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Rooted: Life at the Crossroads of Science, Nature, and Spirit
NATIONAL BESTSELLER
Deepen your connection to the natural world with this inspiring meditation, "a path to the place where science and spirit meet" (Robin Wall Kimmerer).
In Rooted, cutting-edge science supports a truth that poets, artists, mystics, and earth-based cultures across the world have proclaimed over life on this planet is radically interconnected. Our bodies, thoughts, minds, and spirits are affected by the whole of nature, and they affect this whole in return. In this time of crisis, how can we best live upon our imperiled, beloved earth?
Award-winning writer Lyanda Lynn Haupt’s highly personal new book is a brilliant invitation to live with the earth in both simple and profound ways—from walking barefoot in the woods and reimagining our relationship with animals and trees, to examining the very language we use to describe and think about nature. She invokes rootedness as a way of being in concert with the wilderness—and wildness—that sustains humans and all of life.
In the tradition of Rachel Carson, Elizabeth Kolbert, and Mary Oliver, Haupt writes with urgency and grace, reminding us that at the crossroads of science, nature, and spirit we find true hope. Each chapter provides tools for bringing our unique gifts to the fore and transforming our sense of belonging within the magic and wonder of the natural world.
Deepen your connection to the natural world with this inspiring meditation, "a path to the place where science and spirit meet" (Robin Wall Kimmerer).
In Rooted, cutting-edge science supports a truth that poets, artists, mystics, and earth-based cultures across the world have proclaimed over life on this planet is radically interconnected. Our bodies, thoughts, minds, and spirits are affected by the whole of nature, and they affect this whole in return. In this time of crisis, how can we best live upon our imperiled, beloved earth?
Award-winning writer Lyanda Lynn Haupt’s highly personal new book is a brilliant invitation to live with the earth in both simple and profound ways—from walking barefoot in the woods and reimagining our relationship with animals and trees, to examining the very language we use to describe and think about nature. She invokes rootedness as a way of being in concert with the wilderness—and wildness—that sustains humans and all of life.
In the tradition of Rachel Carson, Elizabeth Kolbert, and Mary Oliver, Haupt writes with urgency and grace, reminding us that at the crossroads of science, nature, and spirit we find true hope. Each chapter provides tools for bringing our unique gifts to the fore and transforming our sense of belonging within the magic and wonder of the natural world.
241 pages, Kindle Edition
First published May 4, 2021
About the author
Lyanda Lynn Haupt
8 books513 followersLyanda Lynn Haupt is a naturalist, eco-philosopher, and speaker whose writing is at the forefront of the movement to connect people with nature in their everyday lives. Her newest book is Mozart's Starling: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3...
“Mozart’s Starling is a delightful, enlightening, breathless flight through the worlds of Carmen and Star, two European starlings who join their human counterparts in exploring life and music and nature, helping to shed light on the connection between humans and birds--those of us bound to terra firma, and those of us who are free to soar.”
Garth Stein
NYT bestselling author of The Art of Racing in the Rain and A Sudden Light
Lyanda's recent book, Crow Planet: Essential Wisdom from the Urban Wilderness, was widely praised and is available in paperback.
“A completely charming and informative book on the pleasures of keeping one’s eyes open.” -David Sedaris
“With her sensitivity, careful eye and gift for language, Haupt tells her tale beautifully, using crow study to get at a range of ever-deepening concerns about nature and our place within it, immersing us in a heady hybrid of science, history, how-to and memoir.” -Erika Schickel, Los Angeles Times
Lyanda’s first book, Rare Encounters with Ordinary Birds (Sasquatch, 2001), explores the relationship between humans, birds, and ecological understanding, and is a winner of the 2002 Washington State Book Award.
“Mozart’s Starling is a delightful, enlightening, breathless flight through the worlds of Carmen and Star, two European starlings who join their human counterparts in exploring life and music and nature, helping to shed light on the connection between humans and birds--those of us bound to terra firma, and those of us who are free to soar.”
Garth Stein
NYT bestselling author of The Art of Racing in the Rain and A Sudden Light
Lyanda's recent book, Crow Planet: Essential Wisdom from the Urban Wilderness, was widely praised and is available in paperback.
“A completely charming and informative book on the pleasures of keeping one’s eyes open.” -David Sedaris
“With her sensitivity, careful eye and gift for language, Haupt tells her tale beautifully, using crow study to get at a range of ever-deepening concerns about nature and our place within it, immersing us in a heady hybrid of science, history, how-to and memoir.” -Erika Schickel, Los Angeles Times
Lyanda’s first book, Rare Encounters with Ordinary Birds (Sasquatch, 2001), explores the relationship between humans, birds, and ecological understanding, and is a winner of the 2002 Washington State Book Award.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 728 reviews
January 25, 2022
Great concept, but didn't quite meet expectations - it read more as a personal journal/memoir with a few disconnected scientific tidbits thrown in.
