Kirjahaku

With a long and colorful family history of defying storms, the seafaring Robin cousins of St. Bernard Parish, Louisiana, make a fateful decision to ride out Hurricane Katrina on their hand-built fishing boats in a sheltered Civil War-era harbor called Violet Canal. But when Violet is overrun by killer surges, the Robins must summon all their courage, seamanship, and cunning to save themselves and the scores of others suddenly cast into their care. In this gripping saga, Louisiana native Ken Wells provides a close-up look at the harrowing experiences in the backwaters of New Orleans during and after Katrina. Focusing on the plight of the intrepid Robin family, whose members trace their local roots to before the American Revolution, Wells recounts the landfall of the storm and the tumultuous seventy-two hours afterward, when the Robins' beloved bayou country lay catastrophically flooded and all but forgotten by outside authorities as the world focused its attention on New Orleans. Wells follows his characters for more than two years as they strive, amid mind-boggling wreckage and governmental fecklessness, to rebuild their shattered lives. This is a story about the deep longing for home and a proud bayou people's love of the fertile but imperiled low country that has nourished them.

Fifteen years after he tormented fellow students at Catahoula Bayou School, Junior Guidry is broke, drunk, one-legged, and living in a wreck of a trailer on the edge of a snake-infested swamp. He's survived an oil-rig accident that would've killed most men but, with the help of a good lawyer, made him rich instead. But he's squandered his fortune on drink, blackjack, womanizing, and brawling, leaving a wake of wrecked cars and friendships, not to mention lost or stolen wooden legs. Then the mysterious Iris Mary Parfait enters his life. She's on the run from a tragic childhood and a bad, bad man. When news reaches Junior that a bar owner with Mob connections has posted a $100,000 bounty on Iris's head because she knows too much about him, Junior realizes he could regain his fortune--but at what cost? Narrated in Junior's unvarnished voice, Junior's Leg takes the reader on a singular journey through the mind of a troubled man. It is at turns unsettling, ribald, sexy, and poignant--a bold stroke of storytelling that ultimately plumbs the possibilities of love and redemption, even for as unlikely a candidate as Junior.

The capstone of Ken Wells s acclaimed Catahoula Bayou trilogy, " Logan s Storm" tracks the epic journey of Logan LaBauve as he flees corrupt cops while trying to lead Chilly Cox the teenager whose crime was rescuing Logan s son, Meely, from a racist bully to safety. But dodging two-footed predators deep in the Cajun backwaters turns out to be the easy part. As Logan, accompanied by a newfound love interest, heads to Florida to lie low, a killer hurricane springs from the Gulf and lives are suddenly on the line. Wells writes with Twain s flair for adventure and Welty s sense of place, making "Logan s Storm" a trip through the heart and soul of a singular American character."

Ask any self-respecting Louisianan who makes the best gumbo and the answer is universal: “Momma.” The product of a melting pot of culinary influences, gumbo, in fact, reflects the diversity of the people who cooked it up: French aristocrats, West Africans in bondage, Cajun refugees, German settlers, Native Americans—all had a hand in the pot. What is it about gumbo that continues to delight and nourish so many? And what explains its spread around the world? A seasoned journalist, Ken Wells sleuths out the answers. His obsession goes back to his childhood in the Cajun bastion of Bayou Black, where his French-speaking mother’s gumbo often began with a chicken chased down in the yard. Back then, gumbo was a humble soup little known beyond the boundaries of Louisiana. So when a homesick young Ken, at college in Missouri, realized there wasn’t a restaurant that could satisfy his gumbo cravings, he called his momma for the recipe. That phone-taught gumbo was a disaster. The second, cooked at his mother’s side, fueled a lifelong quest to explore gumbo’s roots and mysteries. In Gumbo Life: Tales from the Roux Bayou, Wells does just that. He spends time with octogenarian chefs who turn the lowly coot into gourmet gumbo; joins a team at a highly competitive gumbo contest; visits a factory that churns out gumbo by the ton; observes the gumbo-making rituals of an iconic New Orleans restaurant where high-end Creole cooking and Cajun cuisine first merged. Gumbo Life, rendered in Wells’ affable prose, makes clear that gumbo is more than simply a delicious dish: it’s an attitude, a way of seeing the world. For all who read its pages, this is a tasty culinary memoir—to be enjoyed and shared like a simmering pot of gumbo.

