Second Star: And Other Reasons for Lingering

A #1 bestseller in France, Second Star is an inspiring series of lyrical meditations on life’s smallest moments, from peeling a clementine, drinking a cold mojito, to washing your windowsA still life in motion, Second Star “consumes the present” with a patient curiosity, asking us to “put off tomorrow” and join Philippe Delerm in tasting, touching, listening, and noticing.
Whether biting into a bitter turnip or savoring a summer evening in June, Philip Delerm’s literary snapshots transport us to simple, often overlooked sensations and pleasures, and, pausing, expand a moment or emotion outwards in concentric circles. Vividly translated by Jody Gladding, these evocative vignettes invite us to linger, to “savor the few moments of silence”––as if each bite of a ripe watermelon, each exhaled breath on a bitterly cold day, each cloudy evening on the beach, were our last.