As with all these collections, there were some standout essays and some you'll need to skip. This collection was also more queer than I was expecting (in a good way).

Standout essays:
Harold Brodkey writing in the New Yorker about his AIDS diagnosis, and the support of his wife and his lovers.

Bernard Cooper writing in the LA Times Magazine about when and how he realized he was gay as a child, and how his family reacted.

W.S. Di Piero writing in the Threepenny Review about language, specifically the Italian dialects he grew up hearing at home and how they influenced the English his family spoke.

Henry Louis Gates writing in the New Yorker about his mother's kitchen (aka her hair salon) and a reflection on Black hair in America.

Charles Simic writing in Creative Nonfiction a series of micro essays. Each a paragraph or two long. Little vignettes and observations of his life and the world around him.