What else are you reading?

[Kirsten]

As per the suggestion of some of the members, I thought I'd start a thread about what you're reading outside of the group reads. Maybe if you've finished the book you might want to say a few words about it and who you'd recommend it to?

This is meant to encompass everything you're reading, even if it doesn't directly relate to the green group! Happy reading :) For the record, I find nearly everything relates to environmental science.

[Bob]

I'm reposting this here. Thanks for creating a new place guys.

I've quite a few books on the go at the moment but the one that's taken hold of me is The Spell of the Sensuous: Perception and Language in a More-Than-Human World. Has anyone else read this? It articulates many ideas that resonate with me deeply, and the poetry and scholarship of the writing is extraordinary. It basically addresses the underlying reasons for our modern day disconnection from the Earth - the understanding of which is fundamental to finding some way to reconnect.

This is very much a philosophical Green book. It's not an easy read, but it is extremely thought-provoking. I need time to sit and ponder quietly the ideas that have been thrown up here. I would recommend it to anyone with an interest in "deep ecology" and also to anyone who loves language. I think it would offer very fertile ground for discussion.

Megan, if you indeed have a copy, put this right to the very top of your to-read pile!

[Marieke]

Now you have two new places! this can be the more casual thread to announce/mention that you reading a great book and if other members are interested in discussing it, too, then you can create a dedicated thread in the new folder called Kaffeeklatsch. i'm pretty sure members can create topic threads...if there is a problem just let either Kirsten or myself know.

[Kirsten]

This thread is dangerous for me...
I'm currently wrapping up Post Carbon, and I'm also reading Water: The Epic Struggle for Wealth, Power, and Civilization and Nature's Ghosts: Confronting Extinction from the Age of Jefferson to the Age of Ecology. So many books, so little time.

[Marieke]

I just planned my reading for the next two months. It's all terribly exciting. I'm behind on a couple of things--like Pandora's Seed so I will read that next week along with Travels in West Africa, which I am quite excited about.

[Marne]

I am currently (May 2011) reading The Nature Principle by Richard Louv, the author of Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder. I received this book for free through a Goodreads' giveaway. The book started out a bit rough but has been getting steadily better and better. I just finished the fist two sections where author discusses the numerous ways that getting out into nature is good for our physical and mental health. I'm reading the third section now, which talks about searching for your special place in nature.

I'm also reading The Forgotten Beasts of Eld, which is a wonderful story by one of my favorite fiction authors, Patricia A. McKillip. Her writing is absolutely magical. I've read some of her more recent books and I wasn't sure if this one, published in the 1970s, would match up. While McKillip's story telling has gotten tighter over time The Forgotten Beasts of Eld is still beautiful and I highly recommend it for people who enjoy poetic, fairytale-like fantasy stories.

[Kirsten]

I have been working on reading the books I mentioned in my last post (still, I'm in school, it's hard to find time), and I'm also reading Ecology and the politics of scarcity: Prologue to a political theory of the steady state as well as Revival: The Struggle for Survival Inside the Obama White House. Hoping now that summer is on its way that I'll have more time to read!

[Larry]

Currently reading Blind White Fish of Persia by Anthony Smith (1950)
I tried to read it last year but lost interest- I thought I'd give it another go!

[Mike]

I just finished Oogy: a dog only a family could love. I liked it. If you are a dog person, then you might find this enjoyable. It is a positive true story with a sad big picture background story. it has slow spots here and there, but is very short book making it

[Kirsten]

Let us know how it goes the second time around, Larry!

Mike-sounds good. I love dogs, but I usually can't handle sad dog stories :(

I've been on a politics kick lately, I'm trying to get ahead of the election curve.

[jb]

I am reading The Gargoyle....my favorite book!

[Larry]

Kirsten wrote: "Let us know how it goes the second time around, Larry!..."
Well its going well so far. Not gripping, and not enough focus on the fish, but it is interesting. I shall also read the 1979 follow up, A Persian Quarter Century. BTW I much prefer the name Persia to Iran!

