Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmer
Rating = ****

The subtitle is "Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the 
Teachings of Plants." It's an apt subtitle. This is a book of essays, some 
biographical about growing up as an Indigenous American, some about her 
journey as a single parent for most of her daughters' lives, and some from 
her career as a professor of botany at a university in New York. The 
common thread through all the stories is how Indigenous beliefs about 
agriculture mostly mesh with best practices today. The Indigenous 
Americans may not have understood the science, but they understood what 
generations of observations taught them. As a book of essays, this is best 
read in chunks. Read a few stories and let them seep into you while you 
read something else. Then come back for another dip into the book; repeat 
until you are done.