Lauren's Most Recent Book Haul

I honestly can't remember the last time I threw together a book haul post, so that must mean it's been too long! Here's a few books I bought over the last couple of weeks. Some were on sale and a couple just caught my eye!

Utopia by Thomas More

The Lost City of Z by David Grann

The Miniaturist by Jessie Burton

Let Me Off at the Top! by Ron Burgundy

Life After Life by Kate Atkinson

A Good in Ruins by Kate Atkinson

The Luminaries by Elenor Catton

What's in your latest book haul?

Help Kimberly meet her Goodreads goal!

Okay fellow book lovers. I need your help. I need to read 16 books before the end of the year. I'm SEVEN books behind schedule!! How did that even happen? Okay, so I hit several reading slumps this year, that's how it happened. It's been a weird year.

What are some of your favorite quick reads? Novellas? Graphic novels? Tell me all about them!  Help me reach my goal of 100 books this year!

Lori Talks Non-Fiction November

Hi All.  I’m embarking on an experiment for the month of November.  Non-fiction November.  I saw it elsewhere and decided to adopt it.  Pretty self-explanatory—I’m just going to read non-fiction during the month.  It really kind of fits for me because I just don’t have a lot of reading time; so if I get into a novel, I read a bit then lose the story.

A few books on my list for the month—

1.     My Life on the Road by Gloria Steinem.  I’ve been reading this one on and off for a while, but I am finally going to finish.  She is super inspiring and really interesting.  It’s made me care a lot more than I have in a while.  This one is also really special because I got an autographed copy sent to me by a friend who organized an event with Steinem.  What a lovely lady!

2.     Memoirs of a Dutiful Daughter by Simone deBeauvoir.  A week ago, one of my good friends said that she thought she totally could have fit in during the grunge era.  My response was that I would totally fit in during the postwar French existentialism era.  Then I took a Facebook quiz about what literary era I would fit into.  It said French existentialism.  And we all know that Facebook personality quizzes are infallible.  So I decided to pick up this book by the Queen of French Existentialism.  Yay for two-day shipping.  I’ve already started and I am so beyond excited.  Now that I’m done with my big appellate brief and almost done with my mock bench trial, I can sit down and ignore school for a bit.  The intro said this one would make you think, make you feel, and make you want to read and write more.  I’m down.

3.     Talking as Fast as I Can by Lauren Graham.  OK, this doesn’t come out until the end of the month, but I think I can maybe manage to make a good dent in it by the end of the month.  I am excited to hear what Lauren Graham has to say about life and Gilmore Girls before and after.  She is such a smart and funny person.  I loved her novel that came out a few years ago, so I can’t wait to hear her thoughts on other things.  Also—perfect timing with the revival coming out on the 25^th.

I haven’t finished three books in one month since this summer (oh, the days of not having anything going on--how I miss them!).  So we’ll see what actually happens.  But it’s always fun to plan…

What Lori Has Been Reading This Week

With school being out of session this summer, my reading has been on fire.  I've read a ton of great books in the past few months and I'm disappointed that the break is coming to an end.  But I'm hopeful that my reading will continue.

This week I started The Engagements by J. Courtney Sullivan.  I'm really enjoying it so far.  My favorite characters are Delphine, the French woman whose relationship is in a shambles, and Kate, the one who refuses to marry her longtime partner.  Those two characters are, thus far, the most interesting and complex.  This one has been on my radar since before it came out in 2013, so I'm very glad to finally be getting to it.

Since it's almost time for back to school, I've been thinking about clothes a lot.  I've been consulting a couple of my favorite clothing books so I can make sure I've got what I truly need.  A while back, I decided to pare down my wardrobe and also primarily focus on wearing black, white, and gray.  I can get dressed so much more quickly because I don't have to think when I get dressed.  I recently decided to add navy blue to the mix as neutrals.  In my opinion, How to Be Parisian Wherever You Are, by Anne Berest, Audrey Diwan, Caroline de Maigret, and Sophie Mas, and Lessons from Madame Chic, by Jennifer L. Scott, are two of the best (though they both cover WAY more than just what to buy).  They both cause me to focus on what I want and need to round out my closet, which makes shopping infinitely easier.  I still look at all the wares because something else might catch my eye, but I'm not in a frenzied state, buying a ton of items I really can't afford.

