Wintering: The Power of Rest and Retreat in Difficult Times
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. more
241 pages, Hardcover
First published Riverhead Books
3.87
Rating
47122
Ratings
6470
Reviews
Katherine May
12 books 1071 followers
Katherine May is an internationally bestselling author and podcaster living in Whitstable, UK. Her hybrid memoir Wintering: The Power of Rest and Retreat in Difficult Times became a New York Times, Sunday Times and Der Spiegel bestseller, was adapted as BBC Radio 4’s Book of the Week, and was shortlisted for the Porchlight and Barnes and Noble Book of the Year. The Electricity of Every Living Thing, her memoir of a midlife autism diagnosis, is currently being adapted as an audio drama by Audible. Other titles include novels such as The Whitstable High Tide Swimming Club, and The Best, Most Awful Job, an anthology of essays about motherhood which she edited. Her journalism and essays have appeared in a range of publications including The New York Times, The Observer and Aeon.Katherine’s podcast, The Wintering Sessions, ranks in the top 1% worldwide, and she has been a guest presenter for On Being’s The Future of Hope series. Her next book, Enchantment, will be published in 2023.
Katherine lives with her husband, son, two cats and a dog. She loves walking, sea-swimming and pickling slightly unappealing things.
Community reviews
I picked this up after hearing the author read an excerpt on NPR and am torn on how to rate it. I love the concept of wintering, allowing yourself to see the beauty in things once only endured or at best tolerated, and the author’s writing style is nearly poetic in nature. All this being said, this book is written from a point of extreme privilege and had several moments that reminded me too much of a hallmark special where everything works out in the end. The author never acknowledges that the majority of people enduring a major hardship do not have the means to take in the hot waters of Iceland, having been off of work for months, and this portion felt a bit like a “find yourself” self help book (though I acknowledge the seeds of this idea can be applied to anyone). It’s still beautifully written, and overall I enjoy the authors voice in the book as a whole, but I felt she held back on really delving into some of the topics she touched on, and would have preferred a longer book to allow her time to address these things. more
I need to start this review by saying that I really did enjoy this book. May writes well, lyrically, confidentially, quietly drawing you in to her message. Which is, generally speaking, that at times life presents you with circumstances from which it is in your best interests to retreat. Health issues, financial issues, career problems, emotional breakdowns, relationship breakups. Even my personal bete noir, seasonal affective disorder, which had no name at the time but plagued my childhood and adolescence. more
Can there be a more perfect book to read as the year winds down. Katherine May looks at wintering from a number of perspectives including viewing the aurora borealis, the time she lost her voice, seasonal affective disorder, and more, including how most of nature rests for transformation in the winter. And we should too. This is a new title so might be good for gifts for your older, reflective relative. Maybe alongside a book of poetry by Mary Oliver or Barbara Kingsolver. more
This is a book born of massive privilege, by an author who seems almost entirely unconscious of her privileges. If you work because you have to and do not have the luxury of quitting your job to be one with the winter (intermixed with traveling to Iceland, preserving random vegetables, and swanning around Stonehenge at winter solstice), you might end up feeling a bit resentful about this one. And that's a shame because Katherine May writes beautifully, thinks interestingly, and observes astutely - yet while reading this book, I kept thinking, "Well, that must be nice. " March 2020-2021 would have been ideal for embracing a time of fallowing and leaning into the cold and suckiness. Except I had to work the whole time as if there were not a pandemic happening, and if there's a way to winter while juggling a demanding full-time job, May doesn't offer it. more
I wanted to like this book. At first I thought it was self-help, then I realised it's meant to be more like a memoir. It's actually a jumbled and disjointed series of non-chronological anecdotes along with dry philosophical musings. The author was diagnosed with autism in adulthood, just as I was, so I thought I'd feel something in common with her way of thinking. Sadly, no. more
2. 5Sadly, this book wasn't what I expected. It felt like someone was sharing key moments of their life so basically a memoir. Maybe that could have worked for me had I been able to relate to her. The author did finish each chap by incorporating how we could learn something from the mentioned incident that could help us in wintering. more
Wintering: The Power of Rest and Retreat in Difficult Times is an excellent read during this time of year. It serves as a reminder to slow down, assess how you feel (the need to retreat, for more sleep, a desire to reorganize, whatever it may be) and act on those feelings. Author Katherine May shares her experiences wintering (verb), which will of course vary from person to person. Not everyone is in a position to cope the same way May does, but I do think most will relate to the desire to seek comfort, particularly in this often quiet, cold season. Wintering isn’t a big book but one I found reassuring. more
