Summer Reading 2020

Read anything good lately?

I have been reading like a mad woman during the COVID-quarantine, so I'm going to share some of my favorites with you.

Coming out this week is Megan Miranda's The Girl from Widow Hills (June 23).  I loved her book,The Last House Guest, which was the Reese Witherspoon Book Club pick for August 2019.

The Girl from Widow Hills is even better.

It is difficult to review this book without spoilers. The story centers on a woman named Arden who at age six went missing during a storm and was dramatically rescued on live television. The story captivated the nation and the publicity nearly destroyed Arden and her mother. As a young woman, Arden leaves Widow Hills, changes her name to Olivia, and begins a new life. When Arden/Olivia finds a dead body behind her house, she's not certain if she is the murderer or if someone else is.

I can't give away more, but the characters include Arden's addict mother, a policewoman who wants to solve the murder case, and a neighbor named Rick. Throw in a mysterious box of her mother's effects, and you have all the ingredients for a great psychological thriller and an ending that will surprise you.

I really enjoyed this book and was thrilled to receive an advance copy through Simon & Schuster and NetGalley.

Coming out next week is the graphic novel version of The Great Gatsby.

I had an opportunity to read this book thanks to Scribner and NetGalley, and as a high school teacher,

I can tell you that I am grateful to have this book for my very visual students who resist picking up a classic novel because "It's too many words!"

I've pulled more than a few students into To Kill a Mockingbird through the graphic novel version of that great novel, so I anticipate that teachers and librarians across the country will be glad to pick up this interpretation of Gatsby.

The story is still there; F. Scott Fitzgerald's words are still there, now supported by terrific graphic illustrations.

Check it out!

Coming up in August: everyone's favorite -- Fredrick Backman -- has Anxious People coming out. For anyone who loved A Man Called Ove, or Beartown, or any of Backman's other charming stories, you will not be disappointed in this one. I'll post a full review soon, but trust me, I loved this book almost as much as Ove.

What are you reading?!

Currently Reading: The Cactus League

The Cactus League by Emily Nemens

It's baseball season, y'all!  Finally!

In Shreveport, we aren't lucky enough to have a minor league team anymore. We used to have The Shreveport Captains but they moved to Frisco, TX several years ago and are part of the Rough Riders organization now. Their old stadium is now part of our urban decay landscape and has been take over by bats -- and I don't mean baseball bats. It's a source of much contention and local grumbling.

We do have several college baseball options, though, and so only a couple of blocks from my house is the Centenary Gents baseball field. Part of the SCAC, the Gents give us a few months of good, fun baseball every year. LSUS also has a baseball team, so we are not completely without options.

This week I started reading The Cactus League by Emily Nemens.  What fun this book is!  I love it so far. I'm not even halfway yet, but I can tell that this is one I'll want to own; I'm reading it as a library book right now. Apparently the book is told in chapter long vignettes from various characters; I'm still with the first character, a batting coach named Michael who returns home to Arizona for spring training to find his house has been occupied, and wrecked, by squatters. And where does Michael go to relieve the anger and anxiety from this discovery? To the batting cage, of course, at the brand new stadium complex.

I'm drawn into the story already and can't wait to get back to the book. Of course, I started it yesterday while at the Gents ballpark; I was reading before the game and during the doubleheader intermission. Totally set the mood!

This is a debut novel from Emily Nemens, but she's been involved with books and literature for some time as editor of The Paris Review and former co-editor of The Southern Review. Bonus: she graduated from LSU with a MFA degree in fiction.  I can't wait to follow her new path as novelist.

What are you Reading?

I’m an avid reader and am often reading at least two, sometimes three, books at one time. We do independent choice reading in my secondary ELA classroom, and so I am often reading along with my students; that’s usually some kind of YA novel that I might be reading so I can discuss it with my students, or recommend it to someone. At home I usually have two books going: one on the Kindle which I read right before bed, and often another physical book that I might read when sitting outside, or when I’m ignoring the Law and Order reruns on television.

I recently joined NetGalley which is one source of my reading fodder. In return for a fair and honest review I can get advance reading copies of books. This is right up my alley! I joined NetGalley because I discovered a new author that I enjoyed a great deal: Kelly Harms. It’s “chick lit” primarily, but she’s always got some kind of twist that I wasn’t expecting and her characters are usually engaging; I dislike a lot of chick lit characters because they are often insipid and silly, but with this author I don’t really see that. At any rate, I was so anxious of her next novel that I turned to NetGalley for the sole purpose of getting my hands on an advance copy.

Harms is the author of The Overdue Life of Amy Byler, which is a fun read. After I finished that book I went back and read her previous novels, and thoroughly enjoyed them. The new book, coming out in May, is called The Bright Side of Going Dark and explores the world of social media influencers from both in front of and behind the lens. It gets a little vapid at times, I mean, we spend a lot of time focusing on a woman who makes her living as an Influencer, staging perfect pictures of her perfect life, and of course most of it is not real. But, overall, it was a fun, light read.

I’ve just finished reading Recipe for a Perfect Wife by Karma Brown, which came out in January. This book disturbs me a little bit, in part because I see missed opportunities with the story. It was a good book and the initial premise is engaging.  Alice and Nate leave New York and purchase a 1950s era home in the suburbs The house is sold “as is” and includes the previous occupants belongings, old

floral wallpaper, Formica kitchen table, and overgrown garden.  Then we meet the previous owner in a dual storyline: Nellie and Richard lived in the home in a stereotypical 1950s marriage with Nellie in pearls and June Cleaver skirts preparing dinner before the successful Richard gets home from work. Nellie spends her days gardening, baking, and attending Tupperware parties.

When Alice discovers a box in the basement containing Nellie’s favorite cookbook, complete with annotated margins, and boxes of 1950s Ladies Home Journal magazines, she begins to learn a great deal about the life Nellie and Ricard led, which of course was not necessarily as perfect as it seemed.

I found myself much more engaged in the Nellie and Richard storyline and wanted to throat-punch Alice most of the time. She made many self-destructive and irrational decisions which often made no sense. The ending of the book left me with the impression that it was rushed and just needed to end. Alice needed one more chapter, for example.

I’m glad I read the book, and I ended up giving it four stars in my review, only because I couldn’t give it 3.5

I’m enjoying my NetGalley experience so far, as I think it will expose me to new authors and force me into some genres I may not normally explore. And hey, I’m always open to recommendations so if you’ve got one, drop it in the comments!

