Reservoir Year

"Shengold’s beautifully calibrated rhythm of language conveys all the rhythm of walking—the quiet, graceful stride along with lively, animated steps, the contemplative solitary strolls and those shared with companions. But she offers us as well the rhythm of the infinitesimal and the grand; of the expected and the unexpected; of the abstract and the real. Shengold suggests what it is to be an attentive human being, which is why accompanying her on these reservoir walks is as restorative as the walks themselves."—Akiko Busch, author of How to Disappear: Notes on Invisibility in a Time of Transparency

"Reservoir Year is both a lyrical form of devotion as well as halcyon cry to wake up and notice the life around us. A most timely and superb book!"—Gail Straub, author of The Ashokan Way: Landscape’s Path into Consciousness

"Shengold’s memoir explores a reservoir of feelings. Accompanied by her elegant, unpretentious prose, the reader comes upon surprises: a bear, an eagle feather, a crimson forest. Filled to the brim with subtle revelations, of sun-washed illuminations but also the poignant history; a drowned town lies below the shimmering surface. Expect to be moved, and then overcome by the tenderness and variety of Shengold’s emotional literary palette."—Laura Shaine Cunningham, author of Sleeping Arrangements and A Place in the Country

"This is nature writing of the highest and most delightful order."—David Van Biema, coauthor of The Prayer Wheel: A Daily Guide to Renewing Your Faith with a Rediscovered Spiritual Practice

"To walk with Shengold along the banks of the Ashokan Reservoir, is to see the Catskills—its ever-changing sky, its magnificent wildlife, and even its ghosts—through the lens of a writer of rare and exquisite sensibility."—Leslie T. Sharpe, author of The Quarry Fox: And Other Critters of the Wild Catskills

"For a walking companion with a witty, curious and unorthodox mind who is also a stunningly good writer, read Nina Shengold's Reservoir Year. I loved loved loved every word and then I cried at the end."—Abigail Thomas, New York Times bestselling author of A Three Dog Life and What Comes Next and How To Like It

"Part ode to this pristine environment and part interior monologue on aging, friendship, and love, Shengold’s book inspires readers to pay a little more attention to the beauty of the world and how it can reflect their emotions right back at them."—Upstate House Magazine

"The book is an invitation to find our own 'Ashokan Reservoir,' a place of magic that will engage our senses and awaken our spirit."—Art in the Catskills

"Reservoir Year is a comforting yet thought-provoking meditation on the human relationship with the natural world and how a connection with nature can deepen our awareness and empathy, no matter where we are in life."—Literary Ladies Guide

"A portrait of place and time and a rich meditation on existence, precisely because she doesn't try to make it that way but allows it to unfold."—Bluestone Press