National press reviewing Katrina book at anniversary

Our desk is stacked high with new Katrina books, due to the approaching 10th anniversary of the hurricane hitting New Orleans on Aug. 29, 2005. Add them to the library of the past 10 years and it's quite a bookshelf.

We will be reviewing some of them throughout August — we look at Ellen Urbani’s “Landfall” this Sunday, Aug. 16, for instance — but here are a few in the news you might want to check out.

            The New York Times reviews Gary Rivlin's "Katrina After the Flood" and says this about the book: "What was lost won’t be entirely recovered. What will ultimately take its place remains largely unknown. Rivlin’s valuable book is among the first to relate, in clear and scrupulous detail, the decisions that have brought us this far, and to identify those who made them.

            Two new books have been reviewed in the L.A. Times, stories aimed to introduce older kids and adolescents to Katrina, “transforming shared tragedy through shared hope.” They are Tamara Ellis Smith's "Another Kind of Hurricane" (Schwartz & Wade Books, ages 9-12) and Don Brown’s "Drowned City: Hurricane Katrina & New Orleans" (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, ages 12-up). (We will be looking at Brown's book at the end of the month in this column.) 

            The children’s board book "Marvelous Cornelius: Hurricane Katrina and the Spirit of New Orleans" by Phil Bildner and John Parra was reviewed by the Times-Picayune (and will be reviewed by us at the end of this month).
            The Advocate of Baton Rouge reviewed “For Better, For Worse: Patient in the Maelstrom” by Carolyn Perry (Sunbury Press, 2011), an account of when the author’s husband, Bob, a cancer patient, was admitted in 2005 to what was then Memorial Medical Center in Uptown New Orleans and experienced the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. “There is pain here, but it is beautifully balanced with humor and love. We as readers need that respite from the intensity of the horror story that was Katrina. And we imagine the author does, too.”

Chere Dastugue Coen is the author of "Forest Hill, Louisiana: A Bloom Town History," "Exploring Cajun Country: A Historic Guide to Acadiana" and "Haunted Lafayette, Louisiana" and co-author of "Magic's in the Bag: Creating Spellbinding Gris Gris Bags and Sachets." She also writes Louisiana romances under Cherie Claire, including "A Cajun Dream" and "The Letter." Write her at cherecoen@gmail.com.

Hurricane Katrina center of Jefferson Parish Library's literary festival on Aug. 8 in Metairie

Chris Rose, a New York Times best-selling writer, journalist and author of "1 Dead in Attic" will be among the authors participating in the Jefferson Parish Library’s literary festival Aug. 8 at the East Bank Regional Library in Metairie. The festival will focus on more than a dozen New Orleans authors as well as books that relate to Hurricane Katrina.

The 10th anniversary of Katrina is Aug. 29.

"Our goal is to not only commemorate the 10-year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, but to honor and promote writers who put their words on paper so the world would know what happened here," said Chris Smith, manager of adult programming for the library.

Other writers who will participate in the festival include James Nolan, whose collection of short stories, "Perpetual Care," won the 2007 Jefferson Press Prize and the 2009 Next Generation Indie Book Award for Best Short Story Collection; Julie Smith, author of 19 novels and recipient of the 1991 Edgar Award for Best Novel for her novel  "New Orleans Mourning;" Carolyn Perry, whose book "For Better or Worse" is a detailed account of her husband's approaching death at Memorial Medical Center as chaos engulfed the city; and David Spielman, a fine art commercial and journalistic photographer whose works have appeared in various magazines and newspapers including   the "London Times," "New York Times," "Los Angeles Times" and "Forbes."

Susan Larson, former book editor of The Times-Picayune and author of "The Booklover's Guide to New Orleans," will be the keynote speaker.
         For information about the event, contact Smith at (504) 889-8143 or wcsmith@jefferson.lib.la.us.

Chere Dastugue Coen is the author of "Forest Hill, Louisiana: A Bloom Town History," "Exploring Cajun Country: A Historic Guide to Acadiana" and "Haunted Lafayette, Louisiana" and co-author of "Magic's in the Bag: Creating Spellbinding Gris Gris Bags and Sachets." She also writes Louisiana romances under Cherie Claire, including "A Cajun Dream" and "The Letter." Write her at cherecoen@gmail.com.