2024 Nonfiction Readers Challenge: Review of “Niksen: Embracing the Dutch Art of Doing Nothing”

“We are the Nikseners. Our name stems from niksen, which is a Dutch word for ‘doing nothing’. Niksen is a Dutch lifestyle philosophy that refers to doing nothing without a purpose. That is, we don’t do nothing to become calmer, better human beings. We do it just because…
We believe that doing nothing can ultimately make us more productive…We believe that niksen can make us more creative…And we believe that niksen makes us better decision makers…”

The above quote comes from “The Nikseneers’ Manifesto” from Appendix 1. If anything, I recommend that you read Appendix 1, Appendix 2 (Quick Niksen Tips), and Appendix 3 (Niksen Tips from the Dutch), before you dismiss this philosophy, thinking that you are “too busy” to read a book about doing nothing.
I can relate to author Olga Mecking when she writes “I used to be so good at …But now? I always feel hurried and pressed for time…I, like so many others I know, am just…so…busy.” Perhaps you also find yourself being reflected in these words.
But what exactly is Niksen? It can be hard to pin down, as it can mean different things to different people. Carolien Hamming of CSR Centrum says that niksen is “doing something without a purpose, like staring out of a window, hanging out, or just listening to music.” Gretchen Rubin of “The Happiness Project” says “I would call it goofing off or puttering.” Still other experts define it as “the feeling of being bored”.
So if what exactly niksen is is hard to pin down, then let’s find out what niksen is not. Niksen is not “emotional labour”. It is also not mindfulness, and, in fact, may well be the opposite, “as it doesn’t require you to be aware of your body, your breath, the present moment, or your thoughts…Instead…you can use it to escape your head and just get lost for a while.” Niksen is not laziness nor is it reading books, watching TV, or browsing social media. It’s a way of doing less, not more.
Does it sound hard? It may be harder than you think. As Mecking writes:
“Sometimes busyness is the easy way out. It’s easier to continue doing whatever you are doing, checking off items on your to-do list all day, than to stop, sit down, and do niks. In fact, in today’s busy world, doing nothing can be the hardest thing to do.”
So is niksen for everyone? Maybe not. Don’t do niksen if you are depressed, if you could get in trouble (at work, for example), and if there is nothing wrong with your life.
A strength of the book is that Mecking lays out the philosophy of niksen and its applications in individual lives as well as in society, but she doesn’t try to sell it as the only system that will change your life. Hey, maybe it works for you, or maybe it doesn’t.
Recommended for those who are looking for ways to slow down.
Categorizing this under health for the 2024 Nonfiction Readers Challenge.

Shoe’s Seeds and Stories
@Copyright 2024 Linda Schueler

2024 Nonfiction Readers Challenge: Review of “The Joy Diet”

“Every item on the Joy Diet contributes something invaluable and delicious to the feast of your life. These aren’t exotic dishes you must struggle to obtain or concoct; each is made with simple ingredients you already have within easy reach. They don’t require huge sacrifices or character transplants, just a little courage and an unfaltering commitment to your own well-being.”

“The Joy Diet” by Martha Beck was a partner read over several weeks—one chapter per week. Each chapter outlines an ingredient in the diet starting at doing nothing and ending at feasting. There are accompanying exercises to every chapter and a review at each chapter’s end. Every chapter builds on the previous one.
The diet is one for the soul instead of for the body. The idea is that by integrating the ten ingredients, such as laughter, treats, and play, into your life, you can make your life’s journey more joyful.
I did well at the beginning of the book, integrating these practices daily, but over time I slipped out of the routine. So I think that the skills in the book need to be practiced over a longer period of time. One chapter a week was too fast for me to integrate the teachings. I will be reviewing the chapters again and practicing the skills at a slower pace.
You do need to actually incorporate the ingredients into your life instead of just reading about them. As Beck writes:
“I tend to nurture the delusional conviction that I can learn any skill by reading about it. I churn through books like this in a single sitting, thinking, ‘Yeah, yeah, I get it—I don’t need to do your damn exercises.’ If you share this tendency, I must reiterate that the ability to slide into nothingness, to tell and recognize the bare-bones truth, to locate and define your heart’s desires, to solve problems creatively, and to consistently take small, graduated risks are very different in action than in description.”
Many parts stood out for me, but here are a couple I will share with you:
On Desire—many of us have been taught from early childhood that to want something is dangerous. But there is a difference between false desire, which tastes of fear, and true desire, which tastes of love.
On Treats—Integrate treats daily to feed your animal self, but the treats that are best for you may not be food related. Look for other sensory pleasures in your life, such as sound (favourite music) or smell (favourite essential oil), otherwise you may just use food as a panacea.
Beck uses stories from personal experience to illustrate the benefit of incorporating the ingredients into your life. I often laughed out loud at her witty observations.
The book was published in 2003, but it is still relevant in today’s times, although I wonder how Beck would tweak the book to incorporate today’s social media and smart phone addictions.
Recommended for those looking for some tools to “feel better, especially when you don’t know what to do to feel better”.
Categorizing this under health.

