At first glance, there was nothing atypical about the photos Kendall Jenner shared following her New Year's trip to Barbados: of string bikinis and gauzy dresses, palm trees in silhouette against sunsets, wine glasses clanking, fireworks popping. But if you were searching for a dissonant note, you might find it in the copy of The Year of Magical Thinking, Joan Didion's wrenching 2005 memoir of grief and loss, splayed on the green canvas of Jenner's sun lounger.
"Somebody said, 'Damn, that's a beach read for you?!' " she recalls. "I would read a few pages on the sand, and then my friends would come out and they'd be like, 'Take a shot!' "