Reading Project

Nine Lives: Mystery, Magic, Death, and Life in New Orleans

by Dan Baum

Since its inception in 2002, the Tulane Reading Project has created a shared intellectual experience for the entering first-year class through the reading and discussion of a selected book. With a variety of events scheduled throughout the fall semester, the Reading Project creates a campus-wide dialogue on a variety of themes.

The 2012 Reading Project book selection, Nine Lives: Mystery, Magic, Death, and Life in New Orleans by Dan Baum, was written when Baum, assigned to cover Hurricane Katrina by The New Yorker, grew “frustrated by having to focus so much on the disaster and its aftermath.”  He decided instead to celebrate “the most interesting thing about New Orleans” – its people.  Through telling the life stories of nine unique New Orleanians from different neighborhoods, the author paints a fascinating portrait that Susan Larson called “One of the most moving -- and riveting -- books ever written about the rich and complicated life we live here.” (Times-Picayune, 2009). 

The book’s content lends itself to a variety of events, including a visit from the author and some of the real people whose lives are chronicled in the book.  We will also present the musical adaptation of the book by Paul Sanchez and Colman DeKay, which features a star-studded cast of local musicians and actors.