I really enjoyed a whole book on people joining together during these hardships. The collection of stories and poems were lovely. It's a very relatable book and makes you feel less alone as well. I really loved some of these poems a lot! Thanks so much for the advanced copy, I think everyone should read this if they've been struggling with the recent crisis' of the world.

it was okay, I thought it would be more poetry than essays so I was a little disappointed but the poems were well written.

2.5/5
This was a complex read for me. Some of the stories/poems were incredible and deserve 5/5 stars. However, I found some to be repetitive.

The Good:
-I love that we are hearing from a plethora or people in different places and situations. Everyone’s quarantine experience is determined by where they are, who they are with, what their financial/employment status is......and much more. So hearing from such a diverse group of people, in different circumstances, was enlightening.

The Bad:
-Unfortunately, I was not previously aware of many of the writers of this book. This made my interest dip significantly.

...A seed was planted....
....A brilliant idea.....from Jennifer Haupt, author of
“In The Shadow of 10,000 Hills”, ( incredible historical novel by the way), is the Editor of “Alone Together”.
She tells us.....
“I started by putting out feelers, posting on Facebook and sending emails to authors I knew through my work as a journalist and novelist. I made a concrete, to-the-point ask: Could they contribute an essay or poem about their COVID-19 experiences to a fundraising anthology for struggling indi booksellers? Within twenty-four hours, dozens of authors or on board.
The minute I learned of this literay project, benefiting independent booksellers), I was on board to read it!!!
Ninety-one authors from diverse cultures, and backgrounds (68 in the print book, 22 in the ebook), contributed to
‘Alone Together’....
Love, Grief, and Comfort in the time of COVID-19.

Proceeds from this book are donated to Book Industry Charitable Foundation (Binc).

All contributors, and business Partners donated their time, talent, and effort.

I LOVE THIS BOOK...it’s purpose, the community of writers ( and readers), coming together, reflecting on our covid-19 pandemic human experiences, ( my thought - at the end of this anthology gem: READERS SHOULD WRITE THEIR EXPERIENCE: means I need to put my own pen to paper, too),
And....
I loved the pure joy of getting to learn about authors whose work I didn’t know...[I LOOKED UP *EVERY* AUTHOR...ones I knew and ones I didn’t...MARKED MANY BOOKS TO READ.]....
and....
Best of all....this book was comforting to me, fulfilling on many levels.
It’s painful to deal realities we would rather avoid....but all these varied, diverse authors faced their challenges with courage, grace, clarity, and wisdom....and I’d like to think that I joined them too.
This book is meaningful, important (makes a monetary and heartfelt difference) and its an important path to healing ourselves and finding peace.

The rest of this review will highlight a few tidbits from some of the contributors — but I treasured EVERY SINGLE submission....with feelings of pride.....
And/ or general themes....

In “Ghost Town”, by Scott James (a computer science professor at Stanford University) wrote an uplifting tale about Banana Bread, and delivery his baked bread to students who were stuck isolated in their dorms. His red-haired Boston Terrier came along, too.....
putting social distancing smiles on students faces. ( me too)....
Another part of his story ( one I know too well myself from having worked in San Francisco for a few years...and being a Bay Area native),....was heartbreaking.
Scott and his partner live in the Castro district of San Francisco ( an area in recent years that has seen a heavy toll - but once a very lively area)....
Then came the lockdown.
“Those who remained outside were those who were already there—the unhoused, addicted, and mentally ill. The city’s failure to intercede over the course of plentiful years was now on display”.
Crime, decline, and corruption mismanagement needed to be examined and reformed before COVID-19....,
The “apocalyptic— mentally disturbed people —some covered in feces, wandered and shouted at invisible demons. These were human beings, not fictional zombies. Still, officials didn’t help”.
Then came rifles, pistols, and handcuffs.
Scott James emotional story - of smiles & sadness - left a permanent impression on my heart.

“Feeding My Heart and Soul”
by Andrea King Collier
Collier a covid-19 new food warrior, gave me a whole new context about grocery shopping.....and face-mask-wearing connecting.
“Who knew that old-school shopping would be an act of resistance against a very dangerous virus, but also an act that reminds me of my Black family pride and traditions?”
I loved her ‘entire’ story


“I’m going to say this as an optimist, and also as a realist:
we’ll get through this and be smarter, stronger, and more grateful because of it. Grateful for books, writing, and art making, but most of all—for the freedom to gather and share these creations, together”.
.... an excerpt from Kevin Sampsell, from his essay called “Books On Pause”

“SAME”
by Jamie Ford
“As a writer, I wear an old bathrobe, all day”......
Together. Stuck inside, every day’s a snow day.
But I’m not lonely, not even a bit.
‘Cause we’re a pack of introverts,
And every night we howl like wolves”.

