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The Glorians: Visitations from the Holy Ordinary
“I go to Terry Tempest Williams for the reasons I go to Whitman and to recover a capacious spirit and to rejoin the urgent living world. She gives me something bigger than hope.”?Richard Powers, author of The Overstory
From the visionary New York Times bestselling author, a revelatory work of narrative nonfiction exploring beauty in the desert, climate change, and, transformative moments of power in a world beset by uncertainty
Whether we believe it or not, rapid change is upon us. I am searching for grace.
In this time of political fragility, climate chaos, and seeking beauty wherever we can find its glimmer, Terry Tempest Williams introduces us to the Glorians. They are not distant deities, but the ordinary, often overlooked presences—animal, plant, memory, moment—that reveal our shared vulnerability and interconnectedness with the natural world. The Glorians can be as small as an ant ferrying a coyote willow blossom to its queen or as commonplace as the night sky. But what they can collectively show us—about the radical act of attending to beauty and carrying forward against all odds—is immense.
Journeying through encounters with the Glorians in the red rock desert of Utah during the pandemic to Harvard University where she teaches in the Divinity School, Williams weaves a story of astonishing personal and societal insight. As she grapples with the unsettled state of the world, she turns not to despair but to deep reflection. She sees how the Glorians are calling us to attention, not as an army, but as fellow inhabitants of our sacred, threatened home. They remind us of the power of contact between species and the profound courage—and awareness—it will take to dream a more cohesive future into being.
Wise and lyrical, The Glorians is a testament to the power of witness, a field guide to finding grace in the unexpected, and a moving invitation to engage with one another and our surroundings with renewed intention. In a modern world filled with increasing noise and anxiety, Terry Tempest Williams offers honest sustenance for the mind and spirit and distinguishes herself again as a trusted voice to whom we can turn to more fully understand our times.
From the visionary New York Times bestselling author, a revelatory work of narrative nonfiction exploring beauty in the desert, climate change, and, transformative moments of power in a world beset by uncertainty
Whether we believe it or not, rapid change is upon us. I am searching for grace.
In this time of political fragility, climate chaos, and seeking beauty wherever we can find its glimmer, Terry Tempest Williams introduces us to the Glorians. They are not distant deities, but the ordinary, often overlooked presences—animal, plant, memory, moment—that reveal our shared vulnerability and interconnectedness with the natural world. The Glorians can be as small as an ant ferrying a coyote willow blossom to its queen or as commonplace as the night sky. But what they can collectively show us—about the radical act of attending to beauty and carrying forward against all odds—is immense.
Journeying through encounters with the Glorians in the red rock desert of Utah during the pandemic to Harvard University where she teaches in the Divinity School, Williams weaves a story of astonishing personal and societal insight. As she grapples with the unsettled state of the world, she turns not to despair but to deep reflection. She sees how the Glorians are calling us to attention, not as an army, but as fellow inhabitants of our sacred, threatened home. They remind us of the power of contact between species and the profound courage—and awareness—it will take to dream a more cohesive future into being.
Wise and lyrical, The Glorians is a testament to the power of witness, a field guide to finding grace in the unexpected, and a moving invitation to engage with one another and our surroundings with renewed intention. In a modern world filled with increasing noise and anxiety, Terry Tempest Williams offers honest sustenance for the mind and spirit and distinguishes herself again as a trusted voice to whom we can turn to more fully understand our times.
10 pages, Audible Audio
First published March 3, 2026
About the author
Terry Tempest Williams
99 books1,511 followersTerry Tempest Williams is an American author, conservationist and activist. Williams’ writing is rooted in the American West and has been significantly influenced by the arid landscape of her native Utah in which she was raised. Her work ranges from issues of ecology and wilderness preservation, to women's health, to exploring our relationship to culture and nature.
She has testified before Congress on women’s health, committed acts of civil disobedience in the years 1987 - 1992 in protest against nuclear testing in the Nevada Desert, and again, in March, 2003 in Washington, D.C., with Code Pink, against the Iraq War. She has been a guest at the White House, has camped in the remote regions of the Utah and Alaska wildernesses and worked as "a barefoot artist" in Rwanda.
Williams is the author of Refuge: An Unnatural History of Family and Place; An Unspoken Hunger: Stories from the Field; Desert Quartet; Leap; Red: Patience and Passion in the Desert; and The Open Space of Democracy. Her book Finding Beauty in a Broken World was published in 2008 by Pantheon Books.
In 2006, Williams received the Robert Marshall Award from The Wilderness Society, their highest honor given to an American citizen. She also received the Distinguished Achievement Award from the Western American Literature Association and the Wallace Stegner Award given by The Center for the American West. She is the recipient of a Lannan Literary Award for Nonfictionand a John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship in creative nonfiction. Williams was featured in Ken Burns' PBS series The National Parks: America's Best Idea (2009). In 2011, she received the 18th International Peace Award given by the Community of Christ Church.
Williams is currently the Annie Clark Tanner Scholar in Environmental Humanities at the University of Utah and a columnist for the magazine The Progressive. She has been a Montgomery Fellow at Dartmouth College where she continues to teach. She divides her time between Wilson, Wyoming and Castle Valley, Utah, where her husband Brooke is field coordinator for the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance.
She has testified before Congress on women’s health, committed acts of civil disobedience in the years 1987 - 1992 in protest against nuclear testing in the Nevada Desert, and again, in March, 2003 in Washington, D.C., with Code Pink, against the Iraq War. She has been a guest at the White House, has camped in the remote regions of the Utah and Alaska wildernesses and worked as "a barefoot artist" in Rwanda.
Williams is the author of Refuge: An Unnatural History of Family and Place; An Unspoken Hunger: Stories from the Field; Desert Quartet; Leap; Red: Patience and Passion in the Desert; and The Open Space of Democracy. Her book Finding Beauty in a Broken World was published in 2008 by Pantheon Books.
In 2006, Williams received the Robert Marshall Award from The Wilderness Society, their highest honor given to an American citizen. She also received the Distinguished Achievement Award from the Western American Literature Association and the Wallace Stegner Award given by The Center for the American West. She is the recipient of a Lannan Literary Award for Nonfictionand a John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship in creative nonfiction. Williams was featured in Ken Burns' PBS series The National Parks: America's Best Idea (2009). In 2011, she received the 18th International Peace Award given by the Community of Christ Church.
Williams is currently the Annie Clark Tanner Scholar in Environmental Humanities at the University of Utah and a columnist for the magazine The Progressive. She has been a Montgomery Fellow at Dartmouth College where she continues to teach. She divides her time between Wilson, Wyoming and Castle Valley, Utah, where her husband Brooke is field coordinator for the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance.
