Live and Learn comprises three of the personal essay collections that established Joan Didion as a major figure in the modern canon ? arranged in chronological order so that readers can appreciate not only the qualities of the essays per se, but also their evolution over time. It also includes a new introduction by Joan Didion herself. modern classic, capturing the mood of 1960s America and especially the center of its counterculture, California. The cornerstone essay, an extraordinary report on San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury, sets the agenda for the rest of this book ? depicting and America where, in some way or another, things are falling apart and ?the center cannot hold'. The White Album (1979) is a syncopated, swirling mosaic of the 60s and 70s, covering people and artifacts from the Black Panthers and the Manson family to John Paul Getty's museum. Sentimental Journeys (1992) shifts its perspective slightly to take in Vietnamese refugee camps in Hong Kong, the Reagan campaign trail, and the inequities of Los Angeles real estate. Joan Didion, and an essential reference for readers old and new. It confirms the power of this uniquely unbiased, moving writer, and showcases her artful yet simple prose.

Stanley Middleton has been described as ‘the Chekhov of suburbia’. Live and Learn explores the expanding possibilities the world offers to a young couple. Jonathan, a twenty-eight-year-old academic and a keen rugby player, and Emma, the solicitor daughter of a vicar, seem to have it all. But life, even solid provincial life, can be more precarious and extreme than it first appears. Sudden violence, even murder, can happen without warning, as Jonathan and Emma discover and in the process they come to a fuller understanding of how complex even the most straightforward life really is.

Best friends Alizé, Dom, Moët, and Cristal will do anything to get the glamorous life. A savvy business major, Alizé had her childhood shattered by her parents' divorce and is determined never to fall in love. Dom learned early to use her body to make much bank--and find an escape from her drug-addicted mother. Disillusioned by the strict faith she was raised with, Moët figures hooking up with powerful men is now the real way to heaven. And streetwise Cristal has a master plan to get the security she never knew as a foster child. To make their dreams come true, these sistahs will go after the East Coast's biggest movers-and-shakers. But between the wild times, one of them will risk everything on a gamble, one will play a player too far, one will take a dangerous chance, and one will face the most difficult choice of all. . . "A drama-filled, action-packed, page-turning novel of friendship. . . readers will find themselves laughing at moments and crying at others." --The RAWISTAZ Reviewers