April 5, 2021
During this pandemic I have seen friends on social media share rejuvenating experiences in nature through daily walks or hikes into the wilds, views from windows from homes in cities and woods and moors, experiences with fox frolicking in suburban yards or wild birds landing on outstretched palms offering seed and suet.
My brother walks every weekend with his girlfriend, through every weather. They seek out the lonely places, the empty dirt roads, the parks only populated in sunshine.
I have the local city park filled with towering oak trees and black squirrels hopping across the grass, a hawk watching overhead, or the protected woods were trillium carpet the forest floor in spring.
Even my own patio, sitting under the apple trees, offers a daily respite, watching the robins joyously splash in the bird bath, the sparrows flitting in and out of their nesting box, while bee and butterfly visit the herb garden and zinnia, perhaps oblivious to the rabbit who sneaks in to steal leaves from the rose bush.
How does anyone get through a week without communing with nature? A glimpse of flowering tree or autumnal glow of color across the grass? The raucous call of the Blue Jay or the hoot of an owl in the night?
Lyanda Lynn Haupt writes that being rooted in nature is a spiritual practice. She shares her personal stories of walking barefoot and alone in the forest, camping and walking blind at night, healed, and sometimes afraid, by the experience.
The spirituality of oneness with all the earth is ancient, the constructiveness of all life part of religious experience found in many faiths, including Christianity. But modern humans live in houses and work in rooms and Western society buys and uses and discards; we have lost wonder and respect and stewardship for Earth.
Haupt's witness shows us how to regain the sacred, how to claim sisterhood with all living things, how to embrace the darkness, and how to heal the earth and ourselves.
I received a free galley from the publisher through NetGalley. My review is fair and unbiased.
My brother walks every weekend with his girlfriend, through every weather. They seek out the lonely places, the empty dirt roads, the parks only populated in sunshine.
I have the local city park filled with towering oak trees and black squirrels hopping across the grass, a hawk watching overhead, or the protected woods were trillium carpet the forest floor in spring.
Even my own patio, sitting under the apple trees, offers a daily respite, watching the robins joyously splash in the bird bath, the sparrows flitting in and out of their nesting box, while bee and butterfly visit the herb garden and zinnia, perhaps oblivious to the rabbit who sneaks in to steal leaves from the rose bush.
How does anyone get through a week without communing with nature? A glimpse of flowering tree or autumnal glow of color across the grass? The raucous call of the Blue Jay or the hoot of an owl in the night?
Lyanda Lynn Haupt writes that being rooted in nature is a spiritual practice. She shares her personal stories of walking barefoot and alone in the forest, camping and walking blind at night, healed, and sometimes afraid, by the experience.
The spirituality of oneness with all the earth is ancient, the constructiveness of all life part of religious experience found in many faiths, including Christianity. But modern humans live in houses and work in rooms and Western society buys and uses and discards; we have lost wonder and respect and stewardship for Earth.
Haupt's witness shows us how to regain the sacred, how to claim sisterhood with all living things, how to embrace the darkness, and how to heal the earth and ourselves.
I received a free galley from the publisher through NetGalley. My review is fair and unbiased.
January 4, 2024
Thanks to a confluence of demographics and technology, we've pivoted further away from nature than any other generation before us. At the same time, we're increasingly burdened by chronic ailments made worse by time spent indoors, from myopia and vitamin D deficiency, to obesity, depression, loneliness and anxiety" ~Florence Williams, The Nature Fix.
With this sober reality as the central problem, Lyanda Lynn Haupt presents us with a simple solution: Go Outside . In this gentle, easy-to-digest meditation that is a tapestry of memoir, devotional, and guide, Haupt shows us the wisdom that has been with us since humans have been recording their thoughts with stones, fire, art, architecture, legends, songs, and only very recently, in print. Time spent communing with nature is time spent restoring the soul, not just that of the individual, but of our shared humanity.
Haupt blends faith and mysticism with science, bringing us the wisdom from philosophers like 11th century polymath and Benedictine abbess Hildegard of Bingen and mystic Julian of Norwich, whose 14th century writings are the first known works in English by a woman, to the poet and Celtic philosopher John O'Donohue, to a range of scientists and academics specializing in botany, biology, neurology, animal behavior. ”We live in a continuum she states, From the microecosystems of our households we make the choices that will allow the endurance of deepest wilderness."
Rooted presents the necessity of solitude, of walking (specifically, walking barefoot, a practice known as Earthing), wandering, what a "forest bath" really means. Haupt takes us into an exploration of animal, tree and root system intelligence and how to avoid the inevitable anthropomorphology that reduces non-human beings to human-like behaviors and emotions.
Although it is impossible to present meditations on engaging with the natural world without presenting the peril in which we have placed it, Rooted is about recapturing a sense of wonder and communion with Outside as a means to healing and preserving it. There is hope in each chapter, even in the poignancy of loss and grief.
