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“A delightful memoir from a bibliophile attuned to how books become personal relics through use, adoration, and time.” – Deborah Lutz, author of
The Brontë Cabinet: Three Lives in Nine Objects

“…a wonderfully wise and discursive meditation on grief, childhood, memory, and the pleasures of rereading…” – Katharine Smyth, author of
All the Lives We Ever Lived: Seeking Solace in Virginia Woolf

“Czarnecki’s prose is fluid and honest, never slow.” – John Ronan,
producer and host of The Writer’s Block

When I lost both my parents within nine months, I sought solace in books—but not just any books. In Encounters with Inscriptions, I write about the books inscribed and given to me by my parents over the years—an array of novels, short stories, poetry, nature writing, cultural criticism, and a cookbook.

As I explore each book, I focus not only on loss but also on the complexities of childhood, on family and friendship, and on the rewards of a life spent reading.