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🎶 All about that moss ‘bout that moss! 🎶
Everyone I told about this book made a face 😂
It is all about moss, but also about our connection to the natural world, which I‘m always here for. If you liked Braiding Sweetgrass, you‘ll like this one! I especially appreciated the story of the super wealthy landowner who hired Kimmerer to help establish mosses to make his golf course look old. Turns out, money actually can buy just about anything.

I‘ve long been a fan of Robin Wall Kimmerer‘s Braiding Sweetgrass—as well as Elizabeth Gilbert‘s The Signature of All Things, inspired by Gathering Moss—so it was high time to enjoy this natural & cultural history of mosses! This is a lovely way to gain an appreciation for these rich, resilient, important works of nature—though to be honest, the highlight for me was her consultation at a wealthy estate where they‘re doing everything wrong.

My best July NonFiction was Gathering Moss. I hope this author has something more soon. 🙂 #2023readingbracket

I started this book today. Here‘s some sights from around Kirkland Lake, ON — my father‘s hometown. #audiowalk

I love Kimmerer‘s writing so much! Her point of view blending science and conservation with an indigenous people‘s respect and reverence for plants, animals, and the earth resonates with me.

This one is much shorter than Braiding Sweetgrass, and was published earlier. It focuses on moss, obviously, but also the trees, rocks, forests, animals, and waters that live with the mosses.

Brilliant and lovely, one I could see rereading.

My first conscious memory of “science” (or was it religion?) comes from my kindergarten class, which met in the old Grange Hall.
#FirstLineFridays #CurrentlyReading

The author starts the preface talking about her first glimpse of snowflakes through a magnifying glass. A magical moment in my life as well.

Just got the tagged book at the library! Can‘t wait to dive into the steady cadence of RWK‘s prose 🌊

I‘ve seen some criticism about her writing, how she portrays indigenous cultures as the only ones living in harmony with nature. I disagree with this criticism.

I also question whether an author from a more dominant culture would receive this kind of criticism. What do you think?

📸by Rebecca of aclotheshorse

#Naturalitsy

I love moss so much. I'm reading the tagged today after listening to this podcast today.

https://www.theguardian.com/news/audio/2022/dec/09/the-many-meanings-of-moss-pod...

Listening to the tagged book while attempting to make peeps look like Pikachu‘s . Not quite a Pinterest fail but not as good as the picture …lol
I think the kids will get it …🤷🏻‍♀️

Wow! This was so good! Definitely one to savor. I‘ve been hearing lots of rave reviews about “Braiding Sweetgrass” but am very glad I read this one first. Kimmerer‘s genuine love of mosses and respect for all nature is perfectly expressed in this short book. Now I feel prepared to move on to her next one. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I‘m enjoying this so much more than I thought I would! Kimmerer‘s detailed knowledge, personal insights, and delightful sense of humor make for a such a great read! During lunch today I found the chapter where Kimmerer describes her efforts to make slugs race…by tempting them with beer! 😂

I won‘t see moss the same way again. There are whole worlds and dramas being acted out we don‘t see!

I didn‘t enjoy it as much as Braiding Sweetgrass, but I‘m still glad I read it. 💚 The chapter on The Owner who wanted to possess mosses was revolting! What an example of excessive consumption and western ideas about property.

Between a So-So and a Pick. If you want to learn about mosses, this is a good place to start if you can't get outside to explore the real deal. A lot of biology and science, the essays all start out with a strong story hook but most go all in on science, leaving the story part behind. I didn't get a strong sense of cultural history the way there was in the author's later book, Braiding Sweetgrass.

Perhaps there are “stupid” questions. 😳

This is my second book by Robin Wall Kimmerer. She is an excellent writer and narrator. I highly recommend Gathering Moss and Braiding Sweetgrass. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ #audible #audiblewalk

Fascinating passage in this chapter on anabiotic organisms like mosses and waterbears. They can be desiccated for years and reanimated by a bit of water. The wonders of the natural microscopic world!

I highly recommend the Audible version. Robin Wall Kimmerer‘s voice is so calming.😌

“In indigenous ways of
knowing, it is understood
that each living being has a
particular role to play. Every
being is endowed with
certain gifts, its own
intelligence, its own spirit,
its own story. Our stories
tell us that the Creator gave
these to us, as original
instructions“

First leisurely morning in 2 months. Ahhhhhhh ☺️

Picking this up where I left off, a chapter a day.

Made me OBSESSED with moss. Super interesting, with some chapters being just a bit underwhelming to me. One part rly stuck with me (abt consulting for a private project), and it gave me many many feels. Looking forward to reading her other book!

Feeling a bit mossy out here with 71% humidity. 😅 I feel for people who can‘t escape it.

