Louisiana Books

Mr. Damion Vache of the Times Picayune said as his closing statement of an excellent review; "This one definitely should be in all major Louisiana libraries, and it could well be used as a guide for others compiling family histories. It's that good."

Ronald Paul Richoux, Sr. author of the book Re Shoe On The Bayou was born on Armistice Day, on the 11th of November 1932 and I am the eighth born child of a farming family of 13 children born to the late Edwin Camille Richoux and Victoria Marie Delaune (Richoux.) his father was a sugar cane farmer in the heart of Cajun country on Bayou Lafourche, in the farming community of Larose, Louisiana.

The book is a 317 year history of the genealogy of the Richoux family. It starts in 1761 in Orleans France and identifies almost three thousand Richoux descendants, in America, and it ends in the year 1998. Many others Acadian families who married into the Richoux family are also identified. This Book is a 523 page, hard covered & jacketed, offset printed, by Bookcrafters of Chelsia Michigan.

In this book on the genealogy of the Richoux family has included a bunch of stories about the cajun culture and the many games kids played as cajun children on that sugar cane farm many years ago.

Written by New Orleans resident and certified apartment manager Tammy Frosch Esponge, Real Estate Disasters: A Post Katrina Survival Guide for Housing, Property and Insurance Catastrophes is a vivid window of insight into the bureaucratic screw-ups, hurdles, and other problems plaguing New Orleans housing, property, and insurance owners after Hurricane Katrina - and also a spotlight on the positive efforts individuals and communities have infused in an attempt to rebuild what was lost. At times rueful, at times practical, and always informative, Real Estate Disasters examines problems from the viewpoints of both apartment owners and apartment tenants, and searches for solutions as well as pointing out problems. "Jefferson Parish Councilman Chris Roberts proposed that landlords be obliged to hire around-the-clock security if they were accepting federal housing subsidies... apart from the obvious issue that his proposal would tend to stigmatize all people on welfare as criminals, it seemed to us that there was every likelihood that the demands the councilman was making on landlords would just encourage those landlords to stop accepting federal vouchers." An absolute "must-read" for anyone dealing with housing, property, or insurance issues in today's New Orleans, and an insightful resource when preparing or coping with the fallout from property disaster anywhere else in America.

John B. Jones (1810-1866) was a proslavery Northerner who moved South when the Civil War began. A native of Baltimore, he spent most of his youth and young adulthood on the frontier in Kentucky and Missouri. He eventually made his way back to Baltimore and began a career as a newspaper editor. In the 1850's he lived in New Jersey, where he published and edited the "Southern Monitor", a proslavery newspaper which examined the growing crisis between the North and South from a "Southern Viewpoint". When Abraham Lincoln (whom Jones detested) was elected President in 1860 and several Southern states seceded soon thereafter, Jones decided to move South and give whatever support he could to the new Confederate government. He took his wife and children with him, and he soon found a job as a high-level clerk in the Confederate War Department in Richmond, Virginia, the Confederacy's capital. In essence, Jones became a top assistant to the Confederate Secretary of War, which put him in an excellent position to view the conflict from both the "High Command" perspective and the view of an ordinary government worker and city dweller. In April 1861 Jones decided to start a daily diary describing the historic events taking place around him. He faithfully kept the diary until April 1865, when Richmond fell to Northern troops and the Confederacy was destroyed. Jones died from a sudden illness in February 1866, but his diary survived and has become a classic of its kind. It is often used as a "primary source" document by Civil War historians who want a first-hand, eyewitness account of what it was like to live and work in the Confederacy's capital city during the war. Jones is a good writer, and his diary includes almost every aspect of life in Richmond during the war, from the grand to the mundane. Great battles (and the rumors that often accompany them) are mentioned, the elation of early Southern victories to the despair of knowing that "the cause" was lost by the spring of 1865, the petty infighting and personal jealousies that tore the Confederate government apart - all of these are described in detail by Jones. He offers insightful accounts of Confederate President Jefferson Davis; the hated General Winder, who ineptly handled military rule in Richmond for most of the war; the long-winded and ineffective Confederate Congress; Stonewall Jackson's dramatic funeral in May 1863; and the flight of the Confederate government from Richmond and the burning and looting of the city before Northern troops could arrive and restore order. But Jones also includes "smaller" and more personal details about the growing struggle to simply survive in Richmond as the North's naval blockade cut off necessary supplies of food, medicine, clothing, etc. Rampant inflation, food rationing, overcrowding, starving mobs of women marching through the city demanding food, and a thriving black market are all described by Jones (often in biting and sarcastic detail). To be sure, some things written in this book are offensive (or should be) to modern eyes. Jones is a contradiction - in his diary he emerges as a devoted father and husband who worries about his family's safety and fortunes. Yet he is also an unabashed racist who loathes Jews (and often blames them for everything from food shortages to financial issues, with no evidence to support him), and he supports slavery as the "best method" of dealing with blacks. He claims that slaves are generally well-treated and even boasts that the slaves would prefer their condition to being freed and "left on their own, with no support" by Northern abolitionists. Yet at the end of the diary, as Richmond lies in ruins and the war is lost, Jones seems less bitter than simply exhausted and glad that his family has survived. "A Rebel War Clerk's Diary" is still one of the best first-hand accounts of what it was like to live and work in the Confederacy's national capital by a government "insider", and it should be read by every Civil War buff. Recommended!

