Crafting Through
The Nature of Reading Newsletter | Summer | Week 4
Dear readers,
Hello once again—I hope you’ve had a lovely weekend so far.
Today I wanted to write a bit about crafting as a tool for navigating life, particularly in these tumultuous times.
I recently redesigned the bookmarks for the shop, in part to better highlight our tagline: “where nature, books, and creativity meet.”
Nature and books are the foundations of the shop, but being who I am, creativity quickly added itself into the mix as well. For every market pop-up, I would load the car (or sometimes two cars) to the brim with special furniture pieces and decor to bring my tent setup to life. I even dappled in selling handmade crafts, including pressed flower frames, crochet amigurumi, and quilted book sleeves. When I got my first storefront, my inner artist was really able to go wild then—soon after opening I built a tree in the kids corner, and around the same time I started hosting crafting events, which quickly became a staple of the shop.
I think it was these crafting events in particular that helped me see just how important it was to the larger mission of my business to encourage others to make things with their hands. At the heart of The Nature of Reading is a desire to a) help people reconnect with the natural world through books and b) help people learn about our changing climate and climate action in a gentle, welcoming way.
Much of this work requires direct, active engagement: focusing our minds for deep learning, or listening to our bodies as we connect with our natural surroundings. And because these undertakings form part of a lifelong movement to strive for health, justice, and equality for our earth and all its earthlings, there must be ways to sustain oneself for long-term involvement, particularly when the attention economy drags us from one outrageous occurrence to another in a cruel attempt to drain all our hope.
I think novels and crafts offer similar havens to which one can retreat to recharge throughout modern life. That was one of the main reasons I designed the new shop in this way—non-fiction nature and climate books line the right of the shop, while novels and craft kits line the left (I’ve come to think of this fiction section as “books to escape with”).
Perhaps because of our upcoming crafting events this month, I’ve been thinking with even more reverence of the art of crafting. While summer has finally started to sink in and things seem to be slowing down a bit, I still struggle to stop and take a breath and let my mind slow down. That’s why it has been so lovely to have a cross-stitch kit to reach for when I need to quiet my mind—my hands are in constant, steady motion, and my mind finally has time to rest. Even a few minutes of stitching forms an island of calm that can help me return to the endless computer-based, non-physical tasks that dominate even physical spaces like bookstores.
As we grow up, we’re often told that crafting or joyfully making art is something that we must leave in the past, something meant for children. Even worse, we prevent ourselves from trying by saying that what we make would never be good enough. The focus on the outcome of the craft obscures the true importance and pleasure of crafting, which lies in the making. It is not in the final cross-stitch bird that perches on the cloth when you finish a kit, it is the hours spent stitching and taking out stitches and stitching again where the joy is to be found. Particularly with fiber arts, the joy is found in the repetition: the mental calm that emerges when one’s hands are able to repeat the motions on their own as the mind sinks into quiet.
So if you’ve been looking for a way to find some additional solace in these dark times for our country, something fortifying to supplement the soaking-up of the natural world and the transformative power of books, I heartily recommend crafting, whether it be with us at one of our upcoming events, or with a kit that you’ve had lying around your house for a while that you’ve always been meaning to get to.
And with that, I’ll return to my own crafting, stitching this beautiful bird for our event on Tuesday (more on that below). I wish you all a restorative, peaceful weekend and I will see you back here soon.
All best wishes,
Hailey
There are so many events to announce this week, mainly because we’ve thrown ourselves fully into Night Magic week—July 29-August 2—which features 5 days of amazing events that celebrate the wonder of dark skies and the beauty of nocturnal nature. Learn more about all of the exciting events we have planned for that week below, and sign up for our upcoming events this week as well!
There’s still a few spots left for our upcoming crafting event on Tuesday! Whether you’ve cross-stitched with us for the spring, fall, or winter birds or whether it’s your first time, I’m happy to help all levels of crafters get started on this sweet cross-stitch project as we sip soothing cups of herbal tea. Grab a friend and join us for this wholesome evening of crafting, tea, and great company.
We’d love for you to join us for the next Seedlings Storytime! Join our bookseller Jo on Saturday morning, July 19th as she reads picture books to the kids. The storytime is recommended for 5-year-olds and younger, but all are welcome to attend, The event is free, but registration in advance is required (due to space, we can only fit about 4-6 families). We hope to see you there!
