Louisiana Books

The Jeff Corwin Experience from Blackbirch Press and Thomas Learning is a new series of nature books, long awaited by the young fans of the TV's crazy snake hunter Jeff Corwin, who is so popular on Animal Planet, Discovery, and The Learning Channel. In the introduction Jeff tells young readers,"I don't need to go (that) far to see amazing wildlife up close...you can still experience the awesome beauty of nature almost anwhere you go, any day of the week. The books in the new series for elementary age readers are 46 pages and loaded with full color photographs and Jeff's enthusiastic words telling about whatever place he is examining in each volume. Each has a very helpful glossary at the end to explain the terms he uses in explaining and teaching his readers. The series includes Snaketacular, which is about Jeff's passion and favorite species. There will be a book on each state, introducing kids to the natural wonders of plants and animals within or unique to that state. We selected Alaska, Arizona, Louisiana, California, and Florida and found each to be equally exciting and informative. Although the format and layout is the same for each, the facts and ****** are completely unique in each. This is an excellent series to gift your school library or your children! And be sure to take these along on trips to enhance your learning and fun for the entire family. Adults will learn as much as the kids!

Jennison's Jayhawkers, also known as the 7th Kansas Cavalry (not to be confused with the postwar 7th US Cavalry of Little Bighorn fame) were major players in one of the most vicious theatres of the Civil War: the Kansas-Missouri border. This book tells the story of the origins of that conflict, the importance of the issue of slavery in the region, and the detailed history of one of the most infamous formations in US military history.

There is a certain class of professorial writer who avoids being dry and ends up writing a pretty entertaining book while remaining focused in a proper academic manner, and it's a joy to encounter him or her. Starr definitely qualifies; his style is pleasant and holds one's interest. He poses excellent questions and does his best to answer them, always with the honesty to admit where he is surmising or conjecturing. I'd definitely be open to reading more of his work; it feels like a discussion with a learned historian in easy chairs over a libation.

What is really odd about it is I found myself going back and forth between sobered sadness and laughter. As someone with a proud Kansan heritage, to read that Kansans committed atrocities (and there is no doubt at all that they did), retaliatory or not, is always saddening; I suspect other Kansans reading the book might feel similarly. Yet how can one not laugh at, for example, this snippet summing up the battle of Valverde: "On February 21 the two forces clashed at Valverde, a short distance north of the fort, and the balance of inexperience and incompetence being slightly in Sibley's favor, Canby was defeated." The cast of colourful characters in Kansas military politics during the Civil War gives Starr many such opportunities to amuse us, and he makes the most of them with wry wit.

If you're interested in why Kansas and Missouri have a rivalry but that it mostly manifests in good-natured kidding, this book will tell you why: we both know from history what it is like when the rivalry is not good-natured, and we aren't going there again--best to keep it to the sports arena. Strongly recommended for anyone interested in Civil War history, Kansas history or Missouri history.

A superb biography, "John A. Quitman: Old South Crusader" tells the story of one of the most significant of the southern "fire eaters" in the era prior to the Civil War. Born in Rhinebeck, New York, in 1798, in 1821 Quitman arrived in Natchez, Mississippi, seeking fame and fortune. He found both, for Quitman occupied the highest office in all branches of his state's government. He became an ardent Southern rights and pro-slavery advocate, and would have applauded the creation of the Confederacy had he lived to see it. As it was, he died in 1858.

During the 1836 Texas Revolution Quitman organized a military force, but saw no action. In 1846 he became a brigadier general of Mississippi militia, and won glory at the battle of Monterrey, September 20-24, 1846, and at Vera Cruz. In 1847 his division captured the fortress of Chapultec, leading to the fall of Mexico City and the conclusion of the Mexican-American war. Afterwards, Quitman continued his political career, serving as Mississippi governor and in Congress. He also supported filibustering in the Caribbean. His death from food poisoning ensured that he did not fight for the South in the Civil War.

This book was well-received when first published in 1985, and fully deserving of accolades more than twenty years after its publication. Robert E. May, professor of history at Purdue University and a longtime friend, probes in this biography the mind of pro-slavery, pro-southern nationalism by focusing on Quitman and his career. Quitman, along with Edmund Ruffin and a few others pressed the South to secede from the Union in 1860-1861 and fight the most destructive war ever undertaken on the North American continent. It also makes clear, as May's biography of Quitman states with conviction, that the Civil War was fundamentally about the place of slavery and race relations in the United States. Well-done in terms of research and presentation, "John A. Quitman: Old South Crusader" is a significant book that anyone interested in the history of Old South must read.

The book is beautifully written and at the time Ruffner
was President of Washington College now Washington and
Lee University. The book was considered to be one of the
first publications to deal with antisemitism. Ruffners
other writings on religion are profound.

In Turn-Coupe, Louisiana, the peace of the recently dead is being destroyed by a war between funeral homes. The powerful Berry Association will do anything to bury its competition. Lewis Crompton, the owner of Crompton's Funeral Home, refuses to fold under the price gouging scheme of Berry to drive the competitors out of the lucrative market.

Gervis Berry sends Regina Dalton, who he blackmails into doing his bidding, to dig up dirt to be used to destroy Lewis. Regina soon meets Lewis's grandson "Sugar" Kane Benedict, a lawyer. Kane finds himself very attracted to Regina, but knows he cannot trust her because she is out to ruin his grandfather. He plans to pour on the "Sugar" to obtain the truth from Regina, who is attracted to Kane. However, she knows that her feelings for Kane cannot go anywhere because she cannot afford to cross Gervis without her family suffering grave consequences.

New York Times best selling author Jennifer Blake is renowned for her torrid contemporary novels. Her latest book, KANE, is the first in a series set in Turn-Coupe. The story line is interesting and brisk, and Kane lives up to his nickname. The support cast adds a southern authenticity to the tale. In spite of the fact that Regina is such a weak individual, Ms. Blake's fans will dig this fiction and want more in the series.

Harriet Klausner

Thomas Szasz's book on Karl Kraus is invaluable because it is difficult to learn about Karl Kraus directly and in English from other sources. His works, in general, have not been translated to any large extent, and, as we learn from the book, Karl Kraus has had many detractors, many of whom deliberately obscure the deliberate and simple directness of Kraus' style because of the ideological battle over the business of psychoanalysis that occurred in his own lifetime and which persists to today.

Karl Kraus was at great liberty in Vienna to openly criticize and condemn psychoanalysis and its practitioners. How many can do so today without being labeled as "insane," "reactionary" or "neurotic and unwilling to face one's demons"?

The book is divided into two parts. In Part I there are five chapters discussing Karl Kraus as an artist, a rhetorician, and a cultural hero for all time. In Part II, we get two chapters containing some of the aphoristic writings of Karl Kraus's views on psychoanalysis and on forensic psychiatry. In the last chapter, we get aphorisms from Karl Kraus on language, life and love.

The book shows that Freud once respected Karl Kraus as a writer and a thinker -- until Karl himself began to criticize psychoanalysis as a kind of evil rhetoric, turning man from creature of heroic possibilities into mere dust before the analyst. Afterward, Freud went on the attack, and Karl Kraus' reputation suffered as a consequence of this ideological backlash. Thomas Szasz shows how Karl Kraus insisted that language must be used correctly for, if not, what is said is not what is meant, and man thus becomes duped by language.

Karl Kraus's ideas influenced Ludwig Wittgenstein in his "Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus"; he also influenced the German novelist Hermann Broch, and historian Eric Voegelin.

One of of the many witty wiseacrings by Karl Kraus on psychoanalysis is: "Psychology is as useful as are directions for how to take poison."

In Part II, we also learn, among many other case examples, the horrific case of Louise von Coburg who was involuntarily committed to an insane asylum for a year (a deed to which Freud had no objections whatsoever) because she had psoriasis on her scalp and kept scratching her head and because she did not like her husband, a prince, but chose a non-royal lover instead. Karl Kraus exposes the idiotic psychoanalytic thinking that led to this monstrous decision by the state court.

Karl Kraus' aphorisms not oriented toward the subject of psychology are also a treat to read: "Matrimony: the union of meanness and martyrdom." "The devil is an optimist if he thinks he can make people worse than they are."

Kate Chopin was an incredible woman who wrote from her heart. Regardless of the pain that she dealt with through her life, she still managed to create beautiful novels. As a rebel of her time, Chopin wrote about issues that shouldn't have been brought to the table. In fact, her novel, The Awakening, was banned in schools in the U.S. for quite some time. I'm obviously already a fan of Chopin, so reading this book was incredibly interesting. I recommend this book for anyone who wants to read about someone who had passion for life and writing. I also recommend any of her books (a good starter would be The Awakening), I guarantee that you won't be disappointed! And if you are disappointed, then maybe you need to rethink what you are looking for...

Seyersted's work is so concise and to the point; I used this book for an English term paper on Kate Chopin and was extremely impressed by Seyersted's writing. I give this book five stars because I adore Kate Chopin's work (so I love the content), I envy Seyersted's detail, and also because this book helped me immensely in writing my term paper. Mr. Seyersted, wherever you are, thank you so much!

This book hits hard and takes no prisoners. A must read for those who want to know why the recovery in South Louisiana is at a snail's pace.
I was very shocked to know about the threat to so many of our gasoline refineries from future Hurricane storm surges.
This book exposes outrage after outrage in FEMA wasting my tax dollars. The Insurance Myth chapter was a real eye-opener.
The author does not just complain about these problems, he offers common sense solutions that should have been implemented after the storms, but are still not in place almost 2 years after Katrina.
This was a very fast read, I could not put it down. Facinating information. Highly recommend this book to everyone in the U.S.

James Klotter's sensitive portrayal of a post-Civil War controversy over a legal dispute demonstrates the powerful force of the southern code of honor that one might have thought dead given the humiliating southern defeat in war. In this case Kentuckian Richard Reid's refusal to avenge a thrashing by a disgruntled and half-mad loser in a law suit led to the downfall and death of this upstanding political leader. Reid had thus disgraced himself in the eyes of a truculent public. Klotter's work would make an excellent film--his narrative is vivid, sutble, and full of cultural meaning and depth.