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Review: Into Nature by The Mindfulness Project

05/07/2018 / Paul / 0 Comments

2.5 out of 5 stars

A copy of this was provided free of charge from the publisher in return for an honest review.

Mindfulness is a technique for improving your attention to things happening around you. It also teaches you to consider what you have seen and to reflect on your thought, emotions and sensations that happened. It aims to stop your mind drifting when trying to concentrate on something by using skills that can be learnt from meditation. This book is the Mindfulness’s team’s guide on how to respond to the benefits that the natural world can give.

It is full of outlines that aim to prompt you to think and focus on particular details or wider aspects of the natural world, for example, there is an idea on how to bring the outside world into your home, cloud spotting, meditations, poems, suggestions of things to spot and items to forage. For some people, this would be a great book, especially those that have spent far too long indoors away from the wild. There are lots of pointers for increasing engagement with the natural world. I get what they are doing here, using the mindfulness philosophy trying to remake the connection that people have lost from the natural world more accessible and not frightening or bewildering. Whilst this would be ideal for some people it is not entirely my sort of thing. A bit too head in the clouds for my liking.

Wainwright Shortlist Announced

05/07/2018 / Paul / 2 Comments

One of my favourite prizes announced its shortlist today; and here they all are:

The Last Wilderness by Neil Ansell (Tinder Press)

Hidden Nature by Alys Fowler (Hodder & Stoughton)

Outskirts by John Grindrod (Sceptre)

The Dun Cow Rib by John Lister-Kaye (Canongate)

The Lost Words by Robert Macfarlane and Jackie Morris (Hamish Hamilton)

The Seabird’s Cry by Adam Nicolson (William Collins, HarperCollins)

The Salt Path by Raynor Winn (Michael Joseph)

Review: Forest Therapy by Sarah Ivens

04/07/2018 / Paul / 0 Comments

3 out of 5 stars

Modern lives with the never-ending distractions, endless notifications from social media, 24 / 7 email and becoming pallid from the white glare of LEDs from screens. This adds to our stress, blood pressure and the lack of exercise is detrimental to our health too. And yet there is a cure; the evidence is growing that shows that our physical and mental health can be positively enhanced by going outdoors and re-connecting to nature. The same instincts that teach us flight or flight are possibly responsible for this fundamental connection.

Beginning with some scientific facts and stats about how the just taking a walk in the natural world can help us, she takes us through the seasons and the things to look for, activities to try such as wild swimming, taking a walk in the rain and benefits of taking a walk on a crisp winter day. There are suggestions on how to get the family away from the X-Box, ways of becoming closer as a couple, foodie suggestions and even natural beauty therapies.

Natural history books and memoirs are on the rise at the moment and there are a number of books coming out that are looking to give people suggestions on how to reconnect with the natural world. I have three of them to read this week but first is Sarah Ivens. In her book she is tapping into the connections to the wider world that other cultures have, from the Japanese shinrin-yoku (“forest bathing”) to the Scandinavia friluftsliv (“open-air life”) and has written Forest Therapy (a much nicer phrase that Forest Bathing…) as a way of sharing how nature helped her after a hectic life in New York and a messy divorce.

There was the odd thing in the book that didn’t necessarily appeal to me, there is a good number of ideas in here for people to try and more importantly to build on, as suits them, their partners and families. The important thing in here though is the message; go outside, live, breathe, absorb. It is going to do you a lot of good.

Review: The Weather Detective by Peter Wohlleben

03/07/2018 / Paul / 0 Comments

My rating: 3 out of 5 stars

A copy of this was provided free of charge from the publisher in return for an honest review.

These days finding out what the weather is going to be doing is as easy as looking at the app on your phone. I know as I have three on mine. One swipe and you have a fairly accurate prediction (mostly) of the weather for the next 24 hours or so. While these are good for giving a good general guide to the weather in your region they can sometimes fail in your own locale because of the particular microclimate.

Peter Wohlleben wants us to look a little harder next time we step outside, to look at the sky, study the clouds and take notice of the things that animals and insects are doing to really get a feel for what the weather is going to be doing outside your door. There are details on what to look for with plants and trees and the things that they do when faced with changing weather conditions.

From the weather, he moves on to observations and thoughts about the sun moon and planets and the night sky in general and then how the constant cycle of night and day affect the natural world. Moving on from there he talks about seasonal and climate changes that we need to look for. There are chapters on soil, natives and invasive species and how to experience the outdoors with all your senses too.

This is the third book that Wohlleben has written now with a focus on the natural world. Even though it is titled The Weather Detective, only around a third of the book is weather related and the second part was about elements of the natural world which I was a little disappointed with. It is still written in his easy-going style so is very readable though. He seems to be picking up on a theme here as re-connecting with nature is a big thing at the moment, I read Rewild by Nick Baker earlier this year that was about exploring the outside world with more than just your eyes. Not bad overall, but if you are hoping for a book purely on weather then be aware.

