Fascinating Non-fiction!

by Laura Sullivan

Hello friends,

I hope you've been enjoying some really great books this summer, as I have. There are so many great,  sweeping novels that take us to places like Victorian England, the Brazilian rainforest, or to Paris in the 1920's. These books leave you without time and space, and if there's no clock or watch nearby, maybe without dinner, because time has lapsed, and it's just so late that you might as well order pizza. I LOVE those books, but I have to mete them out like a good dessert so that I can get some work done! (It's a little like when I got the first season of Mad Men from the library, then watched it all in three days- I walked around in a 1960's fog for a week.)

You know the usual drill-just one more chapter, and then you'll stop. Then it's two in the morning and you are finished but you still can't get your mind off the Brazilian rainforest or Paris…So you have some cereal and watch Jimmy Fallon until 3 am. Tired and cranky tomorrow, no doubt.

I don’t want you to stop reading these books, but, as a break, you should try some really worthwhile books out there that will mix up your reading patterns and allow you to get some sleep and work done. They inform, delight, and are sometimes unbelievable because they are true. They are what the Reality Show was before the Reality Show was a reality…they are non-fiction!

If you are already a fan, bravo to you, and I am preaching to the choir. If not, try one! Even as a one page a day devotional. They are not all dry. Don't pigeon hole yourself to being a reader who only reads what's on the new titles and best seller shelf. There is a whole fascinating world out there that is waiting for you. Open it up!

Some of my favorites:

Cod: A Biography of a Fish that Changed the World, by Mark Kurlansky Food, economics, the discovery of a little country called America, are a few of the topics Kurlansky writes about in the book. It is fascinating. People made fun of me while I read this because it seems like it would be so dull. It is so not. I have had many scoffers read this and love it. Don't dis the Cod.
The Golden Ratio, by Mario Livio Again, fascinating. The golden ratio: 1:1.618… Also called the divine proportion. It is a book about discovery , music, beauty, architecture and about our natural world. It will make you look at your fingers, plants, the notes on the scale of your piano in a whole new way. And how smart are you? Reading a pleasure book about math!
In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex, by Nathaniel Philbrick I yelled at the characters in this book like a crazy person- "No! Go the other way!" A frustrating, captivating look at a whaleship's voyage in the 1800's. Herman Melville most likely based Moby Dick on this true story of the whaleship Essex. A moral of the story - don't hunt whales, it makes them mad.
Undaunted Courage, by Stephen Ambrose The Corps ofDdiscovery explores the Louisiana Purchase territory during Thomas Jefferson's time in office. I marveled at what Lewis and Clark accomplished with their rudimentary resources. No fleece! No cell phones or GPS! They mapped the US in 1804 from the Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean with wood and leather. They ate dog when salmon was leaping out of the river at their feet. They lived!
John Adams, by David McCullough I loved reading this book not only because I think my husband has the soul of John Adams, but because much of the action takes place in my back yard. I loved imagining the places that are so citified now the way they were in 1776. He was an incredible boon to our society, with a wonderful partner in his wife, Abigail. It is a look inside of the founding of our country from the perspective of a very unassuming man.

These titles are only a small few of the vast number of non-fiction books that are out there. Look for something that is of interest to you, and give it a try. If it's a little dry and puts you to sleep, read your other book first, the two pages of one of these to settle down. Keep one in a place where you can sit down for a few minutes a day (get my meaning?) and read an informative book, instead of recycled content from a magazine. How ever you do it, do it. But don’t give up! Stay with it. You won’t be sorry.

All of these books can be found online at the Westwinds Bookshop online store

My Favorite Place to Read (Ode to a Hammock)

by Laura Sullivan

Ahh. The Hammock. What may seem like an ephemeral summer reference to many of you, it is my every day hidden reality. Hidden, because my hammock is tucked perfectly between two trees just a little apart from my lawn. When you look out my back door - you can't see it, or me when I'm in it. It's part of the appeal with four children at home in the summer. (It's been a month now though, they're starting to catch on.)

I bought the hammock for my husband for Father's Day last year, because it's the quintessential Father's Day gift. He already had the fishing rod from the year before, and had bought himself a boat. I prepared the site by measuring and cutting the intervening trees down myself. (Yes, if course with a chainsaw. I believe all ladies, even those equipped with handy husbands, should be able to handle chainsaws, power tools, and blowtorches. The last is good for crème brulee.) Then I set it up. I think Jim tried it once, but that relaxed summery hammocky feeling didn't stick with him. He was too (happily) busy moving about in the yard. So I tried it, dirty from gardening, hot and sweaty with little bits of dirt on my face where I wiped it with the back of my glove, and my work boots still laced up. It was love, bliss, and happiness! I found my reason for summer.

Even on the hottest days I lie in my hammock, undisturbed, shaded, listening to only the heat bugs. This afternoon I had a bowl of cherries, a book, and a cup of tea with me in the hammock, all balanced nicely. A word of caution: you ought not swing with hot tea, especially if the shirt you're wearing is white. In this total and absolute perfection, my book in hand, two hummingbirds flew nearby.  I also have had a chickadee land right on the edge of the hammock while I was in it. I felt like Snow White! What total perfection. I think sometimes I would rather be there than any place in the world, really. When there's a breeze from the ocean that blows the compost scent in the other direction, it's complete and total perfection.

A summer of great books that will keep you in your hammock and up late at night:

The Kitchen House, by Kathleen Grissom

Caleb's Crossing, by Geraldine Brooks

The White Rose, by Jennifer Donnelly

Major Pettigrew's Last Stand, by Helen Simonson

A postscript: We were recently given a second hammock with a ready stand by my in-laws who were moving, and could no longer accommodate it in their new yard. I kept it for a few days, kitty cornered near mine in full sight. (Not hidden. Point?) My family thought it would be great to have two, so two people could enjoy them at the same time. Mind you- no one EVER goes in the hammock but me. Not by my directive, but by their own. I couldn't take it. The hammock was MY space. For me, alone, to read in joyous quiet solitude; a break from the delights of a family of six. I gave the new hammock away to a friend. I hope she enjoys her new hammock. Alone!