I've also been in an organizing mood lately.  I haven't actually done a whole lot of organizing, but I've been thinking about it.  This means that I'll probably be pulling out one of my favorite lifestyle guides, Maria Menounos's The EveryGirl's Guide to Life.  This one covers a lot of areas to be organized, like your home and your office.  I usually wind up consulting it before the start of every school year, when I'm still hopeful that my life won't be a hot mess.  I keep meaning to read The Art of Getting Things Done, but I just freeze every time I start.  Maybe I need to find a digest version.

I have a few things incoming that I'm looking forward to--Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi, Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, and Siracusa by Delia Ephron.  Homegoing is one that I've been hearing a lot about recently.  I've heard that the novel brings you from Africa through the antebellum South and into the Harlem Renaissance, which I think is really interesting.  I love lengthy sagas.  Americanah is one that I've bought before, but I can't remember whether I donated it or if it's still at my parents' house.  So I went ahead and ordered a new copy.  If my old copy shows up, I'll pass it along to a friend.  And Siracusa is the Book of the Month that I selected.  I know nothing about it other than what is written on the Book of the Month Club website.  I loved Nora Ephron, but have never read anything by her sister, Delia, so I want to give it a try.  I've heard that it has some mixed reviews, so we'll see.  I'm hoping to finish The Engagements by the time it arrives.

What have you been reading lately?

What I've Been Reading Lately

I just started law school.  My free time is fairly non-existent, which means that my time spent reading is even more non-existent.  I never in a million years thought that, on the rare occasions I do get to read, I'd turn to non-fiction.  Yet, here I am.

Beyond that, most of my reading has been focused on how to manage my life.  I have far less time than I used to for things.  I'm in the position of choosing very carefully how I spend my time because I have so little time for everything that's not law school.  But there are so many things I'm wanting to get into my day--exercise, leisure reading, cooking, and other activities that I enjoy.  So I've been reading and rereading a lot of books about time management and changing the way I think about and approach problems.

Two of my recent selections include...

SkinnyGirl Solutions by Bethenny Frankel  I've flipped through this one a few times since it came out.  It covers a great variety of things--health, daily life, and career.  One of the things I love about Frankel is her conversational, completely honest approach.  I feel like I'm having a drink or two with a girlfriend (sidenote, I initially typed "having a drunk"; clearly we know where my mind is!).  I also like how Bethenny talks about the struggle to achieve work-life balance.  I am definitely feeling that right now!  I love how she emphasizes health and taking care of yourself as an integral part of doing 84,000 other things.  If you aren't healthy, you can't do anything else.  This is something I definitely need to work on.

EveryGirl's Guide to Life by Maria Menounos  This one also covers the gamut.  I love how Menounos is very much a self-made woman.  I love the amount of space in the book that she uses to discuss organization--and on a budget at that!  She also talks a lot about being a one-woman business, which I kind of feel like I am right now.  She tackles style, emotional relationships, and health as well.  She has a follow-up book on weightloss.  Her approach to weightloss (but really, also everything else) is very down to earth and totally affordable.  She literally is the EveryGirl.

Here are two I'm about to pick up...

Big Magic by Liz Gilbert  I pre-ordered this one and am so excited to pick it up!  It deals with creativity, yes, but I thought it might have some interesting applications with legal thinking.  If not, oh well.  But I really think it will help me get in the habit of thinking outside the box and help me develop the artistry that really can be the legal profession.  The books discusses attitudes, approaches, and habits that foster creativity.  I really enjoy Gilbert's writing, so I definitely look forward to reading this one.

