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This book popped up in Audible one day and the description hooked me enough to take the plunge. I'm so glad I did, I've found my new favorite author. The author narrated it and I absolutely fell in love with her voice. It was calming and I fell into her story so deeply that when it ended, I couldn't believe I'd gone through the whole book already. I've already purchased the physical copy and plan to reread it when I get it in the mail.
The book starts out with her history from childhood and as it progresses into her adulthood, it begins to merge with her academia side until you finish with the environmental side at the very end. I love her bioplan to stop global warming by every person on earth planting 1 tree a year for the next six years. I'm going to start planning which trees I want to plant on my own yard. Her description of each tree from the Celtic Ogham was absolutely marvelous. At the moment I want more than anything to visit her 160 acre farm/forest to see all of the tree species she's grown there. I've ordered a copy of her documentary as well and plan to search out her other books. I'm in love with her writing and her stories.
The book starts out with her history from childhood and as it progresses into her adulthood, it begins to merge with her academia side until you finish with the environmental side at the very end. I love her bioplan to stop global warming by every person on earth planting 1 tree a year for the next six years. I'm going to start planning which trees I want to plant on my own yard. Her description of each tree from the Celtic Ogham was absolutely marvelous. At the moment I want more than anything to visit her 160 acre farm/forest to see all of the tree species she's grown there. I've ordered a copy of her documentary as well and plan to search out her other books. I'm in love with her writing and her stories.
One of the best books I have read all year, as a non-fiction title. This was an educational read and I would recommend this to anyone. She goes into detail about past ways we look at trees and the way scientist look at forests today. It was more and more detail. The only thing I would have changed is how she laid out the tree alphabet at the end. It was confusing, and I would have preferred a full list on one page either at the start or the end of the book.
adventurous
challenging
emotional
informative
inspiring
relaxing
medium-paced
I picked up this book on impulse as I find nature fascinating. I did not know about the author Diana Beresford-Kroeger, and was able to learn about her impactful work from the book and other sources.
The book initially covers her early life with her parents - father being English & mother Irish, both from fairly prosperous families. However, hers was a difficult childhood with her parents separating and later also passing away while she was still in school. While she stayed with her uncle in England, it was her visits to Ireland which inspired her, as she learnt about the Celtic traditions and wisdom, a lot of it associated with nature. Since I had practically no awareness of this, it made for fascinating reading – the practices, the language, places, alphabets etc (including apparently that Sanskrit inspired the Celts to establish a form of writing). Her passion takes her later to the US and Canada, where though she continues to encounter gender discrimination, her career takes shape. She and her husband also establish a farm taking care to put her research to good use in saving trees which in the absence of intervention face extinction.
A lot of traditional wisdom is getting eroded. As the author says, the earth became fit for us since it was rich in greenery which took millions of years to form. Deforestation & the toxins we produce does not bode well for our planet, and each of us can take some simple steps such as at least planting a tree a year. The medicinal value of many local plants is immense (there are various examples of tress & plants she offers including boosting immunity, curing disease etc), and that knowledge is getting lost in the absence of an effort to preserve, as also a general scepticism among the scientific community for traditional knowledge.
The last section has details of a number of trees, much of which I could not identify with since they are not local to India, though a few I would have undoubtedly seen on trips but not paid attention to. The loss of local knowledge, however, is a universal phenomenon which every country now is dealing with.
This is a lovely book. Also, I realize that despite its importance, botanists seem to get far less airtime than they deserve, and we are all losers. While the details are a bit dense in parts, a book I still strongly recommend.
My rating: 4.5 / 5.
Thanks to Netgalley, the publisher and author for a free electronic review copy.
The book initially covers her early life with her parents - father being English & mother Irish, both from fairly prosperous families. However, hers was a difficult childhood with her parents separating and later also passing away while she was still in school. While she stayed with her uncle in England, it was her visits to Ireland which inspired her, as she learnt about the Celtic traditions and wisdom, a lot of it associated with nature. Since I had practically no awareness of this, it made for fascinating reading – the practices, the language, places, alphabets etc (including apparently that Sanskrit inspired the Celts to establish a form of writing). Her passion takes her later to the US and Canada, where though she continues to encounter gender discrimination, her career takes shape. She and her husband also establish a farm taking care to put her research to good use in saving trees which in the absence of intervention face extinction.
A lot of traditional wisdom is getting eroded. As the author says, the earth became fit for us since it was rich in greenery which took millions of years to form. Deforestation & the toxins we produce does not bode well for our planet, and each of us can take some simple steps such as at least planting a tree a year. The medicinal value of many local plants is immense (there are various examples of tress & plants she offers including boosting immunity, curing disease etc), and that knowledge is getting lost in the absence of an effort to preserve, as also a general scepticism among the scientific community for traditional knowledge.
The last section has details of a number of trees, much of which I could not identify with since they are not local to India, though a few I would have undoubtedly seen on trips but not paid attention to. The loss of local knowledge, however, is a universal phenomenon which every country now is dealing with.
This is a lovely book. Also, I realize that despite its importance, botanists seem to get far less airtime than they deserve, and we are all losers. While the details are a bit dense in parts, a book I still strongly recommend.
My rating: 4.5 / 5.
Thanks to Netgalley, the publisher and author for a free electronic review copy.
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
I was on the fence about rating this 3 or 4 stars, but decided to go with 4 since it might encourage others to read it. B-K's credentials are impressive, but she does tend to walk to the edge of credibility with some of her claims. Nonetheless, there is much to be learned in this book; much to be enjoyed; and bit to be horrified by.
[Audiobook note: B-K reads the book, herself. And this is a good thing. Her lilting delivery makes the whole thing much more personal. However, even played at 125% speed, the delivery was often a bit slow.]
[Audiobook note: B-K reads the book, herself. And this is a good thing. Her lilting delivery makes the whole thing much more personal. However, even played at 125% speed, the delivery was often a bit slow.]
I want to hold this book to my chest and never let it go.
I wish I had the words to explain the emotions I went through reading this book. Awe, inspiration, hope then hopelessness, hope again. It's a deep look into what our trees do for the world and the Celtic wisdom behind many scientific findings about trees. We have to save the trees. We have to. Diana makes this very clear but she does it with passion and perseverance. She doesn't think it's too late, and I believe her. I have never read anything by someone so attuned to nature, and I have to believe the things I read are true.
In another life, I too studied Celtic wisdom of the trees, I'm sure of it.
I wish I had the words to explain the emotions I went through reading this book. Awe, inspiration, hope then hopelessness, hope again. It's a deep look into what our trees do for the world and the Celtic wisdom behind many scientific findings about trees. We have to save the trees. We have to. Diana makes this very clear but she does it with passion and perseverance. She doesn't think it's too late, and I believe her. I have never read anything by someone so attuned to nature, and I have to believe the things I read are true.
In another life, I too studied Celtic wisdom of the trees, I'm sure of it.