Welcome to Litsy!

Finished 6 NONFICTION books in October. The tagged book was my favorite. I love biographies, especially when they are about fascinating people I didn‘t know anything about.

#2024ReadingBrackets

Well it‘s Saturday night. But these are my weekend reads. Currently reading Dissolution #10BeforeTheEnd,finished my section first Free Will,#adventuresinphilosophy #NFNovember,just started The Editor, #NFNovember

I didn‘t know much about legendary editor Judith Jones, but after reading this book I‘m intrigued by her life story. Over her long career at Alfred A. Knopf, she nurtured the fledgling works of Sylvia Plath, John Updike and Anne Tyler, and became the go-to editor for cookbook authors —including Julia Child. Along the way she dealt with gender discrimination in the workplace. She was a fascinating woman.

Reading about Oct. 6, 1948 on Oct. 6, 2024. It‘s always fun when these calendar coincidences align!

What does John Updike, Sylvia Path and Julia Child all have in common? Judith Jones! These authors and many more all worked with Judith on their books. “The Editor” is a wonderful look inside the publishing world and Judith Jones‘ amazing career in it. Highly recommend to any non-fiction readers who would like to peek behind the publishing curtain, especially those who enjoy cooking and poetry.

My Kindle went with me on my vacation to France and Switzerland. My friend teased me for reading while on the ferry with all this beautiful scenery. I can multitask! I did look around between pages. She said if anyone questions my dedication to books, I can show this picture.

Wow can Gottlieb gossip—& dish the book dirt on EVERYONE from Bill Clinton & Joseph Heller to prima ballerinas & Katharine Hepburn. All of which is to say this is mostly an entertaining book by someone who was at the center of the literary world for decades. By the end, however, Gottlieb‘s conviction he was always right, the name dropping, & constant commentary on peoples‘ appearances, drinking problems, mood swings & so on was a little tiresome.

My current nonfiction read offers a fascinating glimpse into the world of publishing from an editor who worked with some really big name authors—Joseph Heller, Chaim Potok and countless more. It‘s gossipy and fabulous and while I‘m sure it would be amazing and highly entertaining to meet Mr. Gottlieb, I‘m not entirely convinced I would like him...which probably means his memoir is well-written and, perhaps, more revealing than he realizes.

Today‘s #bookmail is curtesy of spending a little time exploring the publishing side of the book world. No particular reason, just curious. I saw this book mentioned a couple of times and it‘s easy to see why when you see some of the authors this editor has worked with—Toni Morrison, John Cheever, Doris Lessing, John Le Carré, Michael Crichton and Miss Piggy to name a few. I expect it to be a very interesting book.

I enjoyed this for the most part — Gottlieb‘s memoir focuses almost completely on his life and career in publishing and perhaps intentionally less on family. I liked his insights on authors (several may be more familiar to older readers like me) and books he worked with. Added a few to the TBR!