Getting Things Done by David Allen  I remember several people raving about this one in the not too distant past.  Like I already mentioned, I have a lot going on that I must do and a lot that I would like to add in.  I've been feeling like I've had a time management problem.  I ordered the book immediately.  Can't wait until it gets here.  I did some more research on the system this afternoon and I think it will really help.  It's supposed to help you organize your thoughts and to-do list and help you make the most of your time.  I listened to a TED Talk by Allen today that, I think, kind of previewed some of his philosophy and it was fantastic.  I took notes.

Now I just need to decide which book to read first!

WHAT LIFE ORGANIZATION BOOKS DO YOU RECOMMEND?

Lori Reviews WILD by Cheryl Strayed

Title:  Wild:  From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail

Author:  Cheryl Strayed

Publication Information:  2012 by Knopf

How I Got This Book:  I purchased a copy online.


Goodreads Synopsis:  At twenty-two, Cheryl Strayed thought she had lost everything. In the wake of her mother’s death, her family scattered and her own marriage was soon destroyed. Four years later, with nothing more to lose, she made the most impulsive decision of her life. With no experience or training, driven only by blind will, she would hike more than a thousand miles of the Pacific Crest Trail from the Mojave Desert through California and Oregon to Washington State — and she would do it alone.

My Thoughts:  I loved this book.  Go read it.  :)

Oh, you want more than that?  OK, fine...

A lot has been said about the risks Strayed took in hiking the trail alone, without any sort of training ahead of time, and without much of a clue as to what to expect.  OK, yes.  Probably not the best idea in the world.  But I looked past all of that towards the personal journey she was on.

The first part of the book details Strayed's past and how she got to the point of hiking the trail.  She had an unusual childhood in a very primitive house.  Her mom got sick and it destroyed her and her family.  She went down a negative path, filled with drugs and lots of promiscuous sex, which led to the breakup of her marriage.

She decides to hike the Pacific Crest Trail as a way to finding a path to redemption.

She learns a lot about herself along the way.

I've had a year filled with a lot of change and a lot of grief--quitting a job, moving, caring for my grandfather while he was in the hospital, and then losing him.  There were tons of moments along the way where I wanted to just run away and do something so physically taxing that I could leave behind all of the emotions.  Like Strayed, I wanted to be so consumed with the very act of making it through the day that I couldn't focus on what was going on in my regular life.  Reading about Strayed's own journey helped me process a lot of things.

I loved how open and honest and raw her writing was.  She let it all out there, warts and all.  She spoke in a voice I was able to relate to, though I have not had the same struggles or experiences she has had.

Aside from the personal, inner journey, I loved reading about the outer journey of hiking that kind of distance.  I really enjoyed reading Bill Bryson's journey through the Appalachian Trail in A Walk in the Woods.  It appealed to my inner travel bug.  So much so that I told my mom that I want to go on a major hiking trip at some point.  And so much so that I am hitting a local trail this afternoon.

Bottom line--for my this book was appealing on more than one level and I would highly recommend it to people interested in the physical adventure and to people interested in the inner journey.  Not a "fun" read (in the sense of light), but definitely a good read that will make you think.

Lori's Favorites of This Year

Technically, I was supposed to organize a Cocktail and Conversation post for today, but those posts always sneak up on me, so it didn't get done.  I also didn't get my post written for last week because, among other things, I spent over two hours on the phone dealing with insurance, then got called into work on my day off.  So I decided to go ahead and do my post today because I really liked my post that I was mentally composing whilst on the phone (because who really wants to pay attention while they are dealing with insurance stuff?).

With the end of the year looming before us, I've begun thinking about what I've read this year and what I really liked.  I didn't read a ton this year, I never do.  But I feel like I read a pretty good variety for me.  As a result, I am kind of surprised by the books that are quickly becoming solidified as my favorites for this year.  I usually read mostly fiction.  I'll usually read a couple of non-fiction books for fun, which I enjoy, but don't usually totally knock my socks off.  So, imagine my surprise when--as I am reflecting on my favorite books of the year--I realize that my favorite reads this year are non-fiction.  Naturally, I am not stopping reading for the remainder of the year, but I feel pretty comfortable in naming these as my favorite reads of the year.

