Louisiana Book Festival

Featured Works Alphabetical Listing of Authors Authors by Genre Programs by Genre Program Schedule (printable on two pages) Author Selection Criteria Author Cancellations

	*The Chalk Cross* Author: Berthe Amoss Stephanie Martin finds herself transported to 19th-century New Orleans, where her life intertwines with that of Sidonie Laveau, daughter of the Voodoo Queen. Publisher: Clarion Books Format: Paperback ISBN: 0618829970 Price: $6.95

	*The Cajun Gingerbread Man* Author: Berthe Amoss A slit page movable figure interactive book in which the gingerbread boy, moves through cajun country. Publisher: Cocodrie Press Format: Hardbound ISBN: 0922589666 Price: $13.95

	One Generation at a Time: Biography of Cajun and Creole Music Festival Author: Barry Jean Ancelet Photographer: Philip Gould As Dewey Balfa so eloquently put it, "A culture is preserved one generation at a time.” He also insisted that tradition is not a product but a living process. "It’s like a tree. If you water the roots, the branches will grow.” Instead of preserving cultural artifacts, he challenged us to preserve the very life of the culture so that it would continue to produce new artifacts. The annual festival that grew out of the first Tribute to Cajun Music in 1974 represents a practical application of that philosophy. Over its three decades, this festival, since 1977 the music component of Lafayette’s Festivals Acadiens, has been a proving ground for this evolution. Older masters, such as Dennis McGee, Nathan Abshire, Clifton Chenier, Bois-Sec Ardoin, Canray Fontenot, and Dewey Balfa himself, have passed on, but not without handing off the baton to younger musicians, from Michael Doucet and Zachary Richard to Wayne Toups and Steve Riley to Chris Stafford and Wilson Savoy. These subsequent generations continue to revitalize old songs and create new ones within the traditional context. This book tells the inside story of this experiment in cultural self-preservation, taking the reader onstage, backstage, and into the crowd with schedules, commentary, and photographs from each year, exposing the cultural mission of festival organizers. Publisher: Louisiana Center for Louisiana Studies Format: Paperback ISBN: 18867366806 Price: $20.00

	*My Wars - Nazis, Mobsters, Gambling & Corruption: Colonel Francis C. Grevemberg Remembers* Author: Col. Francis C. Grevemberg with W. Thomas Angers They tried to kill him; they tried to bribe him; they tried to kidnap his children; he received the dreaded Mafia Black Hand Death Threat Letter. When this World War II hero returned to his home state, he found a state rife with crime and corruption. When a reform governor hired him to be Superintendent of State Police in Louisiana, little did he know that the mob had corrupted the whole Louisiana establishment. Huey Long had invited New York mobster Frank Costello into Louisiana and payoffs were rampant. As an incorruptible citizen soldier and man of valor who stared death in the face around the clock on the famous battlefields of Europe, the mob didn’t know with whom they were dealing. From one of the oldest and most prominent families in Louisiana, he decided to take his state back and with the inspiration of his selfless wife Dorothy, the love of his life, along with journalists, pastors and citizens, they stood down the criminal world. Every Louisianan won, every American won, and the rule of law won. Senator Estes Kefauver, chairman of the Senate Special Committee to Investigate Organized Crime in Interstate Commerce, said the following about Colonel Grevemberg: “Whenever anyone asks me what our investigations accomplished, I like to point to Louisiana as an example of what can be done. After our disclosure shocked the state, a newly elected state administration decided to find an honest, efficient man to head the state police, and it was fortunate to come up with Colonel Grevemberg, a war hero who had no previous experience in police work. “It is difficult to believe that he has accomplished so much in two and a half years. From being one of the most discouraging states, Louisiana has become one of the most encouraging. And much of the remarkable improvement is attributed to this one man.” Publisher: Beau Bayou Publishing Format: Paperback ISBN: 0935619011 Price: $15.00

	*Voices Rising:* *Stories from the Katrina Narrative Project* Author: Rebeca Antoine,Fredrick Barton (Afterward) Contributors: Missy Bowen, Sylvia Schneller On August 29, 2005, Hurricane Katrina battered the Gulf Coast and nearly toppled the historic city of New Orleans. As the storm cleared, residents watched water and chaos overtake their city while political and legal systems proved unprepared and insufficient for dealing with the disaster. The University of New Orleans served as a base for rescue and sustained tremendous damage to its lakefront campus, but a scant month and a half after Hurricane Katrina hit, the university had tracked down its students and risen up, a virtual university on the Internet, the only university in the city that managed to salvage its fall semester. That fall marked the beginning of what came to be called The Katrina Narrative Project. The idea was to get members of the UNO community to interview their fellow citizens in an effort to record their experiences with the hurricane, with being displaced and, ultimately, with their return to the City. Hundreds of manuscripts, interviews, and transcripts were collected from students and other residents who were willing to share their personal stories of the disaster. UNO compiled all of the submissions and created The Katrina Archive, which is currently housed at the University of New Orleans library. Voices Rising is a small sampling of this greater collection. These are true accounts of trauma and survival told by the people who endured them. Their stories translate the media’s anonymous portrayal of suffering into the personal language of individuals as they struggle to make sense of the incomprehensible scope and depth of the disaster. Publisher: UNO Press Format: Paperback ISBN: 0-9728143-3-7 Price: $12.95

	*Plantations & Historic Homes of New Orleans* Author: Jan Arrigo Photographer: Laura McElroy Hurricane Katrina ravaged much of New Orleans in 2005, but thankfully the city’s most treasured historic homes survived. Plantations & Historic Homes of New Orleans is a poignant tribute of these storied mansions, whose architectural beauty brings a unique flair to the Big Easy’s most famous neighborhoods. From the French Quarter and Garden District to Uptown, Marigny, and Bayou St. John, many of New Orleans’ grandest old homes and nearby plantations are featured in this book, showcasing the massive brick columns, intricate cast-iron balconies, wide verandas, sumptuous parlors, and humble servants quarters that give this area its charm. Open these pages and you’ll travel to Destrehan, the oldest plantation house in the Mississippi Valley, originally built of hand-hewn bald cypress timber using briquette entre’pateaux, mud (clay, river sand, and Spanish moss) between post; the homes artist Edgar Degas and author William Faulkner lived in during their New Orleans’ stays; and the 1850 House located in the Lower Pontalba building on Jackson Square. Learn about the building’s namesake, a baroness with a tumultuous family life who managed to escape murder and was also responsible for building the American embassy in Paris. With lavish photographs of exteriors and rooms of special interest, gardens and curiosities, and detailed information about New Orleans’ diverse architecture and history, this book is both a perfect guide for visitors and natives alike and an enchanting visual tour of one of the greatest cities in the United States. Publisher: Voyageur Format: Hardbound ISBN: 0-7603-2974-5 Price: $25.95

	*Pelican Road* Author: Howard Bahr From the acclaimed author of The Judas Field, a beautiful and haunting portrait of the men who served on the great American railroads. It’s Christmas Eve, 1940. Along an isolated stretch of railway between Meridian, Mississippi, and New Orleans, Louisiana, two locomotives travel toward one another through the dark winter landscape. A.P. Dunn, engineer aboard the 4512 southbound freight, reminisces about the last trip he made through the snow. And though he can remember every detail about that voyage in 1923, what he can’t recall are the events of a few hours ago—where he ate breakfast, how he got the gash on his forehead, or what he did to make his crew treat him so strangely. On the northbound Silver Star, a luxury passenger train packed with returning college students and gift-bearing families, brakeman Artemus Kane has his own memories to contend with: French trenches and German snipers, a failed marriage, and a too-short layover spent with Anna, the brilliant and lonely woman he has just left behind in the Crescent City. In Pelican Road, Howard Bahr returns to his greatest theme—the tragic nobility of those attempting to overcome difficult situations through love, honor, and sacrifice—and shows that on the railway, catastrophe is never more than a distracted moment away. Publisher: MacAdam/Cage Format: Hardbound ISBN: 9781596922891 Price: $24.00

	*Bayou of Pigs: The True Story of an Audacious Plot* *to Turn a Tropical Island into a Criminal Paradise* Author: Stewart Bell This is a remarkable account of an idyllic tropical island and the mercenaries who set out to steal it for profit and adventure. In 1981, a small but heavily armed force of misfits from the United States and Canada set off on an unlikely mission: to invade an impoverished Caribbean country, overthrow its government in a coup d'etat, and transform it into a crooks' paradise. Their leader was a Texan named Mike Perdue. His lieutenant was a Canadian Nazi named Wolfgang Droege. Their destination: Dominica. For two years, they recruited, wooed investors, forged links with the Mob, stockpiled weapons and planned their assault. They called it Operation Red Dog. They were going to make millions. All that stood in their way were two federal agents from New Orleans on the biggest case of their lives. Set in the Caribbean, Canada and the American South at the beginning of the end of the Cold War, Bayou of Pigs is an unvarnished account of greed, treachery, stupidity and deceit--and one of the most outlandish crimes ever attempted--the theft of a nation. The author, Stewart Bell, obtained thousands of pages of documents, including recently declassified FBI files, and the mercenaries' own plans and contracts. He tracked down and interviewed the principal characters in the US, Canada and Dominica, and talked with family and friends of those characters who had since died. Explosive and fast-paced, Bayou of Pigs reads like a hit novel! Publisher: Wiley Format: Hardbound ISBN: 0470153822 Price: $24.95

