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.