Notes & links: 'Where I Was From' by Joan Didion

Sacramento River. Photo by Richard via Pixabay.

Thank you to everyone who joined todays' conversation about Where I Was From: A Memoir by Joan Didion, concluding our summer-long dive into California history.

A few links and notes for exploration:

• Joan Didion: The Center Will Not Hold (documentary)

• Joan Didion, 1971 (YouTube video)

• History of "Old Sacramento"

• Joan Didion's many books

• Elif Shafak, an author whose work the group has read previously, was recently interviewed by The Guardian: "As a writer in Turkey, you can be attacked, put on trial, imprisoned"

Our September Book

Next month, we turn to War of Shadows: Codebreakers, Spies, and the Secret Struggle to Drive the Nazis from the Middle East by Gershom Gorenberg 

About the Book:

"As World War II raged in North Africa, General Erwin Rommel was guided by an uncanny sense of his enemies' plans and weaknesses. In the summer of 1942, he led his Axis army swiftly and terrifyingly toward Alexandria, with the goal of overrunning the entire Middle East. Each step was informed by detailed updates on British positions. The Nazis, somehow, had a source for the Allies' greatest secrets. Yet the Axis powers were not the only ones with intelligence. . . . On the brink of disaster, a fevered and high-stakes search for the source began. War of Shadows is the cinematic story of the race for information in the North African theater of World War II, set against intrigues that spanned the Middle East." (more)

Discussion Details:

Sunday, September 15, 2024

11:15 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.

Books Inc. Opera Plaza, 601 Van Ness, San Francisco

The book is in stock at Books Inc.!