David Sheff had a conversation with our editor: Jennifer Haupt
I love ‘everything’....David Sheff...and what he stands for ( author of “A Beautiful Boy”).... I could write my own book about the difference he made in my own life. His conversation with Jennifer was powerful.
I’m also holding back sharing their interview/ dialogue, but I’m tempted to highlight the whole darn thing.
Here’s a ‘small’ excerpt: ( there is more where this came from)
“We can get depressed about the pandemic and systematic racism, but like parents whose kids die of addiction who become activist, our grief can lead to action”.

“Sibling Estrangement And Social Distancing”
by Caroline Leavitt
“The words in the email punched my heart. You’re dead to me, my sister says. I despise you. I hope you feel the pain you keep causing me”.
“I’m still sure I can fix whatever has gone wrong between us. Just give me time, I think, but now, with the pandemic, there is no time. Contact with my sister is more important to me than ever. Except it’s still not important to her”.
“I want her to still care about me, because for that not to be true feels unbearable, like a kind of death. It hurts, it hurts, it hurts”.


“In The Bathtub”
by Jenna Blum
I loved her essay. I was reminded that when you’re at your wits end, and want to pull your hair out.... how blessed we are to have a good friend to remind us to eat, to exercise, to read, to write, to listen to music, to take a ‘fricken-warm-bath’.
Maybe??? while soaking naked - ( the good friend will try not to imagine you naked)... but will read a beautiful poem - over the phone - to you ‘while’ in the tub.
Stephen P. Kiernan.... ( another author I must read)....
was that ‘great friend’ to Jenna.
I love them both!!!

“Lavender And The Washing Away Of Civilization”
by Roberto Lovato [new author to me]
His father is almost 98 years of age. He suffers from dementia.
“Next to Pop’s recliner is a glass table with water, candies from his native El Salvador, and one of my most important tools for coping with COVID-19 and the civilizational crises it has exposed: lavender”.

When Roberto visited El Salvador in the late 80s and early 90s, during the Civil War that left 80,000 dead, most of them murdered by the US-backer government, he brought lavender cream from a shop in San Francisco. The cream soothed his skin and calmed his nerves after seeing the effects of bombings and strafing an innocent civilians, including children”.
Wow.... I was very impressed- sad too - by the story Roberto submitted.
He has a memoir called “Unforgetting” is coming out in September.... that I want to read.

“Pandemic Date Night”
by Sommer Browning and David Shields
Hilarious - bad movie - “if we make it through this movie together, our bond is unbreakable”, ( Eyes Wide Shut), date night!!! Very funny!

“S. O. S.”
by Greg Colucci
A heart-aching story!
Greg tested positive for HIV/AIDS in 1993.
His building was created in 1994, through the copy of AIDS housing.
Most of the residents are seniors — with Covid-19- once again they are facing the terror of death.
Everyone in the building needed help: supplies, masks, food. They ‘had’ to stay isolated. They still do.
Thankfully people from the Facebook community were offering support.
Greg lives with HIV and Huntington’s Disease. He is an elder in his community - in San Francisco- and plans to publish more writing.

Andre Dubus III
I learned a fun little tidbit about Andre Dubus III....( author and professor),
he lives forty miles north of Boston in a house, in the woods, that he and his brother built with their own hands fifteen years ago.
He also shared that his brother-in-law and his wife, both in their seventies, had the coronavirus.
Andre also shared that things going consistently well for him, was like living in a foreign country. ( background story which he shares will explain why).
Andre Dubus III was a son of a single mother and had grown up in poverty. He also had a violent youth.
The story Andre submitted - about love, family, friends, and community was ‘so-moving’!!!
He also wrote about feeling more at home when things are “perilous” ( his chosen word), than when all is wonderful.
I found his essay soooooo touching!!

Other things....
Zooming, googling, hangouting, FaceTiming, groaning, crying, laughing, socially distanced, six-feet-apart, our faces armored with masks, isolation, uncertainty, cooking, walking, knitting, quilting art projects, cleaning, gardening, eating, TV, podcasts, phone calls, texting, too much news watching,
And....
Call your mother for god’s sake.....
Signs on lawns thanking our doctors and nurses and essential workers
And what about hugs? we cannot, can we?
Stay safe we say.
Stay healthy.