Judging a Book by Its Lover by Lauren Leto  This one came in a BookRiot Quarterly box earlier this year.  When I first read the description on the back, it didn't really sound like me, so it kind of hung out on my bookshelves for a while.  One afternoon or evening I wound up grabbing it and flipping it open.  I finished the next day.  Leto's book is full of a lot of really interesting and short essays or pieces about reading and not taking reading too seriously.  It has a very long list of what your favorite author says about you.  It has a long chapter on how to fake reading certain authors, which really turns out to be a great reading pathway if you choose to actually read some of Dostoevsky's works (to name one author).  I had a lot of fun reading this book.  It really helped me chill out and decide to not pressure myself so, so much with my reading.  I read for fun.  So isn't stressing out over what I'm reading totally defeating the point?  It is, it is.

Thus ends the books I've actually finished.  The remaining ones on my list are all in progress.  I think I'll finish two of them by the end of the year.  One, however, is perfect for stringing out for a while.

My Salinger Year by Joanna Rakoff  I'm at the halfway point with this one.  It was a quick read for me up to that point.  I would have made more progress, actually, if I hadn't stopped for watch an episode of NCIS with my parents (it's our family time).  I am loving reading about the publishing industry during the late 1990s.  Rakoff is extremely relatable to me.  She faces a lot of issues that I faced and still face today, like the part when she realized that her friend who had always written poetry had let that dream die and how that affected their friendship dynamic (basically--people change).  I can't wait to see what happens next.  It's an unputdownable memoir.  Love it!

Ten Years in the Tub by Nick Hornby  Beginning in the early 2000s, Hornby (author of High Fidelity and About a Boy) began writing a monthly column for Believer magazine.  He continued writing this column for ten years.  This volume collects all of his articles.  Each month begins with Books Bought and Books Read, then he discusses what happened and offers up impressions of his reading.  He also offers up a lot of wisdom about his reading life in the process.  For instance, he muses that the books we buy probably say more about us than the books we actually read because the books we buy illuminate who/what we aspire to be, whereas we read books for a variety of reasons that are sometimes have less to do with us than outside forces.  He also shows that you can do a whole lot of reading while still having outside interests (for him it's soccer and music) and that it's OK if sometimes those outside interests overshadow our reading for a while.  This was another that made me realize that reading doesn't have to be a super serious venture.

The Year of Reading Dangerously by Andy Miller  I impulse bought this one a couple of days ago, when it was released.  Except I had to buy an e copy because none of the stores near me had any physical copies in stock.  It's fine, but I would have preferred the ability to underline and mark pages for future use.  Anyway, Miller decides that he's dissatisfied with his reading life, so he decides to organize it a bit more.  He starts with a list of ten classics that he's really kind of ashamed that he hasn't read yet and vows to start reading them.  The list ultimately grows to fifty books.  He works his way through each novel.  The book he writes details his journey through the list, what happens to him along the way, how the novels make him feel and how they impact his life, etc.  It's not a ton of literary criticism or a book review of each novel, which I really like.  Though, reader beware, there are spoilers to the plots of these books.  So far for me this hasn't been too big of a problem, but once he gets to reading novels I really want to read but haven't yet read, I'll probably wind up skipping those bits.  This one is a bit more serious because it explores the importance of literature and reading, but I think it's ultimately about pleasure and one man's way of making his reading journey pleasurable to him.

I find it interesting that all of the books that are going down as my favorites for the year are non-fiction books about reading.  But I like it.  These books have given me a lot to think about with my reading and have given me some ideas for how to go forward.  I also find it interesting that all of them are ones I only picked up in the last month.  I could have just as well skipped the first ten months of the year.  :)

I'm still really excited about all of the reading I have left for the year.  In addition to finishing the Rakoff and Miller and making more progress on the Hornby, I am working on I Am Charlotte Simmons by Tom Wolfe, tentatively starting Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte, and making some plans for my upcoming reading goals and ventures.  Plus, there absolutely must be a reread of David Sedaris's Holidays on Ice.  It's a must for this time of year.

