Louisiana Books

What is more characteristic of Louisiana eats than gumbo? "Rouxdolph's Louisiana: Gumbo and Soup Book" provides EASY recipes for preparing gumbo and other soups. C'est facile!

Like Louisiana's population reflecting the cultural melting pot, gumbo is reflective of cultural ingredients. Dispossessed French came to the shores of South Louisiana to settle in the mid-1700's after being expelled from the area of Nova Scotia in Canada. Eventually, these Acadians became Cajuns and utilized wild game (rabbit, squirrel, alligator, turtle), seafoods from the bayous and lakes (crawfish, shrimp, crabs), and wild water fowl for the meat in gumbo. Add the okra from Africa as a thickener or file from sassafras trees introduced by Indians and--voila--you have a big pot of gumbo! Serve it over hot, fluffy rice with a fresh loaf of french bread, and you have a little of Louisiana set before you! Mais oui, cher!

What makes this 96-page cookbook so special are the simple instructions and plastic spinal binding that allows the book to fold open. Print is larger than normal. Although directions for roux are easy to follow, you can buy roux from the market in liquid or powder form for faster preparation.

Only one recipe is set on each page. Merci, bien! There are no pictures of the final products--but with this book, that is not even a disadvantage. What pictures are included are pen-and-ink illustrations of an ingredient in the recipe. Me, moi, I'm looking at Green Sausage Gumbo (sounds gross, yes?), but the green is cabbage, and shows an illustration of a head of cabbage. C'est tout!

Here are some varieties of gumbo you can make: Catfish Gumbo, Chicken and Oyster, Chicken Okra, Creole (shrimp and okra), Duck Sausage, Hearty Beef, Seafood Okra (my favorite with shrimp, crab, oysters, and okra), Squirrel, Turkey, Wild Goose, and others.

Soups include Alligator (a New Orleans restaurant fave), Corn and Shrimp, Fowl Weather, Front Porch, Hare, Hobo, Onion (but not French Onion), Oyster, Sauerkraut, Lettuce Soup, Corn, and others.

Amazon's sellers are offering twelve of these books, priced from less than $3.00 to over $190 (its the same book, cher,). If the weather is too hot now, put the book on the shelf until the weather changes in the fall, take it down, and put on a pot of gumbo! Nothing will warm you better! Mais oui!

This collection of essays brings together works by a variety of well-known scholars in the field of the geography of religion and pilgrimage studies. The book has three notable strengths. First, it combines theoretical or analytical discussions of pilgrimage as a generic phenomenon with detailed case studies of particular pilgrimage processes. Second, it provides a well-developed comparative perspective by considering pilgrimage traditions in a variety of world religions. Christianity, Islam and Hinduism receive the most detailed coverage, but Jainism, Sikhism and Buddhism also receive significant attention. The book's third strength is that it demonstrates how the perspectives of geography as an academic disciplines (perspectives which at least in the United States are often poorly understood) can yield unique and genuine insights into an important dimension of religious culture. This work should prove to be a fascinating read to anyone interested in world religions, comparative religion, the geography of religion, or the social ramifications of religious belief.

Every black person in America, who has family roots traceable to the South, would be well served to see their roots from an incredibly enlightening paradigm. ROOTS has a new meaning...found in this great book.

"Secret Doctors: Ethnomedicine of African Americans" is a rare treat that blows away stereotypes that even some African Americans may have about their own healing practices. This is a well done study without the bias that colors much of the work on this topic. There is a generousity to Fontenot's writing style and curiousity that is most appreciated. "Secret Doctors" is a welcomed book for a wide range of readers--scholars, traditional healers, doctors, students and the curious. The book reviews some of the best literature in the field of ethnomedicine of African Americans but then opens the door to new ways of perceiving the research. The amulet section and healer's interviews are unique--a wonderful contribution to understanding African American magico-spiritual healing techniques as they relate back to West Africa. It is a slim volume in size but hefty in the contribution it makes to the field. Highly recommended.

