Author Patricia Hampl at Readers’ Books on Aug. 17

Patricia Hampl’s newest book celebrates daydreaming and letting go|

Sonoma, the first “slow city” in the United States, knows the value of taking its time.

Author Patricia Hampl, who has had a lifelong fascination with contemplation, solitude, and silence, explores these values in her newest book, “The Art of the Wasted Day.”

“Life conceived - and lived - as a to-do list. This is the problem,” she writes. Her newest book celebrates daydreaming and letting go. Hampl writes about her travels from Bordeaux, to rural Wales, to taking a retreat at a Benedictine monastery, and to a boat trip down the Mississippi River to showcase the power of repose and seclusion.

She is the author of six books, including “A Romantic Education” and, most recently, “The Florist’s Daughter.”

She has been included four times in the New York Times’ ”notable books” section; she has been a National Book Critics Circle Award finalist; and she is a MacArthur Award winner.

Her work has appeared in the New Yorker, the Paris Review, the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times and Best American Essays. She has been the recipient of fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts and the MacArthur Foundation.

She lives in St. Paul, Minnesota.

Hampl will be at Readers’ Books on Friday, Aug. 17, with a 6:30 p.m. reception and 7 p.m. reading.

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