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January 7, 2026
Book Riot’s Most Anticipated Books of 2026:
As a fellow Utahn, I may be biased in my love for Terry Tempest Williams' nature essays. Her latest collection, in which she finds the sacred in ordinary moments, sounds especially needed. It speaks to the desire I and many others have to express spirituality, whether that's a connection to the divine or just something greater than themselves. By observing small beauties in nature, she finds hope to sustain her through a global sense of despair. —Andy Minshew
As a fellow Utahn, I may be biased in my love for Terry Tempest Williams' nature essays. Her latest collection, in which she finds the sacred in ordinary moments, sounds especially needed. It speaks to the desire I and many others have to express spirituality, whether that's a connection to the divine or just something greater than themselves. By observing small beauties in nature, she finds hope to sustain her through a global sense of despair. —Andy Minshew
November 10, 2025
Essays, stories and musings. The writing is warm and intimate.; beautiful. This is Terry Tempest Williams at her best.
When she writes about nature she remembers we are part of the landscape. The Glorians are the divine essence, the spark she describes as the holy ordinary. The book is divided in sections. The first essays take place during the pandemic, they are not a medicalized account, what is in the forefront is what we lost and what we gained and what we've forgotten now that it is over.
My favorite section is Home where the author writes short essays on the creatures she shares her world with. There are Rattlesnakes, Black Widow spiders, horny toads, ladybugs and butterflies, All are given equal appreciation and attention.
The essential feeling here is hope in a chaotic, complex, confusing time. The book is an inspiration. Highly recommended.
Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for an advance reader copy.
When she writes about nature she remembers we are part of the landscape. The Glorians are the divine essence, the spark she describes as the holy ordinary. The book is divided in sections. The first essays take place during the pandemic, they are not a medicalized account, what is in the forefront is what we lost and what we gained and what we've forgotten now that it is over.
My favorite section is Home where the author writes short essays on the creatures she shares her world with. There are Rattlesnakes, Black Widow spiders, horny toads, ladybugs and butterflies, All are given equal appreciation and attention.
The essential feeling here is hope in a chaotic, complex, confusing time. The book is an inspiration. Highly recommended.
Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for an advance reader copy.
March 27, 2026
“A Glorian is an encounter.
A Glorian is a meeting
with elan vital.
A Glorian is a moment of grace.”
“Finding beauty in a broken world is creating beauty in the world we find.”
In her new collection of essays, Williams takes a deep look at the past six years- living through Covid and standing witness as climate change wreaks havoc around the world.
She still teaches at Harvard and the essays alternate between her life there and her beloved life with her husband in Utah. She also examines her own spirituality, along her close connection to the land. It also helps that she is such a fine, insightful writer. Highly recommended.
A Glorian is a meeting
with elan vital.
A Glorian is a moment of grace.”
“Finding beauty in a broken world is creating beauty in the world we find.”
In her new collection of essays, Williams takes a deep look at the past six years- living through Covid and standing witness as climate change wreaks havoc around the world.
She still teaches at Harvard and the essays alternate between her life there and her beloved life with her husband in Utah. She also examines her own spirituality, along her close connection to the land. It also helps that she is such a fine, insightful writer. Highly recommended.
April 18, 2026
Quick disclaimer, this book is TOTALLY outside of my usual reading comfort zone, so take this review with a grain of salt.
I honestly have no idea how to rate this book. I feel like there were some really great tidbits in here. I had a physical copy that I annotated and I highlighted, tabbed, and noted quite a bit! There were also some really odd things that I was very…. off put by.
Some essays I would rate 5 stars, where others I just skipped because I was a bit uncomfy reading it.
This did feel very soapboxish but hey! It’s a nonfiction book of essays so idk what I was expecting.
I think if you are looking for something about climate change, divinity, and common humanity, this is a very excellent book!
If you are a regular Joe Shmoe (much like myself), who mostly reads for enjoyment, I probably wouldn’t recommend this.
I read this for a book club and I’m very interested to see what we talk about.
I honestly have no idea how to rate this book. I feel like there were some really great tidbits in here. I had a physical copy that I annotated and I highlighted, tabbed, and noted quite a bit! There were also some really odd things that I was very…. off put by.
Some essays I would rate 5 stars, where others I just skipped because I was a bit uncomfy reading it.
This did feel very soapboxish but hey! It’s a nonfiction book of essays so idk what I was expecting.
I think if you are looking for something about climate change, divinity, and common humanity, this is a very excellent book!
If you are a regular Joe Shmoe (much like myself), who mostly reads for enjoyment, I probably wouldn’t recommend this.
I read this for a book club and I’m very interested to see what we talk about.
April 3, 2026
give me all the TTW books. she’s an absolute favorite and this book was no exception. everything she writes makes me fall more in love with the desert, and particularly the Southwest, and nature and all beings. read this book.
Review of advance copy received from Publisher
we have been living a myth. we have constructed a dream. we have cajoled and seduced ourselves into believing we are the center of all things: with plants, and other sentient beings from ants to lizards to coyotes to grizzly bears, subservient to our desires and needs. this is a lethal lie that will be seen by future generations as a grave, and a grave moral sin committed and buried in the name of ignorance and arrogance.terry tempest williams writes so beautifully, so openly, so thoughtfully. amidst anguish, finding awe — and always perspective. the glorians shifts largely between williams' beloved desert southwest and her time teaching at harvard divinity school, blending nature writing and memoir. the tiny and the tremendous, the horror and the hope: wherever williams seems to turn her focus and care, she uncovers and reflects and connects the personal and the profound. at once a balm and a bulwark.
May 3, 2026
For fans of Terry Tempest Williams, she has a new book out called The Glorians: Visitations from the Holy Ordinary. The title is from a dream the author had during the early days of the pandemic in which the author finds herself at Harvard, where she is a writer-in-residence in real life. In the dream she is climbing a tower. Reaching the top, she sees a female colleague, whom she approaches.
“Do you remember the vow you made to us?” the professor asks.
“Remind me,” William says.
“Your vow is to create the Epic Documentation of the Glorians,” the professor says.
And with that the author wakes up. But wait, what is a Glorian?
For Williams, like for all of us, the pandemic was a “great quieting.” It’s hard to believe, but that was the first time I ever heard the sound of baby birds singing in a nest. They were baby juncos. And I’d never been in a quiet enough place to actually hear them chirping like crickets.
