The Year of Magical Thinking Cover
Podcast Mentions

The Year of Magical Thinking

Joan Didion

NEW YORK TIMES Several days before Christmas 2003, John Gregory Dunne and Joan Didion saw their only daughter, Quintana, fall ill with what seemed at first flu, then pneumonia, then complete septic shock. She was put into an induced coma and placed on life support. Days later—the night before New Y...

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Quotes 15
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Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard

Podcast

Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard

The Year of Magical Thinking was cited as another of JoanDidion's wellknown titles during the conversation about her books.

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Oh, The Year of Magical Thinking. Oh, I am aware of that title.

— Episode: Toby Stuart (on social status)

Episode: Toby Stuart (on social status)

The Year of Magical Thinking was cited as another of JoanDidion's wellknown titles during the conversation about her books.

"

Oh, The Year of Magical Thinking. Oh, I am aware of that title.

Fresh Air

Podcast

Fresh Air

Terry described reading Didion's memoir as emotionally powerful--"impossible to put down and impossible to read"--and praised its honest portrayal of grief.

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I want to quote something you write in your memoir, The Year of Magical Thinking.

— Episode: Terry Gross On 50 Years Of Fresh Air (Ta...

Episode: Terry Gross On 50 Years Of Fresh Air (Talk Easy wi...

Terry described reading Didion's memoir as emotionally powerful--"impossible to put down and impossible to read"--and praised its honest portrayal of grief.

"

I want to quote something you write in your memoir, The Year of Magical Thinking.

I found the book impossible to put down and impossible to read. Impossible to put down because it's so well written and it's so emotional and impossible to read because it's so painful.

Episode: The Battle For The Soul Of The Catholic Church

Didion's memoir was mentioned as an example of personal reflection on loss and grief.

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from Greek ideas of the fates, to cheesy episodes of Star Trek, to Joan Didion's The Year of Magical Thinking.

Episode: A War Reporter Reckons With A Deadly Cancer Diagno...

Crosley cited Didion's two personal books on grief, naming this one among them.

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Throughout, Crosley cites Joan Didion, whose two personal books on grief, the year of magical thinking and blue nights, she obviously sees as a touchstone for her own.

Lovett or Leave It

Podcast

Lovett or Leave It

It was described as a too long Medium post where Coronavirus announced that it was leaving New York for Los Angeles.

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Unfortunately, those numbers are expected to be lower in a few weeks after Coronavirus published a too long medium post titled Following Joan Didion to say that it was leaving New York for Los Angeles...

— Episode: The King’s Bleach

Episode: The King’s Bleach

It was described as a too long Medium post where Coronavirus announced that it was leaving New York for Los Angeles.

"

Unfortunately, those numbers are expected to be lower in a few weeks after Coronavirus published a too long medium post titled Following Joan Didion to say that it was leaving New York for Los Angeles because the city was changing and no longer as inspiring as it was just a few short years ago.

Chasing Life

Podcast

Chasing Life

Anderson Cooper briefly referenced this book. He said Joan Didion wrote about keeping the dead alive in order to keep them with us, and about the time when we must relinquish the dead.

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I just reread Joan Didion's book.

— Episode: Chasing Life presents All There Is With...

Episode: Chasing Life presents All There Is With Anderson C...

Anderson Cooper briefly referenced this book. He said Joan Didion wrote about keeping the dead alive in order to keep them with us, and about the time when we must relinquish the dead.

"

I just reread Joan Didion's book.

She said, I know why we try to keep the dead alive. We try to keep them alive in order to keep them with us. I also know that if we are to live ourselves, there comes a point, there comes a point at which we must relinquish the dead.

On with Kara Swisher

Podcast

On with Kara Swisher

Joan Didion said that this book was the book she needed to read, and Griffin Dunne believed that his grief and the family's grief was similar to hers.

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I believe she said that her book, The Year of Magical Thinking, was the book she needed to read.

— Episode: Storytelling, Family & Tragedy with Grif...

Episode: Storytelling, Family & Tragedy with Griffin Dunne

Joan Didion said that this book was the book she needed to read, and Griffin Dunne believed that his grief and the family's grief was similar to hers.

"

I believe she said that her book, The Year of Magical Thinking, was the book she needed to read.

The Daily Stoic

Podcast

The Daily Stoic

It was described as a bestseller that became a Broadway play and a guide to dealing with death. The book was noted for its vulnerability, honesty and humanness in discussing the author's grief and self-delusions.

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And when's the National Book Award, right? Yeah. Yeah. Not because like it was, you know, this tell-all by Joan Didiam, but because it was essentially a guide to how to deal with death. And that's wha...

— Episode: Author Evelyn McDonnell On Joan Didion’s...

Episode: Author Evelyn McDonnell On Joan Didion’s Life and...

It was described as a bestseller that became a Broadway play and a guide to dealing with death. The book was noted for its vulnerability, honesty and humanness in discussing the author's grief and self-delusions.

"

And when's the National Book Award, right? Yeah. Yeah. Not because like it was, you know, this tell-all by Joan Didiam, but because it was essentially a guide to how to deal with death. And that's what, you know, people still to this day, right?

You know, share it. It's like the number one book you give someone when they've, they've lost someone because, you know, she was so open and transparent about her self delusions and, and also trying to understand what the process of grieving was.

Episode: Author Evelyn McDonnell On Joan Didion’s Life and...

It was mentioned alongside "Blue Nights" as a book with Stoic themes. The book chronicles her grief and attempts to cope with the death of her husband.

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And someone I've read all her stuff, and there's incredible stoke themes in blue nights, a year of magical thinking.

And then she chronicles how she basically can't function for really like nine months after his death that she just doesn't know what to do with herself.

And then three months, she writes the year of magical thinking.

she thinks this book is the chronicle of the worst year of her life. And it's like, life is like, wait, there's more coming.

Note: The book recommendations on this page are discovered automatically from podcast transcripts, and may be incorrect or incomplete.