Every leftover begins with hope. So does every china cabinet. We are an optimistic species, and nowhere is it more obvious than in the things we save. The Great Leftover Experiment is a warm, very funny field study of humanity's oldest habit: keeping things for a future that never quite shows up. It starts at the back of the refrigerator - the mystery container, the beige leftovers slowly turning into archaeology, the mustard older than several relationships, the ten-year turkey still in the garage freezer. Then it opens the good china cabinet, where the same hopeful habit is quietly waiting: the plates too nice to use, the silver nobody polishes, the furniture that outlives us, and the heirlooms the kids very kindly don't want. Written as a series of short, sharp, oddly comforting essays, it's a book about leftovers - the kind you make and the kind you inherit. But underneath the jokes is the truth we all share: nobody is operating at full capacity, everybody is saving something for a better tomorrow, and the special occasion we keep waiting for is usually just an ordinary Tuesday.

A perfect gift for anyone with a full freezer, a junk drawer, a china cabinet they're afraid to open ¿ or a mother who saved every address label the mail ever sent her. Part of the Oddly Comforting Collection: delightfully unnecessary, surprisingly meaningful. Use the good dishes. That's the whole point.