LemuriaBooks

City of Refuge: A Novel

Tom Piazza

Harper: August 19, 2008

Three years ago, so many lives in Deep Dixie were affected by Katrina. Many nonfiction books of essay, memoir, photo-essay, history and commentary have been published about this life-changing hurricane. Refuge, I believe, is the first piece of serious fiction to come out about this time. Ambitious and successful, I celebrate this novel’s publication by choosing it for our September, 08 First Edition Club Selection.

Refuge deals with two families (one 9^th ward and one uptown) as we see windows into their lives and their souls. We live with these folks, as if they are real, which is a magical quality of very good fiction. Their story is told in this familiar plot as if they are breathing and somehow Tom maintains his vision of truth in fiction. Refuge is writing without too much sentimentality, neurosis and without contriteness that plagues many factual situational novels. His characters live and speak and you feel alive as a reader in knowing them. Their joys, their problems and plainly just their human ways of living and surviving.

I’m excited to be involved with promoting this novel, Tom’s my pal and I thought this book might be too much for him, I was so wrong. He excels.

Refuge is fresh, real and a serious page-turner. Oddly enough, I’m reminded of my first reading of John Grisham’s The Firm, many years ago. Good people make mistakes and you identify with their shortcomings. Troubled folks can learn how to enhance their lives and all the time, you the reader, are part of the feelings of pain, joy and truth. To the last page, Tom is successful and special with the ending, no sentimental sap here. Just the guts of survival.

In reading Refuge, I feel the heart of New Orleans vibrate with humanity and the livable party spirit which those of us who visit value and enjoy.

Anyone touched by the pain of association with this great storm, should enjoy the wisdom of this novel. And be motivated to get off your ass and go to New Orleans and party, and may haps find Chief Bo and his band of Indians chanting joy over the drums and rhythm relishing in the spirit of rebirth.

Pelican Road: Novel
By Howard Bahr
Macadam Cage: May 9, 2008


Howard Bahr is a train man.  Pelican Road, Howard’s first non-Civil War
fiction, is a literary train novel.  This is the only serious railroad
fiction that I know of.

Pelican Road is the train route from Meridian, MS to New Orleans.  Set
around 1940, Howard captures the personalities; the way folks lived; their
meanness and their cares; their moments of good fortune and their
unfortunate times.

Through the eyes of the people in this era, we learn about the ways of the
railroad:  the trains themselves and their workings; train jobs and their
responsibilities; the real-life characteristics of railroad men; and
insight into the joys and hardships of the railroad life.

I especially like the way Howard worked the WWI (“Doughboy War“) into this
novel.  Dealing with flashbacks gives Howard’s Civil War fiction fans just
enough.  Pelican Road extends Howard’s fiction into a new, broader era
offering insight into the 2nd generation, post-Civil War life.

My favorite aspect of this fine novel laid in Howard’s ability to relate
the sheer power and force of the train itself and the way the machine is
revered in language.

There is no doubt, in his heart, Howard is truly a railroad man.

Ok Folks, Here are some more books that I think that you will enjoy on your summer vacations or if on a "staycation" these books will transport you to another time and place!!

Murder of a Medici Princess by Caroline P. Murphy
"Like the Kennedys or Windsors, the Medicis are a dynasty brimming with biographical
gold, and this supple, smart account of a lesser-known daughter will engage modern
readers as it vivifies both Renaissance Florence and an extraordianary women who paid
ultimate price for flouting her era's traditional gender roles." --Publisher's Weekly

The Commoner by John Burnham Schwartz
" A unique literary adventure, intimate, exotic; wonderfully imagined and achieved.
The narrative impels the reader from first to last, immersing us in its flow of ancient
acceptances and new demands. Splendid."--Shirley Hazard, author of The Transit
of Venus and The Great Fire


The Monster of Florence by Douglas Preston with Mario Spezi
"Douglas Preston fulfilled a lifelong dream when he moved with his family to a villa in
Florence. Upon meeting celebrated journalist Mario Spezi, Preston was stunned to
learn that the olive grove next to his home had been the scene of a horrific double
murder committed by one of the most infamous figures in Italian history. A serial
killer who ritually murdered fourteen young lovers, he has never been caught. He is
known as the Monster of Florence."
FYI: Thomas Harris based his character Hannibal Lector on
The Monster of Florence and the surrounding circumstances.

