Ann Patchett, the novelist whose works include Bel Canto and The Dutch House, collects personal essays that range from reflections on her grandmothers to meditations on her friendship with Tom Hanks's assistant, a relationship that became surprisingly deep when the assistant was diagnosed with terminal cancer. The title essay, which anchors the collection, explores what it means to truly see another person and to allow yourself to be seen in return. Other essays examine Patchett's decision not to have children, her marriage to a doctor she met through their shared love of books, and her experience opening a bookstore in Nashville during the decline of independent retail. Patchett writes with the precision and attention to character that mark her fiction, finding in apparently small domestic moments insights about love, mortality, and purpose. The essays circle around questions of home and belonging, examining how we construct the lives that sustain us and what threatens those constructions. Patchett is particularly good on female friendship and on the particular challenges facing women writers who are also wives and caretakers. Readers will find here both engaging personal narratives and a writer thinking through the central questions of how to live, work, and love with generosity and intention.