How to Burn Down the House: The Infamous Waiter and Bartender's Scam Bible by Two Bourbon Street Waiters

How to Burn Down the House: The Infamous Waiter and Bartender's Scam Bible by Two Bourbon Street Waiters
Average customer rating:

Just for restaurant employees

Great Book!!!

Shocking but very revealing

FANTASTIC

Short book could have been shorter

How to Burn Down the House: The Infamous Waiter and Bartender's Scam Bible by Two Bourbon Street Waiters
Peter Francis
Manufacturer: Promethean Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Business | Humor | Entertainment | Subjects | Books
General | Humor | Entertainment | Subjects | Books
Business & Professional | Humor | Entertainment | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 0974867705

Book Description

"How to Burn Down the House" is first insider's guide to restaurant and barroom con games. It contains humorous step by step descriptions of every scam in the business with detailed instructions on how to pull them off undetected.

Two Bourbon Street veterans usher the reader into the hilarious world of America's most overworked and under-appreciated criminal. Take an enlightening tour through the enterprising mind of the "Pump Handle", the enigmatic anti-hero of the service industry. For the first time his ingenious bag of tricks is revealed and examined in detail. After reading the Scam Bible you will never look at your waiter or bartender quite the same way again.

Customer Reviews:

Just for restaurant employees.......2007-01-09

I had been led to believe that this book also included comments about what happens when customers complain about their food. However, it was all about the little scams the wait staff pull to make extra money, usually at the expense of the restaurant. Not having worked in a restaurant, I didn't understand a lot of the scams.

Great Book!!!.......2006-11-14

This book is revolutionary. Eye opening insight to the world of restaurants and the staff that "run" them. It truly is one of the best books that I have ever read, and hysterical. If you have ever worked in the industry, it is a MUST READ!!!

Shocking but very revealing.......2006-11-10

A must read for every restaurant manager/owner and even for restaurant customers. After reading the various ways that servers can line their pockets above and beyond tips, it makes you a much more aware and less likey to get taken. The lengths they would go to pull a scam and their outright audacity were almost amusing, as long as you're not the one getting ripped off.

FANTASTIC.......2006-07-20

This book provided the information I needed to run an efficient food establishment. It also gave me the secrets on what to look out for in the latest restaurant and bar scams. Great authors. A must read.

Short book could have been shorter.......2006-07-13

It seems that the editor wanted to have as many pages in this booklet, so he could call it a book, that he could muster. Large type, small pages, and liberal use of white space still couldn't get it even to 100 pages. The editor even started counting at the title page, so by the time you get to chapter 1, you're already on page 21. I guess the editor took some of the lessons from the authors, about how to rip-off the customers, to heart. I don't read very fast, and spent less than two hours to completely study this novelette.

The authors try and convey a image of rampant rip-offs by a single waiter being possible, but I just don't believe that the scale of their implications are possible. There are a few good scams that may be possible, such as recycling customer checks, but any decent restaurateur has these beat with a good point of sale system, and security cameras.

The references to how bartenders rip-off the customers and store were extremely weak, and probably thrown into the book"let" in order to claim that area is covered. I seriously doubt that the authors ever worked behind the bar, or even interviewed any bartenders before writing this book. For example, they say the bartender should short pour to rip-off his customers. What good is that going to do the bartender? They don't pay for the liquor, the owner does. If anything, over pour so you get larger tips. Duh! Remember, the owner is paying for it, and a customer appreciates and rewards a bartender pouring heavy.

At $12.95 the book is overpriced. It would be appropriately priced around $3.95, provided you always received free shipping. So, for the Amazon rating, if you took $12.95 and divided it by 5 stars, each star is worth $2.59. ($3.95 value / $12.95 cost) * 5 stars) = 1.53 Amazon stars, and we round up to 2 (plus I'm feeling pretty generous right now).

On the positive side, I like the concept of the book, and would like to read one that is more detailed, accurate, and covers more real life situations.

Average customer rating:

A not to be missed book series!
A Steamy New Orleans Mystery
Oh my Goddess!
Terrific sexy erotic mystery!
Entertaining and engaging

Bourbon Street Blues
Greg Herren
Manufacturer: Alyson Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 075820213X

Customer Reviews:

A not to be missed book series!.......2007-07-28

The first book in the best book series. I never want the books to end. The characters build from book to book. I recommend reading them in order. This is a series you do not want to miss. I just hope the series continues for more books than the three that have been written.

