Wonder: Creative Spark Consulting, LLC

The world is still full of wonder. We've just been too busy to look.

We move through our days half-awake - rushing past the poppies, skipping the concert, ducking in out of the rain and missing the experience waiting around the corner. And then, every so often, something stops us cold. A lilting ballad. A painting in the museum we almost skipped. A friend who holds fast to joy and grace at the absolute edge of everything. In those moments, we remember what it feels like to be fully, achingly alive.

Wonder is a sanctuary for those moments - and an invitation to see them in the middle of our busy, over-scheduled lives.

In thirteen lyric essays across four movements, Gary Waddell takes you on a sweeping journey: from a twilight backyard in North Carolina to a Parisian chapel in the rain, from a Schubert melody to a sculptor's improbable survival, from a desert sky of breathtaking brilliance to a porch at the end of a life well-lived. Along the way, he makes a quietly radical case - that wonder isn't a luxury reserved for grand vistas and rare occasions, but is the very point of it all, available to anyone willing to pay attention.

Tender, luminous, and unhurried, Wonder belongs on the shelf beside Anna Quindlen's A Short Guide to a Happy Life, Ross Gay's The Book of Delights, Aimee Nezhukumatathil's World of Wonders: In Praise of Fireflies, Whale Sharks, and Other Astonishments, and the lyric poetry of Mary Oliver. It is a book to keep, to return to, and to give - to anyone who has everything, or would welcome a reminder to breathe deeply and notice the wonder in front of them.

Wonder awaits. Just look.