![\"nola-dot-com\"](\"http:\/\/kalamu.com\/neogriot\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/nola-dot-com.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nDecember 17, 2013<\/p>\n
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Top 10 books of 2013 <\/span><\/h1>\nfor New Orleans readers<\/span><\/h1>\n <\/p>\n
![\"Chris](\"http:\/\/imgick.nola.com\/home\/nola-media\/width40\/img\/avatars\/3274.png\")
<\/span><\/a>By\u00a0Chris Waddington, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune\u00a0<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/span>
\n<\/a>Email the author\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n
New Orleans and the Gulf South figured large in our 2013 reading and 10 great books rose to the top. Our selections reflect the varied tastes of our staff \u2013 and the wide range of book culture in the region. This year we include a quirky atlas, riveting reportage about a Katrina tragedy, bestselling fiction, a newly discovered diary from colonial New Orleans, and much more.<\/span><\/p>\nNot sure that books really matter these days? Then listen to writer Jesmyn Ward, who tops our list with her nationally acclaimed memoir, \u201cMen We Reaped.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n\u201cPeople ask if it healed me to write the memoir, and in some ways it did,\u201d Ward told us in\u00a0a September profile<\/span><\/a>. \u201cIsn\u2019t the first step to see things clearly, to admit that you have a problem? My despair came from childhood assumptions that no amount of encouraging could erase. On some very deep level, I knew that a little black girl from a poor family wasn\u2019t worth much in the eyes of the world. But I could always read. And I learned to write. And I know that writing can make the world a better place for my daughter. I think that\u2019s worth doing. I think that\u2019s a reason to hope.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n![\"men-we-reapjpg-954940af9e710370\"](\"http:\/\/kalamu.com\/neogriot\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/men-we-reapjpg-954940af9e710370.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"Jesmyn](\"http:\/\/kalamu.com\/neogriot\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/Jesmyn-Ward.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n\u201cMen We Reaped\u201d<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\nBy Jesmyn Ward<\/span><\/p>\nBloomsbury, $26<\/i><\/span><\/p>\nAfter winning the National Book Award for fiction\u00a0in 2011<\/span><\/a>, Ward turned to the facts of her Mississippi childhood for\u00a0this brave memoir<\/span><\/a>\u00a0of racism, violence and the healing power of family ties.<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n\u201cThe Wolves of Midwinter\u201d<\/b><\/span><\/p>\nBy Anne Rice<\/span><\/p>\nKnopf, $25.95<\/i><\/span><\/p>\nFor Rice,\u00a0\u201csupernatural fiction is simply a way to talk about emotions,\u201d<\/span><\/a>\u00a0but in her 26th novel the New Orleans lit star also delivers a ripping yarn that centers on a man-wolf\u2019s adventures on the northern California coast.<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n\u201cRoll With It: Brass Bands in the Streets of New Orleans\u201d<\/b><\/span><\/p>\nBy Matt Sakakeeny, illustrated by Willie Birch<\/span><\/p>\nDuke University Press, $23.95<\/i><\/span><\/p>\nA streetwise New Orleans scholar and musician offers\u00a0\u201ca keen, social-justice-minded examination of the turbulent mix of race, economics, culture and tradition in which brass band culture is located.\u201d<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n\u201cThe Devil in Her Way\u201d<\/b><\/span><\/p>\nBy Bill Loehfelm<\/span><\/p>\nFSG, $ 26<\/i><\/span><\/p>\nIn Loehfelm\u2019s second novel\u00a0\u201cthe furniture is in place for a rip-roaring New Orleans crime series,\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/a>with an appealing female cop at its center.<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n\u201cA Company Man: The Remarkable French-Atlantic Voyage of a Clerk for the Company of the Indies\u201d<\/b><\/span><\/p>\nBy Marc-Antoine Caillot<\/span><\/p>\nHistoric New Orleans Collection, $40<\/i><\/span><\/p>\nThis lushly illustrated translation of a French scalawag\u2019s 18th century diary is perfect for those with an interest in\u00a0\u201cMardi Gras whoopee, stock market bubbles, loose women and the slave trade in colonial New Orleans.\u201d<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n\u201cUnfathomable City: A New Orleans Atlas\u201d<\/b><\/span><\/p>\nBy Rebecca Solnit and Rebecca Snedeker, editors<\/span><\/p>\nUniversity of California Press, $29.95<\/i><\/span><\/p>\nPacked with colorful maps and essays by star writers, this\u00a0atlas-with-attitude<\/span><\/a>\u201cencompasses second-line parades, the banana trade, bounce music, the revival along the St. Claude Avenue corridor, and conversations with such iconic musicians as George Porter Jr. and Donald Harrison Jr.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n\u201cThe Booklover\u2019s Guide to New Orleans\u201d<\/b><\/span><\/p>\nBy Susan Larson<\/span><\/p>\nLSU Press, $24.95<\/i><\/span><\/p>\nIn this updated guide, a one-time books editor for The Times-Picayune|NOLA.com shows her eye for telling facts and her wide-open tastes. In a 2013\u00a0interview<\/span><\/a>\u00a0she said, \u201cSome books we need, some books enrich us, and some books tell us how to cook gumbo. I wanted to give a lot of entry points to literary culture.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n\u201cFive Days at Memorial: Life and Death in a Storm-Ravaged Hospital\u201d<\/b><\/span><\/p>\nBy Sheri Fink<\/span><\/p>\nCrown, $27<\/i><\/span><\/p>\nThis\u00a0probing account<\/span><\/a>\u00a0of a New Orleans tragedy examines the situation at Memorial Medical Center when floodwaters from federal levee failures inundated the facility in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. It goes on to trace the legal fallout from charges that some patients were euthanized during the crisis.<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n\u201cTo Die Next To You\u201d<\/b><\/span><\/p>\nBy Rodger Kamenetz, illustrated by Michael Hafftka<\/span><\/p>\nSix Galleries Press, $19.95<\/i><\/span><\/p>\nWidely\u00a0celebrated<\/span><\/a>\u00a0for his best-selling books about dreams and religion, the New Orleans author turns in a volume of poetry in collaboration with painter Michael Hafftka.