Past Events
Tuesday July 14, 2015
Harper Lee Celebration: 5:30
Go Set a Watchman $27.99
Tuesday July 14 we will host a kick-off event for Go Set a Watchman. Special guest author Howard Bahr will read from the book. We'll have dollar beer and soda and limited edition To Kill a Mockingbird goodies for sale. And don't forget to get your copy of Go Set a Watchmen. See you there!
New York, NY: Harper Collins (2015) As new in dust jacket.
This book will be available July 14, 2015. Pre-order a first edition.
An historic literary event: the publication of a newly discovered novel, the earliest known work from Harper Lee, the beloved, bestselling author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning classic, To Kill a Mockingbird.
Originally written in the mid-1950s, Go Set a Watchman was the novel Harper Lee first submitted to her publishers beforeTo Kill a Mockingbird. Assumed to have been lost, the manuscript was discovered in late 2014.
Go Set a Watchman features many of the characters from To Kill a Mockingbird some twenty years later. Returning home to Maycomb to visit her father, Jean Louise Finch—Scout—struggles with issues both personal and political, involving Atticus, society, and the small Alabama town that shaped her.
Exploring how the characters from To Kill a Mockingbird are adjusting to the turbulent events transforming mid-1950s America,Go Set a Watchman casts a fascinating new light on Harper Lee’s enduring classic. Moving, funny and compelling, it stands as a magnificent novel in its own right.
Wednesday June 24, 2015
Signing: 5:00
Reading: 5:30
The Book of Aron $23.95
New York, NY: Knopf (2015) As new in dust jacket.
The acclaimed National Book Award finalist—“one of the United States’ finest writers,” according to Joshua Ferris, “full of wit, humanity, and fearless curiosity”—now gives us a novel that will join the short list of classics about children caught up in the Holocaust.
Aron, the narrator, is an engaging if peculiar and unhappy young boy whose family is driven by the German onslaught from the Polish countryside into Warsaw and slowly battered by deprivation, disease, and persecution. He and a handful of boys and girls risk their lives by scuttling around the ghetto to smuggle and trade contraband through the quarantine walls in hopes of keeping their fathers, mothers, brothers, and sisters alive, hunted all the while by blackmailers and by Jewish, Polish, and German police, not to mention the Gestapo.
When his family is finally stripped away from him, Aron is rescued by Janusz Korczak, a doctor renowned throughout prewar Europe as an advocate of children’s rights who, once the Nazis swept in, was put in charge of the Warsaw orphanage. Treblinka awaits them all, but does Aron manage to escape—as his mentor suspected he could—to spread word about the atrocities?
Jim Shepard has masterfully made this child’s-eye view of the darkest history mesmerizing, sometimes comic despite all odds, truly heartbreaking, and even inspiring. Anyone who hears Aron’s voice will remember it forever.
Tuesday June 23, 2015
Signing: 5:00
Reading: 5:30
Million Dollar Road $15.00
New York, NY: Kensington (2015)
Set in the heart of Louisiana, Amy Conner’s spellbinding new novel tells of a young woman yearning for a better existence—and of the secret longings that will change the lives of all those around her.
Eighteen-year-old Lireinne Hooten has always been on the lowest rung of the ladder. Abandoned by her mother, Lireinne lives with her stepfather in an old trailer on Million Dollar Road. Every day she walks the long mile, through a canopy of live oaks, to her job at the world’s largest alligator farm. Shy and overweight in high school, Lireinne has become lean and resilient from months of hosing out the huge cement barns. And just like Snowball—the enormous, all-white alligator she feeds illicit treats every day—she’s hungry to be free.
Lireinne’s boss, Con Costello, is powerful, attractive, and used to getting exactly what he desires. Now that he’s noticed Lireinne’s haunting beauty, he wants her too. But unlike Con’s needy second wife, Lizzie, or Emma, his still heartbroken ex, Lireinne isn’t interested. Undeterred, Con’s growing obsession will upend all their lives—compelling Lizzie to confront the hard truth about her marriage, pushing Emma past her self-imposed isolation and back into the world. And for Lireinne, it will lead to an unexpected chance to redefine herself, far away from her past and from Million Dollar Road.
Insightful and atmospheric, Million Dollar Road is a richly observed novel of our most keenly felt appetites—for love, acceptance, and a place to belong.
