Anti-Death penalty lawyer Billy Sothern appeared on the Rachel Maddow Show last night (watch the clip below) to talk about Louisiana's public defense system, which laid off 80 percent of its staff after Hurricane Katrina, leaving 11 attorneys to handle more than 3,000 cases. That system has since been transformed, and attracts young attorneys from across the country who are committed to improving indigent defense in Louisiana. "After Katrina, we look for reasons for optimism," he said. "This is one of them." [There's also a detailed read on the subject in Friday's Times-Picayune, "Justice system creeps toward improvement after Hurricane Katrina."]

I asked Billy, who wrote "Down in New Orleans" about surviving the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, what was on his short list of Katrina-related reading--here's what he had to say:

"Definitely Paul Chan's "Waiting for Godot." Ethan Brown's "Shake the Devil Off." And "Zeitoun." Both of which get at the connections between New Orleans' Katrina crisis and other looming national struggles-- the Iraq war in "Shake the Devil Off" and "the war on terror" in "Zeitoun." And, maybe just as importantly, Kathy Zeitoun's nola.com blog post that brought Zeitoun's story to you, me, and eventually Dave Eggers, then the world. (Isn't that its own Katrina story?) Also, maybe Michael Lewis' New York Times piece,"Wading Towards Home." I always recall the little bit in that piece about Uptowners' fears of looters at Perlis when I pass their window display full of seersucker suits and crawfish logo polo shirts. There are other things that I have a personal connection to, like Jason Berry's essay in "Do You Know What It Means to Miss New Orleans." And Dave Olivier's blog entries about evacuating with his family and then returning to his destroyed home, where I had spent so many happy times. (Some excerpted here: http://www.themorningnews.org/archives/personal_essays/notes_from_the_storm.php)Something that I often go back to in my mind (and which appeared in my book) was the op-ed I wrote about Helen Hill's murder that appeared in the NY Times."

Below are a few other suggestions, culled from an informal survey of local journalists and authors asking for their Katrina-related required reading list:

"1 Dead in Attic," Chris Rose

"Deadly choices at Memorial," Sheri Fink

"Gumbo Tales," Sara Roahen

"Mandina's Rising," Brett Anderson

"The Lost Year" by Dan Baum (author of "Nine Lives")

"A.D.New Orleans After the Deluge," Josh Neufeld

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