A Steamy New Orleans Mystery.......2007-06-01

Herren, Greg. "Bourbon Street Blues". Kensington Books, 2003.

A Steamy New Orleans Mystery

Amos Lassen and Literary Pride

Greg Herren has written three mysteries about New Orleans and "Bourbon Street Blues" is the first. It is quite a read, full of the steamy, erotic adventure that is New Orleans. As the first book of a his new series of novels featuring amateur sleuth Scotty Bradley, Herren hooks you, There is little question that you will continue to read his entire series Aside from a great gay noir, it gives a glimpse of what makes New Orleans such a sexy city.
Scotty is a personal trainer and on occasion a dancer at the gay bars. He rents an apartment from his lesbian aunts and his parents are proud of their gay son. The action takes place during the craziest time of the New Orleans year--Southern Decadence (oh the memories!!!!!!!). Scotty is out having a great time until one of his former clients who disappeared a year before suddenly reappears and asks Scott if he can use his apartment to hide in. He feels that someone is after him. Scott, thinking the guy is on drugs, ignores him but when he returns home that night, he sees that a mysterious disk has been slipped into his boot with his tips. He does not have a computer and goes over to a friend's who is not home and when he finally returns to his own apartment, he finds someone he knows lying dead on his doorstep.
As time passes, Scott discovers that he is involved in a plan to destroy New Orleans which has been labeled sinful by a man who is running for governor and an extreme right-winger. Scott realizes that he must stop the murderer from killing thousands.
Here is a fast paced novel charged with erotica that captures the reader from the very start. Scotty is the personification of gay New Orleans. Herren has created likeable and real characters and Scotty is one of those characters that you can't help but like. He is both human and a very good person. In fact Herren knows very well how to write interesting characters. They may not all be likeable but they are interesting
Southern Decadence is a great setting--everything can and usually does happen that weekend. In the novel, like in New Orleans, one event happens after another. Like Southern Decadence the novel has its share of camp and humor and if you ever been to Decadence, you know what I am talking about. Herren's sexy novel is full of coincidences and the outrageous behavior that characterizes "The Big Easy" (before Katrina). The book is a love song to "The City That Care Forgot" and Herren's love for New Orleans shines through every line of the novel.

Oh my Goddess!.......2006-12-24

Bourbon Street Blues is adorably cheesy, lightweight fun. Although as a gay man I find the main character's delight in his horny superficiality extremely unappealing (Dude! I love sex, but have another friggin' interest! Get a puppy, knit, something!) -- BUT Herren's brisk style and sense of fun win out. I really liked this one.

Terrific sexy erotic mystery!.......2006-11-14

I loved all the characters especially the main one - Scotty. Herren did a great job of describing the various locations in New Orleans and his character development was anything but boring! Of course the sex was hot and so were the guys that Scotty 'met'. Scotty is very hot. The story moved along smoothly with the secondary characters adding interest and levity. I am already looking forward to reading Jackson Square Jazz.

Entertaining and engaging.......2005-04-26

I don't read a lot. I'm trying to read more. I'm choosy about what I read because I get bored easily and turned off by characters I don't relate to. This book has good writing, an interesting story, likeable characters, mystery, gay themes, a sense of place, some psychic phenomenon, a satisfying ending. It doesn't have anything very gritty, sexual or offensive. It was entertaining, engaging, and accessible. I liked it a lot and am online looking for other books by the same author.

Average customer rating:

Awful... just awful
The Mark
"The past crawled all over the city...
A new voice on the literary scene
Bravo! Great Debut!

Bourbon Street
Leonce Gaiter
Manufacturer: Carroll & Graf
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0786714328

Book Description

In 1958, gambler Deke Watley decides to leave the comfort and golden dust of Texas for the toxic chiaroscuro of Mardi Gras New Orleans: he smells the chance of a lifetime. It gets even better when this opportunity to win big collides with Hannah, a woman from his past—a woman he wronged—a wrong he’s regretted ever since. Playing him in more ways than one is Alex Moreau, the half-black son of a notorious white racketeer. It’s Alex’s game, and he weaves the worst of his troubled past to create an orgy of vengeance, only to find that the other players have scores to settle, too. Amid the noise and the frenzy of the drunken crowds, streamers flying like electric currents, bejeweled costumes glittering, Deke stumbles through this foreign, lurid town, seeking a return to the innocence he turned his back on long ago. However, time is running out and old debts must be paid before Deke—or any other hustler—leaves Bourbon Street alive. This debut novel from Leonce Gaiter combines Walter Mosley’s dark brushstrokes of postwar America with the best of the grifters and petty hustlers that populate Chester Himes, bringing a fresh voice to the African-American crime novel.

