In a world increasingly lived online, there is a grounding comfort to Jo Ann Beard’s refreshingly analog voice. This isn’t to say her writing isn’t relevant or that her language doesn’t wow. Beard’s power comes from phrasings and insights that aren’t just screaming for likes. Few writers are so wise and self-effacing and emotionally honest all in one breath.

Beard is so good at what she does.

... ferocious.

Beard’s prose is never more intensely vibrant than when describing death.

... consistently hair-raising.

... despite these differences in form, each piece feels like it belongs to a category of writing that is uniquely Beard’s own.

... a set of diverse pieces that sometimes challenge the boundary between fiction and nonfiction but that are consistent in the intensity of their perception and their vivid prose.

Beard writes about pain, cancer, death, divorce, violence, and bizarre alignments, subjects one may prefer to avoid, but Beard’s cascades of breathtaking detail are irresistible as she evokes the tangible world, the inner realm, and life’s welter of the unexpected and the inevitable.

Through nine pieces --- wildly different in genre, length, topic and tone --- she unravels the mysteries of experiencing time through moments of change and crisis. After a year defined by such moments, these essays are a compassionate companion.

This imaginative and precise collection shows Beard at her best.

... gripping and meditative.