A review by purplemuskogee
Tapestries of Life: Uncovering the Lifesaving Secrets of the Natural World by Anne Sverdrup-Thygeson

hopeful informative inspiring reflective fast-paced

4.5

Anne Sverdrup-Thygeson is a Norwegian scientist specialising in biodiversity. This book - her second - focuses on our relationship with nature, and the wonders it contains. The book is structured in very short chapters, loosely on the same themes, and she covers many different topics: freshwater pearl mussels ("the caretakers who clean our waterways"), crops, lawns and their ecological poverty (honestly... they aren't even that pretty and they bring nothing to the table), biopiracy (big pharmaceutical companies harvesting indigenous remedies to create new medicines without giving back to the communities they took that knowledge from), trees, insects, the consequences of the loss of habitat of many species (the pangolin and Covid-19 appear), fungi and their incredible networks, mangrove forests and how they help protect us from the ravages of tsunamis... There is a lot in this book, it is a bit like reading a Cabinet of Curiosities. I found it engaging and pleasant to read, poetic at times, and the transation (by Lucy Moffat) is flawless. Would highly recommend.