Connecting with Life: Finding Nature in an Urban World found me at the perfect time because my husband and I love to hike in the woods, near a lake, in the mountains, or wherever we can take some time to be in nature away from the stresses of life and work. Never has this been more true than during this pandemic! Connecting with Life is a great book about the importance of seeking a natural environment and how to get the most out of your experience in nature using all of your senses. He even discusses how bringing plants and fresh air into your home can make a big difference in how we feel. I loved it! Thank you to NetGalley and to Summer Press.

This was a good one. Simple and lovely with ideas to connect and reconnect that are practical and common sense. It was a big basic but at times it felt comforting and I gleaned ideas here and there to integrate into my life. Nature and the environment should be basic tenets in our lives and this helps emphasize that in a straightforward, digestible way. Thanks to Summer Press for the copy. I’m grateful.

Martin Summer presents a fresh and refreshing look at how mindfully interacting with nature can improve our life the world. He shares many ways to connect with nature outdoor and indoor by giving honor, respect and using our 5 senses. I enjoyed this book. I highly recommend it.

The book makes some good points but it really just simply and repeatedly tries to repackage common sense in 'woo' and fuzzy terms. Felt like reading a bad string of buzzfeed articles mashed together.

I’m unsure who this book was written for. People who are interested or care about the things the author cares about will most likely know the basic information he is giving out. People who don’t care will not be interested in this book in the first place. It was written like a string of buzzfeed articles that some how became a book. “Use brighter lights indoors to make up for your lack of sunlight. “ “Put up sound dampeners to create quiet oasis.” Not much new news. I really take umbrage to his insistence only the sun can produce Vitamin D, and supplements are a second rate substitute. As someone who worked in health care for 10 years, and has dealt with far too much cancer; that is irresponsible. Wear sunscreen. Skin cancer is deadly. The author seems nice enough and very excited to share this information, but to me it felt like the first draft masters thesis titled “how to live a healthier happier life according to me.” Sociology major, maybe?

The simple writing style belies the message of how our connection with nature improves our health and life holistically. Summer shares ideas of how to make that connection, ideas that are part common wisdom, part niche urban nature guru, part natural home guide. It's worth it to learn as much as you can about the subject, especially if you're not inherently outdoorsy, or have lost the tenuous connection due to work, living environment, or lifestyle choices. I received this lovely book from the publisher Summer Press through NetGalley.

An interesting read on how to reconnect with nature and the important benefits this relationship can have. This book examines many ways to be able to explore nature in various ways no matter what type of life you live or how much nature and greenery is around you. From small simple steps to implement nature into your how, to filling your life with aspects of nature that resound with yourself, this book is filled with ideas to reconnect back to our roots.

One thing that I did not like as much about this book, is that while giving people ideas to go out and experience nature, it barely touches on how to interact respectfully with nature and others enjoying the scenery as well. Living in Colorado, a lot of people here get out doors frequently to enjoy what our state has to offer. Unfortunately many people do not understand the respect needed in experiencing the outdoors in a capacity to preserve it for generations to come.

For example, living in Colorado, if you are going hiking, you better leave for the trail as the sun is rising our the trail heads will quickly fill up. Unfortunately when they do fill up, people will create their own parking spots pulling into the brush or on the side of embankments that lead to water sources and pollute the water. In addition many tourists come from all around to hike in the Rocky Mountains, and many (I have seen it myself) will refuse to pay the minimal fee for parking and accessing the trail tending to say "No one is around to enforce it, or really cares", oh but on the contrary we do care, and notice, and it is absolutely infuriating. Not to mention for example, St. Mary's Glacier, or at this point in time from the number of people skiing on it and scraping off the ice layers that are already suffering so much, St. Mary's Dirty Ice Cube. Or when people bring in all terrain vehicles when they should not or drones that create such a ruckus, you may as well be sitting on a city street corner. Another factor would be taking responsibility for the environment that is, as you have already mentioned in your book, decreasing alarmingly. Bringing awareness to the delicate biospheres that you want people to experience and gaining the knowledge of just how fragile these systems are. Like some outdoor leaders here in Colorado have foolishly done, climbing onto the log in Hanging Lake, that clearly has many signs admonishing people doing that, all for a photo op to post to social media. Luckily due to the iconic ness of this location, many know the rules and will publicly take to boycotting those companies products and services due to there negligence.

