The Thing with Feathers
The Nature of Reading Newsletter | Fall | Week 6
“Hope” is the thing with feathers -That perches in the soul -And sings the tune without the words -And never stops - at all - - Emily Dickinson
Dear readers,
If you’re anything like me and the other members of our community, you’re probably experiencing a lot of emotions this week.
As November 5th nears, we’re in the depths of a sometimes agonizing mixture of anxiety, despair, fear, desperation, and (I hope) hope.
We all have days that weigh heavily on our mental health—I am far from immune to them. The dizzying combination of political uncertainty, global humanitarian crises, and major manifestations of climate change (where is the rain?!) are enough to make anyone’s head spin.
But that doesn’t mean we need to forsake hope. I’m lucky to have a job where I get to interact with many people face-to-face each day. When the distortions of our particular algorithms are put aside, it’s easier to embrace dialectical thinking: yes, there are truly terrible things in the world, and yes, things are not as bad as they can sometimes seem.
I meet so many people each day that are working hard for the causes they care about, be it conservation, birds, native plants, rewilding, environmental justice, or community aid. Just within our small town, I’ve met hundreds of people who care so deeply for our planet, for both nonhuman and human inhabitants alike.
Before starting the shop, I would easily get bogged down in the murky waters of headline after headline of disastrous news stories. What could I possibly do? What could anyone possibly do? The world was irrevocably ruined.
But climate doomism helps no one, nor does the feeling that the whole world is broken beyond repair. Hopelessness bleeds directly into nihilism: why do anything at all if the future is already set?
We must maintain hope, even in the hardest of times. Despite the variety of wonders that I am so lucky to partake in everyday here in the bookshop, I still have those nihilistic periods where I have to remind myself that change is possible. Even in the worst of outcomes, we will find ways to exert our agency, we will come together and support each other. We must maintain hope.
For those who are stuck in the endless tornado of polls and headlines, I want to offer you the hope that blooms each day here in the shop. I want to tell you how terrible the endless news cycle can make you feel and how different it is when you’re face to face with someone who’s telling you about the latest protest they went to or the ways they’ve been teaching others about old growth forests. I want you to know that once you’ve voted and done what you can to bring about the best possible outcome in this election, that it’s okay to offer yourself some compassion and indulge in escapism during these next heavy days. And above all, I want you to know that even when hope seems lost, it is always possible to find it again.
While I am famously bad at doing so, we need to acknowledge our limitations and understand that merely feverishly worrying about something will not improve its outcome. The time before the election is so brief that now if you’ve done what you can, it’s the time to think of other things and connect in-person with others in your life. Do a puzzle, have coffee, go for a walk together. Nothing darkens the mind more than the constant repetition without protest of one’s darkest thoughts. There is so much light, and so much hope, to be found in others.
And so I offer my stores of hope for you to share, and I send hope from the deepest of my wells for the election of Kamala Harris and Tim Walz next week. Our battered political system is in need of so much work, but with a government that at least acknowledges the existence of climate change and the need for human rights, we will actually have a chance to make our voices heard and fight for a better world.
With that, I hope you enjoy the far lighter rest of this newsletter—including some book recommendations below for escapist reads—and if you stop by the shop, we can hold our hope together.
Wishing you all the very best,
Hailey
This month we’ll have a whopping three crafting events! And possibly more…time will tell! First up we have this wonderfully whimsical evening of punch needling. How can you resist that mushroom?!
Next is this beautiful little embroidery sampler. At this event, you’ll learn how to do all of the stitches along the outer edges of the project, and then at home you’ll finish up the little cardinal in the center. The kit comes with a mini embroidery hoop so you can perfectly frame the final project! Embroidery is so relaxing and truly a great hobby to pick up before the long winter nights fully set in.
Lastly we have the second in the series of seasonal bird cross stitch kits! Last month we did the fall bird and this month is the winter one. I’ve loved getting more into the art of cross stitch—once you get reading the pattern down, it’s a relaxing, repetitive process that helps quiet the mind and pairs perfectly with your favorite audiobook or TV show. And as always, at all these events you get 10% off any purchases made that night! It’s a great way to get your holiday shopping started. I hope to see you there!
‘A church is a sort of wood. A wood is a sort of church. They’re the same thing really.’ Nineteen-year-old Merowdis Scot is an unusual girl. She can talk to animals and trees—and she is only ever happy when she is walking in the woods. One snowy afternoon, out with her dogs and Apple the pig, Merowdis encounters a blackbird and a fox. As darkness falls, a strange figure enters in their midst—and the path of her life is changed forever. Featuring gorgeous illustrations truly worthy of the magic of this story and an afterword by Susanna Clarke explaining how she came to write it, this is a mesmerizing, must-have addition to any fantasy reader's bookshelf.
High up in the leafy branches of a tree lives a leaf girl named Oak and her family. Oak loves nothing more than playing with her animal friends of the forest—dancing with Squirrel and holding toadstool tea parties with the bumbling bugs. But as the season begins to change, and a slight chill fills the air, the usual bustle of the tree begins to slow. As winter approaches and the family prepares to make their annual move from the tree to an acorn on the forest floor, Oak doesn’t feel ready to leave and stubbornly clings to her branch. But soon the glowing light from the acorn below beckons, and she realizes that change is just an opportunity for new adventures—and that the meaning of home is wherever loved ones are.
A richly imagined, sweeping novel of hope, love, and adventure set in the unforgiving world of our own descendants. With a rapidly changing climate shifting the sands beneath their feet, the paths of three vivid characters converge in a struggle for the future of humanity—who will inherit what remains and who gets to tell its story. At once a sweeping survival story; an epic of the distance future; and a post-apocalyptic vision of hope and optimism, The Ancients weaves a multilayered narrative about human resilience, hope, and stewardship of our world for future generations.
