Braiding Sweetgrass: Spartacus Book Club

"As a botanist, Robin Wall Kimmerer has been trained to ask questions of nature with the tools of science. As a member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation, she embraces the notion that plants and animals are our oldest teachers. In Braiding Sweetgrass, Kimmerer brings these two lenses of knowledge together to take us on “a journey that is every bit as mythic as it is scientific, as sacred as it is historical, as clever as it is wise” (Elizabeth Gilbert).

Drawing on her life as an indigenous scientist, a mother, and a woman, Kimmerer shows how other living beings—asters and goldenrod, strawberries and squash, salamanders, algae, and sweetgrass—offer us gifts and lessons, even if we’ve forgotten how to hear their voices. In a rich braid of reflections that range from the creation of Turtle Island to the forces that threaten its flourishing today, she circles toward a central argument: that the awakening of a wider ecological consciousness requires the acknowledgment and celebration of our reciprocal relationship with the rest of the living world. For only when we can hear the languages of other beings will we be capable of understanding the generosity of the earth, and learn to give our own gifts in return."

The Spartacus Book Club meets on the last Monday of every month. Everyone is welcome! We have some regular attendees, and others come for just one book. It's okay to attend even if you haven't read the book or haven't finished it yet.

Throughout fall 2017/early 2018 we are focusing on books related to colonialism and decolonization by Indigenous authors. We will be alternating between fiction and non-fiction.

If you need a copy of the book, we do sell them at the store and the library has some as well.
More info