“Writing and reading decrease our sense of isolation. They deepen and widen and expand our sense of life: They feed the soul. When writers make us shake our heads with the exactness of their prose and their truths, and even make us laugh about ourselves or life, our buoyancy is restored. ... It’s like singing on a boat during a terrible storm at sea. You can’t stop the raging storm, but singing can change the hearts and spirits of the people who are together on that ship.”

Few quotes like the one above, from San Francisco author Anne Lamott in her book, “Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life,” best sum up the need to fight back against rising efforts in........

© The Leader Herald