What are you reading?

[Kobi]

From one of America's iconic writers, a stunning book of electric honesty and passion. Joan Didion explores an intensely personal yet universal experience: a portrait of a marriage-and a life, in good times and bad-that will speak to anyone who has ever loved a husband or wife or child.

Several days before Christmas 2003, John Gregory Dunne and Joan Didion saw their only daughter, Quintana, fall ill with what seemed at first flu, then pneumonia, then complete septic shock. She was put into an induced coma and placed on life support.

Days later-the night before New Year's Eve-the Dunnes were just sitting down to dinner after visiting the hospital when John Gregory Dunne suffered a massive and fatal coronary.

In a second, this close, symbiotic partnership of forty years was over.

Four weeks later, their daughter pulled through. Two months after that, arriving at LAX, she collapsed and underwent six hours of brain surgery at UCLA Medical Center to relieve a massive hematoma.

This powerful book is Didion's attempt to make sense of the weeks and then months that cut loose any fixed idea I ever had about death, about illness . . . about marriage and children and memory . . . about the shallowness of sanity, about life itself.

[2qt]

Mind by Daniel J. Siegel


Neuroscience studies the brain. A full examination of what we mean by the term “mind” has traditionally been the province of philosophers but here Daniel Siegel explores what neuroscience can teach us about it-how the mind differs from consciousness and how we know who we really are. In Mind, Siegel, The New York Times best-selling author, brings his characteristic sensitivity and interdisciplinary background to this most perplexing of topics. He explores the nature of the who, how, what, why and when of your mind-of your self-from the perspective of neuroscience. Mind captures the essence of our true nature, our deepest sense of being alive, here, right now, in this moment. How science explains it is one of the most exciting journeys into knowledge we can take.

[dark_crystal]

I read this last Sunday and never wrote the review! Which is due today!



This is the catalog for an exhibition of the Bodleian library's Tolkien collection. The exhibited items include photos, letters, drawings, maps, notes, etc,

I do not know whether i am supposed to review the exhibition itself or the book about the exhibition

Or what the difference would be.

One thing i learned from this book is that the novels were kind of beside the point for Tolkien.

His main deal was inventing the language. After that he cared most about inventing the mythology. The novels seem like kind of an afterthought.

What i need to know now is whether this is emphasized as heavily in existing Tolkien biographies. I have pulled three out of the stacks, but this seems like a lot of research for a 175-word assignment

[Greco]

"The Shallows What the internet
is Doing to Our Brains"
by Nicholas Carr

Clarifying, Challenging


"The Undressed Art Why we
Draw" by Peter Steinhart

Good conversation with a writer who
draws...good one.

Greco

[homoe]

I've just started reading this heist thriller and yes the 1983 TV series was based on this book. The characters are well developed but total opposites of each. I hope Viola plays the role of Dolly.

Sidebar:Widows is soon to be made into a film directed by Steve McQueen (12 Years A Slave) from a screenplay by him and Gillian Flynn. The film will features an ensemble cast including Viola Davis. . 20th Century Fox will release the film around November of this year.

[Medusa]

I just finished "The Outsider" (the new Stephen King) and it was entertaining...Classic King but a good background listen while cleaning the house.

Also just wrapped "Barracoon: The Story of the Last Black Cargo" by Zora Neale Hurston. VERY good read.

I just downloaded a new audiobook and one for the Kindle since I have 2 going almost all the time.
The audiobook is "Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis"

And one for the Kindle: "Notorious RBG: The Life and Times of Ruth Bader Ginsburg"

[easygoingfemme]

I just finished The Great Alone. Wow... it was an all out binge read up all night finishing at sunrise on the back porch. Intense and so good and I totally have a book hangover from it. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B06Y5WRS2C...ng=UTF8&btkr=1

Alaska, 1974.
Unpredictable. Unforgiving. Untamed.
For a family in crisis, the ultimate test of survival.

Ernt Allbright, a former POW, comes home from the Vietnam war a changed and volatile man. When he loses yet another job, he makes an impulsive decision: he will move his family north, to Alaska, where they will live off the grid in America’s last true frontier.

Thirteen-year-old Leni, a girl coming of age in a tumultuous time, caught in the riptide of her parents’ passionate, stormy relationship, dares to hope that a new land will lead to a better future for her family. She is desperate for a place to belong. Her mother, Cora, will do anything and go anywhere for the man she loves, even if means following him into the unknown.

At first, Alaska seems to be the answer to their prayers. In a wild, remote corner of the state, they find a fiercely independent community of strong men and even stronger women. The long, sunlit days and the generosity of the locals make up for the Allbrights’ lack of preparation and dwindling resources.

But as winter approaches and darkness descends on Alaska, Ernt’s fragile mental state deteriorates and the family begins to fracture. Soon the perils outside pale in comparison to threats from within. In their small cabin, covered in snow, blanketed in eighteen hours of night, Leni and her mother learn the terrible truth: they are on their own. In the wild, there is no one to save them but themselves.

In this unforgettable portrait of human frailty and resilience, Kristin Hannah reveals the indomitable character of the modern American pioneer and the spirit of a vanishing Alaska—a place of incomparable beauty and danger. The Great Alone is a daring, beautiful, stay-up-all-night story about love and loss, the fight for survival, and the wildness that lives in both man and nature

[Medusa]

Originally Posted by Medusa

I just finished "The Outsider" (the new Stephen King) and it was entertaining...Classic King but a good background listen while cleaning the house.

Also just wrapped "Barracoon: The Story of the Last Black Cargo" by Zora Neale Hurston. VERY good read.

I just downloaded a new audiobook and one for the Kindle since I have 2 going almost all the time.
The audiobook is "Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis"

And one for the Kindle: "Notorious RBG: The Life and Times of Ruth Bader Ginsburg"

OMG! "Hillbilly Elegy" was so good!! Highly recommended! Tough to read in some parts but very familiar and on point.

I am making my way through "Notorious RBG" but just started "The Woman in the Window" by AJ Finn and it's very reminiscent of Alfred Hitchcock and film noir. Love it!