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Valued Contributor
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Registered: ‎07-06-2016

Re: JANUARY 2023 & HAPPY NEW YEAR. READ ANY GOOD BOOKS LATELY?

@lgfan wrote:

Ever since Joan Didion died over a year ago I have been rediscovering her books. I read "Play It As It Lays" and "The White Album" again.

Play It As It Lays was made into a movie in the early 1970's with Anthony Perkins and Tuesday Weld. It is about an actress having a mental breakdown and how it affects the people around her. It is a good read.

The White Album is a collection of her essays that were published in magazines throughout the years.

@lgfan

I just watched a documentary about Joan Didion by her nephew Griffin Dunne (the actor). It piqued my interest and am very interested in reading one of her books. Which book should read first?
Valued Contributor
Posts: 763
Registered: ‎08-22-2019

Re: JANUARY 2023 & HAPPY NEW YEAR. READ ANY GOOD BOOKS LATELY?

@sugar plum 

Try "The Year of Magical Thinking". She's got several excellent books of short stories, but I got to know her through Magical Thinking.

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Re: JANUARY 2023 & HAPPY NEW YEAR. READ ANY GOOD BOOKS LATELY?

I'm finishing the 3rd volume of Queens of the Age of Chivalry: England's Medieval Queens by Alison Weir.  Aspects are very interesting, fascinating in the comparisons to modern times.  Less interesting is the necessary documentation of queens following their husbands across the lands as required of them. Females were objects of value married off when young children to cement land agreements and sometimes the marriage was loving but if wise, knew how to wield what power she could muster. They lived very richly even by today's standards, even in their times.

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Re: JANUARY 2023 & HAPPY NEW YEAR. READ ANY GOOD BOOKS LATELY?

@sugar plum,  I'm not @lgfan ,  but I'd like to second her mention of Joan Didion's "The White Album".   It's considered one of her best collections of essays.  Some of it is autobiographical, chronicling what it was like to be in the volatile period of L.A. and Hollywood in the Sixties.  

 

"Blue Nights" is fantastic too.  It's about the sudden mysterious illness that Joan's daughter Quintana Roo Dunne contracted in the flower of her young womanhood, and ultimately died of.  It can be intense reading, but so well done.

 

Then, of her fiction,  "Democracy" is really good.  The protagonist, "Inez Victor" is the alienated wife of a U.S. Senator, who has a long-standing romantic involvement with a CIA agent, and whose daughter has run away to Vietnam....

 

You just cannot go wrong with Didion--  she's the best. 

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Re: JANUARY 2023 & HAPPY NEW YEAR. READ ANY GOOD BOOKS LATELY?

@Stelladorable Thanks for the recommendation! I'll look for it at my library.
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Re: JANUARY 2023 & HAPPY NEW YEAR. READ ANY GOOD BOOKS LATELY?

@Oznell "The White Album" and "Democracy" sound like interesting reads. I guess I'll start alphabetically between all of her books mentioned. Thanks!
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Registered: ‎08-22-2019

Re: JANUARY 2023 & HAPPY NEW YEAR. READ ANY GOOD BOOKS LATELY?

@Free2be I've added the Alison Weir book to my wish list. I enjoy her very much! I'm thinking it will be a good read during my vacation. Thanks for the recommendation.

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Re: JANUARY 2023 & HAPPY NEW YEAR. READ ANY GOOD BOOKS LATELY?

[ Edited ]

"@sugar plum @lgfan wrote:

Ever since Joan Didion died over a year ago I have been rediscovering her books. I read "Play It As It Lays" and "The White Album" again.

Play It As It Lays was made into a movie in the early 1970's with Anthony Perkins and Tuesday Weld. It is about an actress having a mental breakdown and how it affects the people around her. It is a good read.

The White Album is a collection of her essays that were published in magazines throughout the years.

@lgfan

I just watched a documentary about Joan Didion by her nephew Griffin Dunne (the actor). It piqued my interest and am very interested in reading one of her books. Which book should read first?"

 

 

 

My first pick would be "Play It As It Lays".  Joan Didion has a straight to the point style in writing.  You will not get any purple prose fillers in her writing.  

Valued Contributor
Posts: 786
Registered: ‎07-06-2016

Re: JANUARY 2023 & HAPPY NEW YEAR. READ ANY GOOD BOOKS LATELY?

Thank you @lgfan! I think I'll start there and work my way through the others listed here. The storyline interests me.
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Registered: ‎10-30-2010

Re: JANUARY 2023 & HAPPY NEW YEAR. READ ANY GOOD BOOKS LATELY?

@sugar plum 

I read a post of yours from another thread. Please continue to post about books that you have read, if you enjoyed them or not. Many people including myself pickup great ideas from this thread on future books that might interest them.