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You Saw Them At Square Books First

Square Books has served as a springboard for a number of auspicious literary beginnings. Authors whose first bookstore signings were held here include John Grisham (A Time To Kill), Larry Brown (Facing the Music), Charles Frazier (Cold Mountain), and (in the U.S.) Australian Richard Flanagan (The Sound of One Hand Clapping) and Canadian Yann Martel (The Life of Pi). We have learned recently that the authors of two of the most highly anticipated first novels to be published this fall -- worthy of comparison to those writers mentioned already -- will do inaugural events here -- Lance Weller on September 4, and Kevin Powers, September 10.

Wilderness has received frequent early comparisons, coincidentally, to Charles Frazier's first novel. Set in Washington State thirty years after the Civil War's Battle of Wilderness, in which Abel Truman had fought, the aged veteran undertakes a final quest in which he rediscovers violence and brutality. Abel also finds a generous, kind spirit of humanity in this place, the account of which Annie Dillard said "the landscapes are huge" and "Abel's story...both simple and rich, the novel unforgettable."

In 2004 and 2005 Kevin Powers was a machine gunner in Mosul and Tal Afar, the combat setting of The Yellow Birds in chapters that alternate with the story's stateside events. This short novel is written with great intensity and artistry. Described by Colm Toibin as "compelling" and Ann Patchett as "inexplicably beautiful," Tom Wolfe has hailed The Yellow Birds as "The All Quiet on the Western Front of America's Arab Wars."

Please join us to help Oxford welcome two promising writers into the world of readers. RH

Square Books to host James Meredith

 Thursday, August 30

Opening with a riveting account of his 1966 assassination attempt 2 miles outside Hernando, Mississippi, James Meredith's new book, A Mission From God: A Memoir and Challenge for America, rarely loses its grip on the reader captured by the voice that admits, "I befuddle people," avering that "I refused to be forced into a special category where I am expected to behave in certain ways and hold certain beliefs." The author (with William Doyle) ranges across a spectrum of history and events, including his genealogical history (an especially fine portrayal of his mother and father), his military career, his spiritual connection to Japan, his encounters and friendships with Martin Luther King, Jr., Medgar Evers, and others, the crisis surrounding his desegregation of Ole Miss (and encounter with the white woman who was in love with him), his career with Jesse Helms, all the while espousing his core beliefs about humanity, politics, and his principles of American citizenship. While the enigma of James Meredith ultimately remains, we know more of this man now than we ever have through the blunt honesty of this book, portrayed by the amazing and amiable character of James Meredith, as well as the utterly sensible and noble challenge that arrives at the end of the book. RH

(A Mission From God) Photo by Matt Heindl, Jackson Free Press

Journalist and professor Joe Atkins will interview James Meredith briefly and moderate a question and answer session at 5:30 Thursday, August 30, during Mr. Meredith's appearance  in conjunction with his book, A Mission From God.

 

Noel Polk

 

Noel Polk
1943-2012

Mississippi letters lost a champion when Noel Polk passed away at home after an illness. A longtime professor of English literature at the University of Southern Mississippi and later Mississippi State University, he was well-known here in Oxford mainly due to his perennial appearances at the Faulkner Conference, where he often spoke. A scholar of two of Mississippi’s greatest writers, William Faulkner and Eudora Welty, he was involved in the editing of some of Faulkner’s original texts and the Library of America editions of Faulkner. He published Children of the Dark House: Text and Context in Faulkner and Eudora Welty: A Bibliography of Her Work. A fine extract of his personal history, Outside the Southern Myth, may be found here on the site of the American Scholar

While Noel’s scholarship could be arcane – he really got down to the nitty gritty -- a personal encounter with Noel was always open, engaging, and very friendly. His contagious energy not only gave creation to the Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters, he also kept a hand in sustaining the organization since he helped found it in 1978. It is no surprise to those who knew Noel that his generous enthusiasm for literature included a constant support for us here at Square Books.

Noel got his PhD at the University of South Carolina after completing his other degrees at Mississippi College, where he was a member of the MC literary brat pack that included Peggy Prenshaw, Evans Harrington, Barry Hannah, and many others. Mississippi’s powerhouse of literary greatness continues to cast its shadow over the world, and Noel worked in the boiler room. We will miss him, and extend our condolences to all his friends and family.  RH

The Dog Stars

SIGNED COPIES AVAILABLE
 
"I could almost imagine that it was before, that Jasper and I were off somewhere on an extended sojourn and would come back one day soon, that all would come back to me, that we were not living in the wake of disaster. Had not lost everything but our lives. Same as yesterday standing in the garden. It caught me sometimes: that this was okay. Just this. That simple beauty was still bearable barely, and that if I lived moment to moment, garden to stove to the simple act of flying, I could have peace." 
 
