Never in a Hurry: Essays on People and Places by Naomi Shihab Nye is like window shopping through interesting moments in the life of the author. Places she's been, people she's spoken too, and little bits of her past are interwoven in moments that are common and yet somehow uncommon at the same time. In "Favorite Cleaners" for example, she recounts her experience of using the same dry cleaners over many years, of watching the shop prosper, of business declining, of the proprietors death, and of her feelings about that loss. I think the essay that impacted me the most was "Bread." Before she left her family in the Middle East, her aunt baked bread for her to carry home. The bread represented home and family. She had difficulty in the airport because of her background but felt a momentary connection with an airport employee as he gently handed the bread back to her after searching her belongings. It felt like little bit of humanity in the midst of a trying time. Nye has a way of taking something ordinary and making it somehow more, of painting a picture that has more than just 3 dimensions, of letting you feel and experience along with her.
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