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Octavia Books continues to advance New Orleans' fine
tradition of independent bookselling. Tom Lowenburg and Judith Lafitte and their
staff carefully handpick every title to ensure a quality selection.
Patrons also return to savor the store's relaxing natural ambiance, spacious
aisles, high ceilings, exposed New Orleans hard-tan brick walls, coffee bar,
outdoor courtyard and waterfall -- complete with hungry goldfish and tropical
plants. Tom and Judith's renovation of this 100-year-old building, which once
housed a corner grocery and stable, earned them Best of New Orleans
Architecture honors from New Orleans Magazine
and a Golden Hammer award from the City of New Orleans.
The Octavia Books family hopes you will stop by to sip
complimentary coffee or tea, explore our shelves, and share your thoughts with
us. And when you can't shop in person at our physical store, we hope
you'll enjoy visiting us here on the web where you can find out the latest news,
check out upcoming events and order from well over two million titles at your
fingertips. We are happy to ship directly to you; or you can arrange to pick up
your order at our store.
Thank you for acknowledging the importance of our
role as an independent bookstore and for making us your bookstore of
choice!
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Greetings from Octavia Books, where we are pleased to report that our Katrina-proof goldfish are still happily swimming in the fountain and our bookselling activities continue to thrive as we work to rebuild our New Orleans community. Octavia Books' entire wide and remarkably varied selection is available for perusal and purchase both at octaviabooks.com as well as in the store -- where our well-read staff is always happy to provide friendly service.
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Booklovers like to say that "books take you places," sweeping you away to other lands and times. But, it is also true that there are many wonderful books which will open your eyes to the unique history, people and environment of areas much closer to home. New Orleans, Louisiana, and the Gulf South are fertile grounds for all kinds of books. And, of course, you will find the best collection of local interest titles at Octavia Books. Check out these.
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My New Orleans: The Cookbook
by
Besh, John
"My New Orleans" will change the way you look at New Orleans cooking and the way you see World-famous chef John Besh. It's 16 chapters of culture, history, essay and insight, and pure goodness. Besh tells us the story of his New Orleans by the season and by the dish. Archival, four-color, location photography along with ingredient information make the Big Easy easy to tackle in home kitchens. Cooks will salivate over the 200 recipes that honor and celebrate everything New Orleans.Bite by bite John Besh brings us New Orleans cooking like we've never tasted before. It's the perfect blend of contemporary French techniques with indigenous Southern Louisiana products and know-how. His amazing new offering is exclusively brought to fans and foodies everywhere by Andrews McMeel. From Mardi Gras, to the shrimp season, to the urban garden, to gumbo weather, boucherie (the season of the pig), and everything tasty in between, Besh gives a sampling of New Orleans that will have us all craving for more. The boy from the Bayou isn't just an acclaimed chef with an exceptional pallet. Besh is a chef with a heart. The ex-marine's passion for the Crescent City, its people, and its livelihood are main courses making him a leader of the city's culinary recovery and resilience after the wrath of Hurricane Katrina. What People Are Saying "John Besh is one of the best American chefs of his generation. His extensive knowledge of true Louisiana dishes and traditions adds tremendous credibility to his writing." --Paul Prudhomme, chef and owner of K-Paul's Louisiana Kitchen Magic Seasoning Blends "In his definitive tome, "My New Orleans," John Besh captures the true, sweet, and honest voice of a clarinet playing the jazzy song of one of our most deliciously exclusive regional American kitchens." --Mario Batali, Iron Chef, restaurateur, author "This book is an act of soul. Maestro Besh lives the life he cooks; he doesn't just tell us how to prepare Louisiana favorites, he teaches us what these dishes mean, with an emphasis on how hospitality can enrich civilization." --Wynton Marsalis, musician "John will take you into the heartland of the South, rich with traditions, stories, and of course, its amazing cuisine " --Daniel Boulud, chef, restaurateur, and author A portion of the proceeds from the sale of this book will be donated to Cafe Reconcile, a New Orleans-based non-profit organization dedicated to providing at-risk youth an opportunity to learn life and interpersonal skills, and operational training for successful entry into the hospitality and restaurant industries. |
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What's Happening at Octavia BooksTitle of Event: LETTER TO MY DAUGHTER by George Bishop - book release/reading/signing
When: Thursday, February 18, 2010 6:00 PM
Location: Octavia Books, 513 Octavia St., New Orleans, LA 70115
Phone: 504-899-READ
Description:
"George Bishop writes Letter to My Daughter with a keen eye, an open heart and a lot of love. This mother's letter to her fifteen year old daughter will stay with you long after you've put it down. I am sure I will return to it again as a cautionary tale and a parable of forgiveness. I highly recommend it."
—Adriana Trigiani, author of Lucia, Lucia and Very Valentine
"In George Bishop’s spare and powerful Letter to My Daughter, a mother confesses with startling honesty a life of passion and loss and survival. Meant as an apology to her runaway child, it is both heartbreaking and heart healing."
—John Biguenet, author of Oyster and The Torturer’s Apprentice
"Letter to My Daughter is a first novel of immense power. It makes George Bishop a novelist to keep your eye on. As a father of five daughters, reading the book made me wish I'd written a letter to my own girls, describing my own failures and dilemmas as an American teenager."
—Pat Conroy, bestselling author of South of Broad
Dear Elizabeth,
It's early morning and I'm sitting here wondering where you are, hoping you're all right.
