Amazon.com Review

This French bestseller revels in life's small pleasures. Whether it be a croissant in the street, the Tour de France, a potluck, shelling peas, a glass of port, the smell of apples, the mobile library, a garden in August, getting your espadrilles wet, or an autumn sweater, these 34 short essays delight in the simple. In colorful, sensory language that's perfect for reading out loud, author Philippe Delerm paints a world of possibility and profound joy.

From the title essay:

It's the almost that counts, and the use of the conditional. The suggestion seems absurd at first. It's only the beginning of March and there's been nothing but rain, wind and showers all week. And now this. Since this morning, the sun's been shining with a sort of dull intensity, a calm persistence. Lunch is ready, and the table's been laid. But everything seems different somehow, even inside. The window's slightly ajar, there's an audible hum from outside and the air feels fresh.

Though it could easily be read in one sitting, this book is the kind to savor piece by piece like the delicacies of day-to-day life the author serves up as small, precious gifts. --Kathryn True

From Kirkus Reviews

Another attempt to jump on the bandwagon of the so-called simplicity movement, this time with a Gallic twist. This is French bestseller Delerms first book to be published in the US, and at first glance it would seem to fit quite comfortably among the hordes of books currently exhorting Americans to slow down and enjoy the mundane joys of life. Unfortunately, the author tends to wring the pleasure from most of the simple things he recommends for appreciation. The book, which consists of 34 short chapters (none more than three pages long), extols the virtues of, for instance, blackberry picking, going to the movies, and looking through a kaleidoscope, and its quite possible that readers will go and perform the activities Delerm describes, if only to escape his precious and overwrought prose. His rhapsody on an autumn sweater could double as an entry in the J. Peterman catalog: Time for a new sweater. Time to dress in autumn tones: sweet chestnut, brushwood, conker husk, russula pink. Time to wear the season on your woollen sleeve. To celebrate the blaze before it burns itself out. Though its armchair philosophy is tiresome, the book is somewhat attractive as armchair travel, since a number of the pleasures that Delerm endorses are specifically French, such as the moving walkway in the Montparnasse metro station or the best way to play ptanque. And his descriptions of food and drink, which uphold Frances position as a nation of gourmands, will delight foodiesespecially the chapter on A Sunday Morning Box of Pastries, which puts American delicacies like Krispy Kremes to shame. Well intentioned, but remarkably tedious for such a short book. -- Copyright ©1999, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

The number-one bestseller in France: A charming medititation on the pleasures of life, from shelling peas to reading on the beach.

"A tiny breeze of delirious wisdom which changes everything and nothing...We could almost eat outside."

An enchanting valentine to the everyday delights life has to offer, this short book captured the imagination of the French public last year and became a number-one bestseller. Sales are now over 600,000 copies. In each brief chapter the author contemplates the seemingly ordinary experiences that add joy to life, whether it's the first sip of beer, the snowstorm inside a paperweight, reading an Agatha Christie novel, or the smell of apples.

At once uniquely French and yet universal, told with a lively, almost childlike curiosity, this charming book reminds us to enjoy and appreciate the small things that make life worthwhile.