Home Feed
Home
Search
Search
Add Review, Blurb, Quote
Add
Activity
Activity
Profile
Profile
Slouching Towards Bethlehem
Slouching Towards Bethlehem | Joan Didion
Universally acclaimed when it was first published in 1968, Slouching Towards Bethlehem has become a modern classic. More than any other book of its time, this collection captures the mood of 1960s America, especially the center of its counterculture, California. These essays, keynoted by an extraordinary report on San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury, all reflect that, in one way or another, things are falling apart, "the center cannot hold." An incisive look at contemporary American life, Slouching Towards Bethlehem has been admired for several decades as a stylistic masterpiece.Contents:I. LIFE STYLES IN THE GOLDEN LAND Some Dreamers of the Golden DreamJohn Wayne: A Love SongWhere the Kissing Never StopsComrade Laski, C.P.U.S.A. (M.-L.)7000 Romaine, Los Angeles 38California DreamingMarrying AbsurdSlouching Towards BethlehemII. PERSONALSOn Keeping a NotebookOn Self-RespectI Can't Get That Monster out of My MindOn MoralityOn Going HomeIII. SEVEN PLACES OF THE MINDNotes from a Native DaughterLetter from Paradise, 21 19' N., 157 52' WRock of AgesThe Seacoast of DespairGuaymas, SonoraLos Angeles NotebookGoodbye to All That
Amazon Indiebound Barnes and Noble WorldCat Goodreads LibraryThing
Pick icon
100%
blurb
Eggs
post image

“Character — the willingness to accept responsibility for one‘s own life — is the source from which self-respect springs.”

One of my favorite books from Joan Didion

#Essays
#SchoolSpirit

@Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks

lil1inblue I just adore Joan's writing. 😍 2mo
Eggs @lil1inblue It‘s like sailing into another world. (edited) 2mo
See All 6 Comments
Sparklemn Her essay on self respect is my favorite. 🙂 2mo
Eggs @Sparklemn 🙌🏻🙌🏻 2mo
46 likes2 stack adds6 comments
blurb
Therewillbebooks
post image

This week we're reviewing the latest Ripley adaptation, and discussing two essays from prominent 20th century writers. We begin by discussing a short bookish essay by Christopher Hitchens and then review Joan Didion's essay on John Wayne. And lastly, we heap all kinds of praise on the Ripley series debuting on Netflix. Fun episode for everybody. Enjoy!

https://open.spotify.com/episode/3kvnE6tTbuj6YNRkk8E0s1

blurb
IndoorDame
post image

#weirdwords #weirdwordwednesday @CBee

I was so excited when I stumbled across this word! Especially in this context! There was a stint of my childhood when I was raised by what I lazily and somewhat jokingly refer to as “the hippie parents” because I never had anything better to call them, but it was actually a congeries of families.

Suet624 Considering I‘m a hippie parent, I think my family scene would have fit this definition as well. 9mo
IndoorDame @Suet624 I‘m all for it! That was definitely my favorite part of childhood! 9mo
ShyBookOwl Interesting! 9mo
See All 6 Comments
CBee Sounds cool to me 😊 9mo
TheBookHippie ♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️ 9mo
dabbe 💜🩶💜 9mo
59 likes1 stack add6 comments
review
IndoorDame
post image
Pickpick

My first #bookspin of the year is Didion‘s first nonfiction essay collection. In the preface she describes her mindset when writing the title piece: “It was the first time I had dealt directly and flatly with the evidence of atomization, the proof that things fall apart.” Most of the pieces here were published elsewhere first but selected by Didion for this because in her mind they relate to that. I found looking for those connections fascinating.