Some Year-End Reflections

Bayou Teche

This is the time of the year when people tend to do a lot of reflection and self-evaluation, and I find myself doing the same thing.

I've spent a lot more time living life rather than writing about it -- my last blog post was this summer.

This has been an epic year for me and I am overwhelmed with feelings of gratitude and almost disbelief, sometimes.

I have said before that when I began this project to write about Cammie Henry and her life, her contributions to preservation and to the arts, I never had any idea where it would take me. Basically, I simply went where she led me, and I still am.

This book, and Cammie, have taken the reins of my life and led me on such a journey this year! I have traveled to cities and towns across the state and I have talked to groups large and small about Cammie Henry and Melrose Plantation.

At first I was terrified. At my first appearance at the Louisiana Book Festival (2018), I was a nervous wreck. Even though I have been teaching for over twenty years, it was still intimidating to me to get up in front of a crowd of people and talk.  As it turned out, that was a pretty friendly, and small, audience that included my husband, my editor, and an intern that contributed to some of the editing work.

In the spring I spoke at the Association for the Preservation of Historic Natchitoches (APHN) annual banquet; this was a very large crowd and I was still quite nervous. This was followed by an appearance before the Baton Rouge Country Club Book Club, and later the North Louisiana Historical Association. Most recently, I spoke to a group of architects at the Institute of Classical Art and Architecture event in Natchitoches and then to the Calico Belles, an auxiliary group of the APHN -- young high school age ladies who volunteer at events in Natchitoches like the annual Tour of Homes.

Each event has become a bit less nerve wracking and the Calico Belles event was downright fun because those girls were so enthusiastic and interested, plus we got to walk the grounds of Melrose and talk about Cammie and her friends. It was a joyous day.

Cammie Henry has also led me to many new friendships that mean so much to me. When the book launched in October 2018 at the Cammie Garrett Henry Research Center at Northwestern State University in Natchitoches, in attendance was a fun-loving group of ladies who were the children and grandchildren of one of Cammie's sons. I visited with them that night and it seemed like all they did was joke and laugh. I remember thinking at the time, "These are my people." I felt instantly comfortable with them...connected.  Cammie kept throwing us together -- I started running into Dana everywhere! And in late summer they invited Steve and I to a small family gathering on Cane River and it was just the most wonderful day.

Another event that stands out to me from this past year is our trip to Lake Charles and McNeese University to speak at their SAGE program. That was another huge crowd and the first time I'd included a visual presentation with my speech. McNeese rolled out the red carpet for Cammie and Cane River Bohemia. Steve and I were treated to lunch and dinner at beautiful local restaurants, given a tour of the city, and I did two television appearances. May Gray, who organized the event, has become a friend now, and she made the trip one I will never forget.

I feel so blessed and honored for all of these opportunities and I know Cammie isn't finished with me. Our journey is not finished.

Besides book related blessings, this is the year I feel in love with Arnaudville, a tiny town in south Louisiana, where the arts are celebrated and the people are welcoming. I discovered Gateau Nana this year! And Song Trivia and Social Commentary! I made some great new friends and acquaintances in south Louisiana. I spend a lot of time waiting until my next trip to Arnaudville. The way we found Arnaudville and the house on the Teche where we stay has its own convoluted sort of story and wispy Cammie-connections which I'll be able to convey someday.

This year has also included a great first-semester at school; last semester, in the spring, was rough, rough, rough, but this semester has been good, and all but three of my students passed their EOC exam. And my gosh, the people that stepped up to contribute to my classroom library or to fill my Amazon wish list for my classroom have been amazing,

As this year comes to a close, I think we all tend to look back and evaluate our year, and I'm no different. It has not been without challenges, to be sure. Christmas is often a difficult time for me... I get overly sentimental and filled with loss for those who are no longer with us. We have a very small family and those losses are so strongly felt. But we persevere, we make new traditions, new friends, and really, I am blessed.

This self-serving post is really meant just to say thank you to everyone who made this year so exciting and gratifying for me.

You know who you are.

Books Along the Teche Literary Festival Features Great Southern Chefs Bonnie Breaux and Ryan Trahan

Chefs Bonnie Breaux and Ryan Trahan (used with permission from Lee Ball)

In Louisiana, good food is serious business. We prize our oyster beds, our redfish, catfish, and crawfish. We can batter and fry almost anything and when we aren't doing that we are making a roux and creating a delicious etouffee or gumbo.  From Natchitoches meat pies to crabmeat pizzas in Arnaudville, from crawfish in Breaux Bridge to oysters in New Orleans, we love good food.

That might be why the Great Southern Chefs Food Demo at the Books Along the Teche Literary Festival in April is always a popular event.

This year the cooking demo featured 2017 Louisiana Seafood Queen Bonnie Breaux of Cafe Sydnie Mae in Breaux Bridge and chef Ryan Trahan of Blue Dog Cafe in Lafayette. Ryan is the 2018 King of American Seafood.

The event filled up quickly Friday morning at the Steamboat Warehouse Pavilion on Bayou Teche in New Iberia. I skipped breakfast that morning because I knew we would soon be sampling delicious bowls of crawfish etouffee and Louisiana shrimp and grits.

Before the chefs demos, we were treated to a discussion by author Ken Wells about his new book, Gumbo Life: Tales from the Roux Bayou:

A seasoned journalist, Ken Wells sleuths out the answers. His obsession goes back to his childhood in the Cajun bastion of Bayou Black, where his French-speaking mother’s gumbo often began with a chicken chased down in the yard. Back then, gumbo was a humble soup little known beyond the boundaries of Louisiana. So when a homesick young Ken, at college in Missouri, realized there wasn’t a restaurant that could satisfy his gumbo cravings, he called his momma for the recipe. That phone-taught gumbo was a disaster. The second, cooked at his mother’s side, fueled a lifelong quest to explore gumbo’s roots and mysteries. 

In Gumbo Life: Tales from the Roux Bayou, Wells does just that. He spends time with octogenarian chefs who turn the lowly coot into gourmet gumbo; joins a team at a highly competitive gumbo contest; visits a factory that churns out gumbo by the ton; observes the gumbo-making rituals of an iconic New Orleans restaurant where high-end Creole cooking and Cajun cuisine first merged.