[Sarai]

Currently reading Woodswoman I: Living Alone in the Adirondack Wilderness by Anne LaBastille, started it yesterday and enjoying every minute. Anne LaBastille's writing is inspiring but realistic and very witty in parts.

Also reading Kraken by China Miéville which largely follows a curator from the Natural History Museum, London searching for a giant squid which impossibly disappeared from the Darwin Centre and is prophesied to be a god and will bring about the end of the world. For anyone not familiar with Mieville, he is a writer of speculative fiction, his style often called 'New Weird' and imo he is a genius.

Also making my way through Wormwood Forest: A Natural History of Chernobyl by Mary Mycio which I am finding very interesting.

[Marieke]

I recently listened to my first Mieville, Sarah...The City and The City. I liked it a lot and heard it's his least weird. I'm really looking forward to more. :D

[Larry]

Yea Mieville is big in science fiction circles!

[Sarai]

And rightly so :) Mieville's bas lag books are awesome, in the true sense of the word!

[Elaine]

Mike wrote: "I just finished Oogy: a dog only a family could love. I liked it. If you are a dog person, then you might find this enjoyable. It is a positive true story with a sad big picture background story. i..."

I read Oogy to review it for the amazon Vine Voice program and thought it one of the best animal books I've read in a long time (and I read a lot of them, being an animal lover).

[Larry]

I just got a Mieville book called Kraken, picked up for 2.99 from a book clearance store!

[Scott]

I just finished In The Garden of Beasts about American ambassador living in Berlin during early 1930s and Hitler.

[Kirsten]

I read that recently too! I thought it was a little insane that everyone just looked the other way while people were being beaten in the streets.

[jb]

I have like 5 books going at once right now. I have been in a reading slump for some reason.

[Kirsten]

Me too...I think it's related to my lack of free time, but the ones I am reading are very diverse but they feel interconnected. Too much environmental science perhaps?

[Jennilee]

One book I recently read that was awesome is "Irresistible Revolution" by Shane Claiborne. The premise of the books is basically, what if we took Jesus seriously, what if He meant what He said. The book is Shane's story of how he lived out that question. He spent time in Calcutta with Mother Teresa, slept many nights in an abandoned church with homeless families, moved to the poorest part of Philadelphia to be a light in that place. Anyways, it was very cool. So if you are interested in anything Christian or Jesus focused, definitely read this book :)

[Elias]

Just finished "The Ocean of Life: The Fate of Man and the Sea " by Callum Roberts and loved it. There are a lot of things I am still processing from it. Love how he gave a detailed description of our interaction with the sea over time and how it has changed things. It was a little depressing at first to read but then it got into some of the solutions to the problems we face which was very inspirational.

[Julia]

I just found this thread, since I just joined--great ideas here. I'm reading Dava Sobel's "The Planets", as well as "Climate Change: What it Means for Us, Our Children, and Our Grandchildren." I have Thomas Friedman's "Hot, Flat, and Crowded" in my "to be read" pile.

And our library book group has chosen "Catcher in the Rye" for June :-) Looking forward to re-visiting Holden after many years.

[Lynnm]

Friedman's book is wonderful. And I was happy to see that he had a chapter on overpopulation, something that gets swept under the rug even by environmental groups because it is such a sensitive issue.

And love "Catcher in the Rye." One of my favorites. Although the book has been replaced somewhat by John Green's books, especially "Looking for Alaska."

[Julia]

In Praise of Slowness: Challenging the Cult of Speed

Bill McKibben gave it this blurb: "Try reading this book one chapter a day--it is worth allowing tis subversive message to sink slowly in so it has a chance of changing your life."

I've learned that the Slow Movement has its own website: http://www.slowmovement.com/

And the author of the book, Carl Honoré, has a TED talk from 2005: http://www.ted.com/talks/carl_honore_...

