Little Victories: Perfect Rules for Imperfect Living

Gay makes his debut with a hilarious, heartwarming set of essays covering such mundane topics as parenthood, exercise, office life, travel, and the holidays. He presents the book as a riff on his popular Wall Street Journal sports column, organizing the entries around his rules for life (which include “don’t serve soup at a dinner party,” “spend a little more money on flowers,” and “you really should listen to more Stevie Wonder”). He frames these rules with two key events: the birth of his children, Jesse and Josie, via in vitro fertilization, and the shockingly swift death of his father from pancreatic cancer. Along the way, readers will alternately feel the urge to laugh and cry at Gay’s irreverent, witty writing. His insights on each topic are spot-on yet gentle. Any readers who pick up this book will finish it convinced that following Gay’s rules will make their lives more enjoyable, and perhaps even make them better people. Agent: David McCormick, McCormick & Williams. (Nov.)