"The beloved New York Times bestselling author reflects on home, family, friendships and writing in this deeply personal collection of essays"-- ""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...

At 22, the author thought she had lost everything: her mother had died, her family was scattered, and her marriage was over. 4 years later, she made the most impulsive decision of her life: to hike the Pacific Crest Trail from the Mojave Desert to Washington State, alone. She had no experience as a long-distance hiker, but it was a promise of piecing back together a life that had come undone. [From publisher's description]

Ann Patchett, author of State of wonder, Run, and Bel canto, examines her deepest commitments--to writing, family, friends, dogs, books, and her husband--creating a resonant portrait of her life.

Chronicles the year that the author and her family lived in Paris, describing her walking tours of the city, her school-age children's attempts to navigate foreign language schools, and her thoughts on the pleasures and eccentricities of French living.

Silko combines memoir with family history and observations on the creatures and desert landscapes that command her attention and inform her vision of the world. Ambitious in scope and full of wonderfully plainspoken and evocative lyricism, The Turquoise Ledge is both an exploration of Silko's experience and a moving and deeply personal contemplation of the enormous spiritual power of the natural world.

A brilliant first novel catapults Arthur Youngblood Hawke from an impoverished Kentucky town to the heights of New York's literary world. Despite his mercurial career, and the demands thrust upon him by celebrity and wealth, he struggles to keep writing.

Using family photographs and quotes from her books, the author provides glimpses into her life.

The author describes growing up in a family of all boys in Webster Groves, Missouri, reflecting on such topics as the dynamics of a Christian youth fellowship, his role as the school prankster, his marriage, and the life lessons he has learned from birds.

Roger Angell recounts the experiences he had growing up in Prohibition-era New York with his father, mother, Katharine White, one of the founding editors of "The New Yorker", and his famous stepfather, writer E.B. White.