Introducing: This Book Changed My Life

With our inaugural guest, Rachel Schwartzmann.

Welcome to my new series, “This Book Changed My Life.” It’s pretty straight-forward: I’ll be asking authors & readers I admire to share one book that has had an outsized impact on how they live, work, love, or all of the above!

I could not be more excited to launch TBCML with a recommendation by Rachel Schwartzmann, author of Slowing (available 9/17!), and host of the thoughtful and always inspiring podcast, Slow Stories. For those of us (ahem - me!), who need a reminder that it’s more than okay to slow down, take a deep breath, and adopt a more thoughtful approach to daily living, Rachel’s work is absolutely essential and profound.

Be sure to follow her on Instagram and Substack for deep thoughts and chic outfits.

Without further ado, here is Rachel Schwartzmann’s life-changing read:

RS: As a writer, interviewer, and reader, I’m in constant contact with books and language, so it’s safe to say that many books have changed my life over the years. However, one example that I always come back to is Katherine May’s Wintering, a powerful narrative about navigating the literal and figurative winters in our lives. 

May’s vulnerability and attention helped me re-establish my writing life. I’m moved by her work on a subject and sentence level. Her perspective has also helped me feel more at ease about cultivating a nourishing creative life in our digital age. When I spoke with her for the Slow Stories podcast about her latest book, Enchantment, she shared:

“I started writing around 2007, and my creative life is so fundamentally tied up with my online life that I wouldn't know how to unpick it. And again, I know loads of people would draw their breath there and say, ‘Oh, that's terrible; that must stop,’ I don't feel that way at all about it, actually. I've always thought of my writing as a collaborative process with my audience and as a very conversational, intermeshed practice rather than a handing down of knowledge from myself to them. Meanwhile, I've learned so much from my presence there, and I've vastly increased my empathy toward other people and deepened my understanding by listening; I don't know how I practice without it, honestly. I don't know how I'd do it, and I'm not sure if I want to.”

That said, May’s Substack “The Clearing” is a must-follow! I’ve also read her memoir, The Electricity of Every Living Thing, and her work continues to inspire me both on and off the page.