I have to confess I have been a bit slack with regular newsletters this year, so I shall make it up to you now with an extended reading list – since this is the favourite part for some of you. I have divided it up into sections so you can bypass anything that does not float your boat. Although of course it is always good to read outside of your usual groove.

Wonderment – books to remind you that the world is amazing

The Enchanted Life – Sharon Blackie and also her other books (If women rose rooted and Hagitude) All of her books weave myth and folk tales with place, nature and deep wisdom. It feels like you are being read a bedtime story that nourishes you to your very marrow. These are particularly juicy for anyone with Celtic ancestry.

Mirrors in the Earth – Asia Suler. This collection of beautiful essays about healing coming to us from the natural world is so delicious that you want to immediately re-read it.

Womb – the inside story of where we all began – Leah Hazard. Our first home – the womb is largely overlooked, underfunded in research and has some weird second-class organ status. Hazard woos you to love and respect the womb. If you have never heard of pseudomenses or cervical crypts, then brace yourself!

Gathering Moss – Robin Wall Kimmerer. If you read and loved Braiding Sweetgrass then you will be overjoyed to discover that there is more from this poet/scientist/indigenous fount of wisdom. The book is about moss but also about everything else in life.

Revolution – books to wake you up and shake you into action

What about men – Caitlin Moran. I read this in one sitting! Yes, men are suffering in this Patriarchal System too. Moran addresses porn, mental health, creepy Men’s Rights Activism and why men mainly just do banter.

Undrowned – Black Feminist Lessons from Marine Mammals – Alexis Pauline Gumbs. The submerged wisdom of sea mammals comes up for air with this poetic writing. The natural world offers solutions, if only we would pay attention.

Emergent Strategy – adrienne maree brown. Yes, this was reviewed last year but it honestly takes a year to read (or more). The footnotes contain instructions to read further “if you haven’t read Dune, then put this book down and read it now!) which means that you go off on incredible tangents. If you are working with community groups then this book is a MUST.

A Forager’s Life – Helen Lendorf. You could read this wonderful book for the foraging information and recipes, but the real power lies in Lendorf writing from the edges of our society. Like the plants that grow in the margins, she has grown through punk, social justice, embracing the common land and scrubbing about with weeds.

Looking after Yourself

Anchored – Deb Dana. This is the best book on understanding polyvagal theory and your nervous system. It is full of exercises you can do to self-regulate and get yourself back into a safe space so that you can live a full life.

Your name is not Anxious – Stephanie Dowrick. For some reason anxiety is thought of as a thing that happens in your head. However, for many, upstairs feels just FINE but their bodies betray they are actually anxious. Stephanie Dowrick always writes so beautifully, and this book is no exception.

52 Ways to Walk – Annabel Streets. We all know that walking is the best form of exercise, it is what we are designed to do. This book encourages you to get into it and has a new suggestion each week, so that by the end of a year you will be a walking convert.

Page turners for the holidays

Kindred – Octavia Butler. Back before all the time travel books there was this startling and mind bending novel. And if you love it then you can leap into all her amazing writing that defies genre. Try also the Parable of the Sower series.

Magpie – Elizabeth Day. Creepy, gaslighting, mind blowing novel to blast through on the beach. Ignore everyone and read this.

Another great day at sea – Geoff Dyer. I love his essays and novels and this was a surprisingly addictive book about his residency on an American air carrier. I really recommend “Out of Sheer Rage” and “The Colour of Memory”

One day I will astonish the world – Nina Stibbes. A book about the long view with friendship, living small in a small place and always being overlooked. Nina Stibbes is always funny and even her dark humour lights up the Covid response in the UK.

Lessons – Ian McEwan. Could he ever write a bad novel? If you haven’t read him before then go ahead and reserve a truckload from the library. That will be your summer sorted!

Fluff for Christmas

David Sedaris – read ANYTHING of his. Most of his journal extracts and essays discuss his family and Christmas at some point and they will instantly make you feel better about whatever is going on in your family Christmas! He is incredibly frank and hilarious. He even has a whole book about Christmas called Santaland Diaries.

Finally, two books that are for children and young adults that are sweet, tender and gently explore war themes. I read them a few years ago while camping at Christmas and they feel very relevant during this current conflict. The Skylarks’ war by Hilary McKay is set in idyllic Cornwall and explores the gathering clouds of WW1. Will beloved friends and family members survive? A Song for Summer by Eva Ibbotson is set in an eccentric School for the Arts in the Austrian countryside while Hitler’s Reich looms ever closer. If you need happy endings at the moment, then these are the books for you!

Enjoy your summer reading and I would love to hear what YOU recommend!