"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...

This is John Burroughs' 1896 biographical treatise of Walt Whitman, "Whitman: A Study". It constitutes a profound and comprehensive insight into the mind and work of one of America's greatest poets by another of America's great men of letters. This fantastic book is highly recommended for all lovers of literature, and it is not to be missed by fans of Burroughs' work. John Burroughs (1837 – 1921) was an American naturalist, essayist, and active...

A winning collection of essays about home, love, cooking, politics, and the writing life from the acclaimed novelist.

Essays inspired by Chabon's interactions with his four children and his own father illuminate the meaning, magic, and mysteries of fatherhood. "For the September 2016 issue of GQ, Michael Chabon wrote a piece about accompanying his son Abraham, then thirteen, to Paris Men's Fashion Week. Possessed with a precocious sense of style, Abe was in his element chatting with designers he idolized and turning a critical eye to the freshest runway looks of...

"In Bookends, Pulitzer Prize winning author Michael Chabon offers a compilation of pieces about literature--age-old classics as well as his own--that presents a unique look into his literary origins and influences, the books that shaped his taste and formed his ideas about writing and reading"--

Adventures of a journey through Europe on foot. "A Tramp Abroad" is a work of travel literature, including a mixture of autobiography and fictional events, by American author Mark Twain, published in 1880. The book details a journey by the author, with his friend Harris (a character created for the book, and based on his closest friend, Joseph Twichell), through central and southern Europe. While the stated goal of the journey is to walk most of...

Kevin Kling, best known for his popular commentaries on National Public Radio's All Things Considered and his storytelling stage shows like Tales from the Charred Underbelly of the Yule Log, delivers hilarious, often tender stories to readers everywhere with his first book, he Dog Says How. Kling's autobiographical tales are as enchanting as they are true to life: hopping freight trains, getting hit by lightning, performing his banned play in Czechoslovakia,...

Comedian Silverman's memoir that mixes showbiz moments with the more serious subject of her teenage bout with depression as well as stories of her childhood and adolescence.

This early work by William Lyon Phelps was originally published in 1910 and we are now republishing it with a brand new introductory biography. 'Essays on Modern Novelists' is a collection of essays of notable modern novelists, including Thomas Hardy, Mark Twain, and Robert Louis Stevenson. William Lyon Phelps was born on 2nd January 1865, in New Haven, Conneticut, United States. Phelps earned a B.A. in 1887, writing his thesis on the Idealism of...

"Essays that show how Smiley draws inspiration from across literary history to invigorate her own writing. Among the authors she examines are Marguerite de Navarre, Charles Dickens, Anthony Trollope, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Louisa May Alcott, Mark Twain, Willa Cather, Franz Kafka, Halldor Laxness, and Jessica Mitford"--