While I understand that the book is more about connecting with nature, I believe it should also include more information about how to respect nature as well, and the steps we can take to preserve it for future generations. For instance, my partner and I will take extra garbage bags on trails and clean up trash and other things people have left behind to preserve the beauty of the natural environment. Our natural spaces are rapidly declining, and the ones we have left we need to cherish and preserved for as long as possible.

Other than that, I would say this book is great for getting people to understand how important getting outdoors and experiencing nature can be. I just think a little more information should be included nohow to do it respectfully and sustainably, this coming from the perspective of a biochem student with a minor in environmental sciences.

Great concept

I liked this book's theory. This books allowed me to see and experience the entire urban living VS. nature comparison. Modern technology allows everything to be ready abled at our finger tips, from medicine to technology - giving urban living a leg up on advantages and modern conveniences . Whereas nature allows us to reconnect with our basic primordial selves.

Nature's big spectrum allows us to put our sufferings into perspective, as we see that we are just a micro dot in the general scheme of life.

The reason I gave this book 3 stars was not due to the unique topic, as I enjoyed that- it was too much information that felt a little like filler material. This slowed the story down to a crawl. I just would have liked to see the story maintain the enthusiasm to the end.

Thank you Net Galley for allowing me to read this copy in exchange for my honest review.

After a background of history outlining where we've been, the book gives plenty of suggestions on how we can use our senses to enjoy nature.

Martin Summer provides an illuminating, mind-expanding perspective on the role of nature in our lives in CONNECTING WITH LIFE. His observations and personable prose opened my eyes to the world around me--a suburban dweller who now appreciates the birds, the land, the daily presence of life around me in all its many forms. This wonderful guide took me back to my college days in an ag school where nature was simply a part of your day and how you thought about how your choices impact the world around you. Would that this book and its simple, forthright message were a part of curricula everywhere! A worthwhile read!

Connecting With Life by Martin Summer

169 Pages
Publisher: Summer Press
Release Date: August 22, 2020

Non-Fiction (Adult), Outdoors & Nature, Environmental, Ecology, Health, Mind & Body

I was not sure what to expect from this book, but I am so glad I decided to read it. The book is divided into four parts. Each part addresses a specific aspect of dealing with nature.

Part 1: A History of Nature and Humans
Part 2: What’s So Bad About Urban Living?
Part 3: Finding the Balance Between Urban Living and Nature
Part 4: Infusing Your Everyday Urban Life with Nature

The author does a wonderful job explaining how anyone can connect with nature no matter where they live. He talks about having to travel far just to hear nature with no man-made sounds. He has a very easy to read writing style and discusses how we can use our five senses to connect with nature. As a bonus, he gives additional information on a website and provides the password in the book. I recommend this book to anyone that wants to connect better with nature any way they can.

I loved this book! This book is well researched and well written. I learned so much and made pages and pages of notes. I thought the flow of the book was great. The book starts with historical Information and dives into our fundamental need to be in nature for overall well-being. I enjoy the way that the author gives us wonderful suggestions on how to make our life and space more nature friendly whether you live in a rural area or the middle of the city. I also enjoyed the section where he delves into each of the 5 senses and gives examples how we can use these senses combining the nature around us to enhance our lives.

I am an avowed city dweller, but sometimes I wonder if I belong out in the country, as I love fresh air and greenery and you just can't get those in the city the same way you do in the countryside. However, I love the amenities and conveniences of the big city, so what is a girl to do? Enter this book, which points out that you can still feel nature in the city, you just have to be present and pay attention in order to see it. The author points out ways to accomplish this, and better yet he doesn't mock either country or city dwellers in order to do it (as some books I have read have done in the past). A very worthy read!

This is a nonfiction read I received as an ARC from Netgalley. I started into it a few times, but didn’t sit down and finish until this month. (Thanks to a little push from the #laidback
readathon on Instagram.) I needed one more book to make it to seven for the week, and I chose to go all in with this. It’s less than 200 pages, so it doesn’t take a super long time to read. However, you just have to be in the right frame of mind to get into certain types of nonfiction.

Here’s the premise:

The book is very well-researched (there are about 20 reference pages at the end!) It’s broken down into 26 chapters. This includes 6 chapters of problems and their corresponding “solutions” chapter with actionable steps you can take in your own life.

He covers everything from outdoor/indoor air quality, green spaces, natural landscapes, urban living, suburban living, city/country life, etc. Much of the book was affirming practices and lifestyle ideas that we already implement, but it was nice to see how beneficial certain types of changes can be. It made me extraordinarily grateful for not only my own home and its natural surroundings, but also my city and state. Huntington is nicknamed the “river city” with an incredible park system in the tri-state area. West Virginia is known as the “Mountain State” and we have gorgeous state parks and nature areas ALL over our state.

