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 “What would it be like to be raised on gratitude, to speak to the earth as if it were a beloved relative?”

There are some books that don’t just share knowledge — they reawaken it in you. Braiding Sweetgrass is one of those rare treasures: a weaving of science, story, and spirit that gently transforms how you see the world and your place in it.

Robin Wall Kimmerer — botanist, professor, and member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation — invites the reader into a slow, reverent conversation about reciprocity, kinship, and the intelligence of the living world. With prose as rich and grounded as the soil she studies, she offers both scientific insight and Indigenous wisdom, never treating them as separate threads, but braiding them together with deep care.

What I loved most was the sense of listening that underpins every page. Kimmerer writes not just to share, but to invite — into gratitude, into relationship, into responsibility. Whether she’s describing the quiet generosity of sweetgrass, the learning curve of raising daughters close to the land, or the intricate exchanges between mosses and water, each chapter feels like a sacred offering.

This book took me days to read — not because it was slow, but because it asked me to slow down. To read with ceremony. To think. To notice. To look at the trees outside my window not as background, but as neighbours.

If you’re yearning for a book that reconnects, recentres, and replenishes — this is it. Not just a favourite of the year, but one I’ll return to again and again, like a familiar forest path that always shows you something new.

Favourite quote:
“In a world that values constant growth, sweetgrass reminds us that the most beautiful things are those that grow in circles, not lines.”

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
A wise, generous, and deeply healing book — Braiding Sweetgrass is both a love letter and a call to remember.


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“Sometimes, the end of a path is just the beginning.”

Every now and then, a book comes along that quietly but irrevocably shifts something in you. The Salt Path is one of those books — gentle and unassuming on the surface, but full of deep, tidal emotion that carries you somewhere unexpected.

Raynor Winn tells the true story of how she and her husband Moth, newly homeless and reeling from his devastating diagnosis, decide to walk the 630-mile South West Coast Path from Somerset to Dorset. With nothing but a tent, meagre funds, and a fierce sense of love and determination, their journey is both a physical trek and an emotional reckoning — with grief, with resilience, with the raw edges of the natural world.

What struck me most was the simplicity and strength of Winn’s writing. There’s no pretension, only honesty — about exhaustion, about shame, about the beauty of a windswept cliff at sunset. Her words are carried by the rhythm of the waves, the call of seabirds, the relentless forward motion of walking. And through it all, her bond with Moth is achingly beautiful — quiet, unwavering, and filled with the kind of tenderness that feels rare and vital.

This book is not just about a walk, or a hardship overcome. It's about choosing life — deliberately, doggedly, even when life seems to have turned its back on you. It’s about rewilding yourself in the face of ruin. And it’s about hope — not the shiny, surface kind, but the real, salt-stung kind that comes from the ground up.

If you’ve ever found solace in nature, questioned what it means to “have enough,” or needed reminding of the small, sturdy things that carry us through — The Salt Path will find its way into your heart and stay there.

Favourite quote:
"To carry on, to make a new home in the light, not the dark. To live. To live the best life we could."

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Raw, restorative, and deeply human — The Salt Path is a quiet triumph of spirit and landscape alike.

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Blyhe

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