I loved the intentionality Haupt's work. She invites us to actively participate in the Earth's—and our own—healing by handing us the receipts from science, philosophy and poetry that show the necessity and vitality of our engagement and what we stand to lose by remaining locked inside.
With this sober reality as the central problem, Lyanda Lynn Haupt presents us with a simple solution: Go Outside . In this gentle, easy-to-digest meditation that is a tapestry of memoir, devotional, and guide, Haupt shows us the wisdom that has been with us since humans have been recording their thoughts with stones, fire, art, architecture, legends, songs, and only very recently, in print. Time spent communing with nature is time spent restoring the soul, not just that of the individual, but of our shared humanity.
Haupt blends faith and mysticism with science, bringing us the wisdom from philosophers like 11th century polymath and Benedictine abbess Hildegard of Bingen and mystic Julian of Norwich, whose 14th century writings are the first known works in English by a woman, to the poet and Celtic philosopher John O'Donohue, to a range of scientists and academics specializing in botany, biology, neurology, animal behavior. ”We live in a continuum she states, From the microecosystems of our households we make the choices that will allow the endurance of deepest wilderness."
Rooted presents the necessity of solitude, of walking (specifically, walking barefoot, a practice known as Earthing), wandering, what a "forest bath" really means. Haupt takes us into an exploration of animal, tree and root system intelligence and how to avoid the inevitable anthropomorphology that reduces non-human beings to human-like behaviors and emotions.
Although it is impossible to present meditations on engaging with the natural world without presenting the peril in which we have placed it, Rooted is about recapturing a sense of wonder and communion with Outside as a means to healing and preserving it. There is hope in each chapter, even in the poignancy of loss and grief.
I loved the intentionality Haupt's work. She invites us to actively participate in the Earth's—and our own—healing by handing us the receipts from science, philosophy and poetry that show the necessity and vitality of our engagement and what we stand to lose by remaining locked inside.
May 13, 2021
This is an enjoyable read that mixes nature, memoir, philosophy and science. Beautiful black and white illustrations accompany it. I didn't necessarily learn anything but I enjoyed the book quite a lot.
I read a temporary digital ARC of this book for review.
I read a temporary digital ARC of this book for review.
August 19, 2022
Disappointed. Beautifully written but more of a personal memoir (a very preachy one at that) with few useful lessons and not much science.
May 8, 2021
Haupt’s Crow Planet was the highlight of my 2019 animal-themed summer reading. I admired her determination to incorporate wildlife-watching into everyday life, and appreciated her words on the human connection to and responsibility towards the rest of nature. Rooted, one of my most anticipated books of this year, continues in that vein, yet surprised me with its mystical approach. No doubt some will be put off by the spiritual standpoint and dismiss the author as a barefoot, tree-hugging hippie. Well, sign me up to Haupt’s team, because nature needs all the help it can get, and we know that people won’t save what they don’t love. Start to think about trees and animals as brothers and sisters – or even as part of the self – and actions that passively doom them, not to mention wanton destruction of habitat, will hit closer to home.
I hadn’t realized that Haupt grew up Catholic, so the language of mysticism comes easily to her, but even as a child nature was where she truly sensed transcendence. Down by the creek, where she listened to birdsong and watched the frog lifecycle, was where she learned that everything is connected. She even confessed her other church, “Frog Church” (this book’s original title), to her priest one day. (He humored her by assigning an extra Our Father.) How to reclaim that childhood feeling of connectedness as a busy, tech-addicted adult?
The Seattle-based Haupt engages in, and encourages, solo camping, barefoot walking, purposeful wandering, spending time sitting under trees, mindfulness, and going out in the dark. This might look countercultural, or even eccentric. Some will also feel called to teach, to protest, and to support environmental causes financially. Others will contribute their talent for music, writing, or the visual arts. But there are subtler changes to be made too, in our attitudes and the way we speak. A simple one is to watch how we refer to other species. “It” has no place in a creature-directed vocabulary.
Haupt’s perspective chimes with the ethos of the New Networks for Nature conference I attend each year, as well as with the work of many UK nature writers like Robert Macfarlane (in particular, she mentions The Lost Words) and Jini Reddy (Wanderland). I also found a fair amount of overlap with Lucy Jones’s Losing Eden. There were points where Haupt got a little abstract and even woo-woo for me – and I say that as someone with a religious background. But her passion won me over, and her book helped me to understand why two things that happened earlier this year – a fox dying in our backyard and neighbors having a big willow tree taken down – wounded me so deeply. That I felt each death throe and chainsaw cut as if in my own body wasn’t just me being sentimental and oversensitive. It was a reminder that I’m a part of all of life, and I must do more to protect it.
Favorite lines:
“In this time of planetary crisis, overwhelm is common. What to do? There is so much. Too much. No single human can work to save the orcas and the Amazon and organize protests to stop fracking and write poetry that inspires others to act and pray in a hermit’s dwelling for transformation and get dinner on the table. How easy it is to feel paralyzed by obligations. How easy it is to feel lost and insignificant and unable to know what is best, to feel adrift while yearning for purpose. Rootedness is a way of being in concert with the wilderness—and wildness—that sustains humans and all of life.”
