Nathen B

I don't know man. The writing was good and I like the idea of short essays about everyday, mundane, small stuff makes us happy. But this was a bit too "upity" if you will. It ignores too much of daily suffering, which I should have expected given the title. Ross Gay's writing lacks depth and is frequently strung together it seems loosely. The book felt pointless. Empty. Devoid of shared emotions. Ross Gay also comes off as smug. He's vegan, his delights are often looking at and tasting fruit from trees in Indiana of all places. It just wasn't for me. It made me feel like I was reading a TV infomercial. Everything is fine, you just have to look at the world differently. Like I was being sold some idealistic utopia of vegan, Midwestern, hippie life.

Maybe because I know a little about the weed industry and am a Colorado native, but most of this was second nature to me. I learned basically nothing. Just a mildly entertaining story of an naive east coaster who had the money to buy a farm in Boulder. Good for him. His story isn't special. If it was poorly written, I'd have never made it past chapter two.