Customer Reviews:

Awful... just awful.......2005-12-28

Two dimensional characters, a clunky plot, and a comprehensive ignorance of the actual Bourbon Street makes this novel an awkward, difficult, and tedious effort. Is Alex Moreau mad? Is Deke a pawn? Is August the monster? Who cares? Who can tell them apart? In most scenes, it takes notes to figure out who is present.

Even on a flight across the country, the inflight "Skymall" catalog proved a more interesting and better written text.

A book to avoid at all costs.

The Mark.......2005-08-26

BOURBON STREET is the story of a complicated family whose visceral interest in poker leads the other characters through a labyrinth of games. The story starts out detailing the purpose of the Moreaus' poker extravaganza, but soon strays to more carnal issues amidst the decadence of Mardi Gras and post-war New Orleans.

August Moreau is a wealthy man whose ego is so massive that he made the arrogant mistake of thinking his white society friends would accept him living openly with his black mistress, Christine, and rejoice with him at the birth of his mixed race son. He soon discovers who his real friends are and makes a point to keep them close and his enemies closer through brutal vigilante enforcement of his every desire.

Alex Moreau is a bi-racial, very disturbed, and very angry young man whose invincibility has been assured by his white father's notorious menace and wealth. No one in New Orleans would dare cross August Moreau, even if he did elevate his bastard son higher than most white men. His treatment of Alex provokes outrage and alienation among the citizenry, but it is Christine's death that drives a permanent wedge between father and son. Her death and his tenuous position in life - a wealthy black man with no real power of his own - fuels his rage and creates a desire to obliterate everything that is Moreau.

Using an annual poker game to set his vicious plan in motion, Alex has invited a new player to the game in addition to his father's usual select guest list for this high stakes affair, and Deke Watley, a two-bit card hustler from Dallas, can't resist the urge of easy money and lots of it. Deke's greed leads him back to a former love whose tarnished image has evolved, yet remained the same, over the years. Now, she is trying to find a way to bury it in the past and re-incarnate her lost innocence by betraying the only person who could redeem her.

Leonce Gaiter is rapidly ensconcing himself as a master of noire mystery. His characters in BOURBON STREET literally jump off the page at you. Their pasts, feelings, and secret motives are known instantly, but the mystery of the story is preserved until the end. The gift is that his characters are not scripted in narrative, but carved lovingly in dialogue and action. From semi-shrouded Ray, whose soul has become as scarred as his face, to hard-hearted Hannah, who only wants to be clean and pure again in everyone's eyes, Gaiter does an exceptional job of making the reader see, feel, hear, and smell the sights, sounds, and textures of Mardi Gras 1958.

Reviewed by Kim Anderson Ray
of The RAWSISTAZ Reviewers

"The past crawled all over the city..........2005-05-30

...like insects on a carcass." In prose that shines with originality and images that burn the psyche, Bourbon Street is liberally laced with the violence that is endemic to the novel, set in 1958 New Orleans, where a mixed-race son, the fruit of a damned coupling, is pitted against his lot in life. The story is riddled with breathtaking moments of unexpected brutality that quickly fades into the chaotic merriment of Mardi Gras insanity, the dizzy swirl of instant gratification, the wild, decadent dance before All Saint's Day shuts down the Devil's celebration for a brief period of atonement.

The story opens with a poker game at L'Hotel Moreau, this time infused with the fresh blood of Deke Watley, a marginally successful gambler out of his depth with these players. Watley has been invited to sit in on Alex Moreau's game, although the Texan soon finds that there is more in store for him than a game of cards. Psyched for the challenge and eager to win, Watley is astonished when he runs into Hannah, a woman from his shameful past. Years ago, Deke turned his back on Hannah, an act he has since regretted. It is unbelievable that he should find her now in this place.

Once Deke discovers Hannah, the skeletons rattle free from their cobwebbed closets, old secrets freed, haunting tales of love, hate and simmering rage. August Moreau virtually owned Alex's mother, a black woman of great strength and pride, certainly a match for the man's unbridled hubris. Their endless power struggle pushes them to the brink, where the black woman is left dead and the wealthy white man blinded. August's casual brutality is passed on to a son who barely knows the meaning of affection. Trapped in the horrific tableau of his parent's contretemps, Alex's sole mission is to avenge his mother's unspeakable death.

