Louisiana Books

To begin with, Friedrich Gerstaecker was an adventurer who travelled worldwide and had an exceptional skill of experiencing and then sharing his experiences in writing so that the reader could share in his experiences. He never fantasizes, he never creates ficticious characters. His writings have not only literary but also historical value. And what he writes in this book about Louisiana is ample proof of that. He travels through the state and writes down his experiences and observations, and, as is the case with all of his other writings, he shares in the knowledge of history. Speaking personally, I have read several of Gerstaecker's writings in my youth years in Germany, and already at that time, was fascinated with him. I sincerely hope that teachers of Louisiana history will use this book as a resource for students to read. To my knowledge, only one American author compares to Gerstaecker - Mark Twain, with his book LIFE ON THE MISSISSIPPI.

It was 34 years ago I first picked up this book and have been a fan of John Niven ever since. This book is the best in the distinguished list of Dr. Niven;s writings. Gideon Welles moves from editor to politician to powerful figure in the Lincoln administration and we follow him as fellow travelers on this voyage. This is one book well worth the price for your library.

Hi all, if you are reading this then you know that I found this to be a good book. Simply because I actually took the time to write a review on it in the first place.

Pinkie has great knowledge of prose, lyric, and so many of those other thingy's that make up poetry. I am a poet myself and I could feel what she wrote...I hope you can too!~

Gleanings is an amazing package of poetry. It's fat-187 pages of "old poems and new poems," beginning with feisty poems of girlhood, the segueing into poems of marriage, ultrasound, pregnancy, empty-nesting, and ending with haunting poems about taking care of a mother with Alzheimers and grieving for a lost father. On the way, Shipley invokes Virginia Woolf, Carolyn Forche, Denise Levertov, Jim Morrison, John Keats, Percy Bysshe Shelly, Robert Penn Warren, William Blake, William Butler Yeats, Matthew Arnold, Shakespeare, A.E. Houseman, Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes, Emily Dickinson, Eliot and Pound, James Merrill, and Betty Friedan. This is a rich book indeed, an almost-memoir, a navigation of one woman's complex life.

"God's Loud Hand" is Kelly Cherry's strongest poetry collection to date. In it she demonstrates a masterful balance between form and content. Her religious/spiritual themes lead the reader toward higher ground, especially "Reasons", "In the Garden By the Sea: Easter", "The Island of Contentment", and "God's Friends Will Wear Rain*bows". They are unique in an era when most poets are still writing about what they see in their mirrors. Cherry's monumental sequence, "Songs for a Soviet Composer," is an example of pure alchemy, in that she turns the anguish of love's longing into stanzas which glint like gold but touch us like flesh which has become Words. Kelly Cherry is a poet who has risen above the rabble.

This is the 3rd of Doug Winter's books that I have bought and it is the best by far. I have already commented on his work on Dahlonega gold and I stand behind my critical comments on the photos. Whether the original pictures were good is beside the point. We can only judge the work we have in front of us and that work had lousy quality pictures regardless of who was responsible. Intent is nothing in this regard; finished product is everything. His work on CC gold was much better, for although again no pictures were in color, nevertheless the quality of them was good. Here, however, all things come together to produce an excellent work. The population analysis, the discussion on strike, luster, etc. are everything we have come to expect from the foremost expert on gold coins. I consider this book invaluable whenever I consider buying New Orleans gold and consult it religiously before making a purchase. The photos are excellent, are all in color, and provide a succulent icing on an already delectable cake. I hope he publishes an update on Charlotte gold soon with the same results.

I've rarely read as gripping, horrifying, and inspiring a book as Ken Wells' story of what happened when The Storm hit the low-lying bayou parishes of St. Bernard and Plaquemines. As a reporter for the "Wall Street Journal," Wells, himself a Louisiana native, saw the devastation in the two parishes immediately after Katrina. His The Good Pirates of the Forgotten Bayous is an oral history of sorts of what happened to them, a story that got "forgotten" by a nation focused on New Orleans proper, and how the folks in the parish have fared since.

