Robin Wall KimmererAnmeldelser

Author uses her training as a botanist and background in native culture takes us on a journey with her “moss-colored glasses” and introduces us to the unexpected beauty and complexity of mosses. Also serves well as an introduction to botany for amateur naturalists as the author clearly explains basics of botanical nomenclature. The author shares the lifecycle of mosses with asides that intertwine experiences with family and researchers that make reading this both a gentle and instructive story.

3.5

I really enjoyed chapters of this book, but the length of the chapters (I listened to it) made it difficult for me to find time to listen and to also remember what I had listened to.

This book is truly amazing and I think everybody should read it. It was really eye-opening and made me look at many things from a different perspective.

Amazing, enlightening, storytelling at its finest. It both teaches and inspires.

no words. such a wonderful book. braiding sweetgrass follows the course of a poetic narrative in which kimmerer's style of prose is prominent throughout. she effectively blends evocative language with her scientific and traditional knowledge while drawing readers into an aspect of storytelling that is prominent in indigenous culture. her argument is structured within a larger analytical dialogue that investigates how and why people have become so disconnected from the natural world. i think everyone should read this book at least once--i have not been able to stop thinking about everything she says since.

Viviendo en los límites de nuestra percepción ordinaria, los musgos son un elemento común, pero en gran medida desapercibido del mundo natural. ‘Reserva de musgo' es una hermosa mezcla de ciencia y reflexión personal que invita a los lectores a explorar y aprender de la vida elegantemente sencilla de los musgos. En esta serie de ensayos personales relacionados, Robin Wall Kimmerer lleva a lectores generales y científicos por igual a comprender cómo viven los musgos y cómo sus vidas se entrelazan con las de innumerables seres. Kimmerer explica la biología de los musgos con claridad y arte, al tiempo que reflexiona sobre lo que estos fascinantes organismos tienen que enseñarnos. Basándose en sus diversas experiencias como científica, madre, profesora y escritora de ascendencia indígena americana, Kimmerer explica las historias de los musgos en términos científicos, así como en el marco de las formas de conocimiento indígenas.

In March, I had the honor of hearing Monique Gray Smith speak at the AkLA library conference. I plan to use this text for a unit on indigenous Alaskan plants and Yup'ik medicine/cooking.

"Gratitude plants the seed for abundance."

2024 book #20. 2013. The author is an indigenous woman and a college-level biology teacher. She interweaves stories from her culture about the natural world and her training as a scientist and how she tries to be respectful to nature as her culture has taught her. Good read. Read for my book club.

I don't know how to feel about this book. The time I spent reading it was definitely enjoyable and full of learning, and I've been recommending it to people left and right. Still, when I wasn't reading it, I didn't really think about it, and times when I was bored and had nothing to do, this book didn't pop into my head. I'd give it 3.5 if that were possible.

This is a really great book.it is a nice introduction to mosses, you learn about reproduction, habitat and evolution. At the same time the author mixes in some Native American philosophy and conservation messages which make the whole read far more personal than the average field guide or text book. Loved it

This was a graceful, fascinating book I enjoyed immensely. Each essay felt so well constructed, and her devotion to her subject is apparent with every page. I found "Binding Up the Wounds: Mosses in Ecological Succession" and "The Red Sneaker" to be particular standouts.

I do wish she hadn't kept comparing moss destruction to chattel slavery in that one bit.

(audio nonfiction, 7 hrs 44 min, read by the author/adapter for the teen edition)

A cool guide to various plants, including scientific knowledge (botany, sustainability, ecosystems) amid various cultural Indigenous backgrounds (author belongs to the Potawatomi Nation; adapter belongs to the Cree Nation; the book includes stories from other First Nations and Native cultures that have been shared with Kimmerer). The audio version doesn't include the illustrations, but it's a comforting read grounded in science and social history, skillfully woven together with strands of the healing, spiritually significant (but endangered) sweetgrass.½

[b:Gathering Moss: A Natural and Cultural History of Mosses|49236555|Gathering Moss A Natural and Cultural History of Mosses|Robin Wall Kimmerer|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1576344186l/49236555._SX50_.jpg|84013] by [a:Robin Wall Kimmerer|49921|Robin Wall Kimmerer|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1441041257p2/49921.jpg]Robin Wall Kimmerer is a special book for anyone who loves nature and wants a glimpse of yet another hidden world. Robin wanders inquisitively through mosses as others wander through forests. It's the second book I've read of hers having thoroughly enjoyed [b:Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants|17465709|Braiding Sweetgrass Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants|Robin Wall Kimmerer|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1366775928l/17465709._SY75_.jpg|24362458]. Robin Wall Kimmerer writes with humble authority as both a scientist and indigenous woman. In many ways Gathering Moss is a synthesis of what would first appear to be two incompatible approaches. In the first half of the book a number of her stories about individual mosses are also illustrative lessons in scientific method but later it's a method clearly informed by her native sensibilities. In the Chapter 'The Red Sneaker', about Sphagnum moss, she writes,

This is the spot where you might wish you had your shoes. The Sphagnum mat is mingled with dead branches of shrubs, hidden beneath the soft moss surface and waiting to put you in line for a tetanus shot....I am standing quietly on the surface of an earthly Drum, my feet supported by the floating Sphagnum, responding to the smallest movement , rippling under my shifting weight. I start to dance. In the old way, heel and toe, in slow tempo, each footfall rippling across the bog and answered by the returning wave rising to meet my step. My feet make a drum beat on the surface and the whole bog is set in rhythmic motion.