Monthly Muse – June

02/07/2018 / Paul / 8 Comments

That was a month of changes for me. On the 1st of June I finished my job after being made redundant. I had been there 13 years and was a little emotional. They had been a great bunch of people (mostly) to work with. On Tuesday the 5th June, I had a second interview at another local company and was offered the position just be 6 pm that day. Had two weeks off and then started on the 18th. So far it seems to be going well.

In the two weeks that I had off, I didn’t get as much read as I had hoped, but I did go and see the lovely people at Eland and Elliot and Thompson, sorted three bookcases out and got all my natural history and landscape books together after being spread around the house. In the end, I did manage to read 17 books. All sorts of subjects and here they are:

William Collins had kindly sent me a copy of this to read. It was a true story about a girl growing up in a fairly dysfunctional family and who in the end put herself into care. She survived her childhood of precious little food and lots of books. It was an interesting read and the end part was quite powerful, but a lot of it felt surreal.

I read a fair amount as a child but would have never considered myself a bookworm, though others may disagree with that. Lucy Mangan though was an utter bookworm; she spent every available hour in imaginary worlds ignoring the other members of her family unless she really had too. This is her recollection of that time and a little about trying to turn her son into a bookworm too. A very enjoyable book even though our overlap is small in terms of the books that we read as a child.

A nice coffee table book about just under 100 different fictional lands. Some really nice artwork in it but be aware that there are lots of spoilers.

Parts of Syria are war-torn and ravaged and yet the capital is still functioning relatively normally. This book by Kassem Eid tells of his story being persecuted by his own government and why he joined the Syrian Free Army. Very moving.

Marc ‘Elvis” Priestly wanted to work in Formula 1 for a long time and one day he got that chance and started at McLaren as a mechanic. It is a high-pressure job swapping wheels on a multi-million-pound racecar in under 3 seconds and this is his story of working hard and playing hard in the echelons of F1. One for the petrol head.

Another war-torn country and another set of people displaced and persecuted. This time it is Iraq and Nadia Murad of the Yazidi community. ISIS took over her village, shot all the men and took a lot of the girls to be sex slaves. This is her story. Horrific and moving and a must read to see the way that the region has changed since the war there.

Eighty-two years ago around 200 men set off from the Tyneside town of Jarrow to march to London. The reason for this was to protest at the closure of Palmer’s shipyard that had affected everyone’s livelihoods in the town. This is Ian Maconie’s story as he follows the route in 2016 speaking to those he meets of the journey and seeing what is left of their legacy. Another great book from Maconie.

London has a history going back 2000 years or so, but the people that made most impact of the look and feel of the city was the Victorians. In this book, Winn takes you on a series of walks to see the things that are left behind from that era. I tried part of one of the walks and the detail he has compiled is impressive.

I love a good quiz, but the ones in here are another level up on the sort I can answer. Thankfully the answers are in the back.

If you’re bored of Suduko, then this might be the book for you. Bellos has been over to Japan and has returned bearing puzzles galore. There are tips on how to do them, a potted history and lots of examples for you to try that vary from the easy to the bloody difficult.

The British have for thousands of years have been inventing various ways of getting drunk. We have had fruit wines, Even the Romans had vineyards. We have made apples and pears into ciders and perry’s made all types of grains into beers. But for a real kick, you need a spirit. Bought over here by monks, once we had learnt what to do there was no stopping us and this book is about the various ways people have avoiding the tiresome effort of paying tax on it…

Lots of people love a pub crawl, but the one Pete Brown embarked on for this book was epic. 300 pubs in 27 cities across four continents. Sounds like a plan. Hilarious at times, this was a well-written eulogy to the magic created from malt, hops and water.

Hipsters. Love them or hate them they are not going anywhere soon. This parody brilliantly rips the piss out of hipster culture in London in such a clever way.

I really enjoyed the Hidden Life of Trees by this author, so when I received a copy of this I was really looking forward to it. Wohlleben does talk about the weather, but that only makes up around the first part of the book. The rest is in the same vein, but about all sorts of other subjects. interesting, but a little disappointing overall.

Smell is one of our least understood senses, but it is also one of the strongest, one smell can take you instantly back to childhood and a loved or hated food. This is a fascinating book that was prompted by the question from the author’s son, what does three o’clock in the morning smell like. Well worth reading.

Natural history poems are very personal and this collection is no different. There are some lovely poems in here and I like what she did with the word by using them in a graphical way, however, I feel that I need to read more poetry, but I find it such a difficult thing to review.