Many more powerful contributions....
Garth Stein, Ada Limon, Dani Shapiro, Lidia Yuknavitch, Kwame Alexander, Robin Black, Dinty Moore, Gina Frangello, N.L.Shompole,
Claudia Castro Luna, Devi S. Laskar, Lise Haines, Jennifer Rosner, Luis Alberto Urrea, Steve Yarbrough, Elizabeth Rosner, Alistair Bane, Jennifer Haupt, .....and more.

Big -BIG - thank you to Jennifer Haupt for providing me with this book!
I’d love to give dozens of the physical book away!
And....I hope “Alone Together” makes a substantial profit

Comes out September 1st, 2020.
A book ( I’d suggest the physical book), worth buying- one for yourself - another to someone you care about.

This book is definitely a MUST READ!

It is a very timely anthology of people around the US depicting their experiences with the pandemic. For us, in this new era, the pandemic hit us all in many different ways. Some people were scared on how would they survive, how their families would continue standing, or even how to pay the bills. For older people, it was threat, a bigger one since many seniors were dying and many died because of the pandemic. Many people blamed old people for this pandemic and weren't kind to them, by blaming it on them and by prioritizing medical equipment for others. For kids, it was a time where they couldn't see their friends, school was now online and presented new challenges and precious events like graduations were all done virtually marking all the graduating classes this year as a unique one. Being from a graduating class myself, I spent a lot of time frustrated towards the pandemic, but this book served as a relief, because it allows you to immerse yourself in other people's shoes. It shows us to be kinder with others and ourselves. It helps others understand how we're all going through this pandemic. Together, and even if sometimes it doesn't feel this way... with this book, it allows us to be in the moment and to understand and learn of how others are doing. It is relatable because we are living through it, it is for a good cause because this book not only is helping a local charity, but this book will go down in history years after this pandemic ends...

Thank Netgalley and the publisher for letting me read this book

First and foremost, a large thank you to NetGalley, Jennifer Haupt (editor), and Central Avenue Publishing for providing me with a copy of this publication, which allows me to provide you with an unbiased review.

The emergence of COVID-19 hit everyone in different ways. Some people struggled to understand what was going on around the world, while others panicked about how they would make a living. Jennifer Haupt capitalised on these varying sentiments and found a number of collaborators around the United States to share some of their feelings and thoughts about COVID-19 in its many forms. She collected these poems, interviews, journal entries, and essays into this collection, hoping to offer a life line to many who might feel completely alone (or those curious to see how others were coping). Additionally, she knew the importance of the written word and how it can only make it out there with strong go-betweens. While the internet is full of communication highways, many still love the idea of a book in hand and so Haupt sought to use sales of this collection to support booksellers, the essential lifeblood of the author and poet that connects them with the reading public. Within this collection, there are those who contribute and share what one might expect when discussing a pandemic; health and symptoms that appear to come out of nowhere. The reader will see how various people react when a cough turns into ‘lungs like cement’ and the ability to stay away becomes too much to handle. Other contributors talk about the isolation that forced social distancing has left the world, where there is no sense of personal interaction and relationships become about speaking to a screen. Still others talk about the struggles of being stuck behind a mask, covering who they are and how. their personalities cannot grow. COVID-19 not only created threads of alienation and self-panic, it forced the world to take notice of things that may not have been more than a blip on the screen. With little else to do but watch the news and read reports in newspapers, social movements actually rose to the forefront and were fuelled by those who bounded together, no longer too busy with work or life. Haupt’s various contributors talked about this as well, a positive that came out of so much panic and concern. Be it staring up at the sky and wondering what others are feeling, eating one’s favourite snack and not caring about the nutritional information on the package, or watching a person grieve and not be able to touch them due to social distancing, people have taken the new realities of COVID-19 and made them their own. This book offers a flickering candle to show that the arts community, particularly the written arts, has not been extinguished, even with new rules. This collection explores how we may all feel alone in our own ways, but we are together in the struggle to define what is to come! Recommended to those who want to feel that sense of togetherness by understanding the written word’s power to unite!

