We’ve been hearing from so many of you about two books in particular that have been bringing you comfort and inspiration and joy:The Book of Delights by Ross Gay and What Unites Us by Dan Rather and Elliot Kirschner.

The Book of Delights
When author and poet Ross Gay wrote short “essayettes” about the things that delighted him every day for a year, he didn’t know it’d be the perfect guide, exercise, and companion in these times.As he told Bim Adewunmi on NPR’s “This American Life,” he learned that we have to seek out delight, actively look for it: “Being in a state of trying to train your curiosity, and trying to train this sense of not knowing. Delight and curiosity are really tied up. You have to be OK with not knowing things. You have to be actually invested and happy about not knowing things.”

What Unites Us
Dan Rather’s calm voice has been so reassuring during these uncertain days. His videos and social media posts have been a daily comfort, and these words from the chapter titled “Steady” in What Unites Us keep bubbling to the top of mind, even more applicable to these days than when he wrote it:

“I am worried, but I hear the voice of my father once more: ‘Steady, Danny. Steady.’ I remind myself and others that we have been through big challenges in the past, that it often seems darkest in the present . . . And regardless of the invariable ups and downs that stretch before us in the future, I hope we can at least vow to try to remain steady. I would like to think that those around me would say that was one lesson I learned well.”