Library Loot: Happier Than A Pig In...Uh...Nonfiction

I can't seem to get past the 900s lately and this week, it seems that I've zeroed in on a certain American city. The unpredictability of these trips to my library make it that much more fun.

Crossing Border Street: A Civil Rights Memoir - Peter Jan Honigsberg. Honigsberg, a first-year law student at NYU, volunteered in New Orleans on behalf of the Civil Rights movement as Jim Crow was finally and reluctantly releasing its hold on the South. When he first arrived, he was rather naive by his own admission and thought that race relations could be "solved easily if everyone did the right thing". By the time he left, he admitted that race was a "tangled and mulitlayered issue" and there were no easy answers. This 2000 memoir chronicles the years 1966-1968 and Hornigsberg's time of learning and growth.


Huey Long: The Kingfish of Louisiana - Suzanne LeVert. This short (133 pages) biography is part of the Makers of America series, and seems to be geared towards young adult readers, although it would appeal to older readers as well. There aren't as many photos as I had hoped, but there's a good bibliography section. I'm hoping that once I read this, I'll be ready to dive into All The King's Men, which is in my Pulitzer pile.

The nonfiction section of the library is turning out to be just as intriguing as the fiction section. Every visit is a surprise; I never know what I'll find. A couple of weeks ago, I saw Paris Hilton's diary. At the same time I was mouthing those three little words, Dionne Warwick's voice filled my brain, singing Walk On By. Oh, yes.