Both Alex and August have committed unspeakable acts, surrounded by the decadent souls who live in their sick world, tied to the elder Moreau by greed or infamy. In this tug of war all are pawns, even Hannah and Deke, and nothing is as it first appears. Rapier-like, Gaiter's incisive prose slashes through these distorted lives, ripping away genteel facades, a monochromatic wasteland soaked in the bright red of spilled blood, human elixir reduced to a common hue. Purging his character's embattled emotions, Gaiter lays bare the truth of racial hatred, the distortions of years spent in a silent war, the child paying the exorbitant price of his parent's destructive union.

In his black-hearted thriller, the author mines the dark side of human nature, where betrayal oozes from every corner, giving no quarter, each character face to face with his own worst nightmare and sold-out soul. The hall of mirrors becomes a house of horrors as the occupants of L'Hotel Moreau are sacrificed to their greed and the consuming rage of a broken son, as Alex degenerates finally into the same monstrous decadence of his father. None of the characters, after all, are redeemable. Luan Gaines/2005.

A new voice on the literary scene.......2005-05-29

Bourbon Street has been the center stage for incalculable stories. However, in
Leonce Gaiter's debut novel of the same name, that infamous stretch of asphalt is merely
window dressing for the true face of New Orleans to hide behind.
It's Mardi Gras, 1958. Deke Wately steps from a Greyhound Bus into the wild
and wicked carnival atmosphere. "Frenzy reigned on Bourbon Street. Barrel fires
burned, and the bodies cavorting around them seemed as rapt as lewd priests at dead
men's pyres. Deke couldn't take three steps without some drunk man or woman
slamming into him. He was the only one on the street not ricocheting wildly with a
rapacious smirk on his face or his private lusts smeared, draped, painted and sequined all
over his body. Men and women screamed at the noise."
Deke, a second-rate gambler and nomad, is uncomfortable in the masked city.
But he's been invited to play in wealthy gangster August Moreau's personal game; the
stakes are too high. As he enters the private L'hotel Moreau, he first meets the deformed
Ray, who hides behind a mask; then Jimmy, the well-tailored, gun-toting bellman;, then
Deke comes face to face with the book's real protagonist Alex, Moreau's mulatto son
whose desire to revenge his mother's death drives him to the very edge of insanity.

Alex shuffles the other players while he thrusts Deke at his father's mistress, the blonde bombshell, Hannah, as part of his revenge. Hannah. The girl Deke bedded and the woman he abandoned. Now that he's seen her again, "he wanted to savor that moment when they first caught of each other. She was his past, the bridge between who he was and who he was becoming. She was that piss-poor Texas town. She was his irreclaimable youth, his resting place." He heard she'd killed a man so Deke had more to worry about than an angry female. The narrative weaves between the debauchery of Bourbon Street, the Ten Spot Bar where Deke is sent to face more than Hannah's long-held wrath, and the L'hotel Moreau, where umpteen hidden agendas are waiting to be dealt and played. After a savage beating at the Ten Spot, Deke stumbles through the writhing crowd and back to the hotel. "He felt safe once he put his hand on the gate of the L'hotel Moreau. He didn't have the presence of mind to note the irony. What at first seemed foreign and frightening to him now had been supplanted by horrors far worse, that it had become a comfort." Deke watches in dismay as he learns that the game he came to play is more than cards and the hand he holds isn't a winner.
Chapter One has too many similes for my taste but after that the narrative smooths out. The story is dense, much in the Faulknarian style with an intricate use of language, themes of racism, and clashing between the Old and New South. Yet the soul-stirring beat of jazz pulsates behind the words, forcing the pages apart.

The true story of Bourbon Street lies in its shadows; the places Deke can't really see and the images Alex can't forget. Gaiter's Bourbon Street is best for what it isn't than what it is. The plot, although intricate, is rather predictable and the ending is rather cheesy, but that voice. Oh that voice trumpets loud and long of a new talent surfacing in the literary world.

Bravo! Great Debut!.......2005-04-21

Set in 1958 during Mardi Gras, Bourbon Street opens with Deke Watley, a nomadic gambler who has accepted an invitation to a high stakes Poker tournament sponsored by one of New Orleans's notorious residents, a blinded, aging gangster, August Moreau. Carnival is in full swing - filling the streets with a myriad of bejeweled masked strangers. However, when Deke meets his fellow opponents, he realizes they are as equally eccentric. Alex is August's angry, mulatto son from an island prostitute rumored to have dabbled in voodoo; Honey is the retired madam of one of the city's largest and most lucrative whorehouses; milquetoast Pritchett is August's lawyer and the keeper of secrets of all the dirty deeds; Pritchett's wife is a jealous whore-turned-housewife who has not changed her ways and finds pleasure in the backseats of cars along dark streets; and Hannah, a blonde bombshell, is August's young mistress and Deke's former love from a distant past.

