Read this book

Thank you all for your kind words about yesterday's love letter to New Orleans. More to come on that.

But right now I have to tell you to read the book 1 Dead in Attic by Chris Rose. Chris Rose is a local columnist who has written so wonderfully and elegantly and heartbreakingly and honestly about life in New Orleans after Katrina, and his battle with depression. In fact, he was filmed to be on the Oprah show about post Katrina mental health issues that aired on the 29th. And was told he could not mention his book as it would appear that Oprah was endorsing it if he mentioned it. So he didn't mention the book, but he also refused to sign the form that said he would not discuss or write about the filming for her show. So perhaps he ended up on the cutting room floor. I don't know, I didn't watch.

You can read about his Oprah experience here.

And please buy his book. You will laugh and cry and see things in a whole new light. Seriously. If you think my post was good, well, I've got nothing on Chris Rose. Last winter I won a theatre award, and the award was nice and all, but CHRIS ROSE handed it to me. I think I was more excited about that. We owned the self published and shorter version of this book and made all our visitors read it. We have just mailed it to a friend. I guess now we will have to buy the new one. I'm OK with that.

***edited to add: I just checked Oprah's website to try to figure out if Chris Rose made it on or not, and his book is listed as an additional resource, and if you click on the link it says "As seen on Oprah." So maybe she decided to read it and then endorse it. I don't know. But don't take Oprah's word for it. TAKE MINE. Read it. All of you. Now.***

oh ho! and I just discovered he has a blog through the Times Picayune website. Fantastic. Here it is.

Also, please check out what Jen M over at Get in the Car! is doing to help out Habitat in New Orleans. It made me cry. She's trying to start a philanthropic movement here in blogland, and I applaud her. So hie thee to her website, please.

I've cried a bunch today. It's time for bed.