Call the Canaries Home

 

Call the Canaries Home

Author: Laura Barrow

Publisher: Lake Union Publishing

Publication Date: July 1, 2023

    Three sisters arrive at the home of their grandmother in Muscadine, Louisiana. They are here to dig up a time capsule they buried 25 years before. Rayanee and Sue Ellen left Louisiana as soon as they were old enough and had no desire to return However their younger sister, Savannah, finally persuades them to keep the promise they made 25 years ago.

    The reunion with their grandmother is strained, at best. Her house is full of painful memories of their mother, now deceased, and of their sister, Georgia. Georgia is Savannah's twin. She disappeared while swimming with her sisters one summer and was never seen again. While going through the time capsule, the girls make a startling discovery in an old photograph. As more questions are asked, a mystery begins to unfold and long-buried secrets are brought to light.

    This book is a real page-turner. The more secrets are revealed, the more twisted the plot becomes. The ending is quite surprising. It was the opposite of what I thought it would be. I highly recommend this book.

Madam: A Novel of New Orleans

Title: Madam: A Novel of New Orleans Authors: Cari Lynn and Kellie Martin Publisher: Plume Pages: 321 2014

 From Amazon:
When vice had a legal home and jazz was being born—the captivating story of an infamous true-life madam

New Orleans, 1900. Mary Deubler makes a meager living as an “alley whore.” That all changes when bible-thumping Alderman Sidney Story forces the creation of a red-light district that’s mockingly dubbed “Storyville.” Mary believes there’s no place for a lowly girl like her in the high-class bordellos of Storyville’s Basin Street, where Champagne flows and beautiful girls turn tricks in luxurious bedrooms. But with gumption, twists of fate, even a touch of Voodoo, Mary rises above her hopeless lot to become the notorious Madame Josie Arlington.

Filled with fascinating historical details and cameos by Jelly Roll Morton, Louis Armstrong, and E. J. Bellocq, Madam is a fantastic romp through The Big Easy and the irresistible story of a woman who rose to power long before the era of equal rights.

I truly loved this book. The authors take you inside the life of a prostitute in New Orleans in the late 1800's. I actually learned a lot about this fascinating world. Although the story is called Madam, it really tells the story of Mary Deubler up until she became Josie Arlington, the madam. It stops before her life as a madam really began. I would love, love, love to read a sequel- to see what her life was like as madam and how it changed. This is a fascinating look at a different side of New Orleans . It was very hard to put down.

Read this book if:
*You love novels set in New Orleans
*you love stories of Storyville and the seedier side of the city
*you love historical fiction with a true basis

Dollbaby

Title: Dollbaby Author: Laura Lane McNeal Publisher: Penguin, 2014 Pages: 338

From Amazon:

A big-hearted coming-of-age debut set in civil rights-era New Orleans—a novel of Southern eccentricity and secrets

When Ibby Bell’s father dies unexpectedly in the summer of 1964, her mother unceremoniously deposits Ibby with her eccentric grandmother Fannie and throws in her father’s urn for good measure. Fannie’s New Orleans house is like no place Ibby has ever been—and Fannie, who has a tendency to end up in the local asylum—is like no one she has ever met. Fortunately, Fannie’s black cook, Queenie, and her smart-mouthed daughter, Dollbaby, take it upon themselves to initiate Ibby into the ways of the South, both its grand traditions and its darkest secrets.

For Fannie’s own family history is fraught with tragedy, hidden behind the closed rooms in her ornate Uptown mansion. It will take Ibby’s arrival to begin to unlock the mysteries there. And it will take Queenie and Dollbaby’s hard-won wisdom to show Ibby that family can sometimes be found in the least expected places.

For fans of Saving CeeCee Honeycutt and The Help, Dollbaby brings to life the charm and unrest of 1960s New Orleans through the eyes of a young girl learning to understand race for the first time.

By turns uplifting and funny, poignant and full of verve, Dollbaby is a novel readers will take to their hearts.

 (Warning: This does contain spoilers.) I loved this book! I was hooked from the beginning. I was drawn to Ibby, Fannie, Quennie, and Dollbaby. McNeal paints a nostaligic portrait of 1960's New Orleans from 1964-1972. There were a couple of characters whose actions I did not understand. I don't really understand why Graham was sent to boarding school.(I know the reason, but would Fannie and Norwood really do that?) I couldn't understand why Norwood would abandon Fannie after what happened with Muddy. (Not if he loved her the way he seemed to love her.) And I can't understand Fannie's actions in the end. Even though she did suffer from mental illness, I would think her life with Ibby would keep her from doing that. That being said, I did truly love this book and could not put it down. I look forward to MnNeal's next book. In response to those reviewers who felt it was too much like The Help, Secret Life of Bees, Etc., I disagree. Although they are all southern novels that deal with racial issues, Dollbaby stands on it's own. I highly recommend this book!

