The Best Books We Read Last Year: Women Who Travel Podcast

JDM: I know I usually do thematic, but I felt they’re both hot. They’re steamy.

MC: They’re a very similar climate. Yes.

LA: Would you recommend someone who’s going to New Orleans to read it?

JDM: Oh, it is mandatory to read it if you’re going. No one should be allowed off the plane.

LL: I don’t think you should be able to go to New Orleans without reading it.

JDM: At gate check, at security check, they should have a little quiz and if you can’t get three questions right about The Yellow House, you’re not allowed into New Orleans.

LA: It’s like showing a passport, but you have to show a copy of the book to get in.

LL: It’s kind of like Jamaica Kincaid’s A Small Place, you’re not allowed to go [to Antigua], unless you’ve read it.

JDM: Mandatory.

LA: Lisa, you almost jumped out of your chair when you heard the name of this book.

LL: Oh my gosh. Sarah Broom is incredible. She’s like a poet. It’s this big, beautiful, thoughtful cultural and political history of a city that’s told through this family’s house and stories of acquisition and loss of wealth, as a stand in for this whole thing. But it’s a poem. It’s her language is so gorgeous. I never underlined books. I never underline books because it makes me so mad. And then 10 years later you’re like, “Why did I underline stupid thing, you idiot.” But I could not stop myself from writing in the margins and underlining because it was just like, it wasn’t trying to be pithy, but it was. She’s a beautiful writer. And it’s a debut book, which is …

JDM: She spent something 10 years working on this book. This is one of those life project books and it shows.

LL: Incredible though. When she won—you fall in love with every single book that’s nominated, you want them all to win—but it was still like, yes.

JDM: Meredith, I would have thought maybe you would have read it. You’re always, like, up on these things.

MC: I was just in New Orleans, so now I feel really horrible. Yes. I was just there and now I know that I need to read it.

JDM: It’ll be that much more meaningful now when you read it.

MC: I love it. Do you feel like now you have to plan a trip to New Orleans? I mean you’ve basically just gotten back from a crazy amount of travel.

JDM: I’ve just come back from a ton of travel. Also, as you guys know, I like cold places and I don’t normally go to hot places, so I’ve done one hot place.

LL: Really?

JDM: Yes, Lisa. I love the cold.

LL: I am not down with it.

JDM: But yeah, maybe it’ll be my hot place of 2020. I can only do one a year.