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375 reviews for:
For Small Creatures Such as We: Rituals for Finding Meaning in Our Unlikely World
Sasha Sagan
4.11 AVERAGE
375 reviews for:
For Small Creatures Such as We: Rituals for Finding Meaning in Our Unlikely World
Sasha Sagan
4.11 AVERAGE
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
I really, really liked this book.
It sure is a mix of a memoir, information and some ritual ideas here and there, but I wasn't expecting any different. While some of the chapters are more memoir heavy than others and aren't as helpful as a "guide" or offer much information, the emotions this book made me feel had me barely minding it. The sheer love and appreciation the author has for her family, specially her father, reaches deep and is all over her words. It gets to you.
Hit or miss passages aside, it's still her story, and her experience. The rest ranges from interesting, to insightful, to useful, to awe inspiring; and I'm very happy I picked this up.
It sure is a mix of a memoir, information and some ritual ideas here and there, but I wasn't expecting any different. While some of the chapters are more memoir heavy than others and aren't as helpful as a "guide" or offer much information, the emotions this book made me feel had me barely minding it. The sheer love and appreciation the author has for her family, specially her father, reaches deep and is all over her words. It gets to you.
Hit or miss passages aside, it's still her story, and her experience. The rest ranges from interesting, to insightful, to useful, to awe inspiring; and I'm very happy I picked this up.
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
emotional
informative
inspiring
medium-paced
informative
reflective
fast-paced
emotional
hopeful
reflective
medium-paced
"Questioning something, exploring it, examining it, thinking of ways it might change for the better is a way of loving something."
Following the birth of her first child, Sasha Sagan--daughter of esteemed science educators Ann Druyan and Carl Sagan--meditates on the role of ritual and tradition in secular life. In a series of moving and insightful essays, she examines how different cultures and religions mark special events and passage of time, and how we can respectfully adapt these traditions for modern life.
Following the birth of her first child, Sasha Sagan--daughter of esteemed science educators Ann Druyan and Carl Sagan--meditates on the role of ritual and tradition in secular life. In a series of moving and insightful essays, she examines how different cultures and religions mark special events and passage of time, and how we can respectfully adapt these traditions for modern life.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death of parent
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
A must read for atheists and other non-believers.
on hold 24 June 2020 : had to return and Sara is #3 on holds. At ch. 14 Feast & Fast.
Started up again 19 August 2020
Started up again 19 August 2020
I once belonged to a small group of folks who called ourselves "Sagan Pagans." We combined a Western neo-Pagan spiritual practice with a naturalistic/atheistic worldview and were highly inspired by late 20th-century science communicators like Ann Druyan and Carl Sagan. Although Sasha Sagan is deeeefinitely not a Pagan, I immediately recognized a kinship between what she writes about in this book and what we "Sagan Pagans" do: building a spiritual rhythm from the natural cycles of seasons and lifetimes.
This is a truly excellent book. Sagan's sense of the sublime and her way of seeing even the most mundane moments as worth of celebration restored some much-needed hope in the world.
The book does suffer from some jarring moments of unquestioning cis- and heteronormativity, romantic-partners-as-possessions, and a seeming lack of awareness of the existence of neo-Paganism, theistic or non. Ironically, the fact that the rest of the book is so good makes these clunker moments feel even clunkier. Still, if you can handle this handful of graceless moments, you will be rewarded with a book that helps remind you of the awe and wonder of the Cosmos, and of the sheer improbability of being alive to experience it.
This is a truly excellent book. Sagan's sense of the sublime and her way of seeing even the most mundane moments as worth of celebration restored some much-needed hope in the world.
The book does suffer from some jarring moments of unquestioning cis- and heteronormativity, romantic-partners-as-possessions, and a seeming lack of awareness of the existence of neo-Paganism, theistic or non. Ironically, the fact that the rest of the book is so good makes these clunker moments feel even clunkier. Still, if you can handle this handful of graceless moments, you will be rewarded with a book that helps remind you of the awe and wonder of the Cosmos, and of the sheer improbability of being alive to experience it.
LOVED this book. I've been searching for my own sense of ritual and tradition and this book was exactly the kind of thing I was looking for. I only wish it was longer and went into more detail, actually! Read together over several library check-outs.