Monday June 22, 2015
Signing: 5:00
Reading: 5:30
One Mississippi, Two Mississippi $29.95
New York, NY: Oxford Press (2015) As new in dust jacket.
Saturday June 20, 2015
Signing: 1:00
Mississippi’s Greatest Athletes $38.00
Oxford, MS: Nautilus Publishing (2014)
Written by Rick Cleveland with a foreword by Archie Manning, Mississippi's Greatest Athletes tells the story of the Magnolia State's incredible sports history through its heroes.
Cleveland, the executive director of the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame and Museum, leans on nearly half a century of covering Mississippi sports to examine how such a small, relatively poor state such as Mississippi produces such a large percentage of the nation's — and the world's — greatest athletes.
Thursday June 18, 2015
Signing: 5:00
Reading: 5:30
The World’s Largest Man $26.99
New York, NY: HarperCollins (2015) As new in dust jacket.
The riotous, tender story of a bookish Mississippi boy and his flawed, Bunyanesque father, told with the comic verve of David Sedaris and the deft satire of Mark Twain or Roy Blount, Jr.
Harrison Scott Key was born in Memphis, but he grew up in Mississippi, among pious, Bible-reading women and men who either shot things or got women pregnant. At the center of his world was his larger-than-life father—a hunter, a fighter, a football coach, “a man better suited to living in a remote frontier wilderness of the nineteenth century than contemporary America, with all its progressive ideas, and paved roads, and lack of armed duels. He was a great man, and he taught me many things: How to fight, how to work, how to cheat, how to pray to Jesus about it, how to kill things with guns and knives and, if necessary, with hammers.”
Harrison, with his love of books and excessive interest in hugging, couldn’t have been less like Pop, and when it became clear that he was not able to kill anything very well or otherwise make his father happy, he resolved to become everything his father was not: an actor, a Presbyterian, and a doctor of philosophy. But when it was time to settle down and start a family of his own, Harrison started to view his father in a new light, and realized—for better and for worse—how much of his old man he’d absorbed.
Sly, heartfelt, and tirelessly hilarious, The World’s Largest Man is an unforgettable memoir—the story of a boy’s struggle to reconcile himself with an impossibly outsized role model, a grown man’s reckoning with the father it took him a lifetime to understand.
Tuesday June 16, 2015
Signing: 5:00
Reading: 5:30
Troutmouth: The Two Careers of Hugh Clegg $35.00
Jackson, MS: University Press of Mississippi (2015) As new in dust jacket.
Hugh Clegg (1898-1979) was among the most notable Mississippi historical figures during the 1920s through the 1960s. Born in Mathiston, Mississippi, he was a member of the Federal Bureau of Investigation from 1926 to 1954, during which time he rose to the top leadership and worked directly under Director J. Edgar Hoover and Associate Director Clyde Tolson. In his second career, as executive assistant to Chancellor J. D. Williams at the University of Mississippi from 1954 to 1969, he was in a top leadership position before and during the civil rights crises in the State of Mississippi and at Ole Miss.
While with the Bureau, Clegg's responsibilities included leading the search for many of the most dangerous gangsters in the country, including John Dillinger, Baby Face Nelson, the Barker gang, and Alvin Karpis. He established the FBI's National Training Academy and coordinated the hunt for atom bomb spy Harry Gold, collaborator with German spy Emil Klaus Fuchs. He was sent to England by Director Hoover prior to the outbreak of World War II to study British intelligence agencies.
A close friend of many of the leading federal and state elected officials and of members of the US Supreme Court, Clegg was well known to many in power. At the University of Mississippi he was the prime contact between the university and the federal government during the desegregation crises of Clennon King and James Meredith. He was also assigned the lead role in combating the efforts of Mississippi politicians to discredit and remove faculty members when scholars were thought "too liberal" and therefore a threat to the state.
Through a Freedom of Information request from the FBI, author Ronald F. Borne obtained thousands of pertinent documents. In addition, he mined Clegg's oral history and an unpublished book manuscript. Borne interviewed close relations, colleagues, and friends to reveal a portrait of a distinguished, loyal man who significantly shaped the training procedures for the FBI and then mediated the University of Mississippi's conflicts with both state officials and the federal government.
Wednesday June 17, 2015
Signing: 5:00
Reading: 5:30
The Jezebel Remedy $27.95
New York, NY: Knopf (2015) As new in dust jacket.