Synopsis coming soon.......

"Boudin is what the gods would eat if the gods were looking for the transcendent; a dish as satisfying to the soul as it is to the palate." So writes Ken Wells, Louisiana native and boudin hound, in this lively travelogue through the aromatic precincts of the makers, sellers, and connoisseurs of what one noted Louisiana chef calls the world's most versatile sausage. Sure, boudin is just pork, rice, veggies, and spices in a casing. Yet in creative hands—and there are many in Louisiana—the link becomes a transformative dish, as at home at breakfast as it is as a lunchtime snack in the car. This book tells you where to find boudin in any cuisine: boudin tacos and burritos, boudin eggrolls and wonton, boudin sushi rolls, and more. Boudin isn't so much a guide as a journey that explains how a sausage created in the humble rural kitchens of Cajun and Creole "maw-maws" and "paw-paws" has been reimagined into a national food sensation. We observe the boudin-making rites of the state's oldest existing boudin producer where old-school blood sausage is still made. We travel to the Boudin Capital of the World to delve into how the Cormier family has gone from selling boudin out of a rice cooker in a tiny store to creating the Best Stop boudin juggernaut—making tons of boudin a day and shipping it all over America. Boudin examines the Continental French roots of Louisiana boudin, unveiling some surprises such as a crawfish boudin recipe in an 1824 French cookbook. Readers will learn how the fabled Lewis and Clark expedition of 1804 came to feast on buffalo boudin. There are mysteries to be plumbed, some unresolvable, as in the question of when rice entered the Louisiana boudin recipe. And, yes, there is a personalized tour along the Boudin Trail, where Wells discovers some extremely rare boudin as he eats his way across Louisiana.

Does this describe you? Instead of feeling inspired, powerful, and valued at work you instead feel frustrated and disillusioned. Even though you are talented and want to do your best, you are somehow not given a real chance to show it. Achieving satisfaction from the work you do no longer seems a possibility. If only there were another way to make a living... Well, there is, but you don't have to change jobs to do it. In his 62-year career that began as an 11-year-old farmhand, the author discovered two principles that can transform your work experience from misery to mastery. Make Work Personally Relevant--Find that reason that makes your work personally relevant. The reason that inspires and compels you to wholeheartedly demonstrate your value and worth every day. Follow Proven Workplace Disciplines--Embrace and follow proven work practices (disciplines) that will deepen your sense of value, worth and significance- and provide you with the recognition and reward that has eluded you. These two principles are at the heart of the journey outlined in The 7 Pillars of Workplace Mastery. Taking the journey will make you into the kind of performer that will be successful in any work environment.

Straight from the roux bayou, a culinary memoir about how a centuries old Cajun and Creole secret-gumbo-has become one of the world’s most beloved dishes.The product of a melting pot of culinary influences, gumbo reflects the diversity of the people who cooked it up: French aristocrats, West Africans in bondage, Cajun refugees, German settlers, Native Americans-all had a hand in the pot. What is it about gumbo that continues to delight and nourish so many, in America and around the world? A seasoned journalist, Ken Wells sleuths out the answers. His obsession goes back to his childhood in the Cajun bastion of Bayou Black, where his French-speaking mother’s gumbo often got started with a chicken chased down in the yard. In Gumbo Life: A Journey Down the Roux Bayou, Wells shares his lifelong quest to explore gumbo’s roots and mysteries. He spends time with octogenarian chefs to make a gourmet gumbo; joins a team at a highly competitive gumbo contest; visits a factory that churns out gumbo by the ton; and observes the gumbo-making rituals of an iconic New Orleans restaurant where high-end Creole cooking and Cajun cuisine first merged.Gumbo Life, rendered in Wells’ affable prose, makes clear that gumbo is more than a dish: it’s an attitude, a way of seeing the world. This is a tasty culinary memoir-to be enjoyed like a simmering pot of gumbo.This edition includes recipe additions as well as a story about the author’s quest for authentic Cajun Dark Roux, which involved a hunt for (thankfully scarce) bear lard.