Generational Heritage: Books that Explore History and Families

Daughters of the New Year

One Book One New Orleans, the nonprofit that focuses on literacy within the city of New Orleans, chose E.M. Tran’s “Daughters of the New Year” as their 2025 book. One Book One New Orleans helps provide books and literary resources everywhere from adult education programs to prison libraries. Tran wrote in a statement: “I owe a great debt to the people and institutions in my life who gave me books. The idea that my novel could be an imaginative entryway for someone else because it is the One Book One New Orleans 2025 pick is such an honor!” “Daughters of the New Year” is about generations of immigrant women within a Vietnamese immigrant community in New Orleans, as three of the youngest generation start seeing strange visions of long-buried secrets of their family. 320 pages, $27.99

Secret Louisiana: An Unusual Guide

“Secret Louisiana: An Unusual Guide” is Chris Champagne’s (a graduate of the University of New Orleans), follow-up to “Secret New Orleans.” In “Secret Louisiana,” Champagne shines a light on some of the most unique historical facts and contemporary realities of one of the most interesting states in the country. From drive-through funeral homes to fossils on the side of the highway that are millions of years old, Champagne is the consummate tour guide, who combines his writing abilities as a former slam poet along with his credentials as a historian and his lived experience in Louisiana. 336 pages, $19.95 

NOLA Face: A Latina’s Life in the Big Easy

Champagne’s memoir-in-essays tackles a range of subjects, following her life as an Ecuadorian-American living in the city of New Orleans. Champagne’s writing is witty and keeps the readers invested, as she explores identity, pop culture, the city of New Orleans and her abuela Lala, among other things. Champagne writes about everything from driving her sister to a job interview at a strip club in the French Quarter, being carjacked by two gun wielding men in Baton Rouge, as well as more introspective pieces about her feelings on identity.  192 pages, $24.95

Indian Burial Ground

“Indian Bural Ground” follows Noemi Broussard, as she tries to embrace the reservation she has lived in her entire life. Those plans are changed when her boyfriend is killed by a car. Labeled as a paranormal fiction, with some gothic horror, Medina’s book expertly depicts the indigenous people on the reservation, pairing the supernatural with the realities of this unique setting. Medina also writes with the gravity of importance, such as when he writes, “I’d never known how much weight a word could hold until Luke uttered it,” when Noemi first hears about the crash. 384 pages, $28