Since I've been in a vile and crabby mood off and on ever since my horse Pepper died, exacerbated by Sarah Palin, I thought I'd post two books I've recently read that I like. The bears are tiny and left over from my childhood. They're my rating system.
The Joan Didion book, "The White Album" is filled with essays, mostly about California, but she also discusses Doris Lessing, a writer I could never make sense of, and Didion seems to feel the same way. I think I read this book when it was first published in 1979 and didn't respond to it. This time I thought it was really excellent and I look forward to reading more of her books.
Two bears, two arms up.
I really didn't expect to like this book, a cop thriller set on an army base, but I couldn't put it down. In fact I'm reading another book about the same character, Jack Reacher, right now. Inside one of the covers was a Bill Clinton quote: "I love Jack Reacher."
Two bears, worried about the outcome.
4 comments:
Not familiar with the other, but my friend absolutely loves all Lee Child and Douglas Preston novels, both their individual solo efforts and stuff they've written together. I think they did "Relic."
I've never read any myself, but my friend considers them his favorite authors.
This will horrify you, but I have about 15 books. The Joan Didion book is one of them. Only 15 because when we moved, I was almost crushed by a wall of boxes of books--and having moved, our space is limited. So I use the 'brary and recirculate books instead of keeping them. Have you read The Year of Magical Thinking? I'm afraid to.
i read it but cannot really recommend it; I found it a little interesting because it was when I was wallowing in grief. I was interested in writing about my own grief at the time. I sort of wanted to stay in that place because it made me feel still connected to Dad, I think. But it is very sad, and she does go on and on, repeating the same thing. Her husband died so young and so suddenly, and her daughter was very ill, so she had a more difficult time processing everything.
A wanderer, I didn't know he had a writing partner too. I'm enjoying the second one as much as the first. Terse exciting writing with no frills.
When I first read Joan Didion long ago I thought she was too grim. There's no way I could read "The Year of Magical Thinking."
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