Reviews tagging 'Death'

La meravigliosa trama del tutto: Saggezza indigena, conoscenza scientifica e gli insegnamenti delle piante by Robin Wall Kimmerer

37 reviews

lostgwennel's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective relaxing sad slow-paced

5.0

Anyone even remotely interested in plants, the natural world, indigenous science/teachings/folklore/history, ecology, sustainability, rewilding, climate justice etc needs to read this book. Every chapter is a work of art and a brilliant essay by itself. I was particularly affected by the chapter ‘Alliegence to Gratitude’ on the Haudenosaunee thanksgiving address. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal death, Racism, and Colonisation

Minor: Death and Suicide

astrangewind's review against another edition

emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective slow-paced

5.0

Braiding Sweetgrass is required reading. Not just for naturalists, but for everyone on this planet. 

Kimmerer weaves together stories and science effortlessly, leading the reader from her first foray into botanical sciences all the way through the current climate crisis. Even so, the book's message is ultimately one of hope and healing, of restoring our individual and collective relationships to the land. 

So much of this book reaches deep inside of me and pulls at my emotions. Longing for a childhood spent stooped in the strawberry patch, eating the fruit in spring; the need to give gifts and connect with others; pain for the pollution of Lake Onondaga and the blatant disregard for the earth; hope for restoration; the urge to restore, to dig my fingers deep into the dry, cracked soil and turning it to rich, black humus. 

There are many writers who aim to write about spirituality and nature, but these writers tend to place humans at the helm of life on earth, and plants as objects to be used, a mishmash of American colonialism and haphazard tenets cherry-picked from (usually) Hinduism. But Kimmerer shows us instead the Indigenous perspective: that there is personhood in all things, that we must engage in reciprocity with the land, that we have a moral duty to repair what has been broken. She urges the reader: don't despair - feel your hands itching to dig, to seed, to carry a salamander safely across the road in the palms of your hands. 

Kimmerer is a scientist, but she casts aside the scientific worldview we tend to have in America, that everything needs rigorous testing, that there's no place for the spiritual, or for love. But I think any botanist or nature scientist or even anyone who has tasted a fresh wild strawberry can tell you that love is not only necessary but unavoidable. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Genocide and Colonisation

Moderate: Animal death, Death, and War

Minor: Xenophobia

matcha_cat's review against another edition

emotional informative reflective medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal death, Death, Genocide, Fire/Fire injury, and Colonisation

Minor: Child abuse, Blood, Cannibalism, and Religious bigotry

apersonfromflorida's review against another edition

informative inspiring reflective slow-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Genocide, and Colonisation

Moderate: Death, Racism, and Grief

Minor: Suicide, Cannibalism, and War

rosie_valadez's review against another edition

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death and Genocide

Moderate: Death, Racism, and Grief

Minor: Suicide and War

takarakei's review against another edition

emotional informative reflective slow-paced

4.5

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.  

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Colonisation

Moderate: Animal death, Death, Genocide, Racism, Sexism, Suicide, Grief, and War

Minor: Cannibalism

readingwithkaitlyn's review against another edition

informative reflective slow-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Minor: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Death, Genocide, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Suicide, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Excrement, Kidnapping, Car accident, Murder, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, Colonisation, War, and Injury/Injury detail

residential schools, trail of death, carlisle, pollution.

wickedgrumpy's review against another edition

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.

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Content Warnings

Minor: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Cancer, Chronic illness, Death, Genocide, Misogyny, Racism, Xenophobia, Cannibalism, Religious bigotry, Pregnancy, Abandonment, Colonisation, and Classism

rexpostfacto's review against another edition

challenging emotional informative inspiring reflective slow-paced

4.75

An informative and thought-provoking read. It got a little long for my taste, but overall very enjoyable and stimulating. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Genocide, Racial slurs, Racism, and Colonisation

Minor: Death, Hate crime, Forced institutionalization, Colonisation, and War

booknerd_therapist's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Grief

Minor: Death, Genocide, Racism, Violence, Xenophobia, and Colonisation