In August
The Nature of Reading Newsletter | Summer | Week 7
Dear readers,
Hello once again!
This summer, as you might have guessed from my previous newsletters, has been a surprisingly busy time here, meeting new readers, expanding my inventory, and undertaking several projects at the shop. And it has been a most lovely time! These two weeks have been packed with book club meetings and events, and I’m especially excited for our sidewalk pop-up market tomorrow (see below!).
Beneath all the wonderful times at the shop this month, I’ve also been dealing with some issues with my building that are out of my control and have taken a bit of a toll on me. Especially as we enter these last quiet days of summer, I’m so very grateful for your support—every book, gift, journal, and bookmark you purchase from the shop truly means the world to me. And if you’re further afield, you can always support The Nature of Reading on Bookshop.org. Thank you so, so much for continuing to show up for our community and for all that you do in helping me build up our little bookshop.
With that, lovely readers, I’ll let you get on to all the exciting announcements below.
Wishing you all the very best,
Hailey
I’m very excited to announce our first ever sidewalk pop-up event will be tomorrow here at The Nature of Reading Bookshop! Join us this Friday during The Museum of Early Trades and Crafts Summer Concert Series to check out these three amazing vendors who will be set up in front of the shop! We’ll have the most beautiful & delicious cookies from Dough and Behold, the most stunning handmade clothing items from Van Ryzin Design, and the most lovely dried flowers from The Gardeners Wife, who is visiting all the way from Texas! Stop by this Friday to listen to some great music, browse at the shop, and check out all these wonderful vendors have to offer.
I am also so very excited to announce our second monthly crafting event! This month we’ll be doing a punch needle project and making this delightful strawberry design. This kit can be completed in 2 hours and is a great way to try punch needle for the first or second time! You can get your ticket here.
These whimsical cards are perfect for the shop. They come with a flat card where you can write a message on the back and a sheet with different pieces that the card recipient can pop-out to make their own little animal. Stop by and check them out!
Okay, since they came in last week, I cannot stop looking at these mugs. They’re too beautiful! The shape, the color, the texture—everything is perfect. They also come in two sizes—one is great for tea and the other for cappuccinos or espresso drinks. You simply must see them for yourself!
Learn to connect more strongly with nature through 52 self-care practices that benefit people and the planet. With rituals including Decorating with Nature, Breathwork with Plants, and Forest Bathing, we can acquire the tools needed to calm us down and enhance our relationship with nature, because it is only with a level head and understanding of our place in the world that we can begin to take action.
Science shows that the creatures who share our everyday landscapes—from devoted geese to clever raccoons to playful turtles—are thinking, feeling individuals. Should we then see them as fellow persons, even citizens? Weaving in the latest research, Brandon Keim takes us into courtrooms and wildlife hospitals, under back garden decks and into deserts, to meet the philosophers, rogue pest controllers, ecologists, wildlife doctors and others who are reimagining our relationships to animals and to nature.
Whether you look at them in awe or in fear, the world of the small but mighty insect is an irreplaceable part of Earth and its ecosystems, and is equally strange and wonderful in its own way. Following the incredible success of Botanical Inspiration and Fungal Inspiration, this new volume lets you peer into a mesmerizing kaleidoscope where butterflies, beetles, bees, and other remarkable insects come to life under the skillful brushstrokes of talented artists and illustrators from around the globe representing a variety of styles and media.
This week, if I could only recommend one book in my whole shop, I’d recommend The Uninhabitable Earth by David Wallace-Wells.
This is the book that catalyzed my environmentalist journey and led me to eventually open The Nature of Reading. When I was living in the UK, I would often see the cover at bookstores. At the time, my climate anxiety and my general anxiety were pretty out of control, but despite my fear I wanted to learn more about exactly what was in store for us. I picked it up one day but I only got a few pages in—I just couldn’t handle reading it.
After years of caring better for my mental health and living through a global pandemic, I saw the book again towards the end of 2020 when I had moved back to NJ. I had been reading a lot of heavy literary fiction lately, so I felt that maybe I could handle it this time. The pandemic had shaken up my worldview and everything had not yet crystallized into a new form. It seemed that in the new reality I was entering, I could indeed read more than a few pages. I bought the book, and found myself finally confronting the realities of climate change (I know it is a great privilege to not have done this earlier).
While the book has received varied critical reception due to it’s incredibly blunt and unforgiving tone, it was just what I needed at the time to unlock an inner clarion call: despite having lived my whole life deeply within the world of the humanities and having just completed two degrees with a heavily medieval focus, I knew it was time to start doing what I could for our planet.
Ideas cycled through my mind over the next year, until finally settling into the shape of The Nature of Reading, a place where I could combine my passion for books and bookselling with my desire to contribute positively to climate action. And here we are now!
I can’t say that it’s a light read, but if you need a climate wake-up call, I must recommend The Uninhabitable Earth.
This month, because of summer plans and travels, we’ll be having one group book club rather than our usual three. And we’ll be reading a truly lovely book: The Summer Book by Tove Jansson.
This little novel tells the story of the six-year-old Sophia and her grandmother as they spend the summer on a tiny unspoiled island in the Gulf of Finland. The grandmother is unsentimental and wise, if a little cranky; Sophia is impetuous and volatile, but she tends to her grandmother with the care of a new parent. Together they amble over coastline and forest in easy companionship, build boats from bark, create a miniature Venice, write a fanciful study of local bugs. They discuss things that matter to young and old alike. “On an island,” thinks the grandmother, “everything is complete.” In The Summer Book, Jansson creates her own complete world, full of the varied joys and sorrows of life.
I hope you’ll join us on August 27th to discuss this beautiful work of eco-fiction.
You can sign up for the book club here.
We’ve moved our July meeting of Between the Leaves Book Club to August!
Join us virtually at 7pm on August 26th for the summer meeting of Between The Leaves Book Club, the online book club we run with The Native Plant Society of NJ! I host with the wonderful Kim Correro, co-host of The Wild Story Podcast. This time we’ll be discussing Soil: The Story of a Black Mother’s Garden by Camille Dungy, a memoir that follows Dungy’s journey in diversifying her garden. I honestly cannot recommend this book highly enough! If you’re interested in social & environmental justice as well as gardening, look no further than Soil. Stop by to grab your copy, or order it here from our Bookshop.org storefront. The book club is free and open to all.
Each week I highlight here the three bestselling books from a particular category at the shop, and you get to see what our community likes to read most in a whole range of nature-based genres.
This week we’re looking at Nature Guides. Unsurprisingly, our top three nature guides all come from the handy Finder Series!
These pocket-sized booklets are perfect for accompanying you on a hike through a forest or a walk through your neighborhood. They’re carefully detailed without being too overwhelming. As they’ve been in print since the 70s, I’ve heard so many people saying that they used to use them in school. Kids love them just as much as adults—you can’t go wrong with any book in this series. I’ve grouped them all here for browsing.
A snapshot from a walk in Loantaka last week, where the humidity was so high that by the time we got back into the car to go home, it felt like we had just been for a swim. Still, on the most humid days, the forest often looks the most magical.
Love the newsletter as always