2007 book 32

Decca: The Letters of Jessica Mitford
Of course the Mitfords are one of the most infamous and fascinating families, well, pretty much ever; Jessica is perhaps the one who's most infamous (ok, maybe the sister who loved Hitler and shot herself when England entered WWII was more infamous . . . or the sister who was a prominent British Nazi . . . I like this book about the sisters, for the curious). Anyway, Decca was well-known for running away as a teenager to get involved in the Spanish Civil War; she later came to America and was a prominent communist and author. Her letters are well worth reading--there's plenty of family drama, plus she was friends with many intellectual luminaries (among them Maya Angelou) and there are even a couple of letters to Hillary Clinton, who had clerked in Decca's husband's law office. Decca was really into writing letters--this book was an exhausting 700+ pages and is definitely aimed at the Mitford completist. There are plenty of letters that are funny or compelling, but 700+ pages was a little much for me.