“No one can do all things. Yet we can hold all things as we trim and change our lives and choose our particular forms of rooted, creative action—those that call uniquely to us.”
Originally published on my blog, Bookish Beck.
I hadn’t realized that Haupt grew up Catholic, so the language of mysticism comes easily to her, but even as a child nature was where she truly sensed transcendence. Down by the creek, where she listened to birdsong and watched the frog lifecycle, was where she learned that everything is connected. She even confessed her other church, “Frog Church” (this book’s original title), to her priest one day. (He humored her by assigning an extra Our Father.) How to reclaim that childhood feeling of connectedness as a busy, tech-addicted adult?
The Seattle-based Haupt engages in, and encourages, solo camping, barefoot walking, purposeful wandering, spending time sitting under trees, mindfulness, and going out in the dark. This might look countercultural, or even eccentric. Some will also feel called to teach, to protest, and to support environmental causes financially. Others will contribute their talent for music, writing, or the visual arts. But there are subtler changes to be made too, in our attitudes and the way we speak. A simple one is to watch how we refer to other species. “It” has no place in a creature-directed vocabulary.
Haupt’s perspective chimes with the ethos of the New Networks for Nature conference I attend each year, as well as with the work of many UK nature writers like Robert Macfarlane (in particular, she mentions The Lost Words) and Jini Reddy (Wanderland). I also found a fair amount of overlap with Lucy Jones’s Losing Eden. There were points where Haupt got a little abstract and even woo-woo for me – and I say that as someone with a religious background. But her passion won me over, and her book helped me to understand why two things that happened earlier this year – a fox dying in our backyard and neighbors having a big willow tree taken down – wounded me so deeply. That I felt each death throe and chainsaw cut as if in my own body wasn’t just me being sentimental and oversensitive. It was a reminder that I’m a part of all of life, and I must do more to protect it.
Favorite lines:
“In this time of planetary crisis, overwhelm is common. What to do? There is so much. Too much. No single human can work to save the orcas and the Amazon and organize protests to stop fracking and write poetry that inspires others to act and pray in a hermit’s dwelling for transformation and get dinner on the table. How easy it is to feel paralyzed by obligations. How easy it is to feel lost and insignificant and unable to know what is best, to feel adrift while yearning for purpose. Rootedness is a way of being in concert with the wilderness—and wildness—that sustains humans and all of life.”
“No one can do all things. Yet we can hold all things as we trim and change our lives and choose our particular forms of rooted, creative action—those that call uniquely to us.”
Originally published on my blog, Bookish Beck.
September 7, 2023
Somos adictos a buscar generalizaciones, etiquetas, términos que identifiquen de una manera simplificada aquello en lo que se encuentra centrada nuestra mente. Pues bien, el libro que estoy reseñando escapa a esta realidad simplificadora. No sé en qué categoría debería de clasificarlo, y mucho menos sabría decir de qué va el libro de Lyanda Lynn con una oración sencilla.
Se parece mucho a una conversación con una buena amiga, pero una amiga peculiar (en el buen sentido de la palabra). Una de esas amigas que son sensibles a la naturaleza, que se sienten conectadas con ella, que buscan frecuentemente participar de su presencia física, y que respetan y protegen el entorno valorándolo como lo más sagrado que nos ha dado la vida. Esta buena amiga, que además tiene gran facilidad para la palabra y sabe transformar lo pragmático en hermoso, sin perder su significado por el camino, comparte de la forma más fiel posible aquellos pensamientos que están conectados directamente con su filosofía de vida y que solo le dedicaría a un buen amigo con el que hay plena confianza. Por tanto, este libro es un regalo de confianza, de sinceridad y también de amor.
Lleno de vivencias personales, hechos curiosos, datos preocupantes, pero también de un gran optimismo, Lyanda nos lleva a dar un paseo por un paisaje variado, organizado a través de unas temáticas clave que desarrolla con un perfecto equilibrio entre la libertad de narrar una experiencia personal, y la coherencia de darle sentido a esas experiencias aparentemente inconexas. Es un libro fácil y agradable de leer, que te deja una buena sensación y que desearías continuar leyendo un poco más. También hay que destacar que cada capítulo está acompañado por unas ilustraciones muy bien logradas y que ayudan a ambientar las diferentes ideas de la autora. Por supuesto merece la pena leer este libro, aunque la ausencia de un único argumento claro pueda desorientar a algunos lectores.
Se parece mucho a una conversación con una buena amiga, pero una amiga peculiar (en el buen sentido de la palabra). Una de esas amigas que son sensibles a la naturaleza, que se sienten conectadas con ella, que buscan frecuentemente participar de su presencia física, y que respetan y protegen el entorno valorándolo como lo más sagrado que nos ha dado la vida. Esta buena amiga, que además tiene gran facilidad para la palabra y sabe transformar lo pragmático en hermoso, sin perder su significado por el camino, comparte de la forma más fiel posible aquellos pensamientos que están conectados directamente con su filosofía de vida y que solo le dedicaría a un buen amigo con el que hay plena confianza. Por tanto, este libro es un regalo de confianza, de sinceridad y también de amor.
