Finished: Blue Nights (Didion) A beautiful, emotional book written by a mother who has lost her daughter, her only child, shortly after seeing her happily married. The mother and author, Joan Didion, was married to screenwriter and novelist John Dunne and they lived the proverbial LA life of mingling with the stars. Their daughter, Quintana Roo, named for a region they loved in Mexico, fell critically ill when she was 37, and John suffered a massive heart attack and died while she was in the hospital. Quintana survived the illness, but fell and sustained a brain injury while on her way to her father's memorial service. She spent the next two years battling brain bleeds, sepsis and other critical issues before succumbing at the age of 39. Needless to say, her mother was bereft with the loss, first of her husband, and then her beloved daughter. In Blue Nights Joan Didion pretty much writes her stream of conscious thoughts on motherhood, children, life, aging, fearing death for yourself and your loved ones, and she does so with beautiful prose. It's a love story to her daughter, as she remembers back to specific things that will always remind her of Quintana. And, it's a story about how she had to go on and live her life, but as she grows older, how she fears illness and forgetfulness and dying. I related to much of what she wrote, having watched my parents lose a son at the age of 36. A very powerful, moving book!