“Quotidian” means “ordinary,” or “everyday,” and in this slim volume (88 pages!) Norris affirms the inherent worth of the mundane tasks that consume our everyday–the cooking, the cleaning, the dishes, the diapering. “What is it about repetitive acts that makes us feel that we are wasting our time?” Norris asks. Yet she insists that our daily activities are anything but trivial, and have the power to shape our souls, if we let them. A beautiful book worth reading over and over again.

I love Kathleen Norris. From the publisher: "Kathleen Norris's masterpiece: a personal and moving memoir that resurrects the ancient term acedia, or soul-weariness, and brilliantly explores its relevancy to the modern individual and culture. Fascinated by this 'noonday demon,' Norris read intensively and knew she must restore this forgotten but utterly relevant and important concept to the modern world's vernacular. Like Norris's bestselling The Cloister Walk, Acedia & me is part memoir and part meditation. An examination of acedia in the light of theology, psychology, monastic spirituality, the healing powers of religious practice, and Norris's own experience, Acedia & me is both intimate and historically sweeping, brimming with exasperation and reverence, sometimes funny, often provocative, and always important."

I love Kathleen Norris. From the publisher: "A celebrated poet transports readers to the heart of the Great Plains, examining her heritage, religion, language, and the land itself, revealing the contradictions of small-town life on the Great Plains. Kathleen Norris invites readers to experience rich moments of prayer and presence in Dakota, a timeless tribute to a place in the American landscape that is at once desolate and sublime, harsh and forgiving, steeped in history and myth. In thoughtful, discerning prose, she explores how we come to inhabit the world we see, and how that world also inhabits us. Her voice is a steady assurance that we can, and do, chart our spiritual geography wherever we go."

I love Kathleen Norris. From the publisher: "Why would a married woman with a thoroughly Protestant background and often more doubt than faith be drawn to the ancient practice of monasticism, to a community of celibate men whose days are centered on a rigid schedule of prayer, work, and scripture? This is the question that poet Kathleen Norris asks us as, somewhat to her own surprise, she found herself on two extended residencies at St. John's Abbey in Minnesota. The Cloister Walk demonstrates, in this stirring and lyrical work, the monastery becomes immediate, accessible, and relevant to us, no matter what our faith may be." Newsday says, "Norris presents ample proof that holy people don't have to be starchy... If you learn anything from The Cloister Walk, it's that monks are people too. They gossip, crack jokes, fall asleep in church, suffer through depression and doubt like the rest of us."