I liked the premise of this book and wanted to read it after reading and enjoying the In The Garden one previously. I enjoyed the first few essays, set in the winter. They have really set the tone for what the Pond itself and the nature around it felt like to the swimmers. I also really enjoyed the essay called The Lifeguard’s Perspective, it was super interesting to read. Sadly, towards the end of the book, I found myself getting a bit bored. It felt like a lot of the latter essays focused less on the Pond and more on the authors’ “disjointed” lives and I was left thinking what’s the point of including these in here? I was going to read some of the other books from this series by Daunt but now I’m not so sure. 

some of the essays were decent 

Some of the essays were heart achingly good. Some didn’t have much effect on me. Nonetheless, these reflective essays made me love swimming, and connected me even more to womanhood and the camaraderie and security that develops in an exclusively female space. For the writers that burrowed deeply into my heart, like the many fish that occupied the Kentwood Pond, I will be looking for more works from them!