What have been your surprise favorites of the year?

Lori's (Midway) Review of Not That Kind of Girl by Lena Dunham

Title:  Not That Kind of Girl:  A Young Woman Tells You What She's "Learned"

Author:  Lena Dunham

Publication Information:  October 2014 by Random House

How I Got a Copy of This Book:  I pre-ordered an ebook copy...then I had to buy a hard copy because of reasons.



Goodreads Synopsis:  "There is nothing gutsier to me than a person announcing that their story is one that deserves to be told," writes Lena Dunham, and it certainly takes guts to share the stories that make up her first book, Not That Kind of Girl. These are stories about getting your butt touched by your boss, about friendship and dieting (kind of) and having two existential crises before the age of 20. Stories about travel, both successful and less so, and about having the kind of sex where you feel like keeping your sneakers on in case you have to run away during the act. Stories about proving yourself to a room of 50-year-old men in Hollywood and showing up to "an outlandishly high-fashion event with the crustiest red nose you ever saw." Fearless, smart, and as heartbreakingly honest as ever, Not That Kind of Girl establishes Lena Dunham as more than a hugely talented director, actress and producer-it announces her as a fresh and vibrant new literary voice.

My Thoughts:  Full disclosure--I'm not done with this book yet.  But I needed to write something so that I could spread the word.  Unless you've been living under a rock, I'm sure you've heard about this book of personal essays.  There have been a lot of great things written about it and there have been some pretty bad things written about (in my opinion, these things have been said by people who have no stinking clue what it's like to be a female in their mid-20s in the 21st century so really ought to stop speaking...anyway! moving on!).

The book is broken into five sections--Love & Sex, Body, Friendship, Work, and Big Picture.  I've read the first two sections and part of the third.  Dunham writes so intelligently on these topics because duh! she's lived them.  She shares her experiences and infuses them with humor.  She constantly makes me exclaim "Oh my goodness! My tooooooo!"  I've seen a number of friends or people I follow on Twitter comment on how her stories are their stories.  It's great to see someone to whom you can relate so closely.

The book reads like a no holds barred conversation with one of your best friends.  With alcohol that magically doesn't give you a hangover.  I don't know what exactly that means, but it sounds like the right thing to say.

Dunham's writing has made me feel more comfortable in my own skin, which makes the book priceless in my opinion.  I really like the way this book fits into the current conversations about feminism and what it means to be a female in the twenty-first century, a la Caitlin Moran (another book of essays I can't wait to sink my teeth into!).

I would highly recommend this book.  But, I must admit, it's not exactly for the faint of heart.  So if you aren't up for a frank conversation about love & sex and the female body, better hold off (but really work hard at trying to become ready for that conversation because this book is just too great to miss!).

I'll definitely be back with full thoughts once I finish the book.

Top Ten Tuesday Rewind!

To learn more about Top Ten Tuesday or see a list of future topics click here! This week is a Rewind so Kimberly and I decided to just do a Freebie and talk about dead authors and characters we wish had Twitter accounts!

Which authors/characters would you love to have a Twitter account?

Lori says:

1.  Dorothy Parker--I think she would totally rock Twitter with all of her fabulous one-liners and quippy remarks.  Parker embodied the phrase "brevity is the soul of wit."  She knew how to turn a phrase.  She had an interesting outlook on life and I think would have been very interesting to follow...kind of in the gallows humor kind of way.

2.  Ernest Hemingway--His wry observations on life and a record of his travels to bullfights and safaris in Africa would be super interesting to read.  I could totally see him saying something abrasive and controversial and getting embroiled in a major storm.  And it would be great.

3.  Hunter S. Thompson--His tweets would probably be a bit convoluted on account of the drugs, but I think that they would be very interesting.  Especially when I think about live-tweeting Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.  He was a great commentator on events in America during a time of great social change and I think that seeing his unedited opinions on things would have made for some great reading.

4.  Holly Golightly--I don't know that she'd be the best at Twitter--I could see her updating every now and then--but I think her tweets would be interesting.  I think that Holly lived a difficult, but interesting life with all of those parties and adventures.  I admire her ability and willingness to just pick up and leave whenever the room got a little hostile.

