Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants by Robin Wall Kimmerer

Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants by Robin Wall Kimmerer
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

3.5/5.0 - It's hard for me to review this book. I am surprised at how high a rating it has after >39K people have read it. I'm not saying that it's bad, just that it might be the highest rated book (4.56) I've read (with that many ratings). What I liked: the philosophy of the indigenous people, their history, stories about the plants and the respect for the earth. What I didn't care for was the way the book jumped around, both in subject matter and timeline.
Compared to The Seed Keeper by Diane Wilson, this book had more plant lore - that part was fascinating, but The Seed Keeper told a similar story in a more readable manner. True, Braiding Sweetgrass is a non-fiction book, but The Seed Keeper is the one I will remember longer and moved me more. Both books told of the tragedy of children removed from their families and their cultures and the long term effect it had on their people, and also the indigenous philosophy of honoring and stewarding the land.
This author will be speaking at the Writers Forum at Brockport in October, and this title is the October reading for the college book club, so I expect there will be some good discussions forthcoming.

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