Martin Clark, “the new standard by which other works of legal fiction should be judged,” now delivers his best novel yet. [Linda Brinson,Winston-Salem Journal]
Lisa and Joe Stone, married for twenty years and partners in their small law firm in Henry County, Virginia, handle less than glamorous cases, whether domestic disputes, personal injury settlements, or never-ending complaints from their cantankerous client Lettie VanSandt (“eccentric” by some accounts, “certifiable” by others). When Lettie dies in a freakish fire, the Stones think it’s certainly possible that she was cooking meth at her trailer.But details soon emerge that lead them to question how “accidental” her demise actually was, and settling her peculiar estate becomes endlessly complicated.
Before long, the Stones find themselves entangled in a corporate conspiracy that will require all their legal skills—not to mention some difficult ethical choices—for them to survive.Meanwhile, Lisa is desperately trying to shield Joe from a secret, dreadful error that she would give anything to erase, even as his career—and her own—hangs in the balance. InThe Jezebel Remedy, Clark gives us a stunning portrait of a marriage, an intricate tour of the legal system, and a relentlessly entertaining story that is full of inventions, shocks and understanding.
Monday June 15, 2015
Signing: 5:00
Reading: 5:30
The Mockingbird Next Door: Life With Harper Lee $17.00
New York, NY: Penguin Books (2015)
A winning, nuanced portrait. . . . It seems unlikely we’ll ever have a better record of a remarkable American life.”USA Today
To Kill a Mockingbird is one of the best loved novels of the twentieth century. Yet for the last fifty years, the novel’s celebrated author, Harper Lee, known to her friends as Nelle, has said almost nothing on the record. But in 2001, Nelle and her sister, Alice Finch Lee, opened their door to Chicago Tribune journalist Marja Mills. It was the beginning of a long conversationand a wonderful friendship. Mills was given a rare opportunity to know Nelle, to be a part of the Lees’ life in Alabama, and to hear them reflect on their upbringing, their corner of the Deep South, howTo Kill a Mockingbird affected their lives, and the reasons Nelle Harper Lee chose never to write another novel.
Saturday June 13, 2015
Signing: 11:00
The FlavorDoctor Diet $17.99
New York, NY: Library Tales Press.
Salt – it is a magical mineral that preserves our food, helps keep our gums healthy, makes icy roads safer, and gives us that radiant skin we always dream about. A certain amount of salt may add flavor to that heart-healthy salad or make that juicy steak taste just a little bit better, but too often we eat salt in our food without knowing or considering the consequences. Nearly one in three Americans suffers from high blood pressure, partially due to the excessive consumption of salt. The excessive consumption of salt can lead to high blood pressure, heart disease, and damage to the brain, kidneys, and other vital organs. Since our bodies need a small portion, avoiding dietary salt altogether is not a viable solution; limiting the amount of salt in our food is. Life is a marvelous gift, and it is up to us to live it to its healthiest if we want to live it to its fullest.One doesn't have to be a dedicated marathon runner to live a healthier life –just be wiser. The FlavorDoctor Diet was written with that in mind. It presents the latest in nutritional science, along with advice in a clear, practical language.
The simple but delicious recipes contained herein were chosen from a medical perspective by Dr. Chad Rhoden, author of Bringing Down High Blood Pressure, along with his physician father, Dr. Rick Rhoden, and contributing dietitian Suzanna Rula. This book was created from a medical point of view to help you reduce excessive salt with ease, while keeping the flavor in your diet without sacrificing health. The FlavorDoctor Diet presents a simple, nutritious way to improve your diet, as well as your odds for a longer, healthier life experience.
Monday June 8, 2015
Signing: 5:00
Reading: 5:30
The Fateful Lightning: A Novel of the Civil War $28.00
New York, NY: Ballantine (2015) As new in dust jacket.
From New York Times bestselling author Jeff Shaara comes the riveting final installment in the Civil War series that began withA Blaze of Glory and continued in A Chain of Thunder and The Smoke at Dawn.
November 1864: As the Civil War rolls into its fourth bloody year, the tide has turned decidedly in favor of the Union. A grateful Abraham Lincoln responds to Ulysses S. Grant’s successes by bringing the general east, promoting Grant to command the entire Union war effort, while William Tecumseh Sherman now directs the Federal forces that occupy all of Tennessee.