5.  Oscar Wilde--I haven't read much by Wilde, but he's another one who made these great, wry comments about life and people, so I think he would be worth following.  I think he would have a lot to say about culture, art, and food--which would make him rather versatile.

Kimberly says:

  

1. C.S. Lewis- I'm watching the second Chronicles of Narnia as I type this... I love his little bits of inspiration that are sprinkled throughout his novels, I feel like seeing tweets from him in my twitter feed would make me smile on a daily basis.

2. Cress (The Lunar Chronicles)- Cress is hilarious. And spastic. I want to see what she'd tweet. I think I'd spend most my time laughing. 

3. Hazel Grace (The Fault in Our Stars)- Well, from what I've heard and kinda seen, she's Tumblr in the form of a girl. So imagine what her twitter account would look like? I think it would be a mix of humor, and wry observations of life. (Probably something similar to John Green's twitter)

4. A (every day)- Just imagine the insight we'd have to A's life! And the diverse type of tweets we'd see! Actually, I think I heard a rumor that there was a twitter account for A... I should check on that. 

5. J. R. R. Tolkien- Now, he might have had a difficult time sticking to the character limit, but I feel like seeing tweets from him would have made my day.

Running Like a Girl

I want to run.  For fun.  For exercise.  For me.  I used to run all the time when I played soccer because that's part of the game.  I never really got into running long distances around the track as training in the off-season, like so many of my friend did, but that didn't mean I wasn't jealous.  Fast forward nearly ten years, two undergraduate degrees and one, almost two, masters degrees, and I would kill to be running as a way of losing the grad school weight.

I mean, really, I would love myself a lot more if I were doing ANYTHING to be losing the grad school weight.

So I search the best way I know how--books.  I read books upon books about losing weight.  Both sides of it--how to stop eating a ton of shit and how to get off my ass.

I've found books on clean eating, on eating healthy on a budget--both financial budget and time budget, on skinny Italian food, on eating six meals a day to lose weight--even when you aren't hungry.  I've read books on being a vegan--but I love bacon and steak and chicken too much.  I've read books on how to be a yogi--both from the diet and the exercise standpoint.  But I've never read a book on running.

I love yoga, but I think that yoga is more of a "me" thing--I do it (or, rather, want to do it--let's be honest, I'm not DOING much of anything lately) because it makes me feel good.  So I need and want to find something else to shed the pounds (a dear friend of mine runs to lose weight and does Zumba to feel good).  I like that philosophy.  This way yoga won't become my make it or break it thing.  It will be my calming down thing.

This post had some bookish point...

I recently found Running Like a Girl:  Notes on Learning to Run by Alexandra Heminsley, which is part memoir and part guide.  Heminsley shares with readers her journey to become a runner from being not a runner in her 30s, then she creates the guide that she wished she had had when she first started out.

Confession--I've only just started reading it, so I can't review it yet.  But I wanted to call everyone's attention to the book in case, like me, you are wanting to soak up the nice fall weather and start running before it becomes all icky and winter-y.  You can totally expect a review and a status report next month.

Do any of you have any good guides for getting started running?

Lori Reviews Pain Parties, Work

Title: Pain, Parties, Work:  Sylvia Plath in New York, Summer 1953

Author:  Elizabeth Winder

Published:  HarperCollins, 2013

Where I Got It:  I received this book from the publishers.

I really like Sylvia Plath.  I love her poetry--it's so honest and real.  Even more than that, I love reading her journals.  In her journals, she sounds like any other young college girl.  Her concerns are/were my concerns--boys, school, clothes, and her appearance.  Yet, you most often hear about Sylvia Plath the depressed artist.  While she was this, she also had bouts of normalcy that masked the pain.