Shoe’s Seeds and Stories
@Copyright 2024 Linda Schueler

2024 Nonfiction Readers Challenge: Review of “Mister Owita’s Guide to Gardening”

“The silence that descended around Giles and me was comfortable, as if our priest had called for prayer. I cherished the moment and it occurred to me that friendship itself could be a kind of church.”

I picked up this book by Carol Wall on a whim at the library from the gardening books display. I swear that the librarians plant books for me to discover, as this is the second visit in a row that I have been lured by a display.
The memoir is a story of an American woman with breast cancer who strikes up a friendship with the Kenyan man who becomes her gardener. The Kenyan, Giles Owita, has much to teach Wall about life and gardening, and Wall does a lot of healing through their friendship.
Wall slowly unravels the story about her upbringing, about how she had a sister with Down syndrome who died young, about how she couldn’t turn to her mother to comfort her throughout her life and had to be the comforter, about how her trusting parents allowed her to be treated with radiation at a very young age. She delves into the effects of her upbringing and the cancer on her marriage.
Throughout the story, Owita supports Wall in various ways, and she becomes his student in gardening and in life. Yet despite Owita’s sunny personality, he has some secrets of his own, and Wall in her turn is able to support Owita.
Spoiler Alert! Giles Owita does die near the end of the memoir, and Carol Wall died shortly after the book’s publication. So this isn’t a happily ever after memoir, but it is never depressing.
Although the memoir is ten years old, it is still very relevant today. It is a quick read despite the at times heavy topics.

Shoe’s Seeds and Stories
@Copyright 2024 Linda Schueler

2024 Nonfiction Readers Challenge: Review of “Rental Person Who Does Nothing”

“My sister’s specs as an adult weren’t what the companies she applied to wanted. For me, though, she had value simply because she was there. Gaps like that in their perceived value can be a huge source of stress for anybody who, by society’s standards, doesn’t seem able to do anything. People can die because of the stress of adapting to society. Or they can lose every ounce of their energy. I’ve seen it happen.”

The above quote is one of many sections of “Rental Person Who Does Nothing”, the memoir written by Shoji Morimoto of Japan, that made me pause and go Hmmm…
I actually decided to read this memoir, because in my younger days I was a person who loved to do nothing, so I wondered how someone would make a career out of it.
After being belittled by his boss who informed him that his presence contributed nothing to the company, Morimoto decides to quit his job and begin a service of “providing nothing”. Morimoto models his service on Pro-Ogorareya’s service of being a professional guest, someone who is paid for ‘just “being”’, although Morimoto takes no money for this service (except for travel expenses and food and drink consumed during the meeting) but does not consider himself a volunteer. Morimoto struggles with how much to charge people, as he doesn’t want them to think that they are not getting their money’s worth, so that’s why he settles on charging nothing, living on his savings, the occasional gift card, and his wife’s tolerance.
Throughout the memoir, I often thought that the services Morimoto provides could be done by a friend or relative, but Morimoto’s explanations are keen observations of human behaviour and psychology. On the experience of being told very personal and serious secrets, Morimoto notes:
“They have a story they have to tell and it’s my role to be there while they tell it. In one of Aesop’s fables, a character longs to tell a secret and so tells it to the reeds. I’m just there, like those reads…there’s very little chance of any weakness they reveal to me becoming known to others.”
and
“Another reason why people ask me to listen to them seems to be that I don’t give advice.”
Morimoto also notes that when he listens to strangers they are able to be on the stage for a while instead of having to share the spotlight like friends do in a conversation.
Morimoto’s services aren’t just to listen to people, as he provides everything from accompanying someone to file their divorce papers to saying goodbye at a railway platform. Although Morimoto writes about Japanese society, his observations could be applied to western society.
Clearly Morimoto’s services are needed, as he has been able not only to write a book about it but also has inspired a TV series. I imagine he earned an income from these endeavours.
Could I do the same job? I am a good listener, and I don’t mind accompanying people to places or just hanging out with them. But I would also struggle with how much to charge people.
In the end, Morimoto isn’t really doing nothing: he’s providing support for those who cannot find it in other ways in their lives. And that indeed is priceless.

