John Berendt Ordre des livres (chronologique)

Author John Berendt chronicles the lives of baby blue jays after he notices a nest outside his office window and follows their lives from eggs to hatchlings to full grown birds.

Venice, a city steeped in a thousand years of history, art and architecture, teeters in precarious balance between endurance and decay. Its architectural treasures crumble--foundations shift, marble ornaments fall--even as efforts to preserve them are underway. This book opens in 1996, when a dramatic fire destroys the historic Fenice opera house, a catastrophe for Venetians. Arriving three days after the fire, Berendt becomes a kind of detective--inquiring into the nature of life in this remarkable museum-city--while gradually revealing the truth about the fire. He introduces us to a rich cast of characters, Venetian and expatriate, in a tale full of atmosphere and surprise which reveals a world as finely drawn as a still-life painting. The fire and its aftermath serve as a leitmotif, adding elements of chaos, corruption, and crime and contributing to the ever-mounting suspense. --From publisher description

When Joel Knox's mother dies, he is sent into the exotic unknown of the Deep South to live with a father he has never seen. But the sinister and eccentric figures he meets there are curiously and ominously evasive when Joel asks to see his father.

A sublime and seductive reading experience, this engaging portrait of a beguiling Southern city has become a modern classic. On May 2, 1981, shots rang out in Savannah's grandest mansion. Was it murder or self-defense? For nearly a decade, the incident and its aftermath resonated throughout this hauntingly beautiful city of moss-hung oaks and shaded squares. The narrative, both suspenseful and witty, reads like an engrossing novel while being a work of nonfiction. The author skillfully weaves a captivating first-person account of life in this isolated remnant of the Old South with the unpredictable twists of a landmark murder case. It features a spellbinding array of characters: well-bred society ladies of the Married Woman's Card Club; a turbulent young redneck gigolo; a hapless recluse with a deadly bottle of poison; an aging Southern belle embodying pampered self-absorption; a hilarious black drag queen; an acerbic antiques dealer; a sweet-talking con artist; young blacks at the debutante ball; and Minerva, the voodoo priestess casting spells in the graveyard. These Savannahians act as a Greek chorus, revealing the alliances, hostilities, and intrigues in a town where everyone knows everyone else.