Gathering Moss is an increasingly enchanting book about both the fragility and resilience of nature, and I can't wait to use my microscope.

A bit different than i was expecting but loved the book. I have always loved moss on trees and rocks but i now have a better understanding of them and will look at them differently now.

Good, but not nearly as good as Braiding Sweet grass.

This is a set of pieces that Kimmerer seems to have written over a period of 15-20 years. Individually they range from heart-tugging, to enraging, to wonder-inspiring, to thought-provoking. Collectively, they are all exceptionally well written. Once I re-read this (as I almost certainly will), I will change the rating to 5 stars.
[Audiobook note: Kimmerer, herself, narrates the book. This was an excellent decision on the part of the producers. Her delivery is every bit as good as her writing.]
(Second-reading note: still great. Maybe even better.)

Your heart needs you to read this.

Such a great read. Robin flows between scientific analysis to beautiful prose to love letters for her daughters. She makes indigenous culture and story approachable for those who are not aware, and is a great introduction to these people.

Braiding Sweetgrass is a beautiful and ever-important book on our duty as humans to take care of the Earth. Oscillating between non-fiction, memoir, and indigenous spirituality, Kimmerer shows the importance of gratitude to what nature gives us and our responsibility to take care of it.

Using sweetgrass as a metaphor for how the Earth used to be, how it is now, and where it can go from here helped show how we have a choice to make in how we treat the world around us and how this choice will affect the world we live in. I loved the incorporation of stories of her personal life and indigenous mythology, as it really seemed to bring it all together by making it more personal and real in how it read.

There are times when this book does seem to drag on a bit, but it feels intentional since she is writing primarily to an audience that doesn't often show down and appreciate, this book in a way forces you to do that. Additionally, it is filled with such gorgeous prose that it was still easy for me to be brought into what she was showing. There is a lot that can be learned from this book, and it is definitely one I will revisit again.

Stunning. Every word is a gift.

Yes, as wonderful as I'd expected from reputation and from reading another of her books. Very hard to distill but the concept of responding to the gifts we've received from the world by giving it gifts in return is going to sit with me for a while as... not a new concept but the way she tells her stories is a new lens on the idea and how to make it relevant in daily life.

Kimmerer shows us a little bit about how indigenous people see the world and the plants around them.½

INCREDIBLE would recommend to anyone. second half was slightly less interesting to me but maybe that's bc i ended up rushing a little so i can return it to the library on time. i might pick it up again and read it a second time in the future :-) fantastic, informative, speaks to the heart and mind.

Robin Wall Kimmerer, in her own voice on the audiobook, brings forth the lessons of sweetgrass and so much more, with compassion, erudition, and occasionally a tone that manages to embrace both anger and sadness. The main theme of the book advocates for regenerative reciprocity, a concept embodied by much of the natural world and echoed in the practices of many Indigenous peoples. Rather than Hardin's "Tragedy of the Commons", Kimmerer envisions an "Economy of the Commons", wherein "resources fundamental to our well-being...are commonly held rather than commodified." She balances her narrative in order to keep the vision in arms reach, or at least parts of it that we might endeavor to create.

A botanist and enrolled member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation, Kimmerer braids together the teachings of plants and those of her ancestors to create a work that is reminiscent of the "poetic sensibility" of Loren Eiseley, and gives rise to the increasingly popular work of people like Peter Wohlleben. The book is packed with information about indigenous culture and plant life, in equal measure, and the main criticism I have is that it could use a stronger editorial hand in places. There are moments when a metaphor starts to wear a bit thin, losing a bit of its "oomph" through constant repetition. However, these moments (which seem to increase toward the end of the book) are minor inconveniences in the face of what Kimmerer accomplishes.

Take language, for example. Kimmerer boldly weaves in linguistics to support her main contentions. Indigenous language offers concepts that bring us nearer to a true understanding of the natural world versus science, which she calls "a language of distance" (mind you, one in which she is fluent and leverages in powerful ways). In the chapter "Learning the Grammar of Animacy" she writes of the Potawotami language (an Anishinaabe dialect), wherein a noun such as "bay" (wiikegama)-- a body of water in English--is actually a verb--more "to be a bay"-- because it is living, part of the natural world. This respect for and lack of objectification of natural elements is a key point of contention between colonialist thought and indigenous thought, and as Kimmerer shows, really creates tremendous knots in our ability to co-exist peacefully with our natural world.

"'To be a bay' holds the wonder than for this moment, the living water has decided to shelter itself between these shores, conversing with cedar roots and a flock of baby mergansers. Because it could do otherwise--become a stream or an ocean or a waterfall--and there are verbs for that too."

She talks about the relationship between reciprocity and restoration and this idea that reciprocity is the real requirement for sustainability of our restorative efforts. It isn't the land that is damaged, she says, but the relationship we have to it. I think that is largely true, but it is a sound byte that doesn't get as thoroughly interrogated as it might.

Whether it is her own struggles with clearing pond scum so that her daughters might swim, embracing the multitudes contained in a strawberry, or illuminating the ecological ramifications of strategic and not-strategic harvesting, Kimmerer's book (first published in 2013) provides a path forward that may not save us at this juncture, but would undoubtedly make us better citizens of the planet.

Great read! A mix of Indigenous stories and reflections on nature and humanity. I love the writing and am impressed with the descriptions, even of unpleasant things.