Mr. Wells's talk was peppered with funny stories and one point that interested me was his research into the earliest gumbos and his discovery that more than likely bear grease was used as the oil for the roux.

Author Ken Wells (photo used with permission from Lee Ball)

"New Orleans was awash in bear grease!" he told us.

This made perfect sense to me.  Elizabeth Shown Mills talks about this in her book The Forgotten People: Cane River's Creoles of Color.  By 1792, Marie Therese Coincoin, a former slave given her freedom by Pierre Thomas Claude Metoyer, was successfully farming tobacco on land given to her by Metoyer. She shipped this tobacco on barges to New Orleans. She also "trapped wild bears in the Natchitoches wilderness and sent bear grease to market..." (Mills 39).  Mills reports that Coincoin sent, in one particular shipment, three hundred hides and two barrels of bear grease.  This was a fairly common practice at that time and so Ken Wells comments resonated with me.

During the course of his research, Mr. Wells even obtained a small container of bear grease from a supplier and tested the bear-grease-roux.

His book is a fascinating study in the history of our most beloved dish and after his talk, Mr. Wells signed copies of his book.

The first cooking demo of the morning was chef Bonnie Breaux. An animated, enthusiastic chef, Miss Breaux says she is self-taught and learned to cook at her mother's side and later out of necessity to feed her family. Most recently Breaux had been the chef at St. John restaurant in St. Martinville (one of our favorites!) and Cafe Sydnie Mae is a sort of sister restaurant in Breaux Bridge.

Breaux shared her crawfish etouffee secrets with the crowd at the Steamboat Warehouse Pavilion and stressed the importance of  using the crawfish fat in the etouffee.  "That's where all your flavor is," she said.  When asked what kind of rice she uses, Breaux said she just uses regular medium or long grain rice in her etouffee.  There's a time and place for jasmine rice and the other gourmet grains, but not in a Louisiana etouffee. She also shared that she never tastes her food while she's cooking it.

Chef Ryan Trahan followed and his dish was shrimp and grits.  Trahan grew up in a restaurant family

Trahan's Shrimp and Grits (photo used with permission from Lee Ball)

and is from Crowley, Louisiana. His rule in the kitchen: "Everyone stirs the grits," he said.  "If you walk by, you stir the grits. If I walk by, I stir the grits. Everyone stirs the grits."   The rule must work pretty well because his shrimp and grits were to die for; the grits were creamy and the dish was seasoned with Trahan's own Worcestershire sauce.

Breaux and Trahan were available and visible throughout the day, talking to festival participants and sharing cooking stories. They were both at the evening event at the Sliman theater as well.

There is no shortage of fabulous chefs in Louisiana but festival organizers were on top of the game when they scored these two "royal" chefs for the demo this year!


Coming next in my Festival recap: Taking the Second Line through Historic Main Street

Thank you to photographer Lee Ball for allowing me to use his photos!


Further Reading:
2018 Small Town Chefs: Bonnie Breaux (Country Roads Magazine, 6/22/18)
Gumbo Life, Tales from the Roux Bayou (Robert Davis, New York Journal of Books)
About the Chef: Ryan Trahan (Blue Dog Cafe)
Voter's Choice (Vicky Branton, The Daily Iberian, 10/24/18)
Author Rebecca Wells Charms the Books Along the Teche Literary Festival (SIGIS, 4/10/19)

Author Rebecca Wells Charms the Books Along the Teche Literary Festival

Rebecca Wells in her vintage 1930s dress.

In 1996, Louisiana author Rebecca Wells published Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood in which Siddalee Walker from Thornton, Louisiana contemplates the past, the future, and the lifelong friendships between her mother Vivi and her fellow Ya-Yas.

The book was incredibly successful and sparked such an interest in the Walker clan that the author's earlier novel, Little Altars Everywhere (1992) also became a hit.

From there, anything Rebecca Wells wrote was gold.

As fate would have it, the sweet taste of success would be on the back burner for Miss Wells. As her books began to rise to the tops of the best seller lists, she would be diagnosed with Lyme disease and would spend the next few years battling the chronic illness that this diagnosis would bring.

At the fourth annual Books Along the Teche Literary Festival last weekend, Miss Wells did not talk a great deal about her battle with Lyme disease but the residual effects do linger; bright light is intolerable and she gets cold easily. She tires easily, but when you give as much as she does to a performance, that is easy to understand.

The stage at the Sliman Theater in New Iberia was set for the popular author: three bottles of Essentia water, reading glasses, a tall bar stool, a black shawl, a music stand with her notes.

Miss Wells entered from the back of the stage, did a "Loretta Young twirl" to show off her vintage 1930s dress, and took her place.  Beautiful, ageless, charming, she told the capacity crowd about her dress, her struggle to find shoulder pads for it, and she talked about returning to the South to live in Tennessee.

The highlight of her performance was her reading from her book-in-progress, Divine Daughter of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood. In an interview with Deep South Magazine in 2016, Wells said, "I am never happier than when I am performing my work. It’s really all I want to do," and it shows. She is a performer and as she read her work it was pure poetry. The inflection, the quizzical tones, the humor, delivered in Miss Wells's sweet southern drawl all come through and bring her characters to life. It is mesmerizing to watch and to hear.

In the excerpt Wells shared with us, "No More Y'all," Siddalee Walker is in New York and takes a class to minimize her Southern accent in order to advance her acting career. Sidda struggles with this, of course, and as Miss Wells enunciated the difference between "ten" and "tin" and "four" and "fo-oour," I think everyone in the audience was silently saying those words to themselves. I know at the dinner event later that evening everyone at our table said them aloud!

"Say 'Ten'!" said one guest from Iowa.

"Tin," I said.

Whoops and good-natured laughter.

After her performance, Miss Wells took a brief break to recoup, and then signed copies of her books for everyone who wanted her signature. Some brought play programs from other performances, and some brought posters. Anything Rebecca-Wells-related that was there, got signed, and anyone who wanted to visit with her got their wish. She was the most gracious, kind person I could possibly imagine.

Later that evening, at the dinner and dancing event at the Steamboat Pavilion on Bayou Teche, as we practices saying "four" and "fo-ooor," as we ate fried shrimp and jambalaya, and as we danced to Terry Huval's Jambalaya Cajun Band, in waltzed Rebecca Wells, perfectly darling in black leggings, pink long sleeved top, and a black, gauze tunic.

