One of my favorite authors is basically from Tennessee. Like me, Ann Patchett was born in Southern California and moved to Tennessee at a young age, therefore, she considers herself a Tennessean. The writer moved to Nashville after her parents got a divorce when she was six.
She has written nine novels, her most recent is Tom Lake, about “family, love and growing up.“ Ann Patchett’s most popular novel is The Dutch House, which features an engaging audiobook narrated by Tom Hanks. In addition to her novels, Patchett has written four nonfiction books, including These Precious Days. It is a collection of essays on “home, family, friendship, and writing.” Harper’s Magazine published one of her essays from the book, which beautifully captures her friendship with Sooki, once Tom Hanks’ assistant, though so much more. She writes, “as it turned out, Sooki and I needed the same thing: to find someone who could see us as our best and most complete selves.” Get ready to be moved, to find an appreciation and sense of gratitude about life.
Ann Patchett describes her art as a writer, “When I’m putting together a novel, I leave all the doors and windows open so the characters can come in and just as easily leave.” She elaborates, “You might not see how everything threads together as you read along, but when you look back from the end of the story, the map becomes clear.” This is much how I felt while reading The Dutch House and These Precious Days.
Patchett is a graduate of Sarah Lawrence College and the Iowa Writer’s Workshop. She has received multiple awards, and her books have appeared on the New York Times bestsellers list. She resides in Nashville with her husband Karl VanDevender, and their rescue dog, Nemo.
Patchett owns a bookstore in the Green Hills suburb of Nashville called Parnassus Books. The bookstore keeps a calendar full of events, especially uplifting independent booksellers. Her bookstore blog, Musing, includes book recommendations and up-and-coming writers. Ann Patchett’s First Edition Club pick this month is Audition, written by Katie Kitamura, which she describes as “destabilizing” but also that people need to read it.
Hope Reese in a Buzzfeed article called “Ann Patchett Really Is This Nice,” writes that, “Patchett’s writing, in line with her demeanor, demonstrates a wholesomeness almost unique among popular writers these days.” Her books are about her characters, and the way they interact and live in the world. Patchett writes, “How other people live is pretty much all I think about. Curiosity is the rock upon which fiction is built.” A list of the 36 reads for April, as well as a list of the books Ann Patchett has written, can be found on Parnassus Books’ website.
