I enjoyed this book! It was interesting as an artist and creative person, and I think this would be great to share with people who are also interested in creative processes.

After multiple years in a near-constant sunny area, we moved to an area with four full seasons. I've found myself prone to seasonal depression and I recently emerged from the worst depression of my life. After coming across this and reading the synopsis, I was extremely interested in the concept of creating rituals for the different seasons as it seemed a great way to practice gratitude and mindfulness and I was thankful to receive an advance copy of this title.

In my reading, I found some suggestions that I can definitely see incorporating into my schedule and it gave me some of my own ideas as well. I wasn't super crazy about the poems, but I'm sure that for some readers, they will be just the thing.

I'm thankful to the author for showing readers a way toward yearlong meaningful self-care rituals.

Recommended.



Thank you to Sounds True and NetGalley for the DRC

I enjoyed this book very much. For me this wasn't a book that I would normally read straight through, but rather use as a tool to help me stay grounded as the seasons change.. This is a book I will return to again and again throughout the changing seasons. Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an advanced reader copy in exchange for my honest review..

An excellent book about creativity. Loved the list of poems for each season, many of which are favorites. I plan to treat myself to a print copy!

Thank you to Sounds True Publishing and NetGalley for the advance copy.

ARC netgalley review

Jacqueline Suskin's A Year in Practice, is a seasons based approach to filling the well of creativity. I started the book in Autumn as that is the season I started reading it, her belief that "Autumn doesn't supply us with a lot of energy to start brand-new projects" was not something I could relate to, as after summer is gone, I finally feel alive for the first time in months. She gives small suggestions of things we should focus on to ground us into the season. She asks us to do "What plants and other animals do in the fall." Right now the skunks have come to eat all the rotten apples in the yard and are spraying the house in a perfume that makes being outside untenable, but I guess, you do you. I love the ideas she is expressing here, but there is something about her tone that feels unreal. If you read it with a healthy dose for the possibilities of creative escapism, it becomes charming that she carries around old seed packets with all her notebooks. We see her as some woodland elf poet living in a tree and spreading her inspirational knowledge to all us mortals.

It's less a way to navigate the seasons creatively and more a dream version of it, which I think could be helpful for some good old fashioned creative escapism. Her suggestions of an in house retreat, is something I think most people cannot relate to or dream of having. Equally, I found most of her suggestions for relating to the seasons in a creative way to be undoable unless self employed by the act of inspiration, which most of us are not. Most of us cannot just go on trips to shift our muse, nor can we escape the day to day responsibilities that make the weight of our lives, but in Jacquelines world we can have pasta and poetry nights with people who won't just make fun of us. In Jacquelines world all this is possible and more and we are blessed she shared it with us.

I received a digital advance reader copy of A Year in Practice: Seasonal Rituals and Prompts to Awaken Cycles of Creative Expression through NetGalley.com. I had read another of Jacqueline Suskin's books, Every Day is a Poem, but didn't realize it until she mentioned her Poem Store project in A Year in Practice. "Suskin composes improvisational poetry for patrons who choose a topic in exchange for a unique verse. Poem Store has been her main occupation since 2009 and has taken her around the world writing nearly forty thousand spontaneous poems" (from her bio). I liked Every Day is a Poem, but I enjoyed A Year in Practice even more.
A Year in Practice: Seasonal Rituals and Prompts to Awaken Cycles of Creative Expression starts with winter and moves through each of the seasons sharing the author's personal creative understanding and practices for each season including her poems and ending with a list of selected poems by other poets. She includes questions to ask yourself and journal about to explore your relationship with each season and provides ideas for activities to align your creative efforts with the energy of each season for a path of least resistance.
This book really spoke to me as a creative artist. I've been feeling my seasonal changes and cycles more and more, and though Suskin and I feel differently about spring (I love the jolt back into high energy ideas flying), this book aligns with my creative practice through the seasons. It's a celebration of how we as creating humans are part of nature's yearly cycle. I highly recommend this book! It comes out December 5th, just in time for your Christmas list. You can pre-order now!

I highlighted so much of this book for future reference. I have a strained relationship with the seasons because I grew up in a part of the US without them, and only learned later that wintering is valuable for stepping back from society and resting, as is slowly coming back to life in spring. A Year in Practice inspired me to think of the creative process the same way, allowing breaks from expression in times when the outside is fading away and following the cue of the late spring and summer to build.

This was an interesting concept, and I was expecting this to be more of a journal with prompts. It wasn't just journal prompts, it had lots of different styles of writing.

It had poetry, non-fiction text about the seasons, journal prompts, ideas for meditations and more!

I think it was actually trying to be too much! It was a lot, and a just felt a bit of a mish-mash and all over the place. I think it would have been better to have more of a focus.

The idea of tuning into the seasons and using them as a way to become mindful and find a time for everything really appeals to me.

