Louisiana Books

I loved this collection of poems- Gibbons' writing is quietly lyrical and never obvious or outright. Through the simple language and subjects, he weaves together a song for the reader based on everyday experiences, observations and moments. I've never read any other collections from Gibbons (except for the prose collection Five Pears or Peaches- which is lovely, too), so Sparrow introduced me to some truly beautiful pieces from an earlier time, such as "Maybe It Was So."-that one is a beauty. This is a collection to savour, it makes me wish his other works weren't mostly out of print!

I have read Louisiana Sportsman magazine for years and have enjoyed Todd Masson's stories. He is truly an excellent oudoors writer and concetrates on the issues that Louisiana sportsman need to hear as well as the fundamentals to maximize each and every outdoor adventure in this state.

Specks is an incredible look into patterns of the speckled trout, one of the finest fish to catch and serve on the dinner table. The book is put together very well including the scientific facts about this fish and the seasonal secrets to catch these fish throughout the state's top ten trout regions. The pictures are of good quality and excellent for seeing what the state has to offer as well as the rigs for catching specks. The maps are of good enough quality to get a general idea of where the action is throughout the year, but shouldn't be substituted for high quality topographic maps and charts. Masson also includes directions to each of the best fishing spots, where to launch your boat and local establishments that can serve the day and weekend angler if they need supplies, refreshments or a quick meal.

Being from south Louisiana and a fisherman that loves catching specks as much as Masson, I have to say that this is an inspiring book that belongs in the tackle box or next to the maps and sea charts. You will maximize your chances of catching quality fish using this handy guide. An excellent read.

The Spiritual Churches of New Orleans: Origins, Beliefs, and Rituals of an African-American Religion. By Claude F. Jacobs and Andrew J. Kaslow. (Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1991 [paperback edition 2001])

Anthropologists Claude Jacobs and Andrew Kaslow undertook their study of the black Spiritual churches of New Orleans between 1980 and 1983. Since the initial publication of Spiritual Churches of New Orleans in 1991, I have turned to it frequently in the pursuit of my own work. The book has now been re-issued in a more affordable paperback edition. Even though the research is twenty years old, it remains the authoritative work on a subject that is of great fascination to those interested in African American religious practice. Jacobs and Kaslow's highly readable text is augmented by the outstanding photographs of Michael P. Smith.
New Orleans' Spiritual churches are a unique combination of Roman Catholicism, Spiritualism, Pentecostalism, and Voodoo. The Spiritual churches honor God the Father, Jesus, and an array of saints, ancestors, and spirit guides--particularly the Native American chief Black Hawk--by whom worshipers become possessed and through whose power they heal and prophesy. The interior of a Spiritual church is dominated by elaborate altars dedicated to the saints and the spirits. Services are characterized by ecstatic music and dancing, and spiritual "work" may include the use of candles, incense, oils, baths, and herbs. Many Spiritual congregations are led by female ministers and bishops, positions denied to women in some mainstream Christian denominations.
While the Spiritual churches were ostensibly founded in 1920 by Mother Leafy Anderson, a black minister from Chicago, the components of the belief system had long existed in New Orleans. Most of the city's downtown Creoles of color were Catholic; some members of this group were also attracted to Spiritualism. Pentecostalism was popular among uptown working -class "American Negroes." While virtually all New Orleanians of African descent were Christian, many were also devotees of Voodoo, an African-based religion heavily influenced by Catholicism; others dabbled in hoodoo, a system of magic by which individual "workers" serve their clients.
Jacobs and Kaslow provide valuable historical background on the formative years of the Spiritual churches, using newspaper articles from the African-American Louisiana Weekly, as well as interviews with early church leaders conducted by fieldworkers from the Louisiana Writers' Project under the auspices of the Works Progress Administration. The authors also report on the many church events they attended as participant-observers. In addition to regular worship services, they describe baptisms, Holy communion, ordination of ministers and consecration of bishops, and feasts in honor of various saints, the Old Testament Queen Esther, and Black Hawk. There is a detailed examination of spirit possession, prophecy, and healing as it occurs in church services. Also included is a discussion of the practices of ministers known as "workers" who address clients' difficulties with rituals and charms that resemble hoodoo. The final chapters provide a statistical analysis of the clergy and membership of the Spiritual churches by birthplace, religion of origin, gender, age, and occupation.
The Spiritual churches are other worldly in their outlook; they do not attack the social and economic problems that plague a congregation that is black, predominantly poor or working class, and overwhelmingly female. Jacobs and Kaslow conclude that the Spiritual churches, like other African-based New World religions, allow ordinary people such as these to transcend these difficulties by experiencing direct communication with the Divine, achieving the ideal balance of the body, mind, and spirit, and harmony with the human community and the dead.

Carolyn Morrow Long
Research Associate, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution
Author of Spiritual Merchants: Religion, Magic, and Commerce, University of Tennessee Press, 2001.

