Structure

Patchett's These Precious Days is a collection of 24 essays, including an introduction and an epilogue. These works appear in the following order: "Essays Don't Die," "Three Fathers," "The First Thanksgiving," "The Paris Tattoo," "My Year of No Shopping," "The Worthless Servant," "How to Practice," "To the Doghouse," "Eudora Welty, an Introduction," "Flight Plan," "How Knitting Saved My Life. Twice," "Tavia," "There Are No Children Here," "A Paper Ticket Is Good for One Year," "The Moment Nothing Changed," "The Nightstand," "A Talk to the Association of Graduate School Deans in the Humanities," "Cover Stories," "Reading Kate DiCamillo," "Sisters," "These Precious Days," "Two More Things I Want to Say about My Father," "What the American Academy of Arts and Letters Taught Me about Death," and "A Day at the Beach."

Studying the exact curation of these essays one alongside the next, is essential to understanding Patchett's overarching thematic considerations...