She is, as my mama would say, "not as big as a minute," a tiny little thing, with her hair swooped up on top of her head and her lipstick perfect.

She spent the next hour eating, dancing, and taking photos with the crowd.

Posing for photos with the locals

She did the Cajun two-step, the Cajun Conga line, and she took the microphone and pronounced the festival to be "not a book festival but a book party!"  She expressed her love for Louisiana and her hometown roots and said how glad she was to be back.

Wells in the Conga line with your author right behind her.

She won every heart in the place.

It is so exciting to see this festival grow and to see the great talent that it attracts. Last year was Ernest Gaines and I couldn't imagine how they could top that. Now I can't imagine who could top the precious, talented Rebecca Wells!



Coming Next:  The Great Southern Chefs Cooking Demo and Ken Wells/Gumbo Life


Further Reading:
Ya-Ya Sisterhood, Louisiana Blood: An Interview With Rebecca Wells (Lafayette Daily Advertiser, 4/5/19)
Wells has Audience Thrilled with Tales of Life, Fiction (The Daily Iberian, 4/7/19)
Rebecca Wells Comes Home (Deep South Magazine, 10/14/16)
Take a Trip to the Books Along the Teche Literary Festival, Part 1 (SIGIS, 4/9/18)
Take a Trip to the Books Along the Teche Literary Festival, Part 2 (SIGIS, 4/14/18)

Loose Saturday Morning Musings

Wishful thinking: where is the sun?

Some loose thoughts this gray, gloomy, not-yet-Spring morning:

On sunshine:  Sun?  What is that?  It's been cloudy and damp as long as I can remember.  I need sun. I'm tired of gloomy, gray days.  So there.

On writing:  Blogging has been rather slow here as I've been involved in research and in writing on book two. Plus, it's been gray and gloomy and there has not much I felt like blogging about. I'm so over politics these days -- I doubt I'll ever return to full time political blogging. I'm super excited about my new book project, however, and am looking forward to sharing it with you, but not quite yet. Patience.

On reading: I've been reading a lot of research material for the new book, but I also have to have my pleasure reading. I am currently reading The Sound of Building Coffins by Louis Maistros, which Steve picked up at the Louisiana Book Festival last fall.  It's a stunning book and I can't recommend it enough, especially if you're from NOLA or Louisiana. I'll post a full review when I've finished but man, it's a truly beautiful book. Check it out.

On school:  Another reason for slow blogging. This semester has been a challenging one and I'm only halfway through the semester. I take seriously my responsibility to teach my students and prepare them for those end of the year tests, even when those students don't always fully realize the importance of those tests. Most days I feel like I've had rocks thrown at me all day and I'm exhausted,  sometimes in tears, but this is part of it. And it's why I love my job: we will all get there together and we will be successful. It's a challenge every single day, but one so very much worth taking.

On thank-you notes:  I received the loveliest thank-you note yesterday from the Association for the Preservation of Historic Natchitoches (APHN), thanking me for speaking at their banquet last month, when in truth, I'm the one thanking them. I love sharing the Cane River Bohemia story with groups and I'm so grateful that they like my book. Thank you notes are too often an overlooked touch, I think. My mama drilled me about writing them when I was young and I still do it. There is something special about the fact that someone took the time to hand write a note, put a stamp on it, and mail it. My APHN note is on lovely creme colored stationery with the APHN monogram and the handwriting is beautiful cursive writing with a personal, lovely message. I will keep it forever and plan to put it in my Cane River Bohemia scrapbook that I'm going to start on this summer.

On the calendar:  With the approach of spring there are some exciting events coming up. I'm headed to Baton Rouge in a couple of weeks to talk about Cane River Bohemia with the members of the Baton Rouge Country Club Book Club.  In April I will be speaking with the North Louisiana Historical Association at their annual banquet in Natchitoches. I'm very excited about both of these invitations! The Baton Rouge event gives me an opportunity to head back down south and I could not be more excited about that. We're going to head over to New Iberia, St. Martinville, and Arnaudville and hit some of our favorite spots.  Also in April is the Books Along the Teche Literary Festival and while I am only going as a book lover and not an author, I can't wait to get back to New Iberia and see friends, listen to Cajun music, and take part in the joie de vivre that is so much a part of that area. I need the break.

On baseball:  Bring it.  I'm ready. And leave the damn pitch clock in spring training - quit messing with the game!

On crawfish: I need some. I don't want to pay $7.00 a pound for them. I must wait.

Since it appears the sun will not come out today I'm going to settle in and get some work done today. I hope the sun is shining where you are and that you have warm, bright days.

Later.

Cane River Bohemia Updates and the Next Big Thing

I've spent my morning cleaning off my desk, arranging stacks of papers, binders, and downloading articles for research in preparation for my next book project. I've been scratching around this process since I finished Cane River Bohemia, and now it's time to get to work. The muse has struck.

I don't want to reveal much about the project yet except perhaps to say that it will be a nice companion to Cane River Bohemia and that Miss Cammie would definitely approve. I'm very excited about being back in writer mode and ready to get back to work. For me, writing is a very consuming process. Wish me luck.

As to upcoming events for Cane River Bohemia, I will be the speaker at the Association for the Preservation of Historic Natchitoches (APHN) annual luncheon in February; in March I will be speaking to the Baton Rouge Country Club Book Club, and in April I will be speaking to the Northwest Louisiana Historical Society at their awards luncheon in Natchitoches. I'm so grateful for these opportunities and for all of the blessings this book has presented so far.

I was thrilled last week to learn that Cane River Bohemia will be available at the Melrose Gift Shop because to me, it means Cammie has returned to Melrose (not that she ever left, really!) and it completes the histories of the trifecta of Melrose ladies: Marie Therese Coincoin, Cammie Henry, and Clementine Hunter.  The Melrose Arts and Crafts Festival will be April 6th and 7th this year and I'm happy the book will be in the gift shop for that event.