	Cajuns and Their Acadian Ancestors: A Young Reader’s History Author: Shane K. Bernard The full story of Louisiana's French-speaking Cajun people. Cajuns and Their Acadian Ancestors: A Young Reader's History traces the four-hundred-year history of this distinct American ethnic group. While written in a format comprehensible to junior-high and high-school students, it will prove appealing and informative as well to adult readers seeking a one-volume exploration of these remarkable people and their predecessors. The narrative follows the Cajuns' early ancestors, the Acadians, from seventeenth-century France to Nova Scotia, where they flourished until British soldiers expelled them in a tragic event called Le Grand Dérangement (The Great Upheaval)--an episode regarded by many historians as an instance of ethnic cleansing or genocide. Up to one-half of the Acadian population died from disease, starvation, exposure, or outright violence in the expulsion. Nearly three thousand survivors journeyed through the thirteen American colonies to Spanish-controlled Louisiana. There they resettled, intermarried with members of the local population, and evolved into the Cajun people, who today number over a half-million. Since their arrival in Louisiana, the Cajuns have developed an unmistakable identity and a strong sense of ethnic pride. In recent decades they have contributed their exotic cuisine and accordion-and-fiddle dance music to American popular culture. Cajuns and Their Acadian Ancestors: A Young Reader's History includes numerous images and over a dozen sidebars on topics ranging from Cajun music to Mardi Gras. Publisher: University Press of Mississippi Format: Hardbound ISBN: 9781934110782 Price: $18.00

	*TABASCO®: An Illustrated History* Author: Shane K. Bernard The story of the McIlhenny Family of Avery Island, Louisiana, and a world-renowned pepper sauce. TABASCO®: An Illustrated History is the first and only book about the McIlhenny family and company based on previously untapped documents in the McIlhenny Company Archives. This chronicle examines the origin of TABASCO® sauce, from its post-Civil War creation on Avery Island, Louisiana, to its evolution into the "gold standard" of pepper sauces and a global culinary icon. It also examines the often stranger-than-fiction stories that are inexorably bound up with the rise of TABASCO®--Edmund McIlhenny's creation of the sauce in the midst of Reconstruction-era economic ruin; John Avery McIlhenny's adventures in Theodore Roosevelt's Rough Riders volunteer cavalry regiment; Edward Avery McIlhenny's explorations in the unforgiving Arctic; and Walter S. McIlhenny's amazing heroics in World War II, which eventually secured him the rank of brigadier general, even as he modernized his family business and ensured its success into the late Twentieth century. In addition to the central narrative, TABASCO®: An Illustrated History contains numerous detailed sidebars, as well as over a dozen historical recipes selected from handwritten McIlhenny family cookbooks and other archival sources. This book boasts hundreds of fascinating photographs, both in color and black-and-white, many of which are previously unpublished. Publisher: University Press of Mississippi Format: Hardbound ISBN: 978-0-9797808-0-6 Price: $49.95

	*Guarded Heart* Author: Jennifer Blake The New Year begins with a lady's intriguing proposition for Gavin Blackford—though not the sort he's accustomed to. Alluring widow Ariadne Faucher requests private lessons from the rakish sword master in order to challenge her sworn enemy to a duel. Though disinclined at first to teach a woman, Gavin is fascinated by this statuesque beauty, cloaked as she is in grief and mystery. Ariadne proves a quick study with a blade, her resolve fueled by a vendetta that is all she has left in the world. Their lessons crackle with undeniable electricity…but the secret of her all-consuming vengeance may have rendered her heart impervious even to such a virtuoso as Gavin. Publisher: Mira Format: Paperback ISBN: 9780778324546 Price: $6.99

	*Tennyson* Author: Lesley M. M. Blume It’s 1932, the Depression. Things are evening out among people everywhere. Tennyson Fontaine and her sister Hattie live in a rickety shack of a house with their mother and father and their wild dog, Jos. There is no school, only a rope swing in the living room and endless games of hide-and-seek in the woods on the banks of the Mississippi. But when their mother disappears and their father sets off to find her, the girls find themselves whisked away to Aigredoux, once one of the grandest houses in Louisiana, and now a vine-covered ruin. Under the care of their austere Aunt Henrietta, who is convinced the girls will save the family’s failing fortunes, Tennyson discovers the truth about Aigredoux, the secrets that have remained locked deep within its decaying walls. Caught in a strange web of time and history, Tennyson comes up with a plan to bring Aigreoux’s past to light. But will it bring her mother home? Publisher: Knopf Books for Young Readers Format: Hardbound ISBN: 9780375847035 Price: $15.99

	*The Blue Boat* Author: Darrell Bourque "The main theme is life in Darrell's poetry. And you see this in motion, in colors, and music. Whether he is writing about old women fishing from bridges, or children playing in the house, or a member of his family standing for a portrait, Darrell wants you to see, feel, and hear that moment - which you do." - Ernest Gaines "Darrell Bourque is a poet whose work has sought and found a rare luminescence. The Blue Boat is another stunning collection that furthers his achievement and takes him into mysterious directions. At once profoundly regional - this is work that had to come from deep Louisiana, from an Acadian heart - and worldly, Bourque's poems remind us not only where we live, but where we dream. I consider his work to be primary and inimitable." - Luis Urrea "Bourque's voice has developed into one of the most genuine and interesting poetic voices. I know of no one who has created a language like Bourque's. Its striking originality may come out of his straddling, for most of his life, two languages, French and English. The syntax has remnants of French, remnants of the syntax of Cajuns speaking English, and remnants of the formal English one learns in school. There's not a false note in this manuscript, not a poem, not a word, a line, nor a stanza that doesn't feel important and true, in the deepest sense of the word." - Sheryl St. Germain Publisher: Louisiana Center for Louisiana Studies Format: Paperback ISBN: 1887366571 Price: $12.50

	*The Prince of Frogtown* Author: Rick Bragg In this final volume of the beloved American saga that began with All Over but the Shoutin’ and continued with Ava’s Man, Rick Bragg closes his circle of family stories with an unforgettable tale about fathers and sons inspired by his own relationship with his ten-year-old stepson. He learns, right from the start, that a man who chases a woman with a child is like a dog who chases a car and wins. He discovers that he is unsuited to fatherhood, unsuited to fathering this boy in particular, a boy who does not know how to throw a punch and doesn’t need to; a boy accustomed to love and affection rather than violence and neglect; in short, a boy wholly unlike the child Rick once was, and who longs for a relationship with Rick that Rick hasn’t the first inkling of how to embark on. With the weight of this new boy tugging at his clothes, Rick sets out to understand his father, his son, and himself. The Prince of Frogtown documents a mesmerizing journey back in time to the lush Alabama landscape of Rick’s youth, to Jacksonville’s one-hundred-year-old mill, the town’s blight and salvation; and to a troubled, charismatic hustler coming of age in its shadow, Rick’s father, a man bound to bring harm even to those he truly loves. And the book documents the unexpected corollary to it, the marvelous journey of Rick’s later life: a journey into fatherhood, and toward a child for whom he comes to feel a devotion that staggers him. With candor, insight, tremendous humor, and the remarkable gift for descriptive storytelling on which he made his name, Rick Bragg delivers a brilliant and moving rumination on the lives of boys and men, a poignant reflection on what it means to be a father and a son. Publisher: Knopf Format: Hardbound ISBN: 140004040X Price: $24.00

	*Babylon* *Rolling: A Novel* Author: Amanda Boyden From the acclaimed author of Pretty Little Dirty ("a first novel of complex truth and beauty"--San Francisco Chronicle), comes a glittering, gritty, and unflinching story of five families--black, white, and Indian--living along one block of Uptown, New Orleans. It is the summer of 2004, and Orchid Street is changing. Newcomers Ariel May and her husband, Ed, relocated from Minnesota, are trying to make sense of the Southern city. From her front porch, Philomenia Beauregard de Bruges watches her new neighbors, the Guptas, as they move into one of the biggest homes. Across the way, Daniel Harris, aka Fearius, has just been released from juvenile detention. And Cerise Brown, a longtime resident now in her late seventies, hopes only to pass the rest of her days in peace. But with one random accident, a scene of horror on Cerise's front lawn, the whole neighborhood converges on the sidewalk to help, to cast blame, and to offer hope. And as Hurricane Ivan churns his way toward the city, bringing a different series of challenges, these new relationships tighten, intertwining the families' paths for better and for worse. Told in five achingly real voices, Babylon Rolling is the story of one year on Orchid Street, a place where lives clash and collide, and where the humid air is charged with constant wanting. Offering a bold understanding of human nature and the hidden prejudices we harbor, Babylon Rolling is a powerful portrait of racism in America and a city on the edge of transformation. Publisher: Pantheon Format: Hardbound ISBN: 0375425330 Price: $23.95

