Family Road of Greater Baton Rouge is hosting a whimsical gala for the entire family this weekend. The fifth annual Storybook Ball kicks off at 5 p.m. Saturday at the Baton Rouge River Center. The event will feature classic stories, such as The Jungle Book, Where the Wild Things Are, Harry Potter and more. Each book will have its own station full of interactive activities. The Young Band Nation Blues Project, Tim the Magician, stilt walkers and more will also be on hand. Proceeds benefit Family Road. Children's tickets are $20; adult tickets are $60. Specials and reserved tables are also available for purchase here. Get the lowdown on more local happenings taking place this weekend in the new 225 Weekender e-newsletter here.
Family Road of Greater Baton Rouge will host a whimsical gala perfect for the entire family. The fifth annual Storybook Ball kicks off at 5 p.m. Saturday at the Baton Rouge River Center. The event will feature classic stories such as The Jungle Book, Where the Wild Things Are, Harry Potter and more coming to life. Each book will have its own station full of interactive activities. The Young Band Nation Blues Project, Tim the Magician, stilt walkers and more will also be on hand. Proceeds benefit Family Road. Children's tickets are $20; adult tickets are $60. Specials and reserved tables are also available for purchase online.
If success in fiction depends on creating characters who seem not just believable but actual, then Cary Holladay succeeds wildly in Horse People, the latest issue in the Yellow Shoe Fiction series out of LSU Press.
The Bible and Book Center at 4242 Government St. will close its doors for good on Saturday after 54 years in business. Competition from online retailers and big-box stores, which carry many of the Christian book series that have been a main staple of the shop's merchandise mix, have taken a toll, and the family-owned business can no longer compete, says owner Janet Dearman. "When we bought the business, there weren't any chain bookstores in town," says Dearman, whose parents, Jim and Billie Sykora, bought the store from its original owners in 1980. "Once Sam's and Walmart came into the market, things started to change." Online retailers exacerbated the problem, then Hurricane Gustav in 2008 forced the shop to remain closed for a week. "That was sort of the nail in the coffin," says Dearman. "We never really recovered from that." The Bible and Book Center is the last independently owned, non-denominational Christian bookstore in Baton Rouge, according to Dearman, though there are two...
He's a Coast Guard veteran suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. His city is a cold shadow of its former self. And he is out for blood—perhaps literally.
The Mapmaker's War ronlyndomingue.com "I've read everything Carolyn Turgeon has written. I received an advance reading copy of her next novel, The Fairest of Them All—due in August—and this one has the same hallmarks of whimsy, sensitivity, and imagination as her other works. She does a masterful job of entwining the stories of Rapunzel and Snow White in a fairy tale retelling that's dark, sensual, and clever."
"I was a young writer trying to take off." With this subtle, ironic confession, Jack Kerouac's lyrical cipher Sal Paradise introduces himself in the long awaited screen adaptation of his iconic Beat Generation novel On the Road.
Actor Joe Chrest has never seen the Sean Penn-led 2006 adaptation of All the King's Men, and he doesn't want to. Audiences may be relieved that the stage and screen veteran, portraying Jack Burden—the novel's flawed narrator and conflicted associate of the Huey P. Long-esque Gov. Willie Stark—is not basing his latest theatrical performance on the Baton Rouge-set film most critics called a missed opportunity.
If contemporary women breezed through their middle-age years, there'd be no need for books like Tao Flashes. But they don't—we don't. This knowledge prompted local author Lisa G. Froman to publish this gift-worthy collection of reflections.
In 2005, Ronlyn Domingue published her first novel, The Mercy of Thin Air, which was quickly embraced by readers and critics and is now available in 10 languages. I studied at LSU, her alma mater, where we became friends. Later, I watched as she delved into what she called Novel No. 2, which was published March 5 as The Mapmaker's War.
Celebrate the release of author Helana Brigman's new book, The Fresh Table: Cooking in Louisiana All Year Round, Thursday at the Baton Rouge Gallery. The event starts at 6:30 p.m. and features food from Chef Chris Wadsworth of Restaurant IPO as well as music from Flatbed Honeymoon and Calico Axe. A number of speakers will also be present, including Louisiana Cookin' editor Daniel Schumacher, LSU Press Acquisitions Editor Alisa Plant, and The Advocate Food Editor Cheramie Sonnier. For more information, visit Brigman's blog here.
