Book ‘em: Gay’s ‘Delights’ and a Panda’s Predicament

Ross Gay’s The Book of Delights, UCSB Reads’ 2025 selection, is a New York Times bestselling collection of essays – written daily over the course of a year – celebrating small, ordinary wonders. Gay’s humorous, poetic and philosophical essays cover a wide range of topics, with vignettes that include such luminous oddities as sharing a high five with a stranger, and cradling a tomato seedling aboard an airplane. In the book as well as in his free appearance at Campbell Hall on May 8, Gay shares how staking out a space for joy can bring us closer together – something of a remedy for our troubled times. 

Santa Barbara-based writer Mike Bender – author of the No. 1 New York Times bestseller Awkward Family Photos as well as the Junior Library Guild Selection The Book About Nothing and (of course) kids favorite The Most Serious Fart – heads back to Chaucer’s Books on May 10 for a reading and signing of his latest children’s book Bored Panda. The tech-loving title character is forlorn when the electricity goes out, but his depressing no-screens day turns into a joyful experience in the great outdoors, full of fun and surprises no screen could provide.