	Shooting the Pistol: Courtside Photos of Pete Maravich at LSU Author: Danny Brown Every basketball team has its star player. From 1967 to 1970, Louisiana State University saw the rise of a legend: "Pistol Pete" Maravich, one of the greatest basketball players in LSU history and arguably the greatest to ever play college basketball. Known for his dazzling ball handling, creative passing, and extraordinary shooting, he averaged 44.2 points per game at LSU—without the benefit of a three-point line—and remains the NCAA's all-time leading scorer. Danny Brown, a journalism student at LSU during most of Pete's college years, took hundreds of photographs at LSU basketball games as part of his course work. In Shooting The Pistol, Brown offers more than eighty photographs—most never before published—of Pete in action, along with game statistics and personal recollections, to form the single most complete portrait ever made of Maravich at LSU. Danny first met Pete not on the basketball court, but during Air Force ROTC training, where Danny was Pete's squadron sergeant. Upon learning that the tall, scrawny guy with the shaved head and the purple-and-gold beanie cap was scoring 40 points a game on the freshman team, Danny replied, "That kid can play basketball?" Danny eventually became friends with Pete and his father, Coach "Press" Maravich, and his images pay tribute to an amazing athlete and a magical time in LSU sports history. Brown's photographs provide intimate courtside views of Pete's gravity-defying, play-making skills. Many capture Pete in midair, where he seemingly floats, his off-balance body positions resembling moves in an athletic ballet. Famous for his ability to stop on a dime, Pete—as Brown's pictures demonstrate—often caught opponents flat-footed as he quickly maneuvered for an opening to the basket or sent a sudden "no-look" pass to a teammate. The volume culminates in Brown's near-perfect photographs of Pete's shot that broke the NCAA scoring record during the 1970 Ole Miss game and of the ensuing game-stopping victory celebration. While the majority of the images here show number 23 in motion, several reveal the personal side of the shy star, including a rare game attendance by his mother and quieter off-court moments with his father. Throughout, Brown weaves a rich conversational commentary—anecdotes about Pete, circumstances surrounding the more notable photographs, and descriptions of the games and Pete's performance. Seeing LSU's basketball phenomenon Pete Maravich through Danny Brown's lens will transport fans back in time, under the goal, to witness firsthand the making of college sports history. Publisher: LSU Press Format: Hardbound ISBN: 9780807133279 Price: $23.00

	Frontiersman: Daniel Boone and the Making of America Author: Meredith Mason Brown The name Daniel Boone conjures up the image of an illiterate, coonskin cap-wearing patriot who settled Kentucky and killed countless Indians. The scarcity of surviving autobiographical material has allowed tellers of his story to fashion a Boone of their own liking, and his myth has evolved in countless stories, biographies, novels, poems, and paintings. In this welcome book, Meredith Mason Brown separates the real Daniel Boone from the many fables that surround him, revealing a man far more complex—and far more interesting—than his legend. Brown traces Boone's life from his Pennsylvania childhood to his experiences in the militia and his rise as an unexcelled woodsman, explorer, and backcountry leader. In the process, we meet the authentic Boone: he didn't wear coonskin caps; he read and wrote better than many frontiersmen; he was not the first to settle Kentucky; he took no pleasure in killing Indians. At once a loner and a leader, a Quaker who became a skilled frontier fighter, Boone is a study in contradictions. Devoted to his wife and children, he nevertheless embarked on long hunts that could keep him from home for two years or more. A captain in colonial Virginia's militia, Boone later fought against the British and their Indian allies in the Revolutionary War before he moved to Missouri when it was still Spanish territory and became a Spanish civil servant. Boone did indeed kill Indians during the bloody fighting for Kentucky, but he also respected Indians, became the adopted son of a Shawnee chief, and formed lasting friendships with many Shawnees who once held him captive. During Boone's lifetime (1734–1820), America evolved from a group of colonies with fewer than a million inhabitants clustered along the Atlantic Coast to an independent nation of close to ten million reaching well beyond the Mississippi River. Frontiersman is the first biography to explore Boone's crucial role in that transformation. Hundreds of thousands of settlers entered Kentucky on the road that Boone and his axemen blazed from the Cumberland Gap to the Kentucky River. Boone's leadership in the defense of Boonesborough during a sustained Indian attack in 1778 was instrumental in preventing white settlers from fleeing Kentucky during the bloody years of the Revolution. And Boone's move to Missouri in 1799 and his exploration up the Missouri River helped encourage a flood of settlers into that region. Through his colorful chronicle of Boone's experiences, Brown paints a rich portrayal of colonial and Revolutionary America, the relations between whites and Indians, the opening and settling of the Old West, and the birth of the American national identity. Supported with copious maps, illustrations, endnotes, and a detailed chronology of Boone's life, Frontiersman provides a fresh and accurate rendering of a man most people know only as a folk hero—and of the nation that has mythologized him for over two centuries. Publisher: LSU Press Format: Hardbound ISBN: 9780807133569 Price: $34.95

	*My Life As a Ten-Year Old Boy* Author: Nancy Cartwright “Here’s the sweet and funny inside scoop on The Simpsons, straight from the mouth of Bart herself!” – Matt Groening, creator of The Simpsons In 1987, Nancy Cartwright landed the role of mischievous and precocious Bart Simpson in The Simpsons, a humorous series of animation shorts which appeared on The Tracy Ullman Show. Two years later, The Simpsons captured its own prime time TV slot and quickly began making headlines as America’s newest and most popular sitcom. With date books and personal journals in hand, Nancy sat down in 1999 to write the story of the girl from Ohio whose vocal talents and acting abilities helped make Bart Simpson a star and “One of the one hundred most influential artists and entertainers of the [twentieth] century” (Time magazine, 1999). Released in 2000, My Life as a 10-Year-Old Boy is filled with humorous anecdotes about Nancy’s life, acting career, The Simpsons, fellow cast members and guest stars such as Mel Gibson, Meryl Streep and Elizabeth Taylor. My Life as a 10-Year-Old Boy is a must-read for fans, and anyone interested in a real behind-the-scenes look at the show that re-invented sitcom. Publisher: Hyperion Press Format: Paperback ISBN: 0786886005 Price: $17.95

	Br’er Rabbit Captured!: A Dr. David Harleyson Adventure Author and Illustrator: Jean Cassels These are not your ordinary vacation pictures Come along with John D. and Uncle David as they travel down South to Sandy Creek, where Br’er Fox has “thoughtfully” agreed to help Uncle David capture Br’er Rabbit on canvas—his lifelong dream. It’s easier said than done though, since Br’er Rabbit is too busy slipping out of the grasp of Br’er Fox and Br’er Wolf to sit for his portrait. Classic Uncle Remus tales come to life in John D.’s letters to his dad, recounting his summer of adventures—and misadventures—with his new friends Br’er Rabbit, Br’er Bear, Br’er Fox, and all the favorite characters of these beloved tales from our Southern heritage. Publisher: Walker & Company Format: Hardbound ISBN: 0802795564 Price: $17.95

	*Two Bobbies: A True Story of Hurricane Katrina, Friendship, and Survival* Illustrator: Jean Cassels An inspiring true “incredible journey in the tradition of Owen & Mzee During Hurricane Katrina, evacuating New Orleans residents were forced to leave their pets behind. Bobbi the dog was initially chained to keep her safe, but after her owners failed to return, she had to break free. For months, Bobbi wandered the city’s ravaged streets—dragging her chain behind her—followed by her feline companion, Bob Cat. After months of hunger and struggle, the Two Bobbies were finally rescued by a construction worker helping to rebuild the city. When he brought them to a shelter, volunteers made an amazing discovery about the devoted friends—Bob Cat was actually blind! He had survived the aftermath of the storm by following the sound Bobbi’s chain made as she dragged it along the ground. At the shelter, the two bob-tailed friends refused to be parted, even for a moment. Could rescue workers find the Bobbies’ owners? Or could they find a new home that would take them together? This remarkable true story of devotion and survival is a testament to the spirit that defined post-Katrina rescue missions, and is a perfect way to commemorate the anniversary of this day in history. Publisher: Walker & Company Format: Hardbound ISBN: 0802797547 Price: $16.99

	*Bobbie Faye’s (kinda, sorta, not-exactly) Family Jewels: A Novel* Author: Toni McGee Causey Praise for Bobbie Faye's Very (very, very, very) Bad Day “Causey doesn't miss a beat in this wonderful, wacky celebration of Southern eccentricity.”--Publisher’s Weekly, starred review “It's about time women had an Amazon to look up to… Bobbie Faye is a hurricane-force heroine who makes this novel the perfect adventure yarn.”-- The Tampa Tribune “If you like Janet Evanovich, if you're looking for a lot of unlikely action (when is the last time someone you know escaped a burning boat by lassoing an oil rig?), or if you're simply having a bad day, go out and find Bobbie Faye. She's an outrageous hoot.”--The New Orleans Times-Picayune "Bobbie Faye, Southern, eloquent, kick-ass, highly accomplished and just plain nuts, is a magnet for the most colorful collection of riff-raff and the most sexually compelling males south of Minneapolis. Throw in an unlikely MacGuffin and you've got a very, (very, very, very) entertaining book."--Harley Jane Kozak, Agatha, Anthony, and Macavity award-winning author of Dating Dead Men It had been a whole freaking month since Bobbie Faye Sumrall had blown up anything or been shot at, and that was almost a new record. Then her diva cousin Francesca waltzed up to where she manned the gun counter in Ce Ce's Cajun Outfitter and Feng Shui Emporium and everything just went to hell. Fast. Francesca's mom has disappeared with exceptionally valuable diamonds swiped from Francesca's dad (difficult marriage) so of course Francesca broadcast to every insane psycho that Bobbie Faye could recover the ersatz family jewels. Accused of one man’s murder, Bobbie Faye’s on the run as an unintentional Pied Piper to a rabid band of thieves. She has to find the diamonds, figure out the motives of the dead sexy FBI agent who's pressing her for more than just the jewels, all while racing to side-step her steamy (and steamed) detective ex-boyfriend before the deadline arrives and the diamonds disappear. Bobbie Faye Sumrall is back in fighting form in this second installment of crazy, wacky adventure through Cajun country. Publisher: St. Martin's Griffith Format: Paperback ISBN: 0312354509 Price: $13.95

