Reading about Louisiana

Here are some recommendations:

The Awakening by Kate Chopin

Why not? She started the group, I feel she can set it up any way she pleases.

I personally like it being set up this way. It's easy to pick the state of your choosing and see what books people recommend.

Then why are you on this group to begin with? I'm not sure what your problems or difficulties are. If you don't like the group, I'm sure there are many others from you to pick from.

Also, Interview with a Vampire is an excellent New Orleans book. I love/hate Anne Rice, but I have to admit that she really nailed the feel/smell/way of New Orleans in that one. For other Louisiana stuff, Charlaine Harris's Dead series is really pretty good and rather funny. Granted, both of these suggestions are lighter reading!

Tunarubber, he doesn't even belong to the group. I think someone's a bit touchy at being accused of trolling (fairly accurately, in some groups including this one).

>6 radiantarchangelus: I don't mind lighter reading at all and in fact, I really like the Harris books!

>7 BoPeep: I have the group set up so anyone can post. I figured I'd get more recommendations if someone didn't have to join.

Oh, Louisiana! I can give you such a long list!

One of the few books by Anne Rice that I can recommend without reservation is The Feast of All Saints, about free people of color in New Orleans. For a different take on the same subject, look at Barbara Hambly's Benjamin January mysteries.

John Kennedy Toole's A Confederacy of Dunces is a wonderfully funny novel, inspired in part by the Lucky Dogs, Inc. vending company, about which Jerry E. Strahan has written a delightful non-fiction work, Managing Ignatius.

Nancy Lemann wrote a good book about Louisiana politics (always a fascinating subject) called The Ritz of the Bayou.

And I'm currently recommending to everyone Chris Rose's 1 Dead in Attic. Chris is a columnist for the Times-Picayune; this is a collection of his Katrina columns.

For more suggestions, feel free to look at my catalogue for books tagged "Louisiana" or "New Orleans".

I heartily second lilithcat's recommendation of 1 Dead in Attic. Warning - it is by no means an easy read. It is, quite frankly, heartbreaking.

Need a powerful classic:

All the King's Men by Robert Penn Warren.

About Huey Long but fictional. It doesn't mention Long by name... for that matter, while it mentions Arkansas, Texas and everything west of there, I don't believe the world Louisiana is printed anywhere. There's no doubt about the place, though.

All the King's Men, definitely. Feast of All Saints, another excellent choice. Interview with the Vampire and The Vampire Lestat, if you have a "taste" for the vampire lore. If you want more modern fiction, and more of rural Louisiana than New Orleans, try James Lee Burke's detective fiction. Hard-boiled to a degree, but exceptionally literary. Start near the beginning, with Heaven's Prisoners He carries his protagonist, Dave Robicheaux through the years, and his personal development is as interesting as the plot lines, but locale is essential as well. You would also do well to read Ernest J. Gaines' fiction. A Gathering of Old Men, A Lesson Before Dying.
For non-fiction, read Bayou Farewell by Tidwell. It was tolling the death knell of the salt marshes, bayous and even New Orleans itself, long before Hurricane Katrina did her damage. For a more current assessment, try "Why New Orleans matters. The choices for Louisiana are endless

Louisiana: James Lee Burke

The Earl of Louisiana by A.J. Liebling is an immensely entertaining book. It's about Earl Long, Huey Long's uncle and Governor of Louisiana. If you remember the movie Blaze, with Paul Newman, that's the guy. Out of print but well worth looking for.

Tim Gautreaux

#16: LOVED that movie. "Earl Long is the sanest man I know" KaBLOOOEEEY!!! *Shotgun blast to the lawnmower*

There are so many set in New Orleans. Here's quite a few...

http://avidreader25.blogspot.com/2012/05/reading-states-louisiana.html