Author Ronlyn Domingue's new book, The Mapmaker's War, was released March 5 by Simon & Schuster. But thanks to a dispute over financial terms between Barnes & Noble and the publishing house, this Baton Rouge writer's work is not readily available at the more than 1,300 B&Ns nationwide. B&N greatly reduced the number of titles it orders from S&S at the end of January, when the disagreement came to a head. "The first six weeks of a book's launch are critical," Domingue says. "If the book doesn't take off in this time, it is essentially dead." Domingue's book—published by Atria, an imprint of S&S—has received little to no fanfare its first three weeks out, and Domingue is not the only one suffering. Authors throughout the country who have published through S&S in the last two months have seen book sales suffer. According to The...
Helana Brigman's blog, "Clearly Delicious", offers readers recipes daily that live up to the title claim. Now, thanks to LSU Press, Brigman's recipes have been gathered in a book, The Fresh Table: Cooking in Louisiana All Year Round. A native of Maine, Brigman has divided her book by season, so local, fresh ingredients can easily be found. This LSU alumna can dish up everything from crawfish to coastal lobster, and, with her guidance, you can do the same. On Saturday at 12:15, Brigman will prepare fare from her book during a complimentary cooking demo at Red Stick Spice Co. on Jefferson Highway. Call 930-9967 to reserve seating.
How about a break from the latest literary sensations? Forty years ago, Eudora Welty of Jackson, Miss., won the Pulitzer Prize for The Optimist's Daughter, her last work of published fiction. The anniversary of this achievement is a fitting time to reach for this superb short novel.
When you plunge into this collection of short stories by Stephanie Powell Watts, you’re suddenly among “dirt-roaders,” as she calls them: low-income, undereducated black working people living in obscurity in North Carolina. If this is new company for you to keep, so much the better. Trust her characters to illuminate their preoccupations and challenges.
Akosua Twum returned to school this fall standing a bit taller among her eighth-grade classmates. It wasn’t a growth in height but in confidence. Over the summer, she published Rich Girl Club, her first young-adult novel.
Just across the river from New Orleans in Gretna is the Louisiana-based international publisher that has published some of your favorite books, including Zig Ziglar’s See You at the Top, Justin Wilson Looking Back: A Cajun Cookbook, James Rice’s Cajun Night Before Christmas, and more recently, Peggy Sweeny-McDonald’s Meanwhile, Back at Café du Monde….
Twenty years ago, local lawyer Van R. Mayhall Jr. set out to read the Bible and the Koran in their entirety and became intrigued by the “logical inconsistencies” surrounding Judas. Like a criminal lawyer, he explains, “What Judas did wasn't in doubt, but his motive and what happened to him afterwards was unclear.”
What do people do with memories of an event too heinous to forget but too dangerous to recollect openly? That dilemma underlies Pam Durban's new novel, The Tree of Forgetfulness, the latest in the Yellow Shoe Fiction series from LSU Press.
From humble beginnings in the Oklahoma Dust Bowl, Gerry Lane built a car dealership empire in Baton Rouge and along the Mississippi Gulf Coast with just a high school education, "Okie honesty" and an insatiable drive to succeed. That's the abbreviated version of the new biography Gerry Lane—An American Success Story, written by Leo Honeycutt. But Lane says his life story is more than just an interesting read about his many adventures in building a business, such as selling cars to the likes of Clark Gable, Gregory Peck and Milton Berle. The book is "much more than a biography, it's a road map," Lane says. "I started in the Dust Bowl of Oklahoma in the Depression, so poor I couldn't afford hope. But if you can embrace change, leave your comfort zone the way I left the Dust Bowl, take a little risk, you can become rich in attitude, relationships, and yes, money. In that order." Honeycutt calls Lane a "rare breed, a larger-than-life character," adding, "His story could...
There's a benevolent force in children's media named William Joyce, and his creative haven is Shreveport. By any measure, 2012 has been a banner year for him.
Suzanne Johnson is the author of the Sentinels series, urban fantasy novels featuring Drusilla Jaco, the junior wizard sentinel of New Orleans. The series kicked off with Royal Street, published earlier this year, and continues with River Road, just released in November. Johnson worked at Tulane for 15 years and now lives in Auburn, Ala.
