Have you ever considered how many dramas unfold while someone is slicing potatoes or beets to add to their Borscht? Have you thought about the women who, possessing nothing but a kitchen table, pour their souls out during the long winter nights? What troubles them? What personal dramas, too daunting to share even with their husbands, weigh on them? Are we all so similar that kitchens have replaced therapists' offices, where we create a safe space for ourselves? It's said that a writer's task is not to tell but to show you life. I invite you to kitchen-table discussions where women and men open up, revealing their most intimate fears and reflecting on their lives while seated in their kitchens.
When Libby grows up she swears to herself to never pick up a drink to not end up like her Dad, but when she is seventeen she finds herself living the same life she hated her father for having. Maybe she is her father's daughter after all.
Jen is an overthinker with a secret. You might imagine how that works out for her. While her mind is telling her this secret might ruin her, she cannot keep it from getting out. One by one, all those close to her find out. So what now?
Ever is gone. I couldn't save her. I don't want to live, yet I am still alive. I made a promise, which I plan to honor. One more year. 365 days. 525600 minutes. 31,536,000 seconds. I will not waste a single one of them. For you, Ever.
It's the beginning of the summer semester and Clara just moved to the city for her figure skating scholarship. When she first bumps into Linda, all she cares about is making friends. But as feelings start to arise, rumours start spreading. Join them on their spICY friends to lovers journey through the ups and downs of not so modern figure skating.
For the past months the world has been plunged into inexplicable weather phenomena. Seemingly perpetual rain, the sun switching places with intense thunderstorms in the span of minutes or turbulent winds that seem to come and go with no pattern. Nobody is able to explain what is happening and most people have started to simply adjust. If nobody can solve the problem, people might as well just learn to live with it. In this summer of perpetual rain Sal makes a new acquaintance. A chance to get his broken life back together.
The beloved New York Times bestselling author reflects on home, family, friendships and writing in this deeply personal collection of essays. "The elegance of Patchett’s prose is seductive and inviting: with Patchett as a guide, readers will really get to grips with the power of struggles, failures, and triumphs alike." —Publisher's Weekly “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 with whom you can be your best and most complete self.” When Patchett chose an early galley of actor and producer Tom Hanks’ short story collection to read one night before bed, she had no idea that this single choice would be life changing. It would introduce her to a remarkable woman—Tom’s brilliant assistant Sooki—with whom she would form a profound bond that held monumental consequences for them both. A literary alchemist, Patchett plumbs the depths of her experiences to create gold: engaging and moving pieces that are both self-portrait and landscape, each vibrant with emotion and rich in insight. Turning her writer’s eye on her own experiences, she transforms the private into the universal, providing us all a way to look at our own worlds anew, and reminds how fleeting and enigmatic life can be. From the enchantments of Kate DiCamillo’s children’s books (author of The Beatryce Prophecy) to youthful memories of Paris; the cherished life gifts given by her three fathers to the unexpected influence of Charles Schultz’s Snoopy; the expansive vision of Eudora Welty to the importance of knitting, Patchett connects life and art as she illuminates what matters most. Infused with the author’s grace, wit, and warmth, the pieces in These Precious Days resonate deep in the soul, leaving an indelible mark—and demonstrate why Ann Patchett is one of the most celebrated writers of our time.
To be an unmarried woman is an unforgivable crime in Pakistani society, which is why Sherry Salman's parents have embarked on a desperate hunt to find her a suitable husband. But the matchmaking aunties tasked with this huge responsibility find the kind of spiritless suitors who would not even last the first audition round of "The Bachelorette." Sherry decides to embark on another special kind of romance: a love affair between a girl and her dating app.
Five young adults try to figure out life as they go. The burdens of their past still lay heavily on their young shoulders. When one of them is in desperate need of new roommates, it doesn't take long for three completely different strangers to appear on their doorstep.
