The Reading Life With Bryan Camp And Iris Cohen

This week on The Reading Life: Debut novelists make a splash with two very different books. Bryan Camp creates a fantastic version of the Crescent City with a magician named Jude Dubuisson in “The City of Lost Fortunes," and Iris Cohen, author of “The Little Clan,” takes on high and low literary culture in her New York-set story of a bookish young woman's coming of age.

Audio extra:

April 15 calendar

Here’s what’s on tap in the literary life this week:

• Jeroen DeWulf discusses and signs “From the Kingdom of Kongo to Congo Square: Kongo Dances and the Origins of the Mardi Gras Indians,” Sunday, April 15, at 3 p.m. at Octavia Books, 513 Octavia St. New Orleans.
• Virginia Eubanks discusses and signs “Automating Inequality: How High Tech Tools Profile, Police, and Punish the Poor, “ Monday, April 16, at 6 p.m. at Octavia Books.
• Bryan Camp reads from and signs The City of Lost Fortunes, Tuesday, April 17, at 6 p.m. at Garden District Book Shop, 2727 Prytania, New Orleans.
• Jake Shears, whose new memoir is “Boys Keep Swinging,” appears in conversation with Gwen Thompkins, Wednesday, April 18, at 6 p.m. at Garden District Book Shop.
• Historian Winston Ho discusses “Chinese American History in New Orleans: Presbyterian Mission” Wednesday, April 18, at 7 p.m. at the East Bank Regional Library, 4747 W. Napoleon, Metairie. 
• The Friends of the University of New Orleans Library hold their annual book sale Thursday, April 19, from 10 a.m.-6 p.m. on the fourth floor of the library. Thursday only, there is an admission charge during the first two hours for "First Look" (but free to students and members.) The sale continues Friday, April 20, from 10-4 and Saturday, April 21, from 10-2.
• Joshua Wheeler discusses and signs his essay collection, “Acid West,” Thursday, April 19, at 6 p.m. at Garden District Book Shop.
• Seamus McGraw discusses and signs “A Thirsty Land: The Making of an American Water Crisis,” Thursday, April 19, at 6 p.m. at Octavia Books.
• The New Orleans Museum of Art hosts Edible Book Day, Saturday, April 21, from 10-3 at the New Orleans Museum of Art. Check out the events calendar at noma.org for details. New Orleans Public Library director Charles Brown and Susan Larson will be on hand to judge all the gorgeous cakes.
• Sheba Turk signs “Off Air: My Journey to the Anchor Desk,” Saturday Aril 21, from 2-4 p.m. at Barnes & Noble/Metairie.
• Blue Balliett signs “Out of the Wild Night,” Saturday, April 21, at 3 p.m. at Octavia Books.
• The New Orleans Poetry Festival is this weekend, April 20-22 at the New Orleans Healing Center and other locations. Special guests include the Baton Rouge slam team, Louisiana poet laureate Jack Bedell, Douglas Kearney, Dylan Krieger, Tonya Foster, Carolyn Hembree, and many others. Check out nolapoetry.com for the complete schedule.
• And here at The Reading Life we’re celebrating New Orleans Tricentennial by putting together a list of 300 great books about New Orleans. Send us your favorites to LabooksATwwno.org and see if they make the list!