by edward | Nov 4, 2021 | Books, Personal Log
Maurice Carlos Ruffin reads and signs books! Maurice at Melba’s this Saturday.
See Maurice at Melba’s
This Saturday, November 6th, Author/Professor Maurice Carlos Ruffin will be at Melba’s Po-Boys, 1525 Elysian Fields Avenue, in Gentilly, meeting folks and giving away his latest book, The Ones Who Don’t Say They Love You. He’ll be there from 12pm-1pm. If you haven’t met Maurice, you’re in for a treat.
Melba’s Memories
The current incarnation of Melba’s has little to connection to the original, other than the name. While this Melba’s is a po-boy place, the original Melba’s was an ice cream place on Franklin Avenue, a couple of blocks on the lake side of Claiborne. It was right near where Franklin and Almonaster came together. Forgive my memory on this. I first learned about Melba’s in the summer of 1973. The Brother Martin High Debate Team got together once a week or so, that July and August. We had some guys who were good at both Debate and the various individual Speech events. So, we worked on a bunch of different things, ranging from research on the national debate topic to practicing Extemporaneous Speaking.
I was a rising sophomore at the time. Debate broke out into two levels of competition, Junior Division for 9th and 10th grades, Senior Division for 11th and 12th. The team nurtured a culture of helping out the new guys. I made the most of that.
Oh yeah, Melba’s. It wasn’t like we could go out for beers after practice, but ice cream was just fine. We all lived in different parts of the city, but we deferred to the choices made by the seniors. A ride down Elysian Fields, then over to Franklin wasn’t all that complicated. Melba’s hit the spot. For a white kid who lived in Metairie, going down to the Ninth Ward was significant. So many kids from the suburbs don’t get out much. Going to school in Gentilly offered opportunities to understand what New Orleans was all about.
Saturday!
Anyway, come out and see Maurice. It’ll be fun.
by edward | Aug 25, 2021 | NOLA Book Club
Book Club!
Book Club for 25-August-2021
We’re discussing Orleans by Sherri L. Smith tonight, 25-August-2021, at 7pm CDT. Here’s the Zoom info:
Hi there,
You are invited to a Zoom meeting.
When: Aug 25, 2021 07:00 PM Central Time (US and Canada)
Register in advance for this meeting:
https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZ0udOqhrzksHtzP7_C_3pDUD7TAec6qcUNw
After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.
See you tonight!
by edward | Mar 28, 2021 | NOLA Book Club
Our March Gathering is WEDNESDAY, MARCH 31st! We’ll Zoom at 7pm to discuss The Boyfriend Project by Farrah Rochon.
Here’s the Zoom info:
Edward Branley is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.
Topic: NOLA Book Club – March Gathering
Time: Mar 31, 2021 07:00 PM Central Time (US and Canada)
Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/5043835087
Meeting ID: 504 383 5087
Passcode: boyfriend
One tap mobile
+16468769923,,5043835087#,,,,*781460975# US (New York)
+13017158592,,5043835087#,,,,*781460975# US (Washington DC)
Dial by your location
+1 646 876 9923 US (New York)
+1 301 715 8592 US (Washington DC)
+1 312 626 6799 US (Chicago)
+1 346 248 7799 US (Houston)
+1 408 638 0968 US (San Jose)
+1 669 900 6833 US (San Jose)
+1 253 215 8782 US (Tacoma)
Meeting ID: 504 383 5087
Passcode: 781460975
Find your local number: https://us02web.zoom.us/u/kbeq6ALiZq
See you Wednesday!
by edward | Mar 8, 2021 | NOLA Book Club
The Boyfriend Project by @FarrahRochon is next up for NOLA Book Club!
The Boyfriend Project
Mark your calendars, invite your friends…
Wednesday, March 31st, 7 pm CST (5pm PST)
Farrah Rochon’s The Boyfriend Project is our March 2021 book of the month for NOLA Book Club, over Zoom. We will put out the zoom credentials as we get closer to the date.
Blurb
Here’s the blurb for The Boyfriend Project:
Samiah Brooks never thought she would be “that” girl. But a live tweet of a horrific date just revealed the painful truth: she’s been catfished by a three-timing jerk of a boyfriend. Suddenly Samiah — along with his two other “girlfriends,” London and Taylor — have gone viral online. Now the three new besties are making a pact to spend the next six months investing in themselves. No men and no dating.
For once Samiah is putting herself first, and that includes finally developing the app she’s always dreamed of creating. Which is the exact moment she meets the deliciously sexy Daniel Collins at work. What are the chances? But is Daniel really boyfriend material or is he maybe just a little too good to be true?