In a massive surge southward, Sherman conquers the city of Atlanta, sweeping aside the Confederate army under the inept leadership of General John Bell Hood. Pushing through northern Georgia, Sherman’s legendary “March to the Sea” shoves away any Rebel presence, and by Christmas 1864 the city of Savannah falls into the hands of “Uncle Billy.” Now there is but one direction for Sherman to go. In his way stands the last great hope for the Southern cause, General Joseph E. Johnston.
In the concluding novel of his epic Civil War tetralogy, Jeff Shaara tells the dramatic story of the final eight months of battle from multiple perspectives: the commanders in their tents making plans for total victory, as well as the ordinary foot soldiers and cavalrymen who carried out their orders until the last alarum sounded. Through Sherman’s eyes, we gain insight into the mind of the general who vowed to “make Georgia howl” until it surrendered. In Johnston, we see a man agonizing over the limits of his army’s power, and accepting the burden of leading the last desperate effort to ensure the survival of the Confederacy.
The Civil War did not end quietly. It climaxed in a storm of fury that lay waste to everything in its path.The Fateful Lightning brings to life those final brutal, bloody months of fighting with you-are-there immediacy, grounded in the meticulous research that readers have come to expect from Jeff Shaara.
Wednesday June 3, 2015
Signing: 5:00
Reading: 5:30
Riding With the Blue Moth $17.95
Oxford, MS: Nautilus Publishing.
After the death of his son, Will, in the 2001 airplane crash that took the lives of nine additional members of the Oklahoma State basketball team and support staff, survival became a common word in Bill Hancock's vocabulary. Bicycling was simply the method by which he chose to distract himself from his grief. But for Hancock, the 2,747-mile journey from the Pacific Coast to the Atlantic Coast became more than just a distraction. It became a pilgrimage, even if Hancock didn't realize it upon dipping his rear tire in the Pacific Ocean near Huntington Beach, California in the wee hours of a July morning. On his two-wheel trip, Hancock battled searing heat and humidity, curious dogs, unforgiving motorists and the occasional speed bump-usually a dead armadillo. Hancock's thoughts returned to common themes: memories of his son Will, the prospect of life without Will for him and his wife, and the blue moth of grief and depression. That pesky moth fluttered around Hancock as if he was a beaming lamp pole in an empty parking lot. Some suggested Hancock cope with medication; others suggested he get back to his job as director of the NCAA men's basketball tournament as soon as possible. But, Hancock found himself a glutton for his own punishment, unable to shake that blue moth from shadowing him on each step of his everyday routine. So, Hancock chose to battle the beast one-on-one, taking the moth on the ride of its life across America in the hopes of shaking free of its constraints. Possibly, he could lose it around a corner in one of the small towns he would traverse through: Hope, Arizona; Chickasha, Oklahoma; Onward, Mississippi; Pleasant Hill, Georgia. On a muggy August morn, Hancock dipped his front wheel into the Atlantic Ocean along the Georgia coastline of Tybee Island. The bothersome blue moth was still loitering nearby. But, by completion of the trek, the pest had taken on a new role for Hancock. The blue moth wouldn't be drowned in either ocean, or in the buckets of perspiration that Hancock shed along the highways of this country. He was with Hancock for the longer haul, and for once Hancock was okay with that.
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.
Thursday May 21, 2015
Signing: 5:00
Reading: 5:30
Redefining Manhood $14.99
UK: Findhorn Press (2015)
While women have forged ahead in the workplace and society, men are finding themselves increasingly marginalized, socially, professionally, economically enough so that one book on bestseller lists recently has been titledThe End of Men. This has led to calls for a men’s movement and courses are being taught, but they are failing to find traction among men. The reason should be plain: where onceIron John stood as an archetype, along with the King, Warrior, Lover and Magician, those roles have become sadly outdated. The old archetypes of manhood no longer apply.
In this book, the author of six books on energy medicine, Native American spirituality and mindfulness, outlines why the current courses on men’s empowerment are failing and offers a new way of looking at male roles that edates the modern era. It is a back to the future” approach to manhood that actually is better suited for the male psyche, having existed for thousands of years in all parts of the globe. Modernized, this survival kit” for the male gender can revitalize male and female relations on a more balanced and time-honored footing. This book serves as a self-help manual for men, a guide for men’s retreats, and a primer for wives, daughters, mothers and female friends to help the men in their lives adopt a newer, healthier way of living in balance with a society that is rapidly shifting its roles.