I've been extremely grateful to see the reviews on Amazon of the book, as well. The Amazon metrics are all based on reviews and this helps the book be seen.  One of my favorite authors, Steph Post, wrote:

I love a well-written historical biography and Cane River Bohemia is not only fascinating, it reads like a novel- captivating and engaging. Becker thoroughly transported me to Melrose Plantation and shed a light on a place and group of people, particularly Cammie Henry, of course, but her cultivated 'salon' of sorts as well, that I would never have known about. History buffs, but also those interested in learning more about American artist colonies and some of the creative 'influencers' of the '20s and '30s who have slipped under the mainstream radar, will definitely appreciate this book. 

Steph has a fantastic book coming out this week, Miraculum, which I reviewed here.  She's also got a great Florida crime series with the protagonist Judah Cannon and I'm anxiously awaiting the third book in that series!

So it seems Miss Cammie is settling in comfortably to her place in history and it's time for me to get to work on the next big thing!

If blogging here becomes sporadic, have patience with me once again.

Miraculum by Steph Post: A Review

I was never one of those kids who wanted to run off and join the circus, but I was always rather fascinated with that gypsy, nomadic kind of lifestyle and the various dynamic elements at play in the carnival life. Who wouldn't love to travel around the country, meet new people, develop a sort of family with your workmates, and be part of the greatest show on earth?

Author Steph Post's latest book, Miraculum, comes out January 22, and trust me, this is a book you want to read.  I was provided an advance copy by the author; I read this book in October, and I mention that only because this book is still "with" me.  I still think about it and passages still come to mind at the most random times. The characters are so vivid, so finely drawn, that they are literally living and breathing right off the page.  Even the cover of the book is beautiful!

The story centers around Ruby and Daniel, although all of the carnival-type characters you might expect are there, too.  The setting is 1922, Pontilliar's Spectacular Star Light Miraculum, and from the first passage, as Post takes us down the midway with the barker cajoling customers to enter the various tents and freak shows,  I was hooked:

"I've got the Alligator Lady and the Lizard Man! I've got a Giant so tall he can barely fit inside the tent!"  

The mysterious, elegant Daniel Revont takes it all in as he walks the midway, and of course so do we.

There's nothing cliche about Post's narrative. As the story opens, the carnival is set up near the Louisiana-Texas border and Post makes fine use of the excellent imagery the region provides. The humid summer nights, the warm breezes that sometimes suffocate you, and the midnight blue velvet skies ablaze with stars provide the backdrop for the mysterious events that transpire. The novel is very descriptive and visual with imagery that crackles like the electricity running along the midway.

"Ruby leaned on the warped wooden door frame and raked her dark, tangled hair back away from her face. Already, the early July air was stifling, threatening to choke her if she breathed too deeply. She looked out at the lonely carousel, the garish horses frozen in mid-leap, the remnants of last night's show, paper cotton candy cones and sticky candy apple straws, strewn beneath their painted hooves."

Tattooed snake charmer Ruby is at once a sympathetic and intriguing character. The carnival belongs to her father who hires the enigmatic Daniel Revont to replace Jacob, "the geek" who has inexplicably committed suicide in the first pages of the novel, thus setting in motion the events that bring Ruby and Daniel together (and not necessarily in the way you might be thinking.)

I loved both of these characters so much and Post's writing brings them both to life in a way that stays with you.  There are other characters to love: the vulnerable and beautiful January, the lead dancer in the Girl Revue; Hayden who painted the ceiling of Ruby's wagon as well as the sides of the circus wagons, and even Samuel, the mysterious right-hand man who works with Ruby's father.

Steph Post is an exciting writer to keep your eye on; I love her Judah Cannon series which in fact have nothing whatsoever to do with a circus but are set in contemporary Florida which only shows Post's range and capability as a writer, in my opinion.

I'm not going to give any spoilers or tell you how this all unfolds, but just know that this book deserves a spot on your shelf next to Ray Bradbury's Something Wicked this way Comes, Gruen's Water for Elephants, and Morgenstern's The Night Circus. 

Post did a great deal of historical research for this novel and it shows, and even though there is a great deal of historical accuracy about the carnival life in that period, the novel has it's fair share of fantasy and magic that will captivate not just fans of the fantasy genre, but anyone who enjoys a good story with intriguing characters in an atmospheric setting.

Miraculum is a fun, engaging read and I highly recommend it.

Classroom Library End of Semester Update: My Students Learned to Love to Read Again!

Book donations to our new Classroom Library

The end of our first semester is upon us and I wanted to take a moment to reflect on my classroom reading project that I began this year and to provide an update since so many of you donated money or sent books to my classroom.

 Over the summer I read Donalyn Miller’s The Book Whisperer which then led me to other experts on the subject of independent reading in the classroom such as Penny Kittle and Kelly Gallagher. I read lots of studies and did a lot of research before deciding to dedicate fifteen minutes of every class period to independent reading; that is a whole lot of class time and I wanted to be certain that this would be a good investment.

 It was.

 Part of my concern that initiated this project was that our new curriculum, Guidebooks 2.0, strips pleasure reading and short stories almost entirely from my syllabus. It is a scripted curriculum and we are not allowed to take away from it, but we ARE allowed to supplement it, sparingly. I decided that the most important thing to me, for my students, was to ensure that they did not lose their love of reading due to the prescribed, often dry, articles, speeches, and court opinions that they are required to read, especially in the tenth grade syllabus. We have two units: The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks (9 weeks), and Macbeth (9 weeks). Both of those are wonderful stories (although we never read the Henrietta book, only articles about the story of Henrietta and the ethics involved); the problem is that the Guidebooks strip pretty much anything imaginative or engaging from the students.

I hoped my reading project would help keep them engaged and interested in reading.

 In my classroom this year, from August to December, my students read just over 345 books, give or take a few. As they complete a book, each student logs the title and date into his Reading Notebook; the sense of accomplishment in looking over this list at the end of the semester can be great for most students.

 Some students read a lot more books than other students, but that doesn’t take away the accomplishment of those slower readers. I have one student who has never finished a book in his life but read all of Bob Batchelor’s biography of Stan Lee. I ordered that book specifically for this student and I watched as that bookmark sank deeper and deeper into the book each day. He read the entire thing; that was a huge accomplishment for this particular student.

 At the other end of the spectrum, I had avid readers who relished the opportunity to engage in their favorite hobby and they read dozens of books.

 Every Friday my students wrote a letter to me in their notebook reflecting on what they read during the week and discussing their current book. These letters opened a dialogue between us and strengthened our relationships. Reading became a common bond for us. We talked about books and we talked about the real life lessons that they taught us.

