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soggycedar's review against another edition
emotional
informative
inspiring
reflective
relaxing
slow-paced
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death
Moderate: Racism and Police brutality
Minor: Death
thalia16's review
emotional
hopeful
reflective
medium-paced
3.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Colonisation, Pandemic/Epidemic, Police brutality, Death, Racism, Slavery, and Fire/Fire injury
Minor: Panic attacks/disorders and Animal death
latashman's review
I am having an issue getting 'into" this book. I love the historical references that I, as a white woman, was unaware of. I enjoyed the glimpses into Camille's life. I think her husband is an ass (based on the way he is portrayed during COVID).
I think it is the pacing of each essay/section that turned me away. It feels slow and holds a lot of literary references that I don't understand which slows me down even more. I might try this as an audiobook especially if the author is the narrator. I loved her poems interspersed in the text.
I basically dreaded picking it up every time I sat down to read and felt like I was forcing myself. Life is too short to force myself to read a book that I am not enjoying.
I think it is the pacing of each essay/section that turned me away. It feels slow and holds a lot of literary references that I don't understand which slows me down even more. I might try this as an audiobook especially if the author is the narrator. I loved her poems interspersed in the text.
I basically dreaded picking it up every time I sat down to read and felt like I was forcing myself. Life is too short to force myself to read a book that I am not enjoying.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racism
Moderate: Death
thebookcoyote's review
challenging
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
4.0
TW/CW: Racism, murder, police brutality, natural disasters, death
REVIEW: I received a free copy of this book from Edelweiss Books and Simon & Schuster and am voluntarily writing an honest review.
Soil is a memoir, the story of a Black poet and mother who works to transform her Colorado lawn into a natural, diversified place that matches and strengthens the natural landscape around it. This garden becomes a metaphor for her life and history as she relates her garden, ecology and nature to the political and sociological realities of Black people, women, and mothers.
This is a beautiful story. Although I’m not an expert on plants or flowers, you don’t have to be to enjoy this book. Dungy’s writing is beautiful and often poetic (not a surprise since the author is a poet), and her talent with words causes her stories to hit deeper than they otherwise might. There is a great deal of sadness in this book, but there is also a great deal of beauty.
The one thing that bothered me about this book is that there were parts where it didn’t really seem to flow. It was kind of choppy in places and would drift back and forth from one topic to another without much of a segue. This isn’t something that makes me dislike this book – not at all – but I think it could have been even more powerful and beautiful if it was a little more organized.
As a whole, I enjoyed this book and would recommend it to anyone interested in gardening, Black voices, and/or ecology.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Death, Police brutality, and Racism
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