The Red Leather Diary by Lily Koppel

I have read a lot of books since my last post.  I have a decent amount of free time at work to get reading done, but have been slacking on the whole "posting about it to my blog" thing.  I think I have 5 or so books to blog about, so please bear with me as I get through them all.

The most recent book I have completed is The Red Leather Diary.  This book was a completely random read for me.  I found it at the library and it seemed like an interesting idea so I decided to give it a shot.  The author, Lily Koppel, found this diary in a dumpster in NYC. After reading through the diary she wanted to learn more about the author so she recruited a Private Investigator to help her find the author of the diary.  The result of the diary and Koppel's meetings with the author of the diary is this book.

The red leather diary was a diary written by Florence Wolfson in the 1920s.  It covered a 5 year span in Florence's life from the ages of 14-19.  While the entries in the diary are short, the story itself is complete because of the interviews between Lily and Florence.  We journey with Florence as she graduates high school and goes to college. We spend time with her on her summer journeys to the coast.  We explore Florence's relationships and sexuality and she tries to discover who she is.  And then we learn what happened to Florence all these years later.  We learn who from her past she marries and how her life ends up. 

I really loved this book.  While it is a biography about a "nobody" it shows that everyone experiences the same trials as a teenager.  The same struggles I faced in the 2000's, Florence faced in the 1920s.  It is a timeless story that I believe anyone can enjoy.

I think one reason I was so attracted to this book is because I have a secret desire for my journals to become published pieces.  While I blog a bit, all of the super juicy fun stuff goes straight into my journals.  I think it would be so cool for my journals to be discovered when I am 90 years old by a New York Times author that wants to make them into a book.  The possibility, no matter how remote, of this happening really makes me want to be more diligent in my journal writing.

The book I am currently reading is my all time favorite.  Bonus points if you know what that is!  I will leave you in suspense until I am finished with it. 

Until next post (which is probably coming pretty shortly because work is pretty dead right now and I have nothing better to do),

Tara