Clare D’Artois Leeper wrote the column “Louisiana Places: Those Strange Sounding Names” for the Baton Rouge Sunday Advocate in the ’60s and ’70s and again from 2004 to 2006. This dictionary-like volume is the culmination of decades of research and interviews, assembling Leeper’s original columns—inspired by an early job as a tour guide—and adding new material. Sadly, Leeper died shortly before the publication of Louisiana Places in September. Danny Plaisance, owner of Cottonwood Books, knew her since he opened his bookstore 26 years ago. She was “awful good for our community,” Plaisance says, and anyone interested in Louisiana history will enjoy her book.
This gorgeous publication is a travel guide masking as a coffee table book. With 175 photographs included, New Roads and Old Rivers: Louisiana’s Historic Pointe Coupee Parish will make readers want to jump in the car and head out for a lazy Sunday drive across the river. The destination is not the Pointe Coupee you think you know from New Roads’ Mardi Gras parades, trips to False River or news reports on the Morganza Spillway. The guided tour by authors Randy Harelson and Brian Costello reveals a comprehensive view of Pointe Coupee, drenched in history and proud of it.
"I put together a list of my favorite books for entrepreneurs. I have read many of them multiple times because they inspire, teach and help me in my quest to grow a business and become a better person."—Pete Sveen, thinkentrepreneurship.com
It’s been through rocky years of state budget cuts and uncertainty, but the Louisiana Book Festival keeps bouncing back. The one-day event was canceled in 2010 when state funding dwindled to nearly nothing, but rallied last year, drawing thousands to downtown Baton Rouge for author talks, a book market, exhibitions and more. Chalk it up to talented writers and booklovers who call the Pelican State home, private partners like Barnes & Noble, and also the dedicated folks at the State Library and the lieutenant governor’s office who have sought out federal grants and local support to keep it going. "Louisiana is very often at the bottom of the list [in many categories]," says State Librarian Rebecca Hamilton. "But Louisiana is at the top of the list for Louisiana authors and artists who really contribute to our cultural economy. Having such fantastic authors writing about our beautiful, unique state—it’s promoting that idea of how important it is to have a...
Book lovers will get the opportunity to hear from and speak with authors tomorrow at the annual Louisiana Book Festival. The celebration of reading and writing, held in downtown Baton Rouge around the State Capitol, runs from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. The event is free and open to the public. Lt. Gov. Jay Dardenne, whose department helps organize and host the festival, says more than 140 writers and panelists will discuss their latest works and others' writing. More information, including a schedule, is available at LouisianaBookFestival.org.
In the few morning hours before her husband wakes and her pets are begging for breakfast, the Bone Lady rises, puts pen to paper and scribes stories of death, crime and scientific investigation.
A Syrian-born man who is represented as the hero-rescuer in Dave Eggers' best-selling nonfiction work Zeitoun, which chronicles the eerie aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and the nightmarish side of the American justice system, has been accused of plotting to murder his ex-wife, her son and another man. Abdulrahman Zeitoun, 54, faces charges of offering $20,000 to a fellow jail inmate in exchange for the killings. Zeitoun also faces a domestic abuse battery charge after he allegedly beat his wife, Kathy Zeitoun, on a New Orleans street. In Zeitoun, which won an American Book Award in 2010, the protagonist was described as a compassionate man paddling a canoe through Katrina's floodwaters, helping people and animals, before being arrested on false charges of looting. He then was thrown into prison on suspicion of being a terrorist.
“I love it when someone comes in and says, 'Gosh, I've never been here before. You've got a great selection.' ” says Danny Plaisance, owner of Cottonwood Books, located near the Perkins Road Overpass. “I hear that at least once a week, and it makes me feel really good.”
We've all got a summer reading list, but isn't it cool to think so many people in this city have their noses in the same book? Karen Spears Zacharias' A Silence of Mockingbirds: The Memoir of a Murder is the One Book One Community summer selection for Baton Rouge, and it's a harrowing true story of a child's murder, told by Zacharias, who was closely connected to the mother. In it, the author questions her own responsibility for not noticing the signs of child abuse.
Yusef Komunyakaa likes to write early in the morning. He keeps a notebook beside his bed that helps him craft poems that roll readers into a dream world as if it's the warm waters of the Pearl River that flows near his hometown of Bogalusa.
As 2012's hurricane season approaches, Ron Thibodeaux's Hell or High Water proves there is always more to learn from the catastrophic 2005 season and our own Louisiana neighbors. This book is not about Hurricane Katrina or New Orleans. Instead, it's about—as the subtitle says—How Cajun Fortitude Withstood Hurricanes Rita and Ike.
