Book events this week

            Lee A. Farrow will sign “Alexis in America: A Russian Grand Duke's Tour, 1871-1872” by LSU Press at 6 p.m. tonight at Octavia Books in New Orleans.
            Maple Street Bookstore in New Orleans will offer a night of poetry and prose with Lavender Ink and Dialogos Books beginning at 6 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 21. Authors Ralph Adamo (“Ever”), Andy Young (“All Night It is Morning”), and Jonathan Kline (“The Wisdom of Ashes”) will read.

            Arthur Hardy will discuss “Mardi Gras in New Orleans: An Illustrated History” at 6 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 22, at Maple Street Book Shop in New Orleans. The book is a pictorial account of the celebration with 325 vintage and contemporary illustrations. This updated fourth edition features an expanded reference section that provides details on nearly 600 Carnival organizations, including the identities of 5,000 kings and queens.

            LSU Forensic anthropologist Mary Manhein will be the featured speaker at HeartLa, the Baton Rouge Chapter of Romance Writers of America, from 10 a.m. to noon Saturday, Jan. 24 at the Bluebonnet Branch Library, 9200 Bluebonnet Blvd. in Baton Rouge. Membership is comprised of local authors, published and unpublished, and is open to writers of all genres. Guests may attend two meetings before joining.

            Friends of Hilltop Arboretum’s symposium “Louisiana Garden Heritage: A Lavish Hodgepodge of Design and Plants” will be 8:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 24, at the LSU Hilltop Arboretum in Baton Rouge. One of the speakers, G. Mike Shoup, owner of The Antique Rose Emporium in Brenham, Texas, is author of “Empress of the Garden.”

Cheré Coen is the author of “Forest Hill, Louisiana: A Bloom Town History,” “Haunted Lafayette, Louisiana” and “Exploring Cajun Country: A Historic Guide to Acadiana” and co-author of “Magic’s in the Bag: Creating Spellbinding Gris Gris Bags and Sachets.” Write her at cherecoen@gmail.com.