THE BOOK REPORT | Everyday Wonder by Sophie Howarth

THE BOOK REPORT
Everyday Wonder by Sophie Howarth
(Read 04.09.25)

This is part of my Book Report series, a practice of keeping what stays with me from each book I read.

I bought Everyday Wonder for two lines in the shop that named what I care about. The book is a calm, rich reminder to treat today as a small ceremony. Noticing, paying attention, and slowing down are what I want to keep practicing. The photographs and short passages work like a gentle invitation to keep looking.

It is a cross-genre art and ideas book of short passages, collected quotes, photographs, and simple practices. It moves through six areas, waking up, home, street, land, body, and not giving up. Each section offers a brief passage, other people’s words on the theme, and at least two exercises.
The lines that stayed with me are clear and exact. “The whole world is a series of miracles but we’re so used to them we call them ordinary things,” Hans Christian Andersen wrote. And, “This is a wonderful day. I have never seen this one before,” from a tweet by Maya Angelou at eighty-five.

Early on, a page begins, “You reading this, be ready,” and then asks what I want to remember, sunlight on a floor, the scent of old wood, softened sounds from outside. The questions are simple and generous. They push me back toward the present.
“The Teapot,” a short piece by Robert Bly, is the part I keep returning to. Water is poured into a teapot. The sound is ordinary, daily, cluffy. In that moment, love becomes audible. It makes me think of Sam and the small gestures, the sounds, the moments that make a life, those moments of love.

Page 35 is sweet in the same way, with gratitude in everyday architecture, windows that give us light, closets where clothes wait respectfully. These are not grand scenes. They are the rooms we live in and the objects we use, so easily overlooked and rarely given attention.
I finished it wanting to keep Hans Christian Andersen’s miracle, Maya Angelou’s wonderful day, and Robert Bly’s teapot piece in sight. More than that, I wanted to make a conscious effort to keep the habit of looking and listening.

Everyday Wonder does not tell you how to change your life. It shows you how to be present for the one you have. Everyday attention is a form of love.

*Read this if you want a gentle reminder to slow down, notice small miracles, and treat your day like a ceremony.