December Books: Nonfiction

 I read some fascinating nonfiction in December. Some of it was disturbing and one book in particular was hilarious. If you're in need of some laughter, I highly recommend Love, Clancy!

The Wisdom of the Buddha: Heart Teachings in His Own Words by Anne Bancroft

This is a collection of teachings from various early Buddhist writing. It was a re-read for me, but it’s the kind of thing that can be read over and over again and something new will jumo out each time. It is in the e-book collection of our library.

Donegal Poitín: A History by Aidan Manning

I picked up this book at a car boot sale a few years ago. It was time to read it and get it into the donation pile. It was an interesting book that gave me some information about the colourful history of some areas within Donegal that I have lived and visited. Poitín is illegal homemade booze. Unsurprisingly, stills were quite common in the remote areas of Donegal during this time when Ireland was still under British rule. 

To Speak for the Trees: My Life's Journey From Ancient Celtic Wisdom to a Healing Vision of the Forest by Diana Beresford-Kroeger (audiobook read by the author)

This was a new addition to the audiobook offerings at the library website. It sounded intriguing, so I borrowed it. It was a fascinating book, combining memoir, science and old Celtic wisdom. This is from the website:

When Diana Beresford-Kroeger--whose father was a member of the Anglo-Irish aristocracy and whose mother was an O'Donoghue, one of the stronghold families who carried on the ancient Celtic traditions--was orphaned as a child, she could have been sent to the Magdalene Laundries. Instead, the O'Donoghue elders, most of them scholars and freehold farmers in the Lisheens valley in County Cork, took her under their wing. Diana became the last ward under the Brehon Law. Over the course of three summers, she was taught the ways of the Celtic triad of mind, body and soul. This included the philosophy of healing, the laws of the trees, Brehon wisdom and the Ogham alphabet, all of it rooted in a vision of nature that saw trees and forests as fundamental to human survival and spirituality. Already a precociously gifted scholar, Diana found that her grounding in the ancient ways led her to fresh scientific concepts. Out of that huge and holistic vision have come the observations that put her at the forefront of her field: the discovery of mother trees at the heart of a forest; the fact that trees are a living library, have a chemical language and communicate in a quantum world; the major idea that trees heal living creatures through the aerosols they release and that they carry a great wealth of natural antibiotics and other healing substances; and, perhaps most significantly, that planting trees can actively regulate the atmosphere and the oceans, and even stabilize our climate.

This book is not only the story of a remarkable scientist and her ideas, it harvests all of her powerful knowledge about why trees matter, and why trees are a viable, achievable solution to climate change. Diana eloquently shows us that if we can understand the intricate ways in which the health and welfare of every living creature is connected to the global forest, and strengthen those connections, we will still have time to mend the self-destructive ways that are leading to drastic fires, droughts and floods. 

Those Who Forget: One Family’s Story a Memoir, a History, a Warning By Géraldine Schwarz translated from the French by Laura Marris

Love, Clancy edited and debated by Richard Glover

I stumbled upon this e-book when looking at the new titles available via the library website. I decided to give it a try. I am so glad I did! It is hilarious and I laughed so much as I was reading. At times I tried to read passages to Bill and I was struggling, because I was laughing so hard and the tears were flowing as a result. 

The book begins with a brief introduction by the male human in which he talks about the dog he and his wife had for 15 years. When Darcy died, they were devastated and called the farm where they got Darcy, just to let the people know. After condolences, the people at the farm mentioned that there had recently been a new litter of puppies born and one was not spoken for. They decided to adopt Clancy. 

Clancy finds his move to the city (Sydney, Australia) and the behaviour of his humans, who he calls Lady and Man, puzzling and writes letters home to the farm. The book consists of these letters from Clancy’s point of view with occasional defensive commentary by Man. Clancy discusses the strange ways humans act, the lack of adequate chicken, his hard work digging holes to find valuable minerals, the dog park, and more. The book ends with an epilogue about Darcy and how he aged. 

Having been a staff member to dogs I could relate to so much of this, but beyond that, it was just hilarious and given all that is going on, this aspect of the book was particularly welcome. I highly recommend it.

The next part of our Alaska story is on the Glancing Back in Time blog now. Yesterday, we posted about starting the trip. In today's post, we begin the Canadian part of the journey.

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