Books with Beth Book Club: Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer

The Athenaeum was established in 1814 as a subscription library, at a time when the free public library system did not exist and collections of books, available for reading or research, were still mostly limited to institutions, schools or colleges.The Athenaeum of Philadelphia nurtures curiosity in members and neighbors, strengthening community through learning and discourse.The Athenaeum of Philadelphia is one of 16 membership libraries that collaborate through the Membership Libraries Group. Some, like the Charleston (est. 1748), New York Society (est. 1754), and Newport (est. 1741) libraries, date from the 18th Century.

Athenaeum of Philadelphia

The Books with Beth Book Club is run by Athenaeum Executive Director Beth Hessel and is free and open to the public.

Athenaeum Book Clubs

All Athenaeum Book Clubs are free and open to the public, we only ask you read the book beforehand and come ready for discussion!

A New York Times Bestseller
A Washington Post Bestseller
Named a &quot;Best Essay Collection of the Decade&quot; by Literary Hub

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, and as 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&#x27;ve forgotten how to hear their voices. In 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 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.

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Books with Beth Book Club: Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer

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