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 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 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 book was one of the few review copies I have been accepting recently, and I'm glad I decided to read and review it, because it's something a little different - but once I got into it I realised it actually is the sort of thing I like. Gone: A Girl, A Violin, A Life… Continue reading Gone: A Girl, A Violin, A Life Unstrung by Min Kym
I’d heard of The Glass Castle long before I read it, and I was vaguely interested in it, but the real impetus to read it came from two things: my putting together reading lists of the books I most wanted to read; and the news that it has been adapted into a film starring some… Continue reading The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls
I'm not usually one for celebrity autobiographies. I think Anjelica Huston's memoir was the first I actually read (that I can remember), and I only read that because I love Huston's work, and the book seemed down to earth and non-sensationalist, which it was. It was a journey through a life. I decided to read… Continue reading Wildflower by Drew Barrymore
In my last post I mentioned that I had been away on holiday and therefore hadn't blogged in a while, but promised to be back soon. But then I got food poisoning and was off grid practically the whole week. Bloody perfect. So this is a delayed 'return' to the blog. Finally! It's been too… Continue reading Reading Mental Health: Girl, Interrupted by Susanna Kaysen
As a rule I rather like reading memoirs, though I must say I am picky about whose I read. I've read mostly literary memoirs or those about an ordinary person who had an extraordinary experience (such as Wild or The Rules of Inheritance). I don't think I've ever read a memoir of a celebrity before.… Continue reading A Trip Down Memory Lane with Anjelica Huston