Other books on this topic repeat tired stereotypes of the king,” lover,” warrior,” magician” and similar shorthand versions of men’s roles; but those roles no longer hold much value in today’s society. In a society where women have more education and higher earning capacity than men, a woman can be king.” Women no longer sit idly waiting to be awakened by a Prince Charming; they are active lovers, emancipated from the Sleeping Beauty archetype. If men try to adopt outdated lover” roles, they find themselves alone, even pitied. Women are warriors, and magicians, and welders, firefighters and CEOs. An Iron John” who wishes to retreat into what he is taught is his strength in masculinity the wild man of ancient times will find himself alienated and out of step with reality. Conversely, if men try to adopt feminized versions of men’s roles, they will find themselves equally marginalized. Women don’t need men to be women. Nor do they need men who patronize them. This book teaches men how to be men in a new (yet time-tested way) by reevaluating how they were brought up and determining which behaviors are suitable for adopting, and which are suitable for rejecting.
Monday May 18, 2015
Signing/Event 4:00
Dress Me! $14.99
New York, NY: Sky Pony Press (2015) As new in dust jacket.
Tuesday May 12, 2015
Signing: 5:00
Reading: 5:30
Small Wonders: Jean-Henri Fabre and His World of Insects $17.99
USA: Two Lions (2015)
A moth with a sixth sense. A wasp that hunts beetles nearly twice its size. The lives of fascinating creatures such as these were unknown until one man introduced them to the world.
Meet Jean-Henri Fabre, one of the most important naturalists of all time. As a boy in the French countryside, Henri spent hours watching insects. He dreamed of observing them in a new way: in their own habitats. What he discovered in pursuing that dream was shocking; these small, seemingly insignificant creatures led secret lives—lives of great drama!
With its lively, lyrical text and richly detailed illustrations, this intriguing picture-book biography introduces the man who would forever change the way we look at insects, bringing to life the fascinating world of dazzling beetles, ferocious wasps, and other amazing small wonders that exist all around us.
Thursday April 30, 2015
Signing/Event 5:30
Fed, White, and Blue: Finding America With My Fork $25.95
New York, NY: Hudson St. (2015) As new in dust jacket.
This special event will be held at the Town of Livingston.
Sponsored by eatyall.com.
4:00 p.m. – 5:30 p.m. Cooking Demonstration and Tasting at The Farmer’s Table Cooking School
$40 per person plus tax includes tasting event and a signed, personalized copy of Simon’s latest book and extraordinary demonstration in the brand new cooking school kitchen and grilling patio. This event will happen concurrently with the Livingston Farmer’s Market but inside the Farmer’s Table Cooking School. The tasting menu will include Chicken Tandoori, Catfish Pakora and Sticky Spicy Peanuts as well as samples of Simon’s favorite bourbon, Angel’s Envy. This event is limited to 50 and reservations are recommended. (EDITOR’S NOTE: THIS EVENT IS SELLING QUICKLY. RESERVATIONS ARE REQUIRED. To purchase tickets online, click here.)
5:30 p.m. – 6:30 p.m. Book signing, photos and storytelling at The Gathering at Livingston
A second opportunity to meet Simon will be at The Gathering at Livingston where individual books will be available for purchase, and Simon will also be available for photos and book signing. This event is open to the public. Books will be available for $24.95 plus tax.
Whether attending one or both Livingston events, guests will fall in love with Simon’s humorous, approachable personality, full of stories of his world travels and self-taught flair for food and cooking.
This event is made possible through a partnership between The Farmer’s Table Cooking School, The Gathering at Livingston and Lemuria Books.
Jackson, Mississippi
10:30 p.m. Celebrity Judge for Sharp Knife Showdown at Capitol Grill
Simon will make an additional appearance as celebrity judge of the local late-night chef competition called Sharp Knife Showdown at Jackson’s popular Capitol Grill at 10:30 p.m. Come join the local foodservice industry for this popular after-hours competition for one last opportunity to visit with Simon, take photos, and pick-up a signed copy of Fed, White and Blue at the Lemuria Books table.