Although fairly short in length (169 pages), the suspense builds from the opening pages and accelerates as the plot thickens to involve all the above mentioned players (and others unnamed but equally enigmatic) to weave a tale of revenge, double-crossing, murder, and an unexpected finale (at least it was a surprise to me). The characters are wonderfully broken and tormented - each nursing their wounds as best they can. Gaiter's writing is strong as reflected in the vivid images he describes - I saw the atmospheric haze, I felt the heat, I heard the music, I inhaled the cigarette smoke, and I visualized the sweat dripping from the characters. He added more realism by carefully interlacing the complexities of race relations and social inequalities of the day amid the decadent backdrop of the Big Easy. I enjoyed the story and highly recommend it to those who might enjoy reading about this era and the suspense/crime genre.

Reviewed by Phyllis
APOOO BookClub
Nubian Circle Book Club

Love, Bourbon Street: Reflections of New Orleans

Average customer rating:

"Do You Know What It Means to Miss New Orleans?

Love, Bourbon Street: Reflections of New Orleans

Manufacturer: Alyson Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

History | Gay & Lesbian | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 1555839819

Book Description

The people of New Orleans have always enjoyed a love affair with their city, and only when they came close to totally losing it-in the wake of Hurricane Katrina-did they truly give voice to their love.

Now, two noted editors have called upon their friends from the Big Easy's literary establishment to pen this remarkable book-a "love letter" that takes us into this crazy and wonderful patchwork quilt of a city. With contributions from Poppy Z. Brite, JM Redmann, Victoria Brownworth, and many others, this is a book not just to be read, but to be treasured.

Customer Reviews:

"Do You Know What It Means to Miss New Orleans?.......2006-12-24

Herren, Greg and Willis, Paul J., editors, "Love, Bourbon Street: Reflections of New Orleans", Alyson Books, 2006

Amos Lassen and Literary Pride

"Do you know what it means to miss New Orleans? " I certainly do. It's been a little over a year since Katrina brought me to Arkansas but New Orleans is still in my blood. I miss the red beans and rice, I miss the free spirit of the town and I miss Mardi Gras and Southern Decadence. Someone who has lived in New Orleans carries some of the city with them forever. New Orleans is coming back--not like it was before--but it is trying. To help us remember what it was like, Greg Herren and Paul Willis, lovers and authors, have compiled "Love, Bourbon Street and I am so glad they have. I got misty eyed reading it and remembering my haunts. As much as I like Arkansas, "Sidetracks" will never be "The Phoenix", "Backstreet" will never be "The Bourbon Pub" and "The Factory" will never be "Oz". At least I have the memories, I am not going back but I want to be reminded every now and then of how it once was.
New Orleans has always been a haven for writers and a great deal of wonderful literature has come from there. We need only remember Tennessee William's, Truman Capote, Lillian Hellman, Mark Twain and a host of others and we are reminded of the tremendous literary legacy the city has. It has been a haven and an inspiration for writers. A new generation of authors is writing about New Orleans in this anthology. The gay and lesbian writers of the town know it and write about the Big Easy with sincerity and truth. The booze and the parties, the beads and the parades, the laissez faire attitude, the French Quarter and the Bywater are all a part of the literary heritage, The stories and poems here appeal to the heart and the emotions, to the escapees of the storm and to those who returned to pick up the pieces. The one thing that all the entries have in common is a passion for the "city that care forgot" which is now learning how to care. In New Orleans people "do not live to work, they work to live" and this is what you will find here.
Herren and Willis have assembled a veritable collection written by some of the most notable queer authors of the modern age. You will find Patricia Nell Warren ("The Front Runner", Martin Pousson ("No Place, Louisiana"), J.M. Redmann ("The Intersection of Law and Desire"), Poppy Z. Brite ("Liquor"), the editors themselves, and many many others.
The book is a love song to New Orleans It is amazing to see how after the horrors of Katrina, the people featured here have been able to be so uplifting and positive. The selections are eclectic as is the city of New Orleans and as different as day and night. There is something for everyone and everything for all of us. We, in Arkansas, need remember that New Orleans is also located in the Bible belt but managed to rise above it. Many queers came to New Orleans to escape the conservatism of other parts of the south as New Orleans was always one of the gayest towns around. Aside from giving us great literature, New Orleans has given Americans so much more--food, culture Mardi Gras, jazz and it has given gay people hope--hope that in the conservative south they could be themselves. It is only fitting that the New Orleans that was be immortalized by gay and lesbian authors. Our community has always been an integral part of the city and it is the duty of the gay population to make its voice heard.
This book means so much to me and I am sure you will feel the same. It is a testament to the people of the city who have chosen to rebuild it in the hope that it will once again be a haven for our needs and desires. As I said before, I am not going back to New Orleans; I have decided to stay here in Arkansas and see what can be done here so that we may one day be able to have the kind of atmosphere that New Orleans has. It can be done if we want it to be so. In the meantime, read this wonderful anthology. It is thought provoking, heart warming and emotional--just like the Crescent City herself.

