These Precious Days

I love anything that Ann Patchett has ever written, irrespective. She knows and understands people in a way that makes it automatic that the reader will know and understand her people as well. Not many writers can succeed at that. I have this particular book of essay on audio and read it and have now passed the book on to a friend.

Ann Patchett gets better with everything she writes. Truly a modern great author

Justly celebrated as a novelist, Ann Patchett is also a fine writer of essays and other nonfiction. I thoroughly enjoyed her previous nonfiction books THIS IS THE STORY OF A HAPPY MARRIAGE and TRUTH & BEAUTY, the latter a poignant memoir about her long-term friendship with Lucy Grealy, author of AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A FACE. Patchett's THESE PRECIOUS MOMENTS is aptly titled, for it provides a wealth of precious moments of insight, candor, wit, and tautly observed descriptions of setbacks she has managed to surmount or, at least, outlast. As a writer lauded for her vivid fictional characters, she has given us one of her most fascinating characters of all: herself. Literarily she is "An Ann for All Seasons."

Ann Patchett's essays illuminate her life and mine--the reader's. The topics are varied--from books to owning a bookstore, to being a writer, to having three fathers, to editing the possessions in her house. I bought several for gifts.

Ms. Patchett's essays read as if she is sitting at my kitchen table and we're talking. Her style is easy and personal without being maudlin. She relates stories without bias but with a point of view that easily relates to women of my generation. Although her narrative is personal, her insights are astute and trigger my own memories and recollections in innovative ways. I bought 2 copies - one for a close friend and one for my collection.