Reviews tagging 'Grief'

Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants by Robin Wall Kimmerer

38 reviews

parasolcrafter's review against another edition

emotional informative inspiring slow-paced

5.0

this really is one of those books someone like me cant really add anything to; all i can say is that its an INCREDIBLE book that i think almost everyone should read.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Cultural appropriation, Genocide, Animal death, Animal cruelty, Colonisation, Grief, Death, and Racism

betag1013's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Minor: Fire/Fire injury, Animal cruelty, Child death, Animal death, Death, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Child abuse, Classism, Colonisation, Genocide, Xenophobia, and War

lizziaha's review against another edition

hopeful informative inspiring

5.0

This book made me deeply reflect on my own life and the ways that I interact with nature. I hope it changed me for the better. I also was pleasantly surprised to see how narrative-based this book was. It made the read faster and more interesting. And Kimmerer’s language is so beautiful, while maintaining a simplicity that kept everything easy to understand. Especially to hear it in her own voice, I felt like I was floating along these words. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Forced institutionalization and Genocide

Moderate: Colonisation, Grief, Racism, and Religious bigotry

Minor: Fire/Fire injury

antijeffbozo_love2read's review

emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective relaxing medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Colonisation, Child abuse, Genocide, and Grief

Minor: Child death

dhiyanah's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful informative reflective slow-paced

5.0

There's a profound heaviness we feel about our collective wounds and responsibilities in how the planet is changing, suffering, and asking for help during these times. I'm grateful this book doesn't shy away from that, giving language to the overwhelm we're navigating, tracing it back to our ruptured connection with land and the patterns upheld to keep us in constant states of struggle, survival, and forgetfulness.

By sharing her lived experiences in reclaiming, remembering, and honoring practices kept alive by her own and other indigenous lineages (US-based), the author invites us to reflect on our own capacities and efforts of being in right relationship with the living world. In this book, I found reflections of how my own struggles of unbelonging and loneliness are linked to a sense of feeling orphaned from land, from wider community. I found deep queries and burning desires within me - not having much framework for being local to anywhere - to embody a more reciprocal and grounded approach to the natural world, to this planet who still feeds and tends to us through all this chaos. 

For this and so much more, I feel this is a crucial read to help situate and cultivate hope, courage, and determination within as we journey through these giant waves of grief and renewal with our Mother Earth.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Colonisation, Forced institutionalization, and Genocide

Moderate: Racism and Grief

Minor: Animal death, Fire/Fire injury, Suicide, and Violence

waybeyondblue's review

challenging emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad slow-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Colonisation, and Death

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Cultural appropriation, Violence, Religious bigotry, and Fire/Fire injury

kaimetcalfe's review against another edition

emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad slow-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Genocide, Grief, Animal death, and Colonisation

Moderate: Chronic illness, Alcoholism, Forced institutionalization, Animal cruelty, Death, Blood, and Colonisation

val_so_'s review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective slow-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Grief and Racism

art_books_chemistry's review against another edition

emotional informative reflective slow-paced

4.5

Braiding Sweetgrass is a combination memoir and reflective essay, mashed together with a history and science lesson. As a botanist, Kimmerer is able to use scientific logic to explain some of the cultural teachings of her and other indigenous peoples. She also uses these teachings to evaluate morality and the relationship humans have with the earth. A lot of her stories focus on the process of living off the land whether because you have to or simply because by being here we are doing so. 

Listening to Kimmerer narrating was very relaxing and nearly meditative. I listened to a lot of this while walking back and forth through Cleveland from my hotel to the convention center while attending a conference. That being said, I could not listen to this while multitasking before bed, as for the same reason it would cause me to drift off to sleep. I also found some of her stories to be a bit repetitive in their lessons. I suppose it could have been to drive home her points but it also caused me to drift out occasionally since I knew where she was going with a story. 

I really enjoyed hearing her talk about Indigenous teachings and how she tries to implement them in her academic classrooms as well as her life. Some of the points definitely made me think about some things I could maybe try or do myself. There were also several sad parts relating to her learning her own language as an adult and the attitudes of some of the people in academia. 

If you're looking to understand some Indigenous peoples better or just to understand a different view regarding caring for the Earth this is definitely a good book. If you aren't interested in the subject matter it may feel a bit dry and repetitive at points. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism and Colonisation

Moderate: Grief

Minor: Genocide and Animal death

maregred's review against another edition

hopeful inspiring reflective slow-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Colonisation

Minor: Genocide, Racism, Forced institutionalization, Grief, and Cultural appropriation