Welcome to Loki’s New Orleans Reading List!
From history and cookbooks to role-playing games what follow are my personal picks. I am not presenting a comprehensive, all-encompassing list, but rather a curated selection of what I consider the most worthwhile or noteworthy volumes in each category. By the way, tabletop gamers should look for the RPG section of the list, you’ll even find a few that I authored!
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Nonfiction
- Why New Orleans Matters by Tom Piazza
- Storyville, New Orleans Being an Authentic, Illustrated Account of the Notorious Red Light District by Al Rose
- New Orleans Architecture Volume III: The Cemeteries by Leonard V Huber and Peggy McDowell
- The Accidental City by Lawrence N. Powell
- A Howling in the Wires edited by Sam Jasper and Mark Folse
- Bienville’s Dilemma by Richard Campanella
- Frenchmen Desire Good Children by Robert L. Crager & Co.
- The Garden District of New Orleans by Jim Fraiser w/ photography by West Freeman
- Empire of Sin: A Story of Sex, Jazz, Murder and the Battle for Modern New Orleans by Gary Krist
- Managing Ignatius by Jerry E. Strahan
- Second Line Rescue: Improvised Responses to Katrina and Rita by Barry Jean Ancelet
- Spectacular Wickedness: Sex, Race and Memory in Storyville, New Orleans by Emily Epstein Landau
- Guidebooks to Sin: The Blue Books of Storyville, New Orleans by Pamela D. Arceneaux
- Let The Faggots Burn: The Upstairs Lounge Fire by Johnny Townsend
- Zeitoun by David Eggers
- From Staple Guns to Thumbtacks: Flyer art from the 1982-1995 New Orleans Punk & Hardcore Scene by Pat Roig
- New Orleans: The Canal Streetcar Line by Edward J. Branley
- The World That Made New Orleans: From Spanish Silver to Congo Square by Ned Sublette
- Unfathomable City: A New Orleans Atlas by Rebecca Solnit and Rebecca Snedeker
- Hard Roll: A Paramedic’s Perspective of Life and Death in New Orleans by Jon McCarthy
- A Young Person’s Guide to New Orleans Houses by Lloyd Vogt
- Inventing New Orleans: Writings of Lafcadio Hearn by S. Frederick Starr
- 1 Dead in Attic by Chris Rose
- The Axeman of New Orleans: The True Story by Miriam C. Davis
- Bellocq: Photographs from Storyville, the Red-Light District of New Orleans by John Szarkowski (Out Of Print)
- Carry Me Home by Mark Folse
- The Creoles of Louisiana by George Washington Cable
- Disaster: Hurricane Katrina and the Failure of Homeland Security by Robert Block
- Fire in the Hole: The Spirit Work of Fi Yi Yi & Mandingo Warriors by Fi Yi Yi
- The Free People of Color of New Orleans: An Introduction by Mary Gehman
- Geographies of New Orleans: Urban Fabrics Before the Storm by Richard Campanella
- Rising Tide: The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 and How It Changed America by John M. Barry
- Unfathomable City: A New Orleans Atlas by Rebecca Solnit
- The World That Made New Orleans: From Spanish Silver to Congo Square by Ned Sublette
Carnival Culture
- Unveiling the Muse: The Lost History of Gay Carnival in New Orleans by Howard Philips Smith
- Mardi Gras Treasures: Costume Designs of the Golden Age by Henri Schindler
- The House of Dance and Feathers: A Museum by Ronald Lewis
Food and Cocktails
- Famous New Orleans Drinks & How To Mix ‘Em by Stanley Clisby Arthur
- Ralph Brennan’s New Orleans Seafood Cookbook by Ralph Brennan
- Obituary Cocktail:The Great Saloons of New Orleans by Kerri McCafferty
- Brennan’s New Orleans Cookbook: With the Story of the Fabulous New Orleans Restaurant by Hermann B. Deutsch
- Treme: Stories and Recipes from the Heart of New Orleans by Lolis Eric Elie and Ed Anderson
- Creole Feast by Nathaniel Burton
Fiction
- A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole
- New Orleans, Mon Amour: Twenty Years of Writings from the City by Andrei Codrescu
- Crescent City Kills (LaStanza New Orleans Police Novels) by O’Neil De Noux
- The French Detective (Jacques Dugas New Orleans Mysteries) by O’Neil De Noux and O’Neil P. De Noux Sr.
- New Orleans Sketches by William Faulkner and Carvel Collins
- Stay Out of New Orleans: Strange Stories by P. Curran
- Ghosts and Shadows (Detective ‘Cadillac’ Holland) by H Max Hiller
Science Fiction / Fantasy / Horror
- Fat White Vampire Blues by Andrew Fox
- When Gravity Fails by George Alec Effinger (Based on his life in the Quarter)
- The Sound of Building Coffins by Louis Maistros
- Interview with a Vampire by Anne Rice
- Hidden Talents (Bayou Talents) by Edward Branley
RPGs
- Bloodlines and Black Magic: The Crescent City (System: Pathfinder, Occult 7) by Tim Hitchcock, Jason Sonia, and George “Loki” Williams
- X-Crawl: Louisiana Rising (System: Dungeon Crawl Classics) by Brendan LaSalle and George “Loki” Williams
- Black Goat of New Orleans (System: Call of Cthulhu) by Matthew Morgan, Allen Boudreaux, Michael DeCuir, Chris Freeman, Dale Hrebik, and Will Trufant
- Tales of the Crescent City: Adventures in Jazz Age New Orleans (System: Call of Cthulhu) by Stuart Boon, Daniel Harms, C. Michael Hurst, Jeff Moeller, Oscar Rio’s, and Kevin Ross