The thirteen installments in Misty Urban's The Necessaries: Stories take readers on a journey through the human experience with all of its varied heartbreak and universal desires: death, disease, love, connection, and belonging. Regardless of the time available for reading, there's a story in this book that will fit, from the super-condensed page and a quarter to a near-novella sized fifty-three pages, with various lengths in between. Each of the thirteen stories features fully-formed, nuanced, and distinct characters, each with his or her own personality, ambition, voice, and story to tell. Themes include dealing with a loved one's failing health, the blurred line between sanity and insanity, taking risks, finding love, leading a nation, accepting the way things are, letting go, hanging on, and figuring out who you are. All of it is done in Ms. Urban's poetic style, literary language, and detailed descriptions, which leave you feeling like you are there, witnessing, and forever carrying these characters with you, regardless of the length of time spent with them in the book's pages.