A review by kimmag92
Losing Eden: Why Our Minds Need the Wild by Lucy Jones

informative slow-paced

3.0

I struggled to give this book a star rating. Jones puts forward all the research into why we need nature and natural spaces in an accessible and readable manner and it did not take long to convince me that we all need more time outside and in nature. Where I struggled with this book is with her advice.  She readily admits she lives a middle class life in the English countryside and appears to have a job that is either very flexible or she can set her own hours. Though she is aware of this she never has in the book any advice for people who do not live her lifestyle.  Jones has loads of research about how nature helps people in poverty but nothing about how they can access nature within the confines of their lived reality. I live alone, work fulltime, and do everything for myself and I do not have the hours in a day or week to go walk through the forest for hours as she suggests. Had she balanced her experience of nature with others of different socio-economic classes I think it would have made for a stronger book. There is also a lot of focus on the benefits of nature for children and as someone who does not want children I found myself skimming these parts after she stated her point for the section/chapter.