February Books: Nonfiction

 And we begin another month! I got a surprise in the post this morning, when a book Bill ordered for me arrived. I guess it took a while. I'm looking forward to this one!

As always, February was filled with books. I was feeling a bit blah at the end of last week and into the weekend, but I had books, so I had those to bring me joy. I sometimes lose my desire to do certain things, but if I ever lose my desire to read, I will be very alarmed, because I'll know something is very wrong!

There was some nonfiction on the list for last month. Here it is:

How to Relax by Thich Nhat Hanh (audibook read by John Sackville)

I’ve read and listened to a lot of Thich Nhat Hanh’s ideas over the years and I always find something that speaks to me in the moment. This was no exception. This is the description from the library website. 

‘This book guides us in achieving deep relaxation, controlling stress, and renewing mental clarity. With sections on healing, relief from non-stop thinking, transforming unpleasant sounds, solitude, and more, How to Relax will help you achieve the benefits of relaxation no matter where you are.’

How to See by Thich Nhat Hanh

In this book, the author shows us ways to look beyond the superficial and encourages us to look deeply at how things really are beyond our perceptions of them. I find his teachings to be very valuable in my life.

The Easternmost House by Julie Blaxland

The author and her husband live in the house of the title on an eroding cliff in the easternmost part of England. They know that they don’t have much time left in the house before the cliff is gone. This memoir describes a year in the house, but mostly in the surrounding area. It is a meditation on the natural world in which the author lives, the wildlife she and others share this world with, and life in general. At the end of each chapter, Blaxford has a list of what fruit, veg, game, fowl, and fish are in season at that time and how much space there is from her house to the edge of the cliff, noting plants and trees that have fallen in that month.

I loved this book. I was glad to immerse myself in the natural world she was describing and it provided food for thought.

Mountcharles Past and Present by various authors

One day, Bill had an appointment to get his eyes screened. It was in Mountcharles (pronounced mount-char-less), about half an hour from where we were living, so we hopped on the bus. We’d been through the village on the bus many times, to the famine pier, and once we went to the Olde Village Tea Room with a friend, but we’d never walked around before. It was a bit of a bummer that the appointment was smack dab in the middle of the time we had there, so we had to be mindful of getting back to Main St before and after, so couldn’t go too far. We had something to mail, so we brought it along and called into an Post to send it off. On a counter along one side of the narrow space, Bill noticed a couple piles of books. Of course, we had to go over to look. One pile was this book and one was the sequel. We bought one of each.  I am so glad we did! I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book, with the stories of how things used to be and the photos. I learned a lot, including a bit about the stone quarry that provided the stone that was used in constructing one of the places we used to live. Other notable buildings were listed and we’ve seen them all, so that was pretty cool. Also, in one of the poems, they mentioned a guy who came and started talking to us as we were waiting for the bus. 

These books are part of our collection of books about small towns and villages that we’ve been picking up when we come across them. It’s cool that these community groups create these books. This one was put together by the Mountcharles Heritage Group as part of their effort to preserve local history, knowledge, and folklore. 

A Cocoon with a View by Alice Taylor (audiobook read by Jennifer Fitzgerald)

I first discovered Alice Taylor during our first festive season in Ireland, when our librarian at the time handed me a book of hers and saying, ‘I think you might like this.’ It was a book about Taylor’s childhood memories of Christmas in rural County Cork. The librarian is quite a bit younger than Alice Taylor, but she said much of what Taylor describes in her books brought back memories of her childhood on a farm in County Galway. I checked out the book, brought it home, started reading it, and continued on until I was finished. Then I went to the library website to see what else they had by her. The next day, we went back to the library and I returned the book. ‘What did you think?’ asked the librarian. ‘I loved it, ‘ I replied, ‘I want to check out more of her books.’ The librarian got up, walked across the small library to the appropriate shelf, and started pulling books. She handed me a pile. Since then, whenever I’ve seen a new book by her, I’ve read it, so when I saw this listed as a new title in the e-audiobook section of the library website, I checked it out.

Like most of her other books, it’s a memoir, this time of her time cocooning during the first COVID-19 lockdown, which started about a year ago. It’s funny, even as it deals with a serious subject, and the reader was perfect for this book. 

Here's to a new month of happy reading!

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