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Taking a moment to think about New Orleans.

I loved this memoir/love letter to New Orleans. This book did more to open my eyes to the injustices before and after Hurricane Katrina than any other I‘ve read.

I appreciated the story that Sarah Broom wanted to share with this book, but there were several times I had to push myself to keep reading. It also would have greatly benefited from including a family tree, and thanks to a comment by @tpixie before I got in too far, I sketched one out as I read. It does not include nieces and nephews of Sarah and there very well may be mistakes, but it helped me as I read.

#Nonfiction #Memoir #LitsyBookClub

Repost for @litsybookclub

New month, new book. I hope that you will join us in reading this month‘s selection. A zoom discussion meeting will be on Sunday, June 24th at 2 pm est. a link for the meeting will be posted that day.

Questions? Ask @Graciouswarriorprincess

I don‘t currently have a lot of print reading time, but I‘m trying to make some time for this #LitsyBookClub choice. I fit in a few pages with lunch and also decided I may need to attempt making notes of a family tree as I read.

#ReadAndEat #Nonfiction

The author of this memoir sees herself, her family, her home, & New Orleans all as a part of her own self. This book has a string sense of place.
#LitsyBookClub

New month, new book. I hope that you will join us in reading this month‘s selection. A zoom discussion meeting will be on Sunday, June 24th at 2 pm est. a link for the meeting will be posted that day.

Questions? Ask @Graciouswarriorprincess

I finished these over the weekend. I would classify them both as picks, both as 4⭐️

The Yellow House - Broom's memoir and family history centered in New Orleans. I recommend to everyone with a love of, or interest in, the city.

Uncomfortable Conversations - A very approachable primer to anti-racism and allyship. Much of the content was familiar to me, but I still found it worthwhile and I valued his unique perspective. A good place to start.

Four day trip to visit my parents. What on earth did I think I was doing? 😆 #toomanybooks
~
Currently reading the tagged book.

Family. History. Place. Siblings. Parents. Race. Katrina. New Orleans. What brings us together and pulls us apart, all teased from one person‘s life. This memoir is worth all the praise. It‘s elegiac and lyrical. The author is frustrated and rewarded. So many diverse topics, all wrapped in one package. Loved it!

Full review http://www.TheBibliophage.com #thebibliophage2021 #booked2021 #colorintitle #nonfictionchallenge2021 #sunshineyoryellow

A story about a family and the house that ties them together, along with some history of New Orleans East.

From high up, fifteen thousand feet above, where the aerial photographs are taken, 4121 Wilson Avenue, the address I know best, is a minuscule point, a scab of green.

#firstlinefridays
@ShyBookOwl

In honor of #BlackHistoryMonth , we‘ll be focusing on black stories for the next few weeks.

1. I‘ve added Kwame Onwuachi‘s memoir for #BookRiot ‘s #ReadHarder2021 challenge to my TBR.
2. Tagged!
3. Sister Rosetta Tharpe, the godmother of rock and roll 🎸

#sundayfunday Have a wonderful day and don‘t forget to tag me!

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ The story of a place, a family, a home. In New Orleans East, far removed from Bourbon Street, sat a dilapidated yellow house. Within it, a large, struggling family. Told in four parts referred to as “movements,” Broom thoughtfully recounts her life, her family, and Hurricane Katrina. Definitely go audio if you‘re thinking of reading this. It‘s a bit lengthy, but I could listen to the brilliant Bahni Turpin all day!

🎧 + 🧩 + 🥃

Happy Friday! What are y‘all up to?

#audiopuzzling
#galisonpuzzles
#booksandbooze

I know a lot of folks liked this book, but i found it boring. Bailed at page 85.

I really wanted to like this book because it had some good content. However, the writing was not good. It felt really choppy and like the author tried to accomplish too much in one book. I wish she had picked a couple of elements to focus on.

I think there is a very real chance I didn‘t give this book a fair shot, but after a hundred and fifty pages it didn‘t grab me and I didn‘t want to commit to three hundred and fifty more. It felt like reading an annotated family tree. I admire the work it must have taken to compile this family history into a book, but it wasn‘t for me.

Late to the party on this one, but such a beautifully written memoir about her family in New Orleans, their house, Hurricane Katrina, and whether a place can ever really belong to you.

“Begin as you want to end”. Ivory Mae Broom.

Sarah M. Broom penned a very informative memoir that shed light on many themes – family / community cohesiveness, belonging, love, loss, race and discrimination. Sarah and her family are from New Orleans East, a city bifurcated between the Mississippi River and the Industrial Canal. The story takes place predominantly in New Orleans East. She is the last of twelve children.

Good book!

How can one book say so many things so well?

This is Sarah‘s memoir told through the lens of her family home in East New Orleans. But it‘s also about her family (11 siblings!), the poverty in East NO, the inequality in Black homeownership, and how local and national politicians failed East NO after Katrina. The book takes you from NO to NYC to Burundi back to NO because can you really escape who you are? I know I can‘t. 5⭐️🎧

#bookspinbingo

New stack to send to my sis. Can‘t wait to hear what she thinks of them!