TheAromaofBooks Oh what a fun small edition!! 10mo
IndoorDame @TheAromaofBooks I just love the Picador Modern Classics line! This is my second. 10mo
See All 6 Comments
Andrew65 Excellent 👏👏👏 10mo
batsy That is a very cool edition! 10mo
IndoorDame @batsy thanks! There are 2 from their more colorful series 1 designs in the same small format that are on my wishlist this year. 10mo
62 likes1 stack add6 comments
quote
IndoorDame
post image

THIS BOOK IS CALLED Slouching Towards Bethlehem because for several years now certain lines from the Yeats poem which appears two pages back have reverberated in my inner ear as if they were surgically implanted there. #firstlinefridays @ShyBookOwl

I think this really starts in Didion‘s preface, not her first essay, so this is the first line of that.

blurb
mrp27
post image

April #WrapUp

Another great reading month. Best of the month were Lessons in Chemistry and Slouching Towards Bethlehem and of course By the Shores of Silver lake is a favorite.

review
DavidDiamond
post image
Panpan

More like Slogging Towards Bethlehem.
I would have DNF'd this book but I got Reading Goals to achieve and this was a relatively short book.
A wildly pretentious and dull one at that.
#NotForMe

review
Sparklemn
post image
Pickpick

This book aged better than I expected. Most of the stories are rather grim yet I didn't feel grim after I finished. Lots of imagery included of dry California cities bordering on deserts. This picture seemed apt. 🔥

📸 Stock photo

blurb
charl08
post image

Feels like dropping into the 1960s. Fascinating essays so far.

44 likes1 stack add
review
Mdion1993
post image
Pickpick

A collection of essays and reflections on American life in the 1960s.

Counter Culture ✨ Nostalgic ✨ California

8 likes1 stack add
review
Ephemera
post image
Pickpick

This book is a collection of articles written by Joan Didion during the 1960s. Being a Boomer, I could relate to a lot of her observations and anyone born after 1980 can read this book and get a good sense of what life in the US was like during those years. The writing is excellent, I can‘t say that enough. Didion had a wonderful style and incisiveness about her writing. Her voice was wholly her own. Five stars.

8 likes1 stack add
review
Megabooks
post image
Pickpick

Another winner from @vivastory ‘s #NYWD22 list! Is there anyone more quintessentially California than Didion? In these, she mostly reflects on her state and the people in it. I loved her essay about Alcatraz. The ones about John Wayne and Sacramento are excellent, too. The longer title essay about the hippie movement in the Haight was interesting. 5 year olds on acid at “high kindergarten.” Wtf hippies? Keaton is the perfect narrator for this.

vivastory I'm so glad this worked for you! Of the 3 books I've read by Didion, this is by far my favorite. I appreciated her willingness to portray the shortcomings of the counterculture. That would have been really unpopular at the time. 2y
Kimberlone One of my favorite books! How is the narration? Diane Keaton seems like a perfect choice. 2y
Megabooks @vivastory that‘s true. My boomer family was so anti-hippie that sometimes I forget how other people felt at the time. Even my mom, who is my liberal parent, was very anti-hippie. I still don‘t understand their one-sided beef with Joan Baez. 🤷🏻‍♀️🤦🏻‍♀️ Anyway I enjoyed this a lot more than 2y
See All 9 Comments
Megabooks @Kimberlone she really was the perfect narrator! 2y
Cinfhen I haven‘t read any Didion 🫣 yet!! Maybe I‘ll start with this one 2y
Vansa Her claim about "high kindergarten" has always seemed a bit absurd to me.I think she's a great writer but her politics make me a bit uncomfortable.There's a strange essay in the tagged book where she weirdly romanticises the Confederate flag-it wouldn't hold any resonances for her so her attitude seems to be to not bother if it does for others. 2y
Megabooks @Cinfhen I‘d definitely recommend this one over The White Album, but they‘re the only two I‘ve read. 2y
Megabooks @Vansa I can see what you‘re saying about the confederate flag, and although I haven‘t read the essay, it was extremely mainstream, even among liberal folks, to romanticize it in the 1980s when I was a kid. I mean I sang Stephen Collins Foster every day of my childhood and sat Indian style at school. That wouldn‘t be tolerated now from teachers, even in my large KY town. 2y
Megabooks @Vansa and I can believe high kindergarten may be apocryphal, but what writer doesn‘t have agenda and prejudices. I appreciate you discussing hers with me. 2y
78 likes2 stack adds9 comments
blurb
Ast_Arslan
post image
Eggs Well said! 3y
45 likes1 comment
review
WellReadCatLady
post image
Pickpick

Loved the personal essays and about the different places she had visited or lived in.

review
ARTDJG
post image
Pickpick

📖

review
peacegypsy
post image
Pickpick

RIP, wise dear, and astute lady.

quote
ChrisBohjalian
post image

Yeats and the widening gyre and the falcon…there were years…they seem so long ago…
I took so many notes when I first read this one. Joan Didion, you will be missed. Thank you. Thank you. RIP.

DrexEdit 😔 3y
Kimberlone My copy from college is littered with marginalia! 3y
40 likes2 comments
blurb
Kimberlone
post image

I was introduced to Didion when I was assigned to read Slouching Towards Bethlehem in my Literature of the American West class in college. I subsequently devoured The White Album. This might be the impetus for me to explore her fiction finally.

Emilymdxn Very very sad news, she was such a great writer. I haven‘t read all of her books but I strongly recommend the tagged book as a great starting point 3y
vivastory I can't believe this!! This is horrible news. Her first 2 essay collections, especially Slouching Towards Bethlehem, are among my favorite books of the yr (edited) 3y
Kimberlone @Emilymdxn @vivastory such an incredible writer. A huge loss to the literary world, but the silver lining is there are still so many of her works I‘ve not yet read 3y
vivastory @Kimberlone I've read Play It As etc & two essay collections. I'll definitely be reading more 3y
CarolynM She was a wonderful writer, I'm so sad she has left us. I've read 2 of her novels, Play It As It Lays and Democracy. Very different from one another, but both excellent. 3y
54 likes5 comments
blurb
DavidDiamond
post image

RIP Joan Didion
12/5/34 - 12/23/21
😢

review
fredthemoose
post image
Pickpick

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ This is a collection of her essays and her columns from the 1960s, mostly set in California. Didion has a clear, quick writing style. The pieces were beautifully written, but not compelling in a way that I couldn‘t put it down (or stop listening). Diane Keaton‘s narration was off in a few places (like calling San Bernardino “San Berdino”?) and that was distracting.

Ruthiella I grew up not too far from San Bernardino and many people do pronounce it San Berdino. (edited) 3y
fredthemoose @Ruthiella Oh, interesting. I lived in LA for a long time and couldn‘t remember ever hearing it until this audiobook. Wish I would have known before listening—I might have been less distracted by it! (edited) 3y
Ruthiella Well, she was reading it for a global audience and should have pronounced all the syllables! 😂 3y
britt_brooke Ugh, yes re: “San Berdino.” That drove me bats! Didion, however, is perfection. 3y
34 likes4 comments
review
anushareflects
post image
Pickpick

I forgot to update Litsy when I completed this book a month ago! This is a good list of essays with interesting takes by Joan Didion. As a non-American some of it did not resonate with me, as this book is a very America-centric one. But still a good read into an important journalist. Full review in my blog, www.anushareflects.com

6 likes1 stack add
review
pinkpistachio
post image
Pickpick

It felt like Joan took me on a state of the art VR time travel trip to the 1960‘s. Adorned in my flower crown, long puffed sleeves, thrown up peace signs, frayed bell-bottomed jeans, sandals and all. The pragmatic writing style invokes all of your senses. It elicits strong emotions, weaving a beautifully shattered/non-linear narrative that is honest, brilliant and only cemented the fact that she has become one of my favorite authors of all time.

Nute Spot on review! You described perfectly how this author touches me. I often label her writing ‘brilliant‘ as well!🙂 3y
10 likes1 comment
blurb
Kelly_the_Bookish_Sidekick
post image

This was the first book that came to mind for the #CuriousCovers #pattern prompt. Good book, great cover.

@Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks @Eggs

Eggs Pretty 💜🖤💜 3y
46 likes1 comment
blurb
Tanisha_A
post image

Gift from husband! 🤩

LeahBergen Lovely! 3y
Cathythoughts Stacked 👍🏻❤️ 3y
Ruthiella Beautiful edition! 3y
See All 8 Comments
BiblioLitten Oh lovely! 3y
batsy Beautiful ✨ 3y
DivineDiana A well chosen gift! ❤️ 3y
MemoirsForMe Great hubby! Great read! 3y
Alfoster Loved this one too!❤️ 3y
64 likes3 stack adds8 comments
quote
alphabet.pony
post image

We forget all too soon the things we thought we could never forget. We forget the loves and the betrayals alike, forget what we whispered and what we screamed, forget who we were.

review
NaomiO
post image
Pickpick

I‘m glad that this was a book of essays. I really enjoyed it but I sometimes felt like I got lost in what the narrative was supposed to be and definitely came across words I had never heard of before. But what I loved about it was it was so profound and there would be a sentence or a paragraph that spoke to me and I knew exactly what it was supposed to mean because I have felt that way too.

britt_brooke Love her writing! 4y
NaomiO @britt_brooke It is so amazing 4y
10 likes2 comments
quote
NaomiO
post image

“Keepers of private notebooks are a different breed altogether, lonely and resistant rearrangers of things, anxious malcontents, children afflicted apparently at birth with some pre-sentiment of loss”

review
BekaReid
post image
Mehso-so

Some of the essays were excellent; others meh. Overall I enjoyed maybe half of them. "On Keeping a Notebook" and "On Self-Respect" were my favorites. I do plan on reading more Joan Didion in the future.

quote
writeropolis
post image

It was very easy to sit at the bar in, say, La Scala in Beverly Hills, or Ernie's in San Francisco, and to share in the pervasive delusion that California is only five hours from New York by air. The truth is that La Scala and Ernie's are only five hours from New York by air. California is somewhere else. #amreading #bookworm #bibliophile #bookish #booknerdigans #tsundoku #greatreads #readmorebooks #raconteuse #coolgirlsread

review
Kelly_the_Bookish_Sidekick
post image
Pickpick

⭐⭐⭐⭐ for this collection of essays. It really brings you into the California valley of the 1960's. I will be reading more from Joan.

It is all I read this eventful week. I had a corporate auditor visit the hotel for a few days to conduct his routine surprise visit. Watson turned 5. Celebrated my cousin's milestone birthday. Found out my 84 year old grandma found an old BF via Facebook and they're getting married.
#dogsoflitsy

AmyG Wow...your Grandma! 5y
26 likes1 comment
quote
rather_be_reading
post image

Book 48 of 2020
#ebook #prime

Leftcoastzen Didion!👏👏👏 5y
RedLeaves Yessss!!! 🙌🏼🙌🏼🙌🏼 5y
rather_be_reading @RedLeaves my new infactuation! 5y
NaomiO I added this book to my list the other day. Really excited about it 5y
57 likes3 stack adds5 comments
blurb
TheBookStacker
post image

1. The Count of Monte Cristo, The Resisters, My Brilliant Friend.. and so many others that I keep starting and stopping 🙄
2. The Kiss Quotient, The Rosie Project, The Wedding Party (all of the books)
3. From Scratch
#werkendreads

blurb
Kelly_the_Bookish_Sidekick
post image

Does anyone match their bookmarks to their books, either in color or mood? Today I'll start this one for a short mental break at lunchtime during the workday - with the help of Dorothy Sbornack.

Megabooks I do! And I love that bookmark! 5y
TrishB Yep! 5y
Kelly_the_Bookish_Sidekick @Megabooks Thanks! I got them over the summer at Books A Million and they promptly fell behind furniture so I forgot about them until I cleaned this weekend. It's like a gift to myself and of course, the other 3 Girls will be representing soon! 5y
22 likes3 comments
review
jdiehr
post image
Mehso-so

As usual with me and Didion, I either loved the essay I was reading or skimmed to get to the end.

