literary hoohah
A disclaimer: I did not manage to finish this book, even though it's not very long. I love Joan Didion's journalistic writing, as well as the two other memoirs of hers that I have read (The Year of Magical Thinking and Blue Nights), but I just could not get on with Where I Was From.… Continue reading Where I Was From by Joan Didion (2003)
I first read Jean Rhys at university when her novel Good Morning, Midnight was on the reading list for a course about the 20th century novel. Since then she has been on my radar and I have kept most of her books on my long term TBR. I read Wide Sargasso Sea a few years… Continue reading Smile Please: An Unfinished Autobiography by Jean Rhys (1979)
It's a funny thing, how I came to read this book. I don't have a 'public' account, so you may not all know this, but I love Instagram - it is my FAVE. I follow people I know, bloggers, and a handful of celebrities (ok, quite a lot). One of these is the actor Busy… Continue reading Live Fast, Die Hot by Jenny Mollen (2016)
I saw this book at a conference last year, and it sat on my reading list for months until I received it for my birthday in January. I was a bit apprehensive about reading it as I knew it wouldn't exactly be a light read, and the paperback is 429 pages (not counting the appendix,… Continue reading The Amazons: Lives and Legends of Warrior Women Across the Ancient World by Adrienne Mayor (2016)
I recently tweeted about this - apologies to any of my followers for the repetition here. It's just that I have often, in my life, thought about writing a book. I used to want to write a novel, and actually managed to write one in my late teens, though I fear it is just over-emotional… Continue reading Things I Think I Could Write a Book About
I realise it has been a bit quiet around here of late. As per my last post I am still reading The Amazons by Adrienne Mayor, which is taking me longer to read than I expected, and is the principle reason I haven't posted reviews since my late January round up. It's funny when you're… Continue reading I’m Still Here
I read a lot of books, but I also read a lot of other stuff that doesn't require quite so much concentration and/or time. A lot of this is book reviews and blog posts, but it varies. Here is what I have been reading recently: Fern Riddell's article on History Today - Sanitising the Suffragettes:… Continue reading Things I’m reading that aren’t books
As I wrote about in my last post, I had a bit of a reading slump at the end of 2017 (after a very mixed bag of reading throughout the year), and didn't get to read much over the Christmas holidays as I had a cold, then the flu, then a chest infection. But now… Continue reading Recent reads roundup! Miss Jane (2016), Mindhunter (1995), and The Butcher’s Hook (2016)
I am in a sort reading quandry, and it's why I haven't posted in a while. If you've looked at my GoodReads recently (though honestly why would you) you'll see that I am 'currently reading' two books - something I never do. I started Simone de Beauvoir's Memoirs of a Dutiful Daughter back at the… Continue reading On Being Stuck
This little book is one of the Vintage Readers that were released in the early 2000s. As pointed out on the back cover, this is a small collection of Joan Didion's essays that are a good introduction to her work. The essays cover politics, crime, the war in El Salvador, crime and corruption in Miami,… Continue reading Vintage Didion, by Joan Didion (2004)