I count myself extremely blessed to have gained access to an early copy of Katherine May's 'Wintering. ' Not only is it a VERY beautiful book, I found reading it an incredibly healing experience. So relatable, honest and authentic and it resonated with me on a very deep level. I enjoyed the gorgeous prose, the poignancy of personal story as well as the interesting nature aspects. Having endured periods of 'wintering' myself, I feel this book has presented me with a fresh perspective and some new tools to take back in with me when it next returns. more
This time of Social Isolation seemed a timely moment to read about Wintering, about drawing back from the world through illness, depression, or simply from being too cold to engage with the world beyond. This book, part memoir, part researched observation shows how winter can bring strength, and inspiration as we bring different ways of coping to this most demanding of seasons. May looks at the animal world (bees for instance), at different cultures who know a lot about winter (the Finns for example), and at her own experiences to show that winter can be far from negative. Instead, it can be one of healing, renewal, acceptance and a source of strength. A lovely book, which gave this cold-weather refuser plenty to think about. more
Ok, I'm just going to come out and say it. I don't think Katherine May understands what winter actually is, and she's probably the last person on Earth who should be writing an entire book about it. *Phew* glad I got that off my chest. In all seriousness, this read like a parody (with the exception of the moments that touched on mental health), and I found myself laughing out loud at the ridiculousness of it all. At one point, she made a massive deal about children in Finland, I believe, who have to *gasp* play outside at recess in -20 degree celsius weather, and I'm just over here reminiscing about doing precisely that through my entire childhood, and it just being a regular Tuesday because, well, Canada. more
An interesting, though altogether dissatisfying read. For the North American release, the book was given a bit of a rebranding - an undeniably gorgeous and "instagrammable" cover and an entirely new title (original title: "Wintering: How I Learned to Flourish When Life Became Frozen"). While both titles are misleading, the original title is more representative as the book is a study in navel-gazing, self-pity and boasting. I was put off from the start when the author whinged (a theme of what was to come) about having her 40th birthday festivities RUINED by her husband's emergency medical crisis (which turned out to be a burst appendix). Very curious that her life partner is only ever referred to by his first initial "H" and only sporadically mentioned throughout after the first section, and notably absent in the acknowledgements section, especially in comparison to the fawning over her son. more
Katherine May uses 'Wintering' as a metaphor for depression. She describes how depression is something she has regularly experienced and, as she feels the next one coming, she aims to prepare for it in the same way that people in Norway prepare for actual Winter. She also compares how creatures like bees prepare for winter. Despite talking about interesting traditions in other countries and describing the Northern Lights in fantastic, captivating detail, this was not a great read for me. I suspect that other people will love it, it's just not really for me. more
Memoir/Self-help/Personal Essays. I made it 2/3 through the book before I set it down. I don't love self-help books, but memoirs can be interesting and I love essays about the natural world. I thought I would give this a try. The author suffers health problems which she identifies as her winter, she puts forward that we all have our personal winters, I believe this is true and yet, I wasn't moved. more
I loved this book. Last year I picked up Range on a whim because I loved the title and that book was a home run read. Wintering was another title that pulled me in without knowing anything about the book. It wasn’t a home run but it was a very good book. I won’t summarize but the last chapter about singing exactly paralleled so much I have been thinking about before picking up the book. more
This book was not what I expected. It is titled "Wintering: How I learned to flourish when life became frozen" which I thought meant that it was about how to deal with depression. It does address that subject but it is mainly about how the season of winter is prepared for by people and animals in various places around the world. The author speaks about how depression has overtaken her but occasionally muses that maybe she is almost revelling in her melancholy. mood. more
I am wintering. That’s the wheel of the year I'm on. As a teacher, I don't get to winter in the actual winter. From September to late May, I sometimes feel that I hang in suspension above the usual round of life. I become a functional being- I sleep, I pour everything I have into work ten hours a day, six days a week, I do whatever I can convince my body and mind to do to recover after that each day, I collapse full out on Saturdays, and start the cycle once more. more