Here’s a takeaway point from Summer:

The goal is to find balance between indoor and outdoor living so we can live a little closer to nature without losing the benefits of indoor living.

A few things that surprised me were that it would take 10-100 plants per 10 square feet to drastically improve air quality. In some areas of the house, totally have that covered :). However, he reiterates that there are plenty of other benefits for having plants around.

Another crazy factoid that stuck out was how being in urban areas or spending too much time increases myopia (nearsightedness) risk in kids. We’re supposed to be fixing our eyes on faraways places pretty frequently to lower the risk. He does give some great ways to reduce this risk if you’re in an extremely urban area, aka highrises surrounding you. Suggestions included things like looking skyward to spot airplanes, birds, cloud formations.

While there is a lot of research involved, the author also gives plenty of fun quotes and anecdotal material to balance things out. Here are a few of my favorites:

“As the saying goes, people in fast-paced countries have watches, while people in slow-paced ones have time.”

“Recharging is reserved for our devices, not for our minds that crave constant stimulation, no unlike an addict craving another dose of their poison of choice.”

He also described bird-watching on a balcony and feeling a sense of “awe”. He says it shouldn’t feel “bizarre”, and you shouldn’t discount those experiences. Appreciate anything in nature that’s at our fingertips. This did make me stop to appreciate just the space around my house. We don’t live in either a huge city or super spacious area, but we do have plenty of green stuff nearby. We have a heavily forested area behind us with tons of trees. Sometimes, I may get annoyed with deer eating vegetation, mice invading spots around our house, or even a snake recently slithering in the garage. I do, however, love just sitting out back and listening to dozens of bird species each day. It’s been fun to identify who visits. I definitely don’t take for granted the peace these surroundings bring each day, and the fun times my kids have running and playing outside.

For our family, much of 2020 has been spent exploring everything our surrounding area has to offer. Bike paths, hiking trails, lakes, walking paths, etc. Some of these places I’ve never visited, despite having lived in the area for more than 30 years. It does ground me and really makes me feel a sense of peace being in nature. Even if it’s drinking coffee on the porch or letting the kids dance in the rain, we’ve tried to embrace it all this year. I love living in a spot that has four distinct seasons. It makes me so grateful for all those highs and lows, and especially these perfect fall days full of sun but cool enough to spend all day outdoors if we wanted!

Overall, I think this is a great read for anyone looking to find a way to connect with life and nature, wherever you may live. Summer gives intentional, actionable steps to take and gives you plenty of food for thought.

I'm interested in this topic, so I wanted to like this more than I did. For me, most of the solutions and suggestions just either weren't practical or weren't new. Combat noise pollution by turning off all your background stuff (music, podcast, audiobook, etc.). Or use noise-canceling headphones. There's some good research and some cool statistics that surprised me. And one piece of advice, obvious though I hadn't thought of it in this way, was to identify which everyday activities don't have to be done indoors. We're picnicking all the time because of the pandemic right now, but even once it's under control, I hope we keep eating outdoors more often (when not in the middle of a Minnesota winter). And making phone calls outside while walking around an empty park or reading on the porch, etc., are things I could do more often. So there were some bits that gave me food for thought. For someone totally new to this idea of connecting more with nature even if you live in the city, this book would probably be more helpful.

Review copy provided by the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

I became friends with someone who had the quietest house I've ever been in. At the time, I was living in a house that had nearly constant noise--background TV, video games, and music were pretty constant. It was weird to encounter this quiet space, but then it became calming. A lot has changed about my living situation since then, and I rarely have the TV on, although I love to listen to audiobooks while I work around the house or music while I cook. I find much more time for quiet, but it is not silent when appliances and AC are running, traffic can be heard, etc.

Polish debut author Martin Summer offers this resource to all of us looking for big or small solutions to the issues removing us from nature, serenity, and silence. While some will be obvious to those of us who strive for our nature time, he offers a lot of interesting information about ways we are disconnected from ourselves and nature. For example, did you know that city dwellers have reduced ocular range because most of us don't have any distance to look out at?)

The layout of the book was ingenious, listing the issues in one chapter, followed by a chapter of possible solutions, which he presented like a buffet line--it might not all appeal to you, but take what you can use. There are lots of great resources. I did find it a little jarring every time he directed the reader to his website, but only because there was a code for access that is mentioned each time. I think this could have been footnoted or in an Appendix. There's an extensive list of References at the end; I think the book could use a list of Resources as well.

