New Book Releases

While the name of the city New Orleans itself implies reinvention, among its traits most beloved by residents and visitors alike in the 21st century are the things that have not changed much over time. Jazz, flavor, celebration, and a warm welcome are always on the menu.  Lifelong resident and author Troy Broussard recounts the more than three-century story of a city as familiar with rebuilding and rebirth after tragedy as it is with revelry.

Located at the center of the 12 rural parishes that comprise northeastern Louisiana, Monroe has long been a tiny metropolis offering its citizens a taste of the colorful politics and rich cultural history for which the Bayou State is known. Featuring the tales of the area's most prominent politicians, innovators, entrepreneurs, broadcasters, musicians, reality stars, athletes, educators, movers, shakers, and rabble-rousers, Legendary Locals of Monroe takes a look at the characters whose fascinating stories paint the vibrant history of this southern river city. Presented in a clear, concise format, this volume features biographical accounts that range from inspiring and captivating to shocking and tragic. Profiles include such notable locals as indie-film queen Parker Posey, Coca-Cola innovator Joseph Biedenharn, pizza restaurant dynamo Johnny Huntsman, Black Panther Party founder Huey P. Newton, baseball great Chuck Finley, country music superstar Andy Griggs, internationally renowned composer Frank Ticheli, flamboyant politician Shady Wall, and many more.

Discover how Jazz shaped the history and enhanced the life of the citizens of New Orleans.

From the days when Buddy Bolden would blow his cornet to attract an audience from one New Orleans park to another, to the brass bands in clubs and on the streets today, jazz in New Orleans has been about simple things: getting people to snap their fingers, tap their toes, get up and clap their hands, and most importantly dance! From the 1890s to World War I, from uptown to Faubourg Treme and out to the lakefront, New Orleans embraced this uniquely American form of music. Local musicians nurtured jazz, matured it, and passed it on to others. Some left the city to make their names elsewhere, while others stayed, playing the clubs, marching in the parades, and sending loved ones home with ""jazz funerals."" Older musicians mentored younger ones, preserving the traditions that give New Orleans such an exciting jazz scene today.

Legendary Locals of Shreveport chronicles fascinating people who have made a difference in the Shreveport-Bossier City area. Some are good, some are bad, and more than a few are wicked. There are movie starlets, entertainers, decorated war veterans, gangsters, preachers, madams, politicians, giants of industry, and humble folk who rose to greatness or infamy. Shreveport began as a rough and tumble frontier town that came late to being "civilized." A Baptist preacher shot one of Quantrill's Raiders when he rode his horse into church during a Sunday service. The most famous madam in the region was also a suffragette. The first successful bankers in Shreveport were immigrants from Prussia who developed a business model that extends into the modern era. Shreveport lost one quarter of its population in less than a month due to a yellow fever epidemic. And that is just the beginning.

Since its founding in 1718 by the LeMoyne brothers, New Orleans has cemented its status as one of the busiest ports on the continent. Producing many unique and fascinating individuals, Colonial New Orleans was a true gumbo of personalities. The city lays claim to many nationalities, including Spaniards Baron Carondelet, Don Andres Almonester, and French sailors and privateers Jean Lafitte and Dominique Youx. Businessmen like Daniel Henry Holmes and Isidore Newman contributed to local flavor, as did musicians Buddy Bolden, Joe "King" Oliver, Louis Armstrong, and Louis Prima. War heroes include P.G.T. Beauregard and Andrew Jackson Higgins. Avery Alexander, A.P. Tureaud, and Ernest Morial paved the way for African Americans to lead the city. Kate Chopin, Lafcadio Hearn, Ellen DeGeneres, Mel Ott, Archie Manning, and Drew Brees have kept the world entertained, while chefs and restaurateurs like Leah Chase and the Brennans sharpened the city's culinary chops. Legendary Locals of New Orleans pays homage to the notables that put spice in that gumbo.

