Welcome back to the second part of Thursday’s post.
Rather than continuing to reflect on Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl, which warrants more than two minutes, I’m shifting directions to how I recently came to read it for the first time.
It’s a map of how our curiosity leads to new sources. I hope it also parallels how Two Minutes Du Jour offers readers a similar flaneur (French for passionate wandering) for topics, ideas and resources.
It started with a former client who shared admiration for Ruth Reichl’s writing (former NYTimes and LA Times restaurant critic and editor of Gourmet magazine), so I read one of Ruth’s books, then another and another, and more recently enjoyed her interview on Julia Louis Dreyfus’ podcast Wiser Than Me.
This led me to read Julia Child’s memoir My Life in France and watch the television series Julia, which, while outstanding, had quite a few factual deviations, and that introduced me to Judith Jones, her editor at Knopf. So, I read Judith’s memoir The Tenth Muse: My Life in Food published in 2007.
In between, there were numerous other food memoirs, such as Yes Chef: A Memoir by Marcus Samuelsson and the non-fiction sensation The Bear (the new season starts this week on Hulu).
Then, back to one of the book podcasts I listen to, I learned about the latest book about Judith Jones – The Editor, which debuted this year – and I’m now about 75 pages in. Phew!
All that to say, among the hundreds of authors and books Judith Jones worked with was The Diary of Anne Frank.
Full circle. I had to read the book, and now that I have, I’m left wondering what themes I might have picked up on as a teenager, a college student, and a mother.
Reading Anne’s words about the difficulties of being a teenager among adults living in close quarters, I feel each mental state she describes. I also respect her perceptiveness and ability to revisit her feelings and adapt her mindset in the quest for personal growth. What a wise person.
While I may be about 50 years late in reading Anne Frank’s The Diary of a Young Girl, I am grateful for the path she shared and the one that led me to her writing. It will stay with me forever more.
Beaucoup Links Du Jour:
I am Rosemarie by Marietta Moskin
Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl – Jewish Book Council
Anne Frank: Her Life, The Diary and The Secret Annex – Anne Frank House
The Editor: How Publishing Legend Judith Jones Shaped Culture in America by Sara B. Franklin
Two Minutes Du Jour 