Okay, interwebs, help me out here

[lizbee]

I am in Sydney.  There are lots of bookstores.  Can anyone recommend a good popular history of New Orleans?  I've almost completed my re-read of the Benjamin January novels, and I'd like to get a better sense of NOLA's history and geography.  (Seriously, I fail so hard at American geography.  It's only relatively recently that I realised Florida is not, in fact, between California and Mexico.)

Also, are there any good biographies of the Chinese, Japanese or Korean empresses?  I know all of these nations had women in powerful positions at various points in their history, but I went through Kinokuniya yesterday, and all I could find was a book on Chiang Kai Shek's wife and a bunch of trashy biographies of Princess Masako.  (And there wasn't even a separate section for Korean history.  I mean, I know Kinokuniya is a Japanese chain, but I was disappoint.)  Meanwhile, a few shelves over, there were reams and reams of books on European queens.  Although nothing on the Stuart queens.  I'm pretty sure that in the eyes of modern popular historians, Anne Stuart's greatest crime was getting fat.  The few biographies I've found of her dwell on her weight in a terribly obvious kind of way.

Anyway, I'm off to shop and browse and get my Ruth Park on at the Rocks, but I'll get any replies on my phone.  Meanwhile, my feet: REALLY SORE.

Comments

[nonelvis]

columbina, who's from Baton Rouge, recommends Frenchmen, Desire, Good Children, by John Churchill Chase, as a history of New Orleans, but says it concentrates primarily on the history shared through the city's street names. He thought it might be out of print, but Amazon seems to have it in stock, so hopefully it's still available.

I'll also check with another friend who's from New Orleans to see if she has a recommendation.

[starlady]

Joan Piggot's The Birth of Japanese Kingship has a fair bit on Empress Suiko, but stops short before the glut of empresses in the 8thC. I don't know of anything about any other reigning empresses in English off the top of my head.

Getting relatively even-handed treatments of Wu Zetian is notoriously difficult. I have no idea about any relevant books for the Korean side.

[neotoma]

The Secret History of the Mongol Queens by Jack Weatherford might interest you, if you can find it.

[weaver]

I THOUGHT I WAS THE ONLY ONE with this weird misconception of Florida. Seriously, right up until I started actualfax planning a trip there, I was like "oh, Florida, that's near California, that's on the other side of America from NY, yeah"

TURNS OUT IT'S NOT.

I'm going to blame you for this long-held misunderstanding.

[tree_and_leaf]

If it's any consolation, I am still perpetually surprised by the location of Texas.

[amberfox]

I live in Texas. For what it's worth, I couldn't find Sydney on a map, and I have this vague notion that Australia has states? (And I used to raid with Australian guild! All I learned was that American Southern accents are considered charmingly exotic by a respectable number of gamer guys, and that Sydney is 14 hours ahead of me, as tracked on my handy Windows Sidebar clock.)

On the other hand, I can only find about 10 states on the US map, and 4 of those border mine, so hopefully I'm not a good example.

[phosfate]

I like to think of Florida as America's Wang.

[yiduiqie]

I can probably help you out with the Empresses. MAYBE I'LL BRING SOME BOOKS HOME WITH ME.