Exactly as the title promised: even more delights! ( )

As he did in The Book of Delights, poet Ross Gay spends a year writing out everyday things that delight him. Eighty-one are included here, ranging widely in topic and tone, and including an appendix of "short" delights that didn't make a full essay and books that he mentions in the text or was reading while he wrote these.

Each essayette is only about 2-3 pages long, making it perfect to dip into at busy times. Even so, I could have finished it faster, but held myself back, wanting to savor the read and engage with Gay's thoughts. Despite the name, not every essay is happy and it's not at all twee. There's real life here, including grief and racism and the full gamut of human experiences. But, without that, can we really experience what we call delight anyways? Gay makes me want to do something similar myself, to ruminate on quotidian delights and enjoy them all the more. Highly recommended. ( )

Ross Gay is back with a second book of essays on finding delight in daily life.

After completing his Book of Delights, Gay realized that the practice of daily essays could be a lifelong habit and continued the project.

The essays are quickly written by hand and unedited so that their immediacy and casualness feels like a conversation, complete with interrupting asides and clarifications.

I enjoyed so many of these essays. But others I was unable to connect with, being too old, too ignorant of sports or music that brings him delight. I lived just north of his Pennsylvania hometown for a few years and got a kick out of knowing the references.

He delights in his childhood friend and in finding the perfect notebook or spoon or cup. He puzzles over cars parked in the middle of the street and thinks about how boys rarely smile, as if there was a prohibition.

“Delight compels us to share,” Gay asserts, reflecting on his “basket of delights,” the letters received from readers of his book, particularly the one signed off with “Love.”

There is an Appendix of Brief Delights, pages of run-on things that many of us also delight in: walking arm-in-arm, goldfinches nesting in a flower basket, the word belong, walking at night in the dark. Also there is For Further Reading, a sharing of the books Gay “was in conversation” with while writing, some of which he mentions in the essays.

I commend anyone who helps us to focus on the every day encounters that uplift us.

Thanks to the publisher for a free book. ( )