These Precious Days

Despite Patchett's Catholic-school good girl-ness, there is no getting around that she's smart and very tough. I bought this book in the airport; it got me through a long day of travel delays followed by another long day of taking a relative to the ER. It was the perfect counterpoint to the inanity of dealing with multiple bureaucracies: thoughtful, humane. I particularly liked the essay about Patchett's "three fathers": the three men who married her mother and her relationship with them over the course of her life.

I haven't read many essay collections, so can't compare. These were great.

The kindness and the tenderness of Patchett shines through all the essays. Reading this reinforced in me that the only worthy goal in life is to be kind and to be tender, everything else is unimportant.