This is my first review to write, although I've read many others. I felt compelled to do this as I saw no review had been written about this book and it really deserves one! It's beautiful to begin with and has many great, colorful illustrations. The recipes are interesting and different without being too tedious or difficult. There are even sections with information about herbs & spices, wine and food pairings, substitutions and large food quantities. I love it!

Academic prose is usually turgid, pompous, and vague, but Jackson's prose is clear and the book bounces along at a good clip. Considering the wide geographic and historical space that he's covering, that adds pleasure to the big-picture argument. The the book covers four pivotal American authors, Mark Twain, William Faulkner, Flannery O'Connor, and Toni Morrison. Each used regional identity to locate the characters in their short stories and novels. Jackson contends that they appropriated ideas of region to make a larger point about who they/we are as Americans, that local color and its easy claim to "authenticity" has made it a B-genre (a very enjoyable one at that). The four major authors Jackson covers used local color as a way to represent and challenge more broadly American themes like race and gender identities. His most powerful analyses come not from a discussion of Twain or Faulkner but in a comparison of Morrison's Jazz as an answer to F. Scott Fitzgerald's Great Gatsby, in which Morrison argues against Fitzgerald's implicit claims that his midwesterners could not assimilate to New York society. For a lay reader who enjoys indulging in southern literature, Seeking the Region will change how I re-read Twain, Faulkner, O'Connor, Morrison (and Fitzgerald, among others), since he asks questions that appear (now) to leap from the pages of major works of American literature that I thought I had figured out.

This is a great collection of letters to read if you're interested in literature, history, friendship, geography, and the overall human experience. Robert Penn Warren is a giant in American literature and he had some interesting friends, as well. His explicit letters give readers insight into his close relationships with some of these friends and they also dive into the psyche of Warren himself - and how he overcame great odds to find success.

A wonderful book filled with information on the settlers of the German Coast of Louisiana. All of the original families are listed on the 1724 Census with information on each family. Especially helpful to descendants who are researching their families.

For two weeks in July of each year, on the rural Tennessee campus of Sewanee, The University of the South, the Sewanee Writers' Conference meets to encourage"creative writing and creative writers." The Conference has been meeting every year since 1989 when it's founder, poet Wyatt Prunty, used a donation from Tennessee William's estate to establish a location for writers to gather and practice their craft in a place known for its "remoteness without cultural dislocation." Sewanee Writers on Writing is a collection of 14 "Craft Lectures" selected from the first ten conferences and offers selections by playwrights, poets and fiction writers. Some of the contributors include Russell Banks, Alice McDermott, Ernest J. Gaines, Horton Foote and Marsh Norman. These are world class writers including Pulitzer Prize winners as well as a host of other national awards. This collection is a must for writers, professional or amateur, who are interested in cultivating the art and craft of writing. The insights, suggestions and experiences of these masters of the written word are as inspiring as they are informative. Tennessee Williams truly gave a gift that keeps on giving. A real literary treasure from some of the best in the business.

You will be amazed at the beauty, simplicity and artistry of this little book. You will also feel compelled to read his first book which describes his wondrous shantyboat voyage from Brent, Kentucky to the Bayous of Louisianna. Both are successful stories of love of life fulfilled by bringing it into harmony with the ancient rhythms of nature. All this is recorded in a poetic narrative which expresses the beauty of everyday life of a couple attuned to ebb and flow of great waters and changing seasons. His descriptions of his everyday routine and observations will change your view of nature and life, revealing an intimacy seldom attained. All this comes from an unknown man from the same town on the Ohio River where I was born and lived during these events. I wish I had known of then then. He was at home as much in the Bayous as he was building his shantyboat and wintering through a flood on the Ohio. He is an artist and a musician and paints a picture you feel you are there. You can feel it and hear it and, by golly, you see yourself doing it too. You will enjoy it, even learn how to get your own soft-shell crabs in the bayous and make your own flour. If you have a love of mature, it is a book you should read.