Mary Manhein, nonfiction author and head of LSU Forensic Anthropology and Computer Enhancement Services, has published her first work of fiction: Floating Souls: The Canal Murders. The book is now available from Margaret Media Inc. On July 14, Manhein will be signing copies of the book at Barnes & Noble in Perkins Rowe from 1 to 3 p.m. LSU Press published Manhein's two books chronicling her experiences in forensic anthropology: The Bone Lady: Life as a Forensic Anthropologist and Trail of Bones: More Cases from the Files of a Forensic Anthropologist. Floating Souls, published by Margaret Media Inc., is the first in a series of fictional accounts about the life of forensic anthropologist Maggie Andrepont and her adventures in the Big Easy.
Jennifer Barnes Maggio survived multiple tragedies as a child. Her mother was killed when she was a baby. Throughout her childhood, she and her twin sister were in the charge of a series of abusive stepmothers who raised the girls while their dad was working offshore.
At the Louisiana Book Festival a few years ago, I attended a dinner hosted by The Oxford American magazine. The man seated across the table from me looked familiar, and I spent most of the meal trying to remember how I knew him. Luckily, Alex V. Cook has an excellent memory, and he connected the dots for me. A decade previously, we were both regulars at M's Fine and Mellow Café, a music club where the Roux House now stands.
Two books out recently, Main Streets of Louisiana and Louisiana Aviation, offer different but complementary views of our state through photographs. Louisiana Aviation celebrates the state's impressive history of flight from novelty first takeoffs (some deadly) to barnstorming stunt pilots and the eventual progression toward aviation as a form of commerce and transportation. Through it all, author Vincent P. Caire shows how Louisiana was at the forefront of the nascent industry. We see gorgeous black-and-white images of local aviation pioneers, and we read of Huey Long's determined effort, before Louis Armstrong International, to build an airport in New Orleans that wouldn't be under the city's control. His solution: Pump state-owned soil from Lake Pontchartrain to construct a peninsula that would house the Art Deco-style Shushan Airport, now the New Orleans Lakefront Airport.
With his first two novels, Dinaw Mengestu has already amassed an impressive list of accomplishments, including a Los Angeles Times Book Prize, a Lannan Fiction Fellowship, a Guardian First Book Award, inclusion on The New Yorker's "20 Under 40" list and many others. His most recent work, How to Read the Air, won the 2011 Ernest J. Gaines Award for Literary Excellence, sponsored by the Baton Rouge Area Foundation for an outstanding work of fiction by an African-American writer. By definition, fiction tells a story, but in Mengestu's work the creative act of storytelling also reveals how his characters make sense of their lives. "We need narrative," the Ethiopia native and Georgetown alum tells 225 while on a recent trip to Baton Rouge. "We need imagination. We need to be able to construct stories out of our past. We have to invent. That's the only way we can manage our history. If we can't do that, we can't be fully alive. We can't move on with our lives. We're...
'225 Weekender': Be a part of the story at the Storybook Ball
Family Road of Greater Baton Rouge is hosting a whimsical gala for the entire family this weekend. The fifth annual Storybook Ball kicks off at 5 p.m. Saturday at the Baton Rouge River Center. The event will feature classic stories, such as The Jungle Book, Where the Wild Things Are, Harry Potter and more. Each book will have its own station full of interactive activities. The Young Band Nation Blues Project, Tim the Magician, stilt walkers and more will also be on hand. Proceeds benefit Family Road. Children's tickets are $20; adult tickets are $60. Specials and reserved tables are also available for purchase here. Get the lowdown on more local happenings taking place this weekend in the new 225 Weekender e-newsletter here.
Be a part of the story
Family Road of Greater Baton Rouge will host a whimsical gala perfect for the entire family. The fifth annual Storybook Ball kicks off at 5 p.m. Saturday at the Baton Rouge River Center. The event will feature classic stories such as The Jungle Book, Where the Wild Things Are, Harry Potter and more coming to life. Each book will have its own station full of interactive activities. The Young Band Nation Blues Project, Tim the Magician, stilt walkers and more will also be on hand. Proceeds benefit Family Road. Children's tickets are $20; adult tickets are $60. Specials and reserved tables are also available for purchase online.
Horse People
If success in fiction depends on creating characters who seem not just believable but actual, then Cary Holladay succeeds wildly in Horse People, the latest issue in the Yellow Shoe Fiction series out of LSU Press.
