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I thought this was a short story collection. Someone I read online had recommended an earlier short story, but this was what my library had. The book interweaves two very different story lines, so it wasn't until chapter three that I realized.
One line consists of letters from a post Civil War woman running a boarding house in Tenessee to her deceased sister, while dealing with a boarder who may John Wilkes Booth. The other is the first person narrative of a Finn, a teacher losing his brother to cancer, and his ex-girlfriend to suicide. There are echoes within each story line of the other, but to say this doesn't neatly wrap things up is an understatement. Which is fine by me, although perhaps I wasn't in the right frame of mind for the mix of grief and insanity.

An out-of-order diary that makes a point of emphasizing that it's been edited and sorted after the fact. I find it twee in places, and of course it's hard for me to identify with a successful academic in the years before Trump 1.

@mouse@bookwyrm.social I read this just a few months ago -- can't remember what spurred me to get it. I liked it a lot, although sometimes the prose gets a little too purple for my taste.

This is a very light biography of John Donne. Selections from his poetry are sparse as well, though the book is making the case its being relevant to modern readers. The approach made it much more accessible at the risk of reducing the overall impact. It still was interesting, though I would have liked more historical background than was given.