Lleno de vivencias personales, hechos curiosos, datos preocupantes, pero también de un gran optimismo, Lyanda nos lleva a dar un paseo por un paisaje variado, organizado a través de unas temáticas clave que desarrolla con un perfecto equilibrio entre la libertad de narrar una experiencia personal, y la coherencia de darle sentido a esas experiencias aparentemente inconexas. Es un libro fácil y agradable de leer, que te deja una buena sensación y que desearías continuar leyendo un poco más. También hay que destacar que cada capítulo está acompañado por unas ilustraciones muy bien logradas y que ayudan a ambientar las diferentes ideas de la autora. Por supuesto merece la pena leer este libro, aunque la ausencia de un único argumento claro pueda desorientar a algunos lectores.
Read
December 31, 2022This is a nonfiction so I’m at odds with rating it. If I had to I would rate it lowly. But I’m not sure if that is my fault or hers. I think I expected something different. I think a lot of this book was just a bunch of her ramblings about our connection to earth and nature. And though I thought a lot of her discussions were interesting most of the time she’d say a few good things in a mess of things that were pointless.
March 16, 2023
I found so much peace in this book. If you’re apart of my fellow Woo Woos, then this book is written for you🫶🏼 Haupt eloquently ties together spirit and nature, and backs it with science. For me, it validated my sense of calm I have always felt while in nature, even as a child. I have never been able to explain my emotions on why it is so important to protect our environment beyond the obvious reasons, but thankfully, Haupt did it for me.
October 22, 2024
i think i highlighted this whole book, it was brilliant
February 14, 2022
I really wanted to love this book. I had such high hopes, but it just wasn’t there. The bad part is I honestly have nothing bad to say about it other than the fact that it’s just not interesting or memorable. I forgot what I was reading as soon as I stepped away. I found my mind wandering the entire time I read it (which is very unlike me.) the subject matter was amazing, but it just wasn’t interesting. I did enjoy the last chapter, but the rest was lacking oomph.
January 30, 2025
This book wasn’t what I wanted it to be :( it was more of a memoir than a story about the interdisciplinary matter of nature and spirituality. Nothing wrong with that, it’s just not what I wanted out of this book.
August 12, 2021
ETA 09/27/21: I lied. I let too much time pass, but honestly, I’ll probably be reading it and referencing it again soon. I’ll maybe review it then.
4.5 stars rounded up. Minor stylistic issues aside, the end of this book made me cry in catharsis, and that’s super precious to me right now in this impending fourth wave of the pandemic. Review to come when I can collect myself, not to be a stereotypical melodramatic Cancer.
4.5 stars rounded up. Minor stylistic issues aside, the end of this book made me cry in catharsis, and that’s super precious to me right now in this impending fourth wave of the pandemic. Review to come when I can collect myself, not to be a stereotypical melodramatic Cancer.
July 15, 2021
The writing was magical and mindful, returning us back to the times much simpler and more connected or rooted back to nature. I love the tools Haupt offers in every chapter as she brings us back to the joys of being barefoot in nature and connecting us to the wildness of the wilderness. Rooted was quite the read that gave pause, in a timely and important subject especially now where life embedded in technology meant distance from nature. This was a fantastic book!
February 24, 2024
The author talks about how important being outside is to our mental health, and how just the idea of natural places helps us relax. And she encourages us to go out and hug a tree.
This was the first time I've heard anyone say it was okay to just let your mind wander during meditation. All the other books I've read on the subject say that, sure, it's okay if your mind wanders, but you should always bring your attention back to the breath. Lyanda says it's okay to just let your mind think about whatever it wants without trying to control it. That sounds good to me since that's pretty much what I've been doing anyway.
And it was the first time I've heard my new favorite word: detritivore.
This was the first time I've heard anyone say it was okay to just let your mind wander during meditation. All the other books I've read on the subject say that, sure, it's okay if your mind wanders, but you should always bring your attention back to the breath. Lyanda says it's okay to just let your mind think about whatever it wants without trying to control it. That sounds good to me since that's pretty much what I've been doing anyway.
And it was the first time I've heard my new favorite word: detritivore.
July 13, 2022
This book had been sitting unread on my shelf for far too long when I finally picked it up. At a point where I needed to read SOMEthing that would keep me from just wanting to put rocks in my pockets and waddle out into the local river, surging with runoff, this one did the trick ... just as I expected it would. I love everything about it: Haupt's voice, the twining of myth and mystery and silence, and even the memoirish glimpse into the author's interactions with the world. I loved it.
