Check out our Octavia Books bestsellers for the week ended Saturday, December 18, 2021 (including pre-orders):
The first full-length book of drone photography of the Crescent City, Above New Orleans offers readers perspectives never before captured by a camera. Overhead scenes cover the entire metropolis, from the French Quarter to Uptown, from the Mississippi River to Lake Pontchartrain, from Westwego to New Orleans East, and from Gentilly to Gretna.
Winner, IACP Book of the Year
Winner, IACP Best American Cookbook
An NPR Best Book of the Year
A Saveur, Washington Post, and Garden & Gun Best Cookbook of the Year
A Bon Appétit, Food & Wine, Eater, Epicurious, and The Splendid Table Best New Cookbook
A Forbes
"I once ate more than eighty king cakes in a single Carnival," author Matt Haines proudly remembers, demonstrating his dedication to this delicious Mardi Gras tradition. "So you can imagine how amazed I was to learn there has never been a coffee table book dedicated to king cakes "
A Century on Harmony Street: The Kohlmaier Cabinetmakers of New Orleans, written by New Orleans Art Historian Cybèle Gontar and published by the Louisiana Museum Foundation, discusses the distinctly Anglo-American style of Kohlmaier furniture, which responded to the early 20th-century zeal for traditional and well-loved Chippendale, Hepplewhite, and Sheraton styles—spurred, in part, by the Colonial Revival.
A miniature book to hang on your tree (hanger provided).
Published to celebrate the Rex Organization’s 150th Anniversary, Rex: 150 Years of the School of Design provides a decade-by-decade account of a century and a half of colorful Rex history. This limited-edition volume was written by Rex Historian and Archivist Stephen Hales with a preface by noted New Orleans journalist and author Walter Isaacson
- 256 pages—the largest and most comprehensive New Orleans Carnival krewe history ever published
- Oversized coffee table commemorative volume
- More than 800 illustrations (many published for the first time)
- Portraits of every King of Carnival and all but one Queen of Carnival
- An extensive compendium documenting every King, Queen, Maid, Duke, Page, parade date, theme, ball venue and nearly 4,000 float titles
Proceeds from the publication benefit the Crescent City Carnival Museum Foundation and the Pro Bono Publico Foundation.
ISBN: 9780930892838
On sale date: November 15, 2021
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
A TODAY Show Read with Jenna Book Club Pick
A New York Times Notable Book, and Chosen by Oprah Daily, Time, NPR, The Washington Post and Barack Obama as a Best Book of the Year
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A dramatic expansion of a groundbreaking work of journalism, The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story offers a profoundly revealing vision of the American past and present.
The instant #1 New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and USA Today bestseller
The breakout poetry collection by #1 New York Times bestselling author and presidential inaugural poet Amanda Gorman
Cat Kid Comic Club is back in session in this groundbreaking graphic novel narrative by Dav Pilkey, the worldwide bestselling and award-winning author and illustrator of Dog Man.
Flippy, Molly, Li'l Petey, and twenty-one baby frogs each have something to say. Naomi and Melvin don't see eye to eye and Poppy perceives the world differently than her siblings.
A New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice
There’s no right way to keep a diary, but if there’s an entertaining way, David Sedaris seems to have mastered it.
If it’s navel-gazing you’re after, you’ve come to the wrong place; ditto treacly self-examination.
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • In her latest book, Brené Brown writes, “If we want to find the way back to ourselves and one another, we need language and the grounded confidence to both tell our stories and be stewards of the stories that we hear. This is the framework for meaningful connection.”
Charity's Children tells the true story of the training of a cardiovascular surgeon, from his internship through his year as chief resident at Charity Hospital, one of the world's largest and most important teaching hospitals. This story is set in the early days of cardiac surgery-the late 1960s through 1970s, when today's technology was not yet available.
The Cajun Night Before Christmas(R) has been a part of Louisiana's holiday traditions since it was first published. Now, more than forty-five years later, a new generation is discovering the charm of Gaston(R) the Green-Nosed Alligator. First conceived by J.B. Kling, Jr.
