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    What Now?
    What Now?
    What Now?
    Ebook61 pages34 minutes

    What Now?

    By Ann Patchett

    3.5/5

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    About this ebook

    “A wise, generous and compact primer for life that could well become a touchstone, readers will return to this book, and probably find something new each time they do; deserves to be given often and enthusiastically.” — Publishers Weekly

    Based on her lauded commencement address at Sarah Lawrence College, this stirring essay by bestselling author Ann Patchett offers hope and inspiration for anyone at a crossroads, whether graduating, changing careers, or transitioning from one life stage to another.

    With wit and candor, Patchett tells her own story of attending college, graduating, and struggling with the inevitable question, What now? From student to line cook to teacher to waitress and eventually to award-winning author, Patchett's own life has taken many twists and turns that make her exploration genuine and resonant. As Patchett writes, "'What now?' represents our excitement and our future, the very vitality of life." She highlights the possibilities the unknown offers and reminds us that there is as much joy in the journey as there is in reaching the destination.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins
    Release dateOct 13, 2009
    ISBN9780061842467
    Author

    Ann Patchett

    Ann Patchett is the author of novels, most recently the #1 New York Times bestselling Tom Lake, works of nonfiction, and children's books. She has been the recipient of numerous awards, including the PEN/Faulkner, the Women's Prize in the UK, and the Book Sense Book of the Year. Her novel The Dutch House was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. Her work has been translated into more than thirty languages, and Time magazine named her one of the 100 Most Influential People in the World. President Biden awarded her the National Humanities Medal in recognition of her contributions to American culture. She lives in Nashville, Tennessee, where she is the owner of Parnassus Books.

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    Reviews for What Now?

    3.5/5

    113 ratings15 reviews

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    • 4/5
      A simple book that takes on an important subject: how do I decide what to do with my life? With humility and wisdom, Ann Patchett reminds us that ourlives are unpredictable. That education, status, and the labels placed onus by ourselves and others only tell part of the story. The paradox that we have to figure our paths out for ourselves and yet "the truth is that we need to hear other people, all people, especially in those moments when we don't know exactly where we're going ourselves (p.35)."Based on a college commencement address, this is a great book for anyone who is searching, puzzled, stuck, disillusioned or disappointed.
    • 5/5
      rabck from Rhonder; a beautiful, though-provoking book. I loved the liberal use of pictures throughout the book, illustrating the "what now?" point
    • 5/5
      ?Just because things hadn't gone the way I had planned didn't necessarily mean they had gone wrong.?

      I often really enjoy graduation speeches - I would think it's because I am a recent graduate, who is filled with "What Now?" questions and uncertainty. I picked this up at a secondhand store, and it's timing could never be so relevant.

      I've been interested in her books for a while now, but haven't yet picked one up - and I thought this book would be able to give me a taste into the heart and style of Pratchett's work. Her writing is beautiful, and her message is full of hope and humility.

      I really love these short biographical stories of women - it gives me a peek into the lives and history of women, from Virginia Woolf to JK Rowling, I have been so fortunate to read wisdom in all forms and contexts. International Women's Day is always a great reminder to look into the history of these incredible women and learn.
    • 3/5
      A tiny, but interesting book that aims to instill an appreciation and openness to uncertainty. There are no profound prompts for introspection, just a general alleviation of anxiety for those experiencing disarray during a crisis of identity.

      The photos undermine seriousness of the writing by inundating the reader with trite, corny photos evoking feelings of misdirection and confusion.

