Margaret Brown’s The Order of Myths provides a fascinating insight into century old traditions preserving racial segregation in the union’s southern states. A native of Mobile, Alabama, Brown takes us to the heart of the city’s Mardi Gras celebrations, where two distinct carnivals take place each year, one the preserve of descendents of slave-owners, the other of descendents of slaves. Brown follows the Mardi Gras Queen from each carnival, two young women burdened by tradition, into their exotic yet segregated worlds of diamond-encrusted crowns, voluminous, hand-sewn gowns, and royal courts peopled by kings, queen, knights and ladies.