The Dummy Line by Bobby Cole
"Jake Crosby, a troubled stockbroker, has planned a weekend escape at his hunting
camp with his nine-year-old daughter, Katy. In the middle of the night, a gang of
redneck drug dealers attempts to break into the remote camp. The gang's display of
heinous intentions toward Jake and Katy causes Jake to make gut-wrenching
decisions."

The House at Riverton by Kate Morton
"The House of Riverton is a sweeping debut novel set in England between the
wars. It is the story of an aristocratic family, a house, a mysterious death and a
vanishing way of life, told by a woman who witnessed it all and kept a secret for a
lifetime."

Master of the Delta by Thomas Cook
"Cook writes powerful layered novels, with original heroes who choose to walk down
paths that quietly, inexorably, lead them to even darker places in the human heart,
and ultimately to breathtaking and revelatory surprises at their journey's end."
--Minneapolis Star Tribune

The Red Leather Diary--Lily Koppel
Lilly Koppel 'rescued' a red leather diary from the garbage dumpster in front of her
apartment building in New York. She took it home and after reading it realized she
must find this girl who wrote it. She hired an investigator and the rest is history!
"The young woman who emerged from the diary's pages had huge ambitions, even if
chasing them proved daunting. February 21, 1931. Went to the Museum of
Modern Art and almost passed out from sheer jealousy-I can't even paint an
apple yet-it's heartbreaking! January 16, 1932. I couldn't study today & went to
museum to pass a morning of agonizing beauty-Blown glass, jade and exquisite
embroideries. April 10, 1932. Wrote all day-and my story is still incomplete.
September 2, 1934. Planning a play on Wordsworth-possibilities are infinite.
October 12, 1934. How I love to inflict pain on my characters!
What she craved most was to be enveloped in a grand passion that would
transform her life. July 3, 1932. Five hours of tennis and glorious happiness-all I
want is someone to love-I feel incomplete."

Leif Enger reminded me of a great quote from Huck Finn when he was here signing So Brave, Young and Handsome, 

This has been a common question since we had the first DotCom Sales last month and guess what you all have another opportunity to ask because we are doing it again! Come by the DotCom building Saturday, June 21, 2008 starting around 9:30. All the First Editions, signed and unsigned, are 10% off. This is a perfect time to finish up any collections that you are lacking a few titles or to start collecting a new author. There will also be what I'm calling the "bargain book box"--titles that are $1.00-$6.00. It is summer time and I know that some off you haven't been in to pick up your summer reading yet.

If you are interested in collecting books we would also love to explain to you how to get involved with the First Editions Club.

The sale is only going on in the DotCom building not in the main store so come by and see Caroline and me. Oh yeah, we will have $1.00 beer also!

I hope to see you at least on one of these Saturdays!!

June 21, 2008 July 19, 2008 August 23, 2008
June 28, 2008 July 26, 2008 August 30, 2008

I am not a great cook, so I rarely try out new recipes, but a few nights ago I finally got around to testing a recipe from Susan Spicer's cookbook, Crescent City Cooking, and really enjoyed it. 

Success! The book sale last week at Lemuria's "Dot.com" building was a great success. The back porch at dot.com was warm and welcoming due to the beautiful weather for Lemuria's first ever sale day. Can you believe that after thirty-three years John has agreed to have the first big sale in the store's history? Don't forget that there are still two more spring sale days left: this Saturday, May 24, and Monday, May 26, which is also MEMORIAL DAY! So come by the Dot.com building and peruse the shelves. All the first editions and advanced readers copies on the shelves of Dot.com will be 10% off again and like last Saturday, we will have tables of advanced reader books priced as marked, starting at $1!!