	*Jealous Witness* Author: Andrei Codrescu Born in Romania, Andrei Codrescu understands the spirit of his adopted New Orleans, a city that steadfastly "refuses to conform to anything that is known about it." When Hurricane Katrina blew through, the New Orleans landscape changed yet again and Codrescu, like his hero, "tolstoy exhausted having just written russia," recorded it all. His "Maelstrom: Songs of Storm and Exile," performed by the New Orleans Klezmer AllStars on the accompanying CD, form the heart of this collection honoring the dispossessed and the artists, lovers, and cultural icons who have influenced his life. As John Freeman wrote in the Minneapolis Star Tribune, Codrescu's poetry sounds like what would happen if "Tom Waits and Muddy Waters collaborated on a book of verse" and shows why this celebrated National Public Radio commentator is such a memorable and fearless cultural critic. Publisher: Coffee House Press Format: Mixed Media ISBN: 1566892171 Price: $19.95

	*Wash* *and Die* Author: Barbara Colley As the saying goes, “No good deed goes unpunished.” Charlotte LaRue knows she should take a broom and chase Joyce Thibodeaux off her front porch. Once married to Charlotte’s tenant Louis Thibodeaux, Joyce is fresh out of detox and has no place to go. She pulls on Charlotte’s heartstrings...and soon she’s staying in Charlotte’s guest room. Charlotte survived Hurricane Katrina, but Joyce proves to be an ill wind of a different kind. Charlotte knows she has to show Joyce the door, but she never gets the chance. Instead her beloved parakeet Sweety Boy vanishes, her living room gets trashed, and Joyce ends up in the middle of the mess...stone cold dead. Now Charlotte is on the list of murder suspects along with Louis, who’s been out of town on business...or has he? Finding the answers means doing a little snooping herself. Grabbing her mop she’s starting with the hospital where Joyce last stayed: a place with skeletons in its closets and a bucket full of clues that just might lead to a killer... Publisher: Kensington Format: Paperback ISBN: 9780758222527 Price: $6.99

	*Being Written: A Novel* Author: William Conescu Daniel Fischer has a secret. He knows he's a character in a book that's being written. He's the only one who knows, the only one who's aware of the author's presence—but what good does it do Daniel? He's just a minor character. The author seems much more interested in other people's lives. Now Daniel is determined to win a bigger part, and he'll do whatever it takes to get the author's attention and make this story his own. Suspenseful, subversive, and hilarious, Being Written is an audaciously inventive literary turn that gleefully calls into question who we trust, what we believe, and how the stories of our lives are created. Publisher: Harper Perennial Format: Paperback ISBN: 0061451347 Price: $13.95

	*The Chicken Dance* Author: Jacques Couvillon Don Schmidt knows his name has changed from Stanley, and he believes he had a sister and she died of scarlet fever when she was fifteen but these and other details of Don's life don't quite add up. Don's family lives on a chicken farm in Horse Island, where his mother would prefer not to be. At school Don is known as 'new kid' even though he hasn't been new for years. And when Don becomes a true connoisseur of chickens and wins the Horse Island Chicken-Judging Contest, he is an instant celebrity, setting into motion a chain of events that involves his parents, the chickens and a deep dark family mystery. Publisher: Bloomsbury Children Format: Hardbound ISBN: 1599900432 Price: $16.95

	*Louisiana Governors: Rulers, Rascals, and Reformers* Authors: Walter G. Cowan and Jack B. McGuire A revelation of the wild, wily, and well-meaning chief executives of a colorful state Walter G. Cowan and Jack B. McGuire, veteran authorities on the Louisiana political scene, trace the history of the state's leaders from the French and Spanish colonial eras to the present day. Using a variety of sources, including personal interviews with the recent governors, they describe unforgettable personalities. Such early figures as Pierre Le Moyne d'Iberville and Jean Baptiste Le Moyne de Bienville set the tone for later colonial governors. They had their troubles, fending off protesting Indians and other French and Spanish leaders vying for power. Following the Louisiana Purchase, American politics took control. The Whigs, Know Nothings, Republicans, and Democrats have all waxed and waned through times of slavery, secession, suffrage, and segregation. The early twentieth century saw the rise of Huey P. Long, who established himself as a virtual dictator. An assassin's bullet ended Long's life in 1935, but his followers managed to hold on to the governorship until 1940. In 1948 his brother, Earl Long, brought the family back into power. Over the years, two governors were impeached but were not removed from office, and two governors were jailed in federal prison. The experiences, decisions, and conflicts of Louisiana governors have reflected and influenced the history of the state, often in dramatic and fascinating ways. Publisher: University Press of Mississippi Format: Hardbound ISBN: 978-1-934110-90-4 Price: $45.00

	*Taking Flight* Author: Connie Cox Lacey Seivers, once so shy that she fainted when she gave the valedictory address at her high school graduation, has shed her geeky image to climb her way up through the ranks of a Chicago law firm. Returning to her hometown for her brothers’ college graduation and her high school reunion, she’s not the same girl she once was. But some things never change. Like Lacey’s connection with her best friend, Hank Chandler. They’ve known each other their entire lives, and Hank works as a crop duster for Lacey’s father. Hank is no longer the bad boy of West Monroe, Louisiana. He’s just a man trying to raise his ten-year-old son the best he can. But when Lacey comes back to town, Hank is overcome with new feelings for her, and he leans on her for support when Jennifer, his former flame and mother of his child, comes to town. Finding strength and comfort in each other’s arms, they also find more than just friendship, but difficulties arise that may prevent them from getting their new relationship off the ground. Publisher: Avalon Books Format: Hardbound ISBN: 9780803498730 Price: $21.95

	*Call Me Coach: A Life in College Football* Author: Paul F. Dietzel "Paul Dietzel was the best athletic director I ever worked for. His book is a must read if you love college football as much as I do. As good a football coach and athletic director as Paul was, he's an even better human being. Enjoy his book. I did."— Lee Corso, ESPN commentator When LSU head football coach Paul Dietzel saw Billy Cannon field an Ole Miss punt on LSU's own eleven yard line on a stifling Halloween night in 1959, his shouts of "No, no, no!" turned to "Go, go, go!" as Cannon eluded tackler after tackler, sending fans in Tiger Stadium into a frenzy and earning himself that year's Heisman Trophy. Dietzel is probably best known for leading LSU to its first national championship the year before Cannon's legendary run, but his career in athletics also carried him to numerous posts across the country and put him in the company of some of the best coaching minds of all time. In Call Me Coach, Dietzel affectionately recalls his rich and varied life in college football. In 1948, Dietzel decided to forgo medical school at Columbia University to become the plebe football coach at West Point. As an assistant over the next few years, he worked with Bear Bryant at the University of Kentucky, Colonel Red Blaik and Vince Lombardi at West Point, and Sid Gillman at the University of Cincinnati. Taking the job of head coach at LSU in 1955, he reversed the Tigers' losing skid and—using the wing-T formation and a revolutionary three-team substitution system incorporating the White Team, the Go Team, and the renowned Chinese Bandits—crafted 1958's unbeaten championship run. The thirty-three-year-old Dietzel was voted National Coach of the Year by the widest margin ever. Back at West Point from 1961 to 1965, Dietzel rallied the Cadets to finally "beat Navy" and, as South Carolina's football coach and athletics director from 1966 to 1974, he took the Gamecocks to their first bowl game in twenty-five years and mandated the recruitment of black athletes in all sports programs. After twenty years as a head coach, with 109 wins and 95 losses at three schools and a postseason record of 11 victories and 3 defeats, Dietzel retired from coaching in 1974, later serving as athletics director at Indiana and LSU. Through Dietzel's eyes, readers glimpse college football during a simpler time but also see that many facets of the game—including recruitment challenges, job insecurity, press relations, and fickle fans—remain constant. Highlights among the book's many unforgettable anecdotes are a 1962 interview with Howard Cosell, discussion about West Point's football team with General Douglas MacArthur, and a rare disagreement with Bear Bryant during a staff meeting. Dietzel's recollections of his early and later years help complete the story of the man. In a warm raconteur's voice, he describes his impoverished childhood in Ohio, his own participation in high school and college sports, and his stint flying B-29 missions over Japan during World War II. His postretirement endeavors have included providing color commentary for TV, selling fudge, teaching skiing, and watercolor painting. Always at the top of Dietzel's priorities have been friends, family, and faith. Gratitude rings as a constant refrain in Call Me Coach, and sports enthusiasts everywhere will be grateful that Dietzel has shared these recollections of his remarkable life. Publisher: LSU Press Format: Hardbound ISBN: 9780807133743 Price: $34.95