A fight, ended by a slap, sends Elizabeth out the door of her Baton Rouge home on the eve of her fifteenth birthday. Her mother, Laura, is left to fret and worry—and remember. Wracked with guilt as she awaits Liz's return, Laura begins a letter to her daughter, hoping to convey "everything I've always meant to tell you but never have."
In her painfully candid confession, Laura shares memories of her own troubled adolescence in rural Louisiana, growing up in an intensely conservative household. She recounts her relationship with a boy she loved despite her parents' disapproval, the fateful events that led to her being sent away to a strict Catholic boarding school, the personal tragedy brought upon her by the Vietnam War, and, finally, the meaning of the enigmatic tattoo below her right hip.
Absorbing and affirming, George Bishop's magnificent debut brilliantly captures a sense of time and place with a distinct and inviting voice. Letter to My Daughter is a heartwrenching novel of mothers, daughters, and the lessons we all learn when we come of age.
George Bishop holds an MFA from the University of North Carolina at Wilmington, where he won the department's Award of Excellence for a collection of stories. He has spent most of the past decade living and teaching overseas in Slovakia, Turkey, Indonesia, Azerbaijan, India, and Japan. He now lives in New Orleans.
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Unique and provocative selections from a great diversity of voices...all personally recommended by the independent booksellers of America.
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The Angel's Game
by
Ruiz Zafon, Carlos
In the tradition of Dickens, who wrote books that enjoyed massive success in their time, The Angel's Game is a guaranteed page turner with many twists and turns of plot, a touch of horror, and much suspense. The story takes us back to the gothic universe of the Cemetery of Forgotten Books, the Sempere and Son bookshop, and the winding streets of Barcelona's old quarter, in a masterful tale about the magic of books and the darkest corners of the human soul. The book is an examination of the power of books to change our lives in ways we don't even realize.--Milane Christiansen, The Book Works (Del Mar, CA) |
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At Octavia Books we are always eager to help you make new discoveries. Select below for a taste of just a few of the books we've been enjoying.
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The Witch's Guide to Cooking with Children
by
McGowan, Keith,
Tanaka, Yoko
When Sol and Connie Blink move to Grand Creek, one of the first people to welcome them is an odd older woman, Fay Holaderry, and her friendly dog, Swift, who carries a very strange bone in his mouth. Sol knows a lot more than the average eleven-year-old, so when he identifies the bone as human, he and Connie begin to wonder if their new neighbor is up to no good. In a spine-tingling adventure that makes them think twice about who they can trust, Sol and Connie discover that solving mysteries can be a dangerous game--even for skilled junior sleuths. |
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New Orleans' unique culture and charm have captivated hundreds of writers, including William Faulkner, Walker Percy, Andrei Codrescu and Pulitzer Prize winners Rick Bragg and Richard Ford. Best-selling author Anne Rice was born in the City That Care Forgot and considers her birthplace the perfect muse. Photographers Richard Sexton and Kerri McCaffety have painstakingly documented the Crescent City with richly detailed images. Choose an author name for more information.
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City of Refuge
by
Piazza, Tom
In November, 2005, Octavia Books, the first New Orleans bookstore to reopen after Katrina, hosted the event that launched Tom Piazza's WHY NEW ORLEANS MATTERS, the book that defined New Orleaneans' response to the Hurricane and the profound impact on our people and culture. Now, in CITY OF REFUGE, this brilliantly talented, award-winning writer reaches deeper and wider to offer a shattering, panoramic novel that traces the stories of two families -- one white and one black -- as lives are torn apart by the storm and then slowly stitched back together in its aftermath.
In August 2005, SJ Williams, a carpenter who has lived the Lower Ninth Ward all his life, is headed for a confrontation with his young nephew, Wesley, who has just been arrested for beating up his girlfriend. SJ’s older sister Lucy, Wesley’s mother, is a soulful mess beloved by everyone, but she has been unable to corral her son, and SJ fears he is about to be lost for good. Meanwhile, across town, Craig Donaldson, a Midwestern transplant and the editor of the city’s (fictitious) Gumbo weekly newspaper, is facing deepening cracks in his own family. Craig’s love for New Orleans music and culture brought them to the city, but his wife Alice’s alarm at the city’s crime, poverty, and bad schools has become an ever-widening wedge between her and Craig, and their two young children Annie and Malcolm.
When the storm breaks, and the levee with it, SJ’s home is flooded and his family scattered – Lucy to the Superdome and then to a remote camp in Missouri, Wesley to upstate New York, and SJ to Texas, where he struggles to locate, and reunite with, Lucy and Wesley. The Donaldsons, too, find their family strained to breaking by the storm: Alice persuades Craig to evacuate, and they flee—first to Jackson, Mississippi, and then finally to Alice’s family in the Chicago area. After the storm, Craig is determined to return, but he soon realizes that he may have to choose between the city he loves or the family he hoped to raise there.
Reaching across America—from the neighborhoods of New Orleans to Houston, Chicago, and elsewhere—CITY OF REGUGE explores this turning point in American culture. Like John Steinbeck’s THE GRAPES OF WRATH, it sounds complex chords of race, class, culture, and regional identity, but always through the double helix of these two families’ lives. Piazza’s characters will live in readers’ minds and hearts, and their encounter with the storm will confront us all with raw truths about our city, our nation and ourselves. Rich with emotional insight and unforgettable scenes, it will challenge, and deeply move, every reader everywhere.
To highlight release of CITY OF REFUGE, Octavia Books has produced a "podcast," in which you can hear Fred Kasten interview Tom Piazza about the novel.
Click here to listen to the interview and catch Tom Piazza reading a passage from CITY OF REFUGE.
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