After more than five decades, Bible and Book Center closing
The Bible and Book Center at 4242 Government St. will close its doors for good on Saturday after 54 years in business. Competition from online retailers and big-box stores, which carry many of the Christian book series that have been a main staple of the shop's merchandise mix, have taken a toll, and the family-owned business can no longer compete, says owner Janet Dearman. "When we bought the business, there weren't any chain bookstores in town," says Dearman, whose parents, Jim and Billie Sykora, bought the store from its original owners in 1980. "Once Sam's and Walmart came into the market, things started to change." Online retailers exacerbated the problem, then Hurricane Gustav in 2008 forced the shop to remain closed for a week. "That was sort of the nail in the coffin," says Dearman. "We never really recovered from that." The Bible and Book Center is the last independently owned, non-denominational Christian bookstore in Baton Rouge, according to Dearman, though there are two...
Das a real hero, cher
He's a Coast Guard veteran suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. His city is a cold shadow of its former self. And he is out for blood—perhaps literally.
Cover to cover
The Mapmaker's War
ronlyndomingue.com
"I've read everything Carolyn Turgeon has written. I received an advance reading copy of her next novel, The Fairest of Them All—due in August—and this one has the same hallmarks of whimsy, sensitivity, and imagination as her other works. She does a masterful job of entwining the stories of Rapunzel and Snow White in a fairy tale retelling that's dark, sensual, and clever."
Just do it
In your field of work, you know what it takes to move up the ladder and to the top. But do you know what success looks like in other industries?
Road more traveled
"I was a young writer trying to take off." With this subtle, ironic confession, Jack Kerouac's lyrical cipher Sal Paradise introduces himself in the long awaited screen adaptation of his iconic Beat Generation novel On the Road.
Stark raving mad
Actor Joe Chrest has never seen the Sean Penn-led 2006 adaptation of All the King's Men, and he doesn't want to. Audiences may be relieved that the stage and screen veteran, portraying Jack Burden—the novel's flawed narrator and conflicted associate of the Huey P. Long-esque Gov. Willie Stark—is not basing his latest theatrical performance on the Baton Rouge-set film most critics called a missed opportunity.
Tao Flashes
If contemporary women breezed through their middle-age years, there'd be no need for books like Tao Flashes. But they don't—we don't. This knowledge prompted local author Lisa G. Froman to publish this gift-worthy collection of reflections.
A big sister
Sister Helen Prejean is committed to the mighty detail.
The writer's war
In 2005, Ronlyn Domingue published her first novel, The Mercy of Thin Air, which was quickly embraced by readers and critics and is now available in 10 languages. I studied at LSU, her alma mater, where we became friends. Later, I watched as she delved into what she called Novel No. 2, which was published March 5 as The Mapmaker's War.
Music, food and more planned for The Fresh Table at BRG
Celebrate the release of author Helana Brigman's new book, The Fresh Table: Cooking in Louisiana All Year Round, Thursday at the Baton Rouge Gallery. The event starts at 6:30 p.m. and features food from Chef Chris Wadsworth of Restaurant IPO as well as music from Flatbed Honeymoon and Calico Axe. A number of speakers will also be present, including Louisiana Cookin' editor Daniel Schumacher, LSU Press Acquisitions Editor Alisa Plant, and The Advocate Food Editor Cheramie Sonnier. For more information, visit Brigman's blog here.
Local writer affected by distribution war
Author Ronlyn Domingue's new book, The Mapmaker's War, was released March 5 by Simon & Schuster. But thanks to a dispute over financial terms between Barnes & Noble and the publishing house, this Baton Rouge writer's work is not readily available at the more than 1,300 B&Ns nationwide. B&N greatly reduced the number of titles it orders from S&S at the end of January, when the disagreement came to a head. "The first six weeks of a book's launch are critical," Domingue says. "If the book doesn't take off in this time, it is essentially dead." Domingue's book—published by Atria, an imprint of S&S—has received little to no fanfare its first three weeks out, and Domingue is not the only one suffering. Authors throughout the country who have published through S&S in the last two months have seen book sales suffer. According to The...