	*Fifty-Eight Days in the Cajundome Shelter* Author: Ann B. Dobie Hurricanes Katrina and Rita destroyed thousands of homes, schools, and businesses across the Gulf Coast and changed the face of southeast Louisiana forever. However, nearly a hundred miles northwest of New Orleans, in Lafayette, Louisiana, a different story was unfolding. As men, women, and children waited on their roofs for rescue, executive director Greg Davis hurried to prepare the Cajundome in Lafayette as an emergency shelter. The workers and volunteers in the Cajundome provided food, showers, and medical care to more than eighteen thousand evacuees that came to Lafayette. From the first busloads of newly homeless to the disasters caused by Hurricane Rita, Fifty-Eight Days in the Cajundome Shelter shares personal accounts of heartache and joy, tragedy and triumph. For the first time, here is a collection of the stories of the volunteers and evacuees. Their heroism, courage, and despair are etched into these stories as they endured the first few weeks in a hurricane-ravaged world. Retold here is the bravery and leadership of Donald Williams as he took charge and led a convoy of handicapped and elderly to safety. Readers will also be captivated by the unforgettable story of the Prevost family as they climbed their way to the roof of their home and their heartbreaking journey to dry land on I-10. The author includes her own personal accounts of what really happened in the aftermath of Katrina and the bravery and selflessness of countless people who struggled to make a difference. Publisher: Pelican Publishing Format: Hardbound ISBN: 9781589805798 Price: $15.95

	Theory Into Practice: An Introduction to Literary Criticism Author: Ann Dobie Beginning with more accessible critical approaches and gradually introducing more challenging critical perspectives, Theory Into Practice provides extensive step-by-step guidance for writing literary analyses. This brief, practical introduction to literary theory explores core theories in a unique chronological format and includes an anthology of relevant fiction, poetry, and nonfiction to help bring those theories to life. Remarkably readable and engaging, the text makes even complex concepts manageable for those beginning to think about literary theory, and example analyses for each type of criticism show how real students have applied the theories to works included in the anthology. Now updated with the latest scholarship, including a full discussion of queer theory and increased emphasis on American multicultural approaches, Theory Into Practice provides an essential foundation for thoughtful and effective literary analysis. Publisher: Wadsworth Publishing Format: Paperback ISBN: 1413033407 Price: $85.95

	Quiet Please: Dispatches from a Public Librarian Author: Scott Douglas For most of us, librarians are the quiet people behind the desk, who, apart from the occasional “shush,” vanish into the background. But in Quiet, Please, McSweeney’s contributor Scott Douglas puts the quirky caretakers of our literature front and center. With a keen eye for the absurd and a Kesey-esque cast of characters (witness the librarian who is sure Thomas Pynchon is Julia Roberts’s latest flame), Douglas takes us where few readers have gone before. Punctuated by his own highly subjective research into library history-from Andrew Carnegie’s Gilded Age to today’s Afghanistan-Douglas gives us a surprising (and sometimes hilarious) look at the lives which make up the social institution that is his library. Publisher: Da Capo Press Format: Hardbound ISBN: 0786720913 Price: $25.00

	*My Aunt Came Back from Louisiane* Author: Johnette Downing This rhyming picture book offers children a tour of the Louisiana traditions of many beautiful towns and cities of the state. Based on a traditional song adapted by the award-winning Louisiana singer/songwriter Johnette Downing, the book invites children to learn the various cultural nuances of each area. Along with the whimsical song lyrics, interesting facts about Louisiana are included on the word map. Children will learn that the town of Albany was settled by Hungarians and is known for its large, sweet strawberries, and the small Florida parish town of Franklinton is famous for its delicious watermelons. In Ruston, a town in northern Louisiana, peaches are the special fare, and in Thibodaux, it is the file gumbo. Many more interesting facts are presented in a unique, enjoyable fashion. Publisher: Pelican Publishing Format: Hardbound ISBN: 9781589806078 Price: $15.95

	*Fire Ants: and Other Stories* Author: Gerald Duff Publisher’s Weekly hailed the “wit and subtlety” in Gerald Duff’s fiction as “simply satisfying as a tall cold one on a hot Gulf Coast afternoon,” and the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette said “Gerald Duff’s dialogue is among the best being written, and his sense of the absurd is Portis-like.” This new collection of short stories by the author of Coasters (2001) features the Ploughshares Cohen Prize-winning story “Fire Ants.” Publisher: NewSouth Format: Hardbound ISBN: 1588382087 Price: $27.95

	*Requiem, Mass.: A Novel* Author: John Dufresne In the tragicomic mode of his best-selling Louisiana Power & Light, a hilarious and tenderhearted novel about a son’s attempts to save his family. John Dufresne takes us to Requiem, Mass., heart of the Commonwealth, where Johnny’s mom, Frances, is driving in the breakdown lane once again. She thinks Johnny and his little sister Audrey have been replaced by aliens; she’s sure of it, and she’s pretty certain that she herself is already dead, or she wouldn’t need to cover the stink of her rotting flesh with Jean Naté Après Bain. Dad, truck driver and pathological liar, is down South somewhere living his secret life. And Audrey, when she’s not walking her cat Deluxe in a baby stroller, spends her time locked in a closet telling herself stories. Johnny, meanwhile, is hell-bent on saving the family from itself. In his “truly original voice” (Miami Herald) and with the “miraculous beauty of his tale-telling” (New York Times Book Review), Dufresne brings his unparalleled eye for the tragic and the absurd to the dysfunctions and joys of family in this powerful new novel. Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc. Format: Hardbound ISBN: 9780393057904 Price: $24.95

	Solomon Northrup's Twelve Years a Slave and Plantation Life in the Antebellum South Editor: Sue Eakin Since its appearance in 1854 it has been said that the story of Solomon Northrup’s abduction and twelve years in slavery is almost too unbelievable to have actually happened. Now for the first time ever the original narrative, its history, and the facts behind it are brought together in one comprehensive book. More than seventy years of research and scholarship have resulted in over two-hundred pages of previously unpublished supplemental material, making this the most definitive edition of Twelve Years a Slave to date. In addition to detailing every aspect of the Solomon Northrup story, Sue Eakin presents one of the most complete pictures yet of the complexities of plantation life in the Antebellum South. This is without doubt the most comprehensive edition of one of the most recognized accounts of American slavery. Publisher: Center for Louisiana Studies Format: Hardbound ISBN: 188736675X Price:

	*The Moon in the Mango Tree* Author: Pamela Binnings Ewen Set in Siam and Europe during the 1920s, the glittering decade of change, The Moon In The Mango Tree is based upon the true story of Barbara Bond, a beautiful young ex-patriot and opera singer from Philadelphia who is forced to choose between her fierce desire for independence—a desire to create something of her own to give purpose and meaning to her life—and a deep abiding love for her faithful missionary husband whose work seems to create a gap between them. But when you choose between two things you love, must one be lost forever? "Ewen's prose is laudably rich in specific and colorful detail . . . a talented writer." --Publishers Weekly Publisher: B&H Books Format: Paperback ISBN: 0805447334 Price: $15.99

	*When the Whippoorwill Sang: A Memoir of Rural Life During the Twilight of the Segregated South* Author: Arthur Lee Ford, Jr. Publisher: Center for Louisiana Studies Format: Hardbound ISBN:9781887366847 Price:

	*Murder Creek: The “Unfortunate Incident” of Annie Jean Barnes* Author: Joe Formichella Formichella examines all aspects of the unsolved crime that inspired Suzanne Hudson’s 2004 novel In a Temple of Trees. When Annie Jean Barnes died one evening in 1966 outside an exclusive camp house near small-town Brewton, AL, it seemed all the wealthy town fathers were culpable. But at the behest of those who were likely responsible, the crime was swept under the rug and details ignored by investigators. The publication of Hudson’s novel, however, brought the ghost of Annie Jean back to life. Joe Formichella, in classic investigative style, reopens the case and questions a multitude of crime experts, law enforcement officers, and citizens alike—including many who, so it was said, would never speak about the “unfortunate incident” of Annie Jean’s death. A gripping tale of how the upper class often gets its way through violence and coercion. Publisher: River City Press Format: Hardbound ISBN: 1579660738 Price: $25.95

	*Staying Ahead of the Posse: The Ben Jobe Story* Author: Joe Formichella and Ben Jobe Ben Jobe is not afraid of starting fires. For kindling he chooses words and deeply personal, historically significant stories. Staying Ahead of the Posse: The Ben Jobe Story is history in the flesh, the history of basketball and the Civil Rights Movement, of desegregation and economic exploitation, of HBCUs and the NCAA, of African independence and the modern-day plantation that is the American sports industry. Ben’s life—forty-some years of coaching, teaching, nurturing, and mentoring—intersected with and was influenced by all of those developments. And despite a self-described lifetime of “staying ahead of the posse,” he’s now ready to take a stand, tell his story, and in the process put a torch to what he considers a few myths, the myth of “integration,” the myth of a “benevolent” NCAA, among many others. Provocative and inspiring both on the fields of play and in the trenches of life, Ben’s approach is one which, if followed, could make winners of us all. Publisher: River City Press Format: Hardbound ISBN: 1579660827 Price: $24.95