This will be a great resource for many. Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for a review copy..

The idea that we travel far and wide to get away from civilization to feel more human is a very close thought to my heart. I've always wanted to be able to take a corner and go live in my tree house, but still be right by hospitals and life if I wanted. Our world is beginning to see areas of life that are under-developed and "no lights" as precious and rare and while that evokes a feeling of sadness it is also refreshing that we've taken stock of it before it is too late. The author gives good advice for different areas that we need to better be connected with the world around us. It can be read straight through or flip to a specific question or idea. I think it is very pertinent that he references the slowing down of the world due to the Coronavirus outbreak and actually seeing the world almost immediately have better air quality, better connections to nature because the capitalistic march of progress got paused and I truly believe that more and more humans want this idea and now we have life experience to reference back to.

I would recommend this for someone who is already committed to living a car-dependent life in the suburbs, and is trying to find more ways to fit nature in without making any big lifestyle changes. For me, this is a bit of 'preaching to the converted' without going quite far enough. This is good for an intro to incorporating environmental concepts into one's everyday life though.

There were a few bits where I disagreed or felt the approach was a bit mistaken, for example where the author recommends driving to avoid air pollution on a commute - I think finding an alternative route (or promoting a green belt of protected bike lanes with your local politicians) is a much better piece of advice. Similarly there are a few moments where he seems to be advocating a single-family home, and writes about urbanization as if that's synonymous with the decline of wild spaces, neglecting the fact that on almost every variable living in the city is more environmentally sustainable. He similarly writes off cities as not green enough without looking at how the types of green spaces matter - things like cities that commit to having every resident have a park within a 10 minute walk, or the idea of 15 minute cities where everything one needs is within a 15 minute walk - or the fact that while there are very few old growth forests left, some of those are in city parks! I did like his fictional case-studies of people from diverse places connecting to nature in diverse ways, but questioned why he had to use fictional examples when there are so many real examples out there.

This could definitely be useful mixed into other readings, taking the chapters on using senses in nature and working that into a self-help plan or family trips for example.

I just finished Connecting with Life by Martin Summers. I received an arc copy from NetGalley for an honest review. I thought the book cont net was very well written and found out a lot of information on how to incorporate nature throughout the day. The author was very passionate about the topic of nature and things to do when your in nature as to not contaminate the surroundings. How to use your senses and open yourself up to nature. How to use modern tech to discover new trails for hiking and exploring. I found the topic I testing and it was a quick read for me. I am hoping to incorporate some of the ideas in my own home and yard soon.

The twists and turns of fate makes for unlikely winners and losers. One of Pandemic Year's unlikely winners is, I feel, nature, as it is something that is, with a few exceptions, best experienced outside, which has flipped places with inside in the competition for Safest Place To Be In Our Benighted Age. Urbanites who might have otherwise taken their children to a museum or an extracurricular sports club are now wandering the city's arboretums and botanical gardens, or stopping on their evening walks to admire the progress a neighbor's COVID-motivated urban garden.

If you are behind the curve on the uptick of nature appreciation in the more densely-populated areas, this might be a good book for you.

The author has plenty of ideas of what the urban dweller can do to improve your knowledge and enjoyment of nature, but I don't think he expects you to take up all his ideas. If you did, I think, you probably wouldn't have enough time left over do whatever it is keeps the lights on for your and your loved ones.

So pick and choose your favorites. Some of the other suggestions might have to be discarded. For example, the ones that involve having or renting a car and taking it out of the city to shop at a farm stand is probably just too expensive for most people trying to make ends meet in the city.

I also thought that you would have to tread carefully while implementing some of the suggestions about eliminating noise pollution, as people, business, restaurants, bars, etc., all seem to be remarkably tetchy about turning down the volume. In the metropolitan area where I live, a 2019 complaint by the resident of a newly-built high-rise condominium about the go-go music emanating from a long-resident retail establishment resulted in literally hundreds of people protesting in the streets.

Still, there are loads of good suggestions for books, apps, activities and strategies. It might be the sort of book worth keeping on a bookshelf or in the “cloud” section of your ebook library (if space is at a premium in your home), ready for re-download. Forget the names of best online resources for hiking trails? Reach up or down load, and refresh your memory.

Thank you to Netgalley and the author for providing me a free electronic copy of this book for review.