The city of Plaquemine sits along the Mississippi River where it meets with Bayou Plaquemine. Famous French explorer Sieur d’Iberville was brought to the bayou in 1699 by the Bayogoula tribe, who inhabited land a few miles south. While trade boats and ferries began operating on the waterway during the early 1700s, it was not for another 100 years, in 1819, that the first foundations of a town began to appear at the mouth of the bayou. The cattle, sugarcane, and lumber industries brought English, French, Spanish, Italian, Irish, and German settlers and African slaves. After building the Plaquemine Lock in 1909, the city became a commercial hub for trade as it connected New Orleans with the western half of the state.

Humans first inhabited Metairie after the Mississippi River flowed through it, leaving behind natural levees--as well as Bayou Metairie--along Metairie Road. After the surrounding swampland was drained, other areas were developed, and in 2020, Metairie became the sixth-largest census designated place in the nation.

West Baton Rouge Parish was established in 1807 along the banks of the Mississippi River across from what would become Louisiana's capital. Its connection to the river has long been an attraction for the people who live here and the pioneers who first settled the area more than 200 years ago. Today, the parish has three incorporated towns--Addis, Brusly, and Port Allen. Because of the rich alluvial soil deposited by the Mississippi River, West Baton Rouge largely became an agricultural community; sugar has always been it biggest crop. In the early 20th century, the Texas & Pacific Railroad made the community a bustling hub. Over the years, West Baton Rouge's position along the river attracted petrochemical companies like Dow, ShinTech, and Placid Refining Company. Now, the parish has one of the largest deepwater ports and a thriving major chemical and manufacturing industry.

Opelousas, one of Louisiana's oldest European settlements, takes its name from the Opelousas tribe, who roamed the area for years before the first French explorers arrived.

After the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, the community was called Opelousas Church until it was officially incorporated as a town in 1821. Known for its hospitality, music, cuisine, and cultural diversity, Opelousas prospered during antebellum times, survived the Civil War, and suffered through the period of Reconstruction. In the late 1870s, the town again began to flourish with an increasing population and a great number of new businesses. The coming of the railroad in the 1880s led to more economic development, and Opelousas grew to be one of the most progressive towns in the state by the turn of the 20th century. In the 21st century, Opelousas is again seeing a revival of its past glory and continues to be the seat of Imperial St. Landry Parish, a title it has held for over 200 years.

Carola Lillie Hartley, a native of Opelousas, has worked for the city as tourism director and in 1993 became the first Opelousas Main Street director. A community activist and local historian for over 50 years, she has written numerous books and articles about Opelousas, including a weekly column titled Parlons Opelousas for the Daily World newspaper, part of the USA network.

Metairie is often considered the dull stepchild of New Orleans--a concrete "Anywhere, USA" lined with shopping malls frequented by fast-food eating, drive-up-daiquiri-drinking, cultureless suburbanites. Despite stereotypical misconceptions, sons and daughters of New Orleans who call Metairie home are every bit as colorful, talented, devious, and gracious as their relatives in the city. Johnny Wiggs kept New Orleans jazz alive. Verne Tripp invented
"perma-press" and pioneered use of the electron microscope. On Atherton Drive, David Ferrie plotted a Cuban coup. Peter Gennaro left his father's bar to become a Broadway star. Shirley Ann Grau raised her children here while writing novels. Al Scramuzza built a crawfish empire and coached Metairie children. Ellen Degeneres found national fame, while Becky Allen won our hearts at home. Those who may not be widely known but have impacted lives in the community and afar are also included in this book, which is a tribute to the people of Metairie.

Pierre Part and the shores of Belle River were inhabited by Acadian French-speaking people. They learned from their ancestors how to live off the land, and if more was harvested or hunted than their families could eat, they gave the extra food to their neighbors. There, each family resided in a small house, or a cabin'eau in French. It was typically a one-room structure with stakes (pier), walls (bar d'eau), and a shingle roof. Located at one end of the house, a fireplace was made of timber held together with mud and moss. Commonly, the home's frame was constructed of cypress boards, but some people also included cane reeds, palmetto, and shorter cypress boards to make the structure stronger. Some families would relocate from Bayou Lafourche to the swamps of the beautiful Belle River, where they had family or knew someone so that they could trap. When trapping season was over, they would return to their settlement.