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informative
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
As an adoptee and person interested in cultural practices, medicine, folklore, etc., as a way to connect to our roots, this book is engaging me as a reader so far. I am about 50% done with it.
I am not Irish, but I felt at home with the writer's style. Being orphaned myself, I related to her feelings of ~when will things fall apart again? ~ type of mentality. Learning herbal medicine and cultural practices in a tucked away valley, the author is raised by aunts, uncles, and the village to connect with her Irish and ancient Celt roots.
Her tween and teen years in the valley and in the library of an uncle -- all of this builds a foundation for Diana's adult years and studies in botany. She explains biological and botanical facts with ease and makes them digestible for non-professional scientists like me.
This book serves as a drop in the bucket of the conversation indigenous people groups have been trying to get the majority and the colonial to understand ---- wisdom is in the trees, earth, plants, etc., and we owe it to the life on this planet to take more active steps to repair the damage that industrial and colonial timelines have done thus far.
This book reminds me of the three trees in my childhood that I and a neighbor named. Each tree had different emotions to be experienced in them. One was a communal tree, one was a shy tree who made it difficult to climb itself, and one a solitary reflection tree. No one taught us this, it came naturally to us as children. Diana, the author implores us to remember our childlike wonder and sensitivity to the life around us besides humans.
I am not Irish, but I felt at home with the writer's style. Being orphaned myself, I related to her feelings of ~when will things fall apart again? ~ type of mentality. Learning herbal medicine and cultural practices in a tucked away valley, the author is raised by aunts, uncles, and the village to connect with her Irish and ancient Celt roots.
Her tween and teen years in the valley and in the library of an uncle -- all of this builds a foundation for Diana's adult years and studies in botany. She explains biological and botanical facts with ease and makes them digestible for non-professional scientists like me.
This book serves as a drop in the bucket of the conversation indigenous people groups have been trying to get the majority and the colonial to understand ---- wisdom is in the trees, earth, plants, etc., and we owe it to the life on this planet to take more active steps to repair the damage that industrial and colonial timelines have done thus far.
This book reminds me of the three trees in my childhood that I and a neighbor named. Each tree had different emotions to be experienced in them. One was a communal tree, one was a shy tree who made it difficult to climb itself, and one a solitary reflection tree. No one taught us this, it came naturally to us as children. Diana, the author implores us to remember our childlike wonder and sensitivity to the life around us besides humans.
I absolutely loved this book. I have no expectations going in, but listening to the audio of this from the library had me immediately going and buying a copy of this book for myself. Since Diana Beresford-Kroeger also reads the audio you really get to feel her passion for her subject. The amount of knowledge she has and has cultivated about the trees and plants around us, their natural settings, and what we can learn from them all is just astounding.
I have never been a gardener, that's my mom (and yes I immediately bought her a copy of this book), but this made me want to plant trees and plants native to my home state in WA at whatever point I finally move back home. Apartment living in Los Angeles isn't super conducive to planting a tree in my personal surroundings. I do have the one plant I have managed not to kill. But, this made me want to do the research to see what plants would be best for the area I grew up in and to seed them across my families property. I grew up on a 500 acre ranch so there was always things growing as we grew up. My mom always has the vegetable garden and her flower beds. I can't wait for her to read this so I can talk to her about it.
I have never been a gardener, that's my mom (and yes I immediately bought her a copy of this book), but this made me want to plant trees and plants native to my home state in WA at whatever point I finally move back home. Apartment living in Los Angeles isn't super conducive to planting a tree in my personal surroundings. I do have the one plant I have managed not to kill. But, this made me want to do the research to see what plants would be best for the area I grew up in and to seed them across my families property. I grew up on a 500 acre ranch so there was always things growing as we grew up. My mom always has the vegetable garden and her flower beds. I can't wait for her to read this so I can talk to her about it.
I read this book purely because of the Irish Readathon and I am so glad I did, I ended up really enjoying this story even though previously I had no knowledge of the author or her global work to preserve and educate about the world of trees and plants. Diana read the audiobook for this herself, and you can feel her true passion and emotion when she's reading, which I found really heartwarming and lovely to see. I definitely think the audiobook is well worth it, although I wonder if the print version might have had pictures within it, as I feel this is a book which would work well with images as so many varieties of plant are described.
This is mostly a memoir by Diana, and her rather tough start to life, quickly living in a separated family and growing up with a mother who didn't really value her. She is also soon orphaned when both of her parents pass away, and the law has to decide what will happen to her. At first she's almost abandoned and has to fend for herself, but finally she's seen and educated by the last of the Irish Celts living near her family ancestral home.
Due to her unique upbringing Diana is incredibly well-placed to understand the wonder and magic of trees and all of their incredible medicinal and awe-inspiring and innovative powers. She grows up surrounded by those who worship and value trees almost above all else, and her knowledge only grows as she goes on to study as a scientist and to prove and confirm many of the oral stories and properties she was taught about as a child by the Celts.
The book also has a final section about the Celt alphabet and it's fascinating to see what trees have been chosen to represent the written word for this society and why. It's also sad to hear about some varieties and plants which have been eradicated by the human destruction of woods and forests around the world.
Overall I'd recommend this strongly to anyone, and I learned a lot about trees from it. I really want to read some more books on the topic now. 4*s
This is mostly a memoir by Diana, and her rather tough start to life, quickly living in a separated family and growing up with a mother who didn't really value her. She is also soon orphaned when both of her parents pass away, and the law has to decide what will happen to her. At first she's almost abandoned and has to fend for herself, but finally she's seen and educated by the last of the Irish Celts living near her family ancestral home.
Due to her unique upbringing Diana is incredibly well-placed to understand the wonder and magic of trees and all of their incredible medicinal and awe-inspiring and innovative powers. She grows up surrounded by those who worship and value trees almost above all else, and her knowledge only grows as she goes on to study as a scientist and to prove and confirm many of the oral stories and properties she was taught about as a child by the Celts.
The book also has a final section about the Celt alphabet and it's fascinating to see what trees have been chosen to represent the written word for this society and why. It's also sad to hear about some varieties and plants which have been eradicated by the human destruction of woods and forests around the world.
Overall I'd recommend this strongly to anyone, and I learned a lot about trees from it. I really want to read some more books on the topic now. 4*s
A wonderful mix of science and fantasy, from real life. I've always cherished trees without really knowing anything about the wonders inside. The author reveals what I've been missing, while sprinkling lots of Celtic and some indigenous wisdom throughout.
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
relaxing
medium-paced
Just a glorious book. Part biography, part ode to trees. The author is one of few persons trained in ancient Druidic practices in her native Ireland. She learned from her fellow villagers and relatives as a girl, all the knowledge that was still available (much had been lost to history) about the power of plants and trees, their medicines, and how they help us in mental and spiritual ways as well. She is also a botanist, medical biochemist, and polymath. She can take complex scientific theories and make them quite understandable and filled with emotion. I love that the author has gone on to live/work in Canada and has created and continues to cultivate her own 'arboretum' filled with incredibly useful plants and trees. Testing them and seeing their unique values. She has written other specific books about her arboretums, detailing trees that we should all be planting in lieu of climate change and just for the sheer value they add to life.
A beautiful love letter to trees and an impactful statement as to why it’s our duty to save them. Kroeger’s reverence for trees is infectious, and now I want to know everything about every species ever. Half a memoir, the sections on Kroeger’s life were quite moving; it’s hard not to feel awestruck by her resilience and love for the world despite the hardships she’s experienced. Added to the fact that she’s a genius and a driven activist, I’m kind of in love with her.
informative
inspiring
slow-paced