20th-century acceptance addiction adult-education adulthood adversity afghanistan afghanistan-war ambition america american american-author american-dream american-expat american-history american-literature architecture autobiographical autobiography bereavement biography boston bravery building challenges character-driven combat combat-experiences comedy comedy-writing coming-of-age communication community construction coping courage craftsmanship creativity cultural cultural-commentary cultural-differences cultural-misunderstandings culture culture-shock death design determination domestic-life duty dysfunctional-family education emotional emotional-journey emotions entertaining entertainment essay-collection essays expat-life exploration family family-dynamics family-relationships foreign-language france french-language friendship funny grief grief-journey grief-process healing historic-preservation historical history home home-improvement homelessness hope house housing housing-crisis humanity humor humor-writing humorist identity illness inspiration interior-design introspection introspective iraq iraq-war journalism journey kidder language language-barrier language-barriers language-humor language-learning learning life life-after-war life-experiences linguistics literature loss love marriage massachusetts memoir memoirist memoirs memories memory mental-health mental-illness military military-families military-service misadventures miscommunication misfit mourning narrative narrative-nonfiction new-england non-fiction nonfiction observational-humor paris patriotism perseverance personal-essays personal-growth personal-journey personal-narrative personal-stories personal-tragedy perspective post-traumatic-stress-disorder post-war poverty preservation psychological psychology ptsd pulitzer-prize pulitzer-prize-winner pulitzer-prize-winning pulitzer-prize-winning-author real-estate recovery redemption reflection rehabilitation relationship relationships renovation resilience restoration rural rural-life sacrifice sarcasm satire self-deprecating self-deprecating-humor self-discovery self-reflection small-town social-class social-commentary social-issues social-justice soldier soldiers sorrow storytelling struggle success survival teaching tracy tragedy transformation trauma travel triumph true-story veteran veterans war widowhood wit witty writing