Welcome to Mailbox Monday -- the President's Day edition. Happy birthday George and Abe! And thanks also for having birthdays in the (usually) snowy, icy and bitter cold February. However you are celebrating this holiday weekend, I hope it is a relaxing one. Anyone baking a cherry pie?
Again this week I only have one book to list (I have been cutting back to catch up). Please leave your link at Mr. Linky and don't forget to leave a comment to enter this week's giveaway.
1) Blue Nights by Joan Didion. Publisher's Summary. From one of our most powerful writers, a work of stunning frankness about losing a daughter. Richly textured with bits of her own childhood and married life with her husband, John Gregory Dunne, and daughter, Quintana Roo, this new book by Joan Didion examines her thoughts, fears, and doubts regarding having children, illness, and growing old.
Blue Nights opens on July 26, 2010, as Didion thinks back to Quintana’s wedding in New York seven years before. Today would be her wedding anniversary. This fact triggers vivid snapshots of Quintana’s childhood—in Malibu, in Brentwood, at school in Holmby Hills. Reflecting on her daughter but also on her role as a parent, Didion asks the candid questions any parent might about how she feels she failed either because cues were not taken or perhaps displaced. “How could I have missed what was clearly there to be seen?” Finally, perhaps we all remain unknown to each other. Seamlessly woven in are incidents Didion sees as underscoring her own age, something she finds hard to acknowledge, much less accept.
Blue Nights—the long, light evening hours that signal the summer solstice, “the opposite of the dying of the brightness, but also its warning”—like The Year of Magical Thinking before it, is an iconic book of incisive and electric honesty, haunting and profoundly moving.
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This looks like a rich literary book. I've had my eye on it. Very nice review.
ReplyDeleteSounds like a great book, very interesting. Enjoy
ReplyDeleteOh, I be that's a good one!
ReplyDeleteI've heard that's an intense but lovely read -- enjoy!
ReplyDeleteI can only imagine how touching this book must be. Didn't she just write a book about losing her husband. As a writer, I can imagine that writing helps cauterize the wounds. I don't have a Mailbox Monday, but I enjoyed your post.
ReplyDeleteEnjoy your book.
ReplyDeleteThat sounds terribly sad, but very good. You'll need a full box of ues, I expect!
ReplyDeleteI've enjoyed Joan Didion's work, and this one is on my list. Thanks for sharing...
ReplyDeleteSounds like a good one but with some emotional puch to it. Enjoy your new book.
ReplyDeleteI read one of her books and enjoyed it. Hope you like this one.
ReplyDeleteI've been trying to cut back on my new books too...it half works, lol.
ReplyDeleteSounds like an emotional read. Hope you enjoy your book and catch up on the rest. I'm struggling to catch up.
ReplyDeleteThis sounds quite sad. Good, but sad.
ReplyDeleteI've enjoyed this author in the past. This one seems a little to depressing right now for me.
ReplyDeleteSounds like a very emotional read.
ReplyDeleteMy MM is here.
Enjoy your new book and your day off!
ReplyDeleteHi DCMetroReader - I'm also take the Metro in DC everyday and love the time it gives me to read! Check out my mailbox on my blog Historical Fiction Notebook: http://historicalfictionnotebook.blogspot.com/2012/02/new-books.html
ReplyDeleteThat sounds like a very emotional read. I hope it is a good read!
ReplyDeleteI wasn't sure I could read this one after the one about her husband's death and the blow to the solar plexus it felt like as I read. I'll be curious to see how you like this one.
ReplyDeleteThat's a terrific book to get, although I expect it's probably sad, to. I'll be looking forward to your review. Joan Didion is an fantastic writer. I read her last book about her husband's death. It's horrifying that she lost the two people she loves most in this world in the same year.
ReplyDeleteI'll be curious to see how you like this one, not sure I'd venture into it.
ReplyDeleteSounds interesting!
Deletehttp://tributebooksmama.blogspot.com/2012/02/mailbox-monday_20.html
This one sounds fabulous - seriously. I hope you enjoy it!
ReplyDeleteThis one sounds rough, but I'd like to read it because I've been a fan of Joan Didion's ever since I read Play It As It Lays, which I think is a Must Read book.
ReplyDeleteThis sounds like the kind of book I would like. Looking forward to your thoughts!
ReplyDeleteI read Didion's "The Year of Magical Thinking" and I know this is a "sequel" of sorts to that book. It is so awful that she lost her whole family right after each other. I couldn't believe it when I saw that her daughter died right after her husband.
ReplyDeleteJoan Didion is so intense.
ReplyDeleteI've heard great things about Didion and her books. I hope you enjoy it!
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