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4.22 AVERAGE
4.22 AVERAGE
Overall, I loved it. But it was a difficult book for me to take in - lots of trauma, some of it rather grisly or violent. All very germane to the story, but it gave me some nightmares! I learned not to read it just before I went to sleep…
Very prescient to what’s been happening in the world lately, considering how long ago it was written.
Very prescient to what’s been happening in the world lately, considering how long ago it was written.
I admit I'm a little disappointed in the book and did not finish it. I really, really wanted to like it more, but it was just too "all over the place." It feels to me as if Starhawk tried to squeeze each and every element of alternative living, witchcraft, cosmology, spirituality, etc. into her utopia, to the point of contradiction. It just feels sadly forced and over the top in some places. Less would have been more. On the other hand, I appreciate her vision of a peaceful , tolerant society where each member shares in the responsibility of the common good.
Say what you want about hippie-pagan-apocalyptic-site-specific stories, I liked it.
get past the first two chapters and you are in for a ride. very intriguing tale of future times of a near Utopian community threatened by an evil world power.
This is perhaps the most inspiring book I've ever read about the struggle to create a better society than the one that we have. It provides beautiful imaginings of how we might work for the healing of all, be courageous, build community where we are accountable to one another, expect things of one another, but are still compassionate and forgiving when people fail at living up to our own ideals (and thus we are encouraged to respond the same way to ourselves -- to learn from our mistakes, to learn and to grow). It's messages are nuanced about good and evil and about nonviolent struggle vs. the use of violent resistance. I thought it was absolutely beautiful, and am so thankful to my friend who gave it to me.
Frankly, bailed after one chapter. Just too "woo woo" to read another nearly 500 pages of strong women and "Coexist" bumper stickers as plot line. Occupying forces flee because old ladies dig up the asphalt? Please, give me a break. And have SEEN what tanks do to pavement?
I must have read this before; it echoed in my head in such a familiar way.
What a vision of the future, hard-won with sweat and blood...
What a vision of the future, hard-won with sweat and blood...
I loved this book. The setting is the slow collapse of America due to climate change and trade embargoes and the premise is pretty much can a pacifist society defeat an army. There's much to it than that, and there is plenty of action and excitement and violence and sadness and beauty along the way.
Have you ever read a book that made you grief its absence? that you really did not want it to be finished? Well this was my absolutely favorite book so far.
It made me feel that the only thing I wanted to do was chilling and entering Madrone and Bird world!
Set in the USA in 2048, this book is the most hopeful and meaningful book I have read so far. It changed my way of seeing what the world feels like when you apply non-violence, benevolence and compassion. It is a story that resonated with the way in which I see the the world developing and the human spirit evolving.
The book starts with the Declaration of the Four Sacred Things, that I share here with you:
The Earth is a living, conscious being. In company with cultures of many different times and places, we name these things as sacred: air, fire, water, and earth.
Whether we see them as the breath, energy, blood, and body of the Mother, or as the blessed gifts of a Creator, or as symbols of interconnected systems that sustain life, we know that nothing can live without them.
To call these things sacred is to say that they have a value beyond their usefulness for human ends, that they themselves become the standard by which our acts, our economics, our laws, and our purposes must be judged. No one has the right to appropriate them or profit from them at the expense of others. Any government that fails to protect them forfeits its legitimacy.
All people, all living things, are part of the earth life, and so are sacred. No one of us stands higher or lower than any other. Only justice can assure balance; only ecological balance can sustain freedom. Only in freedom can that fifth sacred thing we call spirit flourish in its full diversity.
To honor the sacred is to create conditions in which nourishment, sustenance, habitat, knowledge, freedom, and beauty can thrive. To honor the sacred is to make love possible.
To this we dedicate our curiosity, our will, our courage, our silences, and our voices. To this we dedicate our lives.
It made me feel that the only thing I wanted to do was chilling and entering Madrone and Bird world!
Set in the USA in 2048, this book is the most hopeful and meaningful book I have read so far. It changed my way of seeing what the world feels like when you apply non-violence, benevolence and compassion. It is a story that resonated with the way in which I see the the world developing and the human spirit evolving.
The book starts with the Declaration of the Four Sacred Things, that I share here with you:
The Earth is a living, conscious being. In company with cultures of many different times and places, we name these things as sacred: air, fire, water, and earth.
Whether we see them as the breath, energy, blood, and body of the Mother, or as the blessed gifts of a Creator, or as symbols of interconnected systems that sustain life, we know that nothing can live without them.
To call these things sacred is to say that they have a value beyond their usefulness for human ends, that they themselves become the standard by which our acts, our economics, our laws, and our purposes must be judged. No one has the right to appropriate them or profit from them at the expense of others. Any government that fails to protect them forfeits its legitimacy.
All people, all living things, are part of the earth life, and so are sacred. No one of us stands higher or lower than any other. Only justice can assure balance; only ecological balance can sustain freedom. Only in freedom can that fifth sacred thing we call spirit flourish in its full diversity.
To honor the sacred is to create conditions in which nourishment, sustenance, habitat, knowledge, freedom, and beauty can thrive. To honor the sacred is to make love possible.
To this we dedicate our curiosity, our will, our courage, our silences, and our voices. To this we dedicate our lives.
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced