I love Ann Patchett’s writing but ultimately, in this case, the book languished on my nightstand until I downloaded the audiobook.

Sometimes you pick one up and feel like you mesh with it so perfectly that it might have been written just for you. I’m just wondering if you got in the habit of not talking about yourself because of the work you do. I've had some very good covers in my life, but this was a great one, and while I've worked with many other people to get things right, I've never had a true collaborator. When the event was over and more pictures had been taken and everyone had said how much they’d enjoyed absolutely everything, Tom Hanks and his assistant and I found ourselves alone again, standing at the end of a long cement hallway by a stage door, saying good night and goodbye. Each one is insightful and what I love so much about her writing is that she never belabors a point or uses 50 words when 10 will do.There is a bright therapist named Hassan at my assigned machine, always the same, with a sweet attitude.

The same trial she was part of in Nashville had finally commenced at UCLA, twenty minutes from her house.

I was a little disappointed that Patchett didn’t include her marvellous Vanity Fair cover story on Nashville resident (and fellow book lover) Reese Witherspoon, which went way beyond your typical magazine profile. It is a beautiful story that I will leave the magic of that relationship to unfold as one reads the book. Miraculously, after a spate of vigorous exercise there would be enough white cells to slip her in just under the wire. The out-of-touch nature of someone living her entire life surrounded by the elites like her makes everything feel like that someone at a dinner party you wish would stop talking, especially when it comes to her loved-ones owning planes.