Way Down In Louisiana

With Clifton Chenier's amazing life and career as the centerpiece, this collection of profiles gathered across two decades unites some of the world's most innovative creative forces.

From two-time Newbery Medalist Kate DiCamillo comes a story of discovering who you are — and deciding who you want to be. When Louisiana Elefante’s granny wakes her up in the middle of the night to tell her that the day of reckoning has arrived and they have to leave home immediately, Louisiana isn’t overly worried. After all, Granny has many middle-of-the-night ideas. But this time, things are different. This time, Granny intends for them never to return. Separated from her best friends, Raymie and Beverly, Louisiana struggles to oppose the winds of fate (and Granny) and find a way home. But as Louisiana’s life becomes entwined with the lives of the people of a small Georgia town — including a surly motel owner, a walrus-like minister, and a mysterious boy with a crow on his shoulder — she starts to worry that she is destined only for good-byes. (Which could be due to the curse on Louisiana's and Granny’s heads. But that is a story for another time.) Called “one of DiCamillo’s most singular and arresting creations” by The New York Times Book Review, the heartbreakingly irresistible Louisiana Elefante was introduced to readers in Raymie Nightingale — and now, with humor and tenderness, Kate DiCamillo returns to tell her story.

The Virgin Encyclopaedia of the Blues is a complete handbook of information and opinion about the history of the most classically simple, enduring and inspiring genre in the history of popular music. All entries have been created from the massive database of The Encyclopaedia of Popular Music, which has swiftly and firmly established itself as the undisputed champion of contemporary music reference books. Brand new research ensures that the 1000 entries are bang up-to-date and cover everyone - the musicians, bands, songwriters, producers and record labels - who has made a significant impact on the development of the blues. It brings together pioneers like Robert Johnson and Blind Lemon Jefferson, the influence of Muddy Waters and Willie Dixon on the blues boom of the 1960s, and the most recent blues resurgence featuring Keb'Mo, Larry Garner and Jonny Lang. As well as the giants of the blues, this encyclopaedia has the range and depth to include performers who flew the blues flag during fallow periods, the 1980s band Roomful of Blues for example, or acts like Paul Butterfield, Chicken Shack, Stevie Ray Vaughan, who took the music to a wider, whiter, audience. Some blues musicians, including John Lee Hooker and Taj Mahal, seem to last forever. Others simply defined the genre, like Lead Belly, Bessie Smith and Howlin' Wolf. Whomever you remember or want to know more about, each entry gives the essential elements - dates, career facts, discography and album ratings - as well as a sense of context, striking a balance between the extremes of the self-opinionated and the bland.

In Their Time revolves around the life and times of Harriet Arnold, mistress of Daffodil Hill. Tall, attractive, headstrong, auburn haired Harriet finds herself struggling to survive during the Union army's occupation of Murfreesboro, Tennessee. With her husband Edwin, away fighting under the command of Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest, Harriet struggles to raise two teenage daughters and to protect her palatial home and property from Yankee soldiers who several time threaten to set her home ablaze. And if dealing with the Union soldiers were not enough, she also is forced to deal with Daffodil Hill's former revengeful overseer and a sex-crazed gambler bent on kidnapping her daughters and beautiful young house guests. Although this carefully researched, historically accurate novel brings a people, a place and a time alive again it goes beyond a portrayal of a particular people in a specific place while exploring the broader war, especially those battles that directly impacted Middle Tennessee. Although sorely tested, Harriet's early frontier training has prepared her well for the challenges she must face during the dark and difficult war years. Faced with events so shocking that she could never have imagined in her wildest dreams, Harriet somehow manages to courageously defend her household with grit and a fierce and indomitable spirit.

Americans have long had a rich if complicated relationship with France. They adore all things French, especially food and fashion. They visit the country and learn the language. Historically, Americans have also been quick to blame France at certain times of international crisis, and find fault with their handling of domestic issues. Despite ups and downs, the friendship between the countries remains very strong. The author explains the strength of Franco-American relations lies in the diplomatic ties that extend back to the founding of the United States, but more importantly, in the French DNA that is imprinted on American culture. The French were the first Europeans to settle the regions now known as Florida, Illinois, Minnesota, Iowa, Wisconsin, Missouri, Kansas and Arkansas--and Frenchman remained in Louisiana after the land was purchased by the United States. This book explores the effects that France has had on American culture, and why modern Americans of French descent are so fascinated by their ancestry.

Considers (70) S. 678, (70) S. 683, (70) S. 819, (70) S. 1160, (70) S. 1677, (70) S. 1999, (70) S. 2729, (70) S. 2850, (70) S.J. Res. 7, (70) S.J. Res. 80, (70) S. Res. 15.