This beautiful short novel follows Jungmin who quits her job and is depressed for a year before coming across a local pottery studio and makes friends and finds a new passion. I love how the author wove in South Korean politics of why Jongmin quit.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for a free eARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This book really took me by surprise! I loved it. It was a very quiet, calm book that tackled some really relatable themes. The story follows Jungmin, who one day quits her job after burning herself out, and doesn't leave her apartment for a year. But one day, she decides to take a walk and stumbles upon a pottery studio. Taking up pottery kickstarts her healing process by allowing her to meet new people, have new experiences, and discover fulfillment in this creative art form. This was a very cozy, uplifting story!

I know next to nothing about pottery, so this was fascinating from that standpoint, too. Really makes me want to take a pottery class!

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for this ARC!

This story follows thirty-year-old Jungmin after she suffers a breakdown from the stress of work and confines herself to her apartment. Shunning the outside world for a time, what finally slowly brings her back to the world is a pottery workshop and it's owner and patrons.

This book explores healing and recovery in a calm, quiet manner. When first beginning to read, it took me a moment to really get into the story but then suddenly, I didn't want to put it down. The elements of introspection and observations of the world fit in style-wise with a lot of recent Korean translations. The author's descriptions of creating, of food, of simple cups of coffee all evoke a comforting feeling you don't want to leave. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. The perfect fall/winter weather, cozy read!

3.5 🌟

This was nice, charming and an absolutely heartwarming read. The story follows this young 30-year old woman named Jungmin, who is burned out from work and also navigating a tough time in her life right now. As she restarts her life, she found herself at a pottery studio down the street from her new apartment and unexpectedly formed friendships with the other members there.

I really enjoyed this read. I love pottery and have tried taking a class before so I was actually looking for a book in a pottery studio setting and was grateful that the publisher provided me with this digital ARC.

Jungmin’s character is relatable and I found myself rooting for her until the end. Some side characters that also stood out for me were Johee, Gisik and Jun. I liked that the book also talked about what the other characters were going through, I feel like I learned something from them as well.

I liked all the metaphors related to clay and pottery and how it all relates to life:

“Looks like you’ve found why you can’t center the clay. Maybe you’re in too much of a rush. You’re trying to get your zest for life back by doing something, anything, as quickly as possible, but clay is such a slow material. Maybe it’s this gap in speed and expectations that’s made you lose your way.”

I also enjoyed all the mention of Korean foods in this book! I just want to try them all ☺️😋

Lastly, the only part where I struggled sometimes was the writing. It might be because this book was translated from Korean to English, but there were times it felt like the words didn’t flow properly. I’m also not too familiar with Korean honorifics and there were a lot of those here.

Overall, this was a very cozy and comforting read!

I really enjoyed this read. As the title promised, this book was very healing and peaceful. I know very little about pottery, but I found the content to be inclusive without being condescending.

Such a sweet and wholesome read that discuss burn out , how media portray stories to be more “entertaining”
I loved the found family aspect so much and the discussion about what to choose as a major hit home and I loved it so much.
I gave it 4 stars not 5 stars cause I got bored sometimes and I felt some parts can be removed without affecting the book

This was such a cozy read! After years of tirelessly working as a screenwriter and the lifestyle of just go-go-go, Jungmin wanders into a studio and takes up pottery. I thought this was such a light read after reading high fantasy after high fantasy and it's just an easy story to coast through. Definitely in my recommendation's of cozy filler reads of someone trying to reignite their passions and their life in general after going 100 miles an hour.

Korean literature captures this sense of a simple life that is so unique and beautiful. I'm amazed at how well this translation seems to be. It's very lyrical.

(This review is of the eARC of this book. Thank you to Algonquin Books for providing me with a copy to review.)

The story focused on the main character recovering from burnout as a broadcast journalist and the connections she built with the people at the pottery workshop. The characters felt flat and weren't that memorable. Also, the characters' thoughts and feelings were all stated directly, which slowed down the reading for me. Overall, it was an okay read.

To begin - thank you so much to the publisher for the gifted e-ARC of this title!

I loved the cozy environment of the story. The Soyo pottery studio is definitely a place I wish I could visit myself! There was a vast cast of characters, each having their own personality traits and struggles that brought some diversity to the storyline.

The main reason why this book was not *quite* what I’d expected was mostly due to the writing. Given that this is a rather short book, so I did expect the bit of “rush-y-ness” it has, I still felt like the plot was lacking in some areas. Either the storyline was moving too quickly, jumping from one backstory to another, or that there wasn’t enough attention given to a certain element of the FMC’s character. For example, the introduction to the FMC’s traumatic past with her childhood friend felt a bit rushed to me. As I kept reading, it did resurface and this was an issue that eventually was solved, but it still felt a bit “patchy.” I wish there had been a bit more development to events like this one that were such an important element of the FMC’s character development.

There were times where the writing would capture my attention fully, before it would abruptly release me from its grip, and so I would start losing interest.

Even though the whole book was not for me, I still enjoyed certain moments in the story (especially the ending scene by the sea!)

I would recommend The Healing Season of Pottery to a reader going through a rough patch looking for a cozy, self-healing journey to follow along. The book is simple, cliché, and predictable: very vanilla, like Jungmin's favorite ice cream flavor. Finding meaning in a hobby after a period of burnout is a pretty common trope (pottery especially), so I needed something more to hook me into the story. About halfway through the book, the plot started straying into the backstories of secondary characters, which took away from Jungmin's story, which was not fully developed. I also think that if you do not have a basic understanding of Korean culture, some of the references may be harder to follow and could benefit from footnotes.

Thank you NetGalley, Algonquin Books, and Yeon (translated by Richards) for the ARC of this book.

This book started out really cozy. It told the story of Jungmin who had a mental breakdown and left her job that was giving her severe burnout. On her first outing out of the apartment, she comes across a pottery study, and we have lots of scenic moments where she is touching the clay and becoming one with it, and letting the scent of the clay and the smell of coffee and ceramic cups bring her a peace she hasn’t had before.

The problem was that halfway through the book, the story started to wander. Instead of following Jungmin across her journey, all of a sudden, we’re in other character shoes. And while I have nothing against the book showing us different characters’ points of view, it was really jarring to have a style shift halfway through. I really liked that this was a story of Jungmin finding friends and hobbies for herself, but then she developed a love interest, and I felt that took away from her personal growth.