Read this book if:

*you love southern fiction

*you love coming of age novels

*you love stories that take place in New Orleans

*you love stories that take place in the 1960's

Spirits of New Orleans: Voodoo Curses, Vampire Legends and Cities of the Dead (America's Haunted Road Trip)

Title: Spirits of New Orleans: Voodoo Curses, Vampire Legends and Cities of the Dead (America's Haunted Road Trip)  (kindle edition) Author: Kala Ambrose Publisher: Clerisy Press Pages: 274

From Amazon:
The city of New Orleans is formed into the shape of a crescent, which is believed by many people to form a sacred chalice which holds and stores energy making it one of the most unique areas in the world in which to perform magic and to see it magnify due to the energy in the land and from the flowing waters of the Mississippi and Gulf of Mexico.

Since childhood, Kala Ambrose has seen and felt ghosts and restless spirits. During this journey as your travel guide, Kala explores the history of the city and those who decided to make it their eternal home.

Explore New Orleans with Kala Ambrose and prepare to embark on a unique and enticing journey into the haunted history and magical ceremonies of New Orleans. Prepare to be introduced to supernatural rituals and practices in order to fully understand and embrace the cultural significance of the variety of beliefs, superstitions, legends and lore.

As a fan of true paranormal accounts, and a fan of any stories, fiction or non-fiction, that take place in New Orleans, I simply had to read this book. I am so glad that I did! Even if the writer was not a sensitive and able to see spirits, this would still have been a fascinating account of the hauntings in New Orleans. However, her own personal insight from a sensitive's perspective adds to the book immensely. This is not yet another repetition of the hundreds of other books out there about haunted New Orleans. Kala Ambrose has done her research and adds thought-provoking insight that sheds a new light on some old stories. I truly enjoyed this book and recommend it ti fans of true paranormal. You will not be disappointed!

Read this book if:

*you love true paranormal accounts

*you love New Orleans

Out of the Easy

Title: Out of the Easy Author: Ruta Septys Publisher: Philomel Books Pages: 346

From Amazon:

It's 1950 and the French Quarter of New Orleans simmers with secrets. Known among locals as the daughter of a brothel prostitute, Josie Moraine wants more out of life than the Big Easy has to offer. She devises a plan get out, but a mysterious death in the Quarter leaves Josie tangled in an investigation that will challenge her allegiance to her mother, her conscience, and Willie Woodley, the brusque madam on Conti Street.

Josie is caught between the dream of an elite college and a clandestine underworld. New Orleans lures her in her quest for truth, dangling temptation at every turn, and escalating to the ultimate test.

With characters as captivating as those in her internationally bestselling novel Between Shades of Gray, Ruta Sepetys skillfully creates a rich story of secrets, lies, and the haunting reminder that decisions can shape our destiny.

At last! I book a girl can fall in love with! I was beginning to think it was me- every book I've attempted to read lately felt more like a chore. I was starting to worry. 

Out of the Easy had me hooked from page one. Ruta Septys paints an amazingly colorful story of 1950's New Orleans. Josie grabs the reader's heart from the get go. Tough and street wise, yet vulnerable, her story leaves the reader unable to put this book down. With a self absorbed prostitute for a mother, Josie must raise herself. She finds solace and a sense of family in a local used bookshop. When the owner, a local author, discovers that Josie sleeps in his shop at night, he gives her a place to stay. Josie dreams of escaping New Orleans and going to college, but will she ever be able to outrun her past?

I LOVE Septy's writing style- no endless boring descriptions and blah blah to skip over! Septys can say in 5 words what other authors would take an entire page (or more) to express. This is an great southern novel. 

Read this book if....

*you love southern fiction

*you love stories that take place in New Orleans, LA

*you love historical fiction

Waiting on Wednesday

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly even hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine. The purpose of the event is to highlight upcoming books.

This is my first Waiting on Wednesday blog.  I am waiting on...

Out of the Easy by Ruta Septys.

Release date: February 12, 2013

From Amazon:

It’s 1950, and as the French Quarter of New Orleans simmers with secrets, seventeen-year-old Josie Moraine is silently stirring a pot of her own. Known among locals as the daughter of a brothel prostitute, Josie wants more out of life than the Big Easy has to offer. She devises a plan get out, but a mysterious death in the Quarter leaves Josie tangled in an investigation that will challenge her allegiance to her mother, her conscience, and Willie Woodley, the brusque madam on Conti Street.

Josie is caught between the dream of an elite college and a clandestine underworld. New Orleans lures her in her quest for truth, dangling temptation at every turn, and escalating to the ultimate test.

With characters as captivating as those in her internationally bestselling novel Between Shades of Gray, Ruta Sepetys skillfully creates a rich story of secrets, lies, and the haunting reminder that decisions can shape our destiny.

What books are you waiting on? I'd love to hear about them!