The Bookhive List: Joan Didion

Normally the Bookhive List posts are about specific books that I love, but I refuse to choose a Joan Didion book I like best. They are all good and they are all short, so you really have no excuse for not reading all of it. But I suppose if you must limit yourself, please read A Year of Magical Thinking, Play it as it Lays, and The White Album. If you, like me, are already a major Joan Didion fan, you should check out this new biography of her, coming this month.

Also, for more of the same, go here. And here.

The Bookhive List is a weekly recommendation of my all-time favorite, must-read books.

Books to Escape the Cold

My official Theory of Winter is that January is the worst because it's the darkest and longest winter month; 31 days is God's idea of a hilarious joke. February on the other hand, is nice and short and even includes a very indulgent holiday (I know a lot of people will bristle at this because it is NOT cool to like Valentine's Day. And those people don't have my husband, who historically knocks it out of the park for this holiday, probably because he knows how insane I go in winter). So you've survived the worst of it! Now you just have to coast through this short, terrible month. and the following list of books will help you forget the weather:

A Passage to India by E.M. Forster - Prolonged engagements! Unrequited love! Colonialism! And false accusations of sexual assault! All under the hot, Indian sun. I read this a few years ago in January. It helped a little.

The Flamethrowers by Rachel Kushner - This novel jumps between the steamy, gritty New York art scene of the 1970s, the sizzling streets of Rome amid political and civic turmoil, and the white hot salt flats of Utah. There is a lot of talk of engines and burning metal and motorcycles. It's also just a good book that you should probably read, regardless of the weather.

Play it as it Lays by Joan Didion - If you trend toward Season Affective Disorder, then stay away from this one. I wouldn't go so far as to say this novel will help you forget your cares, but it will certainly put your weather problems in perspective. Plus there's a lot of Los Angeles freeway cruising in a convertible.

The Heart of the Matter by Graham Greene - Literally every page of this novel includes some reference to humidity or sweat. A bit more colonialism, if that's your thing, this time in Sierra Leone. There's also a juicy affair (because it's a Graham Greene novel) and a Catholic crisis of faith (because it's a Graham Greene novel).

Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys - A really inventive and cool response to Jane Eyre, this novel tells the pseudo-prequel story of Rochester's first wife, a Caribbean heiress who later goes insane and ends up locked up in his attic. There is a 1993 film adaptation with an NC-17 rating, in which a young Naomi Watts plays a small role...You're welcome.

What I'm Reading: 'Play it as it Lays' by Joan Didion

My summer of Joan Didion has turned into my autumn of Joan Didion as I tucked into Play it as it Lays, the first work of fiction of hers I've read to date. I was able to get through it in one or two sittings, which is something I really love about all her writing. The prose is sparse and the page count low, but that does not in any way diminish its impact; if anything its economy only enhances the emotional impact, especially in this case.

Play it as it Lays gave me visions of the most recent season of 'Mad Men,' with so many characters out in Los Angeles, and the action of the novel and the series are only separated by about six years. Maria is an aging-at-30 actress, a mild sociopath and a barbiturates addict, who seems to powerlessly drift from one unfortunate sexual encounter to another. Her love for her hospitalized 4-year old Kate seems to be her only purpose in life, and yet is never enough to force her to act in her own best interest, and we learn from the first page that Maria is in a neuropsychiactric hospital

I read this book immediately following a tense and disappointing visit with my own doctor, which sounds like a terrible idea, but I found it oddly cathartic. 

This Week in Books, Portland Catch-Up Version: Zadie Smith is a reading addict...

A Prayer Journal

By Flannery O'Connor

Apologies all around for missing the last two "This Week in Books" posts. I know you live for them. It was hard to keep track of what was going on in the world of books while prepping to travel, doing the travelling itself, and then recovering from travelling, but I'm finally back to normal, for a day, and then I prep for a weeked Up North. At the very least I did my best to accumulate some good links the past two weeks, and here they are:

Oprah! Zadie Smith! What they want you to read this summer! Her comments about reading and prison are particularly chilling because that was my primary takeaway from reading Orange is the New Black-- she got to read so many books in prison!

If you, like me, have Joan Didion fever this summer, check out this essay on Play It As It Lays  from Alice Bolin and The Believer. There is a short write-up on it over at The Millions as well, and they recommended it as one of this summer's "Burnt Out Reads."

Hilton Als reviewed the posthumously published Flannery O'Connor book A Prayer Journal. It's behind a pay wall but you can read the intro and if you're a NYT subscriber, you  can enjoy the whole thing (and maybe share some quotes in the comments? Just a thought). This combines one of my favorite contemporary essayists with one of my favorite female authors, so I might even consider paying to read it.

Here's a brief piece on book hoarding from the LA Times. I found it to be abysmally depressing, but that's just me. Also, I tend to read the books I won, so that might disqualify me.

Finally, the thing I am most excited about -- Matter and MSNBC.com are doing a public book club reading of Susan Faludi's recent feminist classic Backlash: the Undeclared War Against American Women, and have invited plenty of intelligent and inspiring female writers and thinkers to contribute (Roxane Gay, Lena Dunham, etc.). You can read along, tweet along, and read their lively discussions of each chapter.