She’s quite a good writer. I enjoyed this chatty, rambling story of her life in New Orleans. I particularly appreciated the story of Katrina in New Orleans. During the aftermath of Katrina, I was hunkered down in a devastated Mississippi, and there’s lots about the New Orleans experience that I don’t know. This book did help with that, however, the book is definitely written by someone of privilege.

ike this book well enough — and then I saw the beautiful house! Wish she was still in it.

Imagine a disaster of third-world proportions told through the lens of first-world white privilege, and you have the makings of this book. I picked this up while on vacation in New Orleans, thinking the premise (woman moves into a new home three weeks before Katrina struck) sounded like an interesting tale of personal and urban renewal. Instead, Reed knows her perspective is limited, but makes no bones about it. At one point, she gives the caveat that her editor at Vogue cut a fluffy reference from a post-Katrina article she was working on, claiming it was a "Marie Antoinette moment." Reed then goes on to say her whole perspective is essentially a Marie Antoinette one, and she knows she's incredibly lucky. So be it.

I found Reed to be incredibly materialistic, off-putting, and tone deaf to an astonishing degree. To start, the book opens with five chapters of how much Reed loathes her contractors working on the titular home and how many mistakes they make, or how their work is just not to her liking. Then, when the storm does finally loom on the horizon, she discusses at length her main concern before evacuating the night before it hit--whether or not to throw her champagne bottles and lobster shells outside in the trash, where the storm might deposit them elsewhere, such as a neighbor's yard, or to keep them in their house, where they might stink up the place. Or there's the reference to their actual departure (after being stuck in traffic, they knew of "secret" back roads and "flew" out of the city--how many could have been spared if this information had been shared earlier?), and Reed then spends some time detailing their first night out of NOLA post-Katrina's landfall, where she and her husband and parents feasted on steaks and wine while those left behind drowned. I don't doubt Reed tried to convey her gratitude in her good fortune and her genuine affection for New Orleans, she just comes off as a privileged rich girl who doesn't have much of substance to say. The editor who greenlit this book should be embarrassed.

The one silver lining of this book? It was purchased in New Orleans itself, and hopefully the transaction's sales tax will go toward rebuilding the city or similar worthy renewal programs. If you're interested in New Orleans, skip this book and make a donation instead--or better yet, go check the city out for yourself.

Account of her home purchase, extensive remodel, and then Katrina hitting a week after moving in. Probably more detail than anyone wanted.

I bought this book when I was in New Orleans last year. Reading it was like being invited to sit at Julia Reed's big dining-room table (hers seats at least 24) to feast on her delectable food and her luscious stories. I'm delightedly full and can't wait for the next dinner party.

While the story about Reed's settlement in New Orleans, the disasters of her home renovation and her personal experience of Hurricane Katrina were interesting, there were a few parts that I thought were unnecessary and distracted from the real story. I liked reading a first-person account of Hurricane Katrina, but because Reed fled the area and returned post-Katrina, I found myself disappointed not to get more details about those pivotal days after the hurricane hit. This, of course, was not Reed's fault, but I hope stories of those who remained, who faced death and disaster from their rooftops or the Superdome, will also be told.

Given the fact that Reed wrote this book not once, but twice (her laptop containing the only copy of almost her entire book along with all her notes and journal entries was stolen in a robbery), I have to wonder if that original version might have been tighter with a little less filler and a little more story.

For some reason, I thought this book would be more about the house renovation, and that's primarily why I was interested in reading it. However, while there were some stories about the renovation, I didn't get a good sense for the work that they did and how the house ended up looking. Most of the book centered on the food scene in New Orleans and on Hurricane Katrina and its effects. Although some readers seem to have been annoyed at Reed's "Marie Antoinette" attitude ("let them eat cake"), that didn't bother me. She can't help the fact that their house was not destroyed; moreover,they did some nice things, such as bringing food to workers.

Loved the sense of place, did not love the overwhelming name dropping and mostly unrecognized privilege.

This book was like a monologue from the drunkest gal at the party - she thinks she is witty and entertaining, but her anecdotes don't lead anywhere and don't fit together in a narrative sense. Plus, her name-dropping is annoying, especially since most of the people are not famous.