Comments on: New Orleans for Book Lovers

By: pen4hire

pen4hire — Mon, 25 May 2009 18:16:54 +0000

Brooks: I pointed out your comments to Kenneth Holditch when I saw him in New Orleans, and he was pleased, as he said, that “anybody remembers me.” He’s still drinking Sazeracs. And I’m still NOT.

By: BrooksNYC

BrooksNYC — Wed, 20 May 2009 00:42:31 +0000

Two enjoyable books of short essays:

New Orleans, Mon Amour: Twenty years of writing from the city
By Andrei Codrescu
http://tinyurl.com/39kfug

The essays are uneven, but there’s no question that Codrescu “gets” the city. A few of these essays are really wonderful.

Letters from New Orleans
By Rob Walker
http://tinyurl.com/336vyh

By: pen4hire

pen4hire — Tue, 19 May 2009 18:08:14 +0000

Read on, Brooks. My next post is on Ken’s book on Galatoire’s and I did get to dine with him there!

By: BrooksNYC

BrooksNYC — Tue, 19 May 2009 18:05:06 +0000

Kenneth Holditch…..a Crescent City original, if ever there was one! A walking tour with the good doctor must be endlessly entertaining.

Dr. Holditch co-authored a book on Galatoire’s, and one day I’ll get up the nerve to invite him to one of those infamous Friday lunches. That would be an experience!

Have a great trip.

Brooks

By: pen4hire

pen4hire — Tue, 19 May 2009 15:22:56 +0000

I’m with you. The first thing I do when I hit a city is to set out on foot to get a feel for it. As I wrote earlier, I took a wonderful walking tour with Kenneth Holditch in New Orleans focusing on the literary haunts, but the book you recommend will open new vistas. Thanks for joining the conversation.

By: BrooksNYC

BrooksNYC — Tue, 19 May 2009 13:30:40 +0000

I love to explore cities on foot, and can highly recommended this out-of-print book of New Orleans city strolls:

http://tinyurl.com/6emnue

Available for a ridiculously low price from Amazon, Randolph Delahanty’s Ultimate Guide To New Orleans is the most comprehensive book of New Orleans walking tours I know of. Although written before Katrina, it’s still an excellent guide to undamaged parts of the city, including the Garden District, Uptown, the French Quarter, and Esplanade Ridge.

By: Kerry Dexter

Kerry Dexter — Mon, 18 May 2009 15:08:35 +0000

Vera,
you might want to check out Barbara Hambly’s series of mysteries set in New Orleans in the 1830s. Whether or not you care for mystery as a genre, the main character is an educated free man of color — a musician–so that gives a unique and vivid perspective of the city and the times. My favorites are the first in the series, which is actually called Free Man of Color, the second one, Fever Season, and Sold Down the River (Hambly has written many other books, mainly science fiction, I think, which I have not read).