2009: #114 – The Year of Magical Thinking (Joan Didion)

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… »

2009: #84 – The Girl With the White Flag (Tomiko Higa)

New York Newsday called this memoir of a warhood childhood in Japan “one of the saddest and yet most uplifting books about childhood you will ever encounter.”

Separated from her family in the confusion and horror of World War II, seven-year-old Tomiko Higa struggles to survive on the battlefield of Okinawa, Japan. There, as some of… »

2009: #69 – The Intimate Adventures of a London Call Girl (Belle de Jour)

Belle de Jour is the nom de plume of a high-class call girl working in London. This is her story. From debating the literary merits of the works of Martin Amis with naked clients, entering a hotel with two whips strapped to the lining of her coat, and juggling her love-life with her professional one,… »