Braiding Sweetgrass | 
End of year + End of decade = lots and lots of lists!
I‘ve only read 3 of these - the tagged one looks interesting...
https://lithub.com/the-10-best-essay-collections-of-the-decade/
My son has a friend over for a sleepover. In the past hour I have been asked approximately 3,672 questions. Am I sufficiently hidden behind this book?
#top6reads- I am tagging Braiding Sweetgrass because I love it- but it is unfinished- it is a book I need to engage with. The books I‘ve read this year are all fast reads- and easy to pick up and put down when work and school and life interfere with reading. Thanks @Avanders for the tag.
Anyone else want to share? @Bookzombie @mabell
pickThis essay collection is a long meditation on the natural world. The author melds her training as a botanist with the knowledge of plants gained through her Native American upbringing to create a more holistic view of the plant kingdom. This is a statement on the hubris of western thought and how it often fails to recognize indigenous wisdom. Although the collection is long and sometimes repetitive, what it has to say is valuable. 4⭐️ #hoopla
Summer is here! Library bingo, free latte, and a book of alphabet postcards to send to my niece. Does the tagged book count toward the bingo square A Book with a plant in the cover?
pickBeautiful book of science and theory, history and urgent exhortation. I note some have bailed because the author reads her book deliberately; I solved this issue (as I usually do with nonfiction) by speeding it up to 1.5 and then 1.75x. That made it a near perfect speed for me. I bookmarked something in nearly every essay, and I am definitely - ironically, as I listened to this on my commute – considering changing jobs so as not to drive more.
“Even a wounded world is feeding us. Even a wounded world holds us, giving us moments of wonder and joy. I choose joy over despair not because I have my head in the sand, but because joy is what the earth gives me daily, and I must return the gift. We are deluged by information regarding our destruction of the world, and hear almost nothing about how to nurture it.”
I keep having to pause the #audiobook to put in bookmarks for later. 😍😍🌍🌎🌏
“Loading the kayak on the car in the fading light, I was doused by the leftover pond water draining onto my head. I smiled at the illusion of my grief containment system. There is no such thing. We spill over into the world, and the world spills over into us.”
#science2K19 #science #audiobook
This slow but stunning prose shares how the Onondaga school begins their day- instead of the Pledge of Allegiance they give thanks. Perhaps a foundation of resilience is gratitude.
pickThis is one of the most beautiful books I‘ve read in a long time. I love the worldview & philosophy of living & being that is contained within. The stories make it so much more deeply felt, & Kimmerer has a poetic sense of language that just makes me want to live within her words. There is so much here that moved me & is really pushing me to think & figure out to put some action behind a lot if things that I‘ve been all talk on.
bailedI listened to this one on audiobook, read by the author. She has a lovely and soothing voice. I did love the lessons that she is imparting, but the audiobook is 14+ hours long and 9 hours in, much of what she says is repetitive. If this were half as long it would have been a pick for me.
pickRobin Wall Kimmerer, a member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation, is a scientist and a poet. In this lovely combination of nature writing, spirituality, and memoir, she makes a compelling case for the importance of giving as much back to nature as we take. One of the best books I‘ve ever read. Truly a gift.
“This is really why I made my daughters learn to garden—so they would always have a mother to love them, long after I am gone.”
“This is really why I made my daughters learn to garden—so they would always have a mother to love them, long after I am gone.”
pickOne of the most profound, moving books I have ever read. I read it twice through cover-to-cover. Kimmerer seamlessly twines together the scientific rigor of botany and ecology and the spiritual beliefs and practices of the Potawatomi to make the case that humanity should work in concert with the natural world to be good caretakers of the earth and work to reverse some of the scars we‘ve left behind us.
Finishing my re-read of Robin Wall Kimmerer‘s Braiding Sweetgrass and came across this passage. “Despair is paralysis. It robs us of agency.” *takes a breath* #amreading
Possibly one of the most beautiful and informative chapters/essays I have ever read - ecology, botany, food writing, spiritual reverence, and indigenous practices combine in gorgeous prose to tell the story of how corn, beans, and squash work cooperatively in a garden. I am in awe. This is a “slow reading” book - if Tinker at Pilgrim Creek is a book you love, you have to read Braiding Sweetgrass.
