The world seems to be collapsing, the humanities are in crisis, but in this uncertain-at-best moment, Sarah Mesle offers writers a path not just toward hope but toward joy, as well. In this immensely readable, immensely useful book, Mesle reminds us why it remains worthwhile to sit down and put words to paper. * Naomi Fry, staff writer, The New Yorker * Fresh, nerdy, sober, quirky, and only sort of optimistic, Reasons and Feelings wrestles with the angle that could make writing betteror even simply possibleas the humanities totter around us. * William Germano, author of "On Revision" * With Reasons and Feelings, Mesle has given us a guide for the perplexedfor those who arent sure what intellectual life in the humanities will look like tomorrow, let alone several years from now; for those who arent certain how, why, or where to write about the books and ideas that matter to them; which is to say, for all of us. Writing as ally, therapist, expert, veteran, teacher, colleague, storyteller, and host, Mesle gives us a pioneers and survivors view of humanistic writing after the coming-apart of postwar structures and tells us that were not alone, that were (still) in this together. * Nicholas Dames, coeditor in chief of Public Books *