      However, as someone who currently relates to Patchett's stories of emotional and geographic dislocation during the many quixotic passages of one's life, there is relevance for those who feel similarly.
    • 4/5
      I have read none of Ms. Patchett's other writings nor heard her speech. The direct personal message she offers here should resonate with certain personalities ready to hear her, or may simply lodge in their memories for later contemplation. I like who this author presents as a person. She identifies a type who is willing to wait and who responds to messages from others, but with an underlying drift of her own commitment to the dream of being an author. I see validation for the great number of us who labor in the field, perhaps learning how to stare into meaning. I look forward to meeting this person again, perhaps when I read something else she has written.
    • 4/5
      Portions read by author at Southern Festival of Books, Nashville, October 2008. Worth hearing and reading.
    • 5/5
      Listened in the 2 days before graduation, May 2009. Excellent story of change and growing up. What Now is always a work in progress, where the journey is the story - not the destination!
    • 4/5
      I loved the postscript and am very glad that she trashed the original keynote address. This one was lovely, as are the author's books.
    • 3/5
      I believe it you had been present at the commencement address at Sarah Lawrence College on which Ann Patchett based this book, the speech would have moved you. Reading it in a book - didn't move me. That been said, I think an 11th grade (junior) student would find relief in reading that all students this age are troubled by the phrase "where are you going to college?
    • 5/5
      Beautifully and thoughtfully written. I will be rereading this one and recommending it to many of my friends.
    • 3/5
      Enjoyable but I didn’t find it stirring. A quick read, based on her speech, given to a leaving senior class.
    • 3/5
      Ann Patchett gave a commencement speech at Sarah Lawrence College that was so widely regarded that it ended up as this book. I liked this part: “The secret is finding the balance between going out to get what you want and being open to the thing that actually winds up coming your way. What now is not just a panic-stricken question tossed out into a dark unknown. What now can also be our joy. It is a declaration of possibility, of promise, of chance. It acknowledges that our future is open, that we may well do more than anyone expected of us, that at every point in our development we are still striving to grow.”
    • 4/5
      This was a short audio, an extension of the author's commencement speech at her alma mater, Sara Lawrence College. She revisits her arrival on campus, her struggle to figure out "What now?" after graduation, and reiterates that the finding is part of the journey, whether that be right away or several years down the road. It's a quick but satisfying read.
    • 3/5
      A nice, thoughtful, relatable, and interesting (and inspiring) commencement speech by Ann Patchett to the class of Sarah Lawrence. Its a super quick read (basically because all it is, is a 15-20 minute speech plus a little post-script). Worth the quick read, many will find it enlightening, or at least interesting. Good for college age people as their entering the "real world".
    • 3/5
      Quick read that was once a graduation speech about how if you're lucky you'll always be asking yourself throughout life "what now?"

    Book preview

    What Now? - Ann Patchett

    Ann Patchett

    What Now?

    Contents

    Begin Reading

    Postscript

    Photo Credits

    About the Author

    Books by Ann Patchett

    Credits

    Copyright

    About the Publisher

    to Allan Gurganus and Alice Stone Ilchman:

    Friends, teachers, role models

    Begin Reading

    If all fairy tales begin Once upon a time, then all graduation speeches begin When I was sitting where you are now. We may not always say it, at least not in those exact words, but it’s what graduation speakers are thinking. We look out at the sea of you and think, Isn’t there some mistake? I should still be sitting there. I was that young fifteen minutes ago, I was that beautiful and lost. For me this feeling is compounded by the fact that Sarah Lawrence was my own alma mater. I look out at all these chairs lined up across Westlands lawn and I think, I slept on that lawn, I breathed that wisteria. I batted away those very same bees, or at least I batted away their progenitors. Time has a funny way of collapsing when you go back to a place you once loved. You find yourself thinking, I was kissed in that building, I climbed up that tree. This place hasn’t changed so terribly much, and so by an extension of logic I must not have changed much, either.

    But I have.

    That’s why I’m the graduation speaker. Think of me as Darwin sailing home on the Beagle. I went forth in the world just the way you are about to go forth, and I gathered up all the wondrous things I’ve seen; now I’ve brought them back to you. As the graduation speaker I’m the one with the wisdom, or at least that’s the assumption, but you as the graduates have something even better: you have youth, which, especially when you multiply it by several hundred, is a thing so fulgent it all but knocks the breath out of those of us who are up on the stage. I’d like to tell you to appreciate your youth, to stop and admire your own health and intelligence, but every writer has a cliché quota and I used up mine by saying, When I was sitting where you are now.

    When you leave this place, as you will in a couple of hours, be sure to come back. Coming back is the

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