These Precious Days: Essays

"Ann Patchett, beloved writer, bookstore owner and friend to many, gives readers more reasons to love her with this new essay collection. The centerpiece is the title essay – a tribute to Sooki Raphael, Tom Hanks’ longtime personal assistant and an artist whom Patchett befriended and helped in the difficult final years of her life. (Sooki’s soulful painting of Patchett’s dog adorns the book’s cover.) This isn’t the only essay that moved me to tears: There are lovely pieces about Patchett’s three fathers (biological and two steps); about what opening her Nashville bookstore has meant to her; and about the intimations of mortality induced by her induction into the American Academy of Arts and Letters. This heartwarming book reminds us to make the most of our precious days."