In the wake of our blog launch here at Turnrow Book Co., we must give credit to one of our favorite writers, Jack Pendarvis, who unwittingly inspired us to enter the blogosphere. An ardent champion of our bookselling efforts (and our custom bookmarks), Jack is also a hilarious writer and master of his own blog, which we visit frequently. We offer signed first editions of both of his fine books (The Mysterious Secret of the Valuable Treasure and Your Body is Changing, both published by MacAdam/Cage, with a third due this summer). Also, we are anxiously awaiting his upcoming visit and talk with a local bookclub whose members read contemporary Southern authors and are often discouraged that they don't make 'em like William Faulkner or Walker Percy any more. If you'd like a quick sample, dabble into Jack's short pieces from The Believer, or take the leap and order both books from us. Speaking of William Faulkner, Jack lives a stone's throw from the old Faulkner place in Oxford, Mississippi, where he currently serves as the John and Renee Grisham Visiting Southern Writer-in-Residence.
And speaking of John Grisham, he paid us a visit recently. Always generous and a friend to Mississippi's independent bookstores, John gave several precious hours of his time to sign all of our copies of his new novel, The Appeal, which is not only his return to legal thrillers but possibly one of the best reviewed books of his career. Just because you can buy his books at nearly every fly-swarming grocery store or congested mega-mart in the country (but not signed, like you can at Turnrow, for only $27.95) doesn't mean he's not writing important literature. No less than the Boston Globe called The Appeal "a novel that could become its own era-defining classic," while the Los Angeles Times said, "no other writer of his popularity is quite so keen-eyed or as fierce a social critic," declaring Grisham a literary heir to Upton Sinclair.
Of course, not everyone is comfortable with Grisham's outspokenness. One customer came in the other day and informed us that she wouldn't be buying The Appeal, citing a boycott in protest of the new religion he was starting with Jimmy Carter. Perplexed, we immediately went to the internet, scouring search engines for proof of this rise of a new modern-day L. Ron Hubbard, and found this account of Grisham's address at a convention for Baptists. It's doubtful that much rancor will accompany his remarks, which called for more diversity and acceptance in the church, but it's interesting to note the swift evolution of his comments.
Grisham is pictured above in our slightly-less-disheveled-than-normal stock room with Turnrow's own Page Whites, who earned her birth name by "paging" every copy of The Appeal to the precise page where the author signs, a time-saving measure in the flurry of limbs, ink and paper that constitutes a marathon backroom stock signing. Did we mention we had signed copies of The Appeal?