Reviews with content warning for Racism - Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants

I really enjoyed the combination of memoir style writing infused with nature writing providing lots of interesting info. The writing is beautifully descriptive and moving. As someone who grew up in the area (outside Syracuse) she writes about a lot, there was a nostalgic factor for me as well.

My one qualm (and this could be indicative of this being published a decade ago) is I think Wall Kimmerer shies away a bit from giving any real solutions besides to become "closer to nature" which reads a bit naive considering where we are as a world right now. Unfortunately we are just so far past the way indigenous people used to live that I struggle to see a path that leads anywhere near back there.

Content Warnings

thereadinghammock's review against another edition

Go to review page

hopeful inspiring reflective slow-paced

Robin Wall Kimmerer reads this weaving of story, history, cultural reclamation, and scientific exploration in beautiful narrative and such a calming voice. I was entranced by the cultural stories, celebrations of the land and natural world by the Indigenous communities across the country. I enjoyed seeing the marrying of traditional land stewardship with contemporary western science; possibly even more when traditional stewardship shows how care and respect for the world around us can also care for us in turn.

Content Warnings

salemander's review against another edition

Go to review page

5.0

i think this is the best book i’ve ever read, if not the best book ever written. a beautiful mix of memoir and history and knowledge. kimmerer takes you through the tragic massacres of the indigenous peoples, and the ways in which they have persevered and kept their culture and traditions alive. she talks about her own childhood and her relationship with the earth. this book taught me so much and also just reminded me how much i don’t know and still have to learn. i highly recommend listening to the audiobook as well, kimmerer narrates it herself and the pure passion in her words along with the poetry of her writing is so powerful. i can’t wait to read this over and over again

Content Warnings

bashsbooks's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous challenging emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective relaxing medium-paced

4.25

I buddy-read Braiding Sweetgrass with my dear and beloved friend @emakay... which means I've already commented on it extensively in a private setting. So I will do my best to summarize my thoughts, but apologies if this review reads a little more scattershot than some of my others.

All-in-all, Braiding Sweetgrass is a fantastic personal essay collection about nature, culture, and our interpersonal (person here including nonhumans!) connections. I can understand perfectly why it is so popular and widely recommended. My friend and I listened the audiobook, so we not only appreciated the descriptions as written, but also, Kimmerer's steady and soothing voice as she read through the text she so lovingly crafted. My favorite takeaways from Braiding Sweetgrass were: the obvious and unabashed love Kimmerer has for the natural world, her willingness to combine traditional wisdom and hard science, her gentle encouragement to consider the world from a different perspective (especially that of a plant or an animal), and her fierce love and appreciate for her Potawatomi culture and heritage. I was also deeply compelled by her rumination on how to become indigenous to place and what obligations we have to others (both human and not). What I liked less was relatively minor by comparison; I thought she was a little uncomfortably committed to gender roles as 'natural' from time to time, and I wished that she came out and actually expanded on her issues with 'technology' rather than taking vague pot-shots at it here and there. Adjacently, my friend pointed out that the anecdote about an ex's attempted suicide in his car to make a point about human disconnectedness with nature was... messy, at best. But those were small moments, and with a book as long and expansive as this one, there were bound to be hangups here and there. Overall, fantastic book, and I highly recommend listening to the audiobook.

Content Warnings

kelsea's review against another edition

Go to review page

informative inspiring medium-paced

5.0

Content Warnings

thenovelmaura's review against another edition

Go to review page

informative inspiring reflective slow-paced

5.0

I have nothing to say about this book that hasn't already been said... It was simply beautiful. A must-read!

Content Warnings

wickedgrumpy's review against another edition

Go to review page

emotional hopeful informative lighthearted reflective relaxing slow-paced

3.25

The way the author talks about their connection to nature is truly evocative and beautiful. There’s a familial component to it that, at first, was comforting in that you can find a community all around you if you would but care to look. But then it began to center motherhood and the assumption that if female, you too will be a mother and experience these things, which was unfortunate. It became a repetitive narrative that dragged itself to the finish line.

Content Warnings

More...