This is a celebration of life, of the apparently usual, mundane moments passing that we tend to undermine and not fully appreciate for the pure wonder and privilege that they are.

With charm and humour, the writer presents us with snippets of his daily life, taking us from the streets of Amsterdam, to squirrels trapped into cocklofts and dogs named Aristophanes. His ability of capturing the human spirit and the interactions between people, mantaining their authenticity while also offering ideas to ponder on and reasons to laugh out loud, is quite remarkable. You can feel that a great observer and wise soul is behind this, and that he is having a blast writing the stories down because that enjoyment gets carried to the reader. There's even a chapter where the narrator talks with a Romanian translator about the word "dor" which brought and grounded this even closer to home for me.

If the content of the book up to that point wasn't enough to make me love this (but it was), the afterword would have definitely sealed the deal. I'm always happy when creators share their experiences and talk about fellow artists and works that inspire them and this is exactly what I got into those last pages.

Uplifting, witty, and honest this is the perfect read to remind you to look for pleasure into the simple things and to be more present.

It's not often that I find a book that makes me laugh and chuckle out loud. Not only is Kyle Smith's writing humorous and insightful but I connected in a very real way to his words and experiences. To paraphrase, "Life is the real masterpiece" and these vignettes from Kyle and Julius' marriage show how truly wonderful 'ordinary' really is in the scope of what has the power to touch us the most.

One of the things I liked most was how Smith relays the communication between he and his husband-- revealing things that go much deeper than the words of the situation he describes. Smith exposes the deep love and understanding the two have for one another, simply through the daily discourse of their lives. Sharing his unique perspective, Smith reinforces the fact that we all have a story to tell. The art and poetry is in the telling.

I received a copy from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.