Shoe’s Seeds and Stories
@Copyright 2024 Linda Schueler

2024 Nonfiction Readers Challenge: Review of “Diary of a Tuscan Bookshop”

“‘Why did you open a bookshop in a village in the middle of nowhere?’ Because I needed to breathe, because I was an unhappy child, because I was a curious child, because I love my father, because the world’s gone to the dogs, because readers cannot be abandoned, because we have to educate the new generations, because at fourteen I cried alone in front of the TV when Pier Paolo Pasolini was murdered, because I had wonderful teachers, because I survived.”

In this memoir, poet Alba Donati writes about her return to her Tuscan home town of Lucignana in order to open a bookshop. The memoir is written in the form of diary entries from January 2021 to June 2021.
The bookshop had a rough start. Opened on December 7, 2019, it burned down on January 30, 2020, but quickly reopened due to generous donations.
Donati writes not only about how the bookshop came to be and the daily activities, but also about her complicated family, the local characters, and the landscape.
I discovered a lot of books through this memoir. At the end of each diary entry Donati would list “Today’s Orders”—mostly in Italian and English—and if some books looked interesting or repeated themselves, such as “Ghana Must Go” by Taiye Selasi, I would do some research on them. Sometimes a book would be discussed in the diary entry, such as “A Note of Explanation” by Vita Sackville-West, a book that was originally written to accompany Queen Mary’s exquisite doll house. This book was made to be a part of the miniature library and so was only 1 cm X 1 cm.
I also discovered some new poets. My favourite poem introduced in this book is “Cat in an Empty Apartment” by Nobel Prize winning poet Wisława Szymborska.
Recommended for book lovers and for those who love to learn about other cultures.

Shoe’s Seeds and Stories
@Copyright 2024 Linda Schueler

2024 Nonfiction Readers Challenge: Review of “No Cure for Being Human”

“I am asked all the time to say that, given what I’ve gained in perspective, I would never go back. Who would want to know the truth? Before was better.”

Right on the front cover of “No Cure for Being Human (And Other Truths I Need to Hear)” by Kate Bowler is Glennon Doyle’s comment: “Kate Bowler is the only one we can trust to tell us the truth.” And tell the truth she does. If you are looking for a “cancer is the best thing that ever happened to me” memoir, this is not it.
After discovering at age 35 that she had cancer, Bowler started writing about the limitations that we have as humans, contradicting what the anything is possible, hyper positive culture she grew up in told her. The author writes, “American culture has popular theories about how to build a perfect life. You can have it all if you just learn how to conquer your limits.” Bowler discovered, however, “Before…when I was earnest and clever and ignorant, I thought, life is a series of choices. I curated my own life until, one day, I couldn’t.”
Despite the truth telling of the novel, it isn’t depressing. Bowler turns out to be in the small group of people whose cancer is highly treatable. It is a roller coaster journey though as Bowler’s cancer goes into remission. And then it comes back. But then, spoiler alert, it’s a mistake. It certainly makes for gripping reading.
Throughout Bowler grapples with questions such as whether or not she should continue to write. What should she really spend her last days on, if she does only have a limited amount of time?
If you are in a hurry, skip to the appendix for the “Cliff Notes” version of “Clichés We Hear and Truths We Need”, such as “Everything is possible” (things people say) vs. “Ask instead, what is possible today?” (a more complicated truth). I recommend you read the whole book though, as although the subject is a heavier one (such as the discussion about how clinical trial participants are considered study participants and not patients and the implications), the way it is written kept me engaged.

Shoe’s Seeds and Stories
@Copyright 2024 Linda Schueler

2024 Nonfiction Reader Challenge: Review of “Remember Love”

“Remember Love: Words for Tender Times” by Cleo Wade is a collection of poems interspersed with short prose essays.

Wade writes on diverse topics, everything from self love to relationships, stillness to jealousy, surrender to balance (see my last post for more on what Wade has to say on balance.)

Reading Wade’s poems and essays is like having an older sister or aunt gently give suggestions on parts of your life you may be struggling with.

For example, on falling off track:

“If you are in a dark and negative place, you will always find people living in that energy.

These are not your helping hands.

If we are hanging on the edge, someone who is also hanging on the edge cannot help us up; we need someone who is on top of the ledge to pull us up.”

Or, on forgiveness:

“We often try to substitute forgiving with forgetting.”

