What is Marion Winik reading?

Today's featured contributor at Writers Read: Marion Winik, author of Highs in the Low Fifties: How I Stumbled through the Joys of Single Living.

Her entry begins:

I just finished Fire in the Belly: The Life and Times of David Wojnarowicz, by Cynthia Carr, a fascinating account of one of the more exceptional characters taken from us by AIDS in a time that is coming to seem, even to those who lived through it, like a long time ago.

I read the book at the recommendation of Tom Beer, the books editor at Newsday; he put it in his top ten of 2012. Beer described the biography as a companion piece to Just Kids, by Patti Smith, her memoir of her passionate friendship with Robert Mapplethorpe, and that was enough for me to put this 600+ pager on my list. I'm glad I did.

As the avant-garde art critic for the Village Voice through the 80s and 90s, Cynthia Carr knew the artist/writer/activist Wojnarowicz casually, then became close friends with him the year before he died. Losing him, it seemed, plunged her into...[read on]

About Highs in the Low Fifties:

A cross between Nora Ephron and David Sedaris, longtime NPR commentator Marion Winik has a way of looking at life that's both relatable and remarkable. Following her beloved memoir First Comes Love and the award-winning The Lunch-Box Chronicles, her chronicle of being single in middle age will leave readers shocked, awed, and laughing out loud.

Brimming with humor, Highs in the Low Fifties follows Winik's attempt to rebuild her world as a once-widowed, once-divorced single mom. With her signature optimism, resilience, and poor judgment, Winik dives into a series of romantic experiences. Some are pathetic, some are sweet, and some are simply incredible. She gets propositioned (for money) by a sexy Salvadoran doing construction work on her basement, meets an emotionally unavailable dreamboat on Craigslist, and makes out with a former student. The adventure culminates not with a honeymoon but with a two-week stay in Johns Hopkins Hospital. But even her treatment for hepatitis C is kind of a funny story.

Winik's brand of single living is never lonely, never dull, and always a satisfying read. Her candor about her own mistakes and ability to find humor in the darkest moments has won her thousands of followers – and maybe a few voyeurs.

Visit Marion Winik's website and read more about Highs in the Low Fifties.

Read--Coffee with a Canine: Marion Winik and Beau (December 2009) and Coffee with a Canine: Marion Winik and Beau (June 2013).

Writers Read: Marion Winik.

--Marshal Zeringue