Arcadia offers two new books on Louisiana towns

Lafayette journalist and photographer Linda A. Meaux has published an Images of America book on “Broussard,” which documents the origins of the community from the time Acadian brothers Alexandre and Joseph Broussard arrived to the turn of the 20th century. It’s filled with images of church life, schools, business leaders, sports figures, community dances, musicians and much more. There’s the Billeaud Sugar Mill, National League umpire Greg Bonin, the St. Cecilia School and Russell Flugence, a three-time Golden Gloves champion. Meaux uses information and photos from the Broussard Historical Preservation Society members, the Lafayette Clerk of Court, the Billeaud Companies and others.

Meaux will sign copies of “Broussard” from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 6, at Barnes & Noble Lafayette.

Another book out by the Arcadia Publishing series is “Hammond” by Eric W. Johnson, the director of the Sims Memorial Library at Southeastern, along with Southeastern librarian Catherine H. Tijerino. Images were compiled largely from the Center for Southeast Louisiana Studies and Southeastern archives.

Little Free Library

Crowley has a new free library at 400 W. Northern Ave., across the street from Crowley Middle, thanks to a Christmas gift Nancy Cantey received. Several months ago, Cantey mentioned to her children that she really loved the idea of Little Free Libraries, neighborhood book exchanges in private miniature “libraries” that promote both reading and community.  The motto is “Take a book, leave a book.” As both Charity and Kye Cantey are avid readers — Charity is a school librarian in Baton Rouge — they thought that a Little Free Library would make a perfect Christmas gift for Nancy and her husband, Butch. With the expertise and DIY abilities of friend Kevin Ghirardi, they built the library almost entirely from 100-year-old materials, including an old-growth cypress door cut to construct the side and back panels, a kitchen cabinet door with original hinges and an antique doorknob. Extra vintage touches were the beadboard ceiling and copper roof. For more information, including a map of Little Free Library locations around the world, visit http://littlefreelibrary.org.

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New releases

Perhaps ironically, best-selling author and inspiration speaker Sara Avant Stover suffered a period of darkness after the success of her book, “The Way of the Happy Woman.” Reeling from old wounds, she came to a realization that women spend too much time being outwardly successful to the detriment of the feminine soul. She shares her experiences, along with ways to reconnect, in “The Book of She: Your Heroine’s Journey into the Heart of Feminine Power.”

Stover advocates embracing “crisis points,” which may help us to grow. “They initiate times when we’re called to detach from our smaller sense of self to graduate into living the fuller spectrum of our womanhood, humanity, and divinity,” she writes. Her book offers guidance to reconnect with “SHE,” the feminine traits and archetypal guidance that live inside women. Each chapter serves as an exercise into self-exploration.

Louisiana Poet Laureate Emerita Brenda Marie Osbey has published a new collection comprised of poetry written and published over four decades titled “All Souls: Essential Poems” by LSU Press. The New Orleans native has also published “All Saints: New and Selected Poems” and “History and Other Poems.”

Also out by LSU Press this month is “Brown v. Board and the Transformation of American Culture: Education and theSouth in the Age of Desegregation” by Ben Keppel, associate professor of history at the University of Oklahoma, and “Hispanic and Latino New Orleans:Immigration and Identity since the Eighteenth Century” by LSU associate professor of geography Andrew Sluyter, Tulane’s Center for Global Education Annie M. Gibson, LSU PhD candidate Case Watkins and Middle Tennessee State lecturer James P. Chaney.

            Tucker E. Axum III has written a book about his uncle, Mage Axum, who served in World War II in “The Reawakening of Mage Axum.” Tucker Axum grew up in Lafayette, graduated from UL-Lafayette and now lives in East Texas. He has authored articles about the martial arts and aviation.

  

Book events this week

Joie de Vivre Café of Breaux Bridge hosts an evening of poetry by four local authors — Darrell Bourque, Elizabeth Burk, Jay Bruce Fuller and Patrice Melnick — beginning at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 2. The authors will read from their works, share stories, answer questions and sign books for sale.

C.C. Lockwood will give a photo presentation as part of McNeese University’s SAGE Program from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. Monday, Feb. 1, at the university’s SEED Center. A booksigning will follow. Lockwood is the author of many books, including the recent “Louisiana Wild.” Registration is required; visit www.mcneese.edu/leisure.
            Vern Baxter and Pam Jenkins discuss and sign “Left to Chance: Hurricane Katrina and the Story of Two New Orleans Neighborhoods” (University of Texas Press) at 6 p.m. Monday, Feb. 1, at Octavia Books of New Orleans. “Left to Chance” takes readers into two African American neighborhoods — working-class Hollygrove and middle-class Pontchartrain Park — to learn how their residents experienced the storm and the long road back to normal life.

Cheré Dastugue Coen is 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.” She also writes Louisiana romances under the pen name of Cherie Claire, “A Cajun Dream” and “The Letter.” Write her at cherecoen@gmail.com.

C.C. Lockwood spotlights Louisiana Nature Conservancy in gorgeous new book

             The Nature Conservancy of Louisiana protects and maintains more than 285,000 acres within the state, including Cypress Island at Lake Martin, Caddo Bayou Black, Grand Isle, Lake Cocodrie, the Tunica Hills and the Bluebonnet Swamp in Baton Rouge. Now, renowned Louisiana nature photographer C.C. Lockwood celebrates those unique habitats in photos and text in “Louisiana Wild, The Protected and Restored Lands of The Nature Conservancy,” published by LSU Press.

