November's Book Recommendation

A Wilder Way: How Gardens Grow Us by Poppy Okotcha.

This month has been dubbed 'Non-Fiction November' which helped me out tremendously when deciding what my first 'book of the month' should be.

As mentioned previously, I tend to 'read' non-fiction as an audiobook to engage better within the busy grown-up lifestyle. Thus, as my mission is to get busy grown ups engaging with the written word more, this feels like the right starting point.

The National Literacy Trust posted "[...] children and young people who read non-fiction were motivated to read for educational purposes, to satisfy curiosities, to foster social connections and to support their mental wellbeing." With this in mind, I felt that my choice not only reflected these sentiments but echoed my previous discussions on how reading develops empathy and supports with stress relief.

About the book.

Narrating herself, Okotcha is a delightfully natural story teller. I have enjoyed listening to her so much that I purchased a hardback version of the book so that I can continue to use it as a reference.

Starting in the month of October - 'Endings as Beginnings' - the book explores month by month Okotcha's relationship with human experience, her cultural heritage, our planet, and life and death through the act of gardening. It is a poetic embrace that leaves the smell of earth in your nose, the feeling of seeds in your palm, and the gentle sound of chickens clucking in your ears.

Okotcha takes her reader on a year-long journey filled with an itinerary of gardening tasks that are both hard work and entirely satisfying. Each month of the book comes with insightful musings, relatable anecdotes, essential gardening tips, and nurturing recipes. I'm sure you'll end up like myself, needing that physical edition to check you got the measurements right, or to be sure you are sowing in the right month. No doubt, either, you'll enjoy the delicate illustrations that add to the romance.

You do not need to be a gardener, or to even have a garden, to enjoy this book. As we discussed with 'Empathy', it offers food for thought when considering our place in this living world and how our actions impact it. At the core, the book demonstrates the power of conscious decision making; do you really need those supermarket tomatoes all year round? Through open discussions, Okotcha uses her thorough research to tell the story of consequence and the story of hope. Garden or no garden, we all play our part.

There is also an element of 'Stress Relief' in the dreamy Devon countryside that paints the canvas of your mind. Lost between the tress, and led home by the romance of the green-fingered, you'll find calm wash over you with a soft mossy embrace.

Please do give A Wilder Way: How Gardens Grow Us a go and let me know how you get on. Also, please share the non-fiction book you may think we need on our shelves or in our playlists.

Happy reading.