The definitive guide to all things Mardi Gras . . . past and present! From Twelfth Night to Ash Wednesday, New Orleans is transformed. Queens and fools, demons and dragons reign over the Crescent City. This vividly photographed book is a lively, comprehensive history of Mardi Gras in New Orleans. Fascinating and intimate, this book seamlessly intertwines the past with the present.

When the smiling King of Carnival is killed at Mardi Gras, policewoman Skip Langdon is on the case. She knows the upper-crust family of the victim and that it hides more than its share of glittering skeletons. But nothing could prepare her for the tangled web of clues and ancient secrets that would mean danger for her--and doom for the St. Amants.... "Smith is a gifted writer." THE WASHINGTON POST BOOK WORLD

?

One of the first women's organizations to mask and perform during Mardi Gras, the Million Dollar Baby Dolls redefined the New Orleans carnival tradition. Tracing their origins from Storyville-era brothels and dance halls to their re-emergence in post-Katrina New Orleans, author Kim Marie Vaz uncovers the fascinating history of the "raddy-walking, shake-dancing, cigar-smoking, money-flinging" ladies who strutted their way into a predominantly male establishment. The Baby Dolls formed around 1912 as an organization of African American women who used their profits from working in New Orleans's red-light district to compete with other Black prostitutes on Mardi Gras. Part of this event involved the tradition of masking, in which carnival groups create a collective identity through costuming. Their baby doll costumes -- short satin dresses, stockings with garters, and bonnets -- set against a bold and provocative public behavior not only exploited stereotypes but also empowered and made visible an otherwise marginalized female demographic. Over time, different neighborhoods adopted the Baby Doll tradition, stirring the creative imagination of Black women and men across New Orleans, from the downtown Trem area to the uptown community of Mahalia Jackson. Vaz follows the Baby Doll phenomenon through one hundred years with photos, articles, and interviews and concludes with the birth of contemporary groups, emphasizing these organizations' crucial contribution to Louisiana's cultural history.

Between the World Wars, New Orleans transformed its image from that of a corrupt and sullied port of call into that of a national tourist destination. Anthony J. Stanonis tells how boosters and politicians reinvented the city to build a modern mass tourism industry and, along the way, fundamentally changed the city's cultural, economic, racial, and gender structure. Stanonis looks at the importance of urban development, historic preservation, taxation strategies, and convention marketing to New Orleans' makeover and chronicles the city's efforts to domesticate its jazz scene, "democratize" Mardi Gras, and stereotype local blacks into docile, servile roles. He also looks at depictions of the city in literature and film and gauges the impact on New Orleans of white middle-class America's growing prosperity, mobility, leisure time, and tolerance of women in public spaces once considered off-limits. Visitors go to New Orleans with expectations rooted in the city's "past": to revel with Mardi Gras maskers, soak up the romance of the French Quarter, and indulge in rich cuisine and hot music. Such a past has a basis in history, says Stanonis, but it has been carefully excised from its gritty context and scrubbed clean for mass consumption.

Marie Etienne's new collection of essays is fast-paced, heartfelt, and brutally honest. At 43, recently diagnosed as bipolar and on the brink of suicide, Etienne struggles to come to terms with deep-rooted feelings of fear, shame, and resentment by facing head-on who she really was, who she wanted to be, and what she was willing to do to make her life worth living. Etienne explores themes of love versus lust, the legacy of murder and suicide among her siblings, and the redemptive powers of faith, forgiveness, and courage. This story reveals the unstoppable drive of a woman determined to forge her own path through the world.

Brandy Alexander. Names for a cold drink and a hot babe. In New Orleans the combination can be dangerous. So with a name like Brandy Alexander - it seems her life's course was already determined. On the day she was born, her father and uncle waited in a bar and decided that Brandy would be a great name for a girl with the last name of Alexander. Her mother reminds her is it a great one for a stripper and blames Brandy-as if she had anything to do with it. Being childhood sweethearts with her police officer boyfriend, doesn't stop her from kissing a handsome stranger at a Mardi Gras Parade. A kiss that rocks her world and complicates her life. Before she has a chance to find out his name or who he is - he is shot By the time an ambulance arrives, he has asked for her help in saving Isabella. Isabella is not at all what she expected. As Brandy tries to unravel the sudden complications in her life, the Mardi Gras parade serves as a backdrop and foil to her search for answers. Disguised identities in crowded and narrow streets, colorful characters and a four-legged femme fatale add up to magic, mystery and dazzling reveals. Will Brandy ever find out the true identity of her Mardi Gras mystery man? Who is Isabella and why is she so important to him? New Orleans is a character of its own in this whimsical story of tangled lives, plot twists and historical references. Just as music is an essential part of New Orleans, so is the lyrical lexicon of club patrons, locals and a friend called Duck Man. Brandy Alexander lives up to her name in the first of The Go Cup Chronicle Series. She stirs up trouble but will she remain unshaken? There's no place like New Orleans to have a good crime. From the Series The New Orleans Go Cup Chronicles

"The move from spectator to participant is a quantum leap. Yet each Mardi Gras in New Orleans, thousands of people make that leap, abandoning inhibition and reveling in the ever-growing creative phenomenon of marching krewes ... Simply put, a marching krewe is a group of like-minded people who get together for the purpose of marching in parades that take place during the Carnival (Mardi Gras) season. These krewes come in all shapes, sizes, and variations, yet they all share the attributes of creativity, artistry, quirkiness, humor, inclusiveness, and accessibility. Krewes are composed of people who practice dance moves, sew costumes, and create 'throws' to hand out to a covetous public"--Publisher marketing.