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I'm a late comer to her writing. The Year of Magical Thinking sat on my TBR shelf for years. So much grief in such a short time. Beautiful writing. I have a book coming that was published just before she died. It's past pieces she wrote. Amazing woman.

I myself placed her ashes in the wall. I myself saw the cathedral doors locked at six. I know what it is I am now experiencing. I know what the frailty is, I know what the fear is. The fear is not for what is lost. What is lost is already in the wall. What is lost is already behind the locked doors. The fear is for what is still to be lost. You may see nothing still to be lost. Yet there is no day in her life on which I do not see her.

Joan Didion was very sad and lonely when she wrote this. But her writing is so beautiful.

#BookSpinBingo @TheAromaofBooks

This is my first Didion and I wish that it wasn‘t. I felt like it was all over the place and at times very hard to follow but I‘m thinking that someone suffering with acute grief would probably behave like this. But I think I‘m struggling with this because she is considered such an accomplished writer. I felt that it was quite often too vague where her daughter was concerned, especially when she was an adult. ⬇️

💙🩵#titlesandtunes 🩵💙
This book was an obvious choice for #blues. I can‘t remember who gifted it to me. Was it you @Reggie ?
The song was harder, I had lots so I‘m going to list them all.
Blue hotel Chris Isaak
Midnight blue Lou Gramm
Blue Monday New Order
Clearest blue CHVRCHES
Blue world Mac Miller
Cry in shame Johnny Diesel and the injectors
Thanks @BarbaraBB @Cinfhen
💙🩵💙🩵💙🩵💙🩵💙🩵💙🩵💙🩵💙🩵

Birthday so far. Wanted to read this Joan Didion book after reading her book The Year of Magical Thinking. Never read an Iain Banks and I've been told this is a good one. I'm a big Frida Kahlo fan. This is a graphic novel. The other two are the kids books I've reviewed already. Just love the reading lady. I'm enjoying the sunshine in a sheltered place. It's a bit chilly today despite the sunshine.

My first Joan Didion.

#MayMoms - Writer: She was the first thought to come to mind after I read the prompt for today. Perhaps because she is one of my favorite writers. Perhaps because her writing abilities can be described as quite brilliant. She demanded an examination of cultural, political and social rhetoric. Perhaps because she was bold and frank in her writings of the 60s and 70s.👇🏽

I wanted more of Joan Didion‘s writing about her husband and daughter so I borrowed this one from the library. It was quite good. I enjoy Didion‘s writing. 4⭐️

#WeRemember Joan Didion

@Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks @eggs

"Memory fades, memory adjusts, memory conforms to what we think we remember."
Joan Didion, Blue Nights

#coffeeandbooks #mugtour #nationalhistoricsites #nationalparkservice

This mug is from FDR‘s Library and Museum in Hyde Park NY. During a visit of several days, we toured the Library, his home,Springwood, Eleanor Roosevelt‘s retreat,Val-Kill, & the Vanderbilt Mansion. We also ate a few fabulous meals at the nearby Culinary Institute.
I am so enjoying this #mugtour because it is evoking such wonderful, warm memories.

Tonight‘s shrine .I‘ve given away Year of Magical Thinking & tagged book to people, at the time , needed them more than I did.

It‘s official - I am a Joan Didion fan and want to read everything she‘s written. 💕
This is almost stream of consciousness as she remembers her daughter‘s life (she died at 39) and tries to come to grips with her own ageing and frailty. It was very timely for me to read this while I‘m dealing with my dads frailty.
There are elements in here that are poetic, ways in which the structure reflects and refracts memories, ⬇️

An elegiac meditation on outliving her adopted daughter. Sought out the poem “Domination of Black” by Wallace Stevens because of it.

Thanks for the tag @Bookgoil ! 🤗

#ispy

How about orange books? @Booksnchill @vivastory @CallMeIshmael if you want to play.

This was my first Joan Didion book. I definitely want to check out some of her other works. It was a short and fast listen, not light though. She discusses the death of her daughter.

#audiobook #overdriveapp

“A single person is missing for you, and the whole world is empty.” ~ Joan Didion, The Year of Magical Thinking

“Life changes fast. Life changes in the instant.

You sit down to dinner and life as you know it ends.”

“You have to pick the places you don't walk away from.”

It‘s the birthday of the essayist and novelist Joan Didion, born in Sacramento, California (1934). She grew up as a nervous child.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joan_Didion

DAY 17 #TrueBlue | This book about the death of Didion‘s daughter will rip your heart out, but it‘s worth the pain.

