joan didion

No 545 Slouching Towards Bethlehem by Joan Didion

First published in 1968, Joan Didion’s Slouching Towards Bethlehem is a collection of essays, largely about California and published mainly within the pages of The Saturday Evening Post across the previous decade. Fifty years on, what is most striking about the collection is the writing, which is vivid and alive. The style of New Journalism…

A Book for Every Year…

Round Up Reviews – No 624 – 622

I said I wouldn’t do this, but I am going to have to. Circumstances have dictated that I’m going to have to do a few round up reviews, just to clear the back log! Life has been very busy these last few weeks and I have started to feel stressed about falling behind on my…

20 Books of Summer is back! Who’s in?

Oh I’m a glutton for punishment…. The temperature is rising (slightly), the kids will be getting out of school soon and I’ve done my Great Wardrobe Changeover (I’m not the only one who does that, am I?) so it must be nearly summer time, which means another attempt at completing my 20 Books of Summer…

Throwback Thursday or A Long Long Time Ago in the days before Goodreads…

Last week I was having a bit of a clear out and came across a diary from 2007. Goodreads was just a twinkle in some web gurus’ eye in 2007, so I kept track of what I read the old fashioned way. By writing a list in the back of my Moleskine diary. It’s fun…

Top Ten Tuesday – Books that are hard to read

This week’s Top Ten from The Broke and the Bookish is books that are hard to read. At first I tried to think of books I was unable to finish, but then I realised that some books I really, really love are hard to read, so this list is a mix of the two! 1.…