In
September, Ashley Mace Havird of Shreveport published her debut novel
“Lightningstruck,” a coming-of-age
story set in Marion County, S.C., during the height of the tobacco industry in
the early 1960s. The book published by Mercer University Press recently won the
Ferrol Sams Award for Fiction.
The novel
follows 11-year-old Etta McDaniels when in 1964 her horse Troy is struck by
lightning. The horse survives, gruesomely scarred, and now has supernatural
powers, which Etta sets her mind on harnessing in her search for treasure. Troy
has other plans.
Havird is
no stranger to awards; her collections of poems have seen their share. “The
Garden of the Fugitives” (Texas Review Press, 2014) won the 2013 X. J.
Kennedy Prize and “Dirt Eaters” (Stepping Stones Press, 2009) won the
2008 South Carolina Poetry Initiative Prize.
Tim O’Brien, National Book Award
Winner and author of “The Things They Carried,” said this about the book:
“Full of mystery, tension, and the very real and often turbulent history of
rural South Carolina, ‘Lightningstruck’ is an engrossing and
enchanting story.”
Havird’s poems and short stories
have appeared in many journals including “The Southern Review” of Baton
Rouge and in anthologies such as “The Southern Poetry Anthology, IV:
Louisiana and Hard Lines: Rough South Poetry.”
She’s married to poet David Havird.
Liberty
Kirby Larson has a special place in
my heart. She’s the author of the heart-wrenching “Two Bobbies: A True Story of
Hurricane Katrina, Friendship and Survival,” an award-winning tale of a dog and
a cat who become friends through disaster. It’s one of my most favorite
children’s books.
Her latest book set in New Orleans
is “Liberty,” a young adult story that’s part of Scholastic’s “Dogs of World
War II” series. Adolescent “Fish” suffers the aftermath of polio but that
doesn’t stop him from his inventions. Aided by neighbor Olympia, they create a
trap for rabbits invading Olympia’s garden but end up using it to snag a stray
dog they name Liberty. Fish’s sister Mo works for the
Higgins boatyard, makers of the landing crafts used in the invasion of
Normandy. Their father serves overseas and Mo’s boyfriend fights in the
Pacific. Larson even drops in a German POW who ends up in neighboring Jefferson
Parish.
Readers will not only learn about
World War II, the role of the Higgins boats and the POW camps of New Orleans,
but will be touched by this sweet story of a boy (and girl) and their dog
during on the most trying times in U.S. history.
Gift book ideas
Last chance to purchase a book for
that special someone for the holidays. Here’s a few more to choose from:
“Retro Photo: An Obsession” by David Ellwant celebrates the history
of cameras and photography, spotlighting the wide variety of cameras over the
years accented by photos taken from those cameras. It’s an encyclopedia of
sorts, culled from Ellwant’s collection of cameras and equipment, detailing
different formats and films by a professional photographer and author and
illustrator of more than 20 books for children.
“Expressions of Place: The Contemporary
Louisiana Landscape” features the talents of 37 Louisiana artists collected
by John Kemp, former deputy director of the Louisiana Endowment for the
Humanities. The book published by the University of Mississippi Press contains
artwork of both rural and urban landscapes, from the piney hills of north
Louisiana to the streets of New Orleans.
New
Orleans-based food and travel writer Beth D’Addono has just published “100 Things To Do in New Orleans Before You
Die,” providing readers with information on everything from Mardi Gras and
Jazz Fest to destination weddings and conventions, with an emphasis on food and
cocktails.
D’Addono writes regularly for numerous
outlets including USAToday and is the author of “The Hunt Guide New Orleans,”
an insider’s guide to independently owned restaurants and shops in New Orleans.
In the same
vein, Laura Carroll and LSU grad and former Shreveport Times reporter Adam
Kealoha Causey have published “100
Things to Do in Las Vegas Before You Die,” from world-class dining and
entertainment on the Strip to views of the Mojave Desert’s beauty.
Roger C. Bull sets his latest novel
in New Orleans with “Tenuem: The Thin
Line” featuring Detective Sgt. August “Gus” De Noux. Bull is also the
author of several books including the international thriller “El Rey del
Tiempo” and “The Thin Line of Good and Evil,” a serial murder set in the Irish
Channel of New Orleans. His wife, Karen Bonvillain Bull, is the author of
“Crescent City Crime: The Trilogy.”
Bull was born in New Orleans but
lives in southwest Alabama now.
Melanie Jarrell of Lafayette wants
to show women how to live a finer, more elegant lifestyle while challenging
them to be the best person they can be in all aspects of their lives with
“Refinement of Manner: Manners, Etiquette
& Elegance for the Twenty-First Century Woman.” To learn more, visit
www.refinementofmanner.com.
Book events for the week of Dec. 18-24
Carole Cotton Winn discusses and
signs “My Darling, A World War II
Scrapbook,” featuring letters written from her father home during his time
in the war, at noon today at the Rayne Memorial United Methodist Church in New
Orleans.
George Graham signs “Acadiana Table: Cajun and Creole Home
Cooking from the Heart of Louisiana: Recipes, Stories and Photographs” at
10 a.m. Friday at Barnes & Noble in Lafayette.
Cheré Coen is the author
of “Forest Hill, Louisiana: A Bloom Town History,” “Haunted Lafayette,
Louisiana” and “Exploring Cajun Country.” She writes Louisiana romances under
the pen name of Cherie Claire. Write her at cherecoen@gmail.com.
