Tonight, Sun and I went out on the town. Ok, fine. We went to the main library. But it was at night! And to hear Poppy Tooker discuss her new book project, Mme. Bégué’s Recipes of Old New Orleans Creole Cookery! It was delightful. Poppy signed her book for us, inscribing it in Sun’s name while at the [...]
SPOILER ALERT! I discuss the end of this novel in detail. If you wish to read this book and not be spoiled, come back after you’ve read it. A friend recommended David Mitchell’s Cloud Atlas to me over a year ago. I finally got around to reading it. The title of the book references one of [...]
David Lummis’s second installation of The Coffee Shop Chronicles of New Orleans was recently published. Whereas the first part, reviewed here, was more a “lighthearted and irreverent and even campy” (as Lummis himself describes it) romp in and around the French Quarter, Part 2 is a more serious work. A more serious tone, a more serious topic. And [...]
I learned about the existence of the book “Coffee Shop Chronicles of New Orleans” by seeing it on a side table in a co-worker’s office. Then, before I could register it in the frontal lobe of my brain, I attended the Jefferson Parish Library’s king cake party whereby several local authors were there signing books. [...]
I picked up George Washington Cable’s “Old Creole Days” at the last book sale of the Friends of Jefferson Parish Library. I paid $12 for a hardcover-missing-its-dust-jacket 1943 printing by the Limited Editions Club, Inc. of Cable’s late-1800s stories. This is quite the gem. It was worth the $12 just for the two introductions, one [...]
I’ve just finished reading “New Orleans Noir.” It’s a collection of short stories set in New Orleans, pre-Katrina, post-Katrina and even in between. I tend not to like short stories; I prefer long, epic tales with lots of character development. Notwithstanding, I am addicted to all books NOLA-related and had to give this one a fair shake. [...]
I spoke with Laura Lippman last Friday. She was engaging and articulate and has that special gift some people have that they willingly offer to others, if they’ll but pay attention. Luckily for me, I was paying very close attention. We were brought together to discuss Lippman’s new book, “I’d Know You Anywhere,” which I [...]
Laura Lippman’s “I’d Know You Anywhere,” opens on the tranquil domesticity of the Benedict family, Eliza and Peter, and their two children, Iso (short for Isobel, aged 13) and Albie (8). But by the end of Chapter One, the first fissure of that sense of utter calm and peace is revealed: Eliza receives a handwritten [...]
Every so often, I get an email via this blog to receive a free copy of a book if I am interested in reading it and would consider writing a review of it. I’ve always turned these offers down, mainly because each book’s description, for one reason or another, did not, well, blow my skirt [...]
A lot of reading has been going on over here this summer. The latest selection, however, warrants comment. “The Story of Edgar Sawtelle,” by David Wroblewski came recommend via an odd route. I have a friend in Colorado that sends me two books every year—one for my birthday, one for Christmas. On the whole, I [...]