This was a beautiful book. Thank you to Netgalley, the author, publisher for sharing a copy of this book in exchange for a review. I am a Katherine May follower and will read anything she writes. I loved _Wintering_ so much and encourage anyone who likes _Enchantment_ to also read it. I know I am in safe hands with May and can go back to her books when I am struggling and need some reminders of the wonders of the world, cultures, and life in general.

Absolutely gorgeous. This book articulated what the early stages of lockdown felt like so clearly, in ways I hadn’t been able to name. Reading this, I felt I was moving toward wonder and enchantment alongside Katherine May. Beautiful passages, and even more, a thoughtful inquiry that encouraged me not to wait for wonder, but to go looking for it myself. The time spent reading this was a gift.

I’m very grateful to have had the opportunity to speak with Katherine about the writing process as well. Podcast episode coming soon…

One of the best books I've read in months! I found myself highlighting countless phrases and texting lines to friends. I can't wait to have this in the library and recommend it to everyone.

Shelf Awareness for Readers, March 3, 2023: *starred review*

Katherine May (Wintering) offers poignant reflections on what it means to find--and feel--purpose in an age filled with a "growing sense of unreality" in Enchantment: Awakening Wonder in an Anxious Age. The solution to our present-day woes of urgency and fear, she offers, is the titular enchantment, "small wonder magnified through meaning, fascination caught in the web of fable and memory" and "the ability to sense magic in the everyday, to channel it through our minds and bodies, to be sustained by it."

May is far from the first writer to tackle the question of purpose or what it takes to live a happy life. But Enchantment stands out from an otherwise crowded field in the ways it feels at once grounded in the present moment, written on the heels of the Covid-19 lockdowns, and timeless in its questioning. This is not a book of advice or easy solutions but rather an invitation to explore our inner and outer worlds--and how readers might make meaning within them. "We have surrendered the rites of passage that used to take us from birth to death," May writes, "and in doing so, have rendered many parts of our experience unspeakable." And yet she succeeds, somewhat miraculously, in speaking to those very experiences across every page of Enchantment, recalling ocean dips in cold water, visits to hidden forest springs, long road trips to search the sky for meteors and the messy meaning-making found between these moments of awe. Enchantment is a treasure, one that invites grace, compassion and sensuality into our desire to find purpose in an often overwhelming world.

I did not love this book as much as her book Wintering. The book takes a few chapters to get into. Katherine does encourage each of us to open the door to human experience and to find the beauty waiting for each of us. We all need to reconnect with the world after the past couple of years we have all experienced with the pandemic.

During England’s Covid-19 shutdowns of 2020 and 2021, Katherine May realized her standard modes of relieving anxiety, remaining grounded, and intimately connected with nature diminished. Her efforts to recapture a sense of wonder and play in her day-to-day, as well as navigate the avenues leading to such dismay are explored in "Enchantment: Awakening Wonder in an Anxious Age (Riverhead Books, 2023)."

Philosophical in nature, May questions many developments in her own life and the surrounding world: the “shallow terrain” of a plastic, hand-sanitized life for our children; the need to “unlearn” some things that we already do fairly well; how we fit in meditation in a life full of work, care, and a never-ending news cycle. Her approach pulls narrative threads from seasonal changes, literature, and spiritual practices including Buddhism.

May’s prior books, including "Wintering" and "The Electricity of Every Living Thing," laid the groundwork for the luscious lyricism and poetry of her writing that "Enchantment" continues. Each sentence is a treasure to read, notate, reread, and send to a friend.

If you haven’t had the pleasure of reading Katherine May before, readers of Amy Bloom, Delia Ephron, Rebecca Solnit, and Aimee Nezhukumatathil might enjoy.

Thank you to Katherine May, NetGalley, and Riverhead Books for my eARC.

Katherine May's previous book, Wintering, is a beautiful story that truly helped me through the long, cold winter and I think this new title can help people see the beauty in the world and give hope for the future. Highly recommend!

I really enjoyed Katherine's previous book, Wintering. I didn't connect to this one as much but it still was beautifully written and has some valuable points to ponder

I enjoy May's writing about nature--it is lyrical and insightful. I find her perspective, as I did in her previous book Wintering, a bit limited. She writes from a place of white, upper class, heteronormative privilege. That's ok, as it's her experience, but she seems utterly unaware of her own privilege. Again, I enjoy the nature writing piece of this. I'd just love to find a bit more self-awareness.

Absolutely stunning read - perfect to take you out of a rut and into a realm of optimism and wonder, and as the title promises, enchantment. I compare my experience of reading this with World of Wonders (which I read while in quarantine - a time when I much needed to be taken outside of my own perspective!). Its the kind of book that I think will pack that extra punch when read at the right time.

There's a really interesting essay on reading and the author's struggle to connect with fiction and generally to connect with what she reads (perhaps a problem many readers have had at some point during the pandemic). I found it an interesting contrast against chapters which otherwise share about the depth and strength of the author's connection with various activities or pursuits, and added quite a relatable struggle.

Thank you to NetGalley and Riverhead books for my eARC.

Ok, so I thought this book was good. I really enjoyed Katherine's previous book Wintering. However, I did not connect with this one as much. That is not to say this book was not bad and it did have many wonderful moments. Enchantment was beautifully written and did offer curious observances of life. I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys a little meandering and gentle reads.

Katherine May has created enchantment with her words. I could not put this book down once I opened it. The author brings readers back to a place of playfulness and wonder that we naturally had as children. Magic is out there and it's up to us to continue to see it. While the world has positioned us in such a way to constantly be striving, May asks us to slow down to see beauty in everything around us.

In an age of constant change and feeling unable to keep up with it all, many of us feel overwhelmed, tapped out, and at a loss for how to move forward. Katherine May's prescription is to invite enchantment into our lives, finding magic in the mundane and wonder in the moment. May's writing, and especially her emphasis on our need to commit to paying attention to the little things in the world around us, resonates with me the way a Mary Oliver poem does: offering a snapshot of an encounter with nature or memory and filling it with the tenderness of appreciation and delight.

This book of essays, arranged according to the elemental forces of nature (earth, water, fire, and air), shares some of the losses May encountered during the pandemic but also some of the treasures she has found in adapting to a different pace of life. Reading them provides an oasis of calm reflection for those of us needing a reminder that we're not alone in feeling worn out -- and that we can find our own moments of enchantment all around us. It's a book that, like her previous book Wintering, will be a safe harbor to return to time and again when I need comfort.

Thank you, Riverhead Books/Penguin Random House and NetGalley, for providing an eARC of this book. Opinions expressed here are solely my own.

Just as beautifully written and thought-provoking as Wintering. May describes enchantment and wonder and hierophany (learned some new magical words here) in ways I found myself nodding my head. She tries to pass on the sacredness of the outdoors to her kid. But he isn't her and has his own opinions and, maybe, that's okay. I totally relate to that. Many highlights here.

This is my first Katherine May book, though "Wintering" has been recommended to me several times and is sitting on the shelf in the other room. I wasn't sure what to expect from this author, and I"m not exactly sure how to describe it. This book is a series of essays that contemplate our relationship with the world, with many reflecting on coming out of the isolation of the pandemic. The essays are linked to our relationship with nature and other people in a way that feels like a cross between nature writing, spiritual writing, and personal journal. I personally only connected strongly with the essay on stones. The others felt a bit like stumbling upon a group of people meditating outdoors. I could sense the peace and connection to nature, but it was an observer, not a participant. I look forward to reading more of her work with the hopes that I can find more connections, as the peace emanating from her writing is sorely needed.