This collection was about 50/50 for me.

blurb
GidgetsTreasures75
post image

12-12-19: My 102nd finished book of 2019! #slouchingtowardsbethlehem #joandidion 👍🏼📖#️⃣1️⃣0️⃣2️⃣

blurb
faithx5
post image

review
CarolynM
post image
Pickpick

The pieces in this collection were written in the mid 60's and focus largely on Didion's experiences in California. There is some fascinating stuff in them, particularly the eponymous essay which describes her meetings with San Fransisco's counter-culture. I also enjoyed the essay on Hawaii which provided a bit of background to her novel Democracy. Her writing is as stylish as ever but I was in 2 minds about some of her attitudes.

Cinfhen Excellent review. I‘ve never read Didion 🙈 (edited) 5y
Ruthiella I‘ve read The White Album and My Year of Magical Thinking. I‘ll try and make my next title from her this one. I‘m interested in what you say about her attitude. 5y
CarolynM @Cinfhen Thank you😘 I think she's worth your time. 5y
CarolynM @Ruthiella I've read MYoMT and The White Album will be my next. There's a piece about Joan Baez that I thought was a bit sneer-y and a piece about John Wayne that was too much hero-worship for my taste. But I don't think we can judge with fairness so far in time from when she was writing. In contrast, the SF one I thought was really insightful, there were lots of passages I wanted to underline and side note (I resisted). 5y
78 likes1 stack add4 comments
quote
CarolynM
post image

I don't believe in numerology, but given it's Joan Didion writing, this (from 1967) is spooky

Ruthiella I love Joan! 😍 5y
CarolynM Me too! The more of her books I read, the more I love her. (edited) 5y
Cathythoughts I love this quote 5y
52 likes3 comments
review
MemoirsForMe
post image
Pickpick

Joan Didion was once considered a radical writer for turning standard syntax on its ear and adding her personal reflections and stories into her articles. My, how times have changed! It‘s nice to hear that Joan, now 84, is still writing and rocking the boat. 🙌🏻 Her essay “On Self-Respect” moved me most. And who better than Diane Keaton to deliver Didion‘s profound thoughts?

PurpleyPumpkin I recently read Didion‘s The Year of Magical Thinking and it completely surprised me. It was a difficult but excellent read. I hadn‘t heard of this book, but will definitely add it to my tbr. Great review!👍🏽 5y
MemoirsForMe @PurpleyPumpkin I‘m so glad to hear your thoughts on The Year of Magical Thinking. It‘s next on my list! 😊👍🏻Will I need a box of tissues? 5y
kspenmoll You will need a box of tissues. I read it when it was published & thought it was a beautiful portrayal of a mother‘s grief & family relationships. 5y
See All 8 Comments
PurpleyPumpkin I agree with @kspenmoll, you'll need those tissues! I found it to be truly thought-provoking and very moving. Well worth reading. 5y
MemoirsForMe @kspenmoll @PurpleyPumpkin Thanks for preparing me. 💕 5y
Smrloomis @kspenmoll @PurpleyPumpkin I‘m with you guys! I read and loved The Year of Magical Thinking - very moving. Hope you enjoy it too @UwannaPublishme 5y
MemoirsForMe Thanks @sI‘m definitely moving it up on my TBR list. 5y
MemoirsForMe @Smrloomis (oops! See above...) 5y
46 likes2 stack adds8 comments
review
heysarah
Pickpick

Love.

blurb
Dolly
post image

One of the bargains offered by Early Bird Books today. I think it‘s going on my TBR.

Kimberlone This book is 💯 5y
Dolly @Kimberlone Thanks! ✅ Done 5y
33 likes2 comments
quote
MLRio

My only advantage as a reporter is that I am so physically small, so temperamentally unobtrusive, and so neurotically inarticulate that people tend to forget that my presence runs counter to their best interests. And it always does. That is one last thing to remember: writers are always selling somebody out.

13 likes1 stack add