January 18, 2024
I chose this book for the specific reason of wanting to learn about the expansive world of spirit, nature, and science but it fell flat on its cover. This read more as a catholic perspective of nature with added cultures for diversity's sake, but no real deep dive into those other spiritualities just the barest glance. When they brought up an Indigenous chant of the O'oodham people shared by an American Buddhist monk - I shut the book and put it down. Neither the author or this monk had any right to share this chant - if it was shared with them, then it is for them, not to be shared with others for personal or financial profit. The O'oodham Tribe is filled with living, breathing people but this author would rather mythize them and share their culture through a secondary source.
March 1, 2024
this book hit me right in the soul, and so so fast!! I could have read a thousand pages of Lyanda's research, memories, observations and philosophies. I loved how beautifully the crossroads intersected and wove together, haven't experienced this sort of magic since Braiding Sweetgrass. (also felt grateful for the author's acknowledgement of Indigenous peoples, ancestral knowledge and connection with the land)
April 11, 2022
เข้าใจว่าคะแนนสูง เพราะแปลออกมามีความเป็นกวีมาก
เหนรีวิวคะแนนสูง ก็เลยจัดมา แต่ส่วนตัวไม่ค่อยเก็ท
ความสุนทรีย์ สไตล์นี้ มันเฉพาะทางยุนะ
อารมณ์ เหมือนคนเขียนเน้นพรรณนาธรรมชาติ
เเละปรัชญา แบบไกลตัวไปหน่อย
เหมือนได้ดู สารคดี แนว fantastic fungi ใน netflix
แต่ว่าไม่หนุกเท่า
แต่อ่านแล้วก็แน่นอน มะนทำให้เรามอง และ appreciate ธรรมชาติรอบตัวมากขึ้น
เหนรีวิวคะแนนสูง ก็เลยจัดมา แต่ส่วนตัวไม่ค่อยเก็ท
ความสุนทรีย์ สไตล์นี้ มันเฉพาะทางยุนะ
อารมณ์ เหมือนคนเขียนเน้นพรรณนาธรรมชาติ
เเละปรัชญา แบบไกลตัวไปหน่อย
เหมือนได้ดู สารคดี แนว fantastic fungi ใน netflix
แต่ว่าไม่หนุกเท่า
แต่อ่านแล้วก็แน่นอน มะนทำให้เรามอง และ appreciate ธรรมชาติรอบตัวมากขึ้น
September 9, 2022
I like how this was written with such an understanding of our 'positive' relationship and symbiosis with nature through the author's own experiences, spirituality, philosophy, and studies. it's a short book but the message was delivered as advertised.
4 stars.
4 stars.
December 30, 2022
I liked this book a lot — the title fits the premise perfectly. It is very focused on nature spiritually and, in particular, human interactions with nature in our personal lives and on a larger scale. Its memoir style-writing is interwoven with well-researched science; the author used an incredible amount of references while incorporating them seamlessly. All in all, this is a wonderful book and I feel like it would serve newcomers to the concept of “nature spirituality” well due to the author drawing from a plethora of sources.
May 25, 2024
Very beautifully written book that draws on history, philosophy, biology, environmental science, and personal narrative to remind humans of their greater connection to the Earth and beings around them. Best read underneath a tree at a park. It has helped me feel revitalized in efforts surrounding conservation and climate solutions while reminding me of the deep spiritual connection all living beings share!
April 15, 2025
A perfect book. A masterpiece.
January 21, 2023
This little strange book was surprisingly enjoyable to read. I thought there would be more true science, so it was not what I expected.
March 24, 2024
Where do I begin with this lukewarm book?
Like most of my recent book purchases, I bought this one from Analog Books in Lethbridge for a reasonable price as usual. I was hoping to find a book that, like Merlin Sheldrake's Entangled Life, effectively straddled the line between science and creation. However, like my recent escapades into this territory, I was dealt yet another woke agenda-pushing book, this time with the nagging voice of a preachy feminist explaining how her life as a housewife is on par with ecological stalwarts such as Rachael Carson.
As a professed Christian and a ecological field scientist, I am of the rare breed that is forced to straddle a razor's edge between science and faith. Therefore, for the most part, any book that I pick from the multitude of science or faith topics is bound to generate some intrigue in me. By some cosmic probability, I have found a book that professes both, yet yields neither.
In all, this book is a disorganized jumble of "scientific evidence" claiming pagan garbage interspersed with occasional lectures on appropriate pronoun usage and the confidently incorrect view that all plants, trees, and animals are somehow "shes"; even the dioecious ones. Add to this a judgmental hint of veganism in the hunter vs. deer section and you have a guidebook on how to be a pagan vegan super-nature feminist Karen in the modern day.
Unless you wish to waste your time and money on this lacklustre book that started out okay but only got worse, skip this one and read Entangled Life by Merlin Sheldrake.