And his own website: http://www.carlhonore.com/

The book is an important look at the addiction to "fastness" in the developed world. Honoré discusses "slowness" in relation to food, cities, mind/body, medicine, sex, work, leisure, and children. Each chapter reiterates that slowness enriches and deepens our lives.

The opening citation is from Gandhi: "There is more to life than increasing its speed." Some other quotations that stayed with me are:

p. 33 "It's hard to think about the fact that we're going to die; it's unpleasant, so we constantly seek ways to distract ourselves from the awareness of our own mortality. Speed, with the sensory rush it gives, is one strategy for distraction." (Mark Kingwell, professor of philosophy at the University of Toronto)

I had to smile at these words from Plautus, the Roman playwright, in 200 BCE:
"The God confound the man who first found out
How to distinguish the hours--confound him, too,
Who in this place set up a sundial
To cut and hack my days so wretchedly
Into small pieces!...
I can't even sit down to eat unless the sun gives leave,
The town's so full of these confounded dials..."

I really liked his discussion of how clocks and watches make us their slaves. He makes excellent points in each of the sections, moving into areas such as alternative medicine, yoga, and meditation. He himself sees them as valuable tools for slowing us down, but does not attach a spiritual component, which I appreciated.

The most touching chapter was the one on children, titled "Raising an Unhurried Child." The segment on reading bedtime stories to his son was such a great personal example of what can happen when we stop all the hurrying.

[Courtney]

I just finished Death at Seaworld: the Dark side of captivity and killer whales. Fantastic read and really insightful! Very thoroughly researched and just an overall good book. I highly recommend it.

[Annis]

I just finished Al Gore's The Future: Six Drivers of Global Change, and posted a review on my Goodreads page. A big long slog but very much worth it for those of us longing to find a way to help prevent further climite change.

[Masha]

Tales From The Underground: A Natural History of Subterranean Life. ecologist W Wolfe wrote it.

[Julia]

The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating

I'm just enthralled, and suggest everyone go to www.elisabethtovabailey.net to learn more about the author and this slim volume of pure inspiration.

This observation states my views most clearly:

"Like Seabiscuit's Laura Hillenbrand, this author is at the house-bound, often bed-bound extreme of Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (brain stem inflammation), a condition similar to Lyme mockingly labeled "Chronic Fatigue Syndome" which U.S. Health Officials likewise continue to stall progress in. While her living restrictions set the stage for what transpires, 95% of this book isn't about illness, but an easily read, witty account of all-things snail. Starting from the almost-silent but neighborly presence of one, it gently focuses in on how snails eat, move, defend themselves, and mate. It draws on the expertise of current biologists, and on the prose of authors past, likewise fascinated by these presumptively simple creatures. The artful weaving between her growing personal interaction and amazement with a mysterious pet and the light science is so well done that one feels like a gastropod expert without having read a textbook, as well as entertained and indeed privileged to see a world invisibly slow to most of us."

The debilitating illness that is the underpinning of the book is never made into a maudlin, self-pitying background. Rather, I was mesmerized by the quotations Bailey chose to start each chapter--simply brilliant.

Much like The Diving Bell and the Butterfly: A Memoir of Life in Death, this slim volume is a tribute to the power of an individual who can overcome unbelivable adversity. And the information on snails is absolutely fascinating--another example of the miracles around us if we just take time to slow down and pay attention.

[Lynnm]

Julia wrote: "
In Praise of Slowness: Challenging the Cult of Speed

Bill McKibben gave it this blurb: "Try reading this book one chapter a d..."

I'm so glad that you are reading Honore's book! Really changed my outlook and the way I approached my day and the things that I had to accomplish.

While it can be difficult to put into practice everything that he talks about, I have done a lot of what he suggests, and it worked for me. Of course, I started some of the things before I read the book, but there were many other suggestions that I hadn't heard before. Plus, he gives a lot of historical background which I found very interesting.