My next book of nonfiction, Frivolity: A Defense, will be published by Columbia University Press in September. I haven’t yet seen the cover, but I am currently buried in the proofs! I always find this stage in production nerve-wracking. I am afraid of missing some terrible typo. I worry about overlooking a flaw in the work, something I’ve missed in all my previous passages through the manuscript.

It’s hard to believe how soon Frivolity will be out in the world. This is how writing a book often feels. Long pauses followed by rapid shifts and developments. After 14 earlier books, I’m used to the process. And yet it still always takes me by surprise.

Frivolity is a book about joy. It asserts that we need that which is often dismissed as trivial or unimportant. It celebrates the delightful. And don’t we all need a little delight, right now?