The House on First Street: My New Orleans Story

I enjoyed this 'slice of my life' book from Vogue and Newsweek writer Julia Reed. She's crafted a wonderful existence for herself in New Orleans and I, for one, enjoyed the breezy, warts-and-all peek inside. That Katrina occurs smack in the middle of the author's narrative gives her tales here extra meaning. We know what's about to happen as she first settles into her 'House on First Street.'Reed knows that ultimately she suffered lightly from Katrina compared to others. While writing, she and her close friends are carefully aware of communicating anything that sounds like what she deftly calls a 'Marie Antoinette moment.' I believe she succeeds on that front. Moreover, in the long run New Orleans needs and depends on free-spending denizens like Ms. Reed. The city's proprietors will no doubt grant and welcome her reveling in small victories like restaurant re-openings, the arrival of first-class cooks back in town, the first gala fund-raiser, and the resumption of table-taking at old stomping grounds. It's consumption of this nature that is vital to the city's recovery. Julia Reed is at the center of this world.Ms. Reed collects friends by the bushel full. Reading this book, it's not hard to see why: with many friends in need, she proves here to be a friend indeed.

I was born uptown at Touro Infirmary in 1936, raised in Carrollton, where I delivered the Times-Picayune newspaper at 4 in the morning. Educated at New Orleans Academy and De la Salle high school, Baton Rouge and LSU then back to LSU Med School for the finishing touch. Grandparents, parents, aunts, uncles, cousins by the dozens. Suffered at a distance with all my relatives and friends after Katrina. Haven't lived there for years but love it and return when I can, if for no other reason than to prove to myself that there can be that many really good restaurants in one place! So, I read everything I can that is truly about my home.Julia's little book is a treasure and captures the spirit and mood of the this truly remarkable place as well as anything I have ever read. True, she eats out more in one week than most native New Orleanians do in a year, but, no matter she got it right in all the essentials. Julia, while reading I could I could feel the heat and humidity and smell the French Quarter. Honey child, you done good even if you are from Mississippi.If you love the old city get this book and enjoy. Next time I'm home I'll drive past 1st and Chestnut and honk.

This book is a wonderful read, beautifully written in a style that is easy to follow and engage with. Author is very entertaining in her storytelling and sheds light on many facets of life in New Orleans. I am recommending this book to my friends and have since ordered all her other books listed on Amazon, she has a wonderful, entertaining style of writing.

I apprecaited they put this on the Kindle so that gets a star to start with! (If you dont' have one RUN TO THE HOME PAGE, its a MUST FOR ANY READER)While I enjoyed this book for the most part I found it sometimes went off on tangents that were not necessary. For example she mentions quite a few back stories that in my opinion do not mesh well with the book and went on far too long.. I found myself scrolling through them.I can appreciate the historical aspects of the city and some of the people involved, but I don't need three pages regarding someone that worked for her that I don't know, never met and really had very little to do with the overall storyline. I do understand they are important but when you start getting into their family members it is a bit much.I did enjoy her writing style, but I also kept thinking she was really was so fortunate her home only sustained a broken window and a tree issue and while so many were trying to figure it out there were so many pages where she and her friends and family seemed to turn it into a wine and food party, I saw more food and wine descriptions then I did of the reality of the hell going on around them. GRANTED you have to cope and KUDOS to the business owners who stepped in when no one else would. (and I share her views on Blanco and the Mayor).I am happy she and her family did well but I would have liked to hear more about those that coped with some real loss and she had friends who did but did not expand on those story lines, which would have been wonderful.I think it would would have been better with just a little more editing. To be honest I have a chapter or two to go and frankly I am not sure I will bother at this point.. again decent read but wait for the paper version

Enjoyed very much. I love cookbooks, cooking, dining and New Orleans and I am interested in emergency management so all around interesting.Love this author: my second book with three more ordered.

Love anything by Julia Reed! This one’s Julia all the way. Funny and inspiring. It’s so sad that we lost her in August 2020. She was a Southern American classic!

Just loved this book. Julia Reed was just so real.