Meet a local culinary talent
Helana Brigman's blog, "Clearly Delicious", offers readers recipes daily that live up to the title claim. Now, thanks to LSU Press, Brigman's recipes have been gathered in a book, The Fresh Table: Cooking in Louisiana All Year Round. A native of Maine, Brigman has divided her book by season, so local, fresh ingredients can easily be found. This LSU alumna can dish up everything from crawfish to coastal lobster, and, with her guidance, you can do the same. On Saturday at 12:15, Brigman will prepare fare from her book during a complimentary cooking demo at Red Stick Spice Co. on Jefferson Highway. Call 930-9967 to reserve seating.
Shifting gears
Author: Steve Rizzo
Year: 2012
Publisher: McGraw-Hill
Pages: 224
The Optimist's Daughter
How about a break from the latest literary sensations? Forty years ago, Eudora Welty of Jackson, Miss., won the Pulitzer Prize for The Optimist's Daughter, her last work of published fiction. The anniversary of this achievement is a fitting time to reach for this superb short novel.
Cracking the code
It takes all kinds of people to make a world—and a client list.
We Are Taking Only What We Need
When you plunge into this collection of short stories by Stephanie Powell Watts, you’re suddenly among “dirt-roaders,” as she calls them: low-income, undereducated black working people living in obscurity in North Carolina. If this is new company for you to keep, so much the better. Trust her characters to illuminate their preoccupations and challenges.
Oh, that’s Rich
Akosua Twum returned to school this fall standing a bit taller among her eighth-grade classmates. It wasn’t a growth in height but in confidence. Over the summer, she published Rich Girl Club, her first young-adult novel.
Basic sales pitch
Another possible client said no today, and you don't know what to do.
Our local international publisher
Just across the river from New Orleans in Gretna is the Louisiana-based international publisher that has published some of your favorite books, including Zig Ziglar’s See You at the Top, Justin Wilson Looking Back: A Cajun Cookbook, James Rice’s Cajun Night Before Christmas, and more recently, Peggy Sweeny-McDonald’s Meanwhile, Back at Café du Monde….
Mysteries of Judas
Twenty years ago, local lawyer Van R. Mayhall Jr. set out to read the Bible and the Koran in their entirety and became intrigued by the “logical inconsistencies” surrounding Judas. Like a criminal lawyer, he explains, “What Judas did wasn't in doubt, but his motive and what happened to him afterwards was unclear.”
The Tree of Forgetfulness
What do people do with memories of an event too heinous to forget but too dangerous to recollect openly? That dilemma underlies Pam Durban's new novel, The Tree of Forgetfulness, the latest in the Yellow Shoe Fiction series from LSU Press.
Gerry Lane touts biography as 'road map' to success
From humble beginnings in the Oklahoma Dust Bowl, Gerry Lane built a car dealership empire in Baton Rouge and along the Mississippi Gulf Coast with just a high school education, "Okie honesty" and an insatiable drive to succeed. That's the abbreviated version of the new biography Gerry Lane—An American Success Story, written by Leo Honeycutt. But Lane says his life story is more than just an interesting read about his many adventures in building a business, such as selling cars to the likes of Clark Gable, Gregory Peck and Milton Berle. The book is "much more than a biography, it's a road map," Lane says. "I started in the Dust Bowl of Oklahoma in the Depression, so poor I couldn't afford hope. But if you can embrace change, leave your comfort zone the way I left the Dust Bowl, take a little risk, you can become rich in attitude, relationships, and yes, money. In that order." Honeycutt calls Lane a "rare breed, a larger-than-life character," adding, "His story could...
Ditch the pajamas
You ate dinner in front of the TV last night.
A guardian's rise
There's a benevolent force in children's media named William Joyce, and his creative haven is Shreveport. By any measure, 2012 has been a banner year for him.
A Cajun-style fantasy
Suzanne Johnson is the author of the Sentinels series, urban fantasy novels featuring Drusilla Jaco, the junior wizard sentinel of New Orleans. The series kicked off with Royal Street, published earlier this year, and continues with River Road, just released in November. Johnson worked at Tulane for 15 years and now lives in Auburn, Ala.
1,000 words instantly
Author: Christopher Bonanos
Year: 2012
Publisher: Princeton Architectural Press
Pages: 194
New for the bookshelf
Clare D’Artois Leeper wrote the column “Louisiana Places: Those Strange Sounding Names” for the Baton Rouge Sunday Advocate in the ’60s and ’70s and again from 2004 to 2006. This dictionary-like volume is the culmination of decades of research and interviews, assembling Leeper’s original columns—inspired by an early job as a tour guide—and adding new material. Sadly, Leeper died shortly before the publication of Louisiana Places in September. Danny Plaisance, owner of Cottonwood Books, knew her since he opened his bookstore 26 years ago. She was “awful good for our community,” Plaisance says, and anyone interested in Louisiana history will enjoy her book.
