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Upcoming Events at Octavia Books THE CTAVIAN Voted Best Octavia Books’ bi-monthly newsletter for booklovers Locally Owned Bookstore F ebruary / Ma rch 2 016 Mysteries of the Heart Your Heart is a What Belongs OCTAVIA BOOKS Muscle the Size to You 513 Octavia Street of Your Fist by Garth Greenwell New Orleans, LA 70115 by Sunil Yapa On an unseasonably 504-899-READ (7323) Yapa’s dazzling debut warm autumn day, an octaviabooks.com American teacher walks [email protected] novel is set during the 1999 WTO protests in down a stairwell beneath STORE HOURS Seattle. Over the course Sofia’s National Palace of one life-altering after- of Culture, looking for Open 10 am - 6 pm noon, the fates of seven sex. Among the stalls of a Monday - Saturday people will change forever: foremost among them public bathroom he encounters Mitko, a charismatic Sunday 10 am - 5 pm police Chief Bishop and his estranged son Victor. young hustler. He returns to Mitko again and again When Chief Bishop reluctantly unleashes tear gas on over the next few months, and their trysts grow the unsuspecting crowd, it seems his hopes for recon- increasingly intimate and unnerving as the enigma of ciliation with his son, as well as the future of his city, this young man becomes inseparable from that of his are in serious peril. Lee Boudreaux $26. homeland, a country with a difficult past and an uncertain future. Farrar, Straus, Giroux $23. The Love That Split the World by Emily Henry Natalie’s last summer in her small Kentucky home- town is off to a magical start until she starts seeing the wrong things. They’re just momentary glimpses at first: her front door is red instead of its usual Located in uptown New Orleans green, there’s a pre-school where the at the corner of Octavia garden store should be. But then her and Laurel Streets between whole town disappears for hours, and Magazine and Tchoupitoulas. that’s when she gets a visit from a kind but mysterious apparition who tells her: “You have three months to save him.” The next night, under the stadium lights of the high school foot- ball field, she meets a beautiful boy named Beau. Razorbill $17.99. 70115 Louisiana Orleans, New Street, Octavia 513 LOCAL FLAVORS Dear Booklover, The news lately has been full of anger and Vegan Dawlin’: (Almost) Fat-Free violence and fear, of catastrophe and tragedy. And increasingly it seems we are New Orleans Food from the Heart being pulled to opposing sides—sides by Barbara Ganucheau who often aren’t listening to each other. The author and lead singer of The Cold says: “There I was, zig-zagging along my path, when life jolted me awake when my skinny and athletic But humans are at their best when we husband of 32 years, Ray, had a heart attack. He was told he has a rare cooperate with empathy and compas- heart disease and basically can’t eat any fat—not even avocados. So we sion—when we take the time to connect and understand our fellow went into survival mode about three years ago, dropped all meat and travelers. And this belief is what drives us to do the work we do. became basically fat-free vegan. The recipes in this book came pouring Author Ian McEwan said that “imagining what it is like to be some- from my heart to fill his—as simple as that.” High ISO Music $39. one else is at the core of our humanity. It is the essence of compas- sion, and it is the beginning of morality.” It sounds beautiful, and The Red Storm by Grant Bywaters recent scientific studies are backing him up. Reading literature actu- Newly-minted private investigator William Fletcher is not the only man ally makes people more compassionate. Reading creates connec- out of work, but his past as a former heavyweight contender with a few tions, reveals the inner workings of our hearts, brings us together in shady connections, not to mention the color of his skin, isn’t helping lure pairs, in groups, in community. It makes us better people. clients to his door. With no alternative, he takes a case from an old crim- inal acquaintance, who assures him that the job is simple—locate his So, this issue is of The Octavian committed to holding up that light in missing daughter. But when Fletcher starts knocking on doors, he sets off the dark; the books we’re featuring in these pages celebrate joy, love, a catastrophic chain of events that turn the city into a bloody battle- wonder, and the capacity of the human spirit. It is fitting that ground between two rival syndicates. Minotaur $25.99. Valentine’s Day falls in the depths of winter. It is in this season that we are our most introspective, and a day to celebrate the complexi- Freedom