Lemuria Bookstore Blog

Since I’ve only been reading books by David Mitchell, that means I’ve only been blogging about books by David Mitchell, and I think three blogs in a row about him might be too much.  I do want to say quickly, though, that the other night I finished Black Swan Green and loved it.  I have [...]

[Read more →]

i don’t remember the moment someone mentioned this book but soon after our copies started coming in. a few at a time and then each time i checked the order screen, i saw that 5 or 6 more copies were on order. i was looking for something to read and this caught my attention. emma [...]

[Read more →]

In my last blog, I wrote about how a copy of The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet had fallen into my hands and I’d decided to stop everything I was doing and read it.  And I had really high hopes because the reviews were good (especially the New York Times review by Dave Eggers) [...]

[Read more →]

I have read one chapter of David Mitchell’s new book and I’ve now put everything else down to finish it.  This is a big deal for me because I have lots of things to read; lots of things to do; a limited amount of time before I go back to school in the fall and [...]

[Read more →]

My brother has been telling me to read Bret Easton Ellis for a long time now.  He has recommended that I read American Psycho, then teasingly taken back the recommendation – maybe it’s too gory for me, he says (I have seen the movie – surely not more gory than that? apparently it is?).   So [...]

[Read more →]

Having grown up in Mississippi, I think I tend to forget that less than 50 years ago this place was, for so many people, truly nightmarish.  It really is hard to believe. Last night Bruce Watson came and talked about his new book, Freedom Summer, written specifically about the summer of 1964. This was the [...]

[Read more →]

I was born on Father’s Day, 1968, in Springfield, Missouri. When I hear someone nowadays cry–“Oh, who would want to bring a child into this world?”–I marvel at what my then 28-year-old Dad, Carl Yates, faced bringing a son into 1968: Vietnam was raging. The Tet offensive had just shaken the nation and flared again [...]

[Read more →]

It’s June!  Joe was right.  It’s very hot.  It’s very hot but, for the most part, our air conditioning works in Lemuria, making the store the perfect place for you to shop for…Father’s Day presents!  Father’s Day is on June 20th this year and so I’ve gone and picked – fathers in mind – some [...]

[Read more →]

Moving Forward With My Head Turned Back: Why I’m So Pumped to Read at Lemuria Here’s the deal. I grew up in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, but spent most of my life nearly positive that the two kindest people in the world lived in Jackson, Mississippi.  Well, they lived in Jackson first and then Brandon, although [...]

[Read more →]

Willie McGee’s story wouldn’t have been very unusual were it but for a few factors.  After all, he was black, and it was Mississippi, and it was 1945, and he was accused – then quickly convicted – of raping a white woman. There were allegations of an affair, with the woman pointing the finger in [...]

[Read more →]