In WAYR?, I note what I’m reading and comment...you note what you are reading and comment. Occasionally, I may add a section or a link related to books…
I am finished reading:
Slouching Towards Bethlehem by Joan Didion- One of the things that I don’t like about reading on an e-reader is that you have to to think about touching the pad a few times to know your place in a book. I did not know that when I was reading the early parts of Didion “New York” essay, that I was at the end of the book.
Simply a superb set of essays which, by the end, Didion is really lamenting the loss of her youth.
I am reading:
How Long ‘Til Black Future Month by N.K. Jemisin— The nice thing about reading a short story collection is that even though the short stories are ordered the way they are for a reason, you don’t have to read them in the order they are listed on the TOC.
So...I read three short stories that I basically chose by their length so that I could at least say that I had read something; “Valedictorian,” “Cloud Dragon Skies,” and “The Elevator Dancer.”
I enjoyed all of them but “Valedictorian” hit a little too close to home, it’s easily my favorite of the three. I recognize all of the components of the story’ from The Firewall to the idea that competing to be the best is “all she has” and the contempt that engenders of her family and friends, etc.
She understands why so many people hate her now. By existing, she reminds them of their smallness. By being different, she forces them to redefine “enemy.” By doing her best for herself, she challenges them to become worthy of their own potential.
”Valedictorian”
I wouldn’t quite say that for my own experience: but close enough.
The White Album by Joan Didion— Since I bought the Didion essays as a packaged deal and I am enjoying them so much, I figured that I may as well march on...it’s quite the interesting thing to read a portion of Ms. Didion’s psychological profile.
Lots of good stuff, interesting stuff. Because I studied classics, I’ve always been interested in visiting The Getty Museum, so I have a fondness for Didion’s short essay about The Getty Museum.
...The place resists contemporary notions about what art is or should be or ever was. A museum is now supposed to kindle the untrained imagination, but this museum does not. A museum is now supposed to set the natural child in each of us free, but this museum does not. This was art acquired to teach a lesson, and there is also a lesson in the building which houses it: the Getty tells us that the past was perhaps different from the way we like to perceive it...
It occurs to me that maybe I should read only women authors for the remainder of the year. But I don’t have the discipline for that; there are too many male authors that I really do want to read (including Book 4 of Carlos Ruiz Zafon’s “The Cemetery of Forgotten Books” series).
READERS & BOOK LOVERS SERIES SCHEDULE