This gorgeous new coffee table book by Lockwood honors and celebrates what makes Louisiana special, plus calls attention to the preservative work of the Conservancy while delighting the senses with his breath-taking artistry. Readers will be amazed at the biodiversity of Louisiana, plus realize there are preserves located throughout the state — more than 60 in 33 parishes, — many of which may only be familiar to birders and nature enthusiasts.

Throughout it all, Lockwood hopes to instill in his readers a love for nature.

“When we come to understand the tremendous value of our emotional connection to everything else on this earth, we can begin to make this a better place for all living things,” he writes in the introduction.

The book contains 220 color images and includes a foreword by Keith Ouchley, executive director of The Nature Conservancy of Louisiana and author of  “Bayou-Diversity: Nature and People in the Louisiana Bayou Country.” Lockwood is also the author of several photography books and is the recipient of the Sierra Club’s Ansel Adams Award for Outstanding Conservation Photography and has been honored as Louisiana Legend by Louisiana Public Broadcasting.

Lockwood will present images from “Louisiana Wild,” accompanied by music and stories, at 6 p.m. Wednesday at the Manship Theatre in Baton Rouge. The event is free and open to the public and there will be a book sale and signing following the presentation.

  

New releases

Geri Givens Taylor of Ruston wears a lot of hats — multidisciplinary artist, photographer, actor, playwright, writer and community volunteer. The Louisiana Tech graduate is also an author. Her book, “The Kitchen Dance,” follows Joule Dalton, a successful interior designer whose life is choreographed by her loved ones until a tragedy forces her to learn her own steps. For more information, visit http://www.g2taylor.com/.

Melinda Rose documents the fragile South Louisiana community of Isle de Jean Charles, attached to the mainland by a narrow 2-mile-long road, in her book, “Of the Rising Tide: A Photo Essay of the Vanishing Bayou Community of Isle de Jean Charles.” Chris is one of 40 remaining Islanders, all descendants of the Choctaw- Chitimacha Indian tribes who have called the once-thriving Gulf community home for more than a century. She will discuss and sign copies of her book at 6 p.m. Tuesday at Garden District Book Shop and at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 23, at the Children’s Resource Center Library and 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 30, at the Rosa F. Keller Library and Community Center, all in New Orleans.  

LSU Press has published a biography of LSU football star Billy Cannon. Through conversations with Cannon, author Charles N. deGravelles follows the athlete-turned-reformer from his boyhood in a working-class Baton Rouge neighborhood to his sudden rush of fame as the leading high school running back in the country in “The Rise and Fall (and Redemption) of Billy Cannon.” Cannon was LSU’s only Heisman Trophy winner, leading the Tigers to a national championship in 1958, but was also indicted for counterfeiting and worked as a staff dentist at Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola.

Adam Johnson includes a story about the double devastation of hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005, titled “Hurricane Anonymous,” in his short story collection “Fortune Smiles.” Johnson won a Pulitzer Prize for his novel, “The Orphan Master’s Son” in 2012.

NancyKay Sullivan Wessman’s looks at the heroic efforts of first responders after Hurricane Katrina slammed the Mississippi Coast in a work of creative nonfiction titled “Katrina Mississippi: Voice from Ground Zero,” published by Triton.

            Tom Piazza of New Orleans has published a novel featuring Henry Sims, a fugitive slave and musician, who has escaped to Philadelphia and ends up performing incognito in a minstrel troupe in “A Free State.” Piazza will sign copies of his novel from 6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. Thursday at Garden District Book Shop in New Orleans.

Book news

Congratulations to Lisa Graley of the UL-Lafayette English staff for winning with Anne Raeff this year's Flannery O’Connor Award for Short Fiction. Graley’s "The Current That Carries" and Raeff’s "The Jungle All Around Us" will be published by University of Georgia Press in the fall of 2016.

Graley coordinates the Interdisciplinary Humanities program at UL and has published short stories in Glimmer Train, The McNeese Review, and Water~Stone Review. Her book of poetry, “Box of Blue Horses” by Gival Press, was nominated for the National Book Award. She has received an Artist Fellowship from the Louisiana Division of the Arts, an ATLAS grant from the Louisiana Board of Regents and in 2010 was also awarded the Dr. Ray Authement Excellence in Teaching Award.

Book events

Lyrically Inclined Poetry Slam and Open Mic, hosted by Poetic Soul, will begin at 7 p.m. Tuesday at Black Café, 518 S. Pierce St. in Lafayette. Doors open at 6 p.m. and the cover charge is $5.

Melinda Rose discuses and signs her book, “Of The Rising Tide: A Photo Essay of the Vanishing Bayou Community of Isle de Jean Charles” at 6 p.m. at Garden District Book Shop of New Orleans.

Warren and Mary Perrin signs copies of “Acadie Then and Now: A People’s History” at 5:45 p.m. Wednesday at the Sliman Theater in New Iberia. For more information, call (337) 233-5832, or email perrin@plddo.com.

            Michael Murphy signs “Fear Dat: New Orleans — A Guide to the Voodoo, Vampires, Graveyards and Ghosts of the Crescent City” at 6 p.m. Wednesday at Octavia Books of New Orleans.
            Pulitzer Prize-winning author David I. Kertzer presents “The Pope and Mussolini” Thursday at the Freedom Pavilion of the World War II Museum in New Orleans. There will be a 5 p.m. reception, following by a 6 p.n. presentation and 7 p.m. book signings.

Cheré Dastugue Coen is 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.” She also writes Louisiana romances under the pen name of Cherie Claire, “A Cajun Dream” and “The Letter.” Write her at cherecoen@gmail.com.