Everything is so loud in Southern California. There are always planes streaking over head and so many police helicopters — and the constant sound of the leaf blowers and relentless construction noise. But during the pandemic, the world got so quiet, especially during the beginning of the lockdown. I remember the startle of hearing a huge grapefruit falling off the tree and hitting the ground with a thud in our backyard. How had I never been present for that before?
For Terry Tempest Williams, her dream haunts her. What is a Glorian? No matter how hard she looks, she comes up empty… until one day, she is transfixed watching an ant carry a magenta flower from a blooming coyote willow tree across a long stretch of her backyard… And she is startled by the magnificence of the world.
That is a Glorian, she says.
And so she defines a Glorian as an encounter with élan vital (“vital momentum”)—a meeting with grace. It is the “holy ordinary” in the book’s title, something I’ve always referred to as Wonderworld —from Melville’s "the great flood-gates of the wonder-world swung open” in Moby Dick.
I love it when she is talking about Utah ad the Great Salt Lake... love when she describes her husband and those dragonflies... She makes me wonder about the difference between noticing versus witnessing...
Like the author, I also thought covid would be a great awakening--a moment when there could have been a serious reset... During covid, I kept thinking that if anything good could come out of the tragedy of all the suffering, it would be if Americans could do a big reset. Maybe start working together to consume less, pollute less, try and go a little lighter on the planet. Quiet down, perhaps look back to a time when the turning of seasons was marked collectively, when certain days were set apart from other days, when the rhythms of a community's life together created something like punctuation in time.
But before we knew it, we were back to business as usual. Or dare I say it, the spinning world was back with a vengeance!
Wonderful book. Like all her books.
“Do you remember the vow you made to us?” the professor asks.
“Remind me,” William says.
“Your vow is to create the Epic Documentation of the Glorians,” the professor says.
And with that the author wakes up. But wait, what is a Glorian?
For Williams, like for all of us, the pandemic was a “great quieting.” It’s hard to believe, but that was the first time I ever heard the sound of baby birds singing in a nest. They were baby juncos. And I’d never been in a quiet enough place to actually hear them chirping like crickets.
Everything is so loud in Southern California. There are always planes streaking over head and so many police helicopters — and the constant sound of the leaf blowers and relentless construction noise. But during the pandemic, the world got so quiet, especially during the beginning of the lockdown. I remember the startle of hearing a huge grapefruit falling off the tree and hitting the ground with a thud in our backyard. How had I never been present for that before?
For Terry Tempest Williams, her dream haunts her. What is a Glorian? No matter how hard she looks, she comes up empty… until one day, she is transfixed watching an ant carry a magenta flower from a blooming coyote willow tree across a long stretch of her backyard… And she is startled by the magnificence of the world.
That is a Glorian, she says.
And so she defines a Glorian as an encounter with élan vital (“vital momentum”)—a meeting with grace. It is the “holy ordinary” in the book’s title, something I’ve always referred to as Wonderworld —from Melville’s "the great flood-gates of the wonder-world swung open” in Moby Dick.
I love it when she is talking about Utah ad the Great Salt Lake... love when she describes her husband and those dragonflies... She makes me wonder about the difference between noticing versus witnessing...
Like the author, I also thought covid would be a great awakening--a moment when there could have been a serious reset... During covid, I kept thinking that if anything good could come out of the tragedy of all the suffering, it would be if Americans could do a big reset. Maybe start working together to consume less, pollute less, try and go a little lighter on the planet. Quiet down, perhaps look back to a time when the turning of seasons was marked collectively, when certain days were set apart from other days, when the rhythms of a community's life together created something like punctuation in time.
But before we knew it, we were back to business as usual. Or dare I say it, the spinning world was back with a vengeance!
Wonderful book. Like all her books.
Did Not Finish
May 7, 2026Wow.
I began this with such high hopes and was instantly grateful I’d found it. Now, I just feel like a Mean Girl. Williams, at first, oozes the same meditative, loving reverence for all beings of Robin Wall Kimmerer… until she runs roughshod through sanity like a newly released tradwife on a bucking bronco in a seedy country bar on dollar shot night. What on earth did I just read?
I bailed after the nauseating divinity tree story. A tree being cut down elicits the same despair she felt in losing her brother to suicide, yet she did nothing to intervene on the tree’s behalf but weep, wail, and worship it. In fact, she gave more airtime to her intimate love of this tree than her brother.
After deciding I’d had enough, I began reading reviews to make sure I hadn’t lost my mind. Oh-ho-ho! Thinly veiled sexual fantasies of lying with buffaloes and all the cat stories (where was her reverence and responsible love for her cat while it was alive?) have, at least, soothed my conscience for feeling such mean-spirited revulsion. Rather than a sign of meanness, it sounds like my radar was right on the money.
I began this with such high hopes and was instantly grateful I’d found it. Now, I just feel like a Mean Girl. Williams, at first, oozes the same meditative, loving reverence for all beings of Robin Wall Kimmerer… until she runs roughshod through sanity like a newly released tradwife on a bucking bronco in a seedy country bar on dollar shot night. What on earth did I just read?
I bailed after the nauseating divinity tree story. A tree being cut down elicits the same despair she felt in losing her brother to suicide, yet she did nothing to intervene on the tree’s behalf but weep, wail, and worship it. In fact, she gave more airtime to her intimate love of this tree than her brother.
After deciding I’d had enough, I began reading reviews to make sure I hadn’t lost my mind. Oh-ho-ho! Thinly veiled sexual fantasies of lying with buffaloes and all the cat stories (where was her reverence and responsible love for her cat while it was alive?) have, at least, soothed my conscience for feeling such mean-spirited revulsion. Rather than a sign of meanness, it sounds like my radar was right on the money.
April 3, 2026
I just want to be wherever she is and to see the world the way she does. And yet: How does she not get that the east coast is literally on the coast. How many times did she lament being far from the ocean when Harvard is not even 10 miles from the ocean. This really pissed me off. She lives in Utah without tides or horizons FFS. Throughout the book she lamented climate change and the catastrophic consequences of human emissions yet had 20 people travel from Boston to Utah for a field trip. And it is absolutely animal abuse to let cats roam a desert. FYou, no longer a favorite author. I am kicking myself for having preordered copies for 3 friends just because she wrote it. One lives in Boston, another in Annapolis, and all share their lives with cats.
April 17, 2026
To all the preciousness of every single thing everywhere she bids us to pay attention and to begin with love.