It’s time for our next event with the Madison Environmental Commission—join us on July 30th for a dark and mysterious discussion based on the book Night Magic by Leigh Ann Henion. After the book club meeting on Tuesday, July 29th, join us the following evening for a conversation with incredibly knowledgable panelists and a lengthy Q&A session where you can get any of your questions answered. With panelists speaking about bats and owls, fireflies and moths, salamanders and amphibians, and dark skies and human health, this is sure to be an event you won’t want to miss.
Join us for a relaxing, cozy evening in honor of our Night Magic week here at The Nature of Reading Bookshop—craft your own wool felt banner to celebrate the beauty of nighttime. On the dark night background, the moths and mushrooms come to life in this delightfully whimsical felting project. This event is great for beginners who are new to needle felting—the kit contains everything you need, and I will be here to help guide you through the project and answer any questions you might have. These felted banner kits are always very popular, so do get your ticket now if you know you’d like to attend! I hope to see you there.
We’re so excited to partner with The Madison Environmental Commission and The Great Swamp Watershed Association for these upcoming nature walks to tie into Night Magic week! From the GSWA website: What happens in the forest after the sun goes down? What creatures come alive in the night? Using our nature detective skills, we will investigate the forest for clues to what might go on after dark. We will begin the investigation in daylight, hunting for tracks, nests and anything else nocturnal animals may leave behind. The walk will end at dusk, where we may even spot some nocturnal insects like fireflies and moths! Get tickets for you and your family at this link.
You can also join us on our adult walk, the same night at 8pm! From the GSWA website: Join GSWA’s Ginger Van Ryzin for a night out in the forest to bring the book, Night Magic, alive. In Night Magic, best-selling nature writer Leigh Ann Henion invites us to leave our well-lit homes, step outside and embrace the dark as a profoundly beautiful part of the world we inhabit. During our hike, we will discuss the habits of the creatures in Night Magic, read passages from the book, and look for signs of nocturnal wildlife. Get your ticket now!
To tie up Night Magic week, at Seedlings Storytime that Saturday we’ll be reading stories about nature at night and all the wonderful wildlife you can find when the sun goes down. Join us to read through a few storybooks and then shop a bit before the bookshop officially opens for the day. The storytime is recommended for 5-year-olds and younger, but all are welcome to attend, The event is free, but registration in advance is required (due to space, we can only fit about 4-6 families). We hope to see you there!
Life can be profound but also funny, exasperating, and downright weird—much like living with a flock of hens. Drawing inspiration from her own flock, author Tedra Hamel’s charming chicken art will make you laugh and teach you to be a good companion. With 50 bits of wisdom throughout this beautifully illustrated book, you will learn how to explore curiosity, embrace your true self, and let go of what holds you back.
Harvest year-round from your bountiful and sustainable kitchen garden. Huw Richards’ ultimate guide to permaculture gardening, outlining the regenerative methods that make kitchen gardening easier to do while being more productive. Huw shows you how to expand your growing beyond annual staples like tomatoes and cabbages to perennial fruits and vegetables. By mixing your planting, gardening seasonally, and optimizing your garden design, you will create a more beautiful and sustainable kitchen garden that is better for the soil, wildlife, and your crops – without costing more of your time.
Growing up in northern California, in a family of high-achieving athletes, Nicholas Triolo was imbued with a particularly acute form of our intensely goal-oriented culture. Shortly after graduating from college, he embarked on a solo circumnavigation of the globe. And then after returning to the States, he threw himself into ultrarunning, all to combat a deepening discontent. While traveling around the world, it was in Kathmandu that Triolo first encountered kora, a form of moving prayer in which pilgrims walk in circles around a sacred site or object—a kind of “ritualized remembering” birthed by place. Unable to shake this initial encounter with circumambulation, he sets out here on three such extended walks. At once uncommonly humble and thrillingly transcendent, blurring the boundaries of inner and outer landscapes, The Way Around models what it means to experience a true revolution of heart and home—for the flourishing of all.
July’s book for The Nature of Reading Book Club is Night Magic by Leigh Ann Henion. Join us on a journey through the nighttime wonders found within your own backyard. There are a lot of exciting complementary events that are taking place the week of July’s book club meeting. Get your ticket for the book club meeting and pick up the book at the shop or have it shipped to you.
We’ve been on a break due to the shop move, but fear not—Attending Together will be resuming this July with the release of our discussion of Jenny Odell’s works! Order your copies of How to Do Nothing and Saving Time and read along with us.
Birding to Change the World: A Memoir by Trish O'Kane
Hailey says: “O’Kane’s engaging journey from human rights journalist to ornithologist will inspire a deep love of birds and a craving for environmental justice.”
