Louisiana Books

Christopher Harris did a great job with Dulce's Revenge. The story flows so well and every character is unique and amazingly written. I think this would be a great movie. Can you imagine John Goodman as Hooper? I hope Mr. Harris keeps writing so more people can enjoy this style of southern lit. Everyone should read this book. It is so good you can't put it down. And it is the perfect length to read on a flight and actually enjoy being cramped up for a few hours. Keep it up Chris!

Christopher Harris weaves an interesting story that takes place in and around New Orleans. It's a compelling story that puts the reader along side the vastly interesting array of characters. Harris captures the uniqueness of New Orleans with precise, interesting, descriptive detail, and he does a masterful job of letting the story unfold. Because I had not read any of Harris's fiction previous to "Dulce's Revenge," I was caught off guard with his story-telling brillance. He uses the language with exceptional skill. This is a good read, and movie makers ought to be fighting over the rights to "Dulce's Revenge." It ranks nicely at the top of this genre of literature. I hope he writes more.

I had the joy of meeting Margaret Gibson at a literary festival and was pleased to put a face and warm personality to the beautiful works I have read. Earth Elegy is a wonderful book, with a mix of new poems and selected old favorites. "Dia De Los Muertos" and "Fire Elegy" are strong works, along with the other poems. She has a good grasp of language and I'm glad to have become acquainted with both her as a person and her as a poetess.

I picked up this book randomly at the book store when I saw the title and was intrigued. This has turned out to be the best book of poetry I have ever read! If you like Rilke, you will love this book as well. Margaret Gibson has an amazing gift with language and a very insightful view of the world and her own experiences. Her poems are filled with longing and love. "I want the faith that moves mountains. / I want the bright force that keeps them still." ("Keeping Still") This is the kind of book that you keep near you and pick up again and again whenever you want comfort or inspiration.

Eating New Orleans is a feast--a terrific read brimming everything that's worth knowing about the Crescent City's unique universe of food. It deliverse a full course meal of facts, legends, and stories, seasoned with portraits of the people, unique ingredients, and classic dishes that make New Orleans a place unlike any other in the world. Mr. Johnson writes about his city with extraordinary insight, knowledge, humor, and passion. Before Katrina this book had tremendous practical value. Now it is a treasure. It provides a unique and precious window into a world in transition: a history of what was, a handbook to what is, and a guide to the culinary world that we as Americans can and must revive, restore, and renew in this Living National Treasure of a City, New Orleans.

There is no more fun place to dine anywhere on earth than New Orleans, Louisiana. This book has great advice on all the restaurants one should consider and I mean all of them. You may be asking yourself what a Texas redneck knows about Creole food and I say plenty it has been a passion of mine for quite some time. Pableaux has done a fantastic job in this book and it is a must have if your into food in New Orleans. Dont leave home without this book if you are a novice on New Orleans cuisine.

This book is an excellent guide to enjoy the best New Orleans has to offer. The restaurants atmosphere, service, price and food was exactly as the book stated. New Orleans has so many choices, this guide sends you to the right choice for every meal.

I love living in New Orleans, but mostly I love EATING in New Orleans. We are blessed with fabulous restaurants that serve wonderful meals at unreal prices. Tom's book is an excellent guide to the best of the city when it comes to dining. Buy it and have a great New Orleans meal.

Julia Schueler's autobiographical book remembers the story of a girl who always lives elsewhere - Russia, Germany, France, America. . . She interlaces the past with the present - often within the same page. She describes people's lives, hopes, fears during the 1930's and 1940's during World War II (we Americans tend to think Hitler's terror began with Pearl Harbor). She does not paint with a broad brush - the details are exquisite.

Unlike most monolingual English speaking Americans, Julia's world was/is peopled with many languages, many cultures. Her style of writing is unique and made me want to taste each word, each phrase, each story - and often I reread. Some books make the reader sad to see that there are fewer and fewer pages left to be read. "Elsewhere: A Memoir" is one of those books. -Diana DeMille

Julia Schueler seemed to float through history. Her view of the world's progression is everything it should be, funny, emotional and honest. This is a wonderful book.

The stories collected in <> are easy to read, even gripping, and you might even end up sitting down and not getting up until you've finished the collection. Then you can go back and read your favorites again and again. Mine: "The Last of the Spanish Blood," "The Test," "Noise of Strangers." Read your favorites again and know that when Garrett (in the intro) calls the story a gift, he's speaking more truly than maybe even he realizes.

George Garrett is a consummate craftsman. There is no writer of short stories alive in America who can get you into a story faster than Garrett. If you want to learn how to write in this genre, there can be few better exemplars. It is true that you sometimes wish the stories ended more imaginatively, but they always do end inevitably--as they must. The pacing of Garrett's plots is always exactly right; his ear for dialogue never falters. The range of these stories is extensive, set as they are in small towns of the South (Florida), academic communities, military bases, Europe. The characters themselves include devilish boys, soldiers, mean-spirited academicians, small-town law. This collection, which will make you laugh and weep, is a book you'll want to travel with--it's definitely a book you'll be beating up.

EXPLORING NEW ORLEANS is loaded with the history of jazz, voodoo, and Mardi Gras--the heritage of this venerable city. With a background on the diverse population, cultures, unique architecture, inimitable music, and fabulous food, your experience in New Orleans is greatly enriched, and you are ready to explore: Cities of the Dead; Louisiana Children's Museum; Riverboats, streetcars, and swamp tours; French Market, Bourbon Street, and the French Quarter; Marie Laveau, voodoo, and African Spiritism--you will be enthralled by Exploring New Orleans: A Family Guide. Read about Mardi Gras, Storyville, historic Cornstalk Fence and Hotel, St. Charles Avenue Streetcar Line, and the Garden District Walking Tour. This will become a favorite book! Cajun recipes included!
Exploring New Orleans: A Family Guide

From zydeco to jazz to the casket girls, Exploring New Orleans is a great fun-to-read book that is a must for any visitor or resident of this seductive city.In her humorous style, Larenda Lyles Roberts explores the history of jazz, voodoo, cities of the dead, Cajun and Creole culture and popular attractions in a readable, interesting style. She even includes recipes from authentic Cajun cooks! This book makes a wonderful guide to the city and made me fall in love with New Orleans!

*Family Gathering* is a rare gift: a book that one can share with others.

I first read the book after encountering some of Chappell's other poetry and prose and hearing him read at a conference. Making full use of rhyme and structure, Chappell weaves a tale of some kind of family gathering--the occasion isn't important. The fact that the family has congregated together is. Framed by poems about a young girl who can't understand's adults' need to talk everything to death at such gatherings, Chappell's book roams from person to person, introducing us to characters like Uncle Einar, a likable blow-hard who "smokes his big cigar." We also meet his wife, Aunt Wilma, who "makes him pay" for every mistake the old philanderer commits. We meet others as well, some named and some not. The strength of this approach is obvious: we all have these people in our families. We all know an Uncle Einar; we all have at least one outcast cousin; we all have that one aunt at our reunions who insists on taking everyone's picture.

Chappell's poems are laugh-out-loud funny, a rarity these days when poetry tends to be about little but itself.

*Family Gathering* is a book you can buy for those non-poetry poeple on your gift list. It'll show them that poetry can indeed be for everybody and needn't be an exclusive, elitist pursuit.

Fred Chappell, one of our modern poetic masters, has given us a book that brings its reader no-holds-barred pleasure. Chappell renders his family portraits with wit and craft, using rhyme, for example, that makes us sit up and take notice, lift our ears, ready for more. This book is a loving, though sometimes caustic and, yes, sly, evocation of family. We finish reading it feeling as if we know these people, indeed have always known them. Chappell invites us onto the front porch, into the kitchen, the parlor, the upstairs and downstairs of a dwelling populated by an extended family as eccentric and memorable as our own.

Carolyn Haines has done it again. With her prose that flows as smoothly as the dark waters of the swamps of Louisiana, she plunges the reader into this land of superstition, spirits and mystery. Haines has always been a story teller of the first degree, but she gets better and better. Don't be misled. This is not one of Haines' golden happy girl tales (see the Delta Mystery Series) though they are wonderful in their own right. Fever Moon keeps the reader on the edge of the page, but don't read it without turning on all the lights.

Society has always had an ingrained fear of strangers. In more primitive or rural societies, where attitudes might be governed by legends and/or superstition, people who were ill might be regarded as possessed. False claims and public hysteria could lead to people being executed as in the Salem witch trials.

The present story is set in the rural bayous of Louisiana during the early 1940s. This is Cajun country, with attitudes passed down from the Acadians with origins in France. The wealthiest man in the parish has been brutally killed and a young woman was found near the body. She appears ill and delirious. Rumors arise that she is a werewolf. While being treated by a local herbal specialist, Madam Louiselle, she disappears into the night.

Deputy Sheriff Raymond Thibodeaux is investigating, but must deal with a variety of problems. This was a time when prisoners from the state prison at Angola were leased out to plantation owners to be used as what amounted to slave labor (the ancient practice of selling criminals into slavery). The unsavory victim of the crime, a man not well liked, had been using such laborers, one of whom is believed to have escaped. There are a large number of people who had reasons for wanting the man dead.

Various characters come into play. There is a Catholic priest assigned to the parish (he would have preferred to be in Ireland). There is a local doctor dealing with various illnesses and injuries. There is the Sheriff, who seems more concerned with politicing than police work. There is the sadistic boss of the work crew on the plantation. There is the brother of the missing woman, who lives in the marshes with his dogs. There is the postmistress, a woman who has managed to break into a government job normally reserved for men. And there is a local prostitute who would really rather be a teacher if events in the past had not taken a bad turn.

Raymond, who was discharged from the Army with a disability, must deal with the ghosts from his own past as he tries to head off mob hysteria, find the missing woman, and try to solve the case. It is a dark tale worth reading.

I have read most of the books written by this author and loved everyone of them. The prequel to this book is the last story in Thicker than Water by Kendra Norman-Bellamy.

This story finished what the story 'The Devils's Advocate' started. Great story with a lot of twists and turns but the ending was beautiful. Another great and inspirational story by Linda Hudson-Smith.