Bourbon Street Black: The New Orleans Black Jazzman

Average customer rating:

Bourbon Street Black: The New Orleans Black Jazzman
Jack V. & Danny Barker, Buerkle
Manufacturer: Oxford
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Music | Entertainment | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0195016904

Average customer rating:

Didn't make me want to read any other Marchand tales
New Rule
interesting character study

Bourbon Street Blues (Hotel Marchand)
Maureen Child
Manufacturer: Harlequin
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback

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Customer Reviews:

Didn't make me want to read any other Marchand tales.......2007-02-16

Ten years ago, chanteuse Holly witnessed the bride to be of Parker having sex with her maid of honor. Bride Frannie threatened to destroy her career if she talked, so Holly walked. But Parker, now on the verge of divorce is looking for a singer to headline at his jazz club, and he wants Holly. An unmistakable spark ignites between the two, but the morning after Parker has regrets and thinks that Holly is just another woman out to trap him. What he doesn't count on is that Holly has a backbone, and she won't give in to his drama.

Within six months, Parker and Frannie's marriage was a sham with both living separate lives. But Parker has had enough and wants to end the charade. Scheming Frannie sees Holly as an obstacle to a perfectly great relationship she has had with her husband and wants nothing to change. But her attempts at seducing Parker fall on deaf ears, so she has to go to plan B and get the redhead out of Parker's heart.

Child's installment in the Hotel Marchand series is a little lacking. The characters are underdeveloped, and since it's a book within a series, plot points introduced go nowhere. It's annoying for readers who prefer their stories to stand alone. It is just an okay book, and not worth a repeated reading like her far better "Some Kind of Wonderful."

New Rule.......2006-12-21

New rule. All the books in a series must be written by the SAME AUTHOR. I've read the first five books in the Hotel Marchand series. The Hotel Marchand is a family-owned hotel in the French Quarter of New Orleans which is struggling after Hurricane Katrina & in each book the hotel is featured.

But, since each author has their own different writing style, the effect is jarring & the continuity of the books is weak. So far my ratings have been: a 4, a 5, a 3, a 4, a 3, in that order. All the authors are good and if these were stand-alone books they would be fine.

Parker James, New Orleans coffee heir, is getting a divorce after 9 ½ years in a "non marriage". Holly is a jazz singer who sang at Parker's wedding. The night before the wedding Holly went to pick up some music & found Frannie, the bride to be, in a very compromising position. She didn't say anything at the time because of some major threats from Frannie.

How dumb is Parker? This guy is supposed to be a hot-shot executive. He married a woman in what was one step away from an arranged marriage. After six months of marriage they lived apart until ten years later when he suddenly decided he wanted a divorce. All this time he's been supporting her, in a lavish lifestyle. He said one of the reasons he thought the marriage would work was because of their sex life. Hello?? She was a lesbian & he never picked up on that until Holly told him?

Also why is it that in every book I read about a redhead they look fabulous in red? For a redhead to look good in red is a very rare thing. How about picking a color that they DO look good in for a change?

Holly was an appealing character but Parker, besides being stupid, was rather arrogant & somewhat mean-spirited. I have the next two books in the series & would recommend it as long as you're prepared for the ups and downs.

interesting character study .......2006-10-14

At the bar in the Hotel Marchand, jazz singer Holly Carlisle recognizes Mr. Misery as she sang at his wedding. She goes over to say hello to businessman's Parker James, who at first does not recognize her until she mentions the wedding that he never should have said yes to ten years ago; now the messy divorce is all over the local papers as Frannie accuses him of sabotaging the import division of the family company that he gave his share to her as part of the settlement. He admits he came to the bar in the middle of the afternoon to hear her perform and ask her if she would be interested in playing in his new club Parker's Place.

