Staff Favorites/ Who & What 1

Who We Are & What We're Reading

Maple Street Staff & Books We Love – Carol's Favorites

Carol Antosiak

CAROL ANTOSIAK

After growing up (literally) in the shadow of Suburban Chicago’s Brookfield Zoo with dreams of being a herpetologist, in 1967 I moved to New Orleans to escape the miserable Midwestern winters and attend H. Sophie Newcomb College for Women. Instead of studying reptiles, I received a degree in philosophy and was never the same again, but then it was the ’60s.
After working for many years in the retail and wholesale record business (when music came on black vinyl), Maple Street hired me and I’ve been a bookseller here or there (but now back here) for the last 13 years.
I come from a long line of gardeners and when I’m not selling books I’m at home digging up more and more of the backyard to make new flower beds for (this year) antique roses. My husband, Ace Foreign Car Mechanic Howard Darlington looks tolerantly upon my lawn-destroying frenzies, and my violin-playing daughter Quinn Darlington is happy as long as we have time to rent ’40s movies and Avengers reruns in between trips to P.J.’s.

Carter Beats the Devil by Glen David Gold (fiction)
This historically based novel about a magician during the Golden Age of Magic features a disappearing elephant, a dead president, a guest appearance by Houdini and the invention of television. I loved the characters, especially Charles Carter: the famous magician who doesn't saw ladies in half in his act because his mother disproves. (She's into psychology and considers the trick misogynistic.)

Mama Makes Up Her Mind and Other Dangers of Southern Living by Bailey White
Bailey White is a wonderful storyteller, and this collection of commentaries from NPR’s "All Things Considered" is just as delightful to read as listening to her gravelly Southern drawl on the radio.

Wouldn’t Take Nothing for My Journey Now by Maya Angelou
In this moving collection of short pieces, Maya Angelou inspires us with a distillation of the wisdom she’s gained over her lifetime.

The Easy Way Out by Stephen McCauley (fiction)
This engaging, funny novel about the self-delusions of a quirky set of characters weaseling into and out of relationships is shrewdly told with empathy and insight.

Bailey’s Café by Gloria Naylor (fiction)
Naylor’s writing dazzles in this novel as she weaves a magical tapestry of the lives of the devastated characters who end up at Bailey’s Café.

Amazon by Barbara Walker
What we accept as a normal lifestyle baffles a woman warrior transported through time to the present in this eye-opening and witty feminist fable.

Passalong Plants by Steve Bender and Felder Rushing (gardening)
The authors lovingly and humorously describe 117 plants that traditionally have been "passed along" from gardener to gardener. Including color photographs, mail-order sources, and a chapter on yard art, it’s the perfect gift for any Southern gardener.

New Orleans: Elegance and Decadence by Richard Sexton and Randolph Delehanty
Just come see it–you’ll buy one for a gift and probably keep it for yourself. It reminds us why we live here.

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