January Books: Nonfiction

 The end of the first month of the new year has arrived. Like all months in every year, I am grateful that there were a lot of books to stick my nose into!

These are the nonfiction books that were scattered through my January.

Now and Zen: Notes From a Buddhist Monastery by Eiyu Murakoshi

I came across this book when scrolling through the new titles in the e-book section of the library website. It is an interesting book, describing some aspects of life in a Rinzai Zen monastery, providing some of the lessons the author learned while he was there and discussing some Buddhist teaching with a particular focus on the Heart Sutra.

Lean Out: A Meditation on the Madness of Modern Life by Tara Henley (audiobook read by the author)

I found this book in the e-audiobook section of the library webpage. Being someone who opts for a life in the slow lane and abhors consumerism and all that goes with it, it sounded like my kind of book. And it was! I loved it. The one quibble I had with it was that it was sometimes hard to figure out where we were in the author’s life. Because the book includes memoir, discussions of various parts of consumer/work culture, and descriptions of interviews with various people, she moves back and forth in time throughout the book, and since each chapter deals with a different topic, she would be moving back and forth in time in her own life. These chapters followed the opening of the book, which was pure memoir. 

Here’s the description from the library website:

‘In 2016, journalist Tara Henley was at the top of her game working in Canadian media. She had traveled the world, from Soweto to Bangkok and Borneo to Brooklyn, interviewing authors and community leaders, politicians and Hollywood celebrities. But when she started getting chest pains at her desk in the newsroom, none of that seemed to matter.

The health crisis--not cardiac, it turned out, but anxiety--forced her to step off the media treadmill and examine her life and the stressful twenty-first century world around her. Henley was not alone; North America was facing an epidemic of lifestyle-related health problems. And yet, the culture was continually celebrating the elite few who thrived in the always-on work world, those who perpetually leaned in. Henley realized that if we wanted innovative solutions to the wave of burnout and stress-related illness, it was time to talk to those who had leaned out.

Part memoir, part travelogue, and part investigation, Lean Out tracks Henley's journey from the heart of the connected city to the fringe communities that surround it. From early retirement enthusiasts in urban British Columbia to moneyless men in rural Ireland, Henley uncovers a parallel track in which everyday citizens are quietly dropping out of the mainstream and reclaiming their lives from overwork. Underlying these disparate movements is a rejection of consumerism, a growing appetite for social contribution, and a quest for meaningful connection in this era of extreme isolation and loneliness.’

They Thought They Were Free: The Germans 1933-1945 by Milton Mayer with an afterword by Richard J. Evans

On the first of each month, I get an email from the University of Chicago Press offering a free e-book download. I don’t remember how I originally signed up—I’ve been getting them for years—but a google search should get people to the right spot, if anyone is interested in signing up. This month, I got a bonus email, offering this book for 48 hours. It is their 2017 republication of this book that was originally published in the mid-1950s. There’s a new afterword. 

The author of the book was interested in how ordinary Germans got caught up in or happily supported the Nazi regime. He wanted to talk to some people about their experiences, so he got some financial support and found 10 men who had been involved to varying degrees. He went in the early 1950s because he felt that was enough time to give distance, but not enough time to forget. The book is in three parts. The first, and by far the strongest section, is when he recounts his conversations with these men. As is the case with other books I have read on this topic, their words illustrate how history repeats itself. Change a few proper nouns and you could be reading the words of a certain segment of some countries today.

Sections two and three are much weaker. He makes broad generalizations about German society (Germany was still divided between east and west at this time) and predictions about where things would go. He was wrong. So the latter part of the book was weak, but the first section well worth reading and I’m glad I was able to get a copy.

Dear Reader: The Comfort and Joy of Books by Cathy Rentzenbrink (audiobook read by the author)

This book was a new addition to the library’s e-audiobook collection a couple of months ago. When I saw it, I put myself in the queue and I’m glad I did. It’s a memoir that revolves around books, as does the author’s life. Through tragedy and healing, books are her companions. At the end of each chapter, she provides book recommendations. She is a good reader, too.

May your February be filled with many excellent books!

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