Any story that starts will also end. As a writer, Ann Patchett knows what the outcome of her fiction will be. Life, however, often takes turns we do not see coming. Patchett ponders this truth in these wise essays that afford a fresh and intimate look into her mind and heart. 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...

Isabelle is completely lost. When she first began her career in publishing right out of college, she did not expect to be twenty-five, living at home, still an editorial assistant, and the only Black employee at her publishing house. Overworked and underpaid, constantly torn between speaking up or stifling herself, Izzy thinks there must be more to this publishing life. So when she overhears her boss complaining about a beastly high-profile author...

A lyrical and evocative collection of personal stories from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Under the Tuscan Sun, in which the queen of wanderlust reflects on the comforts of home. While Frances Mayes is known for her travels, she has always sought a sense of home wherever she goes. In this poetic testament to the power of place in our lives, Mayes reflects on home, from the earliest imprint of four walls to the startling discoveries of...

Nim Rusoe is a young girl who inhabits an isolated island with her scientist father and communicates, via e-mail, with the reclusive author of the novel she has been reading. Nim's existence mirrors that of her favorite literary character, Alex Rover, the world's greatest adventurer. But Alexandra, the author of the Rover books, leads a reclusive life in the big city. When Nim's father goes missing from the island, Nim gets Alexandra to come to her...

From New York Times bestselling author Jami Attenberg comes a dazzling memoir about unlocking and embracing her creativity-and how it saved her life--

"Bird Cloud" is the name the author gave to 640 acres of Wyoming wetlands and prairie and four hundred foot cliffs plunging down to the North Platte River. On the day she first visited, a cloud in the shape of a bird hung in the evening sky. She also saw pelicans, bald eagles, golden eagles, great blue herons, ravens, scores of bluebirds, harriers, kestrels, elk, deer and a dozen antelope. She fell in love with the land, then owned by the Nature Conservancy,...

Drawing on her own experiences, the author of the critically acclaimed memoir Whip Smart discusses how to confront the emotional, psychological, and physical work of writing about our most intimate lives.

Peggy Rowe is at it again--this time giving a hilarious inside look at her writing career.--Provided by publisher. Rowe has been writing all of her adult life- even through years of constant rejection from publishing houses. Between her tenacity and the encouragement of her family, her breakthrough finally came-- at the age of eighty! Here she shares her journey of attending myriad writers' conferences and honing her ability to see humor in everyday...

"A beautifully illustrated children's biography of Beverly Cleary, from her roots in Portland to her years as a librarian and an eventual children's book writer. The debut book in Little Bigfoot's new Growing to Greatness series of notable people from the Pacific Northwest"--