Name: Wintering
ISBN: 9780593189481

Katherine May

An intimate, revelatory book exploring the ways we can care for and repair ourselves when life knocks us down. Sometimes you slip through the cracks: unforeseen circumstances like an abrupt illness, the death of a loved one, a break up, or a job loss can derail a life. These periods of dislocation can be lonely and unexpected. For May, her husband fell ill, her son stopped attending school, and her own medical issues led her to leave a demanding job. Wintering explores how she not only endured this painful time, but embraced the singular opportunities it offered. A moving personal narrative shot through with lessons from literature, mythology, and the natural world, May's story offers instruction on the transformative power of rest and retreat. Illumination emerges from many sources: solstice celebrations and dormice hibernation, C.S. Lewis and Sylvia Plath, swimming in icy waters and sailing arctic seas. Ultimately Wintering invites us to change how we relate to our own fallow times. May models an active acceptance of sadness and finds nourishment in deep retreat, joy in the hushed beauty of winter, and encouragement in understanding life as cyclical, not linear. A secular mystic, May forms a guiding philosophy for transforming the hardships that arise before the ushering in of a new season.

The Power of Rest and Retreat in Difficult Times

Wintering

Retno Ika Safitri

taylor miles hopkins

Missie Green 

This description seems tragically relatable for far too many people. May had to stop. And that is what the book is about. Perhaps "wintering" is a privilege and a luxury. Perhaps you just can't. Perhaps you know you're on a fast slide down to death but it still looks like your only choice. At 7% here, let's see what more we can learn.

Travis Well

What can you do when you're already doing everything?

The problem with everything is that it ends up looking an awful lot like nothing: just one long haze of frantic activity with all the meaning sheared away. […] The preceding years are not a blank, exactly, but they are certainly a blur, and one that is strangely devoid of meaning, except for a clawing sense of survival.

Amelia

I am aware that I fly in the face of polite convention in doing this. The times when we fall out of sync with everyday life remain taboo. We're not raised to recognise wintering or to acknowledge its inevitability. Instead, we tend to see it as a humiliation, something that should be hidden from view lest we shock the world too greatly. We put on a brave public face and grieve privately; we pretend not to see other people's pain. We treat each wintering as an embarrassing anomaly that should be hidden or ignored. 

I read this over winter and it was quite helpful. I enjoyed lots of the ideas about living slowly and recovering during and after hard times. It has quite a one dimensional lens though.

Saskia Hughes 

Really lovely, even the second time round

Sarah Erle

A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER! AS HEARD ON NPR MORNING EDITION AND ON BEING WITH KRISTA TIPPETT “Katherine May opens up exactly what I and so many need to hear but haven't known how to name.” —Krista Tippett, On Being “Every bit as beautiful and healing as the season itself. . . . This is truly a beautiful book.” —Elizabeth Gilbert "Proves that there is grace in letting go, stepping back and giving yourself time to repair in the dark...May is a clear-eyed observer and her language is steady, honest and accurate—capturing the sense, the beauty and the latent power of our resting landscapes." —Wall Street Journal An intimate, revelatory book exploring the ways we can care for and repair ourselves when life knocks us down. Sometimes you slip through the cracks: unforeseen circumstances like an abrupt illness, the death of a loved one, a break up, or a job loss can derail a life. These periods of dislocation can be lonely and unexpected. For May, her husband fell ill, her son stopped attending school, and her own medical issues led her to leave a demanding job. Wintering explores how she not only endured this painful time, but embraced the singular opportunities it offered. A moving personal narrative shot through with lessons from literature, mythology, and the natural world, May's story offers instruction on the transformative power of rest and retreat. Illumination emerges from many sources: solstice celebrations and dormice hibernation, C.S. Lewis and Sylvia Plath, swimming in icy waters and sailing arctic seas. Ultimately Wintering invites us to change how we relate to our own fallow times. May models an active acceptance of sadness and finds nourishment in deep retreat, joy in the hushed beauty of winter, and encouragement in understanding life as cyclical, not linear. A secular mystic, May forms a guiding philosophy for transforming the hardships that arise before the ushering in of a new season.

Gelaine Trinidad

4.5/5 

"Wintering brings about some of the most profound and insightful moments of our human experience, and wisdom resides in those who have wintered."

rebecca

Lisa Lindquist 

Gisela Ayala 

Meghan Navoy

I really enjoyed this one!! I am convinced of the healing affects of the sauna, a cold dip, working on knitting and going to bed early

This just proves to me how much I need to be intentional with my life. 

Veronica Overholt

Ian Betteridge

Brilliant 

This is a powerful book about seeing yourself and your life not as linear but as cyclical. It’s not about depression, but if you are feeling dissatisfied with your life, or if you’re going through a tough time it’s a book that I would very much recommend.

This is wintering. It is the courage to stare down the worst parts of our experience and commit to healing them the best we can. Wintering, the dormant periods in our lives, the dark moments we endure - which can be brought about through myriad of ways; from the death of a loved one to a sudden change in circumstances or mental health issues - can be lonely, damaging and catch us off guard. Katherine May recounts her own year-long journey through winter, and how she found strength and inspiration when life felt frozen. Part memoir, part exploration of a human condition, Wintering explores the healing nature of the great outdoors to help us overcome and embrace our own wintering experiences, and how, much like nature, we can learn to appreciate these low periods, and what they have to teach us, before the ushering in of a new season.