Like most of my recent book purchases, I bought this one from Analog Books in Lethbridge for a reasonable price as usual. I was hoping to find a book that, like Merlin Sheldrake's Entangled Life, effectively straddled the line between science and creation. However, like my recent escapades into this territory, I was dealt yet another woke agenda-pushing book, this time with the nagging voice of a preachy feminist explaining how her life as a housewife is on par with ecological stalwarts such as Rachael Carson.
As a professed Christian and a ecological field scientist, I am of the rare breed that is forced to straddle a razor's edge between science and faith. Therefore, for the most part, any book that I pick from the multitude of science or faith topics is bound to generate some intrigue in me. By some cosmic probability, I have found a book that professes both, yet yields neither.
In all, this book is a disorganized jumble of "scientific evidence" claiming pagan garbage interspersed with occasional lectures on appropriate pronoun usage and the confidently incorrect view that all plants, trees, and animals are somehow "shes"; even the dioecious ones. Add to this a judgmental hint of veganism in the hunter vs. deer section and you have a guidebook on how to be a pagan vegan super-nature feminist Karen in the modern day.
Unless you wish to waste your time and money on this lacklustre book that started out okay but only got worse, skip this one and read Entangled Life by Merlin Sheldrake.
March 14, 2024
I don’t know what exactly I expected of this book but this wasn’t quite it. I don’t even have any harsh criticisms on it, it just wasn’t as interesting as I hoped and only a few parts really jumped out at me. I have always told my husband that nature is my church and I don’t get much out of going to a physical church. I love her story about “frog church”. I am also already set on a natural burial before reading this book but I really like the idea of hand sewing a synthetic free burial dress. Lastly, I have started to walk barefoot outside a lot since moving to Colorado but I will be trying more on trail hiking now after this book. Those are really my only big take aways. I was really hoping for more out of this one.
September 24, 2024
To put "science" on the cover is false advertising. Reads very pick me, I'm a special tree girl. She has some valid points: we should walk barefoot more often, think about how light affects animal behavior, slow down, critique the "normal" and be "weirder" sure. Not enjoyable as a whole for me tho. Feels more like a granola girl's woodland journal than a narrative on human health and nature. Which, if that's what you wanna read, here, you take it.
May 31, 2024
I’m truly not trying to be a hater because I wanted to love this book, I really did. however, it felt more like an ode to HER specific (and somewhat preachy) love for nature rather than a guide or even a scientific exploration.
July 2, 2024
This is a perfectly nice book that I didn't need to read because I've already read 90% of the books she references, but if you just got interested in this topic it's a good starting point.
August 16, 2026
This book is very autobiographical, you can kind of tell that based on the title and description so I knew that going in. That isn't my usual favorite kind of book but I don't think this did a bad job with it at all.
It's kind of difficult to complain about this book without feeling kind of negative, like the author is having a fun and meaningful religious experience out here and I am not, so it feels kind of mean to correct it from an external perspective.
Like there is this persistent sense in the book of relying on intuition, the author will say "science shows this, but we already knew that anyway because we can feel it." And like, even if I ignore how some of the studies she is talking about feel kind of odd, or like they maybe don't really show what she says they do, feeling something does not make it true. Humans are prone to biases and cognitive distortions and other weird things that mess with our thoughts and feelings. This is pretty harmless when it's like "I already enjoyed going outside before I read a study that says taking walks is good for you" but it seems like a dangerous thing to base your sense of truth off of.
But the author very clearly isn't talking about "feeling" that vaccines are dangerous or "feeling" uncomfortable around certain kinds of people, she is talking about going for a walk outside.
So that is kind of what I mean by I can't really complain without feeling like I am being too negative or taking things in bad faith. The way the book talked about this idea struck me as wrong and uncomfortable but pointing it out feels like I'm picking on the author for not wording things perfectly.
A few other bits kind of struck me this way as well.
The repeated bits of the author doing kind of dangerous stuff, and clearly having safety plans in place but not pointing them out to the reader kind of got to me. Like "I went for a walk outside, alone, in the dark, and you should too!" then casually mentioning that she was in full earshot of a bunch of people who knew where she was going and when she would be back before quickly moving on.
Or the lack of action, so much of this book is about personal meditations but it is also about climate change. But because this book is so much about meditation it seems to imply that the solution for people worried about climate change is to walk around barefoot and hug trees. Like by caring and thinking enough you can change things, when I think you need to care, think, and act.
But all of this feels again, like maybe I am being too negative because the book is about raiding random cultures for cool religious terms and applying it to nature, not about how to be safe night hiking or fix climate change.
Because of the way this book is it is impossible not to compare it to Braiding Sweetgrass . and that one worked a lot better for me than this book did. I feel like Braiding Sweetgrass conveyed the awe of nature to me in its descriptions while this book conveyed the sense that I could feel awe if I did the right things, which is a subtle difference but a kind of meaningful one.
I think I am the exact wrong person to feel moved by this book. It would talk about going outside, walking barefoot, enjoying solitude then say "but that might not work if you live in an urban area, and its unsafe to walk barefoot, and you have a lot of anxiety and your thoughts can be frighting" which is me. I live in an urban area where I do not where open toed shoes and don't enjoy sitting with my own anxious thoughts (though I still do enjoy my contemplative alone time).