March 6, 2026
I love her earlier works, including her book about her relationship to the National Parks. The parts of this book centered around her home were special, but the dwelling at Harvard was tedious and did not speak to me of any Gloriana. The tale of the Divinity Tree is interesting, but other than some quiet protest; it does not appear that anyone, either student or professor dared risk anything to save the tree. Although Williams often speaks in metaphors, her tale of wanting to lie down with buffalo ( which is hard to read as anything other than actually having sex with an animal) was too much for me. I did finish the book, after that bit; but the entirety of the book was slow, scattered. The last straw was her story about losing her beloved??? Cat to an outdoor predator, when she and her husband did little to protect that poor cat. Allowing cats to wander outside for a walk about in any area with predators is irresponsible. She can write all the ‘letters from my cat to sooth my guilt’ she wants to, but they set the stage for this to happen. So, a 3 star from me; and probably no more purchases of her books.
April 19, 2026
In The Glorians, Terry Tempest Williams writes into the long quiet left by a global pandemic. Not a story in the usual sense. Fragments. Observations. A life measured in small reckonings. A tree cut down. The water rising. A people rising. A cat gone missing into the wider world.
Tempest does not force meaning. Lets it come slow. What is lost is not always named outright but it is there in the margins. The land endures. The mind circles back. What remains is attention. And in intention, something like healing, though it does not claim it.
Tempest does not force meaning. Lets it come slow. What is lost is not always named outright but it is there in the margins. The land endures. The mind circles back. What remains is attention. And in intention, something like healing, though it does not claim it.
March 23, 2026
I have read most everything this author has published. Her connection to the Southwest moves me deeply. As a Unitarian Universalist I appreciate her embracing of all religions. I especially appreciate her connection to nature.
Did Not Finish
March 21, 2026Was listening to this on audiobook and absolutely loved the beginning, a beautiful meditation on spirituality and nature and human connection.
Got 55% of the way in before girlie starts talking about how she had her sexual awakening watching bison and posed the question, “If we can be genderfluid, why not species fluid?” aaaand I had to stop because WTF 😂
Got 55% of the way in before girlie starts talking about how she had her sexual awakening watching bison and posed the question, “If we can be genderfluid, why not species fluid?” aaaand I had to stop because WTF 😂
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 1, 2026
[Thanks Grove Atlantic for the ARC. Truly.]
There have been times in my life when I find that a book and I have called out to one another from the ether. This has only happened twice.
Squatted in malasana, I grabbed Terry's erosion and opened on a random page. It was the beginning of the piece about the abolishment of Roe vs. Wade and within three sentences I was crying on the floor of the small bookstore. I put the book back on the shelf, got up from the floor and walked away.
Unbeknownst to me, my then-boyfriend had been watching the scene unfold and went back the next day to purchase it. A poet, he handed me the book and said simply, “You need this." I did.
Once again, the ether and I were in line and the library's mail was a brown package labeled to my attention. Inside was an advanced reader copy of Terry's new book, the Glorians. This time, the voice of the wind was the one telling me that I "needed this”. I did.
Per usual, Terry give so much for one to sit with; digest slowly and reflect with the whole of one's spirit.it speaks to my soul in words that I lack to adequately express as well as Terry does.
Earth is asking us to wake up and reflect on the implications that our conscious and unconscious actions are having on the integrity of life in all manifestations, large and small.
Each species - large or small; feathered, furred, or finned - carries the larger story of planetary health in its cells. The difference between our species and other species is that we are responsible for the demise of all the others.
Terry offers questions that require us to Stop. Sit. Be. That require us to give time to turn ourselves inside out and be honest about how things truly are; how our individual actions and inactions are contributing to the problems that are destroying every single organism on this Planet that- literally- gives us our lives.
How much of your first world comfort are you willing to release?
How much convenience are you ready to give up to allow species other than humans to flourish, heal, and return the balance back to our irreplaceable living Planet?
Does one's spiritual orientation cease to exist as well when our place-based bearings are no longer reliable?
What is the world without any trees? The winter makes it harder to be content in the place I live when the land is nothing but brittle, crunchy brown. It looks like the color of illness. The barren landscape inspires nothing in me and I find I feel I am failing that I am unable to find the beauty of existing where I am. Can I accept that the world denies personhood to the very nature that creates us? That keeps us alive? Feeds us, humbles us and puts us in our proper place in the delicate balance of this Planet within the Universe?
I find it appropriate that this was the last book I read in the year of 2025. It came to me in a time of mental unrest and fitfulness.it spoke to me and feed me things that I have been missing in my life of late and fueled my journey into my mind, into my spirit; my soul, and gave me language to help guide me into making peace with my unrest. To be wiser and steadfast in my belief that our small actions of defiance; our individual refusals to comply to a system that we do not agree DO make a difference. That when you fall back in flow with the energy of the Universe that carries us all, things will come to you and remind you that you are not alone in your mindset and perspectives.
As Terry asks: "Who is listening? I want honest conversations that do not end on the obligatory hopeful note.”
I want honest conversations that do not end on the obligatory hopeful note.
"How well do you live with uncertainty?"
”What else is there?" I replied.
What else indeed, Terry. What else indeed . . .
There have been times in my life when I find that a book and I have called out to one another from the ether. This has only happened twice.
Squatted in malasana, I grabbed Terry's erosion and opened on a random page. It was the beginning of the piece about the abolishment of Roe vs. Wade and within three sentences I was crying on the floor of the small bookstore. I put the book back on the shelf, got up from the floor and walked away.
Unbeknownst to me, my then-boyfriend had been watching the scene unfold and went back the next day to purchase it. A poet, he handed me the book and said simply, “You need this." I did.
Once again, the ether and I were in line and the library's mail was a brown package labeled to my attention. Inside was an advanced reader copy of Terry's new book, the Glorians. This time, the voice of the wind was the one telling me that I "needed this”. I did.
Per usual, Terry give so much for one to sit with; digest slowly and reflect with the whole of one's spirit.it speaks to my soul in words that I lack to adequately express as well as Terry does.
Earth is asking us to wake up and reflect on the implications that our conscious and unconscious actions are having on the integrity of life in all manifestations, large and small.
Each species - large or small; feathered, furred, or finned - carries the larger story of planetary health in its cells. The difference between our species and other species is that we are responsible for the demise of all the others.
Terry offers questions that require us to Stop. Sit. Be. That require us to give time to turn ourselves inside out and be honest about how things truly are; how our individual actions and inactions are contributing to the problems that are destroying every single organism on this Planet that- literally- gives us our lives.
How much of your first world comfort are you willing to release?
How much convenience are you ready to give up to allow species other than humans to flourish, heal, and return the balance back to our irreplaceable living Planet?
Does one's spiritual orientation cease to exist as well when our place-based bearings are no longer reliable?
What is the world without any trees? The winter makes it harder to be content in the place I live when the land is nothing but brittle, crunchy brown. It looks like the color of illness. The barren landscape inspires nothing in me and I find I feel I am failing that I am unable to find the beauty of existing where I am. Can I accept that the world denies personhood to the very nature that creates us? That keeps us alive? Feeds us, humbles us and puts us in our proper place in the delicate balance of this Planet within the Universe?
I find it appropriate that this was the last book I read in the year of 2025. It came to me in a time of mental unrest and fitfulness.it spoke to me and feed me things that I have been missing in my life of late and fueled my journey into my mind, into my spirit; my soul, and gave me language to help guide me into making peace with my unrest. To be wiser and steadfast in my belief that our small actions of defiance; our individual refusals to comply to a system that we do not agree DO make a difference. That when you fall back in flow with the energy of the Universe that carries us all, things will come to you and remind you that you are not alone in your mindset and perspectives.
As Terry asks: "Who is listening? I want honest conversations that do not end on the obligatory hopeful note.”
I want honest conversations that do not end on the obligatory hopeful note.
"How well do you live with uncertainty?"
”What else is there?" I replied.
What else indeed, Terry. What else indeed . . .
March 17, 2026
I have devoured almost everything Terry Tempest Williams has written since I read Refuge in the early 90s. Terry’s ability to describe, connect, explain, question and create with words is extraordinary. I marvel at how she connects disparate ideas and helps me to look at the world in new ways.
March 29, 2026
I had to slow down with this one. There really aren’t words to describe what I felt while reading The Glorians. Yes, this is a book you feel and absorb. It will stay with me.
Most important to me was the need to reclaim that part of myself that was gradually denied during my youth. The stories shared were an invitation to take on this challenge.
Thank you for a beautiful read!
Received a free copy in a Goodreads Giveaway.
Most important to me was the need to reclaim that part of myself that was gradually denied during my youth. The stories shared were an invitation to take on this challenge.
Thank you for a beautiful read!
Received a free copy in a Goodreads Giveaway.
January 10, 2026
Terry Tempest Williams’ book “The Glorians” is an exceptional exploration into our fraught and complicated times. Much of her words in these stories revolve around loneliness, change, and transformation as well. Loneliness brought on from the pandemic, from the sixth extinction we’re bringing about with our human selfishness, and from our alienation from one another in this politically polarizing time. But like much of her previous work there is a refreshing undertone of hope as well, as showcased through her observations of Glorians (as she defines them in the book) and the Holy Ordinary. (Some may find the concept of Glorians and her spiritual musing more interesting than I did, so I’ll leave that up to the individual reader.)
She starts the book by quoting Emerson: “This time, like all times, is a very good one, if we but know what to do with it.” And therein lies the transformation we all seek out of the gloom of these times. If, indeed we can take action. So she had be hooked from the start.
I really enjoyed this book and I highly recommend anyone feeling a lingering sense of unease to pick up a copy. Her observations and reflections have always rang true for me, and this book is no exception. Especially with passages like: “I am no longer surprised when the familiar becomes the unknown, the unexpected, the unrecognizable. … The world we are struggling to understand is moving faster than our comprehension. We need time. We need space. Change requires spaciousness if we are to integrate the past with the present with faith toward a future - this is not something to fear but face, honor, and embrace.”
Another theme in the book I enjoyed was her call to listen more. Acknowledging how what’s sacred to one may be blasphemy to another. I think about this a lot these days. How our curiosity seems to have lost all depth in this age of constant algorithmic fodder. How we get stuck in the cycle of our own beliefs and what we believe to be true without any further exploration. I think this is why so many feel stuck these days. I love when she writes halfway through the book: “What we know and what we don’t know is what leads us to our calling.” I couldn’t agree more!
Finally, thank you Terry for your continued work writing about the importance of preserving wild places for not only their own sake, but ours, the planet, and the biodiversity which enriches our lives, minds, and bodies. How lonely will this planet be with just us humans? How can one expect to find spiritual connections without nature? She asks: “Who will we become if our species and other known invasive species crowd out endemic ones, crushing the diversity of life and glorious specificity of beings living in vulnerable ecosystems? Are we consciously opting for a Wonder Bread world - a bland, prepackaged existence chosen deliberately or by default in the name of efficiency?”
Thank you Grove Atlantic for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.
She starts the book by quoting Emerson: “This time, like all times, is a very good one, if we but know what to do with it.” And therein lies the transformation we all seek out of the gloom of these times. If, indeed we can take action. So she had be hooked from the start.
I really enjoyed this book and I highly recommend anyone feeling a lingering sense of unease to pick up a copy. Her observations and reflections have always rang true for me, and this book is no exception. Especially with passages like: “I am no longer surprised when the familiar becomes the unknown, the unexpected, the unrecognizable. … The world we are struggling to understand is moving faster than our comprehension. We need time. We need space. Change requires spaciousness if we are to integrate the past with the present with faith toward a future - this is not something to fear but face, honor, and embrace.”
Another theme in the book I enjoyed was her call to listen more. Acknowledging how what’s sacred to one may be blasphemy to another. I think about this a lot these days. How our curiosity seems to have lost all depth in this age of constant algorithmic fodder. How we get stuck in the cycle of our own beliefs and what we believe to be true without any further exploration. I think this is why so many feel stuck these days. I love when she writes halfway through the book: “What we know and what we don’t know is what leads us to our calling.” I couldn’t agree more!
Finally, thank you Terry for your continued work writing about the importance of preserving wild places for not only their own sake, but ours, the planet, and the biodiversity which enriches our lives, minds, and bodies. How lonely will this planet be with just us humans? How can one expect to find spiritual connections without nature? She asks: “Who will we become if our species and other known invasive species crowd out endemic ones, crushing the diversity of life and glorious specificity of beings living in vulnerable ecosystems? Are we consciously opting for a Wonder Bread world - a bland, prepackaged existence chosen deliberately or by default in the name of efficiency?”
Thank you Grove Atlantic for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.
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March 8, 2026I fear this is giving substack book
April 14, 2026
The Glorians: Visitations From the Holy Ordinary
By Terry Tempest Williams
Review by Abi’l Khayr
There are flashes of brilliance in this newest work from Terry Tempest Williams, and finely woven descriptions of events that brought me to tears with their beauty. As a memoir focused on episodes from her life in the time just before, during, and now after the Covid pandemic, she offers marvelous examples of staying connected to the ordinary happenings of life and of nature as we move through our lives.
The Holy Ordinary.
