The Book of (More) Delights: Essays (Hardcover)
September 2023 Indie Next List
“Oh, to have delights again! No one writes about the dearness of our human frailty with the generosity and good humor of Ross Gay. I can’t wait to wear these delights out to the same degree as the first, and become more present in doing so.”
— Abbey Paxton, Storyhouse Bookpub, Windsor Heights, IA
Description
The New York Times bestselling author of The Book of Delights and Inciting Joy is back with exactly the book we need in these unsettling times.
“Keenly observed and delivered with deftness, these essays are a testament to the artfulness of attention and everyday joy.” —Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
In Ross Gay’s new collection of small, daily wonders, again written over the course of a year, one of America’s most original voices continues his ongoing investigation of delight.
For Gay, what delights us is what connects us, what gives us meaning, from the joy of hearing a nostalgic song blasting from a passing car to the pleasure of refusing the “nefarious” scannable QR code menus, from the tiny dog he fell hard for to his mother baking a dozen kinds of cookies for her grandchildren. As always, Gay revels in the natural world—sweet potatoes being harvested, a hummingbird carousing in the beebalm, a sunflower growing out of a wall around the cemetery, the shared bounty from a neighbor’s fig tree—and the trillion mysterious ways this glorious earth delights us.
The Book of (More) Delights is a volume to savor and share.
About the Author
Ross Gay is the New York Times bestselling author of the essay collections The Book of Delights and Inciting Joy and four books of poetry. His Catalog of Unabashed Gratitude won the National Book Critics Circle Award and the Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award, was a finalist for the National Book Award, and in 2022 was named an NEA Big Read title; and Be Holding won the 2021 PEN America Jean Stein Book Award. Gay is a founding board member of the Bloomington Community Orchard, a non-profit, free-fruit-for-all food justice and joy project and has received fellowships from Cave Canem, the Bread Loaf Writer’s Conference, and the Guggenheim Foundation. He teaches at Indiana University.
Praise For…
"Ross Gay is back, better than ever . . . This time he swings his basket higher, slower, for a whole new bevy of brainy and witty noticings."—Garden & Gun
"Another startling, sensuous collection of miniature essays... again and again, joy wins out over despair as Gay pays tribute to a world of people "'bumbling, flailing, hurting, failing, changing.'"—Booklist
“Keenly observed and delivered with deftness, these essays are a testament to the artfulness of attention and everyday joy.”—Kirkus Reviews
“Gay's work never sugar coats the difficulties or fragility of life, but it is still so hopeful.” —Wild Geese Bookshop—USA Today
“Enormously delightful. Gay is a master at amplifying the delights all around us”—Literary Hub
“His delightful observations of everyday life are a reminder that joy is all around us, we just have to be willing to look for it”—TIME.com
“His delightful observations of everyday life are a reminder that joy is all around us, we just have to be willing to look for it”—TheRoot.com
“Enchanting… These unforgettable vignettes will enhance readers’ appreciation for their own surroundings.” —Publishers Weekly