Do you think it was these relationships she had with her loved ones, (both biological and chosen) that provided a supportive network eventually underpinning her positive outlook on life? Cover Stories": A fascinating explanation of how book covers are created, specifically Ann Patchett's book covers. This is a touching story of friendship, but it doesn’t resemble a Hallmark moment in the least. It’s not shallow or corny or bland. There are no cheap thrills, there’s no drama for the sake of drama. She writes steadily, and with compassion and smarts. Patchett makes you feel—the best thing a writer can do, in my opinion.

On our fourth date, I looked at him across the table in the restaurant…But what did life ever come to without a few risks? I asked him if he wanted to go to Vienna. Yes. He said yes, and then he said it again without giving it a second thought.” No one exists on paper and pens, alone in a room without anyone to tell them when to get up and what to eat and when to go to sleep.” Patchett is a novelist with an eye for detail and character. Her finely crafted essays bring her subjects to life. Her writing is lively, and her portraits are imbued with compassion. Topics include an in-depth- portrait of her three fathers, humorous descriptions of her college summer abroad, her graduate work at the Iowa MFA program, and the influence of Charles Shultz's Snoopy on her development as a writer. On a more serious and personal note, she writes about her marriage, her decision not to have children, and her induction into the American Academy of Arts and Letters. How does this experience change their perception of tattoos and the significance they hold? How does it highlight the impact of external circumstances on our interpretations of symbols or actions?

She writes when she can, and always without a contract. “I never owe people work.” The writers she knows who are the most protective of their time are the least productive, she says. “I get the job done. I don’t procrastinate. Creativity, inspiration, all of those words that meant so much when I was 20. Now, I go to work. I show up in the morning. I’m going to get it done.” She knows she can write. “I’m not worried about if I can do this. It’s more can I have an idea that seems worth my time and worth your time. I have to think this really matters.” That being said, who cares? The out-of-touch nature of someone living her entire life surrounded by the elites like her makes everything feel like that someone at a dinner party you wish would stop talking, especially when it comes to her loved-ones owning planes. John Updike, Philip Roth, and Saul Bello, we’re definitely influencers.. but there were others - other books - other teachers - other people…. A graduate of Sarah Lawrence College and the Iowa Writer's Workshop, Patchett has been the recipient of numerous awards and fellowships, ... The First Thanksgiving": When Ann was a freshman at Sarah Lawrence College in New York City she couldn't go home to Nashville, Tennessee for Thanksgiving. Because she didn't know any one well enough to be invited home for the long weekend, she stayed in the dorm. What happened next is both hilarious and heartbreaking.

These Precious Days is the latest anthology of essays by one of my favorite authors, Ann Patchett. I think that what I love most about her essays is her humility and her love of books from the t A literary alchemist, Patchett plumbs the depths of her experiences to create gold: engaging and moving pieces that are both self-portrait and landscape, each vibrant with emotion and rich in insight. Turning her writer’s eye on her own experiences, she transforms the private into the universal, providing us all a way to look at our own worlds anew, and reminds how fleeting and enigmatic life can be.

Reviews

These Precious Days is a new collection of essays by Ann Patchett that make you think, make you feel, and may even make you cry. In the essay “Flight Plan,” Patchett discusses her husband’s passion for flying and how it has influenced her own perspectives on life and growth. Through Karl’s experiences, with planes, Patchett explored themes of risk-taking, adventure, and the fleeting nature of life.

Even though I don’t follow a lot of Bookstagram trends, yay me for getting in another book for #NonfictionNovember just under the wire!

These Precious Days

There’s just something about the way Patchett writes that just draws me in. There’s a quiet beauty to her words, and her essays feel like stories in many ways. I was utterly captivated by characters I’ll never meet but I was fully invested in their lives.