in Congo Square (Ages 4-8) ties of love couldn’t come at a better time. So you will find stories by Carol Boston Weatherford about love, stories that honor the human spirit, and stories about As slaves relentlessly toiled in an unjust system in 19th century people searching for meaning in a broken world. You will also find Louisiana, they all counted down the days until Sunday, when at least books that celebrate the wonders of our world, exploring the inner for half a day they were briefly able to congregate in Congo Square in workings of the human psyche, offering ideas for meals to share with New Orleans. This story chronicles slaves’ duties each day, from chop- others, and diving into our rich and complex histories. ping logs on Mondays to baking bread on Wednesdays to plucking hens on Saturday, and builds to the freedom of Sundays and the special expe- As we move through the early part of this new year, heading toward rience of an afternoon spent in Congo Square. Little Bee $17.99. the promise of spring, we look forward to seeing you at Octavia Books. Stop in, browse around, sit and read a while. Say hello and Independence Lost by Kathleen DuVal build community. We’ve got so much to share with you, and we can’t While we may be familiar with how the American Revolution played in the wait to hear what you’re excited about too. Come be a part of the 13 colonies, the situation along the Gulf of Mexico was more fraught. This light. new perspective shows how people living outside the colonies were critical to the outcome. DuVal introduces us to such characters as New Orleans merchant Oliver Pollock and wife Margaret O’Brien Pollock, who staked their wealth to garner Spanish support for the Revolution, and the Cajun refugee Armand Broussard, who spent a lifetime in conflict with the British. Their lives illuminate the events that took place along the Gulf to change the course of history. Random House $28. ay e ecommend … M W R The Best of Peter Finney by Peter Finney Five times each week over the past several decades, sports fans in New From Veronica Brooks-Sigler: Orleans began their mornings by reading local sportswriter Peter Gretel and the Dark Finney. Finney’s newspaper columns connected New Orleans readers to the world of sports for nearly 70 years. From a career total of 15,000 by Eliza Granville articles, The Best of Peter Finney, Legendary New Orleans Sports Writer As one can imagine I read a great deal, so when offers a prime selection of the very best of Finney’s writing as well as an I encounter the same subjects time and again, I introduction from Peter Finney, Jr. LSU $29.95. like to see a fresh take on them. Gretel and the Dark is a cross between All the Light We Cannot 111 Places in New Orleans That See and Pan’s Labyrinth. The author weaves our You Must Not Miss collective fairy tales and fables (the scary ver- by Michael Murphy and Sally Asher sions) into life, and the reader cannot quite tell what is real in this yarn leading through World War II. Eliza Granville Go off the beaten path to discover the hidden places, stories, and neigh- borhoods that reveal New Orleans’ true character, history, and flavor. deals with how the mind copes and fails to cope with great trauma— This insider’s guide to New Orleans is shaped by portraits of the less how amazing the mind can be. Riverhead $16. obvious, hidden treasures rarely seen by the 10 million tourists who visit “The Big Easy” each year. Emons $19.90. 2 Provocative New Fiction Sweetgirl The Swans of Fifth Avenue by Travis Mulhauser by Melanie Benjamin As a blizzard bears down, Percy James sets off to find her Of all the glamorous stars of New York high society, none troubled mother, Carletta, heading for her mother’s meth blazes brighter than Babe Paley. But beneath this elegantly dealer’s cabin deep in the woods of Northern Michigan. But composed exterior dwells a passionate woman desperately when Percy arrives, she finds a crying baby girl left alone in longing for true love and connection. Enter Truman Capote. a freezing room. From the moment the baby wraps a tiny This diminutive golden-haired genius with a larger-than-life hand around her finger, Percy knows she must save her. Her personality explodes onto the scene, setting Babe and her cir- split-second decision is the beginning of a dangerous odyssey cle of Swans aflutter. Sure of the loyalty of the man she calls in which she must battle the elements and evade a small True Heart, Babe never imagines the destruction Truman will band of desperate criminals, hell-bent on getting that baby leave in his wake.
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