The Collected Works of Jo Ann Beard (eBook)

[Beard's] books are worth the wait. A master of sensory details, she also writes with humor, melancholy and a love of animals that never borders on saccharine... In her work, even everyday moments gleam with significance

Generous, beautifully observed, compassionate and, at times, genuinely funny

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... she effects an intimacy that makes us want to sit on the rug and listen

Intimate, intelligent, intense - and ultimately comforting

Jo Ann Beard is a remarkably modest writer, a kind of literary celebrity ... readers who become fans of her work view it with the kind of amazement associated with human and literal stars

Jo Ann Beard's work impresses me no end. Funny without being sit-comish, self-aware without being self-absorbed ... Jo Ann Beard is a fantastic writer

Beard has a distinctive, arresting voice, whether she is evoking the frustrations of early childhood, describing desolately beautiful landscapes, or comparing notes with friends about breaking marriages

A towering talent... Perhaps instead of an essayist we should think of her as a poet-naturalist, wedding intuition and observation, and forming from this union something unaccountably yet undeniably real

A master of creative nonfiction, Beard explores life's most salient moments through facts that she sometimes fractures

Darkly moving, and, at times, unexpectedly - almost unbearably - suspenseful

Reading Jo Ann Beard is like setting out on a walk with a curious and intelligent friend who is determined to show you how seemingly unrelated things share a secret kinship

Jo Ann Beard's work impresses me no end. Funny without being sitcomish, self-aware without being self-absorbed, scrupulous without being fussy, emotional without being sentimental, pointed without being cruel - I could go on and on with these distinctions, all in Beard's favour, but instead I'll just say that Jo Ann Beard is a fantastic writer, an Athena born fully formed out of her own painstaking head

Charged with fine detail... Beard is so good at what she does... In Beard's book, writing works like compound interest, each experience building on the last, which built on the one before

Beard's curiosity and amazement are contagious