 One of the most popular books this semester was The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas. I bought four copies of that book, and our school library kept another copy going. The kids wanted to read it, they wanted to talk about it, and they wanted to read other books like it. When one of my girls finished it and wanted a similar book I handed her Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds. In this book a boy is considering shooting the person he believes killed his brother. As he descends in the apartment building elevator, he has “encounters” with family and friends who are no longer alive and he has an opportunity to reflect on his planned action. My student was engrossed in this book and when she got to the ending, her jaw dropped and she looked up at me, wide-eyed, breaking the silence in the room with, “Mrs. Becker!”

 I love that a book can elicit this kind of a reaction from a kid!

I have a male student who was a reluctant reader and he’s been working on Hatchet all semester. Nearing the end of the book now, he just shook his head and muttered, “This lil boy has been through too much…”.

Through reading we have traveled to a mysterious Night Circus, an enchanted Hazel Wood, and explored the mysteries of outer space. We have explored the future and looked to the past. We have examined damaged characters and learned from the mistakes of others.

 On Friday, as I was grading final reading reflection letters, so many of my students expressed gratitude for our reading program; one girl wrote, “One thing I learned this week is that I remember how much I love reading and I’m proud that I read multiple books this semester.” Another wrote “I love that we get to read in here,” and yet another student who was not a particularly avid reader in August, expressed pride that she read three entire books this semester.

 Through reading these letters each week it was really gratifying to see so many of my students enjoy reading and discussing their books with me. I’ll be honest though, not every student fell in love with reading. I had a couple of boys who never got off whatever random page the book landed on. I had another boy who just grabbed a soccer book with brief biographies of soccer stars and he would prop it open on his desk to hide his phone behind it. We had multiple discussions about this behavior but I also know that I can’t force a kid to read and I refused to penalize them with grades on this. I feel strongly that reading should be its own reward.

 In the end I’d say with about 85% strong participation, 10% moderate participation, and 5% utter apathy, this was a real success for my students. I will definitely continue this program next semester which begins in January and will tweak it by talking more about the books I’m reading; I’ll also invite more open discussion about books my students are reading in addition to the one on one discussions we had this semester.

 Since a significant number of the books in our classroom library arrived through donations from our Amazon Wish List, and some of those donations came through readers of this blog, I wanted to update and share our progress with you.

 Reading opens so many doors for students on so many different levels; I feel truly honored to be able to guide my students into the world of books.

Take a Trip to the Louisiana Book Festival, 2018

Signing copies of Cane River Bohemia.

The fifteenth annual Louisiana Book Festival was held last weekend and your humble correspondent was honored to be a part of it as one of the presenters for my book Cane River Bohemia.

You know you have reached the surreal when you are signing books fifteen feet away from Donna Brazile who was there signing her new book, Hacks, or riding the elevator at your hotel with the legendary Ernest Gaines. I was fortunate enough to see Mr. Gaines last year at the Books Along the Teche literary festival: he is a gracious gentleman and gifted writer.

My husband and I drove to Baton Rouge Friday afternoon in time to make the author’s party at the State Library of Louisiana that evening. I’ll admit that I did think about Stacy McCain when we drove through Livonia. (You might ask him about that speeding ticket a few years ago!)

The author’s party was fabulous; there was a jazz band and enough superb Louisiana food to feast upon for days: gumbo, boudin balls, crab cakes, shrimp alfredo, bread pudding, etouffee, and of course Abita beer; the food just went on forever.

I met the most fascinating people and added to my “want to read” list in a significant way. I even added a children’s book to my list: Poncho’s Rescue: A Baby Bull and a Big Flood, by Julie Thomas, who was working with the LSU Vet school during the floods of 2016 and was involved with the team who helped save the very sick little animal after his rescue. It’s quite a story!

I ran into the fabulous Mary Ann Wilson who I met last year, also at the Books Along the Teche Literary Festival; she was giving a book talk entitled "Voices from Louisiana: Profiles of Contemporary Writers."  In New Iberia last year she spoke so eloquently on James Lee Burke's Tin Roof Blowdown I had to come home and re-read it.

With Dr. Mary Ann Wilson

I also chased down Karen McManus, author of the popular YA novel, One of Us is Lying, to tell her how much both I and my students love her book. She was very gracious and didn’t seem to mind my gushing fan-girl approach, thankfully.

And of course, I got to visit with my favorite editor, Margaret Lovecraft of LSU Press who made my book so much better than what I envisioned.

With Margaret Lovecraft, LSU Press.

Day two began with a little sightseeing around Baton Rouge; we spent a lot of time on the levee watching the tow boats and barges on the Mississippi River; we toured the old Louisiana State Capitol which is absolutely stunning.

Old Louisiana State Capitol

 The stained glass, kaleidoscope dome is breathtaking. Then we headed over to the Capitol grounds for the festival.

Stained glass dome, Old State Capitol

The Louisiana Book Festival draws about 20,000 people and is one of the top book festivals in the South. This year there were 250 authors either giving talks about their books or participating in panel discussions. There are children’s events and various live music performances as well as food trucks all day long. The book presentations take place in the State Capitol Building in the various House and Senate Committee meeting rooms in thirty-minute intervals and then the authors are shuttled over to the signing tent to sign copies of their books.

 My presentation was one of the last ones of the day and so we had plenty of time to browse the book tents while waiting. We picked up My Brother’s Keeper by Chris Blackwood, which is a true-crime thriller about the 1984 death of Gary Kergan from Crowley, Louisiana. The case went cold and was finally resolved thirty years later and it’s a wild one. Chris sat next to me as we signed books together and she signed our book! We also bought The Sound of Building Coffins by Louis Maistros, the epitome Southern Gothic novel filled with voodoo, quirky characters, and mysterious plot. It’s getting good reviews so I can’t wait to just get lost in this one.

