lizbee | Okay, interwebs, help me out here

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.