Debra Shriver has been a journalist, copywriter, publicist, media executive, book author, documentary film producer and, most recently, photographer. Her lifelong fascination has been juxtaposing words and pictures, and now she focuses her lens on the singular image. With THE FRENCH LEAVE, she goes with what she knows: a Francophile's view of Paris, but also, with sleight of hand, her adopted hometown of New Orleans as it cameos its way through Paris.
Recently, she spent nine months in Paris as a flaneuse -- the keen-eyed observer, the walker who is there to discover, the non-tourist in situ. THE FRENCH LEAVE:From Paris to Orleans Parish is her third book on the Crescent City, and her first as photographer and publisher with her new imprint, Crescent City Press. The book explores the silent corners, secret gardens and privates spaces of Paris and its surroundings in small detail. There are diptychs, collages and a "window" series looking into venues ranging from the Musee Rodin, to the restaurant Chez l'Ami Louis and the kitchen at Claude Monet's former home in Giverny. Shriver also gained access to the Hotel de Pontalba, a hotel particular and the Parisian home of New Orleans' Micaela Almonester, Baroness de Pontalba, who build iconic Jackson Square in the heart of the Vieux Carre. Hotel de Pontalba is now the residence of the U.S. Ambassador to France. Shriver also explores the private apartment of Coco Chanel, meets Catherine Deneuve, visits the Parisian restaurant Allard and the Hotel La Mirande in Avignot and follows in the footprint of Colette, Ernest Hemingway and Henry Miller.
She has playfully substituted a few New Orleans images as stand-ins for Paris, subtly connecting the two cities. "New Orleans is the daughter Paris, and a doppelganger of sorts," Shriver says. There is a bit of interplay between the two, with deptychs pairing "like" subjects from both cities.
Shriver brings a modern sensibility to these photographic works, which she shot and edited exclusively with an iPhone Lens. The accompanying text chronicles her departure from New York City, her time in Paris, and her move to New Orleans.
A New York Times Notable Book, a Barack Obama favorite, selected as a Top 10 Book of the Year by Fresh Air, Time, and Entertainment Weekly, and a Best Book of the Year by Goodreads Choice Awards, the Associated Press, and many more
“If you’re looking for a superb novel, look no further.” —The Washi
Instant #1 New York Times Bestseller
AARP The Magazine – Recommended Summer Reading
CNN – A Most Anticipated Book of August
Bustle – A Most Anticipated Book of August
Chief Inspector Armand Gamache returns to Three Pines in #1 New York Times bestseller Louise Penny's latest spellbinding novel
You’re a coward.
They Called Us River Rats: The Last Batture Settlement of New Orleans is the previously untold story of perhaps the oldest outsider settlement in America, an invisible community on the annually flooded shores of the Mississippi River. This community exists in the place between the normal high and low water line of the Mississippi River, a zone known in Louisiana as the batture.
New Orleans A to Z is an alphabet book of Crescent City icons, traditions and culinary favorites, using high-end photography of figurines and toys to illustrate each letter. Created by local photographer Jennifer Zdon, the book celebrates the unique, beautiful and festive world that is New Orleans.
INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
A dramatically new understanding of human history, challenging our most fundamental assumptions about social evolution—from the development of agriculture and cities to the origins of the state, democracy, and inequality—and revealing new possibilities for human emancipation.
An exciting debut cookbook that confirms the arrival of a new guru chef . . . A moving, deeply personal journey of survival and discovery that tells of the evolution of a cuisine and of the transformative power and magic of food and cooking.
On the west bank of the Mississippi lies the New Orleans neighborhood of Algiers. Short on hope but big on dreams, its mostly poor and marginalized residents find joy on Friday nights when the Cougars of Edna Karr High School take the field.
The extraordinary life and legacy of legendary journalist Cokie Roberts—a trailblazer for women—remembered by her friends and family.
NEW YORK TIMES BEST SELLER • From the best-selling, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of All Over but the Shoutin', the warmhearted and hilarious story of how his life was transformed by his love for a poorly behaved, half-blind stray dog.
