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.

Hmph.

The problem with arthritis is that it doesn't take a holiday.  Ever.  Well, except when you're in remission, I guess.  Maybe this isn't a great metaphor.  Anyway, the point is, I wound up skipping the Rocks.  By the time I got to Abbey's/Galaxy Bookstore, which was a fairly direct trip (and I didn't even get lost) I realised that further walking was going to be a bad idea.  So I browsed for a while, bought some books, and wound up having sushi for lunch. 

Lunch revived me enough that I seriously reconsidered the Rocks, but then I realised I'd probably need that extra energy just to get back to the hotel.  And I was right.  Not least because Central Station exists in its own separate dimension, and you can never use the same exit twice.  I somehow wound up having to walk a vast block just to get my bearings, and had to stop for an ice block before I could go on. 

Anyway, I'm back at the hotel and planning to catch up on Tumblr, maybe watch Community and write fic for a while.  After that, I'm by myself for dinner, so I should probably step out and find food.  The hotel restaurant (alas, no room service) is expensive and a bit on the mediocre side, so I guess I'll see how my feet are feeling by then. 

Books!  I have to thank everyone for all their recommendations in my last entry!  The only one that was actually in any of the stores was Secrets of the Mongol Queens, which I actually spotted half an hour before it was recommended.  And then I looked at it and realised it was already in my BookDepository wishlist, quotes from it having been all over my Tumblr dash a few weeks ago.  I almost bought it, but it was literally $10 cheaper on BookDepository.  ($25 for a non-fiction paperback is actually pretty good!  In fact, I was very impressed by the prices at Abbey's and Galaxy.) 

I did buy Bujold's Cryoburn and Diplomatic Immunity, because they were only $13.50 each, and I liked them a lot.  I was also very tempted by the presence of most of the Benjamin January series in paperback for $14.95 (my copies are mostly ebooks, and an ex-library hardback), but I was already starting to worry about my baggage weight for the trip home.  I did, however, buy the first book in the Abigail Adams Fights Crime series that Hambly writes under a different name, because it doesn't seem to be out in ebook form, and last I checked BookDepository only had the hardback. 

I was also a little thrilled to learn that there's a YA novel told from the POV of a young Henry VIII.  It's just called VIII, can't remember the author, but I had a flip through, and it looks pretty good.  Even if it does have a main character who, by definition, you will want to punch in the face. 

I was very, very good, and did not buy a single Doctor Who-relatd book, even though there were a bunch I haven't seen before.  I merely flipped through them and noted the interesting ones for future BookDepository transactions.  I also didn't buy the two old issues of a DW fan club zine, but mostly because they were full of opinions that were Wrong. 

My only disappointment with Galaxy Books was in the media area, and that was mostly because the universe, by which I mean the publishers that produce such things, has once again failed to provide me with a Reading Avatar: the Last Airbender type book.  Why?  You can't tell me it's not rich enough to support that kind of analysis.  And the older memebers of the original target audience have started college, and are surely ripe for some nice, juicy pop culture analysis!  Not to mention the vast legion of adult fans.  The world is crying out for an inquiry into the semiotic underpinnings of Ozai's abs!