Hope you all celebrated the new year and brought 2008 in with a blast! I am still recovering . . .
For
the first newsletter for 2008, I figured I would try something
different. My usual newsletter will pick up next week but for now, I
want each and every one of you to do something for me: please read what
my father sent to me recently and use it to create your own 2008.
We are on earth to discover our own path and will never be happy trying
to live someone else's idea of life. May I be happy with who I am and not
evaluate myself in terms of someone else's success.
I am not the kind of
person who gets "preachy" but I wanted to share that with each and
every one of you. This year, make it your year and follow your own
path. I have started and it has been wonderful!
Take care, all of you, and be well. The regular newsletter will be back next week!
A
bookseller is a good friend to have, especially when that bookseller is
in touch with the Force (although I do claim Sith and NOT Jedi!)
As a person who was born
in the South, I used to hate my birth area. I had thought that people from my
region of the country were uneducated, religious zealots, and limited in their
thinking capacity. I refused to consider myself as a Southerner and even took
great pains and claims to inform everyone that I went to college up North. I
wanted to talk like Northerners and even tried to absorb my father’s accent (he
is from Massachusetts) when speaking to others. In doing so, I wanted
people to know that I was an intelligent being who, after realizing that the
South would never be on any stimulating intellectual level, wanted to make
myself a child of the North / New
England. However, after
yesterday, my whole outlook changed. During my lunch, I walked down Main Street downtown to the post office, walking by the store
for the Center for Southern Folklore. I had walked by that store for years with
barely a passing interest for going in, but for some reason I wanted to
yesterday. So, once I sent my paid books to their happy destinations, I walked
across the street and into the store. Immediately, I was greeted by a young
woman with white blonde hair seated behind the counter that had a sign boasting
of good peach cobbler and ice cream. As I walked around, I noticed the many
black and white photographs of different people from Memphis’ past, black and white, whose faces told of a
different time, a happier time, a sadder time. I found myself staring at two
photographs in particular: a young white woman from the 30s who stood next to a
bale of cotton and two black women from the 40s who were in a beauty shop. My
heart began to thump wildly as I walked around the store, noticing the pictures
of long ago mingled with blues music pumping from the speakers all around.
Artwork took up every corner of the store and even Elvis had a part to play in
the décor. Food items of the South lingered on tables and small plates and
books speaking of myths and legends of the South, the Blues, and famous
Southerners, filled the shelves. Suddenly, a thought I had never had before
crept into my mind: I felt proud to be a Southerner. There is no other place in
the country that can speak of men selling their souls to the Devil in exchange
for guitar lessons, or birthplaces of music heard around the world, or even
food that will kill you while you are smiling. I walked out of the store, promising to return
to purchase the two pictures, my heart leaping with joy and pride. Whether you
hail home as cosmopolitan and fast paced Atlanta, jazzy and spicy New
Orleans, soulful and yet
tense Memphis, or laid back and genteel Savannah, be proud of your roots now and forever. I know I
am, finally.
Hello everyone! How
is everyone on this fine Saturday morning? Wrapping presents, perhaps?
Or, preparing some of that "special" egg nog for family and friends
later on? The holiday season is in the air and we are all a part of it,
no matter our background or faith. This is a time for giving and
sharing (although I think we should do that the entire year and not
just during Winter!) and spending time with family and those we love.
However, not all of us are caught in the good spirit of the
holiday season. Some of us do not have any family or any loved ones to
spend time with. Some of us dread the holiday season because it brings
back horrible or unpleasant memories.
To those of you who might be in a situation like that or one
close to it: remember that you will ALWAYS have a friend in me, no
matter what. My thoughts go out to each and every one of you during
this season, regardless if it is a happy time for you or not. Each and
every one of you are special to me, and most of you I have never met!
Anyway, I just wanted to say that. Thank you for reading thus far.
NOW!!!!!!!
OH MAN!!!! Remember how last week I was not in the best of moods regarding the movie
Atonement? Wipe the slate clean because yours truly saw it last night! That's right, Memphis did get the movie, just a week later. I
always cringe when I hear that a book is being made into a movie; I
think that the director is going to fail in capturing the essence of
the book and that the movie will be very "Hollywood"-ish. Well,
Atonement was not like that at all! James McAvoy(he is sooo cute!) and
Keira Knightley did an excellent job in playing the lovers whose lives
are forever doomed by one action on a summer night in 1935 England. Ian
McEwan's words were very apparent throughout the entire movie and I
barely moved in my seat.
The music was simply divine (I will be buying my CD today no
matter the cost), the acting top notch, and some of the scenes and
settings were simply haunting. This is a movie you do not want to miss!
