The Reading Life: John Bardes

By Susan Larson

Published April 18, 2025 at 5:55 PM CDT

Susan Larson talks with John Bardes about his new book, The Carceral City: Slavery and the Making of Mass Incarceration in New Orleans, 1803-1930.

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

Deb Grant appears in conversation with Gina Swanson of WDSU and signs “The Corporate Playbook: While Others Play Checkers, Play Three Dimensional Chess,” at brunch, Saturday, April 19, at 11 a.m. at Baldwin & Co. This is a ticketed event.

Journalist and author Robert Mann, professor emeritus of mass communication at LSU, will discuss his new book, "You Are My Sunshine," at 2:30 p.m., Saturday, April 19, at the East Bank Regional Library, 4747 W. Napoleon, Metairie.

Michele Tracy Berger, author of "Doll Seed: Stories," and Chin-Sun Lee, author of "Upcountry," discuss the intersection of speculative fiction and sociopolitical reality. Saturday, April 19, from 4-5:30 At Octavia Books.

The Reading Life

Susan Larson

The Reading Life in 2010, Susan Larson was the book editor for The New Orleans Times-Picayune from 1988-2009. She has served on the boards of the Tennessee Williams/New Orleans Literary Festival and the New Orleans Public Library. She is the founder of the New Orleans chapter of the Women's National Book Association, which presents the annual Diana Pinckley Prizes for Crime Fiction.. In 2007, she received the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities lifetime achievement award for her contributions to the literary community. She is also the author of The Booklover's Guide to New Orleans. If you run into her in a local bookstore or library, she'll be happy to suggest something you should read. She thinks New Orleans is the best literary town in the world, and she reads about a book a day.

See stories by Susan Larson