Edward Branley: March 2008 Archives

This is the non-fiction list I compiled for the Daily Kos community back in December.

New Orleans Basics (non-fiction)

1. Frenchman, Desire, Good Children, and Other Streets of New Orleans by John Churchill Chase

Buy. This. Book. First.

There's no better introduction to the history of New Orleans than Chase's classic. John Chase was the editorial cartoonist for the Times Picayune, the States Item before that, and the Item before that. He also plied his trade on WDSU-TV for years as well. Additionally, he was extremely knowledgable about the city and wrote a number of books and essays. Had I taught Louisiana History rather than American History, I would have assigned this book as the first thing the students would read.

2. Lonely Planet - New Orleans

I don't own this one personally, but the LP guides for Singapore, Tokyo, London, and Amsterdam got me around those cities, so I'm sure the one for New Orleans would help a non-New Orleanian as much.

3. The Joy of Y'at Catholicism by Earl Higgins

How locals see the Catholic Church. This book is a fantastic overview of how New Orleanians think.

4. Mardi Gras New Orleans by Henri Schindler

Mr. Schindler is a float designer and Carnival historian. He's done the floats for several of the "old line" krewes for years, and is a treasure trove of Carnival and New Orleans knowledge.

5. 1 Dead in Attic: After Katrina by Chris Rose

This is the only book about the storm I've listed, because too much of a bad thing is too much of a bad thing. Rose captures the feel of the entire surreal experience.

6. Huey Long by T. Harry Williams

Dr. Williams was the consummate expert on Governor Huey Pierce Long. To understand New Orleans' relationship with the rest of the state, you have to understand Huey Long.

7. Managing Ignatius: The Lunacy of Lucky Dogs and Life in New Orleans by Jerry Strahan

This is the real-life "Confederacy of Dunces," the stories of the Lucky Dog hot dog vendors of the Quarter. One of the best tales of what life in the Quarter is all about.

8. New Orleans - a Pictorial History by Leonard V. Huber

Mr. Huber's book is a great overview of the city's history post-Civil War.

9. New Orleans Architecture Volume VI: Faubourg Treme and the Bayou Road : North Rampart Street to North Broad Street Canal Street to St. Benard Avenue (New Orleans Architecture)
and
10. New Orleans Architecture Volume III: The Cemeteries

The two best of a multi-volume series. Treme is a fascinating neighborhood to study, and the cemeteries have distinct architectural styles all their own.

11. The Streetcars of New Orleans by Louis C. Hennick and Harper Charton

A comprehensive history of street railways in New Orleans from their inception in the 1830s to 1965.

12. Who's Your Mama, Are You Catholic, and Can You Make a Roux? by Marcelle Bienvenu

The only cookbook on this list, because it's where you should start. The three questions that make up the title are the questions that a mother of a young man would ask his girlfriend when he brought her home. This cookbook covers all the basics of New Orleans cooking.

now three "Images of America" books:

13. New Orleans: The Canal Streetcar Line by Edward J. Branley

Did you really think I wouldn't pimp my own book? :-) Our streetcars and the main street of the city, Canal Street, are inseparable, and here are photos to show that synergy.

14. New Orleans Cemeteries by Eric J. Brock

Probably the easiest cemetery overview out there, at least until I sit down and write a better one.

15. Lake Pontchartrain by Catherine Campanella

The lakefront is an integral part of life in the city, and these photos really bring it to life.

This list is just my two cents. Feel free to chime in with your favorites that I didn't list. There are a lot of books on New Orleans, and I'm very picky about stuff I read about my home town. I'm always looking for another good one, unless it's about the storm, then I'll pass, thanks. :-)

I'll do fiction on Thursday or Friday, so let's keep comments limited to non-fiction today, por favor.

UPDATE I

16. New Orleans: The Making of an Urban Landscape by Peirce Lewis.

Great work on historical geography. I can't believe I forgot this, it's on my shelf, assigned by Prof. Logsdon at UNO all those years ago.

Nola got tagged to do a book meme, and it reminded me that I did a two-part book list back in December for Daily Kos. Here's the fiction list:

1. A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole

If you want to embrace your inner Yat, Ignatius is the character who will help you on your way. Toole's novel is New Orleans from the 1960s, before cable TV homonegized life.

2. Sandrine's Letter to Tomorrow by Dedra Johnson

The time frame jumps to the 70s in Dedra's first novel. Sandrine is a light-skinned black girl growing up in New Orleans. This book should be on Oprah. No kidding. (NOTE: Since this list was first made up in December, I've done a review of the book.)

3. Gumbo Ya-Ya by Lyle Saxon

This is a great anthology of Louisiana folk tales. Great way to get a feel for the stories we all grew up with down here.

4. New Orleans Stories edited by John Miller

A great anthology with stories from Whitman, Faulkner, Rice, Capote, Percy, Williams, Hurston, and an introduction by Andrei Codrescu.

5. Sunset Limited by James Lee Burke

All of Burke's "Dave Robicheaux" novels rate being here. This one is just representative of them all

6. Interview with a Vampire by Anne Rice.

This is a must-read in terms of New Orleans fiction. Whether you continue from there with the rest of Rice's vampire novels is up to you.