She accepts his offer, but soon Holly and Parker become lovers while Frannie makes life miserable for everyone associated with her ex. She goes so far as to sabotage his new endeavor interfering with shipments and continues her hate campaign to destroy Parker. However, when she turns her venom on Holly, she chose someone with claws willing to strike back unlike Parker who is ready to surrender.

BOURBON STREET BLUES is an interesting character study inside of a contemporary romance. Frannie the mean queen is a fascinating manipulator who plays Holly and Parker like a virtuoso violinist. Courageous Holly is an ethical person who refuses to allow threats, extortion or bribes to stop her from achieving her life dreams. However, Parker seems shallow next to the dynamic females as he is ready the throw in the towel (or at least raise the white towel high) at every setback. Still fans will enjoy the latest New Orleans Hotel Marchand tale.

Harriet Klausner

Saint of Bourbon Street (Men of the Black Watch)

Average customer rating:

not a mushy book, kept me reading it, characters are good

Saint of Bourbon Street (Men of the Black Watch)
BJ James
Manufacturer: Silhouette
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Romance | Subjects | Books

Regency | Romance | Subjects | Books
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Accessories:

Avon ANEW CLINICAL 2-Step Facial Peel

ASIN: 0373059515

Customer Reviews:

not a mushy book, kept me reading it, characters are good.......1998-10-16

This book has romance with substance, has action, suspence and not mushy. Would have liked it to be longer.d

Average customer rating:

Four old friends
"As grass is green, sho' nuff, y'all"
"As grass is green, sho' nuff, y'all"

The Bourbon Street Musicians
Kathy Price
Manufacturer: Clarion Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Literature | Children's Books | Subjects | Books

General | Ages 4-8 | Children's Books | Subjects | Books

Folklore & Mythology | Social Sciences | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0618040765

Book Description

In this rollicking retelling of "The Bremen Town Musicians," a creaky old jack mule, a droopy hound dog, a ragged rooster, and a bony cat, all unwanted and no longer loved, set out for Bourbon Street in New Orleans to play bebop and make their fortune. Presently they encounter a band of thieves in a shack by a bayou, and though things don't turn out quite as expected, they end up mighty fine just the same. A bluesy dialect that begs to be read aloud, vivid imagery, and distinctively comic illustrations infuse the adventures of these four determined friends with the flavor of rural Louisiana and the rhythm of New Orleans jazz. Glossary.

Customer Reviews:

Four old friends.......2005-09-11

This is not really a childrens' book. It's dialect retelling makes it hard to understand just as the original Uncle Remus tales did a few generations ago. It is actually the story of four elderly outcasts from society whose friendship saves them. Together they can take care of each other and find that life is still good.

"As grass is green, sho' nuff, y'all".......2002-11-15

Author, Kathy Price takes the reader down to the bayou for this marvelous Cajun rendition of the ever popular, Bremen Town Musicians. Meet four elderly, musically inclined friends, a mule, a hound, a rooster, and a cat, in all their craggy glory, trying to save their hides by traveling to New Orleans. "We is goin' to Bourbon Street to bebop and jazz. You can carry a tune and you have a bit of the torch in your song, so come wit' us, and we'll mardi gras and hi-de-ho." But along the way they come across a crawfisher's shack. Inside they spy a table filled with food, and "four roughnecks eatin' wit' jackknives and thumbs." And since it was dinnertime, and they were mighty hungry, these four old friends decide to sing for their supper..... Ms Price's clever retelling is filled with captivating imagery and magic, and with its energetic, rhythmic Cajun dialect, just begs to be read aloud by an enthusiastic storytellier. Andrew Glass' bold, bright, and exuberant illustrations enhance the text with playful humor and witty detail. Perfect for youngsters 4-8, The Bourbon Street Musicians is a manic, rollicking, fun-filled romp. "As grass is green, sho' nuff, y'all."