Which book are you most excited about?

#family #sharing #bookloan #integrateyourshelf #mounttbr

July was a month full of distractions, but I‘m hoping August looks more like this... with just one particular (and cute) distraction 😸

“Who has the rights to the story of a place? Are these rights earned, bought, fought and died for? Or are they given? ... Does the act of leaving relinquish one‘s rights to the story of a place? Who stays gone? Who can afford to return?”
Everyone interested in the mythology of New Orleans as a previous or future visitor or resident should read this.

I've thought about the discrepancies between touristy New Orleans and resident New Orleans a lot.

Such a beautifully written memoir and deep meditation on home and full-hearted portrait of New Orleans. (And damn, her current New Orleans home is gorgeous: https://www.apartmenttherapy.com/the-yellow-house-author-sarah-m-brooms-new-orle...

Enjoying a great American memoir ( #audiobaking style ) that I‘ve been so eager to read. Hope each of you has had a great July 4th, whether or not it‘s a celebratory day for you. ❤️

This book was supposed to be my library book club‘s pick for March, so I‘ve had it sitting around since then. I was debating whether to read it, but the reviews on litsy convinced me. I did get a little bored in the middle, but overall, it‘s an interesting memoir of family & New Orleans. Using it for #readtheUSA2020 Louisiana. #ownvoices #blm

My mind keeps drifting and I can't stay focused on what I'm reading.

Got this from the library on a whim. Enjoying it so far. It‘s a memoir about a Black family that grew up in New Orleans and how their lives changed after Katrina.

Excellent memoir that's more about how a home stays with you no matter where you go. Sarah gives a raw and honest look into her family and the New Orleans she grew up in. Having also gone through Hurricane Katrina, those sections of her book brought up lots of memories for me, but I appreciate her for tackling such a difficult topic.

This marks another off my #SummerFun card, it's been on my TBR longer than 6mths. @4thhouseontheleft @StayCurious

Overall, an interesting blend of memoir and social history, revolving around the non-tourist neighborhoods of New Orleans pre- and post-Katrina.

#memoir

My first Litsy post. #TheYellowHouse 136 pages in and very captivating.

I‘m adding at least two books from this list to my tbr including the tagged book.

https://lithub.com/how-to-unpack-a-messy-world-a-reading-list/

The Yellow House is a personal memoir, memoir of family and a house, and a capsule history of this family‘s piece of New Orleans, centered around “the Water” of Katrina. For me it was a bit bogged down in places, but overall it‘s a lovely book and a good choice for fiction lovers who want to dip a toe into nonfiction but don‘t know where to start.

Why should we care about neglected New Orleans East and the thousands who lost their homes and neighborhoods after Katrina flooding, or about the history of one particular family? Well, Sarah can explain. A remarkably elegant nonfiction writer, she captures this story, her family‘s, her own, beautifully. She makes it something you want to know. Recommended.

Broom digs through family history, chases ghosts of a past that isn‘t exactly her own but that profoundly shape her life, and writes eloquently about the intersection of love, community, poverty, hope, race, inequities, and identity.

Wonderful memoir on the power of place, growing up African-American in East New Orleans, and the push and pull of family. I hope Broom keeps writing books!

“Who has the rights to the story of a place? Are these rights earned, bought, fought and died for? Or are they given? Are the automatic, like an assumption? Self-renewing? Are these rights a toke. Of citizenship belonging to those who stay in the place or to those who leave and come back to it? Does the act of leaving relinquish one‘s rights to the story of the place? Who stays gone? Who can afford to return?”

“I did not yet understand the psychic cost of defining oneself by the place where you are from.” This memoir is hard to put down!

Oh joy! An unexpected night for reading and quality time with Action Jackson. Was able to gracefully beg off on after dinner activities and now can crack this book with dog at my feet and nightcap on the nightstand.

Started this week on audio. Interesting the Litsy database as three other books with the same title.

I read 11 books in February. My favorite was the tagged title. These 5 include 3 poetry (2 backlist), 1 backlist fiction, and 1 nonfiction. See the next post for the 6 galleys I also read!

5⭐️ This book is memoir, genealogy, history, geography. It is a history of New Orleans East pre- and post-Katrina. Broom uses the house she grew up in, as the youngest of 12 kids in a blended family (both of her parents were widowed with kids when they met), as the focal point. It is so well written and is simply fascinating. #memoir #nationalbookaward

I understand this book has good rating on Goodreads. I am, however, not very into it. This is a story about the author‘s family and the New Orleans East. I enjoy the portion related to the New Orleans East, but not the author‘s family history. This book got me thinking what kind of memoir I would like to read.

Easily one of the best books I‘ve ever read, in a way that I related to it so deeply.

Starting next week!