The Outlander by Gil Adamson, 2008, Ecco, a division of HarperCollins, $25.95. (First Edition Club pick for May)

I have struggled coming up with a review of Gil Adamson's debut novel, The Outlander for over two months now, and this morning I read the latest edition of BookPage, and lucky me, my new favorite book reviewer, Kristy Kiernan, has a fantastic review...so let me give her the honors...

No country for young widows

REVIEW BY KRISTY KIERNAN

In 1903, the wilds of Montana and Alberta, Canada, and the frozen peaks of the Rockies challenged the most adventurous and experienced explorers. Only someone desperate, perhaps even mad, would dare consider them a viable escape route, but then Mary Boulton, most often referred to in Gil Adamson's suspenseful debut, The Outlander, as "the widow," is surely both.

After the death of her infant, Mary slowly begins to work her way out of a crippling depression, only to be confronted with evidence of her husband's infidelity. Alone in a desolate and friendless landscape, Mary loses her last shred of sanity and kills him, living with his body while sewing her mourning gown. Her reckless act is discovered soon enough, sending the widow fleeing across the harsh land with her twin brothers-in-law, seeking revenge, hot on her trail.

Throughout her travels the widow suffers from frightening delusions, as well as the ever-present threats of starvation and frostbite, but she presses onward and upward, making her way through treacherous mountain passes, dodging wolves, deadly arrows and capture. A host of interesting characters cross her erratic path, providing shelter, company or simply an opportunity to steal provisions, and her encounters with a notorious mountain man known as the Ridgerunner are especially compelling.

As the widow's wilderness knowledge and competence improves, so does her mental condition, and by the time she arrives in Frank, a mining town in southwest Alberta, she's nearly got a grip on her sanity. But nothing will stop her husband's brothers, and soon after the famous Frank Slide, when 74 million tons of mountain crashed to the valley below, they manage to catch up to her.

Readers will feel as breathless as Mary as they follow her frantic dash across the snow-bound mountains. Combining the best escape-over-hazardous-terrain action from novels like Cold Mountain with moody, literary prose, The Outlander is an utterly gripping debut.

Kristy Kiernan writes from South Florida and determinedly avoids all snowy mountains.

Atlantis Book Club book, Three Cups of Tea, was featured this morning on Karen Brown's radio program, Mississippi Edition. This Mississippi Public Broadcasting show airs each morning from 8:30-9 o'clock and features Mississippi news. Don't forget Atlantis will be meeting this afternoon at 5 to discuss Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin.

We had an enjoyable evening with Patrick McGrath a few weeks ago when he came to the store to sign his latest mystery, Trauma. Mr. McGrath charmed us all. He shared some of his favorite writers with us, including: F. Scott Fitzgerald, Philip Roth, Joseph Conrad, Patrick White, Anne Ehnreit, and Philip Johnson. 

The store is abuzz with excitement as we anticipate the arrival of Alton Brown for his signing this afternoon. Raymond Reeves has a great article about Brown in the Clarion Ledger today that includes an interview in which Alton raves about his experiences in Misssissippi. When Reeves asks the chef about his general take on our state he responded, 

Patrick McGrath is coming tomorrow night to sign and read from his new book, TRAUMA, and I can hardly wait to hear him read and ask him some questions about his work in general--Soon after I started working for Lemuria I picked up his book ASYLUM--It may have been his first book or one of his first--And 10 years later I remember it as one of the creepiest books I ever read--but also one of the most compelling--very dark---but very well written--I'm not a fan of the horror genre but ASYLUM didn't really fit into that category per say---with its psychological underpinings and its literary tone---Come check out his earlier works and hear him read from his new book --You may discover a new author to follow---

We had an entertaining evening with Randy Wayne White last Wednesday. Randy stopped by Lemuria to sign books for the First Editions Club, hang out and read as he tours to promote his latest novel, "Black Widow." He told some hysterical stories that had everybody cracking up (it's never good when you open your freezer to give your cop friend some fish and instead, the freezer is full of bags of oregano...). Anyway, he got serious as we were leaving, pulling the guilt trip on those of us who don't write: