Louisiana Books

This book is brilliant in its ability to such you in to the minds of even its most demented characters. It will make you laugh, cry, and it will leave you thinking "what if". I would recommend this book to all!!!

Many a genealogist's loved ones have balked at the suggestion that a family vacation could profitably be spent visiting courthouses and cemeteries. The Baldwins, inveterate museum-eers, personally visited most of the more than 170 Louisiana museums, large and small, from the Cabildo and Presbytere in New Orleans (where you can see the Emperor Napoleon?s death mask) to the Huddie "Leadbelly" Ledbetter exhibit at Mooringsport, his home town. They also accompany most of the listings (which are alphabetical by city) with historical sketches and and other local information. The Germantown Colony and Museum in Minden honors the Harmonist/Utopian settlers of 1835 and the book's entry includes a brief history of the colony and its principals, while the description of the Gary J. Hebert Memorial Lockhouse in Plaquemine includes considerable information about the lock system and the interactive exhibits presented there. Also included is complete information on exact locations, hours of operation, costs of admission, and often the name of the curator or director. This is a first-rate guide which will find a place in the glove compartment of many weekend genealogists.

Baseball in Baton Rouge, like Bielawa's other Arcadia publication Bridgeport Baseball, is a rich pictorial memoir of not only the game, but of a city and its widespread association with the American pastime. Readers will enjoy learning about remarkable people, such as Moxie Manuel and surroundings, like Battle Park, that have defined Baton Rouge's long outstanding history in baseball. Little known facts and pictures uncovered from hours of research and personal interviews, as well as the knowledge and documentation that many famous ballplayers have traveled through Baton Rouge, make this a truly enjoyable read for every baseball fan!

I loved this book! It is a collection of short stories, originally published singly in magazines. They provide a snapshot of life in Louisiana in the late 19th century, and truly fulfill this reader's desire to be transported to a different time and place.

In each story, often only a few pages long, the author paints a vivid picture a the characters, their circumstances, and motivations.

The theme of all the stories is change. Although the turns of events described are generally not monumental, they are often the catalyst for a significant change in a character. And sometimes the point is that there is no change.

Miles Richardson has translated his life and career into this starkly honest and exquisitely informed offering. From within a field of vision that encompasses Neandertal (and her competitors) and Heidegger, Jimmy Swaggart and Hank Williams, Holy Water and hard living, the New Testament and Post-moderism, he works with the care of a paleantologist unearthing a new fossil.

I don't kow of another text in which theoretical sophistication and spiritual sensitivity are woven so seamlessly with the flesh and blood of ordinary believers. Richardson has clearly lived among (and broken bread with) his subects. He treats them with exceptioanal good will.

Miles tells a mean story, bringing to bear a lifetime of study, observation, reflection and care. He's funny. And he writes.

We owe him one.

Civilians do not fair well near Civil War armies, no matter which side they are on. Armies are voracious consumers of fences, chickens and the contents of smoke houses while producing large amounts of filth. Until now, no book has so completely explained what these statements means in personal terms. In 1860, Winchester is a growing town at the head of the lower Shenandoah Valley. Sitting astride the main roads with railroad connects to Harpers Ferry and surrounded by productive farms. The town contains numerous nice homes, shops, a hotel, a large market building and a brick courthouse. At the end of the war, the railroad is destroyed, most of the remaining town buildings are vacant or badly damaged and much of the population gone. Farming is only a memory; the surrounding area has no fences, few buildings and no crops in the fields.

Reading this book, you become a citizen of Winchester, subject to occupation, libration and all the problems this causes. Your fences become firewood. The family chickens become the armies' dinner. You fear arrest and suffer as Winchester declines. Your resisted the enemy by passing letters and information to your side when occupied by the enemy. You run into the street to welcome "your boys" and peeked through the curtains as the other side marches down the street. This is a very personal story of courageous women maintaining homes during the worst of times. The reader comes to identify with these women, admire them and wonder that they could endure.

This is not a history of the battles that take place around Winchester. It is a history of the impact these battles have on the town's people. Each battle is a combination of fear, rumor, noise, wounded, POWs and fleeing troops. If any fighting takes place within the town, it only adds to the confusion, increases fear and causes more damage. Each change of possession is a victory for some but a defeat for others. The author deftly maintains an ongoing account of both sides, chronicling their experiences as the town changes hands.

Winchester is the looser, no matter who is in charge. Arrest, release, exile beyond the lines or being allowed to return depends on current policy. Current policy depends on the shifting mood of the public, the chance of ending the war, the amount of bitterness among the participants and what happened when the "other side" last occupied the town. We see the change from the soft war policies of 1861 to the burning of Chambersburg in 1864, not in abstract but as real events resulting in more or less restrictions on the people.

Most of all this is a story of Southern resistance and defiance in the face of Northern occupation. The Southern women of Winchester fought the war just as much as their men did, exhibiting boundless courage and determination against the occupying army. However, they were Christians and while they never "loved their enemies"; they do care equally for the sick and wounded. The Union regiments come to understand this and a respect grows between them that in time may have save the town.

Richard Duncan has a very easy readable style that makes this an interesting and rewarding book. It will give the reader valuable insights into what the Civil War was like for the civilian population in occupied areas. Of special value is the Epilogue that chronicles the recovery process. Telling us how the citizens of Winchester became Americans once again, not an easy process with some rough spots in the road.

Those interested in the home front and civilian issues war must read this book. For the military student, this book details the issues involved in the occupation of Southern towns. Not as a history of guerrilla warfare but as the relationship between the military and civilian population. For those interested in 19th Century America this book allows us to see the steel beneath the hoop skirts.

BEST BASIC CAJUN COOKBOOK EVER. HAVE USED IT SINCE 1987 PUBLISHING AND HAVE VIRTUALLY MEMORIZED IT.

Many people were asking "How could God let Katrina happen?" and "Where was God?" as they watched & saw the horror & incomprehensible pictures that were broadcast all over the world last August and September 2005. You will not be able to put this book down. God does indeed allow all things to work together for good, and this book is a prime example. If it were not for Hurricane Katrina, these stories and miracles would never have been told.

The Seventh-Day Adventist-owned TV network, Three Angels Broadcasting (3ABN), sent author Brenda Walsh and Dr. Kay Kuzma to the Gulf Coast to tell the stories of those who were survivors of this devastating storm. They were able to capture incredible stories of survival, loss, and the miracles that came after the storm. Examples:

**Sherry Helveston and husband stayed in their home in Biloxi, Mississippi, only to flee flood waters by evacuating to Wal-Mart. They re-emerged to find everything they owned destoryed, including Sherry's beloved Bible. Days later, while at a relief station looking for clothes, Sherry dug deep into a box and pulled out a Bible. Inside, Mrs. Helveston found a note from a woman in Tennessee named Sherry, who wrote that the bible belonged to her grandmother, and shared words of comfort.

**Former New Orleans Saints player & NOLA native Kevin Young went back to New Orleans from his home in Dallas to care for his mother before Katrina hit. He managed to get her to Charity Hospital, where she died. He was then forced to evacuate to the Superdome, the very building where he had once played pro ball. He tells of the evil and nightmare that was the Superdome during those days.

**Audry Brown and her son, Lloyd Johnson, Jr., barely survived the waters that destroyed their home and were forced to take refuge with her ex and his father, Alfred. Stranded on a rooftop with Alfred, his friend, the friend's son, and a few animals, they prayed as never before as they watched 4 twisters head directly towards them in the middle of the worst winds. The twisters changed course at the last possible moment, going around the roof they were on. The tauma of Katrina have made Audry and Alfred reconsider marriage.

**Bill Turdury survived the water that totally flooded his Waveland, Miss., home and attic by breathing through a PVC pipe for about 30 minutes, the top of the pipe going through a heating and a/c vent in the roof.

**Pat LaFontaine of Bay St. Louis, Miss., was separated from her husband, Tommy, when the storm surge struck. She spent hours clinging to the top of a tree for dear life with many hitch hikers: huge rats clung to her clothes and hair while the storm raged around them. Tommy LaFontaine spent the hours clinging to a tree infested with fire ants.

**Jen Colter, also of Bay St. Louis, spent her time clinging to life on a tree, fighting off water moccasins and a bullfrog perched on her head. Jen is petrified of snakes.

Each chapter ends with some type of Biblical summarization. There are photos of people and the authors in various locations, and stories from volunteers who flooded the region to do what they could. The book ends with the "rest of the story", which is a set of miracles itself. As the book was going to press, the publisher decided that it would need signed releases from every person mentioned in the book. Most of these people had no homes and no way to be contacted. It seemed as if the entire project was for nothing. Ms. Walsh recounts the amazing week that followed as dedicated volunteers not only found all 60 people who had been interviewed, but were able to verify and get signed releases for other stories that had been told by 3rd, 4th, or 5th hand information.

You will not regret the money you spend on this book. You will find yourself reading it again because the stories are that incredible, and you'll be sharing it with all of your friends.

It is published by Pacific Press Publishing Association in Nampa, Idaho and 3ABN Books of West Frankfort, Illinois.

Between Nothingness and Paradise explores the nihilism at the heart of totalitarian ideologies. These 'total critiques of society' either negate the present for an unseen but hoped for future or wish to bring about the end of history in favor of nature (something before good and evil -- a world of clever animals, I suppose). The two approaches are not mutually exclusive and come together in interesting ways in Marx. Common to both systems is the condemnation of everything that exists (human nature, morality, the current existing order) as false, unreal and oppressive, not needing reform but requiring annihilation/destruction in the vain hope for something completely other than what is.

These types of radical negation of the present make even the possibility of goodness impossible -- sense a good life can only be lived in the present. Making the current lives of individuals (their happiness and value) meaningless and require giving-up or forfeiting in order to achieve contentment (content slaves, I guess) that will only come when man is made new.

The book deals not just with intellectual contemplative theory but also with actions that lend support and give rise to totalitarianism. Gerhart Niemeyer says " Totalitarianism would not be possible in practice if it were not for a long period of intellectual erosion preceding the advent of the activist". The average man must accept in-part the views (about reality and ethics etc..) that come to annihilate him. Once our historical past, that which gives our present actions and reality meaning (by being a part of the transcendent/eternal) has been deconstructed -- seen to be totally false and oppressive etc.. there is nothing left to hold society together there is no common ground.

Anyone could profit from reading this book -- even people like myself that no-doubt missed and misunderstood allot can gain much.

This novel is about Beulah, a woman who despite her chances to have a "perfect" life refuses to submit to convention. Much of the book focuses on philosophy as a justification for her position and at other times a condemnation of her actions. A wonderful read for the deep thinker. Definitely not beach reading....