These Precious Days: Essays

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Sister Nena picked up a piece of bread and swiped it through the olive oil in the saucer between us. As with any collection, there were some essays I liked better than others, and I recommend reading (or listening) to one or two a day, not straight through. Overall , this is an extremely readable collection about family, friends, love and what really matters.

Living a life of love and generosity of spirit, paying attention to the small moments, and putting people and relationships above all else sounds like meaningless platitudes but in this book we see them in action. Even as Sooki’s white count continued to hover in the neighborhood of nonexistent, her CA 19-9 cancer marker number (that unreliable indicator we relied on) was dropping. I would love to stay with you for my first night or two in Nashville—it would be wonderful to spend some time with you.These Precious Days, Anne Patchett's memoir in essays, examines the importance of crucial relationships between family and friends, aging and death, and the writing life.

The truth was that I had no idea how Sooki was doing, and I had no confidence that she would tell me.Surely we would take off the Wednesday mornings when she had to be at the hospital at seven o’clock. She can’t help but talk up her acquaintances on the page – a “bombshell best friend” here, a “force of nature, force of life” there. I’d been sitting outside in the garden – it’s Summer here – and the balmy evening, the sound of leaves creating a lovely rustling sound, along with the strumming of my neighbour’s guitar, made for the most gorgeous reading experience. It has been an exercise in creative storytelling to try to think up more and more reasons why the number might rise while the scans (CTs! I find a stream and follow it, the stream dries up, and I’m left to look for moss on the sides of trees.