I bought this book as research for my newest manuscript, and I loved it. Braiding Sweetgrass is a mix of indigenous teachings, lore, science, and memoir essays that hooked me in the first pages and kept me enthralled through the whole book. While the chapters specifically about the scientific experiments around sweetgrass are detailed, the scope of knowledge shared by the author is so much greater and far reaching than the fascinating symbiotic relationship between the grass and its harvesters.
Kimmerer is a beautifully lyrical writer. The prose doesn’t hurry you along, but takes it’s time leading you to the end of each chapter’s lesson, and like any good folklore, myth, or teaching tale there is an underlying truth or lesson to be learned. It also never stagnates or bores, and while science is woven in with the natural wonder, discovery, and sometimes hard-learned truths, nothing in this book reads like a dry academic thesis. There is so much practical information and ecological philosophy for anyone trying to live with respect and care for nature and all the other inhabitants who share it, I can’t imagine this book being left alone on my shelf. I suspect it will be well worn, marked up, and re-read multiple times over the years to come.