• Winter invites restoration so you can come back to your craft with renewed energy (Rest / Reflection)
• Spring is a time of balance, focusing on the magic of emergence while embodying discretion (Emergence / Fruition)
• Summer is the season of togetherness, instilling confidence to bring our creations into the light (Togetherness / Fortify)
• Autumn asks us to turn back toward ourselves as we prepare for another winter of introspection (Preparation / Transition)

Each season invites this beautiful question, which I'll be adding to my arsenal: "What is the natural world up to right now? How does it include me? How is it my mirror?"

It also includes notes on transitioning to the next season, and elemental instruction (fire, water, etc).

Some prompts from the book:
- Tape a note above your workspace at eye level that says "SLOW"
- Describe what plasure is for you
- How does spring relate to your pain?
- ask everyone to bring a short poem to share (at a dinner party)
- What is something you've let go of in the last year of your life, and how has your life changed because of it?
- How does this affect your practice?
- For twenty minutes, research something that's been on your mind, then write about it

This book has enough prompts to cover a year, without doubt.

I found the poetry in between unnecessary and preferred the more practical ideas, BUT I am sure those who like beautiful words would enjoy it. There are also a LOT of recommendations for MORE poems.

The prompts were more abstract and less instructional, and mostly included the way she incorporates them. I would have liked more practical steps here. The entire book is written as a poem, rather than an instructional manual. It feels more like looking into the author's world (and seasons) - since I pull inspiration from myself rather than others, I'm giving 3.5 stars, rounded down. I had to do a lot of summarising to be able to pull ideas from it. The core is solid, though. I would have preferred it without so much "fluff". I am a very practical person, so am certain others would love the fluff, though, as it does add a lot of beauty.

Thank you to Netgalley for a copy of the book in exchange for an honest review. I've ordered a copy for library.

Thank you to NetGalley and Sounds True Publishing for my ARC of A Year in Practice by Jacqueline Suskin. I am rating it 5 out of 5 stars. I found this to be beautifully written and inspiring. It truly speaks to the ways in which we move through different seasons of life and find a dwelling within. Once the book is published, I will be purchasing a physical copy to keep in my office.

This books gives some real inspiring advice on how to set up a nice seasonal practice of mindfulness and creativity. A fair few books I've read in the same vein as this are not as instructional as this one. This book is beautiful, it's obvious, in a positive way, that it's written by a poet. But it has some very clear cut instructions on what the author actually means with what she's saying. There are multiple bullet points per chapter on different things to write about, meditate on and go out and do, as a way to get to the inner parts of yourself. A lot of books tell you to listen to yourself and find out who you really are. This books guide you through this search,
In the end this book was not my style, with it's flowery prose and flowing sentences, but I did end up with a fair few notes that I'll incorporate in my life and world view.

A beautiful introduction to living seasonally. Full of practical ideas and introspective poetry, this is the perfect guide for someone who is looking to live a more intentional and grounded life. Clearly written for the northern hemisphere, it is still very relevant and easily applicable to those of us living in the southern hemisphere. Thank you for allowing me the opportunity to read and review this.

This book was definitely more of a workbook for how to pace your creative life according to the seasons, and as such, it was immensely helpful. I have been going through burnout since I graduated from my MFA and the kind and practical advice that Jacqueline shares was refreshing and helpful. We all need an artistic pick-me-up from time to time and this reminder that we are in the world and our bodies respond to the seasons was exactly what I needed to hear. I highly recommend this book to anyone who is struggling with incorporating their creative work into their daily life, especially to those people who like the idea of a seasonal approach to creativity.

This book was excellent for reflection and ways to be mindful throughout the seasons. Made me slow down and think about how to incorporate these practices into my life. An easy read with simple, meaningful activities to implement

ARC netgalley review

What an amazing book, definitely a go to for my daily yoga practice and to take with me in my tote bag. Highly recommend this to all. Well written and cultivated into just a pure masterpiece.

Meditations and guided crafting exercises for connecting with the natural world, but with little too cute and using a little too much woo for me.

I love the concept of this. I'm interested in living by patterns and natural cycles, and digging into what is holistically good for body, mind and soul so the book is very much in my wheelhouse! I do find myself wondering if people will feel restricted by the specific suggestions for practice that hold true to the author's experiences, but hopefully it can be seen as an invitation to consider the practices that work for our own individual lives. It's a lovely book that I think I will be buying in print.

A Year in Practice by Jacqueline Suskin takes the reader through the four seasons with a variety of activities and mindfulness passages that can inspire the reader to pause and reflect on what surrounds them. As someone who lives in a place that experiences each season from blizzards to heat waves, Suskin embodies the different feelings of each season and the mental tolls and pathways that occur during each of those times. I appreciate and can see a deep value to the types of reflection and activities Suskin writes about and encourages for each season.
If you are someone who often has trouble with winter emotionally or becomes overwhelmed in summer, this book might just be perfect for you.