Taken as a whole, perhaps with a bit of reading between the lines, one can sense a profound teaching coming through. That by attending to the ordinary, by being present to whatever it is that is happening in our daily existence, in our own back yard you might say, by staying present and noticing, that we will find ourselves swept into the rhythm of the natural world. And from inside that rhythm we will feel connected, we will feel the holiness of ordinary events.
Her lyrical description of witnessing, along with her husband, dozens of North American right whales breaching off the coast of Cape Cod might awaken a sense of alarm when one understands that these are a critically endangered species.
Her harrowing remarks about the flash floods in the canyon near her home in Utah could nudge one toward learning what we can as individuals do to protect and nurture the planet we call home.
But these are not the main focus of the book. Rather, I found in these pages a series of occurrences, some involving friends and mentors, one involving a black widow spider, that recount episodes in a life being lived with purpose and attention. A holy ordinary life.
I will say the title of the book, The Glorians, had troubled me. It seemed to be an unnecessary barrier to hearing what the book is saying, a new and unfamiliar word to get in my way. Why not just stick with the holy ordinary and present the book as a memoir presenting a series of holy ordinary moments from the author’s experience?
Apparently the term came to Williams as part of a dream. She illustrates the meaning by describing her observation of a solitary ant carrying a coyote blossom back to its colony, noticing that each time there was an obstacle to overcome that two or three other ants would suddenly appear to help the carrier past whatever the hindrance. “The ant carrying the coyote blossom across the desert is a Glorian. A Glorian is an encounter. A Glorian is a meeting with elan vital. A Glorian is a moment of grace.”
“If we dared to look more deeply at what our dreams hold and can inspire, would we live more fully in the presence of all that binds us together as human beings?," Williams asks. "Might we become more open to seeing the visitations of the Holy Ordinary as moments of encountering, even inhabiting grace? And could this contribute to our return to a collective embrace of beauty that unites our hearts rather than divides them?”
In the end I worried less about the unfamiliar title, and appreciated more being moved to laughter and to tears, feeling perhaps a few steps closer to the deep beauty that is life.
#theglorians
By Terry Tempest Williams
Review by Abi’l Khayr
There are flashes of brilliance in this newest work from Terry Tempest Williams, and finely woven descriptions of events that brought me to tears with their beauty. As a memoir focused on episodes from her life in the time just before, during, and now after the Covid pandemic, she offers marvelous examples of staying connected to the ordinary happenings of life and of nature as we move through our lives.
The Holy Ordinary.
Taken as a whole, perhaps with a bit of reading between the lines, one can sense a profound teaching coming through. That by attending to the ordinary, by being present to whatever it is that is happening in our daily existence, in our own back yard you might say, by staying present and noticing, that we will find ourselves swept into the rhythm of the natural world. And from inside that rhythm we will feel connected, we will feel the holiness of ordinary events.
Her lyrical description of witnessing, along with her husband, dozens of North American right whales breaching off the coast of Cape Cod might awaken a sense of alarm when one understands that these are a critically endangered species.
Her harrowing remarks about the flash floods in the canyon near her home in Utah could nudge one toward learning what we can as individuals do to protect and nurture the planet we call home.
But these are not the main focus of the book. Rather, I found in these pages a series of occurrences, some involving friends and mentors, one involving a black widow spider, that recount episodes in a life being lived with purpose and attention. A holy ordinary life.
I will say the title of the book, The Glorians, had troubled me. It seemed to be an unnecessary barrier to hearing what the book is saying, a new and unfamiliar word to get in my way. Why not just stick with the holy ordinary and present the book as a memoir presenting a series of holy ordinary moments from the author’s experience?
Apparently the term came to Williams as part of a dream. She illustrates the meaning by describing her observation of a solitary ant carrying a coyote blossom back to its colony, noticing that each time there was an obstacle to overcome that two or three other ants would suddenly appear to help the carrier past whatever the hindrance. “The ant carrying the coyote blossom across the desert is a Glorian. A Glorian is an encounter. A Glorian is a meeting with elan vital. A Glorian is a moment of grace.”
“If we dared to look more deeply at what our dreams hold and can inspire, would we live more fully in the presence of all that binds us together as human beings?," Williams asks. "Might we become more open to seeing the visitations of the Holy Ordinary as moments of encountering, even inhabiting grace? And could this contribute to our return to a collective embrace of beauty that unites our hearts rather than divides them?”
In the end I worried less about the unfamiliar title, and appreciated more being moved to laughter and to tears, feeling perhaps a few steps closer to the deep beauty that is life.
#theglorians
April 5, 2026
4.5 stars
I first encountered Terry Tempest Williams through her book Refuge, which I read immediately after its 1991 release. Refuge remains one of my very favorite books primarily because of the impact it made on my ability to see more broadly, to challenge conventional viewpoints, and to love the southwest more deeply. Since then, I've tried to read everything that this author has written because every time I do, her writing stirs me to greater contemplation, understanding, and pointed action. Her works are not light or frivolous. And that is true of this latest body of work, written before, during, and installed after the COVID pandemic, when the stakes seem even more urgent.This collection of interconnected essays tries to motivate the reader in the desperate context of our burning climate and our unraveling national identity. It is incredibly timely for providing the hope and the resolve needed to recognize how intertwined we are with all species and to continue to fight even in the midst of loss and grief. Some essays are short and stand on their own, like her musings about horny toads and Monarch butterflies. Others, like about the cutting down of the Harvard Divinity School Tree, form a thread repeated throughout the book to help us to think deeply about what links us even if we have different experiences or different responses to shared experiences. As she says when concluding the book, the author's job is not to just pass along knowledge but to guide us to think our own thoughts and to express them creatively, to try new ideas and see what insights flow out, and to find our own unique ways to move forward in pursuit of our shared goals to preserve what we value and hold dear. May we listen to and honor the holy in the ordinary wherever we find it.
I first encountered Terry Tempest Williams through her book Refuge, which I read immediately after its 1991 release. Refuge remains one of my very favorite books primarily because of the impact it made on my ability to see more broadly, to challenge conventional viewpoints, and to love the southwest more deeply. Since then, I've tried to read everything that this author has written because every time I do, her writing stirs me to greater contemplation, understanding, and pointed action. Her works are not light or frivolous. And that is true of this latest body of work, written before, during, and installed after the COVID pandemic, when the stakes seem even more urgent.This collection of interconnected essays tries to motivate the reader in the desperate context of our burning climate and our unraveling national identity. It is incredibly timely for providing the hope and the resolve needed to recognize how intertwined we are with all species and to continue to fight even in the midst of loss and grief. Some essays are short and stand on their own, like her musings about horny toads and Monarch butterflies. Others, like about the cutting down of the Harvard Divinity School Tree, form a thread repeated throughout the book to help us to think deeply about what links us even if we have different experiences or different responses to shared experiences. As she says when concluding the book, the author's job is not to just pass along knowledge but to guide us to think our own thoughts and to express them creatively, to try new ideas and see what insights flow out, and to find our own unique ways to move forward in pursuit of our shared goals to preserve what we value and hold dear. May we listen to and honor the holy in the ordinary wherever we find it.
