I’ve always loved Joan Didion. She’s not for everyone. Sometimes I don’t think what she’s saying is all that profound but the way she says it is just so arresting. I haven’t read Year of Magical Thinking yet. Have been re-reading The White Album and really enjoying it.
My book club turns down most of my suggestions. They prefer lighter reading than I usually go for. Our last selection was the Uncommon Reader and that was fine but I thought sort of thin to warrant a month of reading and two hour discussion. Next they want to read Anita Shreve’s Sea Glass. Groan. But I love these ladies. We range in age from late twenties to mid-eighties. The discussion is best when we get off the book and do politics.
Same with my book group, mamall. We are in many different stages of our lives, so even if the book discussion isn’t so great, we have lots to talk about. Plus, we have dinner at our meetings!
We do read some heavy stuff…but there is an occasional clinker in there.
Food is very central to our meetings, too, mafool. I’ve actually had some of my best times at meetings to discuss a clinker. I go feeling stressed thinking that the others will have loved the book but every time they all think it’s a clinker, too. So then we bond over what a clinker it is and eat a lot of great food. What’s better than that?
I just finished “Kissing the Virgin’s Mouth” by Donna M. Gershten. the back store about the book is this. Barbara Kingsolver sponsored a writing contest called the Bellwether Prize. This book was the 1st winner of that contest. (I love anything Barbara Kingsolver writes) I thought it was quite good. It is written as a memoir of a remarkable woman from Mexico.
I also read Joan Didion’s “year of Magical thinking”. (Very good).
My daughter gave me to read a book called “The Beautifully Worthless” by Ali Liebegott. (Loved the title) It was one of my DD English lit books from college. . It’s about a young gay woman traveling with her dog. Written in letters and poems.
A nonfiction book I read the was Great is “Museum of the Missing” by Simon Houpt. It’s about Art Theft. So so good.
Another fiction book I finished was “The Shadow Catcher” by Marianne Wiggins. A piece about Edward Curtis (1858-1952) Know for his photos of Native American Indians. Great subject.
Anybody know of any good books about art? I kind of into to the topic right now.
SB mom, thanks! I checked reviews on Amazon, and it is in my basket!
For anyone interested in Russian history: book Russka by Edward Rutherfurd came highly recommended by my friends. The book is close to a thousand pages, but I had a great time reading it and following the history of Russia through the tale of two families.
SBmom, I agree with your recommendation. I’ve passed “The Madonnas of Leningrad” on to my Bookies (what we call my Book Club) for additional reading. BunsenBurner, thanks for suggesting Russka; I have a degree in Slavic Languages and Russian Area Studies so really enjoy anything related to Russia.
osage77, thank you for the recommendations - they all look really promising. I read a really engaging nonfiction book about the art world in the last year – The Lost Painting by Jonathon Harr. It’s about how a missing Caravaggio painting suddenly surfaces and the espionage-like maneuverings by the big museums and art history academies to sort of “own” it. There’s a lot about Caravaggio’s life interwoven into the story. I just really found it fascinating.
Just another quick plug for Joan Didion’s The Year of Magical Thinking, which I found both brilliant and moving (as, it seems, did most of the critics).
While I had in the past found Didion’s prose “arresting” (to use mamall’s apt word) - she writes sentences and paragraphs that are unlike anyone else’s (sort of like a jazz musician whose “voice” is so distinctive that you recognize it immediately) - I also found her prose style, at times, simply mannered and just plain eccentric.
In this book, though, perhaps because of the intimacy of the subject matter, without losing any of the distintiveness of her voice, style and subject go together seamlessly.
I would have liked to have seen Vanessa Redgrave’s performance of Didion’s theatrical adaptation of her book.
SBmom-“The Lost Painting” Yes Great Book! That’s the type of book I love. Any more suggestions? I’m reading 2 nonfiction books right now that are really long (I love long books) about Matisse: "The unknown Matisse (vol1) and “de Kooning”. Thanks Everyone for all the suggestions.
I haven’t read the whole thread…so pardon me if I am repeating others suggestions here…
Art suggestions…not read in last 6 mos…
The Depths of Glory by Irving Stone about Pisarro…
Agony & the Ectasy by Irving Stone about Michelangelo
Not art, also not last 6 mos…but I enjoyed Galileo’s Daughter…by Dava Sobel…on science, faith and love.
Now, in the last 6 mos…an unforgettable read…one I am 3/4 thru right now…and I can whole heartedly recommend is
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer.
Life for a young boy after his father was killed on 9/11. It is a novel…but Foer has a way with language and words and images… well done!!
I resisted The Kite Runner forever…couldn’t avoid it any longer, my mother son book group chose it…and I must admit that it is a very compelling, powerful story. I was extremely moved…and my oldest S went to see the movie with me the day after I finished it. The movie is 90% complete…few underlying pieces of the story are left out…but The Kite Runner merits reading by anyone who loves a tightly woven story.
And I also enjoyed World Without End…Ken Follett and finally, I really enjoyed Marco Polo: from Venice to Xanadu by Laurence Bergreen.
Everyone Thanks. I was out yesterday at a Book store (I support my independent book store) and ordered “The Madonnas of Leningrad”. I starting it tonight! I love this thread!
Mafool…
I listened to World Without End on CD also (and I listened to Marco Polo too) and yes, I read Pillars of the Earth many moons ago…in fact, I suggested Pillars for our Mother Son book group and the boys (now all over 16 yrs of age) laughed at me…>900 pages??? so they chose The Kite Runner instead…my revenge? I bought each boy a paperback for XMAS and the most avid reader is getting Pillars…
I have made a note about The Madonnas of Leningrad…but I was given a large book on Einstein for my birthday so that will be up next for me…