Susan M. Felch

I'm trying to read each volume in this series at the height of its season. But this was the winter of the polar vortex, and it got to be just a bit much reading about winter while battling it on a daily basis as well. That shouldn't reflect on the book itself, though, which is a fine work on its own. It's a mixture of poetry, essays, memoirs, fiction, and sacred writings gathered into five categories: winter as times of sorrow, scouring, shoring ourselves up, purity, and delight. I appreciate how the mood of the book shifts from somewhat grim to upbeat: it's a good way to organize this sort of topic. My favorite selections were "Wickedness" by Ron Hansen (a good story; I may track it down to read it in its entirety one day), Rachel Carson's "Winter Haven" (winter from the perspective of ocean fish—I'm a child of the Midwest myself, and this was totally new to me), and E. B. White's "The Winter of the Great Snows" (a lighthearted take on winter from the last section of the book). Someday, I will have to try reading this book during a milder winter and see if I like it even more.… (meer)

I read this several years ago, and apparently it was pleasant enough but didn't make much of an impression on me, because I only remembered one poem when I started rereading it ("October Prayer" by Esther Popel, which is pretty passionate!) This time around, I must have been better suited for it, or it for me, because I definitely enjoyed it.

Fancy subtitle aside, this is an anthology of essays, poems, prayers, and nonfiction excerpts from larger works, all on the subject of autumn. The editors have divided the selections into five parts: change, endings, work, harvest, and thanksgiving. They do a good job of introducing both the parts and the individual pieces, so the entire anthology hangs together well. Only at the end did I wonder how well some of the individual pieces reflected their theme, but they were still good to read. The writings mostly come from North America and western Europe, and most of them are modern, but there are also older and/or non-Western selections included. I recommend reading this book at the most autumnal time of year in your area, just to add to the atmosphere of it all.… (meer)