"By centering a woman's perspective in the major events of her day, and by combining the instincts of a reporter with the techniques of a novelist, Joan Didion's work did things that hadn't been done before. We will be reading from two essay collections of hers, "The White Album" (1979) and "After Henry" (1992), both of which you should buy or borrow from the library. We will discuss her brilliant, iconic, and sometimes frustrating takes on the late 1960s, feminism, brush fires, Nancy Reagan, presidential politics, the Central Park Five, Patty Hearst, and more. Bonus for anyone who was in the "Giovanni's Room" book club: James Baldwin himself makes an appearance in one of these essays—at a dinner party in Hollywood." (Promo Copy)