Caleb Azumah Nelson’s Small Worlds (Grove Press) offers us this reminder: so much of remaining human, so much of the labour of being alive, is about seeking beauty in the everyday. Nelson’s sophomore novel explores beauty through the practice of making an intentional space for oneself. I think of what this looks like for me: the buoyancy I feel as good music washes over me, my face scrunching up and my head bopping as incense smoke fills my room; walking without a destination on a windy day in High Park, listening to