New titles by LSU Press

            LSU Press has several new books out this week.

            For more than three decades LSU forensic anthropologist Mary H. Manhein has helped authorities to identify hundreds of deceased persons throughout Louisiana and beyond. In “Bone Remains: Cold Cases in Forensic Anthropology,” she offers details of 15 cases from her files, explaining how each case came to her team and how they unraveled the mystery to the person’s identity. In many cases, the individuals only had bones as evidence and the team used facial reconstructions and a special database for missing and unidentified people.

            Melissa Kean, centennial historian at Rice University, examines how leaders at five Southern private universities — Duke, Emory, Tulane, Rice and Vanderbilt — resisted integration during the civil rights era in “Desegregating Private Higher Education in the South.” Before they all bowed to the “national crisis of conscience,” she writes, internal arguments “touched on everything from global politics to personal antipathies and friendships, and revealed the same serious divide within the power structure of every university.” When the universities finally relented, Kean explains, they never admitted to being pressured by outside forces.           

            Former Times-Picayune book editor Susan Larson wrote “The Booklover’s Guide to New Orleans” in 1999, offering a literary history of the city as well as a guide to bookstores, festivals, relevant addresses and “A New Orleans Reading List.” LSU Press has updated and reissued the guide this month in a handy size that’s easy to carry along for a visit. It’s a fabulous resource for Crescent City authors, but not a comprehensive one; many popular fiction authors are not included.

New releases

            Laura Joh Rowland of New Orleans continues her Sano Ichiro Mysteries with “The Shogun’s Daughter,” due out this month. For more information on the series and the author, visit www.laurajohrowland.com.

            Julien Vernet, assistant professor at the University of British Columbia, looks at the protests by merchants and planters within the Orleans Territory following the Louisiana Purchase in “Strangers on Their Native Soil: Opposition to United States’ Governance in Louisiana’s Orleans Territory, 1803-1809,” published by the University of Mississippi Press. The government and 13-man legislative council within the Orleans Territory following the American purchase was appointed by Pres. Thomas Jefferson, which caused an uproar by New Orleans citizens. Their actions and the discussion over slavery played a significant role in influencing American territorial expansion, Vernet asserts.

            Camilla Hunt Cole has published a Southern Gothic psychological mystery concerning 17-year-old Chloe Bernard who is trapped with her four colorful aunts in her family’s sinister antebellum home by horrors her forefathers committed there more than 100 years before. She will sign copies of “Long Shadows” at 5 p.m. Friday at Johnston Street Java in Lafayette.

Book events

            The Writers’ Guild of Acadiana will host a table at PlantFest with several local authors in attendance from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday at the Lafayette Horse Farm. Authors include Christee Atwood, Sudie Landry, Nancy Rust, Sue Schleifer, Rosemary Smith, Carol Stubbs and yours truly. There will also be WGA cookbooks for sale.

            Former Louisiana poet laureate Darrell Bourque will read from his latest book, “Megan’s Guitar,” at 6 p.m. Thursday at the Kaplan Museum in Kaplan.

            Deborah Burst will sign copies of “Hallowed Halls of Greater New Orleans: Historic Churches, Cathedrals and Sanctuaries” from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. Thursday at The Catholic Book Store in New Orleans.

            Author Camilla Hunt Cole will sign her book “Long Shadows” at 5 p.m. Friday at Johnston Street Java, 3123 Johnston St.  

            Sherry T. Broussard will sign “Louisiana’s Zydeco” from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. Saturday at the Jefferson Street Branch Library as part of the Second Saturday ArtWalk. The book includes rare photos and interviews with zydeco musicians and their families.

Cheré Coen is the author of “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.” She teaches writing at UL-Lafayette’s Continuing Education. Write her at chere@louisianabooknews.com.