Welcome to Litsy!

#Unpopular opinion. Finding this a bit trite.

We got a bit of snow in central NC…I wish it had been a lot more!

#beautybreak @ImperfectCJ

@anncrystal @dabbe @dilara @jessclark78 @amiable @tamra @sace @amyg @thebookhippie @kspenmoll @liseworks @uncommonlycozies @karisa @cuilin @jenlovesjt47 @monalyisha

The remainder of my #winternaturecardswap cards were mailed today. It feels good to welcome & celebrate winter for its gift of a time to retreat,reflect,cuddle up in blankets & read!

❤️‍🩹

This quote resonates with something I have personally experienced myself. It reminded me of the time I read the wonderful book Wintering by Katherine May, that was gifted to me one Christmas. It is a gentle, reflective exploration of what happens when life gets in the way and forces us into emotional hibernation. The way she uses “winter” as a metaphor for tough seasons where feelings of loneliness, grief and sadness creep in.

I love this list Mikala - I always know I will enjoy a book if you have it listed as a Pick! We have a few on here I loved this year too- A Simple Twist of Fate, Shield of Sparrows and The Serpant and The Wolf. I suspect i will read quite a few of the others you listed if not all of them 💚 #auldlangspine

#MidwinterSolace #MWS #LitSolace

Be kind to yourself. If you struggle with the winter months, I can not recommend the tagged enough. ❄️

@TheBookHippie @Chrissyreadit

Everybody winters at one time or another; some winter over and over again.

Wintering is a season in the cold. It is a fallow period in life when you're cut off from the world, feeling rejected, sidelined, blocked from progress....

However it arrives, wintering is usually involuntary, lonely and deeply painful.

My kind of nesting

Save the date! Winter Solstice Card Swap sign ups and WinterSolice will be returning!
Original post:
https://www.litsy.com/web/post/2903429

#Read2026

I‘ve been meandering through this book & reading the chapters that correspond with that month from September to March. I appreciate May‘s gentle writing style on the transformative power of rest and retreat during challenging times & these are certainly challenging times! I know I needed & still need time to heal & like the parallels she draws between the natural world during winter & her (& our own) experiences of healing. Beautiful.

This is such a lovely reminder that our modern view of always being productive and if you can‘t be productive, you are a waste, is not only false, but damaging to all of us. It is currently the real winter here in Northern Minnesota, but I‘ve been in my own personal winter since August, probably July. I was ready to hear this again, and I hope I have learned these lessons better for next time. We all know there will be a next time for all of us.

#25Alive!

I got a little behind since Friday so catching up on prompts. After reading Enchantment by Katherine May last year with #Naturalitsy I am meandering my way through Wintering now & it fits Friday‘s #Winter prompt well. ❄️💙❄️

What a very good book to start any year with (and this year in particular). So glad that @monalyisha added this 2024 reread of hers as a bonus to her #AuldLangSpine list! It found it delightful and comforting and really liked May‘s writing. Parts about night waking, hibernating, and singing were among my faves, and I loved the interludes about animals, insects, and birds. Great on audio but I look forward to a reread in print someday.

New year- new read. Going to try to use this app more. I had long forgotten it. 😢

This one is hard to explain. All of it was well written, made sense, and was highly relatable. But there were some chapters that dragged on. I loved the last few chapters and would have loved more exploration of those topics.

#LibraryHaul

Two holds (the tagged book and The Weight of Blood) and an impulse check-out (Morality for Beautiful Girls).

A reread for me. I‘m an ardent devotee of May‘s. Her sensibilities match my own. Something kindred in my soul sings when I read her words. This is only the second time I‘ve read Wintering but it helps me hate the season less each time I encounter it, which is no small feat! For this reason, I can see myself picking it up again (though I rarely return to books once I‘ve finished them).

I started the audiobook the day after Trump was reelected.👇🏻

This was recommended to me from the Ames Free Library in MA on episode 6 of The Checkout Stack. I'm saving it for this winter post holiday season when the darkness starts to feel overwhelming.

What makes my description of this book as 'more like pieces of three books cobbled together' personally amusing is that thanks to a unique tandem reading experience, I got to find out that while the title, author and cover are the same, the print book and audiobook differ in the text presented. 1/?

Serious nostalgia for a childhood in cooler climes.

Today's 'scratched my brain just right' sentence.

I enjoyed it till I didn‘t, then I just couldn‘t continue.

Ready to start later tonight. I have been waiting for a few months for this to come from the library!