I think anyone can find something to enjoy about this book. This takes the title wintering and explains how each of us at some point or another go through either a difficult or extremely hard patch. Either with outside issues or within ourselves. This is not a heavy book in which we delve into ourselves or want to avoid reading through difficult issues. This book takes a couple of individual's and the writters struggles with a depression or low patches(wintering). more
Dieses Buch hat mich in meinem persönlichen Winter gefunden. Es hat gut getan und mir wertvolle Denkansätze gegeben. . more
May’s sympathetic memoir considers winter not only as a literal season, but also as an emotional state. Although “depression” could be substituted for “wintering” in most instances, the book gets much metaphorical mileage out of the seasonal reference as she recounts how she attempted to embrace rather than resist the gloom and chill through rituals such as a candlelit St. Lucia service and an early morning solstice gathering at Stonehenge. Wintering alternates travel and research, and mind and body. Cold-water swimming becomes the author’s primary strategy for invigorating a winter-fogged brain and frozen limbs. more
4. 5 stars At its base, this is not a book about beauty, but about reality. It is about noticing what's going on, and living it. That's what the natural world does: it carries on surviving. Sometimes it flourishes - lays on fat, garlands itself in leaves, makes abundant honey - and sometimes it pares back to the very basics of existence in order to keep living. more
If you'd like to be spoken to condescendingly and advised on how to precisely do things that you likely instinctively do on your own, then this may be the book for you. This book seems to come from the viewpoint of someone that leads a relatively privileged life and views themselves as vitally in demand socially and in their career, so that their absence in any sort of self-isolation is conspicuous and uncomfortable for them. The author uses terms like "epiphany" for basic realizations, and that withdrawing for self-care - aka: "wintering" is defined by her as "active acceptance of sadness". what. Not in my world, and likely not in the world of many people who enjoy "wintering" and actually find it delightful. more
THIS BOOK. EVERY. SINGLE. WORD. And what comfort there is in discovering the camaraderie we share with our fellow human beings and all of creation. more
In her prologue Katherine May introduces her topic by talking of how "winter is not the death of the life cycle but its crucible. " It is a time for withdrawing from the world at large to reflect and replenish to restore and transform. She's selling winter and I'm buying it. Meaningful quotes: "Winter is a time for the quiet arts of making: for knitting and sewing, baking and simmering, repairing and restoring our homes. ""In Summer I want big splashy ideas and trashy novels devoured in a garden chair or perched on one of the wave breaks on the beach. more
Oh dear. So much promise of wisdom and experience. Except this author has very little of either, and the words "middle class narcissim" just keep popping into my head. Wintering has to mean confrontation with death, and exhaustive preparation to survive. Not pickling Japanese radishes in overpriced alcohol. more
Wintering: The Power of Rest and Retreat in Difficult Times by Katherine May is a quiet book that reminds us that we are in charge of taking care of ourselves. Paying attention to our body and mind leads to recognizing when we need more care and to doing something about it. I listened to the audiobook version and enjoyed the peaceful reading of the book, as sound and logical advice is put forward. Highly recommended, especially in these difficult pandemic times. more
Whether the weather be fine, Or whether the weather be not, Whether the weather be cold, Or whether the weather be hot, We'll weather the weather Whatever the weather, Whether we like it or not. I was put in mind of this classic little children's poem while reading "Wintering," which is essentially the poem in book form . but without the rhyming and with a good deal more whining. Sometimes when I read something only to find that it was not at all what I was expecting, I find that I managed to forget what I actually had been expecting. Then I look at the title. more
M-am tot apropiat de cărțile de memorii în ultima vreme, însă nu am nici măcar un singur regret: sunt pline de înțeles, au rost. ”Iernile sufletului” e o metaforă, desigur. Nu este o carte motivațională, nici nu știu dacă aș avea răbdare cu astfel de cărți, mai ales în timpul unei pandemii. E o carte scrisă just, fără ”sclipiciul” pe care îl vedem pe rețelele de socializare în care toată lumea are familia perfectă, vacanțe de vis și o viață frumoasă ca o vară cu cer senin. De-acolo e exclusă iarna, pentru că iarna înseamnă frig, introspecție, alb și singurătate. more
I’m torn between 3 or 4 stars for this book. Wait, I’ll take the easy way out and give it 3. 5 stars, and then therefore rounding up makes it 4 stars. Right. 😊The book is broken up into the months from early hints of winter (September) to full blown winter to the vestiges/remnants of winter and the hearkening of spring (March). more