Reviews with content warning for Police brutality - Soil: The Story of a Black Mother's Garden

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Soil: The Story of a Black Mother's Garden by Camille T. Dungy

13 reviews

silodear's review against another edition

emotional hopeful reflective medium-paced

4.5

This book is both extremely beautiful and important. Dungy writes so poetically about her garden and the earth, while interweaving history of colonialism and discussion of anti black racism. The audiobook was lovely. Recommended.

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nemo_lacuna's review

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adventurous emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

5.0

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idk_indigo's review against another edition

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challenging informative reflective slow-paced

4.0

I kept wanting to DNF this about 30-60% through, but I am glad I kept going. Reasons for the almost-DNF were: confusing chronology and the narration (which I think was more about me being used to romance audiobooks with an ultra-expressive narrator, whereas this was non-fiction with the author narrating; so more a matter of I wasn't used to it than genuine dislike, and I started to appreciate her narration as the book wore on).

As other reviews mention, the author's thoughts are very scattered; I could almost never tell when an event was taking place because it seemed like everything was happening at once, COVID and a huge fire and then a bunny dying. Which, btw, definitely definitely could've done without the almost hour-long

description of the dead bunny, its body, what she did with it, how it looked, the way it smelled, what creatures were crawling over it, amongst other not-so-fun details

. I loved the sentiment of handling heavy things like death with her child, as well as the implications for her personal garden. But that was... unnecessary.

I loved the focus on history, and I'm sort of wondering if the back-and-forth/non-chronological narrative is a pointer on how it repeats itself (?). I felt I learned a lot about civil rights, including black women starting gardens during the Jim Crow -era so they could access flowers, as well as contributions to community gardens/food supply, which was really interesting. I think her revelations of history were also very cool.

I loved her mentions of motherhood, but I also adored her numerous mentions of her husband, how much he's been involved with the gardening process. I loved how they picked up each others' slack, and how they together navigated various mishaps while also raising their daughter. They made mistakes, such as dealing with Callie's anxiety, but they learned and they grew and I thought it was a beautiful exploration of adulthood and parenthood and marriage.

This isn't typically what I would pick up (not a frequent picker-upper of nonfiction), but this was on the LAPL's recommendations list for Earth Day and I thought I would try it out and I'm very, very glad I did!

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ottej006's review

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challenging emotional inspiring reflective sad slow-paced

4.0

This book made me think deeply, but I can't tell what story was told by the end. I wanted to know more about the garden. The imagery was excellent and there are stories within the book that will stay with me. I loved the focus on motherhood.

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soggycedar's review against another edition

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emotional informative inspiring reflective relaxing slow-paced

4.5

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thalia16's review

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emotional hopeful reflective medium-paced

3.0

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buttermellow's review

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emotional hopeful informative reflective relaxing slow-paced

5.0

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sellnow_hannah's review

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challenging emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad slow-paced

4.25

The best way I can describe this book is that it’s a book about diversity in many forms - species, gender, race, experiences, etc.
Professor Dungy is a poet so her prose is lyrical and calming. She uses many metaphors to connect human experiences with the natural world. One such metaphor that I won’t soon forget is

that of the pronghorn who evolved to be incredibly fast, but no longer has predators that require such speed. She discusses this as the “ghosts of predators past” and this is used as a metaphor for the Black experience.

However, the writing style often feels meandering and stream of consciousness, which I struggled with at times.

During our book club discussion, I realized how truly wide ranging the appeal of this book is. I personally connected most with the ideas of humans being a part of nature and needing to be better stewards of Mother Earth as well as the history of Fort Collins and the shared memories of living in Northern Colorado during 2020 wildfire season. Others in the group connected more with the stories of motherhood, racial segregation, gardening, pandemic experiences, or the poems.

Overall, this book is about so much more than gardening.

Read for League of Women Voters Larimer County’s Informed Citizens Book club

(I don’t rate memoirs below a 4 star because I think it takes a lot of courage to be this vulnerable and share your life story. So for me 4-4.25 is good, 4.5-4.75 is great, 5.0 is fantastic.)

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julesthebookdragon417's review

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challenging emotional informative reflective medium-paced

4.0

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fkshg8465's review

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dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring slow-paced

4.0

Beautiful book full of beautiful words, images, and outlooks, even among all the pain written throughout it.

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