Magical Memoir Moments

Every Day Is All There Is: Defining a Good Day

By Shirley Showalter | October 30, 2014

Have you ever found yourself thinking about a subject and then discovered that lots of other people are doing the same? For me that topic is: what is a good day? Joan Didion’s words “Every day is all there is” came into my life via my daughter Kate’s business partner, Emily Levenson. She’s the one…

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Mentors, Mourning, and Memories: Introducing A New Guest Blogger

By Shirley Showalter | July 11, 2011

I’m a regular listener to The New York Times Book Review Podcast. Every week I look forward to Julie Bosman’s “Notes from the Field.” In her case the field is “publishing.” In our case the field is “memoir.” And our reporter is Kathleen Friesen. If you’ve been reading this blog regularly, you started seeing Kathleen’s comments…

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The Year of Magical Thinking: A Memoir to Read and Reread

By Shirley Showalter | August 9, 2009

When Joan Didion’s husband John Gregory Dunne dropped dead on December 30, 2003, he was in the middle of a speaking a sentence in their living room. She was mixing a salad for their dinner. As I write these words, Stuart and I are about to sit down to eat the dinner the two of…

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