Terrebonne’s people, places featured in “Beasts of the Southern Wild”
June 28, 2012
It’ll eat ya mind up: ‘Cajun Justice’ presents the rougarou and naval warfare
June 29, 2012
11th HOUR
By James Patterson & Maxine Paetro
Little, Brown $27.99
The “Women’s Murder Club” is back and immediately faced with two major cases: one, the bizarre discovery of two bodiless human heads displayed on the back patio of a famous movie star’s mansion; the other, the point-blank shooting of a major drug dealer, the fifth such killing with the same gun stolen from Lindsay Boxer’s own evidence locker.
While even more heads are uncovered, Lindsay is particularly concerned with the drug killer but is strangely discouraged from pursuing it by her superior.
It’s another super fast-paced thriller by Patterson and team.
STAY CLOSE
By Harlan Coben
Dutton $27.95
Three long-separated friends are brought together again by a series of murders, which could aptly be called “The Mardi Gras Murders,” since, every year on or about that holiday, some guy gets murdered. Ray, a once-successful photographer now reduced to staging paparazzi photo shoots for wealthy would-be celebrities, is reunited with Megan, a soccer mom with a secret past, and Broome, a detective who’s obsessed with the cold case disappearance of a man 17 years prior.
It’s the fantastic kind of mystery at which Coben excels.
THE SKELETON BOX
By Bryan Gruley
Touchtone $25
In Starvation Lake, Mich., a burglar breaks into the houses of elderly women while they’re playing bingo at the local church, rummages among their files and papers, but steals nothing. What he’s looking for is what’s troubling local newspaper editor, Gus Carpenter, whose mother’s house was broken into and her best friend spending the night was killed. Eventually, he finds a possible connection with a former priest at the church and the contents of a lockbox kept hidden for years.
Ice hockey fans get a bonus in this series that features the popular hometown team, the “River Rats.”
THE ACCIDENTAL CITY
Improvising New Orleans
By Lawrence N. Powell
Harvard University Press $29.95
Why in the world was New Orleans located at its present site, infested with snakes and mosquitoes, threatened with hurricanes and floods, despite the French government’s opposition?
Bienville saw it as “the perfect site for a world-class port and storied metropolis,” not to mention he also happened to have large land concessions there. With the contributions of former slaves, Creoles, merchants and settlers, the process of improvising New Orleans began.
Powell, who is director of the New Orleans Center for the Gulf South at Tulane, has written a lucid and exciting history of the birth of the city he loves, perfectly timed for Louisiana’s bicentennial.
BUTTERFLY IN THE TYPEWRITER
By Cory MacLauchlin
Da Capo $26
Fans of “A Confederacy of Dunces” will certainly appreciate this fully documented portrait of John Kennedy Toole, the creator of Ignatius J. Reilly. Toole, a happy, funny, and precocious kid, skipped his first two years of school, graduated at 16, received a degree from SLI (now ULL) in Lafayette, then was drafted and stationed in Puerto Rico where he wrote “Confederacy.”
But after years failing to have the book published, he became despondent, gave up writing, and several years later, tragically committed suicide. His mother found the manuscript and gave it to famed writer, Walker Percy, who was influential in having it published. Ironically, the work won the Pulitzer Prize.
MORE BADDER GRAMMAR!
By Sharon Eliza Nichols
St. Martin’s Press $9.99
No doubt you’ve seen these abominations of the English language on signs, want ads and even in newspapers. The most egregious error is in the use of the apostrophe, as in “Crawl In’s welcome,” sign at a chiropractor’s office, and misspelled words, as in “Leather Couch with Automen, Brand new 5 years ago,”– a Craigslist ad.
Photos of actual signs add to the levity.
Very funny, but sad.
– Raymond “Ray” Saadi is a longtime local radio station owner/operator who’s moved from broadcasting to books. Now retired, he has been writing book reviews for more than 12 years.
James Patterson, who claims his books have sold an estimated 260 million copies worldwide, turns in another fast-paced thriller with “11th Hour.”
“11th Hour”
“Stay Close”
“The Skeleton Box”
“The Accidental City: Improvising New Orleans”
“Butterfly in the Typewriter”
“More Badder Grammar!”
