Duck hunters from Cajun South Louisiana share their stories, plus hunting tips and observations, in this collection of essays. Tales of a Louisiana Duck Hunter, by Fielding Lewis, is a delightful collection of anecdotes and stories set in Cajun South Louisiana. The author, a hunter for over forty years, has garnered an extensive knowledge of the geography and fauna and flora of his home state. Interspersed throughout the book are hunting tips and observations that will be of use to any current or burgeoning duck hunter. Advice on how to build a blind, use a pirogue, or even modify a push pole is included in this compendium of the sport of duck hunting. Over the years, Mr. Lewis has become associated with many “characters” of beguiling charm and eccentricity, who will entertain the reader through the author’s candid storytelling. We meet those who have super-refined sensibility to the ways of nature. There are also separate sections on retrievers, exotic reptiles and birds, including the ivory-billed woodpecker, and even duck calling. Tales of a Louisiana Duck Hunter is both a book filled with pertinent information for the enjoyment of outdoor sport and a heartwarming memoir of the author’s good friends.

Ronald Sexton was only five years old when his father retired from coaching. He remembered very little of his dad’s life as one of North Carolina’s outstanding high school basketball coaches in the 1950s. Years after his father’s passing and after attending his father’s induction ceremony into Lenoir County’s Sports Hall of Fame, Ronald was determined to learn more about his father’s legacy as a basketball coach. He traveled from Louisiana to e

A sprightly, deeply personal narrative about how gumbo—for 250 years a Cajun and Creole secret—has become one of the world’s most beloved dishes. 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.

Join author and hunter C.L. Marshall as he recounts more than forty years of stories and anecdotes chock-full of dogs, good friends and fast-paced waterfowl action. It takes stubborn dedication and passionate optimism to brave the frosty, wet conditions for the chance to shoot ducks and geese. And yet the tradition continues every year as more than one million waterfowl occupy the waters of the Chesapeake. Whether you are setting decoys or watching the sun rise from a blind, hunting the bay is as challenging as it is rewarding. No one understands that better than the generations who have experienced it, from the goose pits of Rock Hall and Chestertown to the frothing whitewater of the Tangier Sound.

Traces the natural history of the elusive ivory-billed woodpecker and explains why many scientists believe the bird is extinct, despite reports of ivory-bill sightings.

Living dangerously with the members of the world-renowned Explorers Club.

Hood's travel memoir is a lyrical journey to places of great natural beauty and biological importance. Her stories reveal the vulnerability of natural places and the consequences of unsustainable exploitation. This inspiring work will be valuable for those interested in nature or travel memoirs, ethnographic writing, and for all who are concerned with the survival of our broader sense of place in the global environment.

"Few states can match Louisiana in terms of rich history, colorful characters and strange occurrences. It was home to America's first mound builders, the birthplace of the nation's modern army and the scene of a dismaying number of natural disasters. Louisiana's story also includes the weird and bizarre. Fish and worms have rained from the sky, sea serpents have been spotted off its coast and Bigfoot is said to roam the woods. From stampeding squirrels and bayou hippos to Native American hunters and sunken galleons, this collection of tales will entertain anyone who enjoys outdoor adventures and offbeat history. Award-winning author Dr. Terry L. Jones has tapped into his broad knowledge of Louisiana and his own outdoor experiences to produce this engaging book.Few states can match Louisiana in terms of rich history, colorful characters and strange occurrences. It was home to America's first mound builders, the birthplace of the nation's modern army and the scene of a dismaying number of natural disasters. Louisiana's story also includes the weird and bizarre. Fish and worms have rained from the sky, sea serpents have been spotted off its coast and Bigfoot is said to roam the woods. From stampeding squirrels and bayou hippos to Native American hunters and sunken galleons, this collection of tales will entertain anyone who enjoys outdoor adventures and offbeat history. Award-winning author Dr. Terry L. Jones has tapped into his broad knowledge of Louisiana and his own outdoor experiences to produce this engaging book."--back cover.