Tag Archives: Joan Didion

Literary quips

I loved reading through Maud Newton’s recent series of literary quips and quotations. I love stuff like that. Commonplace book-ish. There are times when I feel a validating sort of recognition when I read a quote (“Oh! I do that … Continue reading

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2008 Books Read

… in the order in which I finished them, understanding that very often I read many books at the same time. I count re-read books, by the way. I’ll include links to any posts or book excerpts I might have … Continue reading

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The Books: “Play It As It Lays” (Joan Didion)

Daily Book Excerpt: Adult fiction: Play It As It Lays: A Novel – by Joan Didion If you do a search on my site for “Joan Didion” you’ll probably see she comes up a lot. She’s one of my favorite … Continue reading

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The Year of Magical Thinking, by Joan Didion

The New York Times review by Ben Brantley of the production of Joan Didion’s The Year of Magical Thinking. Of course I’m going but I just wanted to point out a couple of things in this review that reiterates my … Continue reading

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The Year of Magical Thinking on Broadway

I had heard Didion was turning her tremendously painful and remarkable book about her husband’s death into a one-woman show. An odd thing – hard to imagine – and horrible to know that since the publication of that memoir – … Continue reading

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2006 Books

Books read this year. I actually may end up adding a couple more to the list – since I am bed-ridden at the moment and could finish 2 more books by the time the damn ball drops across the river. … Continue reading

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The Freeway Experience

More Joan Didion. I was reading an essay she wrote back in the 70s about the Los Angeles freeway system (if you have read her novel Play It Like It Lays then you know that Didion kind of obsessed about … Continue reading

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“That we have made a hero of Howard Hughes tells us something interesting about ourselves.” – Joan Didion

Why I love Joan Didion For paragraphs like this, from her essay on Howard Hughes, written in 1967: By July of 1967 Howard Hughes is the largest single landholder in Clark County, Nevada. “Howard likes Las Vegas,” an acquaintance of … Continue reading

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Profile of Joan Didion

This profile of her blew me away. Didion fans – you won’t want to miss it. She’s a real idol of mine, always has been since I read her essay “Goodbye to all That”. There are essays I go back … Continue reading

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Tooo many books, Part 3

Over the past month – from my birthday and up to and including Christmas – I have received so many books that I am a bit overwhelmed and feel kind of … well … like I have ADD or something. … Continue reading

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