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Thank you for sharing all this richness, River! Like the generosity of a river system in late springtime ...

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❤️

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Thank you so much!

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a) the sheet looks nice enough to me. How do you want it to look? I can try to help. I'd delete the last sheet and rename the sheets you use, though (just double click on the name to rename).

b) thanks for the lists! I've only read (counts) 7 (and another 15 or so from the second list), added a bunch to my own wish list.

c) I read a lot (70 books this year so far) but this still seems like A LOT. Good luck! <3

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What a great list! I remember the time I took to study for my prelims as a very rewarding time to synthesize what had until then been a lot of disparate coursework and reading. I always encourage doctoral students to look on this period as one of enrichment and synthesis, not just a rite of passage.

I have only read 15 of these - my historical reading tends more towards Charles Darwin - but this is a great guide to books I could add to my reading list.

I was especially pleased to see John McPhee and Susan Orlean (Wordy Bird on Substack) on the list. I have been a New Yorker reader since I was a child, and always read the nonfiction essays (except sports), beginning with Berton Roueché's Annals of Medicine. I was attracted to McPhee's essays for the magazine beginning when I was 13 with his first pieces and have read all of his books. His Draft No. 4 is on my writing desk. I think of Susan Orlean as part of a wonderful succession of narrative nonfiction writers for the New Yorker. I have, as a result, always thought of the New Yorker as a foundation of narrative nonfiction. I still subscribe.

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