Tuesday, December 27, 2016

Ebook spotlight: 'A Cajun in France'

Sidney P. Bellard, a native of Port Barre and a graduate of the University of Southwestern Louisiana (now the University of Louisiana at Lafayette), has published “A Cajun in France: Journeys to Assimilations,” available at Amazon.com in digital and print versions. The retired educator relates in his book three different cultures where he encountered challenges such as the language barrier, lack of family educational values, relative poverty, discrimination and the chains of insecurity. Eventually, he developed two major drives that were antithetical to each other, to master the English language and to achieve literacy in standard French.




Louisiana Book News is written by journalist Chere Dastugue Coen, who writes Louisiana romances under the pen name of Cherie Claire. The first two books in her award-winning series are free as ebooks! For more information and to sign up for her newsletter visit www.cherieclaire.net.

Sunday, December 25, 2016

Lafayette pediatrician, Methodist lay minister Dr. Bryan Sibley publishes personal 'short course in Christianity'

            In honor of today being Christmas, I’m passing along news of a new Louisiana book that’s apropos for today’s celebration. Dr. Bryan Sibley, a pediatrician who practices in Lafayette, doubles as a certified lay minister in the Louisiana Conference of the United Methodist Church. His latest book is “God First: Setting Life’s Priorities” by Acadian House Publishing of Lafayette.
“The book is especially designed to help the reader set his/her priorities in life so that God is first, family is second, and everything else is third,” Sibley said in a recent press release.
Dr. Bryan Sibley
Sibley is president of the Louisiana Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics, and devotes much of his practice to the care of children with special healthcare needs. His book, a compact volume which Acadian House described as “a short course in basic Christianity,” contains writings about several of the core values of Christianity. According to the press release, the book is intended to support and encourage Christians and non-Christians alike on their journeys of faith, inspire them to greater compassion for the poor, encourage tithing as an act of faith and re-affirm the value of forgiveness and reconciliation as a path to peace of mind.
The book is also meant to re-awaken the reader’s belief in miracles — those supernatural occurrences that cannot be explained by natural law or by medical science. Sibley relates the stories of three miracles that he witnessed, one in which involved the restoration of sight to a blind child who was fervently prayed over by members of a medical mission trip in Peru. He relates how, with the help of his minister, he was able to reprioritize his life, putting God first and “truly walking by faith and not by sight.”
The 96-page hardcover book sells for $14, plus $4 shipping. Signed copies are available through www.godfirstthebook.com and www.acadianhouse.com.

New releases
Sidney P. Bellard, a native of Port Barre and graduate of the University of Southwestern Louisiana (now ULL), has published “A Cajun in France: Journeys to Assimilations,” available at Amazon.com in digital and print version. The retired educator relates in his book three different cultures where he encountered challenges such as the language barrier, lack of family educational values, relative poverty, discrimination and the chains of insecurity. Eventually, he developed two major drives that were antithetical to each other, to master the English language and to achieve literacy in standard French.
Steven Burgauer has published a wartime thriller titled, “Nazi Saboteurs on the Bayou,” available as an ebook through Amazon.com. The book intertwines historic people, events and locales of World War II with a fictional Nazi plot to disrupt the manufacture of Higgins boats, the Allied landing craft built in New Orleans and used in the invasion of Normandy as well as other battles. The story, covering two weeks during the summer of 1942, includes the amphibious landings at Gavutu and Guadalcanal, the Navajo code talker school near San Diego, the secret world of Bletchley Park, England, and the Allied invasion of North Africa.
Diane Donovn of Midwest Book Review said this of the book: “In a war that rips apart entire worlds, who can truly be the winner? Add a dash of romance to the intrigue for a solid World War II thriller that’s intricate, frighteningly realistic, and hard to put down.” 


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CherĂ© 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.

Thursday, December 22, 2016

Cookbook Thursday: 'Flavors of Sicily'

With New Year’s around the corner, it’s time to start thinking about losing those holiday pounds. More importantly, to start eating healthier. If those are your 2017 goals, here is a beautiful cookbook to get you started — and I promise the road to health will be a delicious one. I’m posting this review early — before Christmas — because cookbooks make for lovely holiday gifts and I guarantee your Sicilian cuisine lover will be thrilled to receive this one.

“Flavors of Sicily: Fresh and Vibrant Recipes from a Unique Mediterranean Island” by Ursula Ferrigno is as gorgeous a cookbook as it is functional. Breath-taking photography by David Munns takes readers to the emerald waters and mountain vistas of Sicily along with tempting you with shots of frittata lasagna, onions baked in marsala and aubergine (eggplant) and pomegranate salad. Naturally, there are plenty mentions of breads, pasta and desserts but most recipes incorporate olive oil, tomatoes and fresh fish and seafood, all of which will make your heart sing with appreciation.

“The island’s unique food is bright, earthy and suffused with the intensity of the Sicilian sun,” the author writes in the book’s introduction.

Ferrigno was trained at the Auguste Escoffier School of the Culinary Arts and has taught at cookery schools in both the United Kingdom and Italy, including Leith’s School of Food and Wine, Divertimenti and La Cucina Caldesi in Ireland. She has toured the United States, running classes in Sur la Table stores, is consultant chef to the Caffe Nero restaurant chain in the U.K. and has made numerous appearances on British television. She is the author of more than 17 cookery books.

CherĂ© Dastugue Coen is a food and travel writer living in South Louisiana. She is also the author of several Louisiana romances under the pen name of Cherie Claire and the author of “Forest Hill, Louisiana: A Bloom Town History,” “Haunted Lafayette, Louisiana” and “Exploring Cajun Country: A Historic Guide to Acadiana” and co-author of “Magic’s in the Bag: Creating Spellbinding Gris Gris Bags and Sachets.” Write her at cherecoen@gmail.com.

Tuesday, December 20, 2016

Ebook Spotlight: Several new titles to check out

A.L. Vincent has published a Christmas prequel to her Fleur de Lis series, a romance titled “Catch and Release.” Carly Devereaux is single again and she’s determined to find the perfect guy by Christmas Eve. 
Perfectionistic Branna Lind has found true love with James Newbern, but the winds of Hurricane Katrina push their wedding date into an uncertain future in Linda Joyce’s new romance, “Branna,” book one in the Fleur de Lis brides series. Lind can’t wait on Fleur de Lis to be restored to marry James and James’ gun-toting ex-fiancee has been dipping into crazy. Despite Branna’s ranting, he’s not agreeing to a quickie Vegas wedding. His fiancee will be a Fleur de Lis bride, just as tradition dictates. Or he’ll die trying.
Sarah Cradit is the USA Today Bestselling Author of the Paranormal Southern Gothic series, “The House of Crimson and Clover,” born of her combined passion for New Orleans, family sagas, and the mysterious complexity of human nature. She offers five “Crimson and Clover” short stories to the “House of Crimson and Clover” series in a set “Lagniappe Collection I.” It all revolves around two New Orleans families, the Deschanels and the Sullivans.
Roger C. Bull sets his latest novel in New Orleans with “Tenuem: The Thin Line” featuring Detective Sgt. August “Gus” De Noux through his publishing house Southern Oaks Publishing. 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  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.





Louisiana Book News is written by journalist Chere Dastugue Coen, who writes Louisiana romances under the pen name of Cherie Claire. The first two books in her award-winning series are free as ebooks! For more information and to sign up for her newsletter visit www.cherieclaire.net.

Sunday, December 18, 2016

More book ideas for gift giving, plus news and events

            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.


CherĂ© 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.