I RECENTLY READED: THE STAR CREEK PAPERS AND WAS NOT SURPRISE OF THINGS THAT WENT ON BACK IN THE DAY, FROM READING HISTORY, I'M 47 YEARS YOUNG AND ALSO THE GREAT GRANDDAUGHTER OF ISOM WILSON, MY FATHER MOTHER WAS OPHELIA WILSON, ONE OF ISOM DAUGHTER, I STAY WITH HER FAR ABOUT TEN YEARS AND SHE WAS A STRONG BLACK WOMAN, THAT I LOVED AND I WISH THAT SHE WAS STILL HERE IN MY LIFE, I OFTEN WONDER OF HER. BUT WHO GIVE PEOPLE THE RIGHT TO DO SUCH THINGS TO OTHERS, THERE IS ONLY ONE MAN THAT JUDGES ONES PATH.I RATE THIS BOOK A 10 AND SHOULD BE IN SCHOOLS ACROSS THE USA, BECAUSE THIS IS WHERE HATE START. SANDRA MANNING BOLTON

Still Waters is a book full of incredibly beautiful photographs that touch your soul. You find yourself turning each page then gazing out into space with a small smile on your face. I found myself going "...this one is my favorite, no! this one!" In the end I knew I had to own this book. The author writes a lovely introduction that enables you to visualize and feel the process and circumstances behind some of the photographs. It is page after page of magic.

Louisiana Food. Louisiana History. Louisiana Culture. All three of these alluring topics are blended and cooked-down to a flavorful étouffée in Stir the Pot. The authors themselves - a chef, a historian, and a folklorist - form the perfect mixture to create this heart-warming collection of historical accounts, stories, techniques, and economic to religious influences that have driven the evolution of Cajun cooking for over two centuries.

But don't just take my word for it. The back cover of the book boasts commendations from renowned historians and authors John Mack Faragher and Jay Gitlin, and from Comander's Palace owner Ella Brennan. Emeril Lagasse, the star chef of the Food Network, states "I'm happy to see the real story of the evolution of Cajun cuisine finally put in print. For anyone who is unfamiliar with the subject, this book will be a great reference." And I believe that everyone, familiar or not, will enjoy this book throughout.

I was loaned this book by a friend who is a direct descendent of the author.
The book is full of details about life in the ante bellum South; the family is not a wealthy but they are survivors in a very rural area. The author tells of his early life, as he becomes an adolescent, the War between the States begins.He enlisted in the Cofederate Army and was in active duty until the end. A fantastic story developes after Gen. Robert E. Lee surrenders, and the author and his fellow soldiers from La. make their way back home from N.C.
With minimal formal education he becomes an advanced mathematician winning many awards and involved in the formation of L.S.U. The book is easy to read and contains many historical aspects that are not readliy avaible. It would make a great movie. I highly recommend the story. Lowell Kepp

A subtle collection of poems exploring the photographs of E. J. Bellocq and the author's own creole family history. The poems about Bellocq were, for me, the best part of the book, wonderfully intelligent accounts of these mysterious and surreal portraits of 'Storyville' prostitutes. Bergen's insights are far more sophisticated than those of any other writer I've come across. The section on Creole identity I found less convincing, as it seemed, at times, arbitrary and rather academic. Often, though, the lyrics about the photographs, the imagined 'voices' of Storyville characters and the discursive explorations of the past all worked together to create a resonance worthy of Bellocq's originals.

You will get the most from these poems with the photographs in front of you as you read.

I have waited a long time to write this review. Alice Derry is a professor at Peninsula College in Port Angeles, Washington. She is very humble and quiet about her abilites, but strong about her beliefs and justice.

I am aware of the risks Alice Derry took by choosing to write about her loved ones from the German WWII generation. In a culture bent on a one-way perspective of WWII, it takes courage to even open this book and begin to read.

I made Christmas gifts of several of these books for friends. Some, just friends of friends. All lived through the periods during and after WWII. Alice Derry's writings show the pain and dispair behind the guilt of complacency and denial.

If anyone has a Grandparent, neighbor, or friend who grew up during WWII and is of German descent this is a true gift. It empowers those that have stripped themselves or have stripped of the pride they should have for their herritage and themselves. The pieces in this book are written from a seemingly empathic understanding of the ignored experiences and injustices committed against those assumed to be guilty of the horrors of the haulocaust in WWII Germany; simply by mere association. The general populous of Germany were not all in favor of the political view of Hitler, but were labled with blame. A plague of punishment, guilt, and stigma coat areas of Europe contaminated by Nazi occupation into current times.

Through the works in this book, Alice Derry allows her readers to understand the legacy of WWII from a rare perspective and find ballace. Those I gave this book to have found healing. In the words of my German/Swiss/Austrian friends that I gifted this book to; "She understands; someone finally understands."

This quintessential New England poet brings the same solid ear, wry humor, keen historical sense, and sharp eye for natural and social detail to every poem. He is one of our zestiest poets of things-as-they-are, happily allergic to obscurity, pretension, and gauzy abstraction. Every poem is *placed*: firmly located in time and space, naturally, but also placed with utmost care on the page. His sinewy free verse is given flexibility by his great control of syntax and his diction, as always, is capacious and thickly textured. Calling a poet "readable" these days might seem like damnation with faint praise, but to my mind we need a lot more poetry which combines accessibility, good humor, and intelligence as skillfully as Galvin always does. This collection is both meaty and enjoyable: a great read.