(The numerical rating above is a default setting of Amazon's. This reviewer does not employ numerical evaluations.)

The romantic notion of a unified Confederacy, with our gallant soldiers dedicated to the doomed Cause and homefolks sacrificing all in support, is partly true. Also true is hidden Union sentiment, sleazy opportunism, endemic indiscipline, and a tendency to straggle which the author suggests may have cost the South its independence.

In its desperation the Confederate government instituted a sort of police state, with internal passports, watchful secret agents, and a level of militaristic intrusiveness reminiscent of other, later regimes. These measures, however necessary, robbed the fighting forces of critical manpower and alienated the populace further from their government.

Written with unusual grace, this necessary account of that other Confederacy is thoroughly researched, with maps, photos, appendices, and index. Highly recommended for military history readers and students of the Civil War.

"Rebuilding Urban Places..." is an outstanding compilation of articles covering the entire range of issues relevant to urban disaster response in general and to the Katrina fiasco in particluar. Makes me proud to be a UPenn School of Design alumnus (MCP'74)!! Should be required reading for anyone concerned about the future of our most important national urban treasure - the City of New Orleans - and about the future of our cities in general.

Emma is obsessed with Pascal. Pascal is obsessed with Claire. Claire is obsessed with God. This strange and compelling love story is both erotic and spiritual and blurs the lines between the two at times. Emma is married and involved in an affair that is both destructive and irresistible. Then she meets Claire a young postulant in a convent whose religious fervor is such that the nuns have required her to live in the world for a year before taking her vows. Both Emma and Pascal become fascinated and then oddly obsessed with this strange young woman who loves God and does not suffer fools gladly.

All the characters in this book are fascinating, rich and, in a strange way, bent on self-destruction --- much like the largest character in the story, the city of New Orleans. A mysterious plague ravages the city throughout the tale and adds to the tension and the final, heart-breaking chapters.

This is an extraordinary story told by a masterful writer.

this book was written by my grandfather. i have read little of it, but it was interesting for me. to read about what my grandfather went through was kind of cool.

The Red River Campaign has been largely overlooked since the end of the Civil War, and given its complexities, joint operations, and impact on the war, that is a surprising thing. The articles in this issue are deeply researched, well illustrated with photos and original maps, and heavily footnoted with outstanding explanatory notes. All the articles are outstanding; the overview on the naval operations is the best in print, and the essay on Colonel Beard and the Crescent regiment is deeply moving (he was killed near his home, with all the family issues involved you can imagine, all based on personal family papers). It stays with you. Overall, this is not intended as a definitive history, but instead hits on several major topics as a deep overview. It is well balanced, Union and Confederate and non-partisan. I think it is the best thing on the subject to date.

This issue of Civil War Regiments came out in 1994 as Vol. 4, No. 2, and quickly sold out. It has recently been reprinted in an expanded and revised edition with a touring the campaign article, but without the book reviews. Buy it if you can find it.

Their stories have finally been told. In McLeRoy's meticulously-researched and entertainingly-written account, she highlights the important roles played by eight women in the early development of North Texas, women you've probably never heard of before, whose lives and exploits are a lot more interesting than those of mavericks like Belle Starr.

Few more harrowing tales have ever been told than that of Olive Ann Oatman. At the age of 13, she watched horrified as Indians clubbed to death her father, her pregnant mother, her three sisters and one brother. Another brother, left for dead, survived his head injuries and later made his way back to civilization. But Olive Ann and her seven-year-old sister were taken captive by the rampaging Apaches. Her story of captivity, slavery, starvation, and ultimately, of survival, is only one of the thrilling true stories in Red River Women.

Two pioneers in women's education, a woman who built a family empire on boots, an intrepid newspaper publisher, one woman known as "the Queen of the Confederacy," another called "the Confederate Paul Revere," the founder of the multi-million dollar facility that is today the oldest adoption agency in Texas--these are the other seven. Their carefully researched stories make inspiring reading.

I really loved this book because the writing put me into a city which I had never stepped foot: New Orleans. (And since Hurricane Katrina has wiped out much of NOLA this book can serve as part of its rich history.) The character development is superb; I really cared about each person, from the primary to secondary characters. The detail Ms. Crain gives to her beloved New Orleans paints an eloquent picture for the reader of the rich tradition of the French Quarter, the architecture and its unique people. Bill Holcomb, the book's main character, brings vitality into what is normally a depressing subject of the human excesses of addiction and its depressing toll on those whose loved ones -- even friends -- are affected. It's my personal opinion that RRR would make a great miniseries on one of the pay channels to fully explore the depths of each character without holding back the true feelings of those around them due of FCC censorship.