A Year in Practice

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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!

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.

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.

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..

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