About the Author
Simon has dedicated the second half of his time on this planet to fulfill his ambition to “Go Everywhere. Eat Everything.” It is a journey that has taken him to all fifty states and to dozens of countries around the world. He has written two books already: Eat My Globe and Eating for Britain. Simon’s latest book, Fed, White and Blue, was recently released by Hudson Street Press, an imprint of Penguin Books. Simon is also a well-recognized personality on the Food Network, regularly appearing on shows such as Iron Chef America, The Next Iron Chef, The Best Thing I Ever Ate, Cutthroat Kitchen, Extreme Chef and Beat Bobby Flay. He has also recently appeared as an expert commentator on National Geographic’s major new series EAT: The Story of Food. He lives in Los Angeles.
al idea of an immigrant. As he says, I’m well rested, not particularly poor, and the only time I ever encounter huddled masses’ is in line at Costco.” But immigrate he did, and thanks to a Homeland Security agent who asked if he planned to make it official, the journey chronicled in Fed, White, and Blue was born. In it, Simon sets off on a trek across the United States to find out what it really means to become an American, using what he knows best: food.
Tuesday April 28, 2015
Reception: 5:00
Once in a Lifetime $28.00
Jackson, MS: University Press of Mississippi (2015) As new in dust jacket.
Once in a Lifetime reveals the broad range of Elise Varner Winter's activities as first lady of Mississippi during the term of her husband, Governor William F. Winter. Drawn from her personal journal, which she kept daily, this account includes the frustrating moments as well as the exhilarating ones, from keeping house to visiting the White House. This book reveals Elise Winter's traditional roles--planner of elegant dinners, sophisticated hostess, hands-on gardener, and steward of the Governor's Mansion and its historic collection of antique furniture and decorative arts. But she emerged as a modern first lady, intensely interested in public education and in the state penitentiary, for which she developed several important initiatives. She recounts events from Governor Winter's administration, its tensions and its accomplishments, such as passage of the Education Reform Act, a success in which Elise Winter played an indispensable role. Many of the issues of thirty years ago remain critical today--insufficient funding for education, budget deficits, prison overcrowding, and the need for prison reform. Elise Winter observes everyone and everything with a fresh eye for detail and describes them all with honesty, clarity, and simplicity. Her observations reflect her intellect and insight, as well as her sense of humor. This is a woman's story, a human story, about hopes and doubts, about setting high standards and sometimes feeling inadequate, and about the imperative of continual efforts to make her state a better place for all who live there.
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.
Saturday April 25, 2015
Signing: 1:00
Aftermath Lounge $16.99
Philadelphia, PA: Calypso Editions (2015)
“I love these stories. They’re so smart, beautiful, true—and so real—that they seemed like part of my own history. I felt homesick in the best way, flooded with a kind of saddened joy. They snuffed the gimlet-eyed adult and brought to life again, for a while, the wondrous child.”
—Brad Watson, Aliens in the Prime of Their Lives
“I like these new stories so much it’s hard to know where to start. But a good place to begin would be . . . well, Place. She brings it to life like few writers can. You can almost feel the heavy air on your skin. As for her characters, they’re three-dimensional people who are so real, you feel like they’re in the room with you. She’s got a great ear, a fine eye, and something else that you can’t buy—namely, a very large heart.”
—Steve Yarbrough, The Realm of Last Chances
“Aftermath Lounge is a beautiful, compelling collection, the emotions as powerfully charged as the winds of a hurricane. Margaret McMullan writes movingly about those living in and pulling themselves out of destruction and chaos and loss to salvage all they can of love and redemption. From the voices of orphaned children to the least likely man to don a Santa Claus suit, there are moments of devastation, comic relief and grace.”
—Jill McCorkle, Life After Life
“In Aftermath Lounge each short story, like a homing pigeon, returns to the Gulf Coast to explore how its people struggle with the ghost of Hurricane Katrina. With riveting prose, Margaret McMullan tracks the weblike connections of family and friends haunted by the storm from Pass Christian, Mississippi, to Chicago.
—William Ferris, The Storied South: Voices of Writers and Artists
“How strange, that the best apocalyptic fiction of the year should come to us, not borne on the maelstrom of nuclear fire or horrific epidemic, but rather in this series of beautifully crafted and masterfully interwoven literary stories. In Aftermath, our humanity is not simply swept away by the fury and chaos of Katrina; rather, it is tested, sometimes broken, sometimes intensified, and ultimately renewed by the deluge. A hopeful Book of Revelation.”
—Pinckney Benedict, Miracle Boy and Other Stories