The White Album

Joan Didion's second book of essays, written in her now-celebrated cool, minimalist prose, covers such topics as Janis Joplin, the Doors, Huey Newton, the Manson Family, Roman Polanski, the politics of water in Los Angeles, and Ronald Reagan's $1.4 million never-used governor's mansion. There are also interesting essays on Georgia O'Keeffe and Doris Lessing, and many more personal essays as well, including one about her migraines ("In Bed").