Deb hadn't flown in over 20 years. In 1989, at the age of 22, Deb was enrolled at Griffiss Airforce Base to become a commercial pilot. Somewhere between dating her yuppie fiancé and planning their wedding in Chicago, Deb developed claustrophobia--a fear of enclosed spaces. I blame the yuppie. Deb couldn't get on a plane for love that day, but she could do it 20 years later for money. Money was worth dying for.

Arriving from France in the Spring of 1831 on a mission to learn about America and its unique new government, a young Alexis de Tocqueville - future world renowned writer and philosopher - found many things to excite and inspire him, especially in its third largest city, New Orleans. At the time, the Crescent City was the most wide open of America's cities. It was a thriving melting pot teaming with creativity, intrigue, and heavy on personality. Blood was shed nearly every day beneath the huge spreading oaks of City Park. When war came, New Orleans assumed the mantle of largest city in the Confederacy and the Union's Number One Military Target. Secretly accompanying Tocqueville to America was his brother, Hippolyte. In December of 1831, the two accidently separated, never to see each other again. Alexis returned to France and fame as a world renowned social commentator, Hippolyte stayed on in America and accomplished even more in his own way. This is Hippolyte's story. It is also the story of Abraham Lincoln, steamboating, the pirate Jean Lafitte, a slave named Tom Armstrong, a host of other famous American heroes, of the birth of technology, and of America's Civil War. It is also the story of Longfellow, Louisiana, Huey Long, and a love affair so intense it is commemorated in one of America's most famous pieces of classic literature.

After Hurricane Katrina in 2005, many high-profile chefs in New Orleans pledged to help their city rebound from the flooding. Several formed their own charitable organizations, including the John Besh Foundation, to help revitalize the region and its restaurant scene. A year and a half after the disaster when the total number of open restaurants eclipsed the pre-Katrina count, it was embraced as a sign that the city itself had survived, and these chefs arguably became the de facto heroes of the city's recovery. Meanwhile, food justice organizations tried to tap into the city's legendary food culture to fundraise, marketing high-end dining events that centered these celebrity chefs. Jeanne K. Firth documents the growth of celebrity humanitarianism, viewing the phenomenon through the lens of feminist ethnography to understand how elite philanthropy is raced, classed, and gendered. Firth finds that cultures of sexism in the restaurant industry also infuse chef-led philanthropic initiatives. As she examines this particular flavor of elite, celebrity-based philanthropy, Firth illuminates the troubled relationships between consumerism, food justice movements, and public-private partnerships in development and humanitarian aid.

A Rare Snowfall Leads to a Christmas to Remember Three heartwarming, interconnected stories of faith, love, and restoration, brought to you by three Louisiana-native authors. Will a rare snowy Louisiana Christmas bring restoration and hope to the hometown and hearts of three women from the town’s founding family? In A Louisiana Snow by Morgan Tarpley Smith, meet Mattie: A passionate visionary who learns to forgive and finds love in unexpected places… In Restoring Christmas by Betsy St. Amant, meet Jolene: An artist and prodigal daughter who discovers love exists in the very place she once called home… In A Christmas Reunion by Lenora Worth, meet Adale: A beautiful widow who finally dares to love again… And don’t forget Granny, whose feisty spirit, blunt dialogue, and quirky ways play an important and endearing role.

The Dictionary of Louisiana French (DLF) provides the richest inventory of French vocabulary in Louisiana and reflects precisely the speech of the period from 1930 to the present. This dictionary describes the current usage of French-speaking peoples in the five broad regions of South Louisiana: the coastal marshes, the banks of the Mississippi River, the central area, the north, and the western prairie. Data were collected during interviews from at least five persons in each of twenty-four areas in these regions. In addition to the data collected from fieldwork, the dictionary contains material compiled from existing lexical inventories, from texts published after 1930, and from archival recordings. The new authoritative resource, the DLF not only contains the largest number of words and expressions but also provides the most complete information available for each entry. Entries include the word in the conventional French spelling, the pronunciation (including attested variants), the part of speech classification, the English equivalent, and the word's use in common phrases. The DLF features a wealth of illustrative examples derived from fieldwork and textual sources and identification of the parish where the entry was collected or the source from which it was compiled. An English-to-Louisiana French index enables readers to find out how particular notions would be expressed in la Louisiane .