New Roads and Old Rivers: Louisiana’s Historic Pointe Coupee Parish
This gorgeous publication is a travel guide masking as a coffee table book. With 175 photographs included, New Roads and Old Rivers: Louisiana’s Historic Pointe Coupee Parish will make readers want to jump in the car and head out for a lazy Sunday drive across the river. The destination is not the Pointe Coupee you think you know from New Roads’ Mardi Gras parades, trips to False River or news reports on the Morganza Spillway. The guided tour by authors Randy Harelson and Brian Costello reveals a comprehensive view of Pointe Coupee, drenched in history and proud of it.
Top 8 business books for entrepreneurs
"I put together a list of my favorite books for entrepreneurs. I have read many of them multiple times because they inspire, teach and help me in my quest to grow a business and become a better person."—Pete Sveen, thinkentrepreneurship.com
'225': Despite budget issues, book festival still makes a good read
It’s been through rocky years of state budget cuts and uncertainty, but the Louisiana Book Festival keeps bouncing back. The one-day event was canceled in 2010 when state funding dwindled to nearly nothing, but rallied last year, drawing thousands to downtown Baton Rouge for author talks, a book market, exhibitions and more. Chalk it up to talented writers and booklovers who call the Pelican State home, private partners like Barnes & Noble, and also the dedicated folks at the State Library and the lieutenant governor’s office who have sought out federal grants and local support to keep it going. "Louisiana is very often at the bottom of the list [in many categories]," says State Librarian Rebecca Hamilton. "But Louisiana is at the top of the list for Louisiana authors and artists who really contribute to our cultural economy. Having such fantastic authors writing about our beautiful, unique state—it’s promoting that idea of how important it is to have a...
Book fest to be held downtown tomorrow
Book lovers will get the opportunity to hear from and speak with authors tomorrow at the annual Louisiana Book Festival. The celebration of reading and writing, held in downtown Baton Rouge around the State Capitol, runs from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. The event is free and open to the public. Lt. Gov. Jay Dardenne, whose department helps organize and host the festival, says more than 140 writers and panelists will discuss their latest works and others' writing. More information, including a schedule, is available at LouisianaBookFestival.org.
Why do it today?
Author: John Perry
Year: 2012
Publisher: Workman Publishing
Pages: 112 pages
Calling their bluffs
Author: Lynn Povich
Year: 2012
Publisher: PublicAffairs
Pages: 251
Is that ethical?
Author: Randy Cohen
Year: 2012
Publisher: Chronicle Books
Pages: 319
Time to wait
Author: Frank Partnoy
Year: 2012
Publisher: PublicAffairs
Pages: 292
Murder, She Wrote
In the few morning hours before her husband wakes and her pets are begging for breakfast, the Bone Lady rises, puts pen to paper and scribes stories of death, crime and scientific investigation.
Get Real: From Storytelling to Authenticity
The book opens with a direct inquiry in terms so indicative of our time: “Are you one of millions who are overspent, overindulged or lonely?
Turbulence in air travel
Author: William J. McGee
Year: 2012
Publisher: Harper
Pages: 354
Police: Katrina hero plotted ex-wife's murder
A Syrian-born man who is represented as the hero-rescuer in Dave Eggers' best-selling nonfiction work Zeitoun, which chronicles the eerie aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and the nightmarish side of the American justice system, has been accused of plotting to murder his ex-wife, her son and another man. Abdulrahman Zeitoun, 54, faces charges of offering $20,000 to a fellow jail inmate in exchange for the killings. Zeitoun also faces a domestic abuse battery charge after he allegedly beat his wife, Kathy Zeitoun, on a New Orleans street. In Zeitoun, which won an American Book Award in 2010, the protagonist was described as a compassionate man paddling a canoe through Katrina's floodwaters, helping people and animals, before being arrested on false charges of looting. He then was thrown into prison on suspicion of being a terrorist.
Let's do lunch
Author: Tyler Cowen
Year: 2012
Publisher: Dutton
Pages: 293
A rare find
“I love it when someone comes in and says, 'Gosh, I've never been here before. You've got a great selection.' ” says Danny Plaisance, owner of Cottonwood Books, located near the Perkins Road Overpass. “I hear that at least once a week, and it makes me feel really good.”