"As grass is green, sho' nuff, y'all".......2002-11-15

Friday Night Grind: Bourbon Street, New Orleans

Average customer rating:

Compelling and Thought Provoking
gritty photographs of strippers and patrons on New Oreleans' famed Bourbon Street

Friday Night Grind: Bourbon Street, New Orleans
Jackie Brenner
Manufacturer: Shine Media Group in cooperation with Fresco Fine Art Publications, Inc.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Photography | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

All Titles | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books
ASIN: 0976252333

Book Description

The old world character of New Orleans is at once elegant, cultured, and refined, yet dilapidated, boisterous, and vulgar. To document these abundant eccentricities, Jackie Brenner is drawn to subjects that expose the night people of her hometown with Bourbon Street and its strip clubs as the perfect tease. To gain entry into this darkened, shadowy world was difficult.

Friday nights, better known as date night in the Crescent City, were chosen to penetrate the fantasy, harshness, and humanity of the stripper's world; to become a witness to the reality of their "otherwordly" existence. These are women who find the amount of money that can be earned too hard to pass up regardless of the consequences. They are a little bit of everyone just trying to make it through the day using whatever resources are available.

When she began this project, Brenner was expecting the strippers to be mere objects and she finished it knowing these ladies as human beings. Jackie Brenner's enigmatic images now serve as historical record of the time before Hurricane Katrina's devastation created another obstacle in the path for all of us who are addicted to the character of New Orleans.

Just as these women struggle to survive, so will New Orleans, as her people fight topreserve, rebuild and insure the integrity of her survival.

Dramatic photographs of dancers, bartenders, and bouncers taken in a New Orleans strip club over a four-month period prior to Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

Customer Reviews:

Compelling and Thought Provoking.......2006-09-30

Jackie Brenner's book is essentially a photo essay dealing with the "grind" of being an exotic dancer on world famous Bourbon Street in New Orleans.

Photographed in black and white, the book is, at times, an unsettling look at the sad, matter-of-fact existence of the women who endure degradation for the sake of survival.

Other than some brief background notes, there is very little text as the photos speak more eloquently than any wordsmith could manage.

Some of the most compelling images are of the younger women. Still youthful in body, the cracks in their souls leak out from their eyes. In some of the photos you can almost see their young smiles hardening into a jaded and lifeless gaze. The smiles may be there and they may be real but the joy shown is fleeting for this is a hard life.

The reader will find themselves lamenting the fate which has befallen these ladies. How can a woman voluntarily enter this trade? Some do it to support children or drug habits but they all have their reasons and it isn't our place to judge.

Of course the photos of the patrons feature beaming smiles indicative of good times had and of dollars tucked into garters. In the end it's all about the money but after the patrons move on, there's the cold slap of real life.

The truly saddest photo is of a woman who is not old but no longer young. Her looks have receded like Katrina's flood waters, leaving a wrinkled and damaged landscape that will never be the same. What kind of future can she expect? A cottage in the country with grandchildren running in the picket-fenced yard? Not likely. Sad...

The book is a coffee table-sized edition and the photography is excellent. Ms. Brenner's use of lighting allows the shadow to step forward as if it were protecting the subject from some unseen danger. The most remarkable aspect of Ms. Brenner's book is how these ladies have managed to maintain their dignity in a most undignified setting.

gritty photographs of strippers and patrons on New Oreleans' famed Bourbon Street.......2006-04-02

Brenner's photographs report the New Orleans strip-club scene in a gritty style. The noirish, realistic photos capture the words from the lines of a poem "The Grind of Bourbon Street" used as an epigraph for the 50 or so photos--"The grind of/merely surviving the harshness of living..." This "grind" is juxtaposed with the "grind" of the crowds and of the music. Yet the women do not appeal for sympathy; nor are they photographed to evoke sympathy. Neither are Brenner's photos moralistic in that they belittle or judge the women. Their work as strippers is merely and equivalently another kind of work, like the work of other laborers or blue-collar workers. The scenes with women smoking and drinking sodas offstage and even the shots of them in their nearly naked performances have a matter-of-fact quality. Here the flesh of breasts, buttocks, backs, and thighs is simply another element of the scene, like the excited or jaded men with their beers. Everyone is playing a prescribed role. Only the few photos of younger women, little more than girls, with faintly frantic looks for means of escape suggest the vacuousness of the enterprise sucking the adult women and men into it with no hope or desire of return at the point they have reached. After Katrina, one will wait and see if this aspect of the famed New Orleans Bourbon Street night life comes back.

Average customer rating:

Beautiful New Orleans The Crescent City
Alice Geoffray
Manufacturer: Express Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Pamphlet
ASIN: B000VNSA9O

Product Description

full color photo booklet of New Orleans in the early 1970's.

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