Louisiana Books

Plain, pickled, or in hot sauces, three-quarters of the world's population like peppers and like them hot. Tennessee reporter Richard Schweid has followed the American use of hot peppers to their source, New Iberia, Louisiana, where the capsicum thrive on the oily salty soil as nowhere else. Besides being home to the hot pepper sauces of McIlhenny and B.J. Trappey, New Iberia is also Cajun country, where the soft lilt of the language can be heard sung over the music of a zydeco band, co-existing with the combines of agribusiness and the boom (and bust) of offshore "oil patches." Keeping his journalist's eye on the pepper, Schweid follows it to New England herbalists, Columbus, and its uses by the Aztecs and the Mayans. With recipes like Okra Shrimp Gumbo from the New Oreans School of Cooking compiled exclusively for this edition, HOT PEPPERS is a treat for all the senses.
--- from book's back cover

Hi, I have an old edition,published by the Ten Speed Press of Berkeley,CA of this book. I was curious to see if it was still in print and was happy to see that it has been re-published by UNC.
It is a great book about my favorite food additive,the one,the only,
McIlhenny Co. Tabasco Sauce. I don't know how I could eat food without Tab'! That plus even hotter sauces like Blair's Jersey Death Sauce and the other standby Tapatio.(Trappey's is also featured in this book.)
Yum!
The book also has lots of info about New Iberia and S. Louisiana/Acadiana and the Cajun culture that I never knew about.
Up here in the Pacific NW,about the only Cajun we get is Zydeco music and Cajun-styled food. I did not know hardly any of the history of Acadiana and it's people. After reading the book,Acadiana is on my list to visit.
Even though it has changed a lot from the good ol' days of genuine Cajun living. I hope there are still echoes of that detectable to a visitor.
Anyone who loves chilis and their history and Capsicum Frutescens (Tabasco pepper) in particular and want to learn about the Cajun way of life would be happy with this book.

This is a valuable book (resource) for budding entrepreneurs. It seems to try to cover all the bases for starting a small business, but it can't do them all well in the space available between its covers. The book is only 288 pages long. If you are in the planning stages of starting a small business, then I highly recommend you get a copy of this book. Read it, study it, and outline it. There are helpful checklists to help you grasp the subjects. You will come up with a plethora of keywords and terms that you will want to google to find Web pages giving more detailed (and maybe more current) information.

I am a SCORE counselor (Senior Corps of Retired Executives) who typically does face-to-face counseling sessions three nights a month. It would really be neat if my clients would read this book BEFORE they came to their session with me because they would pretty much be "educated customers" ready to ask educated questions. Our sessions would be so much more beneficial.

My favorite chapters were:

1. Initial business concerns
2. Your business' structure
3. Business start-up details
5. Sources of business assistance (SCORE is mentioned here)
7. Your smart business plan (and a good sample plan is included)
8. Obtaining the financing you need

The book is weak when it comes to how the Internet can be used in corresponding, hiring, and marketing. But this is just one example of how googling keywords and concepts found in the book will make the book more complete. Don't treat the book as authoritative on the law. It isn't. Nor was it ever intended to be. It is light on tax information as it relates to small business.

I was particularly impressed with the material presented in Chapter 2: Choice of Legal Entity. That subject is sorely ignored in most small business books, and it is critically important. It is a subject I regularly must spend a great deal of time discussing at my SCORE sessions. This book does a pretty good job on the topic.

Chapters 4 and 9 through 12 are easy to find fault with. The topic of each could fill a book. But having these topics covered definitely will help a budding entrepreneur know some of the issues they raise.

I would have liked the book more if Chapter 6 (marketing) had been less superficial. When I read it I got the impression that the author was more a public relations expert than a marketing expert. I generally categorize public relations as a subset of marketing. Marketing includes advertising, public relations, and a whole host of other promotion techniques. I did not get this message when I read the book. I also would have liked the book better if the Internet, email, and Web sites had been discussed more. But there are many books on those subjects. Therefore, I can't complain too much about the limited discussion of computers.

When you read this book it may feel a little like it was produced on an assembly line. Maybe it was? There are 51 versions of this book sold; one for each state and the District of Columbia. Content is king, and this book has it. 5 stars!

Received my order in a very fast amount of time. It was in perfect condition.
Thanks

Well written and very easy reading. Although a fictional account, reading between the lines, one could find some truth in this story. What a story!

This is a wonderful story. A must read for a true and accurate account of what really happened to the forgotten heros of the storm.

Jere Longman has written an excellent book chronicling one parish's reaction to Hurricane Katrina, focusing on the high school football team but weaving in incredibly useful information about the people and history of Plaquemines Parish and all of Southeast Louisiana. It's a story of the importance of football in the fabric of a community in southern Louisiana.

Having played high school football in Louisiana myself "back in the day", I recognized so much in the story of coach Cyril Crutchfield and the Plaquemines Parish residents. The loud, profane and physical football coach. The sheriff's deputies who were former players themselves and still long to ride the bus with the team to away games. The players whose entire lives revolve around the sport. The anachronism of the wealth of resources and the grinding poverty of that part of the world. It really hit home.

The book is well-written and balanced - as an example, Longman strives to present the Belle Chasse side of the Plaquemines Parish feud, rather than simply showing the South Plaquemines/Port Sulphur side. And by tracking Randall Mackey, Jamal Recasner and the Bastrop Rams, he shows the intertwining of relationships in that part of the world.

As this review is written, Coach Crutchfield, Ridge Turner, Lyle Fitte and the rest of the Hurricanes are on their way to another state championship. One Times-Picayune reporter recently noted that they only way the Hurricanes don't win state is if they give up the sport of football between now and December. I recommend you read this book, and follow the Hurricanes through the rest of their season.

This collection of essays provides a good slice of life for those who crave New Orleans.

Al Rose has provided a unique and important look into the lives and times of many of the most influential jazz men and women of the 20th century. His book, "I Remember Jazz" is a valuable historical glimpse at not only the musical influence these wonderful musicans had on the arts, but also a fascinating look at the social and economic conditions they endured.

This book should be required reading in every music program at the high school and college level. Some of the language is not appropriate for younger ages.

If an effort is not made to educate our young people about the history of jazz and its pioneers like Buddy Bolden, Louis Armstrong, Bix Beiderbecke, James P. Johnson, and the rest, this important part of our American history will be lost.

The book also includes many rare and fascinating photographs of the author with many of the musicians featured in his book.

Jazz is America's original artform and Al Rose has written a book that is required reading.

Margaret Gibson, a poet who has given us many books exploring the human experience, brings us in Icon and Evidence a passionately spiritual oratorio. The poems are among the most musical I have read in a good while, and their literary antecedents and allusions are beautifully woven into the whole.
The voice of Gerard Manley Hopkins echoes from many of these pieces, giving them an urgency too often lacking in much of our lackadaisical contemporary poetry. This is a book of poetry one can't put down, as if it weaves a spell, a spell approaching chant and liturgy.