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
A Glorian, as I understand it, is an ordinary event that becomes memorable and cherished to us because of its inherent beauty or wonder. Although the word originally came to her in the form of a dream, Terry Tempest Williams has given all of her readers the gift of a Glorian in written form.
Terry writes with authenticity and her prose is full of wisdom and holiness. Her love of her students, the land, and her family shine through as does her compassion for all of the earth's inhabitants. At her core, Williams is a storyteller. I was spellbound by her descriptions of serial flash floods in the Utah desert during an ironic period of drought. I shed tears while reading about the demise of the Harvard Divinity Tree and rejoiced at how its memory was restored in a remarkable way. I looked back with dread as she recalled living through the pandemic and learning lessons from it. Each of these varied experiences became her own life markers and each were filled with their own Glorians, large and small.
I have been reading Terry Tempest Williams for over thirty years. I keep coming back to her because of her constant invitations to see each other through more empathetic and understanding eyes, despite living in a world that appears divided, discontented, and uncertain. This book is full of hope and vision. I will be looking for my own Glorians to come now, perhaps even in a dream.
Many thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for a digital advanced copy in return for an honest review.
#NetGalley #GroveAtlantic
Terry writes with authenticity and her prose is full of wisdom and holiness. Her love of her students, the land, and her family shine through as does her compassion for all of the earth's inhabitants. At her core, Williams is a storyteller. I was spellbound by her descriptions of serial flash floods in the Utah desert during an ironic period of drought. I shed tears while reading about the demise of the Harvard Divinity Tree and rejoiced at how its memory was restored in a remarkable way. I looked back with dread as she recalled living through the pandemic and learning lessons from it. Each of these varied experiences became her own life markers and each were filled with their own Glorians, large and small.
I have been reading Terry Tempest Williams for over thirty years. I keep coming back to her because of her constant invitations to see each other through more empathetic and understanding eyes, despite living in a world that appears divided, discontented, and uncertain. This book is full of hope and vision. I will be looking for my own Glorians to come now, perhaps even in a dream.
Many thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for a digital advanced copy in return for an honest review.
#NetGalley #GroveAtlantic
March 7, 2026
I always welcome writing by Terry Tempest Williams. This one is a bit of a slog, though. Seems as though it needs a more substantial theme to tie the essays together. Written in a journal or memoir style, it partly takes place during the pandemic. Given what has transpired since, the state of our environment and future outlook has gotten much worse, and there are few optimistic threads here to hang on to. Not that I need optimism, but there is a bleakness here that I struggled with, and no solid premise for the book. The Glorians' theme seemed slight. Further, I don’t have an interest in Harvard Divinity School, where she teaches and serves as a writer in residence. One essay was about a series of presentations for a climate/environmental-related event at Harvard, and it was reported in a rather flat way. Second-hand accounts of who presented and what they said in the rarefied Harvard scene did not hold my interest. Seems as though she had the book contract, and that publishers tend to publish whatever their big-name authors write. I would suggest readers try some of her earlier, well-known books, which are truly transcendent.
April 3, 2026
Another GR reviewer called this a "liberal echo chamber," which for me hits the nail on the head. The modus here is to use words as signifiers. For example, this defining extract from the book:
What is a Glorian?
An ant carrying a coyote blossom across the desert is a Glorian.
A Glorian is an encounter.
A Glorian is a meeting with elan vital.
A Glorian is a moment of grace.
Based on my experience as a former lifelong Episcopalian, I take this as as a too-familiar kind of pseudo-poetry, one unafraid to be unprepossessing because it's buttressed on all sides by an in-group self-adapted to read terms like "encounter," "elan vital," and "moment of grace" as, yes, virtue signifiers for purposes of shaping the parish identity. Admittedly that's just the personal view of a relatively recent church defector who, by the way, happens to be a devout non-atheist.
If I'm not totally outvoted and there's really such a verbal style problem here to be found by self-reflection, one remedy could for such parishes to somehow open their ranks and draw in new perspectives (and, perhaps more importantly, new styles), hopefully thereby to become fluid and truly diverse enough to keep its ideas challenging and its language fresh. The tones and styles of piety should resist standardization, which may require constant vigilance.
I don't doubt the book's good intentions. If this review has been less than constructive, I invite the author, who I grant makes many excellent points, to dismiss it as mere disaffected ravings of an ex-member.
What is a Glorian?
An ant carrying a coyote blossom across the desert is a Glorian.
A Glorian is an encounter.
A Glorian is a meeting with elan vital.
A Glorian is a moment of grace.
Based on my experience as a former lifelong Episcopalian, I take this as as a too-familiar kind of pseudo-poetry, one unafraid to be unprepossessing because it's buttressed on all sides by an in-group self-adapted to read terms like "encounter," "elan vital," and "moment of grace" as, yes, virtue signifiers for purposes of shaping the parish identity. Admittedly that's just the personal view of a relatively recent church defector who, by the way, happens to be a devout non-atheist.
If I'm not totally outvoted and there's really such a verbal style problem here to be found by self-reflection, one remedy could for such parishes to somehow open their ranks and draw in new perspectives (and, perhaps more importantly, new styles), hopefully thereby to become fluid and truly diverse enough to keep its ideas challenging and its language fresh. The tones and styles of piety should resist standardization, which may require constant vigilance.
I don't doubt the book's good intentions. If this review has been less than constructive, I invite the author, who I grant makes many excellent points, to dismiss it as mere disaffected ravings of an ex-member.
April 9, 2026
I never quite bought into the concept of The Glorians. It felt like an idea that didn't need a new name. But that was a very minor quibble because I loved Ms. Williams' authorial voice. She was a breath of fresh air, calming and invigorating.
I am sometimes able to find awe and wonder in my everyday life as she describes. It helps to be open to those experiences and to try to look at the world as an enchanted place. It's easy to find awe in overwhelming places like the Grand Canyon or St. Peter's Cathedral, but it can also be found in a spider or a dew drop.
Ms. Williams also points out that we can find these experiences in grief and loss. You don't need to wish for grief or to wallow in it, but it is an inevitable part of life and can be the occasion for a spiritual experience that has as much depth of meaning as happier moments of wonder.
