CD After listening to the eponymous album by the band Louisiana Atmosphere, you’ll quickly learn that the six members of the band are proud of their love for New Orleans. With song titles including “If You Don’t Like Jazz” and “Gumbo Ya Ya,” the album is a tribute to the city and its culture. Many of the band’s members were born and raised in New Orleans, and all are veteran musicians who have played festivals and concerts around New Orleans and the U.S.
DRINKING James Teitelbaum takes the reader on a global bar crawl in Destination Cocktails: The Traveler’s Guide to Superior Libations. The book includes recommendations to bars, microbreweries and cocktail lounges to cities around the world, including New Orleans. The New Orleans chapter is a good resource for New Orleans visitors interested in venturing beyond the touristy spots. For locals looking to venture out, the book includes bars in 44 cities from New York to Tokyo to Sydney.
NOLA ON SCREEN World Film Locations: New Orleans is a tribute to the city by way of the movies. Edited by Scott Jordan Harris, the book is a compilation of a variety of films shot in New Orleans, or Hollywood recreations of the city. The book is best suited for a movie buff, as each section highlights a specific scene in a specific New Orleans movie. However, even the most casual New Orleans movie goer will feel a sense of pride when reading the book because it shows how films from 1938 to the present have been capturing the spirit of New Orleans and sharing it with movie lovers.
NOVEL Writer Attica Locke tackles the lingering memories of slavery in the South in her latest book The Cutting Season. The novel follows Caren Gray, the manager of Belle Vie, an old plantation outside New Orleans that now serves as a tourist attraction. When a woman is found dead on the plantation’s property, Gray tries to find out who’s responsible. The book’s themes make you think about how the South’s history still has effects in the present day. The cliffhangers at the end of each chapter keep the book moving and suspenseful.