How to Survive When Life Is Frozen

Katie Chua

lovely, just what i needed for my planned hibernation >:)

Fraser Simons

This was certainly competent and novel in concept—at least, to me—it’s even got a knack for prose i jibe with. It is, however, wildly uneven for me. I think this could have made a really powerful essay with laser focus, rather than an overview that stretches into tangential matters of life that vary in importance, privilege, and hyper fixations that may-or-may-not be shared. I find myself tuning out of some of the things that felt meandering and coming back for the overall summation of the point she was trying to hone in on for each section, rather than be gripped throughout.

Brigid prior 

A very helpful book to read and I do recommend it despite the low rating. I enjoyed it thoroughly, especially the first half of the book. I took off one star because it wasn’t especially riveting and another because I felt the second half was a bit scattered and unfocused. But overall very much enjoyed the concepts from this book and will certainly be incorporating them into my daily life.

Julia

A quick little reminder on the importance of slowly down and taking care of yourself. 

Little stories within of examples of how others winter. 
I enjoyed this book! Such good moments of how to weather seasons in your life when not all seasons are going to be summers.

Shelby Doherty

** spoiler alert **
           Likes:
- Really enjoyed the ending/epilogue (made me cry)
- Enjoyed her talking about her struggles finding her place within a mother role
- Good time to read this book as I am going through my own "winter" right now. Helpful to be reminded that some days will be good and some days will not be and to just roll with the punches.
- Enjoyed the parts about nature and how different species deal with their own "winters".

Dislikes:
- for a while it seemed to be a lot about her personal life and travels, etc. I was not expecting a memoir style book and was more expecting a self-help style book

THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER 'A beautiful, gentle exploration of the dark season of life and the light of spring that eventually follows' Raynor Winn, bestselling author of The Salt Path 'A peaceful rebuff to life in fast-forward' Guardian Wintering is a poignant and comforting meditation on the fallow periods of life, times when we must retreat to care for and repair ourselves. Katherine May thoughtfully shows us how to come through these times with the wisdom of knowing that, like the seasons, our winters and summers are the ebb and flow of life. 'Every bit as beautiful and healing as the season itself' Elizabeth Gilbert 'Absolutely beautiful' Cheryl Strayed, author of Wild

The power of rest and retreat in difficult times

Ashley S

I enjoyed this read though it isn’t my typical. It’s very real and raw. The authors personal story is incredibly relatable. 

'A beautiful, gentle exploration of the dark season of life and the light of spring that eventually follows' Raynor Winn, bestselling author of The Salt Path 'A peaceful rebuff to life in fast-forward' Guardian Wintering is a poignant and comforting meditation on the fallow periods of life, times when we must retreat to care for and repair ourselves. Katherine May thoughtfully shows us how to come through these times with the wisdom of knowing that, like the seasons, our winters and summers are the ebb and flow of life. 'Every bit as beautiful and healing as the season itself' Elizabeth Gilbert

How I Learned to Flourish When Life Became Frozen

Maytal

I'd say this is a 2.5 for me. I'm not really one for self-help books but I did find solace in some of what she wrote, even if I couldn't identify with some of her personal journeys. She would lose me for a few pages and then get me back with a paragraph that hit home. Wintering as a concept resonates with me. I feel like I have lost many years and months of my life to a foggy haze due to depression that I can now hardly recall. Only in the past few years have I felt like I can acknowledge and take the time to tend to myself when it hits and with that, this book engaged me.

Pam Sartain

Wintering, How I learned to flourish when life became frozen, is a book that I read a little while ago, and only now, whilst writing the review in this time of Coronavirus, do I realise how needed this book is.

It's about accepting that at times you need to withdraw, and that you can't do everything with enthusiasm and bounce.  That at times you need to take time for you.

Katherine May discovers Wintering when she is ill, her husband is seriously ill, and when both of them are getting better, her son hates school, and she decides to home school him.

It was an enjoyable read when I was reading it just in the winter, and thinking about the idea of having time to recuperate, and not be angry at yourself for not being able to do everything.

And then Coronavirus has happened, and the world is mostly in lock down.  

This book looks at going into wintering, but also coming out of it.  There is hope, and there is certainty that things will get better.

Wintering was published on 6th February 2020 and is available on  Amazon  and  Waterstones , and through your local bookshop!

You can following Katherine May on  Twitter  and through her  website .

If you're interested in self help books, then here's some others that I've reviewed:

The Life-Changing Manga of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo 

 An Edited Life  by Anna Newton 

 Hinch Yourself Happy  by Mrs Hinch 

I was given this book for free in return for an unbiased review, so my thanks to NetGalley and to Penguin Random House, Ebury Publishing (the publishers) for this book.

Check out my GoodReads profile to see more reviews!

Wintering The Power of Rest and Retreat in Difficult Times