Gave myself a little gift yesterday. 😌

If grief can be a doorway to love, then let us all weep for the world we are breaking apart so we can love it back to wholeness again.

- Robbin Wall Kimmerer

5⭐️ || This book about moss is fascinating! I now have a better appreciation for the moss that‘s growing all over my backyard and rooftop! Read by the author in a calming voice is delightful, too. 🌱

I read this when it first came out and marveled how engrossed I was with a book about moss.

I've really been enjoying natural science books that are also memoirs recently, so I decided to put a list together that includes Gathering Moss, Field Notes From an Unintentional Birder, and others I've really enjoyed.

http://unassignedreadingpod.com/natural-science-memoirs/

4/5

This book is incredible. I'll admit to not thinking much about moss since treating it as a carpet while having teaparties as a kid, but this book has made me appreciate the incredible beauty of the mosses around me and their place in our environment. I find myself noticing mosses around my neighborhood and trying to figure out what they are.

I recommend the audiobook as it's read by the author. Thanks for the rec @sydneyerin #newyearwhodis

I was listening to Gathering Moss while I walked my dog around the neighborhood, and it made me pay attention to and appreciate the patches of moss on the tree trunks, in patches of shady yards, and in cracks on the sidewalk.

(The image is from Wikipedia and not my actual walk)

1. Gathering Moss by Robin Wall Kimmerer

2. From a Certain Point of View: The Empire Strikes Back

3. Participate in #BookSpinBingo each month, read 12 books off my backlog, review every book I read on Litsy, and participate is 3 reading challenges: ReadHarder, Popsugar, and #litsyatoz

#weekendreads @rachelsbrittain

I brought this fascinating book with me for my retreat to the forest, and I‘ve been so inspired to pick it up by the astounding variety of mosses I‘ve noticed here. I‘ve been amazed by mosses since reading The Signature of All Things (Elizabeth Gilbert). They‘re like a tiny forest themselves.

This #NewYearWhoDis pick from @sydneyerin isn‘t anything I would have come to myself. But it reawakens an interest in me that Elizabeth Gilbert‘s “The Signature of All Things” planted years ago:

“A beautifully written mix of science and personal reflection,” Kimmerer‘s Gathering Moss, “invites readers to explore and learn from the elegantly simple lives of mosses,” which, common as they are, live at the “limits of our ordinary perception.”

This book has already changed how I look at moss - I was walking around today looking at the moss outside and wondering what kind they were, how they had decided to settle there...
I definitely learnt alot about the subject and was appalled at how some people abuse nature to suit their own needs (even in relation to moss).
The author narrates the book and she has an incredibly soothing voice.

I finished the gorgeous audiobook of Gathering Moss earlier this summer and have returned to leaf through the paperback. I traded this version‘s delicate illustrations for the author‘s soothing voice in audio format.

This book left an impact! I find myself wondering about the moss I see. What is its name; how does it like to live? In a commercial setting- how was it harvested? Deepest of all, what could I learn from the rhythm of its life?

The might qualify me as Queen of the Nerds, but I waited a month for this book and I'm dying to read it!

This was one of the best books I've read so far this year. I loved sense of exploration as well as the information about mosses. There were also many intertwining stories, related to mosses, from the author's life. It's a peaceful but informative read and the author was a great narrator for the audio version.

Potawatomi author Kimmerer‘s enthusiasm for moss is infectious & I learned fascinating things about a subject I hadn‘t much thought about previously. The series of essays in this #audiobook combine memoir with scientific knowledge for general readers. She writes about humankind‘s relationship to the natural world & the important gifts that even such humble things as moss have to contribute to the ecological system. #Indigenous

There is an ancient conversation going on between mosses and rocks, poetry to be sure. About light and shadow and the drift of continents. This is what has been called the “dialect of moss on stone - an interface of immensity and minuteness, of past and present, softness and hardness, stillness and vibrancy, yin and yan.“

I think you cannot own a thing and love it at the same time. Owning diminishes the innate sovereignty of a thing, enriching the possessor and reducing the possessed.

Moss leaves are only one cell thick.

Mosses were used as filling for diapers and sanitary napkins because of their absorbing properties. Amazing!

I love Kimmerer. I listens to Braided Sweetgrass last year, it inflamed passion for plants and sparked a learning in ecology. #audiobook

As a person who generally has to be forced to go outside, I can hardly believe that I am wholeheartedly recommending that you read this entrancing book about moss. But here we are.

The author clearly explains the biology of mosses while also using them as a beautiful metaphor for the interconnected nature of life.

I can‘t recommend this book highly enough. ❤️❤️❤️

Gathering Moss, pictured here with two other green things.

Love me a good, surprising shelf talker