NOLA Summer Reading

I’ve read two books about New Orleans this summer, Feet on the Street: Rambles Around New Orleans by Roy Blount Jr., and Why New Orleans Matters by Tom Piazza. Both personal takes on a unique American city. Blount’s book was published in ‘05 just before Katrina, and made the NYT bestseller list, while Piazza’s came right after Katrina and was written to defend the city. Both are short, offering first-hand stories written in a warm, conversational style.

If you are an NPR listener as I am, you may recognize Blount’s name as a panelist on the quiz show Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me. His book gives this slow-talking southerner a chance to stretch out, talking about everything from the best place to get cheap po boys and gumbo to the oyster dancer who did far more exciting things with molusks than just injest them. Feet on the Street is neither a guidebook nor travel writing per se. But I plan to thoroughly annotate and highlight a copy for my next visit.

Piazza is a novelist and jazz critic originally from New York who is among the many Crescent City transplants who came down for Jazz Fest and never went home. In Why New Orleans Matters he avoids the easy fare for a book on Katrina. Although he mentions a rape witnessed outside the Convention Center, Piazza is more interested in winning the hearts and minds of America, which he does with warmth. How can a pair of broken glasses contribute to falling in love with a city? Read Why New Orleans Matters and discover all the little reasons and Piazza’s two Big Reasons why the City That Care Forgot must be rebuilt.