In My Mind’s Eye: A Thought Diary

Morris, author of more than 40 books (most recently Battleship Yamato), offers a slim collection of 186 pithy diary entries that invite readers into her sunny, though sometimes dark, ruminations. With wit and just a bit of self-reproach, she addresses concerns about British politics (“The news from Westminster, concerning the future existence of one of history’s most fascinating constructions, just makes me yawn”), as well as her wife Elizabeth’s struggle with Alzheimer’s (“Kindness reconciles us still, even when she is at her most irritating”). Morris, now 92, writes of seeing another aging acquaintance at the grocery store: “I was foreseeing a tragedy that befalls millions of us, when we are obliged to realize, like Shakespeare’s Othello, that our life’s purpose is gone.” Though the pieces can meander, Morris is always self-aware, playfully interjecting comments (“You think I’m rambling rather?”) and forge a frank intimacy with the reader, evoking the patter of a coffee shop get-together (“What should I write about today, dear friends? Good or bad, virile or senile, there’s no life like the writer’s life”). Morris’s diary is a candid, enlightening take on contemporary life. (Jan.)