Reviews tagging 'Cultural appropriation'

Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants by Robin Wall Kimmerer

17 reviews

turidt's review against another edition

challenging emotional informative inspiring reflective relaxing sad slow-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Genocide, Grief, Cultural appropriation, Colonisation, and Deportation

Moderate: Forced institutionalization, Cannibalism, and Religious bigotry

Minor: Vomit

bashsbooks's review against another edition

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. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief and Colonisation

Moderate: Animal death, Genocide, Misogyny, Racism, Sexism, Violence, and Religious bigotry

Minor: Cannibalism, Suicide attempt, Fire/Fire injury, and Cultural appropriation

Graphic descriptions of environmental disasters, pollution, and other eco-destructive activities.

eden_autumn's review against another edition

emotional hopeful informative inspiring slow-paced

4.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child abuse, Child death, Death, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Hate crime, Physical abuse, Racism, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Fire/Fire injury, Cultural appropriation, and Colonisation

Minor: Ableism and Violence

the_reading_wren's review

challenging emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective slow-paced

5.0

Genuinely a life-changing book. Inspires me and shows me new way for me to return to studying and practicing ecology. 

I highly recommend the audiobook because it is read wonderfully by the author. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Death, Racism, Forced institutionalization, Kidnapping, Grief, Religious bigotry, Fire/Fire injury, Cultural appropriation, Colonisation, and War

Minor: Addiction, Alcoholism, Cancer, Misogyny, Sexual content, Slavery, Vomit, Cannibalism, Religious bigotry, Stalking, Suicide attempt, Pregnancy, and Alcohol

parasolcrafter's review against another edition

emotional informative inspiring slow-paced

5.0

this really is one of those books someone like me cant really add anything to; all i can say is that its an INCREDIBLE book that i think almost everyone should read.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Death, Genocide, Racism, Grief, Cultural appropriation, and Colonisation

hailstorm3812's review against another edition

emotional hopeful informative inspiring medium-paced

5.0

This book is so so good. I don't have the words to describe it. It is such a good blend of information and heart. She knows exactly when to pull from her degree, her heritage, and her lived experience. It is such a perspective shifter of a book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Genocide and Colonisation

Moderate: Cultural appropriation

Minor: Sexism, Violence, Religious bigotry, and War

madzie's review against another edition

emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective slow-paced

4.5

A very insightful and significant book. Kimmerer offers a lot of insights into plants, cultures, and our modern world, helping readers to examine the world they live in every day. Kimmerer has such a profound voice in her writing that is wonderful to read. She has wonderful, emotion-provoking descriptions throughout the novel that makes you truly feel these lessons. Toward the middle of the book, I felt like there was a lag in the flow of information where parts seemed not to fit together as well as in the beginning and end. Fundamentally, this is a well-written and important book that I would highly suggest to others.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Racism, Xenophobia, Vomit, and Colonisation

Moderate: Death, Genocide, and Cultural appropriation

Minor: Cannibalism

This book goes into graphic depth about climate change and the death of nature and our planet.

indigoriverboat's review against another edition

challenging hopeful informative slow-paced

I read this book very slowly, over a long period of time, because the ideas within it were so novel and engaging that I needed to pause and think. If you are interested in ecology or concerned about climate change, I urge you to read this book. It is an exploration of culture, relationship to land, botany, history, and mythology. I also highly recommend the audio book, as it is narrated by the author and hearing her voice adds to the experience.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Genocide

Moderate: Cultural appropriation

waybeyondblue's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad slow-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Grief, and Colonisation

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Violence, Religious bigotry, Fire/Fire injury, and Cultural appropriation

kshertz's review against another edition

informative slow-paced

3.75

I’m glad I switched to audiobook! It is sooo much information! I did learn a lot but it’s hard to stay engaged the whole time. It’s a completely different way of looking at the world from what I’m used to so that makes sense. I was most interested in her personal story. I think if you’re interested in native knowledge of nature and all that it can be used for, you’d love this book. I took away from this book that native people know everything about the world and if we would just listen, we could too. 

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Content Warnings

Minor: Violence, Xenophobia, Cultural appropriation, and Colonisation