 Louisiana is home to so many terrific and talented authors, I think in part due to the cultural diversity we have in our state. From the southern tip of the state to the far northeastern corner, we are a mélange of swamps, rice fields, sugar cane and cotton fields, and bustling cities. We are refineries and skyscrapers, blue collar workers and suits. We are the Shreveport Symphony, New Orleans jazz, and Cajun zydeco. We eat boudin, crawfish, alligator, meat pies, and the infamous gumbo. We are fine dining with a river view in Baton Rouge, woodfired pizzas at the craft beer tap room in Arnaudville, and huge homemade burgers in Coushatta, and delicious pies in LeCompte. We are magnolia trees, Spanish moss, azaleas, and cape jasmine. We are Spanish, French, African, Jamaican, Creole, Irish, English, Hispanic, but uniquely American. It is no wonder that Louisiana writers and authors create such a wonderful and diverse collection of material every single year which is celebrated at the Louisiana Book Festival.

Be sure to put it on your calendar for next year: you won’t be sorry!

Take a Trip to the Cane River Bohemia Book Launch at Cammie Henry Research Center in Natchitoches

The Cammie Garrett Henry Research Center, NSULA

We drove to Natchitoches Thursday for the first book event for Cane River Bohemia.  I was a nervous wreck and looking back now, I can't fathom why.

The event was held on familiar ground, the Cammie Henry Research Center at Watson Library at Northwestern State University, where I did most of my research.  This is where Cammie Henry's archives are and a great deal of my research consisted of reading her letters, papers, documents, and the correspondence she received from others.

Mary Linn Wernet is the archivist there and she terrified me when I first began this project but soon became a friend and guide.  I could not have written this book without her and that's a fact.  Today, I treasure her friendship and smile every time I think about some of those days pouring over photographs with her and the discussions we had.

With Mary Linn Wernet, archivist, CGHRC

Mary Linn's assistant, Sharon Wolff, prepared a terrific exhibit prior to the book event which will remain on display for several weeks if you want to get over and see it.  It's all about Cammie and her circle of friends, and her children.  You can see photographs and scrapbook pages from Cammie's collection as well as letters between the circle of friends.  There is also a small table with Lyle Saxon's Children of Strangers on display and Caroline Dormon's Wild Flowers of Louisiana, which is very rare and impossible to find now.  It's the first time I've actually seen it and the color plates are absolutely stunning.

Wild Flowers of Louisiana by Caroline Dormon

As time for the event approached, I actually began to calm down.  The books arrived from the bookstore, the caterers arrived and began setting up, and soon the first guests began to arrive.  It meant so much to see some familiar faces and friends who drove over from Shreveport. That helped my nerves immensely.

The fabulous caterers: the cucumber sandwiches were fab!

The next two hours went by in a blur.  Literally everyone was so warm and welcoming.  Everyone was as interested in Cammie as I have been and it was especially gratifying to me to see that this is a book that people have been waiting to read.  Not necessarily MY book, but people have been waiting for a book about Cammie Henry.  Like me, they want to know more.  People got their books signed and then sat down at the tables and had refreshments or visited with friends.

During the evening I was so honored to see the president of the university, Dr. Chris Maggio, come by; he's doing great things at NSULA and is such a friendly and personable man. I really enjoyed visiting with him.

With Dr. Chris Maggio, NSULA President.  (Bill Vance photo used with permission,
Natchitoches Parish Journal).

I was over the moon when J. Michael Kinny came in.  J. Michael had The Book Merchant on Front Street for a very long time and it is still missed.  It was the perfect indie book shop and I have always wanted to open one just like it.  Maybe one day.  J. Michael wrote the blurb for the book and it was just perfect; he captured exactly what I wanted to achieve: "...you'll see Miss Cammie and Lyle Saxon sitting behind the Big House sharing stories and laughter...".  I want my readers to feel like they have experienced Melrose as it was when Cammie had her writers and artists colony there.  When J. Michael came in I bolted around the table to give him a hug. I'm forever grateful to him for not just the blurb but for being who he is and for sharing books with me through his shop.

With J. Michael Kinny, The Book Merchant

One of the highlights of the evening was when the Henry grandchildren came in.  I felt right at home with those ladies and wish I could spend more time with them.  What fun they are!  We laughed and shared stories and I just fell in love with them.  They felt like family.  I could not have been more honored that they came to this event.  I wish I'd taken a picture with them!

Several ladies with the Association for the Preservation of Historic Natchitoches came by and bought books, and had them signed, and that meant so much to me.  Their mission in preserving these historic sites, Melrose and Lemee House, and well as the rich cultural legacy of Natchitoches, is so important.  Having Cammie's story now available now only adds to the rich history at Melrose and hopefully will help support their cause.  I lobbied a little bit for the site manager job at Melrose but I didn't get very far!  ;)

In short, there was never any reason for me to be so nervous; everyone was, as Natchitoches always is, so warm and welcoming.  I was sorry for the night to end.  I was sorry we sold out of books: I wanted everyone to be able to go home with a book, but the bookstore did take orders and promise free shipping as soon as they arrive, so it turned out fine.

After the event, Steve and I headed down to my favorite eatery, Pioneer Pub, for fried alligator bites (and he had eggplant fries).  After dinner we turned north on I-49 and headed home but I felt like a kid at Christmas for the next 24 hours.

I'm looking forward to sharing Cammie's story in the coming months; the next event is the Louisiana Book Festival in Baton Rouge on November 9-10.

As I prepare now to begin another book, I'm not moving too far away from Cammie.  I don't want to go into details on the project yet but I will say that I am collaborating with someone on this one and I could not be more excited about it.  We've been doing some necessary legwork over the past few months and have all the pieces in place now, so I've boxed up my Cammie files, kept out the things I'm going to carry over, I've cleaned off my desk and I'm ready to start writing.

I'm not comfortable with a lot of self serving posts like this but the event was so wonderful and so gratifying that I just had to share it.  I can't thank everyone involved enough for making this happen.

Further Reading:
Cane River Bohemia Book Signing Held at Cammie G. Henry Research Center (Natchitoches Parish Journal, October 19, 2018).

What are You Reading?

What are you reading?

I want to know!

I recently finished reading  One-in-a-Million Boy by Monica Wood at the recommendation of my daughter, who has never steered me wrong in books, and it was exquisite.   I loved every single page and every little nuance.  It was simply the most beautiful book I've read in a long time.

It's a book that makes you feel smart, too.  So often I was thinking, "Yep, I see what you did there!  Very good!"

The premise of the book via Amazon is:

The story of your life never starts at the beginning. Don't they teach you anything at school?  

