It seems like time keeps pushing me faster and faster through life because this year seriously arrived, tipped its hat, and left with a flourish of its coat that it never took off. With that, however, this year was really the year where I read books. Quite a few books actually.

Okay, I read books annually, but they’ve always been casual when I’ve “found the time to read” or when I’ve scrambled together a few minutes between classes. As much as I would love to always be in the sanctuary of green leaves and tall trees reading for long whiles desirable books of my choosing (meaning they weren’t assigned to me), that typically gets planned in advance. And prepared for.

Yet this year was different. I got up earlier with coffee (necessary) and focus (after said necessary coffee) to sit down with my choice of book, and there were many that I got through because of that. It’s a habit I’ve formed and one that is, I think, for my betterment.

And in this, I thought I would write about my favorites, split into fiction and non-fiction. I’m both apologetic and shameless to say that I read more non-fiction with my renewed focus and energy so I’ll start with these.

As always, I recommend unabashedly.

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#1

Places of the Heart

The Psychogeography of Everyday Life

Amazingly, I found this in the self-help section of the bookstore. Now before you ask, I just wandered my way down the shelves to self-help and stumbled upon this book. I haven’t one idea of how it got there.

This year included for me a lot of introductions to neurology and science of the brain (I give you term and definition together…apparently). It’s been confusing and challenging to try and grasp the concepts, but I believe it’s given me a good jump and leap off the diving board into those sciences. As evidenced by my interests (love) and intrigue (love) of the Biltmore Estate, I found this book to be easy to grasp and definitely readable.

Colin Ellard, the author, spritzes these chapters with stories and examples from his own life that I found relatable and, often, agreeable. Basically, it’s about how humans and spaces interact with each other and perhaps how we ought to do it better. Nature is good for us. But does virtual nature hold the same quality benefits? Discussed here. Good design is proven to encourage explorative and uplifted moods. So why do most city blocks seem boringly predictable? Discussed here. And smart cities are definitely in our future. So what are the risks? Also…discussed here.

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#2

The Nature Fix

Why Nature makes us happier, healthier, and more creative

I bet Y’all can’t guess the places I read this the most.

I found solace in Florence Williams nature studies: she moved from Colorado to D.C. and described her experience as rough and depressive, moving from a place of grandiose mountains to grandiose traffic congestion. When I come back from Asheville, I don’t take interstate highways. I go through small North Georgia towns. I go, seeing the mountains get bigger around me, and I leave, seeing the mountains grow smaller and smaller. And I just feel sad for days after. As it turns out, there’s a reason for that. Backed by science!

This book reaches deep into discussions of PTSD and fear, and learning and focus problems in children, and innovative urban planning. Williams describes her experiences with experiments like wearing a helmet measuring brain activity, and dives into foreign concepts like “forest bathing.” And it’s all written with this proverbial sense that only good can come from a twenty-minute walk in the woods every day (and even staring at a tree can help your creativity blossom in rough spots).

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#3

Porcelain

This is a memoir by Moby. As in DJ Moby.

I haven’t a significant history with this artist but what I do have started when I heard “First Cool Hive” playing out at the end of the first Scream movie. I liked it. And when I heard that he was releasing a book, I instantly felt the need to read it for whatever reason. (A brief aside: nobody needs a reason. Sometimes a book just whispers to you and, eventually, ya gotta)

So, two years after it was placed on bookshelves, I finally read it without expectations or knowing anything about Moby. It’s long and sullen and has, in detail, many relationships and tours and philosophy and thoughts on life in it. And I do mean sullen: I finished it walking away with a vague and fragile sense that it ended with hope. He lived in supremely humble circumstances and honestly never passed up an opportunity to befriend someone. He seemed to be a professional wallflower that blossomed out for brief moments on stage and relate to those character traits. It also got him into some, say, interesting situations that I found both comically captivating and, at times, heartbreaking.

I’m a firm believer in reading the experiences of others as they can open up your world in ways you may not think possible. Whatever expectations I had for this book, they were stratospherically surpassed.

*This book contains some language

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#4

The Kindness of Strangers

Penniless Across America

My Uncle gave me this book, and with everything that I read, this book took the shortest amount of time. Oh once I started it, I finished it quicker than a good night’s sleep. It is a story of Mike McIntyre (the author) deciding to quit the way he was living his life at the time, pack a few things, shed all money from his person and set off on a trek from California to North Carolina, surviving only on….the Kindness of Strangers. He has a way of describing the characters he meets with a palpable sense of reality, playfulness, and feeling. Even the less good characters are wholesomely included because those people are also speckled throughout his adventure.

I think what struck me most about reading a book in which someone hitchhikes his way across the country with no money for anything was how much I wouldn’t do it, or how much I think I wouldn’t do it. The book was published in the late 90’s so it may be fair to say that some things have worsened for hitchhikers, but reading it felt as though that this life may present more meaningful experiences than what one is living through now.

Read it for yourself, and see how you feel.

*This book contains some language

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#5

The VW Camper Van

A Biography

I didn’t think twice about buying this one. I sped read it. Literally, if you want a good story about the development of this hippie-era icon plus some good owners’ stories thrown in, treat yourself. Mike Harding rolls through the history of how the Camper Van came to be but, to me, the adventures he records of different owners in the latter half are my most favorite parts. It’s so cohesively written, with such English wit and poise.

I had never felt the Van Life calling me and throwing a lasso around my heart more than when I was reading this. I’m prepared to drop everything, go out and get me a Westfalia Splitty and hightail it to Yosemite.

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#6

The Last Castle

Perhaps my most favorite non-fiction read this year, no mystery as to why, is this wonderful work by Denise Kiernan. It is this literary telling of the lives of George Vanderbilt, Edith Vanderbilt, and the Biltmore Estate. It takes you from the beginnings of family lines through roughly 1930, and the character development is rather grand. I came to relate to George Vanderbilt at higher regard because of the character traits portrayed in Kiernan’s narrative (quiet, reserved, loved books, loved his mother). And I too learned of life for elites in New York at the turn of the century. Really, I learned more about how New York operated around the lives of these super-rich people and saw the meaning of Biltmore much more clearly having been shown these details.

If you want to read true tales of riches, romance, murder, and scandal and have it wrapped with good storytelling and set in America’s largest home ever, absolutely do yourself the favor.

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Goodnight, Texas—Harmony

Dustin Tebbutt—Love is Blind

Elephant Revival—Remembering a Beginning

The Paper Kites—On The Train Ride Home