These Precious Days: Essays

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Like the time, aged 19, she went backpacking around Europe with a friend, and they accepted a lift to Derry, promptly finding themselves in a war zone. Patchett’s meditations on death, mortality, family, friendship, and creativity definitely struck a chord with me.

with her three father’s, yes three… of her relationships with her mother, sister, husband, and friends.Illuminating, penetrating, funny and generous, These Precious Days is joyful time spent in the company of one of our greatest living authors. What I’ll take away from this is a feeling of warmth that emanates from the author and how she is prepared to stand up for what she thinks is right. Any changes made can be done at any time and will become effective at the end of the trial period, allowing you to retain full access for 4 weeks, even if you downgrade or cancel. From the enchantments of Kate DiCamillo’s children’s books (author of The Beatryce Prophecy) to youthful memories of Paris; the cherished life gifts given by her three fathers to the unexpected influence of Charles Schultz’s Snoopy; the expansive vision of Eudora Welty to the importance of knitting, Patchett connects life and art as she illuminates what matters most.

She emphasizes staying present and finding tenderness in the past rather than becoming entangled in grief or bitterness. At the center of These Precious Days is the title essay, a surprising and moving meditation on an unexpected friendship that explores “what it means to be seen, to find someone with whom you can be your best and most complete self. Even a health scare involving her husband, related in The Moment Nothing Changed, yields the reassuring affirmation that “For as many times as the horrible thing happens, a thousand times in every day the horrible thing passes us by. Overall , this is an extremely readable collection about family, friends, love and what really matters. Reading about her love of comics and books brought back memories of my own childhood, where I was perfectly happy in my own cocoon of fictional friends.

And I’m still wondering how Ann got through reading the title essay — without losing it — about Tom Hank’s assistant Sooki, an artist, who becomes her friend and is diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and comes to stay at their house while receiving treatment in Nashville during the pandemic. She’s kind, hospitable and a loyal and true friend - in fact, at the end of reading this I want her to befriend me! As every reader knows, the social contact between you and a book you love is not complete until you can hand that book to someone else and say, Here, you’re going to love this.