"A delectable showcase of the Big Easy's matchless art and cuisine, New Orleans Kitchens includes specialty recipes such as po'boys, etouffee, gumbo, jambalaya, and oysters on the half shell, as well as art from the most prominent local galleries and museums"--Page 2 of cover.

This is a compilation of the twenty-eight earliest census records of Louisiana. Such records have proved time and again to be the foundation and touchstone of modern genealogy. These particular census records cover, at one period or another, Fort Maurepas, Biloxi, Mobile, Natchez, New Orleans, and other locations. The records are both civilian and military, mainly the former, and they extend from 1699 through 1732. Besides census records, the reader will find lists of 1,704 marriageable girls, a 1726 list of persons requesting negroes, landowner lists, and a list of persons massacred at Fort Rosalie in 1729. Other features include a synopsis of Louisiana's colonial history, tips on French colonial naming practices, and a comprehensive index of 5,000 names.

Get to Know the Famous Louisiana City’s Vibrant and Historic Neighborhoods From Lakeview and Mid-City to the Saenger Theatre and the Mercedes-Benz Superdome, the Big Easy is one of the world’s most fascinating places to explore. Grab your walking shoes, and become an urban adventurer. Lifelong resident and acclaimed author Barri Bronston leads you on 33 unique walking tours in this comprehensive guidebook. Visit the legendary restaurants, music clubs, parks, and museums—and go beyond the obvious—with self-guided tours through the incomparable Crescent City. Escape into nature at Audubon Park. Enjoy a walk at the Lafitte Greenway, the premier walkway from the French Quarter to City Park. Take in the refreshing views along the Lakefront. Marvel at the stunning and historic architecture of Old Metairie. With this guide in hand, you’ll soak up the history, gossip, trivia, and more. The tours offer Barri’s tips on where to eat, drink, dance, and play. With humorous anecdotes, surprising stories, and fun facts to share with others, this guidebook has it all. Whether you’re looking for the lively flair of Magazine Street or a hip neighborhood like Faubourg Marigny, Walking New Orleans will get you there. Find a route that appeals to you, and walk New Orleans!

Winner, 2020 Booker Worthen Literary Prize During the antebellum years, over 750,000 enslaved people were taken to the Lower Mississippi Valley, where two-thirds of them were sold in the slave markets of New Orleans, Natchez, and Memphis. Those who ended up in Louisiana found themselves in an environment of swamplands, sugar plantations, French-speaking creoles, and the exotic metropolis of New Orleans. Those sold to planters in the newly-opened Mississippi Delta cleared land and cultivated cotton for owners who had moved west to get rich as quickly as possible, driving this labor force to harsh extremes. Like enslaved people all over the South, those in the Lower Mississippi Valley left home at night for clandestine parties or religious meetings, sometimes “laying out” nearby for a few days or weeks. Some of them fled to New Orleans and other southern cities where they could find refuge in the subculture of slaves and free blacks living there, and a few attempted to live permanently free in the swamps and forests of the surrounding area. Fugitives also tried to returnto eastern slave states to rejoin families from whom they had been separated. Some sought freedom on the northern side of the Ohio River; othersfled to Mexico for the same purpose. Fugitivism provides a wealth of new information taken from advertisements, newspaper accounts, and court records. It explains how escapees made use of steamboat transportation, how urban runaways differed from their rural counterparts, how enslaved people were victimized by slave stealers, how conflicts between black fugitives and the white people who tried to capture them encouraged a culture of violence in the South, and how runaway slaves from the Lower Mississippi Valley influenced the abolitionist movement in the North. Readers will discover that along with an end to oppression, freedom-seeking slaves wanted the same opportunities afforded to most Americans.