A Restful Summer Reading List

This summer is for rest.

For years, I’ve resisted the seasonal shift, trying to maintain the same rhythm I keep during the rest of the year. I wanted to produce new artwork daily and move steadily from one goal to the next. But summer has its own beautiful momentum. In summer, my days are filled with family at home, long mornings at the community pool, and afternoons that stretch into the best kind of unplanned time with friends.

Instead of fighting the slower pace this year, I’m leaning into it.

These twelve weeks will be a reading season. For me, it will unfold outdoors, mostly poolside, punctuated by swim practices, chats with neighbors, quiet stretches of sun, and the beautiful, familiar monotony of summer days.

It feels like the perfect moment to dive into books about slowness, rest, and paying closer attention to the natural world.

These concepts are already shaping my daily work. To inspire my writing and printmaking work, I’ve always been drawn to spaces that feel like a retreat - places where the natural world and built structures meet, and where time softens at its edges. But I haven’t always given myself permission to give myself that same kind of space in my daily life.

So this isn’t a dramatic shift, but a decision to go with the rhythm that’s already here.

Here’s the list I’ll be working through this summer, in this tentative order:

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The Restful Summer Reading List*

1. Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer
   To return to a slower, more reciprocal way of interacting with the natural world.

2. Rest Is Resistance by Tricia Hersey
   As a reset, to challenge how I’ve been thinking about rest and productivity.

3. The Comfort of Crows by Margaret Renkl
   For grounding myself in the annual rhythms of the natural world.

4. How to Do Nothing by Jenny Odell
   To reconsider attention, and what it means to step outside constant productivity.

5. The Things You Can See Only When You Slow Down by Haemin Sunim
   For small, steady reminders to move through my days with more care.

6. The Book of Modern Ceremony by Shari Dunbar Boyer
   To explore simple rituals that can shape a slower, more intentional life.

7. In Praise of Slowness by Carl Honoré
   To better understand what it looks like to live at a more human pace.

8. Rest: Why You Get More Done When You Work Less by Alex Soojung-Kim Pang
   To learn how rest supports good work.

9. A Philosophy of Walking by Frédéric Gros
   To think more deeply about walking as both movement and restful practice.

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Alongside these, I’ll be working through (10.) The Listening Path by Julia Cameron as a daily practice in paying attention and listening more closely. Her work has guided me for years, and this felt like a natural companion for the season. It will be less of a structured “read-along” and more of a quiet thread running underneath the writing and printmaking I’m building into in the coming seasons.

As I move through each book, I’ll share reflections here: quotes that stay with me, along with a few thoughts on what I’m noticing and taking with me.

More than anything, I’m giving myself space to rest and listen, and to see what begins to take shape.

If you’re seeking a similar rhythm this summer, I’d love to hear what’s keeping you company on your reading list, too.

May you settle into a slower rhythm this summer, and find rest in the quiet spaces it makes for you.

With love,

Sarah K

If you’re here for the first time, welcome. I’m Sarah K., an artist and writer based in Richmond, VA. From my sunroom studio, I create linocut prints and written blessings shaped by quiet mornings and the rhythm of daily practice.

*The book links above are affiliate links through Bookshop.org, a platform that supports indie bookstores.