In Tearing Down the Lost Cause: The Removal of New Orleans's Confederate Statues James Gill and Howard Hunter examine New Orleans's complicated relationship with the history of the Confederacy pre- and post-Civil War. The authors open and close their manuscript with the dramatic removal of the city's Confederate statues.
This is the story of a city that shouldn't exist. In the seventeenth century, what is now America's most beguiling metropolis was nothing more than a swamp: prone to flooding, infested with snakes, battered by hurricanes.
An instant #1 New York Times bestseller!
Winner of the Pulitzer Prize in Fiction
Winner of the William Dean Howells Medal
Shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize
Over One Year on the New York Times Bestseller List
From bestselling author Gary Krist, a vibrant and immersive account of New Orleans’ other civil war, at a time when commercialized vice, jazz culture, and endemic crime defined the battlegrounds of the Crescent City
NOW A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE directed by Denis Villeneuve, starring Timothée Chalamet, Zendaya, Jason Momoa, Rebecca Ferguson, Oscar Isaac, Josh Brolin, Stellan Skarsgård, Dave Bautista, David Dastmalchian, Stephen McKinley Henderson, Chang Chen, Sharon Duncan-Brewster, Charlotte Rampling, and Javier Bardem.
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • Two longtime friends share an intimate and urgent conversation about life, music, and their enduring love of America, with all its challenges and contradictions, in this stunningly produced expansion of their groundbreaking Higher Ground podcast, featuring more than 350 photographs, exclusive bonus content, and never-before-seen archival material.
Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants (Hardcover)
A New York Times Bestseller
A Washington Post Bestseller
A Los Angeles Times Bestseller
Named a Best Essay Collection of the Decade by Literary Hub
A Book Riot Favorite Summer Read of 2020
A Food Tank Fall 2020 Reading Recommendation
New York Times Bestseller
An American Scientist Science Book of 2021
A Bloomberg Best Book of 2021
A Fortune Best Books of 2021
A Guardian Best Book of 2021
A Mother Jones Best Book of 2021
A Next Big Idea Club Best Nonfiction of 2021
From the bestselling author of The Storm Before the Storm and host of the Revolutions podcast comes the thrilling story of the Marquis de Lafayette’s lifelong quest to defend the principles of liberty and equality
A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
A #1 ABA INDEPENDENT BOOKSTORE BESTSELLER
Few in history can match the revolu
AN INSTANT #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
Beautiful World, Where Are You is a new novel by Sally Rooney, the bestselling author of Normal People and Conversations with Friends.
New Orleans district attorney Jim Garrison's decision to arrest Clay Shaw on March 1, 1967, set off a chain of events that culminated in the only prosecution undertaken in the assassination of John F. Kennedy.
Entering World War I in 1917, a burst of patriotism in New Orleans collided with civil liberties. The city, due to its French heritage, shared a strong cultural tie to the Allies, and French speakers from Louisiana provided vital technical assistance to the US military during the war effort.
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • Pulitzer Prize winner Elizabeth Strout explores the mysteries of marriage and the secrets we keep, as a former couple reckons with where they’ve come from—and what they’ve left behind.
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
USA TODAY BESTSELLER
NATIONAL INDIE BESTSELLER
THE WASHINGTON POST BESTSELLER
Recommended by Entertainment Weekly, Real Simple, NPR, Slate, and Oprah Magazine
#1 Library Reads Pick—October 2020
Whether your garden consists of large raised beds or a few pots on the patio, Kathryn K. Fontenot's The Louisiana Urban Gardener offers easy guidelines and useful tools to jump-start and maintain small yet bountiful gardens.
Grow your heart three sizes—and dazzle your eyes—with this FULL COLOR edition of the beloved holiday classic How the Grinch Stole Christmas!—the perfect gift for under the tree and for Dr. Seuss fans and collectors any time of year!
New York Times: Best Thriller of the Year
Publishers Weekly: Best Thriller of the Year
Lit Hub: Favorite Book of the Year
CrimeReads: Best International Crime Novel of the Year
PopSugar: Best Mystery/Thriller of the Month
Take a trip on the river! See your favorite boats as you drift down the Mississippi from Baton Rouge to New Orleans and out to the Gulf.
