We Recommend: A Psalm for the Wild-Built

Recommended by Josh Rakower, Undergraduate Experience Librarian

This year’s One Book; A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers is a cozy sci-fi novella about a monk and a robot on the fictional world of Panga. The two explore and connect with nature, discuss the nature of life, what it means to be human, and what people truly need. The book starts with the main character Sibling Dex leaving their comfortable life in the city to live in the countryside and pursue a new career as a tea monk. In this fictional world a tea monk is sort of a bartender/ therapist who chats with folks about their problems while serving them tea; a role where Sibling Dex doesn’t immediately excel but eventually becomes adept. I think that the themes of leaving one’s longtime home to move to a rural place, learning to succeed even at things you initially struggle with, and of course being a lifelong learner will resonate with most of us in the WCU community.