Celebrate Life's Precious Moments with Ann Patchett's Collection of Essays: These Precious Days

pat wing: I enjoyed every essay and felt I really got to know the writer. I’m not a short story lover but I enjoyed these thoughtful stories. I agree that you can’t have a happy home without a dog. I might even try not buying anything for a year.

United States on Dec 21, 2023

AnneB: Intimate and engaging. Ann Patchett brings you right into the room and lets you peek over her shoulder, as if you were in the room living the scene with her. I enjoyed this book….. a lot!

United States on Dec 04, 2023

Norma: Did not enjoy the book

Canada on Dec 03, 2023

Deborah: I purchased this ebook mainly because of the cover (I do that a lot) and found this to be quite good. It’s about a girl looking back on different aspects of her life with three fathers and her never ending interest in writing. I was fascinated by what each of her fathers meant to her and so much more!

United States on Sep 26, 2023

Linda Hill: Bought this book for my sister in law as a Christmas present as we found on the family tree she is related to the author. She enjoyed reading the book and loved the writing. Wonderful - couldn't stop reading.

United Kingdom on Jan 14, 2023

jmsjms:

France on Aug 14, 2022

C. Burns Bruno: A friend recommended this book or rather the author - and I adore the way she writes. I'm now on book four - and will continue reading her books.

Italy on May 07, 2022

Bway Jack: Ann Patchett is one of my very favorite writers; I've read almost all if not every one of her novels. This collection of essays shows the same incredible flair with language, on a wonderfully varied series of topics.

She starts with the semi-hilarious tale of her three fathers, her birth father and her mother's two subsequent husbands. While her own father actively discouraged her pursuit of a career in writing, her stepfather, a very successful surgeon, envied her choice - not to mention her success. She tells delicious stories of the many bad novels which he churned out, some of which she had to sell (if not tout) in her Nashville bookstore - even though they were uniformly dreadful.

Her Covid story has a great twist, with a guest of a few days becoming the third member of her household, staying for months while bringing all sorts of new factors into the household, almost all of them surprisingly good.

Some of the essays are but a few pages, the Covid tale is almost a novella. Her graceful prose is always a pleasure to read; her writing is fluid and elegant, like an excellent wine. (She likes wine.) I feel almost like I know her from the frank tales of her...

United States on May 01, 2022

Bookworm: Livro lindo! A Ann Patchett escreve maravilhosamente bem. As histórias me fizeram rir, chorar e suspirar.

Brazil on Apr 26, 2022

Cathryn Conroy: This is a 10-star book in a five-star world.

If you're an Ann Patchett fan, this is a must-read. If you've never heard of Ann Patchett, you still need to read this, but first treat yourself to one or two of her novels. I highly recommend "The Dutch House" and "Bel Canto."

Each of these essays is a sparkling little gem, a valuable lesson in life, lessons in living and in dying. It could just be an astute observation or it could be a pithy little sentence that makes you go, "Yes! That's it!"

I adored every single one of the essays, but just to whet your appetite, here is a sampling:

• "Three Fathers": Ann Patchett had three fathers because her mother had three marriages, two of which ended in divorce. At her sister's wedding, Ann realized all three of the men, who were never together for obvious reasons, would be in the same place at the same time. So she had her photo taken with them. One of the dads astutely observed to the other two, "You know what she's going to do, don't you? She's going to wait until the three of us are dead and then she's going to write about us. This is the picture that will run with the piece." He was right.

• "The...

United States on Feb 28, 2022