Nonfiction Book Club

This group is for nonfiction readers who enjoy thought-provoking discussions.  We vote on a book every month across a wide variety of genres from among recommendations from our group. For more information or to get monthly emails with details about upcoming meetings, contact DianeCosner@gmail.com or 352-259-9168

The book chosen for November 18, recommended by Peter Russell, is The Well-Gardened Mind: The Restorative Power of Nature by Sue Stuart-Smith. 

Description from Amazon.com:

Those who work with the earth have known for years that there's a magical quality to gardening.  In a blend of psychology, neuroscience, and stories from around the world, psychotherapist Sue Stuart-Smith breaks ground to explore the power of interacting with nature and how the garden can provide a vital place for cultivating the mind. 

The garden is often seen as a refuge, a place to forget worldly cares, removed from the “real” life that lies outside. But when we get our hands in the earth we connect with the cycle of life in nature through which destruction and decay are followed by regrowth and renewal. Gardening is one of the quintessential nurturing activities and yet we understand so little about it. The Well-Gardened Mind provides a new perspective on the power of gardening to change people’s lives. Here, Sue Stuart-Smith investigates the many ways in which mind and garden can interact and explores how the process of tending a plot can be a way of sustaining an innermost self.

Stuart-Smith’s own love of gardening developed as she studied to become a psychoanalytic psychotherapist. From her grandfather’s return from World War I to Freud’s obsession with flowers to case histories with her own patients to progressive gardening programs in such places as Rikers Island prison in New York City, Stuart-Smith weaves thoughtful yet powerful examples to argue that gardening is much more important to our cognition than we think. Recent research is showing how green nature has direct antidepressant effects on humans. Essential and pragmatic, The Well-Gardened Mind is a book for gardeners and the perfect read for people seeking healthier mental lives. 

The author discusses her book with Dr. Tia Rich, Director of Stanford's Contemplation By Design program:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sASYMQ-bYII 

Upcoming titles: 

  Dec 16  The Coming Wave: Technology, Power, and the Twenty-First Century's Greatest Dilemma by Mustafa Suleyman

  Jan 20  Lovely One: A Memoir by Ketanji Brown Jackson

  Feb 17  We will vote on this title in November.

Have you read a great nonfiction book recently that would be a good choice to discuss among friends who will take the time and consideration to read it thoroughly?  Hope to see you at the next meeting!