Bookish

very different, but intriguing books worth reading & a modern take on an old play

Reading is one of my addictions. No matter how busy the day, I always find a few minutes every night to read. It nourishes me and lifts the mood and it always expands horizons and teaches me something new. And unlike the beauty industry, which increasingly overwhelms us with choice, the variety of books that are published provides us with the positive emotions, as long as we can find the time to read as much as possible and explore new voices and talents from around the world.

I am sharing one book choice with my whole Substack community here and the other two, as well as my thoughts on the “My Master Builder” currently on at Wyndham Theatre with my paid subscribers, so maybe I can swing you from being a free subscriber to a paid one?

Bonnie Tsui “On Muscle: the stuff that moves us and why it matters”, Headline Books

When you read the words ‘on muscle’, it might instantly form a certain expectation about what this book is about, but I promise you that it is so much more. Yes, there are scientific explanations, but they are written in such a way, you might end up ‘oh’ and ‘ah’ing as you turn the pages. Bonnie Tsui is a long-time NY Times contributor and the author of best-seller ‘Why We Swim”. She is also a mother of two boys, a swimmer, a surfer and a woman passionate about sports and humanity, trying to bridge the two together, while continuously learning and improving herself as an athlete.

Blending science with personal stories, as well as changes in culture and interviews with extraordinary people who live unassumingly among us - the first female weightlifter to pick up the mythical Scottish Dinnie Stories, the longtime sports Medecine doctor at UC Berkeley, the founder of nonprofit Mind Body Solutions who teaches yoga while being paralysed from the waist down - Bonnie educates and inspires, while hoping that more people will invest in their own fitness and movement long-term, so when we all enter the older years, we can look and do things for ourselves for longer, accepting certain aspects of natural decline in our bodies, but helping us feel able and fit as individuals for as long as possible.

Her own love of exercise was inspired by her father, who introduced Bonnie and her brother to martial arts and running, before he moved to another country for work and then left the family altogether. The way Bonnie describes the ebb and flow of relationship change with her father is incredibly moving and endearing, but it also shows a strong core and character that she also developed through the years, in part forced by the changes within the family dynamic.

The freighted symbolism of shoulders - did you know that when something goes wrong with our shoulder, a lot of basic functions are put at risk? The way society still views powerlifting as quite unbecoming for women, for whom muscle mass loss is particularly detrimental in the light of women’s role as mothers and pregnancies taking a toll on our bodies in a multitude of ways. The role of slow twitch fibres and why women are more fatigue-resistant than men after ultra endurance activities. Jumping being not only the early movement in human development, but being the basic test of physical fitness. Why bed rest can be terrible for mental health and the vital connection between muscles and brain? The comfort drawn from the female locker room at the communal swimming pool where Bonnie swims with much older women and the wisdom this women generously share with anyone who cares to listen. A lesson in boding and acceptance that body will age and we should treat it with acceptance and kindness, rather than harsh judgement still populating the fabric of society’s opinion on the ageing process, with youth still being something to desire and envy and age something to be fearful of. What does yoga feel when you do it right? I can go on, but I hope I already made a compelling case for why this book is essential reading for anyone, irrespective of gender or age.

One of my personal and biggest lessons drawn from the book was the description and insight about the modified handstand that Bonnie was taught by Matthew Sanford, a pioneer in adapting yoga for people with disabilities and a renowned and much respected teacher of Iyengar style of yoga focussed on precision and alignment.

Also, if you have time, see if you can listen to the conversation between Bonnie & journalist Hannah McInnes that took place via video link on How To Academy in late April. The recording of the podcast is here

Both women cover a lot of ground in the course of the hour long conversation, including Bonnie sharing that she loves doing things that make her feel grounded, multi-faceted exploration of muscle & gender bias related to muscles, biology being at play in everything that we do daily, regular exercise improving our strength & surprising yourself at what you and your body are capable of, natural pharmacy in our muscles, why a certain photographer choose to photographer people by asking them to jump, incredible ability of muscle to adapt to change, age and circumstances and why weight training is so vital, especially as we age.

This is definitely a book that is both a textbook to learn from and a personal memoire that will make you question your own choices and appreciate your body (and people in your life) in the most beautiful of ways. Having read it once and underlining words and sentences that I want to come back to, I know that I will be re-reading this book on multiple occasions in the future. And Bonnie & Rosie, thank you for sending me a copy of the book ahead of the publication in the UK!

Grayson Carter “When The Going Was Good: an editor’s adventure during the last golden age of magazines”