Reviews tagging 'War'

Fresh Banana Leaves: Healing Indigenous Landscapes through Indigenous Science by Jessica Hernandez, PhD

26 reviews

wy_woman's review against another edition

challenging informative reflective sad slow-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Colonisation, War, and Racism

Moderate: Cultural appropriation, Misogyny, Violence, and Sexism

kbairbooks's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad slow-paced

5.0

I will admit that it’s taken me aging to really appreciate nonfiction. And I have genuinely been reading more nonfiction since starting the process of publishing my book. Although publishing has a long way to go, I sincerely appreciate that this book was brought into the world and space was made for it. THIS is what I want to be reading about, learning about, and this is the type of thing I wish I had been taught growing up. I will continue decolonizing my bookshelves as well as my mind and thought processes. Thank you to the author for being brave and vulnerable and sharing her knowledge, culture, and history with us.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Genocide, War, and Colonisation

Moderate: Police brutality

sarah984's review against another edition

challenging informative reflective slow-paced

3.0

There is a lot of good, valuable information in this book, but the lack of editing makes it a difficult read, both on the basic prose level (words and sentences repeated) and on the level of the information provided (misattributed quotation, mixing up fair and free trade, describing England as an Eastern European nation).

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Colonisation

Moderate: Genocide, War, Cultural appropriation, Racism, and Xenophobia

Minor: Slavery and Child death

hendrixpants's review against another edition

challenging informative inspiring reflective slow-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: War and Xenophobia

caidyn's review against another edition

hopeful informative medium-paced

4.5

Part of me wishes I had saved this for Decolonize December, but I'm also very glad I read this now. It definitely taught me about Spanish colonization and the racism in Mexico. I had no idea about those things whatsoever. So not only did it discuss colonization and the importance of Indigenous wisdom in rebuilding ecosystems, but it also went over cultures not often covered in Indigenous history.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Colonisation, Cultural appropriation, Death, and War

Moderate: Genocide, Xenophobia, Homophobia, and Transphobia

careinthelibrary's review against another edition

informative reflective slow-paced

3.0

I read this for the nonfiction prompt of the Skoden Readathon hosted in November by @nativeladybookwarrior (on IG and YouTube). 

I really expected to like this more! I found it to be repetitive so while I enjoyed the first third, it became redundant as I continued on.

I appreciated the family stories that the author shared, the El Salvadoran history, the symbol of the banana leaves which made the title make so much sense.

If you're new to ideas of Indigenous environmental science and respectful relationships with plants and the earth, maybe this will be good for you! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Racism, Violence, and Colonisation

Moderate: War

Forced migration, child soldiers

madmantha's review against another edition

challenging informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

4.75

Phenomenal book, I would suggest it to absolutely EVERYONE. Strangers, friends, family, everyone. I want to purchase for my whole family for Christmas.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Genocide, War, Racism, Sexism, Xenophobia, Violence, and Colonisation

Moderate: Police brutality and Deportation

Minor: Drug use, Animal death, Death, Deportation, and Gaslighting

razzberry_pi's review against another edition

challenging emotional informative reflective medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Genocide, War, and Colonisation

Minor: Violence, Xenophobia, and Rape

beholderess's review against another edition

informative medium-paced

2.0

Repetitive and needs editing 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Colonisation and War

galexy_brain's review against another edition

challenging hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

4.0

This book is so important. I truly believe any non-indigenous person in a conservation/environmental etc. field needs to read this book. The way I think about conservation issues has changed because of this book. I especially appreciated reading a book written about indigenous experiences by an indigenous person whose ancestry is not from North America, because I don't think I've had much exposure to perspectives from those cultures before. There was definitely room for a bit more editing throughout this book, but there were still passages I wish I could have underlined (if only it wasn't a library book!)

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Colonisation and War

Minor: Child death, Cultural appropriation, Death, Genocide, and Violence