I am a fiction or fact-based reader for the most part, so when I was asked to read this piece by Jennifer Haupt herself, I was not sure if it would be for me. I love books and I respect booksellers are an essential piece to the delivery of this, so I agreed, in hopes of getting others interested and supporting those who sell books. Admittedly, poetry does not usually prove to be something that brings me home sooner to explore sentiment or expression, but those contained within the pages of this book seemed to speak to me. I have emotions and do share them, though I am not one who usually flocks to books with a central tenet of discussing them. These poems spoke to me, they pulled me in and showed me that I, too, have felt some of these feelings over the past number of months. The essays and journal entries fascinated me, particularly by those who have faced the illness side of things head-on. I became even more curious when discussion of social movements came to the forefront, especially how lack of outside interaction allowed them to gain momentum with people stuck seeing the images and words before them with little else to do in their day. I suppose what I am trying to say here is that the collaborators in this book spoke to me in ways I did not expect and kept me wanting to know more. I felt as though I could actually engage in a small discussion with them about struggles, feelings, insights, worries, happiness on the other side of it, and curiosity about what the new ‘norm’ might become. Jennifer Haupt has chosen well with a great cross-section of people to contribute to this piece, each offering their own flavouring to this behemoth that has taken over our lives. Symbolically and literally, the world has been masked by rules and worry and uncertainty, but there is also hope, albeit slow and socially distance driven. Some of the entries are a handful of pages, while others barely fill a few lines. This mix leaves something for everyone and the reader can pick what works for them to heal, entertain, or engage. Whatever that might be, the themes that arise here are well sorted and keeps the reader thinking from the outset. A great piece that I can only hope unites as well as supports those who need it most. Refreshing in its delivery, I can admit that I was not expecting to enjoy this book as much as I did, but am glad I took the time to read it from cover to cover.

Kudos, Madam Haupt and all your collaborators, for opening my eyes to all perspectives of the pandemic!

I enjoyed reading through each of these essays, poems, and interviews. I originally requested this book because I am a Nikki Giovanni fan, but ended up discovering many different authors/poets that I will absolutely be reading more from in the future. There were a mix of uplifting stories and heartbreaking ones. The point of this book was that we were not alone during this pandemic, even though we were in isolation and I absolutely believe this compilations proved that. It just shows how everyone is connected through their emotions even if we can physically be connected. During unsure times like these, I am eternally grateful for gems like this book to help get us through! I will absolutely be recommending this to everyone.

There were stories in this that i absolutely loved, and ones i really didnt. My favourite one was by Elizabeth Rosner, who’s story of her parents, both survivors of the Holocaust, kept their faith and hope alive. The message of that was beautiful, and i really felt the power and warmth of her and her ancestors. Other stories i skimmed through. There was one i thought was distasteful; a writer said covid was the antihero, showing how important nature and climate ect ect is. Whilst we do need to treat our world with more care, it seems a bit distasteful and offensive with millions dead from this disease: i dont think them or their loved ones would call covid an anti-hero.. we can, and should, appreciate and care for the climate better without framing covid as some big thankful wakeup call.

Beautiful collection of stories and poems from famous authors about the situation we are currently we are living in. Well written. Highly recommend. I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

This collection is marvellous, let me tell ya. COVID is driving me (and everyone else, it seems) insane. Being stuck inside, being forced to work to pay bills, being scared and anxious and worried... We're all in the same boat, even when we're not. We're all in this together. And this book reminds readers of this.

Faith Adiele's The New Old Vocabulary showed me COVID from a very different angle. I'm up in Canada, just chilling at home, doing full time school and reading my little heart out. I'm picking up new hobbies and trying my best, but her comments... It put life into a perspective. I complained about being alone, but having the opportunity to be semi-safe, but not everyone in the U.S.A. is. The stats about African American men being arrested when they're just trying to help homeless people... It hurts. It makes my soul ache. Really ache.

Andre Dubus the Third's story made my eyes well up, reading about his mother-in-law's thoughts on COVID. It hurt. It hurt real bad. But at the same time, it made me not feel alone. I'm not the only one questioning why this is here. It made humanity feel so much better than the crazies in my town screaming and threatening each other if they get 10 feet near them.

Laura Stanfill's story about Priya... It makes me weep. It's so close to home, yet so beautifully written. Grace Talusan's also made my heart feel so sad. Jean Kowk's gave me hope, and made my heart sing because I related to it in so many ways.

Then there's more poems, and essays, and interviews, and short stories throughout. Some will bring tears, some will open your eyes and some will give you hope. There is no doubt in my mind that there is a piece of work in this for everyone. It'll make you feel connected to a community you didn't know was there. It made me feel more at home then I have in months, which is a feat all in itself. It's nice knowing that we're not alone in this big battle.

There's love, hate, fear and hope throughout. This is one absolutely incredible collection that I am so happy and proud of picking up. We need books to remind us of our humanity sometimes, and this book did it.

Also, the reminders of George Floyd, and the racism and hate that still lingers... It's as bad as COVID, if not worse. Because racism is avoidable if people could be kind, COVID and super viruses, not as much.

We need justice.

Five out of five stars.

First of all, thanks NetGallery giving me an advanced copy of this beautiful book to exchange for a honest review.

This book is collection of essays, poems, and interviews from a group of authors describing their lives and experiences during the unprecedented time of COVID-19. Having working remotely for more than four months and do everything virtually, I feel I have disconnected from the outside world. I miss human interaction badly. This book gives me a lens of seeing what other people's lives look like this time. There have been some essays talking about the lost of the family members and the new normal of their everyday lives. One of the authors talks about he dropped off the grocery to his family members one by one....he said he "changes to new plastic gloves after each round of grocery drop off" which can tell how contagious and badly this virus is. Reading this book soothes me and let me know I am not alone.

The difficult time will pass, we need to stay positive and act together to fight this virus. We also need to help each other regardless their race, gender, and age. I highly recommend this book!

Note - My comments have been posted on Goodreads

Alone Together is an impressive collection of prose and poetry around the Covid-19 crisis, with the net proceeds going to the Book Industry Charitable Foundation. There’s some marvellous writing on display here - Jennifer Haupt has done a stellar job of sourcing contributions. Although all the pieces are short, as you would expect it’s not an easy read emotionally - I had to put the book aside at times to recover a bit.

It’s a US collection and hence has both commonalities and differences from the UK experience. A similar transatlantic version (is there one? there should be) would no doubt reference Thursday evening clapping for the NHS and social care, lockdown-defying government adviser trips to Durham, etc. Both nations share appalling government responses and “leaders” who seem to think leadership consists of simply repeating what they’d like to be the case, regardless of evidence, but Alone Together is, probably wisely, light on politics, focusing on personal experiences. There’s more books to be written about that, and many will be.

Thought provoking, harrowing and at times uplifting.

This is a book you should buy, even though you may or may not want to read it for a while. You may want to put a copy away like a time capsule, or use it to inspire your journaling during this challenging time.

It's a fundraising anthology of short essays and poetry regarding the COVID-19 pandemic. Net proceeds will be donated to a foundation for independent bookstores. The e-book collects the work of 91 authors; the print edition will include 69.

So it's for a good cause. Is it a good book?

Much of it, yes, very good. Stephen Kiernan's "These Nights of Candles" is an aching howl of twilight loneliness, and the context in which it is shared (reading the poem over the phone to a friend taking an anxiety bath) is both tender and absurd, like so many pandemic connections. Poignant images in other pieces speak of fear, isolation, and the need for support - an author's mysteriously withering trees; naming one's sourdough starter (complete with gender-identified pronouns); a remote funeral where the Zoom mourners stand watch over the empty room once the body is removed, until someone finally remembers to turn them off.

Like any anthology, quality varies, and what I preferred may not be what you will favor. Some pieces were rougher than others, as though there was still some processing/polishing to be done. Others incorporated past work or events in ways that did not always resonate. I wish there had been more geographic diversity among the authors, as the representation favors the coasts, with an emphasis on Seattle. And even though I admired much of the work, it was challenging to absorb all these heavy emotions at a time when everything is all still present and close. (Kudos to Jean Kwok, who was funny and moving at the same time.)

This book will remind you and your family how this year felt - what we lost, what we gained, what we never want to lose again. It's a book to buy, give, and keep. Maybe let it breathe a little.

Many thanks to NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

A M A Z I N G !

I received the confirmation from NetGalley about having access to the advanced copy of this book in the middle of the night and I immediately started reading it. Since this pandemic started, I've been wanting to read how this situation has affected everyone, no matter the color of their skin, their affluence, their social and employment status and their mental health.

I loved the introduction by Garth Stein and the whole project!

"One of the gifts of this time, [ ] we are going to develop some new *old* ways of interacting with each other" - Kwame Alexander

"Books, literature, and language allow us to understand that we are more similar than we are different" Kwame Alexander

This is a book that without a doubt I will be buying as I want to display it in my living room as a part of history. A book that is capable of summarising all my feelings and fears with different essays and stories.

