BOOK LAUNCH DAY
Look About You is in the World
Dear reader,
It is my new book Look About You : A Book of Ordinary Prayer’s debut day. Its birthday. My third scorpio book. The official day out in the world.
Publication days are so strange because literally nothing happens. The books have all been shipped. Most of you have it in your hands today. And I am alone in my house watching the wood stove rumble just like any other early morning. And yet, it is momentous, worth celebrating.
I wrote this book with the generous support of the readers who paid to witness me test out many forms on a separate paid newsletter of the same name. Those same readers helped me name it, complete it, and encouraged me throughout with their stories and tales of how the prayers touched them. For this I am so grateful.
There is a prayer for every day, even leap day, a mysterious day that arrives every four years. The prayers tie in with the seasons, with some of my own milestones, and the tides of the year.
A few days ago I celebrated 13.5 years without a drink and this book is a reflection of that sober devotion. I am grateful for my recovery and all those who came before me. Today I think of Marty Mann, the first woman and lesbian in AA. I think of my friend John R. and my first sponsor Mary who are both in the big meeting in the sky. I think of how I touch in with myself each morning through prayer and ritual with my own higher power, starting with a blade of grass.
There is a Muslim prayer I first heard in Fanny Howe’s essay Bewilderment that reads : “Lord, increase my bewilderment.”
I hope this book brings you into that great mystery, the great unknown. Let it puzzle you and delight you and let you carve out your own pathway to prayer.
Cook-Parrott reminds us that service and abolition begins with a soft willingness to sit with the void and tend to the connection we have with ourselves. With a structured cadence, Look About You gives us permission to surrender to our shared mysteries — at our own pace — through daily meditations. We see that there is no right or wrong way to pray, to create, to wither or regenerate, to rest, to love, to pivot, or to tend.
These prayers beckon us towards non-linear dreaming and offer readers a daily practice of resisting ordinary realms. We find grace in knowing that whether we are falling in or climbing out, we reman tethered to our hearts. We are instruments of magic.
Anna Fusco, author of Unsupervised
Local friends can find the book at Farm Club and Slip Vintage - and if you own a shop or have a favorite shop I’d love to send you copies to have in store.
The best things you can do to support this book :
Buy a Copy
Leave a review on Good Reads
Like this newsletter
Comment below your favorite prayer so far
Share it in Substack Notes or Instagram or hell even TikTok
Let me know what you loved about it
Text it to a friend
Thank you for celebrating with me today! Another thank you to
for designing and for editing. Writing a book is a wild thing, on to the next one!
info@codycookparrott.com
PO Box 252 Cedar, MI 49621
Landscapes : A writing group for all genres
I pre-ordered my copy of the book and had it in my hands last week during a very difficult time. I’m enjoying reading and reflecting on it during my early morning ritual.
🎉🥳🎊👏🏻🙌🏼