Reading with my daughter. The wisdom is beautiful. I could not love this book more. One chapter a day is perfect because there are thoughts to absorb.
pickPick, 1,000%, pick!!! I‘m very glad I read this book. There are a few books I get audio versions of and once I get reading them, I know I‘ll want a paper copy as well. I knew this one would be like that minutes in. And she keeps it going! I have picked up so many books hoping they would be something like this book. A lovely combination of field observations, cultural traditions and stories, memoir, and sciencey tid bits.
Late #24in48 wrap up! I‘m at the airport and can safely update that I finished two audiobooks (Medium Raw and Mr Lemoncello‘s Library Olympics), finished off Bad Blood, and read part of Mary Queen of Scots and the Murder of Lord Darnley and Braiding Sweetgrass. Thanks to the @24in48 organizers @Rachel @kristenlcoates @kerry 😽😽😽😽😽😽😽😽😽😽😽😽 you lovelies and can‘t wait until next time
I slowed up a bit with this book as the ease of prose is not an indication of the depth of thought and meaning. I keep having to go back and take notes. Since I‘m working this weekend and I am actually sleeping, I‘m not going to make it to 24 hours but I‘m happy to be reading! #24in48
I just started this and this knocked m‘socks off!!
“The skywoman story...is a constant star in the constellation of teachings we call the original instructions. These are not instructions like commandments, though, or rules. Rather, they are like compass, they provide an orientation but not a map. The work of living is creating that map yourself. How to follow the original instructions will be different for each of us and different for every era.”
🌱🌱🌱 #amreading Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer. Because @imamandanelson said to, and then @luciesunderground said to, and damn it is so good. If you like Terry Tempest Williams, Louise Erdrich, Annie Dillard, read this. #books #books📚 #booksbooksbooks
pickWeaving together botany/ecology (without technical language), Native American concepts of the world, environmentalism, and memoir, this book is a lovely reminder and teacher about the earth and it‘s plants. I‘m a cynic, so I found it a touch sweet in places, but overall it‘s terrific.
pickA gardener myself, I love Kimmerer's list of practices for "the honorable harvest": Never take the first plant you see. Never take more than you need. Never take more than half. Give back equal to what you take. Thank the land for its gift. All in all, a good philosophy to live by.
"In the gift economy, gifts are not free. The essence of the gift is that it creates a set of relationships. The currency of a gift economy is, at its root, reciprocity." | A customer recommended this book to me. She said she gives it to all her friends. I'm only 50 pages in and already I want to do the same.
#braidingsweetgrass #robinwallkimmerer #whatimreading #summerreading
Just beginning Braiding Sweetgrass. The first few pages are so lyrical; just sweeping me away. Consider listening to audio book. Robin Wall Kimmerer narrates and her voice is amazing. I cannot speak highly enough of this book! If you love nature and being in green places, or arid places, Kimmerer will give you a whole new perspective on the natural world. Prepare to have your minds expanded!
Two book group books that are turning into comfort reads this week. Really, the timing couldn't have been more perfect.
pickHeartbreaking to think of what is gone from this earth, terrifying to know we are on the brink of losing much more! "Weep, weep calls the toad from the waters edge. And I do. If grief can be a doorway to love, then let us all weep for the world we are breaking apart so we can love it back to wholeness again" - Robin Wall Kimmerer
#alltimefave
pick#Recommendsday! If you love to learn, and you love gorgeously written books with a Native American/scientist lens, this is it. This book. Beautiful, profound, significant. Read it.
pickA balm for our troubled times. Kimmerer integrates her perspectives - western trained botanist and inheritor of Native American cultural wisdom - beautifully. She is full of despair at the damage we do, full of hope for our power to restore, and full of passion for the world around us.