St Bernard and Plaquemines are shrimping parishes, and Wells' story focuses on the Robin clan, a shrimping family that's lived and worked in the area for over 200 years. Ricky Robin, captain of a 70 ton trawler called the "Lil Rick"--a ship built by hand--sails up the Violet Canal hoping to weather out the hurricane. But surges whipped up by the 140+ mph winds get him in trouble almost at once. In one of the book's most harrowing passages, Ricky remembers seeing a 20 foot skiff blowing through the air and then skidding across the roiling waves like a thrown stone.

In the three days following the worst of the storm, Ricky gives shelter on the "Lil Rick" to hundreds of homeless survivors, sometimes hammering out dixieland tunes on his trumpet to keep up their spirits. Disasters can bring out the worst in frightened and desperate people. But it brought out the very best in Ricky Robin.

Although Robin is the star of the book, Wells also introduces us to others who weathered the story-- such as Ricky's cousin Ronald Robin. Ronald, a veteran hurricane survivor, also tried to weather the storm in Violet Canal. But like so many others, he was stunned by Katrina's ferocity and swiftness. "Damn," he remembers exclaiming, "that SOB is coming up fast!"

Wells stayed in touch with the St. Bernard and Plaquemines survivors, and the second half of the book tells the story of how they've coped since the disaster. It's not been easy. The parishes are still pretty much devastated, and inhabitants are bitter--they call Katrina the "federal storm," convinced that the government could've prevented the greater part of the destruction had the levees been more carefully maintained. Ricky, for all his outward easy-going nature, suffers from flashbacks.

But at the end of the day, the story that Wells tells is one of astounding courage, human fellowship, and old-fashioned pluck. As Wells himself asserts, the story of the "good pirates" is "a narrative of the human spirit, a story about a decidedly blue-collar, ruggedly independent people whose decisions to face down Katrina lay in deep cultural anchors. It is a story of a people who--when they realize no one is coming to save them--rise up to save themselves and their neighbors in the face of raw peril and a disaster of unimaginable proportions."

Oh yeah: Wells is one heckuva writer too. Readers will be captivated by his style. Six stars.

Dr. Sandoz provides insight to the philosophical foundations of the American Founding. He points to several main influences including John Locke, Medieval Christianity, and Classical Philosophy. Sandoz shows the importance of political obligation as instilled through a sense of common moral virtue. He ultimately commends the common sense of the founders and shows us why other systems have failed. A key point is the differentiation found between religion and the secular matters of government. In stark contrast to "political religions" the founders set their sights on the obtainable goal of toleration and liberty without claiming to be able to perfect the world (marxism, communism). Overall, Sandoz rejects the secular interpretation of the founding and gives strong evidence that the founders valued religion quite highly and thought it an important foundation for society. He does not fall into the trap of finding a "single strand" of thought to explain the founding, but instead points to several key influences. Sandoz is able to make his case in common sense terms and offers humor throughout, while still maintaining a deep level of insight. I highly recommend this book for anyone interested in American Founding and especially the philosophical influences that brought it about.

The novel is an interesting account of the historical events surrounding the Spanish acquisition of the French colony (including New Orleans) in 1769. Anyone from the city of New Orleans or surrounding area would recognize the historical names from Louisiana and Gulf Coast history, and also reflected in the names of parks, plazas and city streets in New Orleans. It speaks to the lands under control of the government from New Orleans, which would include much of what we know as the Louisiana Purchase (up the Mississppi River to St Louis and beyond, and the Red River). You can get a very good feel for how the unique culture of that area evolved with all the ethnic and racial components, and the drama of the take over by the Spanish, and the impact on the French and Swiss-German colonists, the slave population, and native tribes. There is also intrigue with the British and their American colonials at the time of the evolving American Revolution.

This is the most comprehensive work to date on the obscure study of Belizean Creole I have encountered. This is a MUST for all students of the creole languaguage and creole enthusiasts the world over. While the subject may be daunting to the unfamiliar, the author does a superb job of explaining the intricacies of Creole languages. This is appropriate for both the academic and lay reader particularly the section on the social use of language.