Finished this a day or so ago so haven’t written a review yet. the part about the building of the White City for the Chicago World Fair is interesting, but the fascinating part is the horrific story of the murder committed by Holmes. Even today they still don’t know how many he killed in the building that he made with its airtight rooms, gas chambers and crematorium. Compelling stuff.

Apologies about the formatiing this is my first post with WordPress. I will get the hang of this.

So that was what I read. What did you read in June?

Review: The Smell of Fresh Rain: The Unexpected Pleasures of our most Elusive Sense

29/06/2018 / Paul / 2 Comments

The Smell of Fresh Rain: The Unexpected Pleasures of our most Elusive Sense by Barney Shaw
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

When Barney Shaw’s autistic son asked him what 3 O’clock in the morning smells like, he genuinely didn’t know how to answer him. His son is a musical genius who has synaesthesia, so he decided the best way to answer this was to get up at that time and head out on to the streets of London, visiting Billingsgate and New Covent Garden to discover from themselves what the scents and smells are around that time of the morning.

It got him thinking though, how do we smell? What do we smell and do we smell the same things as everyone else? To answer what seems to be a set of simple questions is going to take a lot of unravelling. It will take him to the coast and boatyards, into Harrods to smell the food and the most expensive perfume in the world. Down to Dorset to a charcoal burner, to try and get a grip of the complexity of the aroma of coffee and baffling the owners of a hardware shop as he asks to smell the products. Occasionally he ventures back into history to learn about the big stink and the time when parliament decided that they couldn’t bear the smell from the Thames. All this makes him thirsty, so a trip to the pub is called for, to smell the beer and the crisps and run a little experiment with those in the bar.

Shaw’s considered and curious prose makes this book, on what most would consider the weakest of our senses, endlessly fascinating. His journey around the more aromatic places searching for the scents that tell a story, or evoke memories from many years ago has ended up with him compiling a list of 200 or so different things along with different elements of that particular item described. It is not academically rigorous, but that shouldn’t take anything away from this fine musing on scents and smells.

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#BlogTour – The Bespokist Society Guide to… London

28/06/2018 / Paul / 2 Comments

Welcome to my blog for today’s stop on the blog tour for Jeremy Liebster’s book, The Bespokist Society Guide to… London

The Blurb:

As the first travel book produced by the hugely influential Bespokist Society, this handy guide takes you to a London you’ve never seen: a London of challenging Etruscan restaurants, edgy branding parlours, emoji hotels and hidden Icelandic communities; a London where 8-ply toilet paper is a thing.

On the way, meet an eclectic band of inspiring Londoners – from scriveners to socialites via urban wordsmiths and coffee preachers – and see why London is now the global epicentre of Bespokist consciousness, community and culture.

My Review

London is one of the most famous cities in the world drawing visitors from all over the globe to see the sights; who take selfies in front of the sights and generally get in the way of people in London who are trying to get on with their own lives. You would have thought that there are enough guides for London, but here is a new guide for this dynamic city, one that will take you to places that you never knew existed, explore trends that you may not have come across and meet those that are at the sharpest edges of urban chic.

Feeling hungry? Then a visit to the V-Gastro will leave you amazed, but still hungry. Visit, See it, Say it, Sorted for the very best in the cultural response to the London Transport catchphrase. In need of a drink? Then a session at the Sweat Shop might be up your street; get to work an ancient Singer sewing machine and imbue the latest in graft gins. If you end up with a hangover to di for, then coffee is called for. For that, The Coffee Preachers are your people, taking the ristretto to the very pinnacle of coffee adoration. There are other gems; have a unique bespoke key made, go to the Launderette coffee shop to feel part of the community whilst still having superfast wifi and stand up desks, and experience the very latest in gyms by taking a trip to Gondoliers.

Hipsters try to set themselves apart from culture as a whole, while simultaneously remaining within the culture.

As you may have guessed by now, this book is a parody. It sets about totally ripping the piss out of the Hipster culture and their obsession with the tiniest detail, the most obscure origin for an ingredient, the perfect details in an experience and the way that they almost exclusively miss the big picture. It can kind of be summed up with this video:

That video still makes me chuckle every time I see it. If you have a hipster friend and want to understand what drives them, this is as good a place to starts as any. Expertly done, brilliantly crafted and highly amusing.

I am just one of a few on this #RandomThingsTours Blog Tour. Please do take a few moments to have a look at the other blogs or search for the #IFoundMyTribe hash-tag on Twitter to read more about the book.

For the very latest in artisan places follow the Bespokeist Society here:

Website: http://www.bespokistsociety.com/

Twitter: @TheBespokist

Review: Three Sheets To The Wind

27/06/2018 / Paul / 0 Comments

Three Sheets To The Wind by Pete Brown
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A copy of this was provided free of charge from the publisher in return for an honest review.