That's what Elizabeth Winder seeks to explore in her study of the month that Plath was a guest editor at Mademoiselle magazine in New York.  Winder walks the reader through the entire process, day-by-day--what Sylvia did and saw each day of the experience.  Plath went into the month extremely excited to become a posh New Yorker.  She spent a good amount of her money on buying just the right clothes.  These clothes would be sophisticated without trying too hard to make her fit in.  She was ready and excited to see the culture of the city.  Yet this summer wound up being the summer Sylvia wrote so truthfully about in The Bell Jar.

Winder uses excerpts from Plath's letters and journal, as well as interviews from her fellow editors.  All of these portray Plath as a young woman who believed that females could be both smart and beautiful.  She was determined to be both.  She was not the pained artist who cared nothing about appearance.  She cared very much about the things that most 20 year old young women care about.  Still, she was quite disappointed and disillusioned by the experience of being a guest editor.

I really enjoyed reading this book.  I think that the author did a fantastic job of pulling together various sources to write a detailed description of Sylvia's month in New York.  I really like the organization of the narrative--Winder covers the first week before covering Plath's life before the guest editor position, the carries through to the aftermath of the month in New York.  She uses a lot of quotations from Sylvia's fellow editors, most of whom could not imagine that Sylvia's life would turn out as it did.  Why?  Because she seemed so much like them.  I like the extra features that Winder includes in the book, such as the text boxes that cover in more detail an aspect of Plath's life, such as talking about Plath's love of paper dolls as evidence of her love of fashion, or the chapter entitled "A Dictionary of Adolescence," which defines some important parts of Sylvia's life.

All in all, I think that this is a great book for anyone who is interested in learning more about Sylvia Plath or for anyone who really enjoys The Bell Jar.

Lori Reviews Reading Jackie: Her Autobiography in Books

Title: Reading Jackie:  Her Autobiography in Books

Author: William Kuhn

Published: Anchor, 2011 (paperback edition)

Where I Got It:  My wonderful Secret Santa, Kimberly, sent it to me.

 

I am a huge admirer of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis.  I think that she embodied so much of the grace and charm that I always seek to cultivate in my own life.  She had a varied set of interests that included art, ballet, reading, fashion, decorating, and even pop culture.  All of these are interests of mine as well, which, I think, is why I feel such an affinity towards her.  I first saw press on this book back in 2010 before it was originally published.  I really wanted a copy because I thought the biography was extremely interesting, but just never bought it.  So I was elated when it showed up in my Secret Santa package in December.  I started in on it immediately and finished in a few days, underlining, taking notes, and dog-earing pages throughout.

So...about the book...

Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis was a notoriously private person, who really resented the spotlight's glare on her personal life.  She rarely gave interviews.  She did not write her memoirs.  She even put a ban on her letters and papers being published after her death.  But through the projects she was involved with as an editor at Viking, then Doubleday, she left some clues about herself.  William Kuhn looks at these clues and tells a story about her based on these books and projects and what others have said about Jackie.  During her tenure as an editor, Jackie was involved with upwards of 100 books that speak to her various interests and opinions.

The book opens with a wonderful testament to Jackie's love of reading and books.  From there, Kuhn breaks the biography into several topical chapters--such as a chapter about relationships and a chapter about beauty.  All the while, Kuhn weaves together a narrative that tells the story of the book's publication process and what it meant to Jackie--the chapter on relationships includes a book about Sally Hemings (Thomas Jefferson's mistress) and the chapter about beauty includes a book with pictures of Marilyn Monroe.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book.  I learned a lot about Jackie Kennedy while reading it.  I added a long list of books, authors, and topics to investigate to my already long list.  Though maybe some of the connections that the author draws are specious (there's not a whole lot of definitive evidence that she chose to support this book or that book because of a personal connection, in my opinion) there are a lot of coincidences that I think lead the reader to accept these claims as plausible.  It is a book that I will definitely look at again in the future, having quickly become a person favorite.  Another thing that this book did for me was it reignited an old dream of working in publishing, especially as a book editor, so it's given me a career path that I want to work towards.

I would highly recommend this book to people who are interested in Jackie Kennedy or to people who are interested in the concept of how books tell the story of a person.  It's also just a great bookish read.