Jami Attenberg did not own a bed frame until she was 45 years old. Her life, as she describes in her engrossing memoir-in-essays, has been shaped by wanderlust and a need to create stories. The daughter of a traveling salesman, Attenberg always had a shifting relationship with the idea of home. But no matter where she went, one thing remained true: she wanted to write. “I was born a writer,” she boldly declares in her book. And it’s that statement that serves as the driving force behind I Came All This Way to Meet You: Writing Myself Home. While her reflections on her various jobs and homes are compelling, it’s Attenberg’s willingness to engage with the vulnerability that comes with leading a creative life that is so remarkable. She is refreshingly candid about what it really means to be a writer and to believe in a calling. —Annabel Gutterman
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