“A smart, funny digital-age romance about real women living in the real world. Couldn’t put it down!” –Abby Jimenez, USA Today bestselling author of The Happy Ever After Playlist
*Listed as a Best Book of the Year from: NPR, Cosmopolitan, Buzzfeed, Frolic, Insider, BookRiot
*Book of the Month selection
*LibraryReads selection
*O, The Oprah Magazine: Must-Read Black Romance Novels
*Cosmopolitan: Best Summer Reads 2020
*Insider: The Best Romance Books of 2020
April/May
Also, if you want to get a head start:
April 21st we will be doing Mosquito Supper Club: Cajun Recipes from a Disappearing Bayou by Melissa M. Martin.
May : we will be doing Economy Hall: The Hidden History of a Free Black Brotherhood, by Fatima Sheik.
There’s a method in the madness for scheduling. Mosquito Supper Club is a bit pricey ($35), but it’s been out there for a while. So, folks who might want to borrow it from their library (or do an ILL) will have time to get that. Economy Hall doesn’t drop until the 15th of March.
We’ve got dates in mind for April and May, but they’re open to discussion. For March, we’ve got two gatherings under our belts, and we had better attendance on a Wednesday than a Thursday. If we’re wrong about Wednesdays being better, please give us some feedback!
Happy reading !
by edward | Feb 22, 2021 | NOLA Book Club
NOLA Book Club gathers Wednesday, 24-February.
NOLA Book Club
Our second gathering is Wednesday! We’ll discuss The Yellow House by Sarah R. Broom. The gathering will be via Zoom:
Edward Branley is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.
Topic: NOLA Book Club – February Gathering
Time: Feb 24, 2021 07:00 PM Central Time (US and Canada)
Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/5043835087
Meeting ID: 504 383 5087
Passcode: crawfish
One tap mobile
+16468769923,,5043835087#,,,,*84836164# US (New York)
+13017158592,,5043835087#,,,,*84836164# US (Washington DC)
Dial by your location
+1 646 876 9923 US (New York)
+1 301 715 8592 US (Washington DC)
+1 312 626 6799 US (Chicago)
+1 346 248 7799 US (Houston)
+1 408 638 0968 US (San Jose)
+1 669 900 6833 US (San Jose)
+1 253 215 8782 US (Tacoma)
Meeting ID: 504 383 5087
Passcode: 84836164
Find your local number: https://us02web.zoom.us/u/kbeq6ALiZq
The Book
The Yellow House is a critically acclaimed memoir by Sarah R. Broom. It’s set in the New Orleans East neighborhood. Bring your thoughts on the book and Da East, 7pm Wednesday!
by edward | Jan 27, 2021 | NOLA Book Club
NEXT BOOK!
More NOLA Book Club!
Our next book for NOLA Book Club will be The Yellow House, by Sarah M. Broom. A 2019 National Book Award winner, “The Yellow House” is a memoir of a family living in a shotgun house in New Orleans East.
Our Gathering (via Zoom) to discuss “The Yellow House” will be WEDNESDAY, February 24th. That’s the week after Mardi Gras.
Get the book
You can purchase “The Yellow House” through all the usual suspects. Since NOLA Book Club fully and passionately supports Local/Indie booksellers, may we suggest (if you’re local to New Orleans) these shops:
We had a lot of fun discussing Maurice’s novel last week. This story will be quite of a change of pace from “We Cast A Shadow.” It’s guaranteed to get you choked up a bit if you have memories of Da East. Since Ms. Broom received a great deal of recognition for “The Yellow House,” some of you may have already read the book. That’s great! You’ll have a month to refresh your memory and be ready to talk it up.
The Yellow House: A Memoir
Here’s the trailer for the book:
A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
Winner of the 2019 National Book Award in Nonfiction
A brilliant, haunting and unforgettable memoir from a stunning new talent about the inexorable pull of home and family, set in a shotgun house in New Orleans East.
In 1961, Sarah M. Broom’s mother Ivory Mae bought a shotgun house in the then-promising neighborhood of New Orleans East and built her world inside of it. It was the height of the Space Race and the neighborhood was home to a major NASA plant–the postwar optimism seemed assured. Widowed, Ivory Mae remarried Sarah’s father Simon Broom; their combined family would eventually number twelve children. But after Simon died, six months after Sarah’s birth, the Yellow House would become Ivory Mae’s thirteenth and most unruly child.
A book of great ambition, Sarah M. Broom’s The Yellow House tells a hundred years of her family and their relationship to home in a neglected area of one of America’s most mythologized cities. This is the story of a mother’s struggle against a house’s entropy, and that of a prodigal daughter who left home only to reckon with the pull that home exerts, even after the Yellow House was wiped off the map after Hurricane Katrina. The Yellow House expands the map of New Orleans to include the stories of its lesser known natives, guided deftly by one of its native daughters, to demonstrate how enduring drives of clan, pride, and familial love resist and defy erasure. Located in the gap between the “Big Easy” of tourist guides and the New Orleans in which Broom was raised, The Yellow House is a brilliant memoir of place, class, race, the seeping rot of inequality, and the internalized shame that often follows. It is a transformative, deeply moving story from an unparalleled new voice of startling clarity, authority, and power.
See you on Wednesday the 24th of February!
