading: 5:30
Hausfrau $26.00
New York, NY: Random House (2015) As new in dust jacket.
Anna was a good wife, mostly. For readers of The Girl on the Train and The Woman Upstairs comes a striking debut novel of marriage, fidelity, sex, and morality, featuring a fascinating heroine who struggles to live a life with meaning—“a modern-day Anna Karenina tale.”**
Anna Benz, an American in her late thirties, lives with her Swiss husband, Bruno—a banker—and their three young children in a postcard-perfect suburb of Zürich. Though she leads a comfortable, well-appointed life, Anna is falling apart inside. Adrift and increasingly unable to connect with the emotionally unavailable Bruno or even with her own thoughts and feelings, Anna tries to rouse herself with new experiences: German language classes, Jungian analysis, and a series of sexual affairs she enters with an ease that surprises even her.
But Anna can’t easily extract herself from these affairs. When she wants to end them, she finds it’s difficult. Tensions escalate, and her lies start to spin out of control. Having crossed a moral threshold, Anna will discover where a woman goes when there is no going back.
Intimate, intense, and written with the precision of a Swiss Army knife, Jill Alexander Essbaum’s debut novel is an unforgettable story of marriage, fidelity, sex, morality, and most especially self. Navigating the lines between lust and love, guilt and shame, excuses and reasons, Anna Benz is an electrifying heroine whose passions and choices readers will debate with recognition and fury. Her story reveals, with honesty and great beauty, how we create ourselves and how we lose ourselves and the sometimes disastrous choices we make to find ourselves.
Tuesday April 21, 2015
Signing: 1:00
The Bone Tree $27.99
New York, NY: William Morrow (2015) As new in dust jacket.
Greg Iles continues the electrifying story begun in his smash New York Times bestsellerNatchez Burning in this highly anticipated second installment of an epic trilogy of blood and race, family and justice, featuring Southern lawyer Penn Cage.
Former prosecutor Penn Cage and his fiancée, reporter and publisher Caitlin Masters, have barely escaped with their lives after being attacked by wealthy businessman Brody Royal and his Double Eagles, a KKK sect with ties to some of Mississippi’s most powerful men. But the real danger has only begun as FBI Special Agent John Kaiser warns Penn that Brody wasn’t the true leader of the Double Eagles. The puppeteer who actually controls the terrorist group is a man far more fearsome: the chief of the state police’s Criminal Investigations Bureau, Forrest Knox.
The only way Penn can save his father, Dr. Tom Cage—who is fleeing a murder charge as well as corrupt cops bent on killing him—is either to make a devil’s bargain with Knox or destroy him. While Penn desperately pursues both options, Caitlin uncovers the real story behind a series of unsolved civil rights murders that may hold the key to the Double Eagles’ downfall. The trail leads her deep into the past, into the black backwaters of the Mississippi River, to a secret killing ground used by slave owners and the Klan for over two hundred years . . . a place of terrifying evil known only as “the bone tree.”
The Bone Tree is an explosive, action-packed thriller full of twisting intrigue and deadly secrets, a tale that explores the conflicts and casualties that result when the darkest truths of American history come to light. It puts us inside the skin of a noble man who has always fought for justice—now finally pushed beyond his limits.
Just how far will Penn Cage, the hero we thought we knew, go to protect those he loves?
Thursday March 19, 2015
Signing: 5:00
Reading: 5:30
Soil $26.00
New York, NY: Simon & Schuster (2015) As new in dust jacket.
A darkly comic debut novel by an independent bookseller about an idealistic young farmer who moves his family to a Mississippi flood basin, suffers financial ruin—and becomes increasingly paranoid he’s being framed for murder.
It all began with a simple dream. An ambitious young environmental scientist hoped to establish a sustainable farm on a small patch of river-bottom land nestled among the Mississippi hills. Jay Mize convinced his wife Sandy to move their six-year-old son away from town and to a rich and lush parcel where Jacob could run free and Jay could pursue the dream of a new and progressive agriculture for the twenty-first century. He did not know that within a year he’d be ruined, that flood and pestilence would invade his fledgling farm or that his wife and son would leave him to pick up the pieces by himself.
When Jay Mize discovers a corpse on his property, he is sure his bad luck has come to a head and he is being framed. Were Jay in his right mind, he might have reported the body to the police at the very same moment they were searching for a missing tourist from Ohio. He might have not dragged the body back to his farm under the cover of night and spent hours disposing of it. But Jay Mize is not in his right mind. His mounting paranoia is accelerated by a hot-rod local deputy, nosing around with questions about the missing tourist and making dark comments about Jay’s estranged wife Sandy. It’s enough to make an honest man a maniac…
Drawing on elements of classic Southern noir, dark comedy, and modern dysfunction, Jamie Kornegay’s novel is about the gravitational pull of one man’s apocalypse and the hope that maybe, just maybe, he can be reeled in from the brink. Readers will “applaud the arrival of an exquisitely deranged new voice to American fiction” (Jonathan Miles, award-winning author ofWant Not and Dear American Airlines).
Thursday February 19, 2015
Signing: 5:00
Reading: 5:30
My Sunshine Away $26.95
New York, NY: Putnam (2015) As new in dust jacket.
A man reflects on the summer of his 14th year, where in Baton Rouge he fell in love with a golden-haired girl across the street before an unspeakable crime shattered illusions in his seemingly idyllic neighborhood. A first novel.
Wednesday January 28, 2015
Signing 5:00
Reading: 5:30
The Up-Down $23.95
New York, NY: Seven Stories Press (2015) As new in dust jacket.