I‘m not typically 1) a joiner, or 2) a person who spends big.

That being said, Katherine May is hosting a retreat *in the US* this coming October and I‘m seriously considering dropping everything to go. Details will be released this Wednesday. You can sign-up to receive them here: https://katherine-may.co.uk/retreat-waiting-list?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=...

Any Littens want to be (quietly) wild with me?

Soft pick. Glad I read it now, as I emerge from a long period of wintering, rather than in the thick of it. As such, I could relate to much of her perspective. It‘s more of a philosophical meditation than a memoir/self-help book/manifesto (though bits of those as well), which is good for reflection but also means that it feels so removed at times from the actual meat of suffering, which can give it an air of annoying privilege.

Enjoying a relaxed Sunday morning (ok, technically it‘s afternoon now) by starting a new book and having a latte and egg and cheese on a cheddar chive biscuit.

Thanks, yet again, to Katherine May for linking her newsletter subscribers to a great read, this time on “Winter Friends.”

The truest-feeling quote from the blog post by Anna Brones reads,

“We seem to have little time for solitude or communion. We‘re stretched thin in the unsatisfying space in between the two.”

https://creativefuel.substack.com/p/winter-friends?utm_source=substack&utm_mediu...

I really enjoyed this book and a perfect time to finish it with an ice storm.

#midwintersolace #fridaynightshare #naturalitsy I have been reading this book off and on for a year. It really is lovely. This is the year I make it to the end.

#midwintersolace #naturalitsy #fridaynightshare

#hyygehug #wintersolace

Staci! This is an amazing #YuleSwap package! And you had everything wrapped so prettily (but I didn‘t get a photo because I dove right into opening! 🤣)

I love the Wheel of the Year and the candle is the best smell! I can‘t wait to dive into the books. Thank you! 🤍❄️🌲

And thanks to my awesome co-host Ashely! 😘🤍❄️

More cards! Thank you also for all the fun quotes, tea, stickers, bookmarks and seasonal wishes. #holidaycardswap #naturalitsycardswap

I think this was a me issue. I was expecting more of a "how to" verses memoir.

#Naturalitsy #Midwintersolace #Fridaynightshare This is a book I think about a lot after reading it nearly 2 years ago. Quiet, contemplative and relevant, this book made me think about the episodes of winter in my life. May expertly draws us in to her story, her exploration of the times in all our lives that feel cold and dark and the way in which we can survive them a d come out stronger on the other side. This book brought me peace.

#naturalitsywintersolsticeswap
Home Alone, Christmas cookies, Christmas eve, giving gifts, ribbons, Krampus, Tofu, crackers,Solstice, DIY, vegan chocolate, The Christmas Revels, movie and games, jammie‘s, many small fake trees, Stars, vegan cocoa- or currently Starbucks gingerbread oat milk chai, at home, colored lights,movie, sledging, grinch, books, sockets and sweater, quiet

I don‘t regret the time I spent reading this book, but it was not what I expected—far more navel-gazing memoir than I anticipated. I assume the glowing recommendations I received were from people who adore memoir—I do not. I skimmed the last 20% because I realized it wasn‘t transforming into anything different than it had been all along.

Saturday playtime with the Seren-cat followed by some reading time. Katherine May is quickly becoming a favorite author. This marks the third book of hers I'm reading in the last 5 weeks.

This was more a memoir than I expected.

Wintering follows the author through one of the toughest seasons of her life. She has just left her job, she is experiencing a health scare, and her son is struggling in school, so she pulls him out. She weaves her own story of difficulty with winter customs to deal with the long, cold days in various cultures. She even participates in some. Loved this part memoir, part how-to guide.

In keeping with my resolution of bailing on more books this year, I‘m giving up on 2 this week. Both of these are actually really good and I may come back to them sometime, but they‘re not holding my interest at the moment so I‘m sending them back to the library for now.

I don‘t have an exact #EasterOMC TBR, but my overly optimistic reading goals for the weekend are
🌸Keep up with my buddy reads for #Pemberlittens and #SundayBuddyRead
🌺Finish P&P and start Crazy Rich Asians for my #LitsyLoveBookBuddy reads
🌷Finish The It Girl and start The Death of Mrs Westway for #AuthorAMonth
🌻Start Bless The Daughter Raised By a Voice In Her Head for my poetry exchange with @Chrissyreadit
🌼Start the tagged book on audio

Up next on audio #WithASeason #TemptingTitles @Eggs @Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks