The Year of Magical Thinking

The people who didn't care for this tend to be bothered by the author being successful, or having successful friends – but I knew that going in. Reading is supposed to make you more empathetic, and all the money and famous friends in the world can't shield someone from loss, mourning, and grief.

Joan Didion is called a cool customer early on in the book, and that sums it up – she is calm, measured, and thoughtful in her writing, not at all prone to histrionics, which made me as a reader respond in a similar manner as she explores a very bad year in her life.