Kallia

One of the few books I've read that left me misty eyed. If you care for the textile industry and the impact it has on our planet and culture this book is a must-read. The destruction of American textile production in favor of cheaper, easier, more dangerous alternatives is genuinely heartbreaking. The hope is in the people trying to rebuild what we lost, and build it back better.

In the beginning I found myself a bit bogged down by details of specific varieties of moss and it got a little tough to chew through. But Kimmerer has a knack for letting those sections go on just long enough to challenge, without letting them become overwhelming and dense like an academic text. The anecdotes and stories interspersed with her knowledge and love of these little oft-ignored plants creates an enthralling picture of the interconnectedness of life on earth, and the beauty we often take for granted in little details.

This one gets a little lost in the weeds for me compared to the others. It can feel at times like the plot is just rolling over the characters and moving on without addressing the characters themselves and their thought processes throughout. That said, it's still wildly charming and fantastical, I can never find myself upset at L'engle honestly.

Excellently told, amazing how the author was able to get together so many accounts and weave them into the best understanding of this event were likely to have. Secondarily, I think maybe we should stop thinking of Nantucket and America's whaling history as a heartwarming story of human triumph, and more like a dark stain on human history. These men should not be respected or hailed as heroes for the work they were doing when tragedy struck them.