	*The Animal Girl: Two Novellas and Three Stories* Author: John Fulton 2008 Story Prize Notable Book The five heartbreaking and radiant stories in John Fulton's The Animal Girl explore the awkwardness of situations in which grief and erotic love collide. Here are people in extremis, struggling mightily, and often failing, to keep it together. In the Pushcart Prize–winning "Hunters," Fulton contrasts the humorous clumsiness of dating with the grim realities of death in the tale of a middle-aged woman who keeps her cancer a secret when she starts a relationship with an avid hunter. In the novella-length title story, a lonely adolescent girl deals with the recent loss of her mother and the alien presence of her father's new girlfriend by taking out her aggression on her boss and on the animals she cares for in her summer job at a research laboratory. The final story in the collection, "The Sleeping Woman," delves into the inner life of Evelyn, a divorced professional woman who falls in love with Russell, a man whose wife is permanently brain damaged and has been unresponsive for years. The ghostly presence of Russell's wife haunts Evelyn as she discovers how her lover has been scarred by his misfortune and searches for ways they might build a long-term relationship in the wake of personal tragedy. These powerful stories approach the often sentimentalized subject of romance with tenderness and insight into the heart-worn perspective of characters who have failed at love in the past. In lucid, revelatory prose, Fulton navigates the complexity of both mid-life courtship and adolescent rage with humor and intelligence. “In their exploration of loss, Fulton’s moving vignettes offer glimpses into all that is painful and hopeful and human.”—Booklist "Fulton's stories are reminiscent of the work of the late Andre Dubus." —News & Observer "Fulton can evoke a full range of emotion without burdening each of his sentences with it, in the same way that his characters live meaningful lives even if each moment isn't crushed with significance." —Curled Up With A Good Book Publisher: LSU Press Format: Paperback ISBN: 9780807132944 Price: $16.95

	*Month by Month: Gardening in Louisiana* Author: Dan Gill Never garden alone! The Month-By-Month series is the perfect companion to take the guesswork out of gardening. With this book, you’ll know what to do each month to have gardening success all year. Written by authors in your state, the information is tailored to the issues that affect your garden the most. When is the best time to plant trees and shrubs? Should I fertilize my lawn now? Is it time to prune my roses? What should I be doing in my garden this month? You’ll find the answers to these questions and much more inside. This easy-to-use book highlights each of the ten major plant categories using a monthly format. It guides you through each month of the year, telling you exactly what your garden needs. It is like having an expert in the garden with you all year long. Valuable hints are located throughout the book, and beautiful photographs will inspire you. Written just for gardeners where you live, you can be confident that the information is right for you-and your garden will show it. Publisher: Cool Springs Press Format: Paperback ISBN: 1591862337 Price: $24.99

	*How Starbucks Saved My Life:* *A Son of Privilege Learns to Live Like Everyone Else* Author: Michael Gates Gill In his fifties, Michael Gates Gill had it all: a big house in the suburbs, a loving family, and a top job at an ad agency with a six-figure salary. By the time he turned sixty, he had lost everything except his Ivy League education and his sense of entitlement. First, he was downsized at work. Next, an affair ended his twenty-year marriage. Then, he was diagnosed with a slow-growing brain tumor, prognosis undetermined. Around the same time, his girlfriend gave birth to a son. Gill had no money, no health insurance, and no prospects. One day as Gill sat in a Manhattan Starbucks with his last affordable luxury—a latté—brooding about his misfortune and quickly dwindling list of options, a 28-year-old Starbucks manager named Crystal Thompson approached him, half joking, to offer him a job. With nothing to lose, he took it, and went from drinking coffee in a Brooks Brothers suit to serving it in a green uniform. For the first time in his life, Gill was a minority--the only older white guy working with a team of young African-Americans. He was forced to acknowledge his ingrained prejudices and admit to himself that, far from being beneath him, his new job was hard. And his younger coworkers, despite having half the education and twice the personal difficulties he’d ever faced, were running circles around him. The other baristas treated Gill with respect and kindness despite his differences, and he began to feel a new emotion: gratitude. Crossing over the Starbucks bar was the beginning of a dramatic transformation that cracked his world wide open. When all of his defenses and the armor of entitlement had been stripped away, a humbler, happier and gentler man remained. One that everyone, especially Michael’s kids, liked a lot better. The backdrop to Gill's story is a nearly universal cultural phenomenon: the Starbucks experience. In How Starbucks Saved My Life, we step behind the counter of one of the world's best-known companies and discover how it all really works, who the baristas are and what they love (and hate) about their jobs. Inside Starbucks, as Crystal and Mike’s friendship grows, we see what wonders can happen when we reach out across race, class, and age divisions to help a fellow human being. Publisher: Gotham Format: Paperback ISBN: 1592404049 Price: $13.00

	*Go-Go Girls of the Apocalypse: A Novel* Author: Victor Gischler Mortimer Tate was a recently divorced insurance salesman when he holed up in a cave on top of a mountain in Tennessee and rode out the end of the world. Go-Go Girls of the Apocalypse begins nine years later, when he emerges into a bizarre landscape filled with hollow reminders of an America that no longer exists. The highways are lined with abandoned automobiles; electricity is generated by indentured servants pedaling stationary bicycles. What little civilization remains revolves around Joey Armageddon's Sassy A-Go-Go strip clubs, where the beer is cold, the lap dancers are hot, and the bouncers are armed with M16s. Accompanied by his cowboy sidekick Buffalo Bill, the gorgeous stripper Sheila, and the mountain man Ted, Mortimer journeys to the lost city of Atlanta -- and a showdown that might determine the fate of humanity. Find out more: Read an excerpt Publisher: Touchstone Format: Paperback ISBN: 1416552251 Price: $14.00

	*The Archangel Project* Author: C. S. Graham A murdered psychologist with ties to a secret CIA-funded remote viewing project… A haunted young Iraq War vet with a "psycho" discharge and a talent that has marked her for death... A deadly secret that will rock the world. You can't hide the truth from those who can see. When the charred remains of Tulane professor Henry Youngblood are discovered in the burned-out ruins of his New Orleans offices, the CIA sends maverick troubleshooter Jax Alexander to investigate. Joined in a reluctant partnership with remote viewer October "Tobie" Guinness, Jax struggles to decipher a cryptic set of clues that leads from the devastated neighborhoods of New Orleans to the power corridors of Washington, D.C. Pursued by agents of an influential oil and defense conglomerate with ties to the President himself, Jax and Tobie soon find themselves in a breakneck race against time to stop a ruthless killer and avert a diabolical plot that could devastate America. Publisher: Harper Format: Paperback ISBN: 0061351202 Price: $7.99

	*You Are Where You Eat: Stories and Recipes from the Neighborhoods of New Orleans* Author: Elsa Hahne A tour of the delectable and original from renowned home cooks in the Crescent City Eating and cooking well are not just industries but ways of life for all New Orleans. Writer and photographer Elsa Hahne has visited the kitchens of thirty-three of New Orleans's home cooks and raconteurs and has served up an expansive smorgasbord inspired by this vibrant city's love affair with food. Almost every cultural group that has made its mark on New Orleans is represented in these pages: Creole, African American, Native American, German, Cajun, Italian, Irish, Greek, Hungarian, Croatian, Cuban, Honduran, Mexican, Indian, Filipino, Chinese, Vietnamese, and more. With thirty-three first-person accounts and over one hundred black-and-white and full-color photographs, You Are Where You Eat proves that the local population remains as passionate about cooking after the hurricanes of 2005 as at any time before. Among the eighty-five recipes are such classic New Orleans dishes as red beans and rice, catfish court bouillon, crawfish bisque, filé gumbo, grillades, and daube glacé, but also more recent arrivals to local tables: yakamein, pork tamales, crawfish samosas, and Vietnamese spring rolls. Publisher: University Press of Mississippi Format: Hardbound ISBN: 978-1-57806-941-5 Price: $35.00

	Mardi Gras in New Orleans: An Illustrated History Author: Arthur Hardy Written for the casual Carnival observer as well as the veteran Mardi Gras fan, Mardi Gras in New Orleans: An Illustrated History is a concise and comprehensive pictorial account of the celebration. With 325 vintage and contemporary illustrations and 60,000 words of text, the hardbound volume is the ultimate resource on the celebration, past and present. This updated second edition features an expanded reference section that provides details on nearly 600 Carnival organizations, including the identities of 5,000 kings and queens. Publisher: Arthur Hardy Enterprises, Inc. Format: Hardbound ISBN: 0-930892-62-3 Price: $29.95

	*The Year of Past Things: A Novel* Author: M. A. Harper Phil Randazzo, owner of the trendy Tasso Restaurant in New Orleans, is being haunted and he's not at all happy about it. Strange supernatural events are taking place in the home he shares with his new wife, Michelle. Michelle's late husband, the legendary Cajun musician A. P. Savoie, begins to appear at will and inhabit everyday objects. As Savoie's presence grows stronger, the couple asks for help-psychics and exorcists are consulted until Phil narrowly escapes a deadly accident. Clearly, the honeymoon is over; but what, if anything, does Savoie want from them? In The Year of Past Things, the acclaimed author of The Worst Day of My Life, So Far has conjured up a savvy ghost story with a healthy helping of New Orleans flair. Publisher: Harcourt Format: Paperback ISBN:9780156029803 Price:

	*The Map of Leaving* Author: Jack Heflin Publisher: Arrow Graphics Format: Paperback ISBN: 9780939872046 Price:

	A Summer of Birds: John James Audubon at Oakley House Author: Danny Heitman "Danny Heitman has a wonderful eye for detail, an ear for life's most resounding rhythms, and a heart ever open to understanding what makes us who we are. Across the years John James Audubon has found a friend in Mr. Heitman—a friend who tells this story beautifully." —Bob Greene, NPR commentator and author of And You Know You Should Be Glad and Once Upon a Town. As the summer of 1821 began, John James Audubon's ambition to create a comprehensive pictorial record of American birds was still largely a dream. Then, out of economic necessity, Audubon came to Oakley Plantation, a sprawling estate in Louisiana's West Feliciana Parish. Teeming with what Audubon described as an "almost supernatural" abundance of birds, the woods of Oakley galvanized his sense of possibility for one of the most audacious undertakings in the annals of art. In A Summer of Birds, journalist and essayist Danny Heitman sorts through the facts and romance of Audubon's summer at Oakley, a season that clearly shaped the destiny of the world's most famous bird artist. Heitman draws from a rich variety of sources—including Audubon's own extensive journals, more recent Audubon scholarship, and Robert Penn Warren's poetry—to create a stimulating excursion across time, linking the historical man Audubon to the present-day civic and cultural icon. He considers the financial straits that led to Audubon's employment at Oakley as a private tutor to fifteen-year-old Eliza Pirrie, Audubon's family history, his flamboyance as a master of self-invention, his naturalist and artistic techniques, and the possible reasons for his dismissal. Illustrations include photographs of Oakley House—now a state historic site—Audubon's paintings from his Oakley period, and portraits of the Pirrie family members. A favorable combination of climate and geography made Oakley a birding haven, and Audubon completed or began at least twenty-three bird paintings—among his finest work—while staying there. A Summer of Birds will inform and delight readers in its exploration of this eventful but unsung 1821 interlude, a fascinating chapter in the life of America's foremost bird artist. It is an indispensable pleasure for birders, Audubon enthusiasts, and visitors to Oakley House. Publisher: LSU Press Format: Hardbound ISBN: 9780807133309 Price: $26.95

	*In a Temple of Trees* Author: Suzanne Hudson Cecil Durgin, a twelve-year-old African-American orphan, witnesses the perverse buildup to a brutal murder at an exclusive hunting camp in 1958. Decades later, the shame and guilt are still haunting him when fissures start forming in the lives of several characters unwittingly connected by a young woman’s body buried deep in the West Alabama woods. Thirty years of pressure and bitterness ignite an unstoppable chain reaction leading back to the night of the murder—and the truth. In a Temple of Trees is the story of secrets and their devastating aftermath on the powerful and the meek, husbands and wives, the living and the dead. Publisher: MacAdam/Cage Format: Paperback ISBN: 1931561915 Price: $13.00

	Secret Agent Jack Stalwart: The Puzzle of the Missing Panda Author: Elizabeth Singer Hunt Deep inside China’s famous Wolong Nature Reserve, an endangered Giant Panda named Ling has disappeared, and for his seventh mission, Jack is paired with a surly, sixteen-year-old park assistant named Fong to help track the panda down. Fong’s not the most pleasant person to work with, but any good Secret Agent knows how to keep his cool – until he’s almost killed. As a member of the evil Scorpion Gang, Fong and a partner Wong have been posing as assistants to steal Ling, and several other rare creatures from the reserve to sell on the black market. Now Jack must infiltrate the ruthless gang’s Beijing headquarters, overrun with menacing teenage thieves, and rescue Ling and the other animals before they, and maybe Jack, disappear forever. Jack Stalwart’s page-turning adventures keep kids on the edges of their seats, expanding their knowledge of foreign languages, cultures and geography. Publisher: Weinstein Books Format: Paperback ISBN: 9781602860209 Price: $4.99

	Led by Faith: Rising from the Ashes of the Rwandan Genocide Author: Immaculée Ilibagiza For three months in the spring of 1994, the African nation of Rwanda descended into one of the most vicious and bloody genocides the world has ever seen. Immaculée Ilibagiza, a young university student, miraculously survived the savage killing spree that left most of her family, friends, and a million of her fellow citizens dead. Immaculée’s remarkable story of survival was documented in her first book, Left to Tell: Discovering God Amidst the Rwandan Holocaust. In Led By Faith, Immaculée takes us with her as her remarkable journey continues. Through her simple and eloquent voice, we experience her hardships and heartache as she struggles to survive and to find meaning and purpose in the aftermath of the holocaust. It is the story of a naive and vulnerable young woman, orphaned and alone, navigating through a bleak and dangerously hostile world with only an abiding faith in God to guide and protect her. Immaculée fends off sinister new predators, seeks out and comforts scores of children orphaned by the genocide, and searches for love and companionship in a land where hatred still flourishes. Then, fearing again for her safety as Rwanda’s war-crime trials begin, Immaculée flees to America to begin a new chapter of her life as a refugee and immigrant-a stranger in a strange land. With the same courage and faith in God that led her through the darkness of genocide, Immaculée discovers a new life that was beyond her wildest dreams as a small girl in a tiny village in one of Africa’s poorest countries. It is in the United States, her adopted country, where Immaculée can finally look back at all that has happened to her and truly understand why God spared her life . . . so that she would be left to tell her story to the world. Publisher: Hay House, Inc. Format: Hardbound ISBN: 1401918875 Price: $24.95

	A Delicate Dance: Autoethnography, Curriculum, and the Semblance of Intimacy Author: Laura M. Jewett Publisher: Peter Lang Publishing Format: Paperback ISBN: 1433103087 Price: $32.95

	Poor Man’s Provence: Finding Myself in Cajun Louisiana Author: Rheta Grimsley Johnson For over a decade, syndicated columnist Rheta Grimsley Johnson has been spending several months a year in Southwest Louisiana, deep in the heart of Cajun Country. Unlike many other writers who have parachuted into the swampy paradise for a few days or weeks, Rheta fell in love with the place, bought a second home and set in planting doomed azaleas and deep roots. She has found an assortment of beautiful people in a homely little town called Henderson, right on the edge of the Atchafalaya Swamp. These days, much is labeled Cajun that is not, and the popularity of the unique culture’s food, songs and dance has been a mixed blessing. The revival of French Louisiana’s traditional music and cuisine often has been cheapened by counterfeits. Confused pilgrims sometimes look to New Orleans for a sampler platter of all things Cajun. Close, but no cigar. Poor Man’s Provence helps define what’s what through lively characters and stories. The book is both personal odyssey and good reporting, travelogue and memoir, funny and frank. This beguiling place is as exotic as it gets without a passport. The author shares what keeps her coming home to French Louisiana. And as NPR commentator Bailey White observes in her foreword, "Both Rheta's readers and the people she writes about will be comfortable, well fed, highly entertained, and happy they came to Poor Man's Provence." Publisher: NewSouth Format: Hardbound ISBN: 1588382184 Price: $23.95

	*A Day with Wilbur Robinson* Author: William Joyce Come meet the Robinsons: Young Wilbur has a robot. Uncle Art has his own flying saucer. Cousin Laszlo has an antigravity device. The butler is an octopus. It's snowing in the east wing. And somebody left the Time Machine on, so . . . Well, perhaps you'd care to read what happens next. Publisher: Laura Geringer Format: Hardbound ISBN: 0060890983 Price: $16.99

	*Molly the Pony: A True Story* Author: Pam Kaster "Every child, everyone affected by Hurricane Katrina, and every animal lover will adore this sentimental yet informative book about the true story of Molly the Pony."—ForeWord Magazine Molly the pony waits. She waits in her stall. She waits during the storm. She waits for her owner to return. So begins the true story of a patient pony who is rescued from a south Louisiana barn after Hurricane Katrina and finds a new life on a farm with new animal friends. But Molly's tale of courage does not end here. When a dog on the farm attacks Molly, her front leg is badly injured. For a pony, a damaged leg is life threatening. To the amazement of veterinarians, though, Molly rises to her new challenge. She undergoes a rare surgery for horses: amputation of her front leg. Now fitted with a prosthetic limb, Molly relearns how to walk and embarks again on a new mission in life: making new people friends. This plucky pony's story of survival and friendship will win the hearts of readers young and old. All who have had to start over after displacement, abandonment, injury, or amputation will find a friend in Molly as they follow her story of bringing a smile to everyone she meets. Publisher: LSU Press Format: Hardbound ISBN: 9780807133200 Price: $15.95

	*The Execution of Willie Francis:* *Race, Murder, and the Search for Justice in the American South* Author: Gilbert King On May 3, 1946, a seventeen-year-old boy was scheduled to die by the electric chair inside of a tiny red brick jail in picturesque St. Martinsville, Louisiana. Young Willie Francis had been charged with the murder of a local pharmacist. The electric chair-three hundred pounds of oak and metal- had been dubbed “Gruesome Gertie” and was moved from one jailhouse to another throughout the state of Louisiana. The switch would be thrown at 12:08 P.M., but Willie Francis did not die. Miraculously, having survived this less than cordial encounter with death, Willie was soon informed that the state would try to kill him again in six days. Letters began pouring into St. Martinsville from across the country-Americans of all colors and classes were transfixed by the fate of this young man. A Cajun lawyer just returned from WWII, Bertrand DeBlanc would take on Willie’s case-in the face of overwhelming local resistance. DeBlanc would argue the case all the way from the Bayou to the U.S. Supreme Court. In deciding Willie’s fate the courts and the country would be forced to ask questions about capital punishment that remain unresolved today. Publisher: Basic Civitas Books Format: Hardbound ISBN: 046500265X Price: $26.00