Meanwhile, Back at Café du Monde ...
When it comes to food and storytelling, Louisiana is in a class by itself, especially when the two are intertwined.
One book, same page
We've all got a summer reading list, but isn't it cool to think so many people in this city have their noses in the same book? Karen Spears Zacharias' A Silence of Mockingbirds: The Memoir of a Murder is the One Book One Community summer selection for Baton Rouge, and it's a harrowing true story of a child's murder, told by Zacharias, who was closely connected to the mother. In it, the author questions her own responsibility for not noticing the signs of child abuse.
The Chameleon Couch: Poems
Yusef Komunyakaa likes to write early in the morning. He keeps a notebook beside his bed that helps him craft poems that roll readers into a dream world as if it's the warm waters of the Pearl River that flows near his hometown of Bogalusa.
Hell or High Water
As 2012's hurricane season approaches, Ron Thibodeaux's Hell or High Water proves there is always more to learn from the catastrophic 2005 season and our own Louisiana neighbors. This book is not about Hurricane Katrina or New Orleans. Instead, it's about—as the subtitle says—How Cajun Fortitude Withstood Hurricanes Rita and Ike.
The Bone Lady now also the author of fiction
Mary Manhein, nonfiction author and head of LSU Forensic Anthropology and Computer Enhancement Services, has published her first work of fiction: Floating Souls: The Canal Murders. The book is now available from Margaret Media Inc. On July 14, Manhein will be signing copies of the book at Barnes & Noble in Perkins Rowe from 1 to 3 p.m. LSU Press published Manhein's two books chronicling her experiences in forensic anthropology: The Bone Lady: Life as a Forensic Anthropologist and Trail of Bones: More Cases from the Files of a Forensic Anthropologist. Floating Souls, published by Margaret Media Inc., is the first in a series of fictional accounts about the life of forensic anthropologist Maggie Andrepont and her adventures in the Big Easy.
Overwhelmed: The Life of a Single Mom
Jennifer Barnes Maggio survived multiple tragedies as a child. Her mother was killed when she was a baby. Throughout her childhood, she and her twin sister were in the charge of a series of abusive stepmothers who raised the girls while their dad was working offshore.
Book Review: Mr. Saturday Night
At the Louisiana Book Festival a few years ago, I attended a dinner hosted by The Oxford American magazine. The man seated across the table from me looked familiar, and I spent most of the meal trying to remember how I knew him. Luckily, Alex V. Cook has an excellent memory, and he connected the dots for me. A decade previously, we were both regulars at M's Fine and Mellow Café, a music club where the Roux House now stands.
Book Review: From the streets to the skies
Two books out recently, Main Streets of Louisiana and Louisiana Aviation, offer different but complementary views of our state through photographs. Louisiana Aviation celebrates the state's impressive history of flight from novelty first takeoffs (some deadly) to barnstorming stunt pilots and the eventual progression toward aviation as a form of commerce and transportation. Through it all, author Vincent P. Caire shows how Louisiana was at the forefront of the nascent industry. We see gorgeous black-and-white images of local aviation pioneers, and we read of Huey Long's determined effort, before Louis Armstrong International, to build an airport in New Orleans that wouldn't be under the city's control. His solution: Pump state-owned soil from Lake Pontchartrain to construct a peninsula that would house the Art Deco-style Shushan Airport, now the New Orleans Lakefront Airport.
'225': Making 'Gaines'
With his first two novels, Dinaw Mengestu has already amassed an impressive list of accomplishments, including a Los Angeles Times Book Prize, a Lannan Fiction Fellowship, a Guardian First Book Award, inclusion on The New Yorker's "20 Under 40" list and many others. His most recent work, How to Read the Air, won the 2011 Ernest J. Gaines Award for Literary Excellence, sponsored by the Baton Rouge Area Foundation for an outstanding work of fiction by an African-American writer. By definition, fiction tells a story, but in Mengestu's work the creative act of storytelling also reveals how his characters make sense of their lives. "We need narrative," the Ethiopia native and Georgetown alum tells 225 while on a recent trip to Baton Rouge. "We need imagination. We need to be able to construct stories out of our past. We have to invent. That's the only way we can manage our history. If we can't do that, we can't be fully alive. We can't move on with our lives. We're...