And,
for those of you who are like me and will not see the movie unless you
have read the book, I have a copy of Atonement for sale as well some of
Ian McEwan's
other works that are just as good: On Chesil Beach - his newest book,
Saturday, and Enduring Love. Each book is $3.00 before shipping. Send
an e-mail to info@viridianbooks.com if you are interested.
As
a bookseller and reader, I am a member of about ten different literary
online newsletters, trying to keep up with the literary world and give
you guys the latest scoops. Well, here's one that had me floored: it
seems that Amazon recently purchased JK Rowling's handwritten
(literally) book of fairy tales entitled
The Tales of Beedle the Bard. . . for 4 million dollars! Only seven in existence and Amazon was able to scoop one up through Sotheby's in London.
Tired
of Myspace? Looking for something a little different, perhaps? If you
are a lover of all things Fae and Faerie related, visit Enchanted Folk Social Network
to satisfy your every faerie need. Set up a profile, join different
groups, write and share poetry and/or stories, and view art that is
absolutely otherworldly.
And speaking of art, I discovered an artist that made me cry when I viewed her pictures. Stephanie Roberts
is an artist beyond compare, one that will send shivers down your
spine. I especially loved her rendition of Ophelia, my favourite
character from Hamlet.
Most people, when they hear the term Victorian author, think
of Charles Dickens and his wonderful books. My all time favourite book
is A Tale of Two Cities. However, there was another author who captured
not only the soul of the Victorian world but who also showed its darker
and more sinister underbelly. Wilkie Collins was best known for his detective novel The
Moonstone but he also wrote another work that will keep you up late
into the night:
The Woman In White. A
young woman is married off a man who may or may not be what he appears
and it is up to her more intelligent sister to discover the truth as
well discover the true identity of a mentally ill young woman dressed
in white who walks the streets and forest pathways at night. This book
is Victorian Gothic at its best!
Ruth Rendell
is a the master of the psychological thriller: the book that not just
answers the question of WHO committed the crime but WHY did they it.
Although I have only read two of her books thus far, she has made me a
follower of her written words. The book A Demon in my View
is a classic example of her style. A lonely bachelor living in small
apartment complex in London is deathly shy of women, so shy that he has
"ways" of relieving that shyness. He also keeps tabs on the other
occupants of the building and creates fantasies in order to cope with
his own psychosis. A new tenant moves in, causing much distress to the
bachelor, who feels that his twisted world has been invaded and decides
to take matters into his own hands . . . a great book and a thriller
beyond compare.
Everyone probably knows this already but I'll say it anyway:
Ike Turner died this week at the age of 76. Can you believe that?!?!
Just had to mention it.
For those of you who are as obsessed with books as I am,
The Literary Traveler
was designed for you. Care to visit Virginia Woolf's home? Or maybe
you'd like to see where Edna St. Vincent Millay wrote her poems? Now
you can schedule vacations regarding notable literary figures and their
places of residence or birth or even death. How cool is that?!
Well, that's all for this week. Take care, be safe and remember:
A bookseller is a good friend to have, especially when that bookseller drools over a 4 million dollar book!
Absinthe Dreams,
Kimberly Owner/Resident Muse, Viridian Books The Bookstore for the Strange and Unusual Reader
www.viridianbooks.com
We are called, as people of Earth,
to be mindful of others no matter of their skin colour, gender, sexual
orientation, background, monetary status, religious affiliation, or any
other deciding factors. So, how is it that we turn to our cruelest
emotions during the holiday seasons, a time of peace for all? Last
night, as I stood in line in a drugstore, a man two people ahead of me
angrily decided to question the cashier's ringing up process, thinking
that perhaps he had cheated him out of money. The cashier calmly showed
him the receipt and explained to him why certain items rang up the way
they did. Normally, I would have been foaming at the mouth with
impatience but I remained calm. I was in great pain from my menstrual
cycle and my arms hurt from holding all of my items but I still stood
there calmly. Finally, the man walked away with no good-bye or even
thank you to the cashier who looked slightly drained by the
interaction. I moved further up the line, still calm and composed. When
it was my turn, I gave the cashier one of my best smiles despite my
pain and he smiled back in kind, ringing me up and even cracking a joke
when the pen I used to sign my credit slip refused to work. When I
walked out and into the cold night air, I felt better than ever. I am
sure the cashier dreads the holiday season mainly for the rude
customers who must go through his line every day but I wanted him to
know that there were still people out there who thought differently. I
am a mortal being, full of weakness and preconceived notions, but I
want to still make a difference. I do my part not because I want to be
popular and liked by everyone who makes eye contact with me, but rather
because in this day and age of instant gratification, war in the Middle
East, the god of materialism, and the chains of loneliness and
depression, smiles and good thoughts STILL are still appreciated.
