Review
Finally, a book about Waveland, Bay St. Louis, and Pass Christian. A book about the way we live and what it is like to be here in a Mississippi coastal community.
There are no murders in this book, no fictional detectives or Federal agents looking for terrorists. Just the everyday, normal, wonderfully unique life we have here on the Mississippi coast. And that is all the book is about. And yet anyone reading the book will feel gratified in their reading and will relate to what the author tells us of how he and his wife have lived in Waveland for the last 25 years. -- SEA COAST ECHO, October 10, 1999
From the Publisher
Using his several decades' experience as an ocean scientist, La Violette tells about the sea life in the Sound, the regional birds, the shore, the marshes and the coastal storms. He describes these in a personally informal way, showing how they interact in their daily lives, as well as how they differ from that found elsewhere.
The cuisine of the coast is also different from that found just a few miles inland, being mostly seafood and highly seasoned. Since Stella likes to fish and cook and he likes to eat what she cooks, he has devoted chapters to the fishing and the cooking (plus a few good recipes).
The large beach house with its broad verandas and centuries old, spanish moss-draped oaks is located in an area rich in history. In the past, pirates and bootleggers resided within several hundred yards of the house and relics of their presence are still visible. In 1814, a two-day naval action that preceded the battle of New Orleans was fought within ten miles of the house. The fierce fighting, involving blazing cannon and exploding ships, occurred within sight or sound of what is now the front porch.
Scattered through the book are a number of pen and ink drawings by Stig Marcussen, a native of a nearby Mississippi coastal town, Ocean Springs. Marcussen's richly detailed illustrations bring further life to the descriptive stories in the book.
