Coming October 2026
A lilting piece of music. An incandescent work of art glimpsed across a crowded room. A tattered photograph found while looking for something else. A friend who holds fast to joy and grace at the absolute edge of everything.
Wonder is a sanctuary for those moments — the ones that find us when we aren’t looking and remind us what it feels like to be fully alive.
In thirteen lyric essays drawn across four movements, Gary Waddell takes us on a sweeping journey from a twilight backyard in North Carolina, to a Parisian chapel, to a desert sky of breathless brilliance, illuminating the quiet, improbable course we chart as we make our way back to wonder.
For readers of Anna Quindlen’s A Short Guide to a Happy Life, Ross Gay’s The Book of Delights, and Mary Oliver.
Wonder arrives October 2026 in hardcover, paperback, and ebook, with an audiobook to follow.
Early Words
“I was deeply impacted and moved by this charming book. I laughed and I cried. It is the rare book that moves me to these heartfelt emotions. The author truly gives us a present, in the art of being present… Wonder reminds us to slow down, notice, and to find beauty that surrounds our everyday experience. Wonder is genuine, it is tender, and it is courageous in its vulnerability.”— An early reader
“[Waddell] gives you permission to be genuinely amazed — not just by the grand and the obvious, but by the texture of ordinary life. You don’t need to be standing in a Parisian museum to feel it. You can find it in your own backyard — with fireflies.”— Jean Holbrook, Ed.D., San Mateo County Superintendent of Schools, Retired
“You are inspiring me to start writing down my thoughts… or to start painting again.”— An early reader
Join the Wonder list and the opening essay comes straight to your inbox — along with launch news and occasional letters about the art of paying attention.