There does feel like a certain level of earnestness and ability to hone in on what is “interesting”. To some degree, I think it’s just luck, as far as if the reader finds the same things as the author to be compelling. In this case, 75% of the time, the answer for this reader is “yes”. The whole time I was consuming this (on audio) I was thinking about how much better these topics and thoughts are than The Anthropocene Reviewed, which was an onslaught of mundanity and boredom, causing me to DNF it. Though, I read and like Patchett and haven’t read much Green at all. So, to what degree is it also a parasocial influence? Who knows.

For me though, Patchett’s honesty around how fiction has influenced her life were very relatable. I think stories and fiction itself is kind of like advertising, you are affected as you consume it—whether or not you _believe_ it or not is meaningless. I am aware that most of my beliefs and thoughts come from relationships to some type of fiction or another, so there was a lot of “seen” moments in this.

It’s affecting, how able Patchett is able to bare these really personal things. Many of them people might look at you funny at a party if you brought it up. I always appreciate when an author just puts things out there, interrogating the notions or not, and just shows how they’re constructed by articulating stories that are formative.

One or two I didn’t care about. Quite a few were some of the highest quality of writing. About what I expected, yet still exceeded my expectations. Close to a 5 star, but not quite.