The British Pub has been a place of refuge from the outside world for centuries. Its long history reaches all the way back to the taverns of Roman Empire, then the alehouses of the Anglo-Saxons and before coming more like the pubs that we know today. Pete Brown loves pubs, so imagine his surprise when he hears that other countries around the world think that their drinking establishments are better, or have a parotitic duty to consume as much beer as possible. Others have the audacity to think that they produce better beer. The only way to verify that these were only rumours is to travel to the countries making those claims and verify the fact from the fiction and undertake the world’s biggest pub crawl.

It is a tough call, but someone has to do it.

To ensure that the research was valid and rigorous he would visit three hundred bars, in 27 different towns across four continents to countries as far apart as Ireland and Australia, Japan and Belgium, he even headed over the pond to see if the American lagers were as bad in their native lands as there were here, but was fortunate to discover the craft beer scene. In Japan, he finds that the biggest brewer there has a headquarters that looks like a glass of its brew. In Australia just working how to order a beer in each of the places he went was a challenge, and heading to the largest beer drinking nation on earth, China, was an experience that he would never forget and not pub crawl would be complete without a trip to the Oktoberfest. His liver did not stand a chance.

This is not a normal hangover. This is something life threatening with a yellowy green tinge.

Drinking beer is supposed to be about having a laugh, and this is just what he does all the way through this book. He meets some great people, discovers some great beers and has some monumental hangovers. I really liked the chatty style of writing there are some hilarious parts, which means mostly laughing at his suffering and the odd scrape that he got into. But there was something else too, a touch of jealousy perhaps… All I know is that I want his job…

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Recent Acquisitions

27/06/2018 / Paul / 0 Comments

Got these from Canongate and Tor UK:

And bought these three

Blog Tour – I Found My Tribe – Ruth Fitzmaurice

26/06/2018 / Paul / 2 Comments

Welcome to my blog for today’s stop on the blog tour for Ruth Fitzmaurice’s book, I Found My Tribe.

The Blurb:

She has her husband Simon, a filmmaker with advanced Motor Neurone Disease who can only communicate with his eyes via a computer. Together they have five children under the age of 10, as well as Pappy, a cantankerous Basset Hound. They are kept afloat by relentless army of nurses and carers that flows through their house in Greystones, on the East Coast of Ireland.

And then there is Ruth’s other family – her Tribe of amazing women. Amidst the chaos and the pain that rules their lives, The Tragic Wives Swimming Club congregate together – in summer and winter, on golden afternoons and by the light of the moon – on the sea steps at Women’s Cove. Day after day, they throw themselves into the freezing Irish sea. In that moment, they are free. Later, they will share a thermos of tea, teeth chattering, hands shaking, ready to take on the world once more.

An invocation to all of us to love as hard as we can, and live even harder, I Found My Tribe is an urgent and uplifting letter to a husband, family, friends, the natural world and the brightness of life.

My Review:

Back in 2008, Ruth Fitzmaurice’s husband Simon was diagnosed with motor neurone disease. His career was just starting to lift and they had three small children so Ruth put her writing ambitions on the back burner to care for him and them. Events took a more dramatic turn when he was given four years to live and then they had had twins. Even though Simon can only communicate using his eyes and technology, he still managed to direct My Name is Emily. Ruth regularly heads to a cove in Greystones, Co. Wicklow with two close friends, Michelle and Aifric to swim in the cold seas. She calls this tribe ‘The Tragic Wives’ Swimming Club’; and gives her a necessary respite from her other tribe of children and carers for Simon.

Even in the most tragic of circumstances, she can see hope, even though she has periods of time where she feels raw and vulnerable. Ruth has a roller coaster of emotions living with Simon and his motor neurone disease. It is tough, but not as tough as the moments when she has to answer the children’s questions as what is happening with Dad, especially when she doesn’t have the answers. The sea swimming becomes those moments when she can be herself and relax with her friends. Her beautiful, sparse prose gets to the very essence of what is happening with the various tribes. It is a moving book too, with several poignant moments.

She is one tough lady.

Since this book was originally written Simon Fitzmaurice sadly passed away in October 2017. He was a celebrated filmmaker who even after he was diagnosed with motor neurone disease still continued to make films. My Name Is Emily was about a teenager who decides to free her father from a mental hospital and starred Evanna Lynch, Michael Smiley, and George Webster. He made a documentary about his life called It’s Not Yet Dark and it tells us how he coped with everything and how he spoke to the outside world using eye-tracking software.

R I P Simon.

I am just one of a few on this #RandomThingsTours Blog Tour. Please do take a few moments to have a look at the other blogs or search for the #IFoundMyTribe hash-tag on Twitter to read more about the book.