How do you rate a collection? Is it the selections that matter? How well they tie together as a theme? Is it the introductions to each selection? Marie Arana succeeded in all of these areas. I enjoyed every essay, especially the ones by James Michener, Ray Bradbury, Carol Shields, Patricia Cornwell, Wendy Wasserstein, Michael Korda, and Julian Barnes. The career path for writers has changed over time. What remains constant is that every writer finds a distinctive way of viewing the world and masters the often painstaking craft of sharing it with others. ( )

This book gave me a list of another 40 authors I want to read. Like I really needed that! ( )