What you are guaranteed to get from The Dog Stars: a hunting-fishing-nature-airplane-dog-survivalist drama. What you might not expect: being part of the rush of adventure from inside the head of Hig, the hunter-gatherer-pilot-survivalist. Hig's moment-by-moment thoughts are a necessary and constant guard in the devastated and altered land (the West) where he continues to find beauty and solace in the natural world even though people hunt and kill each other and there is only one friend and one dog to trust. Hig sets out in his 1950s Cessna aircraft to answer a vague transmission, because he wants to believe there will be a new beginning, or if not that, an end. The Dog Stars is unnerving, enthralling, moving. Peter Heller, an adventure writer/editor (Outdoors and National Geographic Adventure magazines) is in touch with more than trees and streams with this one. SLM

Swimming Studies


Swimming Studies by Leanne Shapton, Blue Rider Press, 30.00

Leanne Shapton is an artist and writer who once competed for a slot on the Canadian Olympic swim team. She didn't make the squad but was good enough to get close, which meant she spent hours and months and years swimming and training and thinking -- deeply -- about what it all meant to her life. With the XXX Olympiad and the names of Michael Phelps, Missy Franklin and Ryan Lochte fresh on our minds, and 100+ temperatures out there now, it's a good time to dive into Leanne Shapton's refreshingly cool memoir.


Swimming Studies is a physically lovely book whose narrative is accompanied by  the author's sketches, paintings, and an unusual photographic archive of her swimsuits.  And it's an excellent read, a provocative and pleasantly understated memoir with casual, elliptical references to art and literature and unpretentious utterances of occasional wisdom -- a friendly, welcome companion for any reader who wishes to think about what is, has been, or may become of one's life. RH

Vintage high-neck psychedelic one-piece suit, no label, used for recreational swimming, 2003-2010.
(Swimming Studies)

So Long Waldo

Hooray for Katherine, the grand prize winner of the complete box set of Waldo books.
 
The month of Waldo ended with a bang! The Waldo party was a blast with a large crowd of kids and parents in attendance for the grand prize drawings. The party began with yet another Waldo hunt to find three Waldo figures hidden in the store. The three winners  each received a mixed candy bag donated by Holli's Sweet Tooth. Meanwhile, the real Waldo (Dr. John Bruce) was hiding behind the curtain, but the kids are expert hunters now and found him, too. Our very own Jackie Boyce played hostess as Wenda and organized a Waldo coloring activity and served a delicious slice of Waldo cake to everyone.
Believe it or not, there were 185 names in the grand prize drawing! We had a total of 6 grand prizes that included Waldo tote bags, Waldo postcard books, a Waldo poster book and the ultimate supreme grand prize of the complete box set of Waldo books. The prizes also included donated items such as t-shirts from Square Books, Jr., Cat Daddy's and Something Southern, crayons and a crayon holder from Belles and Beaus and a magnet board from Warehouse 605. Waldo in his infinite position of authority drew the names, and all the winners ended up being from right here in Oxford even though the competition was stiff with many entrants being from all over the southeast. However, no one went home empty handed as each child received a Waldo postcard as a memento.
We thank everyone who came to the party, everyone who participated in the hunt - those who were local and those from out of town, and all of the participating businesses around the Square who made the event possible. 

You & Me

 

 

Ian Frazier says “Padgett Powell is one of the best writers in America—and one of the funniest, too.” His stories are cousin to Barry Hannah’s (read the masterpiece Typical), his ear for dialog is Weltian, and I believe him to be Faulkner’s closest stylistic kin. Not at all derivative, though--his writing is aggressively his own. You and Me will conjure up Godot for smarties, but me, I’m thinking “Water Liars.” Basically, two baby-boomer geezers (yes, that’s us) with nothing better in this world to do sit around and jaw about stuff: “Things disturb them.” Just a few of those things are sex, Parker shotguns, Miles Davis, fishing, R. Crumb, cowardice, Jayne Mansfield, lard-and-hair sandwiches, nihilism, dogs, Tarzan, GERD, Sherman, Oz, people who should die of a terrible virus (tyrants, driving cell-phone talkers, litterbugs), and the deaths of Julia Child and Ray Charles, which “contributed directly to the collapse of Life as we thought we knew it.” As the guys put it, they “are talky bums with decent clothes and odor under control but bums all the same...” Powell craycray for sure, but pert near genius. LH

PADGETT POWELL WILL BE A GUEST ON THACKER MOUNTAIN RADIO THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 6. SIGNING AFTER THE SHOW. 

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