Collected Essays: Slouching Towards Bethlehem, The White Album, and After Henry
From the publisher: "Three essential works ... by 'one of our sharpest and most trustworthy cultural observers' (The New York Times). Slouching Towards Bethlehem: America in the 1960s—a pivotal era of social change and generational divide. Named to Time magazine’s list of the one hundred best and most influential nonfiction books, this is 'a rare display of some of the best prose written today in this country' (The New York Times Book Review). The White Album: A New York Times bestseller, this landmark essay collection confronts the dark aftermath of the 1960s. From a jailhouse visit to Huey Newton, cofounder of the Black Panther Party, to a recording session with The Doors, from the culture of shopping malls to the contradictions of the women's movement, Joan Didion captures the paranoia and absurdity of the era with irony and insight. After Henry: Whether reporting on a Hollywood murder or the 'sideshows' of foreign wars, Joan Didion crystalizes her reputation as a brilliant essayist."
More info →The Year of Magical Thinking
From the publisher: "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."
More info →Slouching Towards Bethlehem
From the publisher: "In twenty razor-sharp essays that redefined the art of journalism, Joan Didion reports on a society gripped by a deep generational divide, from the 'misplaced children' dropping acid in San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury district to Hollywood legend John Wayne filming his first picture after a bout with cancer. She paints indelible portraits of reclusive billionaire Howard Hughes and folk singer Joan Baez, 'a personality before she was entirely a person,' and takes readers on eye-opening journeys to Death Valley, Hawaii, and Las Vegas, 'the most extreme and allegorical of American settlements.' It is the definitive account of a terrifying and transformative decade in American history whose discordant reverberations continue to sound a half-century later." Whispersync narration read by Diane Keaton available.
More info →The White Album: Essays
From the publisher: "An extraordinary report on the aftermath of the 1960s in America by the New York Times–bestselling author of Slouching Towards Bethlehem. From a jailhouse visit to Black Panther Party cofounder Huey Newton to witnessing First Lady of California Nancy Reagan pretend to pick flowers for the benefit of news cameras, Didion captures the paranoia and absurdity of the era with her signature blend of irony and insight. She takes readers to the 'giddily splendid' Getty Museum in Los Angeles, the cool mountains of Bogotá, and the Jordanian Desert, where Bishop James Pike went to walk in Jesus's footsteps—and died not far from his rented Ford Cortina. She anatomizes the culture of shopping malls—'toy garden cities in which no one lives but everyone consumes'—and exposes the contradictions and compromises of the women's movement. In the iconic title essay, she documents her uneasy state of mind during the years leading up to and following the Manson murders—a terrifying crime that, in her memory, surprised no one. Its power to electrify and inform remains undiminished nearly forty years after it was first published."
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