I liked the story of the Harvard Divinity Tree. I once had a class in the building next to the Divinity School and must have seen the tree, but I was too busy worrying about Chinese history to appreciate its special qualities. At least I can go and set on a bench made from the tree the next time that I am there.
I am sometimes able to find awe and wonder in my everyday life as she describes. It helps to be open to those experiences and to try to look at the world as an enchanted place. It's easy to find awe in overwhelming places like the Grand Canyon or St. Peter's Cathedral, but it can also be found in a spider or a dew drop.
Ms. Williams also points out that we can find these experiences in grief and loss. You don't need to wish for grief or to wallow in it, but it is an inevitable part of life and can be the occasion for a spiritual experience that has as much depth of meaning as happier moments of wonder.
I liked the story of the Harvard Divinity Tree. I once had a class in the building next to the Divinity School and must have seen the tree, but I was too busy worrying about Chinese history to appreciate its special qualities. At least I can go and set on a bench made from the tree the next time that I am there.
April 9, 2026
THE GLORIANS felt akin to Ross Gay’s BOOK OF DELIGHTS—during her tenure as writer in residence of Harvard Divinity School, Terry Tempest Williams has a dream instructing her to “document the Glorians.” The rest of the book is her journey to define and find these Glorians, interspersed with her experience of the pandemic.
The book moves from the touching and beautiful to the wacky and weird. I loved the author’s earnest passion for her students and the natural world, and felt her pain at the losses our age is sustaining, from the magnificent oak tree in front of the divinity school to the wreckages of climate change. At times some of the expressions felt a bit overblown for my practical self, but I was still moved by the passion and humor of the author and the Glorian-students she works with. This book is a convincing argument of why we need art, nature, and spirituality (in whatever form it takes for you) to get through these unstable times.
I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
The book moves from the touching and beautiful to the wacky and weird. I loved the author’s earnest passion for her students and the natural world, and felt her pain at the losses our age is sustaining, from the magnificent oak tree in front of the divinity school to the wreckages of climate change. At times some of the expressions felt a bit overblown for my practical self, but I was still moved by the passion and humor of the author and the Glorian-students she works with. This book is a convincing argument of why we need art, nature, and spirituality (in whatever form it takes for you) to get through these unstable times.
I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
April 24, 2026
Creative non-fiction is an adventure in reading itself, as you cannot pattern nor anticipate the words the next page will offer. This…is my favorite part about this genre of literature.
—
As April’s book club selection I was already committed to reading this book, but the absolute best part of being in a book club is the expansive way the selections can broaden your scope of reading of you allow it. Oh boy did I allow it.
I am from Utah, I know this landscape and issues in this book well. The author is current to my understanding and vital to my knowledge of my daily universe.
To go from dream theory and establishment of the foundation of destiny from the individual to the outside natural world that humans have inevitably become destroyer’s of…but should be stewards…is an incredible page turning journey that will impact my life and my own view of my role in this world of holy ordinary life for a long time.
Read this with an open mind and a pen in hand.
—
As April’s book club selection I was already committed to reading this book, but the absolute best part of being in a book club is the expansive way the selections can broaden your scope of reading of you allow it. Oh boy did I allow it.
I am from Utah, I know this landscape and issues in this book well. The author is current to my understanding and vital to my knowledge of my daily universe.
To go from dream theory and establishment of the foundation of destiny from the individual to the outside natural world that humans have inevitably become destroyer’s of…but should be stewards…is an incredible page turning journey that will impact my life and my own view of my role in this world of holy ordinary life for a long time.
Read this with an open mind and a pen in hand.
April 30, 2026
I loved Williams’ first book, “Refuge.” Early in “The Glorians,” I thought I was not going to finish it. I saw it as a sign not of the book’s inadequacies, but of how much I’d changed since “Refuge.” I’m glad I kept with it. I don’t care much any more for the kind of spiritualism that made me love “Refuge,” and is so important to “Glorians,” but there is so much else to love in it. Williams does a great job of fusing close observation of the natural (and social) world with an impassioned commitment to advocating for the kids of changes needed to rescue that world and careful argument about how the work we need to do to protect trees and natural spaces and advancing equality and justice are intimately related. I love her weaving together her family story with the story of her work at Harvard, and her interactions with other writers and activists. Touching, energizing, humorous, and beautiful—while still being challenging.
May 10, 2026
“Love is a Glorian-resistance and insistence- our refusal to be numb to a world on fire.”
Enjoyed many moments of Williams’ writing, but at times I felt removed and distant from it.
First lines:
I’m standing outside my apartment building on Massachusetts Avenue waiting for a Lyft to the airport. It is 4:00 a.m. on Wednesday, March 11, 2020. My flight from Boston to Salt Lake City is leaving in two hours. I cannot miss my plane. Rumors of a plague originating in China that is now traveling throughout the world have become facts: COVID-19 is real, making its first appearance in America in Washington state on January 20, 2020. By January 24, the virus was in Chicago. Harvard, where I am writer-in-residence at the Divinity School announced yesterday all courses will be moved online indefinitely. Students, faculty, and staff were instructed to go home, whatever that might look like and wherever that may be.
Enjoyed many moments of Williams’ writing, but at times I felt removed and distant from it.
First lines:
I’m standing outside my apartment building on Massachusetts Avenue waiting for a Lyft to the airport. It is 4:00 a.m. on Wednesday, March 11, 2020. My flight from Boston to Salt Lake City is leaving in two hours. I cannot miss my plane. Rumors of a plague originating in China that is now traveling throughout the world have become facts: COVID-19 is real, making its first appearance in America in Washington state on January 20, 2020. By January 24, the virus was in Chicago. Harvard, where I am writer-in-residence at the Divinity School announced yesterday all courses will be moved online indefinitely. Students, faculty, and staff were instructed to go home, whatever that might look like and wherever that may be.
April 15, 2026
There is some very, very good writing in this book, but also a fair amount of overwrought dribble. Some of it about divinity school and others like channeling your dead cat. The problem is not a liberal take on things, but the ineffective delusion that just because you want to believe in something and believe in it hard enough, it will be so. This is also the error of most all religions. There is plenty of to be in awe of, and plenty of critical issues to care about, and plenty of mystery in the world, but please approach these with seriousness and discernment, not silly made up substitutes for real action, real feelings, or a realistic philosophy. I praise her for some great writing and elements of a solid philosophy, but some of the new age re-mix of religion puts me off. 3 1/2 stars. Sorry for the mixed review, I think I've read all your other books.
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