<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n“Roma Osservata: Rome Observed”<\/b><\/span><\/p>\nBy Errol Barron<\/span><\/p>\nTulane School of Architecture, $25<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n New Orleans and the Gulf South figured large in our 2013 reading and 10 great books rose to the top. Our selections reflect the varied tastes of our staff \u2013 and the wide range of book culture in the region. This year we include a quirky atlas, riveting reportage about a Katrina tragedy, bestselling fiction, a newly discovered diary from colonial New Orleans, and much more.<\/span><\/p>\n Not sure that books really matter these days? Then listen to writer Jesmyn Ward, who tops our list with her nationally acclaimed memoir, \u201cMen We Reaped.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cPeople ask if it healed me to write the memoir, and in some ways it did,\u201d Ward told us in\u00a0a September profile<\/span><\/a>. \u201cIsn\u2019t the first step to see things clearly, to admit that you have a problem? My despair came from childhood assumptions that no amount of encouraging could erase. On some very deep level, I knew that a little black girl from a poor family wasn\u2019t worth much in the eyes of the world. But I could always read. And I learned to write. And I know that writing can make the world a better place for my daughter. I think that\u2019s worth doing. I think that\u2019s a reason to hope.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cMen We Reaped\u201d<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n By Jesmyn Ward<\/span><\/p>\n Bloomsbury, $26<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n After winning the National Book Award for fiction\u00a0in 2011<\/span><\/a>, Ward turned to the facts of her Mississippi childhood for\u00a0this brave memoir<\/span><\/a>\u00a0of racism, violence and the healing power of family ties.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThe Wolves of Midwinter\u201d<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n By Anne Rice<\/span><\/p>\n Knopf, $25.95<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n For Rice,\u00a0\u201csupernatural fiction is simply a way to talk about emotions,\u201d<\/span><\/a>\u00a0but in her 26th novel the New Orleans lit star also delivers a ripping yarn that centers on a man-wolf\u2019s adventures on the northern California coast.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cRoll With It: Brass Bands in the Streets of New Orleans\u201d<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n By Matt Sakakeeny, illustrated by Willie Birch<\/span><\/p>\n Duke University Press, $23.95<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n A streetwise New Orleans scholar and musician offers\u00a0\u201ca keen, social-justice-minded examination of the turbulent mix of race, economics, culture and tradition in which brass band culture is located.\u201d<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThe Devil in Her Way\u201d<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n By Bill Loehfelm<\/span><\/p>\n FSG, $ 26<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n In Loehfelm\u2019s second novel\u00a0\u201cthe furniture is in place for a rip-roaring New Orleans crime series,\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/a>with an appealing female cop at its center.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cA Company Man: The Remarkable French-Atlantic Voyage of a Clerk for the Company of the Indies\u201d<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n By Marc-Antoine Caillot<\/span><\/p>\n Historic New Orleans Collection, $40<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n This lushly illustrated translation of a French scalawag\u2019s 18th century diary is perfect for those with an interest in\u00a0\u201cMardi Gras whoopee, stock market bubbles, loose women and the slave trade in colonial New Orleans.\u201d<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cUnfathomable City: A New Orleans Atlas\u201d<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n By Rebecca Solnit and Rebecca Snedeker, editors<\/span><\/p>\n University of California Press, $29.95<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n Packed with colorful maps and essays by star writers, this\u00a0atlas-with-attitude<\/span><\/a>\u201cencompasses second-line parades, the banana trade, bounce music, the revival along the St. Claude Avenue corridor, and conversations with such iconic musicians as George Porter Jr. and Donald Harrison Jr.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThe Booklover\u2019s Guide to New Orleans\u201d<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n By Susan Larson<\/span><\/p>\n LSU Press, $24.95<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n In this updated guide, a one-time books editor for The Times-Picayune|NOLA.com shows her eye for telling facts and her wide-open tastes. In a 2013\u00a0interview<\/span><\/a>\u00a0she said, \u201cSome books we need, some books enrich us, and some books tell us how to cook gumbo. I wanted to give a lot of entry points to literary culture.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cFive Days at Memorial: Life and Death in a Storm-Ravaged Hospital\u201d<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n By Sheri Fink<\/span><\/p>\n Crown, $27<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n This\u00a0probing account<\/span><\/a>\u00a0of a New Orleans tragedy examines the situation at Memorial Medical Center when floodwaters from federal levee failures inundated the facility in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. It goes on to trace the legal fallout from charges that some patients were euthanized during the crisis.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cTo Die Next To You\u201d<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n By Rodger Kamenetz, illustrated by Michael Hafftka<\/span><\/p>\n Six Galleries Press, $19.95<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n Widely\u00a0celebrated<\/span><\/a>\u00a0for his best-selling books about dreams and religion, the New Orleans author turns in a volume of poetry in collaboration with painter Michael Hafftka.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n “Roma Osservata: Rome Observed”<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n By Errol Barron<\/span><\/p>\n Tulane School of Architecture, $25<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n<\/span><\/a>By\u00a0Chris Waddington, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune\u00a0<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/span>
\n<\/a>Email the author\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n