The Next Best Book Club discussion

Hey,

So I absolutely love reading other peoples (published!) diaries/journals. Problem is, I don't know of all that many. I've read the Diary of Anne Frank, would anyone recommend some others?

Mary Chestnut A Diary From Dixie is interesting; it covers the American Civil War.

The Diary of Samuel Pepys is one of our main sources of information for England in the 1660s. It's also available online, as a blog: www.pepysdiary.com .

Ha, we were posting at the same time, Fiona!

Hey, I bought The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath and it's really good, but very heavy, so I can't sit and read it for hours. Reborn Journals and Notebooks, 1947-1964 is the same way. Both are really good though and you'll accumulate a list of books/authors to investigate (especially from Sontag's journals). Journals by Arthur Schlesinger is really good, especially if you're interested in American politics because he covers 50 years of goings on in Washington politics. This one isn't really dense, although it's quite thick.

Those are all I own.

Thanks a million, guys! I'll check them out.

The Red Leather Diary Reclaiming a Life Through the Pages of a Lost Journal.
This was pretty interesting.
It's set in New York in the 20-40ish (can't remember exactly, it's been a while), and gives some great insight.

Allison, that looks really interesting. Thank you!!

Freedom Writer's Diaries was wonderful (don't judge it becasue they turned it into a movie)

I love May Sarton's journals. She published many throughout her lif. A few that I have read are: Journal of a Solitude, Plant Dreaming Deep, and At Seventy. Often they are just records of her year, but so many things happened to her from emigrating to America and having a stroke that each one is different and very interesting.

If you're looking for something Anne Frank-ish I would suggest Zlata's Diary A Child's Life in Wartime Sarajevo. It's a young girl's dairy of her growing up in war-torn Sarajevo.
Also, Joyce Carol Oates published some of her diaries not too long ago. I read some of it (I'm not a *huge* diaries fan so I got distracted by other books and torn away...but I really enjoyed what I did read of it.

My Stroke of Insight. The journal of a 37 yr. old Harvard professor and teacher of the brain records her stroke as it is happenening and how and how far she has progressed. If you are interested in roles played by left and right sides of the brain in her recovery this is fascinating and new. Even if you are not, her story itself makes it a very good read.

A Writer's Diary, by Virginia Woolf is one of my favorite books. It is available in different versions, but I think the one-volume book compiled by Leonard Woolf is really beautiful. She is hilarious about other writers, and very touching about life in general. I'm not a huge fan of epistolary format or diaries in general, and I may be wrong, but I think the only exceptions to that have been A Writer's Diary and Letters to a Young Poet, by Rainer Maria Rilke.

Sounds fascinating, Sandra - I also had a stroke at 37.

Hmmm. I see that the link there goes to the wrong book. This is the link to the Virginia Woolf diary: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/14...

I would also recommend Diary of Marie Bashkirtseff. Written during the late 19th century it's an interesting look at a somewhat spoiled and rich Russian girl living in France with her family. It's a large book, but in some ways fun to see just how young adults have not changed overly much over the years. She is self-centered, but to just pick up the book and feel how heavy it is you can see she was actually very observant of her society and culture.

One Thousand White Women: The Journal of May Dodd (Fergus) is on my tbr list (recommended by a friend) - it's a fictional account written by a man.

Diary of a Farmer's Wife 1796-97 This was seriously fascinating to me.

Berlin Diary The Journal of a Foreign Correspondent, 1934-1941, by William L. Shirer.

Fiction, and a little dated, but The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole, Aged 13 3/4 is lots of fun, and there are lots of sequels...

Brenda wrote: "One Thousand White Women: The Journal of May Dodd (Fergus) is on my tbr list (recommended by a friend) - it's a fictional account written by a man."
I have this book at home but have never read it. Maybe we can discuss it when we both have.

I loved Gauguin's Noa Noa. It's especially charming if you find an illustrated version, too.

Anais Nin is my favorite writer. She has many volumes of diaries. She's extremely passionate and sensual so if you have a problem with that kind of writing, she may not be for you. I personally find her writing to be extremely honest and poetic. Nobody explains the feelings of a woman better than her in my opinion. She's one of those writers who can say something that makes me go, "That is EXACTLY how I feel, I just could never express it like that" God, I love that. Give it a whirl... :)

Allison wrote: "The Red Leather Diary Reclaiming a Life Through the Pages of a Lost Journal.
This was pretty interesting.
It's set in New York in the 20-40ish (can't remember exactly, it's been a ..."

Allison,

thank you for recommending the book. I just read it and loved it. A really interesting book. Great to read.

Stef

I am reading Dear Theo -- van Gogh's letters to his brother Theo. Very interesting so far