Category Archives: creativity and its discontents

Review: Moving On—Two Ex-Beatles’ Very Different Lives in the 1970s

Posted on May 17, 2020 by Gabriella West

I’ve been thinking a lot about the Beatles lately. Perhaps it’s because I started off the New Year by reading Mark Lewisohn’s masterful Tune In (2013), the first book in his proposed Beatles’ trilogy. It’s long and exhaustive, but you … Continue reading →

Posted in creativity and its discontents, Reviews | Tagged 1970s, Astrid Kirchherr, Beatles, Bermuda, Coming Up, depression, diaries, Double Fantasy, ex-Beatles, Fred Seaman, Future, John and Yoko, John Lennon, Man on the Run, Mark Lewisohn, Murder, Myth, Nowhere Man, paul mccartney, Robert Rosen, Starting Over, Tom Doyle, truth, Wings | Leave a comment

Review: Between Heaven and Hell by David Talbot

Posted on February 16, 2020 by Gabriella West

Between Heaven and Hell: The Story of My Stroke (Chronicle Prism, 176 pp, $22.95, January 2020) David Talbot—journalist, popular historian, longtime San Francisco resident, and author of Season of the Witch—has written a surprisingly vulnerable, intimate, often funny and engaging … Continue reading →

Posted in creativity and its discontents, Health, Reviews, San Francisco, Writing | Tagged Between Heaven and Hell, David Talbot, Health crises, Hollywood, meaning, memoir, mortality, nonfiction, Salon Magazine, San Francisco, Strokes | Leave a comment

A Short Month, but an Exhausting One!

Posted on September 29, 2019 by Gabriella West

September was pretty exhausting! Due to a reshuffle at a magazine I work for, I was unexpectedly placed in a different role: copyediting rather than proofing. When I used to work for the Pacific Sun in San Rafael, I envied … Continue reading →

Posted in creativity and its discontents, LGBT, News, Personal, Work/Life Balance, Writing | Tagged Hillary Clinton, Impeachment, magazine, New York Times, president, September, stress, Trump, truth, Washington Post, whistleblower, Whistleblower Complaint, work | 2 Comments

The Abstract-Impressionism of Berthe Morisot and Joan Mitchell

Posted on March 13, 2019 by Gabriella West

Guest blogger Paula Butterfield’s novel about the life and work of impressionist artist Berthe Morisot, “La Luministe,” will be published by Regal House on March 15, 2019. She stops by to discuss the surprising similarities between Morisot and … Continue reading →

Posted in creativity and its discontents, Guest Bloggers, Writing | Tagged abstract impressionism, art, artists in France, Berthe Morisot, creativity, guest blog, impressionism, Joan Mitchell, La Luministe, nature, Paula Butterfield, Regal House, women artists | Leave a comment

Review: Becoming Mrs. Lewis

Posted on October 16, 2018 by Gabriella West

Becoming Mrs. Lewis, Patti Callahan’s just-published novel (Thomas Nelson; $25.99), is a fictional take on the story of poet Joy Davidman (1915-1960) and writer and academic CS Lewis. I had previously seen and adored the film Shadowlands, so I came … Continue reading →

Posted in creativity and its discontents, Reviews, Writing | Tagged 20th-century women writers, Becoming Mrs. Lewis, C.S. Lewis, cancer, literary legacy, love, marriage, Oxford, Patti Callahan, poet, review, Thomas Nelson, tragedy | Leave a comment

End of Year Reading

Posted on December 29, 2017 by Gabriella West

As the new year approaches, I’m burying myself in a good biography, something I love to do. This one is Douglas Botting’s bio of Gerald Durrell, which is available on Kindle US for the bewilderingly cheap price of $1.99 (it’s … Continue reading →

Posted in creativity and its discontents, News, Reviews, Writing | Tagged A Knight's Tale: Kenilworth, alcoholism, biography, Botting, depression, Gerald Durrell, happiness, Kindle, New Year, preorder, success | Leave a comment

The Downhill Slide: Two Literary Biographies

Posted on December 18, 2016 by Gabriella West

Shirley Jackson: A Rather Haunted Life by Ruth Franklin Manderley Forever: A Biography of Daphne du Maurier by Tatiana de Rosnay Literary biography can be such a depressing genre, although I read it, I realize, to feel vicariously alive, to really … Continue reading →

Posted in creativity and its discontents, LGBT, Reviews, Writing | Tagged 1950s, anxiety, barbiturates, bisexuality, Cornwall, Daphne du Maurier, daughters, dominance, Dublin, feminist, France, Gertrude Lawrence, ghosts, haunted lives, lesbian, life, literary biography, London, marriage, Menabilly, mothers, old age, Rebecca, Ruth Franklin, Shirley Jackson, Stanley Edgar Hyman, Tatiana de Rosnay, truth, Vermont, women's lives | 3 Comments

This Writing Life: Two Opinion Pieces

Posted on February 3, 2015 by Gabriella West

I was listening to the radio in the kitchen the other day, and the NPR announcer was talking about the search for the bones of the great Spanish writer Miguel de Cervantes, author of Don Quixote. Cervantes is very famous … Continue reading →

Posted in creativity and its discontents, Personal, Writing | Tagged Ann Bauer, Cervantes, dislocated, home, money issues, pauper, Salon, the writing life, time to write, unmarked grave | Leave a comment

Write or Wrong Part 7: Melinda Clayton can breathe just fine, thank you…

Posted on January 26, 2015 by Gabriella West

It’s been such a quiet January, so I wanted to kick things off here by reblogging one of the Write or Wrong posts on writer Shannon Yarbrough’s site. Write or Wrong is an excellent series where contemporary writers speak candidly … Continue reading →

Posted in creativity and its discontents, Writing | Tagged Melinda Clayton, Shannon Yarbrough, Write or Wrong | Leave a comment

You Can’t See The Interview, But I Did

Posted on December 17, 2014 by Gabriella West

Just bizarre! Since the new James Franco-Seth Rogen movie The Interview has been CANCELED—which I find outrageous—due to North Korea’s breathing down the neck of the studio, Sony, here is at least a review of the movie from “Time.” What … Continue reading →