Second Star is a series of lyrical meditations on life’s often overlooked joys, from peeling a clementine, sipping a cold mojito, to washing your windows. Whether biting into a bitter turnip or savoring a summer evening, Delerm pauses to consider each pang of pleasure. Vividly translated by Jody Gladding, these glimpses invite us to linger, 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. A still life in motion, Second Star “consumes the present” with a quiet curiosity, asking us to “put off tomorrow” and join Delerm in tasting, touching, listening, and noticing.