Rhythm and Books

In the Garden of Beasts

Erik Larson's Devil in the White City is a long-time Turnrow customer favorite. Fans of the book admire how Larson spins a true story with the flair of a novelist, bringing the past to life in a way few historians can. We used Larson's book and narrative style as inspiration for our section "Creative Truths," which brings together non-fiction with a strong and artful narrative style.

We recently brought in a stack of Larson's just-released book, In the Garden of Beasts, and couldn't resist giving it a quick read. It tells the remarkable story of William Dodd, a genial, soft-spoken Midwestern professor drafted by Roosevelt to serve as the U.S. ambassador to Berlin. This is 1933, as Hitler's beasts are coming to life. Dodd brings along his wife, his son and daughter, Martha, a liberated young woman who is particularly entranced by the culture of the Third Reich and the powerful, handsome men among its ranks. Larson seizes upon the drama in the different ways they experience this tumultuous age.

What may be most interesting about Larson's depiction of this time is how quickly the civil rights of German Jews disintegrates and how indifferent the world, including the isolationist U.S., accept this political climate in Germany. His gift is capturing the sights and sounds of Berlin, as well as the claustrophobia experienced by a principled man like Dodd, living in a time and place where dissent is ruthlessly squashed and where the human decency exists on a sliding scale.

This is a powerful, evocative and fascinating work by a master of historical entertainment. Make a point to check it out this summer.

A Visit From Kate DiCamillo

Admittedly, many on our staff reach for darker, stranger fictions. But we've nearly all enjoyed, from time to time, a novel by Kate DiCamillo, one of today's most beloved authors of children's literature. She has the ability to craft fable-like stories that have an instant classic feel to them. Her characters are real, whether they take the form of a mouse, a bunny or an elephant. Their problems are believable and her books address them in a thoughtful manner. There is an honesty found in her work that is unique to any fiction, whether for children or adults, which had made her books popular with young and old alike.

So we were extremely honored to welcome Kate to Turnrow over the weekend. She stopped through on a book tour for the paperback of her most recent novel, The Magician's Elephant. The novel follows a 10-year-old orphan named Peter Augustus Duchene, who asks a wandering fortune teller one question: does his sister still live? The fortune teller replies simply that an elephant will lead Peter to the answer, sending the boy on a great journey that will introduce him to memorable strangers and miraculous occurrences.

One of our first exposures to DiCamillo's work was her debut, a Newbery Honor winner and still one of her most popular novels, Because of Winn-Dixie. This instant classic follows India Opal Buloni, a 10-year-old girl who moves to a new town with her father, both estranged from her mother. When Opal finds a big ugly dog, which she names Winn-Dixie, her isolation begins to melt as her friendship with Winn-Dixie opens doors to meeting an eclectic assembly of new friends and helps close wounds left by her mother's absence.

In addition to her stories, we've admired Kate for her outspoken advocacy for independent booksellers. We especially enjoyed a story she told last year at Book Expo America, a story about the importance of her neighborhood bookstore in her formative years. (Read the speech here.)

She made good on her devotion to indies by venturing off her charted book tour to see us, and we appreciate it. She also signed our stock, so order your signed copies of The Magician's Elephant and Because of Winn-Dixie, along with her Newbery Medal-winning The Tale of Despereaux, the National Book Award finalist The Tiger Rising, and her two great series for beginning readers, Bink and Gollie and the Mercy Watson books.

Camus Car Lot

No one can say Greenwood isn't a literary town.  Visitors entering town from the west on Highway 82 got a heady welcome last week when this daily quote flashed up on the flashing Jumbotron at our local used car dealer. 

 

Mother's Day Mess

Ah, the lovely sound of jackhammers in spring. If you're driving by Turnrow this weekend, hoping to score that perfect last-minute Mother's Day gift, we have good and bad news — the gifts are great, the sidewalk in front of the store is rubble. They're tearing up the sidewalk to lay brick for a downtown beautification project, and it's our turn to be turned up. If you don't feel sure-footed enough to maneuver the plywood footbridge leading to our front door, feel free to use the back entrance during this upheaval.

As for Mother's Day, we have plenty of books a mother could love. The hot gift of the season is Martha Foose's A Southerly Course, of course. This beautiful cookbook, chock full of unique recipes and even more unique stories of Delta life and tables, is the hot seller this season.

Some other recently popular titles are Dean Faulkner Wells' exquisite memoir of growing up Faulkner, Every Day by the Sun, and, despite the title, Buryin' Daddy by Teresa Nicholas, a fine memoir of growing up among eccentrics in Yazoo City. Karen White's new novel, The Beach Trees, has just arrived. White, a customer favorite, will be reading and signing here May 24. Some other recent favorite novels include Sara Foster's Southern Kitchen, an essential Southern cookbook by a long-admired North Carolina chef; The Weird Sisters, a superb and precise depiction of sisterhood by newcomer Eleanor Brown; Say Her Name, a powerful memoir by Francisco Goldman about the sudden tragic death of his young wife; and Lost in Shangri-la, a true World War II-era adventure with a memorable heroine, who goes down in a plane crash and must navigate the cannibal-infested jungle of Papua New Guinea.

For the multi-sensual reading experience, we're recommending scent-sational accompaniments to recommended novels in the form of Niven Morgan fragrant candles. Try the Paris candle (blue cypress and absinthe) with A Novel Bookstore, the San Miguel candle (lime and bougainvillea) with Into the Beautiful North, and the New Orleans candle (gardenia and jasmine) with The Optimist's Daughter and/or The Moviegoer. 

And there are plenty of new popular gift items we've added to our stock, including luxurious Pine Cone Hill pajamas and robes — for what better to wear while reading a wonderful book — a host of new journals, picture frames, ornaments and a classy line of vintage gloves, great for the garden or kitchen, as displayed by our on-staff hand model at right. (No, ladies, those forearms weren't Photoshopped ... and yes, they're available.)

No excuse not to beat a path down to Turnrow and show your mom some love.