These Precious Days

Ann Patchett is a bestselling author and owner of Parnassus Books in Nashville. I have read a couple of her novels, Bel Canto and Dutch House, but I can't say I'm a huge fan based on those works. A friend loaned me this new (2021) book of essays and I started reading with lukewarm expectations. It is a very autobiographical collection of reflections on everything from knitting to a piece of family furniture, to what she learned from her three fathers, to a treasured friendship with a woman who was dying (the essay that gives its title to the book). As I read further, I became more engrossed and felt she offered me some inspiration for my own life. Two in particular, "My Year of No Shopping" and "How to Practice" helped me set my expectations for the New Year (2023). Reflecting on her role as a bookstore owner touched me as it would everyone who loves to read. She notes that "As every reader knows, the social contract between you and book you love is not complete until you can had that book to someone else and say, Here, you're going to love this." In her essay on How to Practice, she says that downsizing your belongings is a bit like writing vs. editing; you need to focus on one thing at a time, i.e., deciding what to get rid of before you tackle trying to figure out where it will go. Eventually as things were given away, she realized that "The point was no longer making sure that the right person got the right things. The point was that those things were gone" (p. 70).

Publishers Weekly says of the collection, "In this eloquent collection, novelist Patchett ... meditates poignantly--and often with wry humor--on 'what I needed, whom I loved, what I could let go, and how much energy the letting go would take.'" Booklist calls her writing "Mischievously funny and nimbly incisive..." The NYT praises her work, "Patchett’s heart, smarts and 40 years of craft create an economy that delivers her perfectly understated stories emotionally whole. Her writing style is most gloriously her own." And Kirkus says "An enviable life shared with candor, emotion, and knockout storytelling power. "