I just love an author with heart, and Jennifer Haupt certainly has one of the biggest hearts in the industry. I first encountered Ms. Haupt's talent when I read In the Shadow of 10,000 Hills in 2018 which focused on the Rwandan genocide and stories of "amahoro" (peace). As a former journalist, she was able to interview survivors of the brutality, which led her to pour her heart into creating that incredibly important novel - she stayed at it for the next eleven years after her visit to Rwanda in 2006. The result was breathtaking.

Fast forward to 2020, and Jennifer Haupt pours her heart into yet another valuable undertaking. She is acutely aware of what the pandemic's effects on the economy have done to independent booksellers, and devises a brilliant and compassionate plan to piece together an anthology to raise money for The Book Industry Charitable Foundation. She gathers 77 authors to create this work of art and determines that ALL profits will be donated to this cause!!!

When I heard about this, I was just astonished that her sole purpose in compiling this anthology was to help others who had helped her in the past. As she stated, "Long before the pandemic hit, independent bookstores were the pillars of a worldwide literary community and the mainstays of neighborhoods across the country...", and she is bound and determined to help them make it through this crisis.

So, I immersed myself into this melange of talent and found myself laughing, crying, and cheering right along with these fellow humans who had just undergone the same life-changing events we can all relate to: the effects of Covid-19. Whether the authors of these stories, poems, and interviews were transformed because of direct or indirect experiences with this virulent beast, each of them had something profound to share with those of us enduring the same pain and confusion.

Obviously, as any anthology would surely prove, there are some entries that hit home for some readers and not others, but within this treasure, you're bound to find many you love. As an added bonus, you may discover some new authors, just as I did!

So, mark your calendars for September 1st, when this book hits shelves, and make sure to buy a copy (or three) to support those who make our passion of reading possible!

Bravo again, Jennifer Haupt! What a joy it is to follow your work!

Many thanks to NetGalley and Central Avenue Publishing for gifting me with this advanced reader's copy in exchange for an honest review.

Check out my blog at https://mamasgottaread.blogspot.com/ or follow me on Insta or Twitter @mamasgottaread

Did not appeal to me at all. Difficult to read. Not sure if it was supposed to look this way, but it appeared on my kindle as poetry rather than prose.

During those productive days when I wanted to see this time away from the norm as a time to accomplish everything, I toyed with journaling. I think this collection can, in some ways, serve as the journal that I didn’t keep for myself as it chronicles a time that is surely going to forever transform how we live in the world.

This book is equal parts redemptive and damning. It is hope and it is despair. It is the full range of complex feelings and sentiments that have enveloped many of us during this tumultuous & uncertain time. As my neck of the woods faces numbers on the rise, I don’t quite feel ready to see the hope in my daily existence. But maybe considering the ant or the infant ram saved from their untimely demise will help me redirect my efforts in the days ahead.

Buy this one. Save it as a time capsule. You will forget these days. You will. Words keep those important details alive for us.

Alone Together captures lockdown as it was: the grief, confusion and community. Well-structured, the anthology allows for every experience, expressed by a diverse selection of authors, to stand as valid. The sheer quantity of material, with even more promised in the e-book, is impressive (particularly in light of the fantastic literary charity the text supports). That said, much of the content is too raw to consume in any great quantity just yet. In time, Haupt's collection will serve as a poignant reminder of a period of intense and quickly-changing emotions that already feels somewhat nostalgic to recall.

Thank you, NetGalley, for the ARC in exchange for review.

I needed to read this book. You need to read this book. As I'm writing, I'm on month 4, day 4 of "stay at home/save lives" status. Even I, someone who gets excited about a weekend at home, am going a little batty. My nerves are shot. My stress level is through the roof. I cannot handle the direction (or lack thereof) of our country. And I'm not even sick.

Anthologies are a welcome read for me at any time. I discover a lot of new-to-me authors this way. Now, I needed these "new friends" to tell me their stories, if only to know I'm not alone. I learn from the PTSD of others who've suffered much more than I. The poetry speaks to my heart. I commiserate with those who hate our president as much as I despise him.

Now I'm off to discover the works of each author. I hope you, too, find solace in Alone Together.

This anthology is an amazing collection of essays and poems that really capture a snapshot of living through COVID19 in 2020. It brings together a variety of voices with all different perspectives on what is going on. It is easy to relate to and brings up some topics and ideas that help people to understand that they are not the only ones feeling this way right now. It is a great portrait of the way life has been in 2020 that will be a great capsule for those who want to look back in the future. All of the essays and poems vary in length, style, and tone, which creates a brilliant blend that will appeal to many different kinds of readers. This is a great read for those who are feeling alone and like they are the isolated in their feelings.