I love to write and love to read. When I noticed that one of my favorite authors, Ted Kooser, wrote a book about writing, I became very interested.

What was I hoping to learn? This: how to capture the imagination of the reader with careful detail.

Kooser’s work has a particular, simple way of taking the imagination to the most rural, the most ordinary places and there find the most affecting beauty.

Writing Brave and Free is a 101 book on writing. Everything you’d want to know about starting your craft is right here in these pages. More than the great ideas, though, is the simple encouragement and friendship you feel when you’re reading Kooser and Cox. When I would close the book after some chapters, needing time to think, closing felt like I’d just come from coffee with Kooser where he answered a few questions about my writing.

Final thought: I would have never guessed that reading a book about writing would be such a good read.