Braiding Sweetgrass

I love this book because of how beautiful and hopeful it is. The author pulls together amazing stories from her life to gradually weave an understanding of the meta-crisis we find ourselves in. I was captivated by the way she contrasts her family’s indigenous American culture with our modern approaches to both science and the economy.

I love Robin’s prose, which is exquisitely written. But perhaps what I value the most is the fact that she writes with optimism, giving me the courage to get up every day and think about how to put her wisdom into practice.

I have guru-phobia, so I had avoided this book because so many people I knew were declaring it one of the best books ever and that Robin Wall Kimmerer was wonderful. Stupid, right?! But then I read it and could understand.

More than reading and listening to it, I met the author at a literary festival and was even more impressed by her gentle wisdom. She writes about the importance of reciprocity—about the rest of life being just as important as we are. Her work merges wonderfully with Jane Goodall’s, and I would recommend reading them in tandem. 

One of the best books I’ve read in years. Kimmerer is a university botanist and a Potawatomi elder, and she applies modern science and Indigenous wisdom to the troubles of our times.

I was moved to tears many times as I read her stories about connecting so intimately with trees, ponds, and plant life cycles. Her stories made me realize how much I’ve been conditioned to feel separate from nature when, in fact, I am a descendant of trees, plants, rivers, and other creatures.

I love how grounded the author is and how beautifully her language expresses something deep and… show more.

I love, love, love this book. What a gem, a prayer of love to plants and nature, a dense but light book of ‘indigenous wisdom, scientific knowledge, and the teachings of plants’ as it says in the sub-title.

Robin Wall Kimmerer is a decorated Professor of Botany, a mother, a writer of grace, power, and elegance, a keeper and sharer of indigenous wisdom, and an overall generous human being. If there is one book you read this year, let it be this. It filled my heart with joy, hope, and wonder. I loved her other book, Gathering Moss, too.

This book is an instant classic. It took me years to finish reading it because I did not want it to end.

Kimmerer’s writing appealed to the dreamer in me while also explaining the science of the natural world in ways that were unforgettable. This beautifully written book connected me to my physical home and the people around me. I will come back to it again and again. 

I love how Kimmerer braids botany with her personal history and the traditional knowledge of the Potawatomi people.

Part memoir, part natural history, this book reveals how much we can learn from plants if we just take the time to pay attention. In so many ways, science is just that: paying attention, attuning to the world around us we too often mindlessly pass through.

This book caused me to slow down and see nature unfolding around me and to reflect on my own journey from an inquisitive Boy Scout entranced by salamanders and crawdads to a busy adult, oblivious to… show more.

I loved diving deeply into my personal connection with Mother Earth.

Robin Wall Kimmerer brings a knowledgeable and spiritual connection that has left me appreciating the native sweetgrass and flora in my yard as something deeper and more profound than their ecological definition. Forever now will I see sweetgrass as the hair of Mother Earth.

Braiding Sweetgrass is a poetic invitation to reconnect with the more-than-human world through a series of lovingly crafted essays.

Given my own scientific background, I deeply appreciated how the author, Robin Wall Kimmerer, blends her own research as a bryologist (moss expert) with the ancient wisdom of her indigenous heritage. Both ways of knowing – science and indigenous understanding – offer insight into how we, as average people, might repair our broken relationship with the natural world.

I always recommend readers listen to the audiobook, read by the author; she has the most calming voice and I find myself soothed… show more.

This book made me contemplate conservation in ways of thought that pre-date America. The Apache root word for "land" is the same as for "mind." Botanist Kimmerer is enrolled Potawatomi, a proud citizen of the Maple Nation (the native range in the U.S. and Canada of the sugar maple tree), and an heir to "the oldest living democracy on the planet," the Haudenosaunee Confederacy.

She weaves together contemporary science and timeless traditions and crafted a modern classic in ecological restoration.

In a world where we are spending almost 8 hours a day in front of a glowing screen, Kimmerer shows us how other living beings can teach us how to connect more deeply to the natural world around us. She draws on Indigenous knowledge and scientific knowledge to help us recognize that nature is an integral part of our family, and our community, not merely a collection of objects to be used for our own personal use.

Only when we can hear the languages of other beings will we be capable of understanding the generosity of the earth and learn… show more.