	*The Day Freedom Died: The Colfax Massacre, the Supreme Court, and the Betrayal of Reconstruction* Author: Charles Lane The untold story of the slaying of a Southern town’s ex-slaves and a white lawyer’s historic battle to bring the perpetrators to justice. Following the Civil War, Colfax, Louisiana, was a town, like many, where African Americans and whites mingled uneasily. But on April 13, 1873, a small army of white ex–Confederate soldiers, enraged after attempts by freedmen to assert their new rights, killed more than sixty African Americans who had occupied a courthouse. With skill and tenacity, The Washington Post’s Charles Lane transforms this nearly forgotten incident into a riveting historical saga. Seeking justice for the slain, one brave U.S. attorney, James Beckwith, risked his life and career to investigate and punish the perpetrators—but they all went free. What followed was a series of courtroom dramas that culminated at the Supreme Court, where the justices’ verdict compromised the victories of the Civil War and left Southern blacks at the mercy of violent whites for generations. The Day Freedom Died is an electrifying piece of historical detective work that captures a gallery of characters from presidents to townspeople, and re-creates the bloody days of Reconstruction, when the often brutal struggle for equality moved from the battlefield into communities across the nation. Publisher: Henry Holt & Company Format: Hardbound ISBN: 9780805083422 Price: $27.00

	The Chefs of RodnReel.com: A Hunting and Fishing Camp Cookbook Author: Mike Lane RodnReel.com is the largest online fish and game organization in the United States. Its members are a community of avid sportsmen and women who have shared information about camp sites, hunting gear, fishing equipment, and all the tips and tricks of their favorite sport. In this outdoor cookbook, they share the end result: the meal. A Contributor's Bio introduces readers to the chefs in a personal manner. People have come from all over to enjoy the marshes, woods, and swamplands and to share the recipes they have spent lifetimes perfecting. Since there are few handy kitchen gadgets where they cook, meal preparation is simple. Recipes include meals for deer, duck, quail, squirrel, dove, rabbit, turkey, and many types of seafood. While there are plenty of recipes for fish and game, others, such as Sunflower Slaw and Red Bean Gumbo are included for the slow seasons. Sections include Breads, Sauces, Desserts, Preserves, Beverages, and more. There are even dog biscuit recipes for everyone's faithful companion. Whether fishing or hunting, there is a recipe for every season and every trip to the camp. Publisher: Pelican Publishing Format: Hardbound ISBN: 9781589805538 Price: $35.00

	Creole Houses: Traditional Homes of Old Louisiana Author: John Lawrence Creole houses, found from New Orleans to northern Louisiana, are one of the nation's unique architectural treasures. A blend of French and Spanish colonial styles, with West Indian, Canadian, and other influences, these lovely houses were astutely designed to withstand their sultry, subtropical environment. Significantly, most major examples withstood the devastating hurricanes of 2005. No other book of photography evocatively examines the development of this singular American style, embracing architecture and interior decoration, which thrived from the early eighteenth through the mid-nineteenth century. Creole Houses offers an appreciation of Creole culture as seen through its historic homes and celebrates not only a memorable way of life, but the history, and the unique sensibility, that produced it. Publisher: Abrams Format: Hardbound ISBN: 0810954958 Price: $35.00

	*Water Witch* Author: Deborah LeBlanc Dunny knew from an early age what it meant to be an outsider. Her special abilities earned her many names, like freak and water witch. So she vowed to keep her powers a secret. But now her talents may be the only hope of two missing children. A young boy and girl have vanished, feared lost in the mysterious bayous of Louisiana. But they didn’t just disappear; they were taken. And amid the ghosts and spirits of the swamp, there is a danger worse than any other, one with very special plans for the children—and for anyone who dares to interfere. Publisher: Leisure Books Format: Paperback ISBN: 0843960396 Price: $7.99

	*Downriver: Short Stories* Author: Jeanne Leiby “These eleven stories are fueled by a robust mix of voices—children, young women, mothers, fathers—all of whom are driven to survive past losses or the overwhelming challenges of their present circumstances. “Within this collection, I had my favorites, but every story delivered on its promise—to let us into a world of fully realized, breathing human being

Featured Works

The Chalk Cross

Author: Berthe Amoss

The Cajun Gingerbread Man

Author: Berthe Amoss

One Generation at a Time: Biography of Cajun and Creole Music Festival

Author: Barry Jean Ancelet Photographer: Philip Gould

My Wars - Nazis, Mobsters, Gambling & Corruption: Colonel Francis C. Grevemberg Remembers

Author: Col. Francis C. Grevemberg with W. Thomas Angers

Voices Rising: Stories from the Katrina Narrative Project

Author: Rebeca Antoine,Fredrick Barton (Afterward) Contributors: Missy Bowen, Sylvia Schneller

Plantations & Historic Homes of New Orleans

Author: Jan Arrigo Photographer: Laura McElroy

Pelican Road

Author: Howard Bahr

Bayou of Pigs: The True Story of an Audacious Plot to Turn a Tropical Island into a Criminal Paradise

Author: Stewart Bell

Cajuns and Their Acadian Ancestors: A Young Reader’s History

Author: Shane K. Bernard

TABASCO®: An Illustrated History

Author: Shane K. Bernard

Guarded Heart

Author: Jennifer Blake

Tennyson

Author: Lesley M. M. Blume

The Blue Boat

Author: Darrell Bourque

The Prince of Frogtown

Author: Rick Bragg

Babylon Rolling: A Novel

Author: Amanda Boyden

Shooting the Pistol: Courtside Photos of Pete Maravich at LSU

Author: Danny Brown

Frontiersman: Daniel Boone and the Making of America

Author: Meredith Mason Brown

My Life As a Ten-Year Old Boy

Author: Nancy Cartwright

Br’er Rabbit Captured!: A Dr. David Harleyson Adventure

Author and Illustrator: Jean Cassels

Two Bobbies: A True Story of Hurricane Katrina, Friendship, and Survival

Illustrator: Jean Cassels

Bobbie Faye’s (kinda, sorta, not-exactly) Family Jewels: A Novel

Author: Toni McGee Causey

Jealous Witness

Author: Andrei Codrescu

Wash and Die

Author: Barbara Colley

Being Written: A Novel

Author: William Conescu

The Chicken Dance

Author: Jacques Couvillon

Louisiana Governors: Rulers, Rascals, and Reformers

Authors: Walter G. Cowan and Jack B. McGuire

Taking Flight

Author: Connie Cox

Call Me Coach: A Life in College Football

Author: Paul F. Dietzel

Fifty-Eight Days in the Cajundome Shelter

Author: Ann B. Dobie

Theory Into Practice: An Introduction to Literary Criticism

Author: Ann Dobie

Quiet Please: Dispatches from a Public Librarian

Author: Scott Douglas

My Aunt Came Back from Louisiane

Author: Johnette Downing

Fire Ants: and Other Stories

Author: Gerald Duff

Requiem, Mass.: A Novel

Author: John Dufresne

Solomon Northrup's Twelve Years a Slave and Plantation Life in the Antebellum South

Editor: Sue Eakin

The Moon in the Mango Tree

Author: Pamela Binnings Ewen

When the Whippoorwill Sang: A Memoir of Rural Life During the Twilight of the Segregated South

Author: Arthur Lee Ford, Jr.

Murder Creek: The “Unfortunate Incident” of Annie Jean Barnes

Author: Joe Formichella

Staying Ahead of the Posse: The Ben Jobe Story

Author: Joe Formichella and Ben Jobe

The Animal Girl: Two Novellas and Three Stories

One Generation at a Time:
Biography of Cajun and Creole Music Festival

Author: Barry Jean Ancelet
Photographer: Philip Gould

Voices Rising:
Stories from the Katrina Narrative Project

Author: Rebeca Antoine,Fredrick Barton (Afterward)
Contributors: Missy Bowen, Sylvia Schneller

Author: Jan Arrigo
Photographer: Laura McElroy

Cajuns and Their Acadian Ancestors:
A Young Reader’s History

Shooting the Pistol:
Courtside Photos of Pete Maravich at LSU

Frontiersman:
Daniel Boone and the Making of America

Br’er Rabbit Captured!:
A Dr. David Harleyson Adventure

Theory Into Practice:
An Introduction to Literary Criticism

Quiet Please:
Dispatches from a Public Librarian

Author: John Fulton
2008 Story Prize Notable Book

Mardi Gras in New Orleans:
An Illustrated History

A Summer of Birds:
John James Audubon at Oakley House

Secret Agent Jack Stalwart:
The Puzzle of the Missing Panda

Led by Faith:
Rising from the Ashes of the Rwandan Genocide

Poor Man’s Provence:
Finding Myself in Cajun Louisiana

The Chefs of RodnReel.com:
A Hunting and Fishing Camp Cookbook

Creole Houses:
Traditional Homes of Old Louisiana