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Books Distilled » Entries tagged with "joan didion"

Book Review: Play It As It Lays

Book Review:  Play It As It Lays

    I forewarned you that I’d be reading a lot of Joan Didion for a paper I’m writing.  (Don’t worry, I’m counteracting her amazing prose and super-depressing topics with less serious books).   Didion’s second novel, Play It As It Lays, is the story of a troubled woman, Maria Wyeth (pronounced, we’re told early on, Mar-eye-ah).  The book is full of beautiful sentences that portray a woman coming apart at the seams. Case in point:     Because she had an uneasy … Read entire article »

Filed under: Contemporary Literature

Happy New Year, Life Updates, & Reading Deprivation

Happy New Year, Life Updates, & Reading Deprivation

  Happy New Year! Happy 2012, friends!  I’ve missed writing for you all the past few weeks.  I have a few pretty good reasons for neglecting my blogging, though… Read on for some life updates! Life Updates I started a new job.  In early December I started a new full-time job at the New York City Leadership Academy, an education nonprofit that trains principals to work in NYC public schools.  I’m super excited to join their team, and my … Read entire article »

Filed under: Announcements

Book Review: Blue Nights

Book Review:  Blue Nights

  The Blue Nights Joan Didion’s new memoir Blue Nights is stunning.  The title comes from a phenomenon that occurs in northern latitudes in the spring, when the light at twilight is blue. Didion’s nephew shot a video of her reading from the prologue and second chapter of the book. Tell me this doesn’t make you want to read it: The Blue Darkens and Fades The book is serious, but not heavy; piercing, but not stricken. It picks up where … Read entire article »

Filed under: Contemporary Literature, Nonfiction