Or, on letting go:

“So much of what we hold on to is our own energy. We hold anger because we feel we wasted our time. We hold disappointment because we feel our expectations weren’t met. We hold guilt because we had to leave certain relationships in order to be happy.”

One of my favourite lines in Wade’s poems is the last line of “I returned the cape”: when you are superhuman, you don’t get to be human.

I recommend this book for those who are looking for comforting, uplifting, and thought provoking reading. Categorizing this under health (mental health).

Shoe’s Seeds and Stories
@Copyright 2024 Linda Schueler

2024 Nonfiction Reader Challenge: Reviews of “Everything is OK” and “In Limbo”

It’s hard to believe that we are in the middle of February, and this is my first post for the 2024 Nonfiction Reader Challenge! I did mention last year that I didn’t think I would be reading as many nonfiction books this year due to other obligations, such as my creative writing course, and so far that has proven to be true. See introductory post for the challenge here.

My first book is a graphic novel memoir centred around Debbie Tung’s struggle with depression and anxiety called “Everything is OK”. Tung has also written a couple of other comic compilations called “Quiet Girl in a Noisy World: An Introvert’s Story” and “Book Love”.
Having struggled for many years with sometimes crippling depression and anxiety, I am always drawn to books on the subject in order to see different viewpoints, to learn something new, and to not feel so alone. Depression and anxiety never go away, but they can be managed in different ways. My current approach includes a healthy diet, plenty of exercise, engaging in fun hobbies, writing, decreasing social media time, and acupuncture every two weeks. Everybody has their way of managing, and the important thing is to find the right fit for you.
Tung handles the subject of depression and anxiety and her mental health journey well in the book. She starts with how she feels in the midst of it, then tackles recovery through counselling and lifestyle changes, and ends the book on the positive note, writing a letter to herself about how she will move forward.
One thing that Tung wrote about that I had never thought about was about her experience in school, and how the expectations placed on her to talk more in class contributed to her anxiety. I can totally relate. When I look back at my childhood report cards, many of them say that I needed to participate more in class. Ah, participation marks. I think that they need to be reevaluated. I participated always by doing my homework and class work, listening attentively, following instructions…Why was it necessary to tell me that it wasn’t good enough for me to be quiet in class?
The words to this panel says it all:
Counsellor: Was that when you think the anxiety started occurring more prominently? Because you feared you were not living up to expectations?
Tung: Yeah. It made me realize that being myself was not enough.
I grew up obsessing about whether I was doing everything the way others expected me to.
But at the same time, I wanted to follow my own path and do what makes me happy.
Yup! I can totally relate.
“Everything is OK” was a finalist in the Goodreads Choice Awards 2022. You can check out Tung’s blog for some examples from the book, as well as information on her other books.
I recommend this to those who struggle with anxiety and depression and to their loved ones, so that they can gain insight into what’s happening to them. Actually to anyone who wants to know what it’s like.

I found “In Limbo” by deb jj lee much more difficult to read. The graphic novel memoir made me a lot more uncomfortable, but I persisted.
The tone of the memoir is much bleaker. Jung-Jin or Deborah (Deb) is a Korean who arrived in America at age three, who doesn’t quite fit in anywhere. Deb is mistaken for a Chinese person and bullied by both her American and Korean school classmates.
The story begins as Deb is entering grade 9. The teen has been playing the violin in the school’s band but would rather be doing art.
One of the most difficult parts for me was reading the panels that showed how Deb’s mom treated Deb. Deb’s mom was at one point referred to as an Asian “Tiger Mom”, but that stereotype definitely didn’t encapsulate her behaviour. Deb’s mom was very verbally abusive and also was shown to be physically abusive. Yet she also could be supportive, allowing her child to follow a dream and to switch over from music to art, for example. In the afterwards, Lee writes that the author’s mom has acknowledged her wrongdoings and allowed her to be portrayed like she was in the book.
Be forewarned that there is a suicide attempt scene in this book, as well as a reference to a previous suicide attempt. After the attempt, Deb goes into counselling and things do get somewhat better. Deb blames only friend Quinn for the suicide attempt, and it is difficult to watch the after effects on both teens.
The end of the book doesn’t tie up loose ends nicely, but that is to be expected in a book of this nature, as mental health journeys are an ongoing, life long journey. We do see Deb going to art school, and we also see Deb reconnecting with relatives on a trip back to Korea for eyelid surgery.
There is an interesting interview with Lee, as well as some sample pages from the book, on NPR.
Though a difficult read, it is a worthwhile one.

Shoe’s Seeds and Stories
@Copyright 2024 Linda Schueler