#MOvember
@Cinfhen

This is superficially similar to Year of Magical Thinking, both in content, this focusing on her daughter's death 2 years after her husband's, and in style, obsessive spirals of thoughts & memories. But her focus here is new: she searches her memories of Quintana to understand her wisdom. What did her precociousness as a child say about her upbringing? Her comments about death? And what do the answers reveal about her own views on aging and dying?

Here are 4 #meaningfulmemoirs #jazzyjune

All three of us are cuddled up on the couch. The fiancé is reading Sisterhood of the Squared Circle and I‘m finishing up Blue Nights. The puppy is just sleeping because, try as I might, books just aren‘t her thing.

Counting down the days until our new couch arrives and reading on the couch won‘t lead to back pain and an inability to get up!

“In theory these mementos serve to bring back the moment. In fact they serve only to make clear how inadequately I appreciated the moment when it was here.”

Wow ♥️

#QuotsyMay19 Day 6: #Work, alone time, and being zen. We can do more of this, especially on a Monday.

So I finished The Year of Magical Thinking and followed up with Blue Nights....then watched the Netflix movie: Joan Didion: The Center Will Not Hold and I am in pure awe. Tears were streaming during the movie. 😭 Amazed by her perspective, style, and strength. This will be my year of Didion. 📚

I am so emotional after having read this book. Joan‘s ability to share her grief after unimaginable loss is astounding.

“Like when someone dies, don‘t dwell on it.”

Currently listening. #overdrive

Have a peaceful and relaxing Sunday, #littens.

“When we talk about mortality we are talking about our children.”

Just started this one late last night. Didion‘s ability to share her tragic story is very moving.

“After she was born, I was never not afraid.”

I‘ve never read anything truer about parenthood than the above quote. It‘s equal parts wonderful and terrifying.

In this memoir, Didion speaks unsparingly about the pain of losing her daughter, Quintana. She has a way of expressing her immense pain that makes you feel somehow less afraid.

📷: Vanity Fair

#ThisRemindsMeOf... 💔 I was just watching an episode of the TV series Blindspot earlier and Roman, one of my favourite characters was reading Didion‘s A Year of Magical Thinking (which apparently I do ‘t have). So this is as close to Didion‘s 💔 that I can get.

Joan Didion is an author I automatically lean towards when I'm looking for sad books. She writes about grief in a way that's so cathartic for the reader, and her writing itself is so poetic.

The unbearable wait at the doctor's office.

I like sad books and I cannot lie.

I forgot who on Litsy got me onto bookhub but here's a sale I was finally able to partake in. So I thought I'd share it.

Day 3: "Do not whine... Do not complain. Work harder. Spend more time alone."

September tbr/most anticipated! These are the books I'm #currentlyreading and plan to finish in Sept -- I'm going to try not setting a TBR for September to see how it goes 😄 My most anticipated is hopefully reading one or more of my 5 star tbr predictions, although I'm really loving these three so far.
#fallintobooks @RealLifeReading

Back at it again after a little break. Really hoping I can crack the hallway mark today! Update after this reading session! How y'all my with your marathoning? #24in48

A book on grief which somehow didn't touch me at all.

this book was my first didion, and i fell in love with it so quickly. i picked it up completely randomly, and i'm so glad i did. it's such a heartbreaking story, i couldn't put it down as soon as i started it.

#dusk #junebookbugs @RealLifeReading

I just finished re-reading this. I've read the criticism regarding hard-to-follow narration, lack of focus, etc. and I will admit those flaws. But as someone who's never really read Didion and so has nothing to compare this book to, I still enjoyed this book. I'm off to the library to get my hands on more Didion. Scribd has Slouching Towards Bethlehem 👍🏻, so I've already started that one.

As a mom, this book is captivating, heartbreaking, and unfathomable. Joan Didion's frank writing gets me every time. #booksaboutmothers #maybookflowers

I tried another Didion after reading TYOMT...and I feel so dissatisfied with it, that I'm not sure if I will continue her catalog. This was so name drop-py, disjointed and repetitive. This is an account of her daughters death after her husband's death and I wanted to feel all the sadness for her. But I couldn't. & then she calls an undocumented person an alien and she lost me. And I know this is an older book, but it added to my already dislike.

"Blue nights are the opposite of the dying of the brightness, but they are also its warning."
I love reading Joan Didion.

Didion has such a way with words! Beautiful companion piece to The Year of Magical Thinking. I couldn't put it down, but I wanted to savor every word she said.

The structure of this book wanders all over the place, but Didon's impeccable prose makes up for any deficiency. So it's wonderful. I mean, come on—anything Didion touches morphs into perfection. 😉

#NonfictionNovember