In Birding to Change the World, O'Kane details the astonishing science of bird life, from migration and parenting to the territorial defense strategies that influenced her own activism. A warm and compelling weave of science and social engagement, this is the story of an improbably band of bird lovers who saved their park. And it is a blueprint for muscular citizenship, powered by joy.
All Creatures Great and Small: The Warm and Joyful Memoirs of the World's Most Beloved Animal Doctor by James Herriot
Jo says: “James Herriot shares short, funny, and touching snippets from his life that make you fall in love with the idea of being a countryside vet.”
In All Creatures Great and Small, we meet the young Herriot as he takes up his calling and discovers that the realities of veterinary practice in rural Yorkshire are very different from the sterile setting of veterinary school. From seeing to his patients in the depths of winter on the remotest homesteads to dealing with uncooperative owners and critically ill animals, Herriot discovers the wondrous variety and never-ending challenges of veterinary practice as his humor, compassion, and love of the animal world shine forth.
The Vaster Wilds by Lauren Groff
Alison says: “The thrilling adventure of a servant girl after she escapes a colonial settlement and flees across a vast wilderness, hostile and incredibly beautiful.”
A servant girl escapes from a colonial settlement in the wilderness. She carries nothing with her but her wits, a few possessions, and the spark of god that burns hot within her. What she finds in this terra incognita is beyond the limits of her imagination and will bend her belief of everything that her own civilization has taught her. Lauren Groff’s new novel is at once a thrilling adventure story and a penetrating fable about trying to find a new way of living in a world succumbing to the churn of colonialism.
If you’re looking to read some nature books that help you better connect with the summer season, look no further!
With their immense green canopies, forests in summer offer the perfect setting for a mindful stroll to recenter one’s mind. There are plenty of beautiful forests baths to be had around Morris County, but if you happen to be traveling a bit further afield to the shore this summer, take Adam Nicolson’s Life Between the Tides with you and learn about the deep, magical world of rock pools. Lastly, no matter where you find yourself this summer, if you’d like to travel to a remote Finnish island filled with whimsical artists and sublime vistas, Notes from an Island is the book for you. Learn more about these books below, and stop by the shop to receive catered recommendations for your next nature read this summer.
The Healing Magic of Forest Bathing: Finding Calm, Creativity, and Connection in the Natural World by Julia Plevin
An engaging guide to the art of forest bathing, inspired by the Japanese practice of shinrin-yoku, for anyone who wants to explore the transformative power of nature in promoting health and happiness. Through simple invitations to slow down, walk in silence, cultivate tree energy, and connect with the sun and forest, this book enables you to incorporate the inspiring benefits of time spent in nature—a calm mind, renewed energy, boosted creativity, and inner peace—into your daily life to find deeper meaning and contentment.
Inside each rock pool tucked into one of the infinite crevices of the tidal coastline lies a rippling, silent, unknowable universe. Below the stillness of the surface course different currents of endless motion—the ebb and flow of the tide, the steady forward propulsion of the passage of time, and the tiny lifetimes of the rock pool’s creatures, all of which coalesce into the grand narrative of evolution. In Life Between the Tides, Adam Nicolson investigates one of the most revelatory habitats on earth. Everything is within the rock pools, where you can look beyond your own reflection and find the miraculous an inch beneath your nose. “The soul wants to be wet,” Heraclitus said in Ephesus twenty-five hundred years ago. This marvelous book demonstrates why it is so.
From a renowned artist and writer, a deeply personal nature journal about the island that informed her many works, with paintings from her longtime partner, artist Tuulikki “Tooti” Pietilä. In the bitter winds of autumn 1963, Tove Jansson, helped by Brunström, a maverick fisherman, raced to build a cabin on a treeless island in the Gulf of Finland. The island was Klovharun, where for thirty summers Tove and her beloved partner, the visual artist, Tuulikki “Tooti” Pietilä, lived, painted, and wrote, energized by the solitude and shifting seascapes. Notes from an Island is both a work of artistic collaboration and an homage to the deep love the two women shared.
At our last apartment, we occasionally spotted hungry squirrels eating full slices of pizza leftover from the nearby Dominos. Since our building was surrounded by pavement on all sides, our neighboring squirrels had definitely developed more of an urban appetite. But at our new place, just a few minutes up the road, our shared yard (which boasts many more squirrels) seems to provide more of a typical diet. This past week I looked out our kitchen window to see this happy squirrel devouring a full pinecone. He stayed there for quite a while, enthralled by his hearty meal.