So says 104-year-old Ona to the 11-year-old boy who's been sent to help her out every Saturday morning. As he refills the bird feeders and tidies the garden shed, Ona tells him about her long life, from first love to second chances. Soon she's confessing secrets she has kept hidden for decades. 

One Saturday, the boy doesn't show up. Ona starts to think he's not so special after all, but then his father arrives on her doorstep, determined to finish his son's good deed. The boy's mother is not so far behind. Ona is set to discover that the world can surprise us at any age, and that sometimes sharing a loss is the only way to find ourselves again.

The relationship between Ona and the boy (he is never named) is charming and heartwarming.  Their conversations are delightful, funny, and enlightening.

I fell in love with Ona, yes, but I also fell in love with Quinn and with the boy who I really feel like I know.  But most of all, I fell in love with the writing of Monica Wood.

I have decided to buy this book for everyone I know for Christmas because everyone needs to read it simply because it's so beautifully written and crafted.

True love = me and this book.

I'm also doing some YA reading to keep up with my students so I just finished reading We'll Fly Away by Brian Bliss which is on the long list for the National Book Award.

This book will definitely engage my students and I can't wait to share it with them.  So many of them are in love with Angie Thomas's The Hate u Give and while this is not exactly like that, (different plot) it is as engaging.

Here's the premise for We'll Fly Away from the National Book Foundation:

Uniquely told through letters from death row and third-person narrative, Bryan Bliss’s hard-hitting third novel expertly unravels the string of events that landed a teenager in jail. Luke feels like he’s been looking after Toby his entire life. He patches Toby up when Toby’s father, a drunk and a petty criminal, beats on him, he gives him a place to stay, and he diffuses the situation at school when wise-cracking Toby inevitably gets into fights. Someday, Luke and Toby will leave this small town, riding the tails of Luke’s wrestling scholarship, and never look back.  

But during their senior year, they begin to drift apart. Luke is dealing with his unreliable mother and her new boyfriend. And Toby unwittingly begins to get drawn into his father’s world, and falls for an older woman. All their long-held dreams seem to be unraveling. Tense and emotional, this heartbreaking novel explores family, abuse, sex, love, friendship, and the lengths a person will go to protect the people they love.

Again, I felt like I knew these people.  Bryan Bliss has created a heart wrenching, thoroughly believable story and the tragedy of this book is that what happens to Luke and Toby can and does happen to our teenagers all the time. #truth

The writing is fast-paced, the dialogue is real, and whether or not you're into YA lit, you should read this book because it has implications for adults as well.  As a teacher, it has a message for me, too.  I'm interested in checking out other books by this author.

I've been reading a new author lately - new to me, that is.  I was checking out the list of authors that will be at the Louisiana Book Festival in November (I'll be there with Cane River Bohemia) and came across Steph Post.  When Michael Connelly writes the blurb for your book, I'm going to check you out!

I'm a stickler for reading books in order so I started with A Tree Born Crooked; again, here's the premise from Amazon:

James Hart, with a tough-as-nails exterior and an aching emptiness inside, does not want to go home. Yet when James receives a postcard from his mother, Birdie Mae, informing him of his father's death, he bites the bullet and returns to the rural and stagnant town of Crystal Springs, Florida, a place where dreams are born to die. James is too late for Orville's funeral, but just in time to become ensnared in the deadly repercussions of his younger brother Rabbit's life of petty crime. When Rabbit is double crossed by his cousin in a robbery-turned-murder, James and a local bartender, the unsettling and alluring Marlena Bell, must come up with a plan to save Rabbit's skin. A whirlwind road trip across the desolate Florida panhandle ensues as James tries to stay one step ahead of the vengeful Alligator Mafia and keep his brother alive. With bullets in the air and the ghosts of heartache, betrayal and unspeakable rage haunting him at every turn, James must decide just how much he is willing to risk to protect his family and find a way home.

I loved this book and I loved the characters, even the ones you're not supposed to like.  The whole time I was reading this book all I could think of was, "First novel?  Good lord, I can't wait to see what this writer can do!"

The story was fast-paced and full of suspense.  I was quite satisfied with the ending and so I moved on to Post's next novel immediately which is Lightwood.

Lightwood begins the Cannon trilogy and begins with Judah Cannon walking out of prison after serving his time for the family crime business.  He immediately reconnects with his lovely girl, Ramey, and then life gets complicated - not because of Ramey, but because  Judah is sucked back into the family business so fast he doesn't know what happened. He promises Ramey that they'll break free.  Soon.  Just not yet.  Tension.

In this book, Post creates one of the more interesting characters I've ever come across in Sister Tulah, a truly crazy preacher who has an iron thumb over the entire county.  You just know there is more to her story and Post artfully withholds some of that for later.

Where Lightwood ends, Walk in the Fire continues, the second book in the Cannon trilogy. I'm not finished with this one yet, but with only a quarter of the book left, I can tell it's going to be a real page turner until the end.  We have many of the same characters in this book as with Lightwood; even some of the ones who didn't survive Lightwood have a role in Walk in the Fire.  Post introduces a few new characters to this story and with each book I can see her craft become more and more polished.

I can say that because I've also read an advance copy of her latest novel, Miraculum, which will come out in January 2019.  I'll do a full review of Miraculum in a few weeks, closer to her publishing date, but just go ahead and pre-order that one because you're going to want to read it.

Miraculum is not about the Cannons, but is completely separate.  (Will there be a sequel, Steph?!)

 For now, I'll just say this:  think Ray Bradbury's Something Wicked this Way Comes crossed with The Greatest Showman, and Water for Elephants; add a serving of Steph Post suspense and tension, and you have Miraculum.  I truly loved this book and can't wait to share it with everyone!  It's the kind of book that even after you close the covers it stays with you.  You keep thinking about it.

I hope someone makes a really great movie out of this one because it's so visual and so textured; the characters are rich and finely drawn, and Daniel Revont needs to be played by Daniel Day Lewis.  Just saying.

I'm usually reading two, maybe three books, at a time and so I'm about to begin Delia Owens's book Where the Crawdads Sing.  This is another one recommended by my daughter, and like I said, she's never steered me wrong.  I can't wait to start it!  I also have some YA that I brought home for Fall Break reading: Mirage by Somaiya Daud and Dry, by Neil Shusterman among them.

How can one not love reading?!  There are so many great adventures between the covers of a book!

So, what are you reading?