Our three book clubs are now one: The Nature of Reading Book Club! Here, we’ll still be exploring all the latest and greatest environmental reads, and we’ll be rotating each month between fiction & non-fiction.
This month I wanted to choose a book that was particularly grounding given all that is happening politically, and what could be more grounding than the earth itself! So in November we’ll be discussing Marcia Bjornerud’s Turning to Stone: Discovering the Subtle Wisdom of Rocks. Weaving stories of her life as a geologist with extraordinary geological histories and unexpected facts about the ground beneath our feet, Marcia Bjornerud brings us on a journey of deep time and newfound understanding.
We’d love for you to join us to read this stunning book—you can sign up here.
For our November episode of Attending Together, we’ll be reading The Backyard Bird Chronicles by Amy Tan. In case you missed our first episode discussing Mary Oliver’s Upstream, here’s the link to listen whenever you’d like.
We hope you’ll read the beautiful Backyard Bird Chronicles along with us. Thanks to the wonderful generosity of one of our readers, all copies ordered through the shop will come with a special Backyard Bird Chronicles bookplate signed by Amy Tan! You can get your copy here if you’d like to pick it up at the shop, or you can order a copy for delivery through Bookshop.org.
Each week I’m going to be recommending three books to help us better connect with the fall season.
This week I’m recommending some books that are relevant to our particular fall during this election year and the last few days before November 5th. If you likewise are stressed about the outcome of next week’s results, once you’ve voted and encouraged all your family and friends to do the same, pick up one of these books this weekend and fall fully into escapism.
Rather than looking at books that dwell on hope in the face of challenges or help us improve ourselves and our mental health, I wanted to recommend books this week that won’t make you think about the state of our world or make you feel the need to do any internal work: these books are purely escapism.
I’ve always found it difficult to find escapist books that I enjoy because I struggle with getting lost in a story if the writing is not the best…there are so many cozy novels I would love to enjoy if not for my inner literary critic! If you feel similarly, I think you’ll enjoy any of these eclectic recommendations. Each of these are truly “good books,” well-written and engaging, but they also offer no relevance to the current state of our world and will help you detach from reality as we wait for the fates to decide our future.
Because this is so important, here are 6 recommendations!
This book is like entering a time machine and transporting back to your teenage years, where the things that mattered most were friends, romance, and school. Phoebe’s partially autobiographical diary is filled with the heightened emotions of a teenager and the usual stresses of those years, but also with the warm ambiance of her family’s cozy life within a cozy city filled with cafes and forest walks. Plus, the book is heavily illustrated and the joy of the illustrations immeasurably improves the reading experience. If you want a book that will make you laugh out loud and fall completely into a story, I definitely recommend Phoebe’s Diary.
One of my favorite things to read when I need to escape is children’s literature. It’s always been a great way to find well-written, thoughtful stories that aren’t too taxing and often make for wonderful bedtime reading. This book in particular is a stunning collection that will awaken your childhood nostalgia and instantly soothe you with the soft, whimsical illustrations and heartfelt tales. This beautiful book has all eight of the stories published about the wonderful world of Brambly Hedge, and between the variety of tales and the sweetness of the illustrations, you’re sure to forget anything that happens to be occurring next week.
When people ask me for comforting fiction, this book is always my first recommendation. When I first read The House in the Cerulean Sea, it had been years since I had read any type of fantasy novel. Though I felt a bit worried about reading outside of my typical genres, I could not have been happier to have picked up this book. What brings such magic to TJ Klune’s writing is that he fills all of his books with so much heart. You can’t help but fall in love with each of the characters in this story, and the way he peppers in the sweetest moments will leave you in happy tears. If you love heartwarming stories and want a book that will transport you to a distant island in a cerulean sea, this one is for you.
Nothing Much Happens: Cozy and Calming Stories to Soothe Your Mind and Help You Sleep By Kathryn Nicolai
This book is particularly well-suited for our moment. I’ve heard about so many people struggling with sleep lately, and while the most important thing is to stay offline for as long as you can before going to bed, what will really send you off to pleasant dreams is reading a book that has been specifically created to help you fall asleep. This sweet short story collection is based on Kathryn Nicolai’s podcast of the same name, where she brings stories of joy and relaxation to her listeners. Her skills gathered from decades of experience as a meditation and yoga teacher help her weave gentle tales rich in sensory experiences to help quiet the mind, build self-compassion and soothe frayed nerves. If you need some stories written with comfort in mind, this book is for you.
Nothing says escapism like a good romance novel! This one absolutely cracks me up—I don’t read a ton of romance, but how could I resist a romance about birding?! The art of paying attention to the natural world forms a backdrop for the fun and spicy romance between the two main characters, an experienced and a novice birder. Reflective moments are peppered throughout the story which help give depth to the characters and balance the wonderfully silly premise of the book. If you’ve ever been reading a romance novel and think, You know what this needs? More discussion about bird identification! then this is the book for you.
Lastly, if you love a good nonfiction book, why not escape to another time period? Similarly to our book club book for this month, this book helps distract the mind with the mind with the dizzying eons that have passed on this planet before our present day. If you want to feel like you’re actually traveling to a whole other world (an otherland, if you will) pick up this book to jump back in time and meet the creatures that roamed the earth before us.
I’m ashamed to write that I barely saw the outside world this week, despite my knowledge of the benefits and my constant recommendations for others to take breaks outside…As a small business owner, sometimes I find it particularly hard to follow my own restful advice. The past many weeks have been a wonderful yet dizzying string of endless events, dinners, late nights and last-minute scrambles. Still, even amidst a busy schedule, one can enjoy small moments like these—a stunning sunset captured from the doorway of the bookshop, appreciated in a few moments of stillness before the hustle and bustle began again.