Here’s
a few I can recommend:
Recently
I mentioned Carolyn Kolb’s wonderful collection of essays on New Orleans in
“New Orleans Memories: One Writer’s City,” which would make an excellent gift
for the New Orleans native or resident. Another book to consider is Peter M.
Wolf’s “memoir of loss and renewal” titled “My New Orleans, Gone Away.” The
story stretches from his youth growing up in a Jewish New Orleans family to the
present day with the colorful city as backdrop.
New
from Pelican Publishing of New Orleans is “And Still I Cook” by Leah Chase, the
second cookbook from Leah Chase that’s now in paperback. Chase reflects on
life, business, family and friends and offers recipes from her famous Gumbo Z’Herbs
to her unique veggie jambalaya and rice pancakes with ham.
Also
from Pelican is the Cajun Night Before Christmas Ornament, a complement to
their best-selling children’s book of the same name, which launched the Night
Before Christmas series for the publisher. “Cajun Night Before Christmas” by “Trosclair”
and illustrated by James Rice is a modern classic that has Santa arriving
with eight trusty gators pulling a sleigh. This miniature edition comes ready
to hang on the Christmas tree. We suggest buying the book and ornament together
and reading the tale on Christmas Eve.
Pelican’s
“Christmas Stories from the South’s Best Writers” is now available as an
e-book. Edited by Charline R. McCord and Judy H. Tucker, the collection’s stories
are written by a host of award-winning writers, including Pulitzer Prize-winner
Robert Olen Butler, Olympia Vernon and Guggenheim Fellow Elizabeth Spencer.
Carolyn Haines, author of the Sarah Booth Delaney Mississippi Delta
Mystery series, said of the book, “A wonderful addition to the collections
of Christmas stories rendered in the past...”
For
a collection of New Orleans literature, Nancy Dixon edits “N.O. Lit: 200 Years
of New Orleans Literature,” with contributions from famous writers Lafcadio
Hearn, Tennessee Williams, Frances Parkinson Keyes, Truman Capote and Eudora
Welty, plus writers of Les Cenelles, French Creoles of color who
published the first anthology of African American literature in 1845, and Los
Isleños writers, descendents of the Spanish immigrants from the Canary Islands.
The
University of Mississippi Press offers a broad overview of Creole literature in
Louisiana, primarily in the 19th and 20th centuries, and
including writers such as Grace King, Kate Chopin and free people of color,
among many others, in “Louisiana Creole Literature: A Historical Study” by
Catharine Savage Brosman.
A
coffee table book highlighting a host of fascinating products that have emerged
from the Big Easy has just been published and makes for a lovely gift for the
New Orleans native. “Making New Orleans: Products Past & Present,”
featuring more than 200 products, is edited by Phillip Collier and includes a foreword
by Julia Reed, introductions by New Orleans publishers Errol Laborde and Clancy
DuBos and text by Alexandra “Riki” Collier.
I
hate to say it but I’ve lost interest in the “True Blood” series on HBO,
although I’ve read every Sookie Stackhouse book by Charlaine Harris, on which
the series is based. Vampire lovers on your list might be interested in any of
Harris’ novels, plus the new parody book “True Blood: A Field Guide to
Vampires: (And Other Creatures of Satan)” by series character Steve Newlin. The
book is a guide to vampires and other “supernaturals” from the town of Bon Temps,
Louisiana, from the perspective of Newlin, who leds a fundamentalist
anti-vampire group on the TV series before becoming a vampire himself.
Actress
Shirley MacLaine has produced a new book, a compilation of contemplations
titled “What If…A Lifetime of Questions, Speculations, Reasonable Guesses, and
a Few Things I Know for Sure.” I found the book to veer on the light side of
her previous spiritual tomes, but it’s laced with humor and some fascinating
insights.
A couple of good educational books sure to
please are “The Handy African American History Answer Book” by Jessie Carney
Smith, which provides easy-to-discover information on all facets of black
history, and “Mound Sites of the Ancient South: A Guide to the Mississippian
Chiefdoms” by Eric E. Browne, for those fascinated with Southern Native
American history and archaeology.
The
History Press’ “Haunted America” series, of which I wrote “Haunted Lafayette,”
has published “Haunted Baton Rouge” by Bud Steed, with photography by Hope
Steed Kennedy. The book examines many of the city’s haunts, from historic sites
such as the old State Capitol and Magnolia Mound to unique places such as the
USS Kidd, LSU or along Highland Road, where Confederates show up in early fall.
Leif
Pederson has just produced his first children's book, “The Missing Chord,” from
a series he began titled “The Adventures of the Swamp Kids.” The book is on sale at Landry’s in Breaux Bridge, Prejean’s
Gift Shop and The Blue Dog Café in Lafayette. “The
Lafayette area is certainly important to me because of it being the base of
Cajun culture, which is the basis of my story and its characters,” Pederson
wrote to me by email. “I am pleased to have Cajun music star Doug Kershaw
as the contributor to my ‘Lagniappe Lesson,’ which is an aide to the reader,
teachers and/or parents at the end of the book.” He
added that several more books in the series are planned, all with similar
celebrities contributing.
Kirkus
Kirkus
has named the best non-fiction titles of 2013 and they include “Five Days at
Memorial,” a recounting of what happened at Memorial Medical Center of New
Orleans during and after Hurricane Katrina, written by Pulitzer Prize–winning
medical journalist Sheri Fink, and “Men We Reaped: A Memoir,” by Jesmyn Ward,
the author of “Salvage the Bones.”
“Elysian
Fields” by Mark Laflaur was park of Kirkus’ Indie Book list, a novel of a
dysfunctional family reflecting the decay of New Orleans. Kirkus called it “a
wholly involving story with Faulkner-ian characters in a fully realized setting.”
Cheré Coen is the
author of “Haunted Lafayette, Louisiana” and “Exploring Cajun Country: A
Historic Guide to Acadiana,” both from The History Press, and co-author of
“Magic’s in the Bag: Creating Spellbinding Gris Gris Bags and Sachets.” She teaches
writing at UL-Lafayette’s Continuing Education. Write her at
cherecoen@gmail.com.
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