Hopeland is a masterpiece of magical realism: only a magician could have crafted such a book, and McDonald’s protagonists are thoroughly human and relatable, which makes them very real, their occasional electromancy and stormtalking (breathtakingly described) notwithstanding.
They live, love, grieve, and help save the world from the climate catastrophe (which, incidentally, is the reality that we are living right now), all the while revealing to you why the world deserves saving.
Beware: you, too, will weep, laugh, love, and end up wanting to help save the world.
Hopeland is not a nation. It is not a cult. It is not a religion.
Hopeland is a community. It is a culture. It is a family.
When Raisa Hopeland, determined to win her race to become the next electromancer of London, bumps into Amon Brightbourne - tweed-suited, otherworldly, guided by the Grace - in the middle of a London riot, she sets in motion a series of events which will span decades, continents and a series of events which will change the world.
Amon falls in love in that moment of chaos, but being loved by him can have…
The author of this amazing, eye-opening, and heart-warming book, Dr. Robin Wall Kimmerer, is the role model I wish I had when I was young.
She is the kindest soul, the mother of two accomplished and loving daughters, a member of the Potawatomi Nation with deep roots in the traditions of her people and their Native neighbors, a professor of plant science, a gardener, and a knowledgeable and compassionate commenter on the human condition.
There is an old Jewish tradition according to which the world owes its continued existence to 36 tzadikim nistarim, hidden righteous people, who may themselves be unaware of their charge.
If there is any truth to this legend, Dr. Kimmerer surely counts as one of the thirty-six.
Called the work of "a mesmerizing storyteller with deep compassion and memorable prose" (Publishers Weekly) and the book that, "anyone interested in natural history, botany, protecting nature, or Native American culture will love," by Library Journal, Braiding Sweetgrass is poised to be a classic of nature writing. As a botanist, Robin Wall Kimmerer asks questions of nature with the tools of science. As a member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation, she embraces indigenous teachings that consider plants and animals to be our oldest teachers. Kimmerer brings these two lenses of knowledge together to take "us on a journey that is…
Galeano’s collection of vignettes, drawn from South American folklore and beautifully illustrated with woodcuts by José Francisco Borges, is best read one story at a time, each followed by a little pause to savor the experience.
The stories open windows onto surreal worlds, which, upon reflection, are revealed, for better or for worse, as aspects of our own.
The only downside to reading this book is wanting more when you’re done.
In Walking Words world-renowned author Eduardo Galeano draws on the folklore of rural and urban Latin America to discover and retell "the stories of ghouls and fools that Id like to write." These tales are beautifully illustrated by his collaborator, the Brazilian woodcut artist Jose Francisco Borges, and become testaments to the power of stories to make and remake and enchant the world.
This book is about all things consciousness, great and small.
Among many other matters, it explains how it is that we share some aspects of consciousness with bacteria, how it can arise in artificial machines and not just living ones, and how the empty cocoon of the self that it spins ends up pretending to be the butterfly; and how consciousness dooms this virtual butterfly to the splendor and the suffering of being awake and aware.
Unlike most other books on consciousness, this one includes a discussion of some possible ways whereby we, pinned like butterflies by our species’ history and social and economic circumstances, can awake to our collective predicament and join forces to do something about it.
