Rethink Book Club: How to embrace winter

“To get better at wintering, we need to address our very notion of time."

When I lived in Sydney in my thirties, I always felt the year's rhythm was slightly off-kilter. Growing up in the northern hemisphere, I missed the seasons. On the hot, humid February days, I craved cold crisp winter days.

Why I picked up this book:

Our innate need to hibernate in winter has always fascinated me, so I picked up a copy of Katherine May's beautiful book Wintering: The Power of Rest & Retreat in Difficult Times.

If you feel the 'festive' pressure of this time of year – parties, gifts, family gatherings, or hearing Mariah Carey sing too many times on the radio – pick up this book. It's a retreat – a reminder that in our relentlessly busy modern world, we are constantly trying to resist the onset of the rest of winter.

My favourite quote:

“When you start tuning in to winter, you realise that we live through a thousand winters in our lives — some big, some small… Some winters creep up on us so slowly that they have infiltrated every part of our lives before we truly feel them. […] To get better at wintering, we need to address our very notion of time. We tend to imagine that our lives are linear, but they are in fact cyclical.”

One powerful idea this book made me rethink:

Katherine May has unpacked what so many of us needed to hear but didn't know how to name –  just like nature, the light follows if we embrace life's dark or fallow seasons. 

Three words that sum up this book:

Poignant, comforting and exquisite.

Why I’m recommending this book:

The experience of reading this book is like being given a slowly brewed cup of tea with a homemade biscuit and sitting by the fire chatting to your favourite auntie or grandparent. It's beautifully written and a comfort.  

You’ll enjoy this book if you also enjoy:

The Comfort Book by Matt Haig

Joyful by Ingrid Fetell-Lee

Compliment Wintering with the following recommendations:

·      Listen: To Katherine May’s beautiful podcast series The Wintering Sessions

·      Read: The Wired article ‘Science explains why we should work shorter hours in winter’

And if you really want to dive in, Adam Gopnik’s beautiful book Winter: Five Windows on the Season.  

These recommendations are curated thoughtfully by me from books I have read and enjoyed. But, just so you know, I may earn a commission if you make a book purchase from the links in this list.