The Long, Hot Summer

Like most of you, we spent our Labor Day packing away our seersuckers and white jodhpurs and picking the mothballs out of fall sweaters.  It was a time to reflect on labor, sure, but also a time to look back at a fanciful summer.  It was such a festive and hectic summer, in fact, that we've hardly had time to blog about all the goings-on.  As we commit to posting more in the upcoming season, we'd like to take you back through some of the highlights of a long, hot summer.

The Help
The biggest story of the summer in Greenwood is without a doubt the filming of The Help.  A massive troupe of techs, builders, movers, shakers, stars, publicists and artisans of all sorts infiltrated the town at the beginning of the summer and continue to create their adaptation of debut novelist and Mississippi native Kathryn Stockett's phenomenon.  (We still have a few signed copies left.)  We've refrained from telling much about the movie in deference to the producers, who hope to keep news of the project as much under wraps as possible, due to arcane Hollywood business logic, and we've been happy to oblige in exchange for some great opportunities to share in the experience.  We don't even have a photo from our event in early August that featured several of the major cast members reading selections from the book.  (Though we did post some other photos from the weekend.)  Stockett put together a terrific sampling of scenes from the book, read by the actors and actresses.  The 500 or so attendees got a rare and unique sneak peek at the performances, not to mention a slice of heavenly seven-layer caramel cake, courtesy of Caroline's in Baltimore.A vast majority of the movie is being filmed in Greenwood proper, including a major scene just down the street from us.  It's been wonderfully surreal to greet comers and goers, both local extras in beehive hairdos and maid uniforms, as well as great actresses like Sissy Spacek, Allison Janney and Viola Davis, not to mention a host of young Hollywood up-and-comers, lounging on our backporch, reading Larry Brown, Barry Hannah and Charles Portis at our insistence.

The hoopla will soon be gone, but we'll remember this for a long time.

Labor Day
We ended the season on a high note with a book signing and reception for renowned interior designer Charles Faudree of Tulsa.  His French County style has been celebrated and emulated all over, and we were proud to have this prince of domesticity in our midst.  He was in town at the pleasure of new friends Mark and Jennifer Radcliffe and the inestimable Leslie Jordan, all in town with the film production of The Help.  As Mr. Faudree met his many admirers and signed books for the large crowd, Jordan kept everyone entertained with hilarious and ribald tales from Hollywood.  See our photo album for more.

Citrus County
Perhaps our favorite discovery of the summer was Citrus County, the second book by John Brandon, current writer-in-residence at the University of Mississippi.  On the surface, this story of two disenfranchised teenagers and their equally oppressed teacher in a small Florida town is darkly comic, offbeat and troubling, but don't think for a minute you've read this story before.

Brandon pulls off an astounding trick:  he sets up a menacing backdrop, allowing his characters to tangle up in the deceptively mundane foreground, then nails the ending, an outcome you may not expect yet spend the whole book dreading.  By sheer impact, he has achieved something of the magnitude you'd expect from the Southern gothic masters of old, while remaining current in language and subject.  It reminded us of some of our contemporary favorites like Dan Chaon and Brad Watson, who are able to achieve that smooth yet intoxicating blend of the ordinary and the horrible.  The effect here is staggering.

We're pleased to announce that John will visit us on Wednesday, September 15 (5:30 p.m.) to sign and read from Citrus County.  You don't want to miss this one.  By all means, reserve a signed copy.


Live Music
This summer we discovered that the downstairs seating area at the front of Turnrow is a great stage for live music.  To combat the lack of original live music in town, we invited two of Mississippi's finest songwriters, Cary Hudson (left) and Jimbo Mathus, for separate shows.  We couldn't have been more pleased by the acoustics our open space holds, and the performers, each excellent in their own right, enjoyed the intimate setting of playing a bookstore.  It was appropriate to host both musicians in a house of literature as they're both great storytellers.  Cary's songs are narratives in the tradition of great folk and country songs, while Jimbo continues to resurrect old songs and tales from Mississippi history.  We hope to host more music events in the coming months ... at least until someone opens a proper music hall in town.

Great Authors
We had several memorable author visits this summer.  John Grisham dropped by early in the season to sign his new book for young readers, Theodore Boone: Kid Lawyer, which one school here adopted for their summer reading.  Deborah Wiles (left), a dear friend and advocate for the bookstore, also dropped by to meet with young readers and hosted a workshop for young writers to inspire them to create a story for our Theodore Boone story contest.  She also signed her new novel Countdown, a wonderfully unique novel that intersperses documentary photos and news clips within the story of an 11-year-old trying to make sense of a world that seems to have gone crazy all around her.  Great for history teachers as well as teenagers who remember the terrors of 9/11 and anyone who enjoys a good coming-of-age yarn, this clever tale is another gem by a supremely talented writer.  Read all about Deborah's Greenwood visit on her blog.

From kids to grown-ups, we hosted a couple of titillating events, one with Adam Ross for his controversial debut novel, Mr. Peanut.  His reading included an eyebrow-raising scene of coitus in the front seat of a car, which had the audience buzzing and fanning; even the author himself was panting by the end.  Later, Nevada Barr stopped by for a noon reading from her new novel, Burn, then told the lunching crowd all about her research in the underground sex community of New Orleans, which included a visit to an orgy palace (not in full swing) that gave her the willies.

We had a big time with our friend Carolyn Haines, who launched her new novel, Bone Appetit, in Greenwood.  The novel concerns a murder at the Viking Cooking School, and she was co-host at a lunch-time cooking demonstration that went down without incident.

Finally,  we enjoyed our time with Howard Norman, who we've hoped to meet for years.  He was the rarest of gentlemen, affable and curious, enthusiastic and generous with stories of his life and work.  He read from his novel, What is Left the Daughter, one of the summer's finest.

The Heat
Nothing can be said of the Summer of '10 without mentioning the record heat.  None could say they made it through without soaking through their shirts or complaining of it fury.  It cast its horrible pall over the months but could not suffocate our fun.

The Biggest Books
Our summer bestsellers:

1. The Help by Kathryn Stockett
2. Theodore Boone by John Grisham
3. Bone Appetit by Carolyn Haines
4. The Time of Eddie Noel by Al Povall
5. Rasputin's Legacy by Troy Carnes (Greenwood native's debut, if you like early Greg Iles)
6. Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Steig Larsson
7. Greenwood: A Postcard History by Donny Whitehead and Mary Carol Miller
8. Burn by Nevada Barr
9. The Eyes of Willie McGee by Alex Heard
10. What is Left the Daughter by Howard Norman

Low Point
With all the highs must come lows, and this summer we were saddened by the passing of our friend Will Long, a Greenwood and Delta institution, and one of the best in a land of great storytellers.