That kind of made it hard to connect to bits of this book at times. I have my own almost spiritual connection to and love of nature, but whatever the author has got going on is clearly something else. Good for her, but she is having entirely unrelatable experiences to me and her helpful little steps on how to get there are concerning at times and don't really work for me.
That isn't to say I had an entirely negative time reading this book, I think it was mostly good. The ideas the author brought up were interesting, even if I would not follow them directly it is still fun to think about.
I think the author's own upbringing and faith give this book a really unique perspective. I think a lot of nature books kind of tend to (intentionally or not) generalize all of Christianity as a hierarchical corruptive world view so it is interesting to see such a different perspective. I'm glad the author found peace with her little frog church even if I think she is kind of a freak at times.
This is also probably giving too much credit for doing the bare minimum, but I am really happy this book is not 90% Robin Wall Kimmerer. She gets brought up occasionally, but not nearly as much as a lot of ecology books bring her up and it is so refreshing. The author actually has her own ideas and thoughts about things! A lot of those thoughts are also Walt Whitman's thoughts but at least I haven't seen him quoted a bajillion times in every other book about the topic, so it feels newer.
It's kind of difficult to complain about this book without feeling kind of negative, like the author is having a fun and meaningful religious experience out here and I am not, so it feels kind of mean to correct it from an external perspective.
Like there is this persistent sense in the book of relying on intuition, the author will say "science shows this, but we already knew that anyway because we can feel it." And like, even if I ignore how some of the studies she is talking about feel kind of odd, or like they maybe don't really show what she says they do, feeling something does not make it true. Humans are prone to biases and cognitive distortions and other weird things that mess with our thoughts and feelings. This is pretty harmless when it's like "I already enjoyed going outside before I read a study that says taking walks is good for you" but it seems like a dangerous thing to base your sense of truth off of.
But the author very clearly isn't talking about "feeling" that vaccines are dangerous or "feeling" uncomfortable around certain kinds of people, she is talking about going for a walk outside.
So that is kind of what I mean by I can't really complain without feeling like I am being too negative or taking things in bad faith. The way the book talked about this idea struck me as wrong and uncomfortable but pointing it out feels like I'm picking on the author for not wording things perfectly.
A few other bits kind of struck me this way as well.
The repeated bits of the author doing kind of dangerous stuff, and clearly having safety plans in place but not pointing them out to the reader kind of got to me. Like "I went for a walk outside, alone, in the dark, and you should too!" then casually mentioning that she was in full earshot of a bunch of people who knew where she was going and when she would be back before quickly moving on.
Or the lack of action, so much of this book is about personal meditations but it is also about climate change. But because this book is so much about meditation it seems to imply that the solution for people worried about climate change is to walk around barefoot and hug trees. Like by caring and thinking enough you can change things, when I think you need to care, think, and act.
But all of this feels again, like maybe I am being too negative because the book is about raiding random cultures for cool religious terms and applying it to nature, not about how to be safe night hiking or fix climate change.
Because of the way this book is it is impossible not to compare it to Braiding Sweetgrass . and that one worked a lot better for me than this book did. I feel like Braiding Sweetgrass conveyed the awe of nature to me in its descriptions while this book conveyed the sense that I could feel awe if I did the right things, which is a subtle difference but a kind of meaningful one.
I think I am the exact wrong person to feel moved by this book. It would talk about going outside, walking barefoot, enjoying solitude then say "but that might not work if you live in an urban area, and its unsafe to walk barefoot, and you have a lot of anxiety and your thoughts can be frighting" which is me. I live in an urban area where I do not where open toed shoes and don't enjoy sitting with my own anxious thoughts (though I still do enjoy my contemplative alone time).
That kind of made it hard to connect to bits of this book at times. I have my own almost spiritual connection to and love of nature, but whatever the author has got going on is clearly something else. Good for her, but she is having entirely unrelatable experiences to me and her helpful little steps on how to get there are concerning at times and don't really work for me.
That isn't to say I had an entirely negative time reading this book, I think it was mostly good. The ideas the author brought up were interesting, even if I would not follow them directly it is still fun to think about.
I think the author's own upbringing and faith give this book a really unique perspective. I think a lot of nature books kind of tend to (intentionally or not) generalize all of Christianity as a hierarchical corruptive world view so it is interesting to see such a different perspective. I'm glad the author found peace with her little frog church even if I think she is kind of a freak at times.
This is also probably giving too much credit for doing the bare minimum, but I am really happy this book is not 90% Robin Wall Kimmerer. She gets brought up occasionally, but not nearly as much as a lot of ecology books bring her up and it is so refreshing. The author actually has her own ideas and thoughts about things! A lot of those thoughts are also Walt Whitman's thoughts but at least I haven't seen him quoted a bajillion times in every other book about the topic, so it feels newer.
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