The Book of (More) Delights: Essays

Award-winning poet Gay returns with another collection of essayettes, compiling a year’s worth of eloquent gratitude for ordinary things—that is, if you consider the satisfaction of being weirdly early for a coffee shop meeting or a cluster of sweet potatoes that looks like snuggled bunnies to be “ordinary.” This is like reading the gratitude journal I wish I could write: there’s no false cheer here, just deep joy and copious appreciation for the wonder and frailty of our everyday lives. Be sure not to miss—and maybe even begin with—the Appendix of Brief Delights and reading list tucked in the back. You could certainly gulp down the whole book at once, but I can’t think of a more delightful fall routine than starting the day with a nice cup of something delicious and one of Gay’s essayettes.