Stone Yard Devotional | Charlotte Wood

If it's possible to meditate while reading, it'll be this book where it could happen. A middle-aged woman needing to figure things out checks herself into a religious retreat for women. And decides to stay. You meet some other residents, all sisters, although the Catholic Church does not support this as a true convent. And you learn more about the central character, never named, largely through how she sees the mouse plague that hits their home, the actions of the sisters as the remains of one of the own are returned, and the interactions of the central character with a visitor who upsets the calmness of the retreat.

The entire book is a meditation on self, love, friendship, grief, friendship, remorse, climate, and more. There's a plague of mice (that really kind of creeps me out, even now), and some personal backstories for some characters that build out the story. There's really no plot in this woman-centered story. It's a warm, loving story written in a style that's, yes, meditative and inward-facing. I really liked it.