7. The Witching Hour, and Lasher by Anne Rice

Rice's "other" New Orleans series, the Mayfair Witches. The Witching Hour is set in the Garden District, and Lasher continues where TWH leaves off. There's one chapter in Lasher where Rice describes one of the family matriarchs, who is in her 70s, walking from her house at St. Charles Ave. and Amelia St., down St. Charles to the other Mayfair house on First Street. It's one of the most vivid descriptions of uptown New Orleans in print. Even you don't like the story, go check Lasher out at the library and read this scene.

8. The Feast of All Saints by Anne Rice

Rice's take on the gens de couleur libres in antebellum New Orleans.

9. The Voodoo Queen by Robert Tallant

A well-written (albeit very romanticized) version of the life of "voodoo queen" Marie Laveau.

10. Exquisite Corpse by Poppy Z. Brite (amazon link because Powells doesn't have a cover photo)

Serial killers, cannibalism, and other horror fun, set in Da Quarters. Neat stuff!

11. Liquor: A Novel by Poppy Z Brite

A neat tale set in a New Orleans restaurant. A lot of docbrite's fans slammed Liquor when it came out, but I enjoyed it.

12. The Awakening by Kate Chopin

If you haven't already had to read it for a class, this is a great story of a woman's struggle with marriage in the 1800s.

13. New Orleans Sketches by William Faulkner, edited by Carvel Collins

A collection of short prose by Faulkner, originally published in Da Paper in 1925.

14. Cane River and Red River by Lalita Tademy

Strictly speaking, these aren't New Orleans stories, but Cane River in particular ties directly to the city, since any tale of a plantation upstate (Natchitoches, LA, is on the Cane River) ties back to the city. Red River continues the story post-Civil War, in Colfax, LA. Great reads about African Americans in Louisiana in the 1800s.

OK, I know I'm forgetting more than I'm remembering here, so I'll stop at this point and let y'all add more in comments.

UPDATES:

15. Jitterbug Perfume by Tom Robbins

16. The Moviegoer by Walker Percy

17. Lives of the Saints by Nancy Lemann

and some suggestions from the LiveJournal neworleans community:

18. Coming Through Slaughter by Michael Ondaatje (about Buddy Bolden and E. J. Bellocq

19. The Axeman's Jazz: A Skip Langdon Novel by Julie Smith. Smith has a number of mysteries with her Skip Langdon character.

20. Off Magazine Street by Ronald Everett Capps. This is the book that the Travolta film, "Love Song for Bobby Long" was based on.

21. Chita: A Memory of Last Island by Lafcadio Hearn. More Louisiana than New Orleans, but it captures antebellum Louisiana nicely.

also these suggestions:

Anything by Patty Friedmann, but particularly Eleanor Rushing, Side Effects, and A Little Bit Ruined (her post-K novel).

Anything by Sheila Bosworth, but particularly Almost Innocent.

Anything by Christine Wiltz.

For mystery fans: J.M. Redmann's Micky Knight series.

here's a suggestion :

A 1937 first edition of JRR Tolkien's The Hobbit has been sold at auction to an anonymous bidder for £60,000 - twice what it was expected to reach.

It would look good next to my 1st Edition Silmarillion.

Encrypted e-mail always gets through my spam filter and catches my attention immediately.
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I'm teaching a class for Hitachi Data Systems this week, Hitachi Modular Storage Foundations, in San Diego.  Love it out here!

I met Dedra Johnson at a book signing just before Christmas. Earl Higgins, Dedra, and I were signing our books at the Loyola University's bookstore. I'd been hearing about Sandrine's Letter to Tomorrow from friends, bloggers, and others for a coiuple of months. It's not the type of novel I usually read, but Dedra's a local author writing about New Orleans, good enough for me. Sandrine may not be the type of character I usually get into, but I got into the novel nonetheless. It is a well-written story with lots of local color and a cast of characters who are very easy to love and/or hate, just like family members.

Sandrine Miller is a light-skinned black girl growing up in New Orleans' 7th Ward in the 1970s. Her parents never married. Her father is a physician who moved to Mississippi, and her mother lives next door to Sandrine's grandmother. Sandrine attends a Catholic elementary school near N. Broad St., and spends summers with her father and her paternal grandmother in Mississippi. The book tells the tale of Sandrine's life as she develops from a pre-teen to a young teenager, addressing the issues of not merely a black girl growing up, but a light-skinned girl who is ostracized by friends and family because she "looks white."

Sandrine's life is not an easy one. Her mother isn't much of a mother to her, since she sees too much of Sandrine's father in her. When Sandrine's father's-wife's-daughter (you'll see how this connects in the book), a girl several years younger than her, comes to live with Sandrine and her mother, she feels even further mistreated by her mother, because the darker-skinned girl receives better treatment. Dedra mixes teen anger with racial and sexual injustices in just the right amount to keep the pages turning, wanting to see what happens next and how Sandrine will deal with it.

Some say that Sandrine doesn't cover any new ground, that other authors have addressed these themes, but the local flavor of reading about New Orleans in the 1970s was enough to rope me in where authors like Maya Angelou didn't call to me half as much. Arkansas isn't New Orleans; I was just a few years older than Sandrine, and rode the bus through her neighborhood. Sandrine is Catholic and taught by nuns, and that experience triggers an almost Junigan-collective-unconscious thing when you see it on the written page. If you like New Orleans and you like coming-of-age stories, this one is a winner.

I'm going to offer some more thoughts below the fold. SPOILER WARNING - don't go there if you haven't read the book.