{"schema_version":"bf_book_companion_v1","release_id":"20260414T151606Z","book":{"amazon_purchase_url":"https://www.amazon.com/dp/1571313567?tag=bookfrontier-20","asin":"1571313567","authors":["Robin Wall Kimmerer"],"book_id":"9781571313560","canonical_url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9781571313560","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9781571313560.jpg?v=20260414T151606Z%3A2026-04-14T15%3A16%3A06Z","description":"A New York Times Bestseller A Washington Post Bestseller Named a \"Best Essay Collection of the Decade\" by Literary Hub As a botanist, Robin Wall Kimmerer has been trained to ask questions of nature with the tools of science. As a member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation, she embraces the notion that plants and animals are our oldest teachers. In Braiding Sweetgrass , Kimmerer brings these two lenses of knowledge together to take us on “a journey that is every bit as mythic as it is scientific, as sacred as it is historical, as clever as it is wise” (Elizabeth Gilbert). Drawing on her life as an indigenous scientist, and as a woman, Kimmerer shows how other living beings—asters and goldenrod, strawberries and squash, salamanders, algae, and sweetgrass—offer us gifts and lessons, even if we've forgotten how to hear their voices. In reflections that range from the creation of Turtle Island to the forces that threaten its flourishing today, she circles toward a central argument: that the awakening of ecological consciousness requires the acknowledgment and celebration of our reciprocal relationship with the rest of the living world. For only when we can hear the languages of other beings will we be capable of understanding the generosity of the earth, and learn to give our own gifts in return.","forthcoming":false,"isbn13":"9781571313560","publication_date":"20150821","publisher":"Milkweed Editions","slug":"braiding-sweetgrass","subtitle":"Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants","title":"Braiding Sweetgrass"},"discovery":{"categories":{"all":[{"bisac_code":"NAT045040","confidence_band":"medium","label":"Wilderness & Wild Places","score":0.7525,"source":"bisac_hint_model"},{"bisac_code":"OCC036030","confidence_band":"medium","label":"Shamanism","score":0.7441,"source":"bisac_hint_model"},{"bisac_code":"LIT025020","confidence_band":"medium","label":"Nature in Literature","score":0.7438,"source":"bisac_hint_model"}],"hint":[{"bisac_code":"NAT045040","confidence_band":"medium","label":"Wilderness & Wild Places","score":0.7525,"source":"bisac_hint_model"},{"bisac_code":"OCC036030","confidence_band":"medium","label":"Shamanism","score":0.7441,"source":"bisac_hint_model"},{"bisac_code":"LIT025020","confidence_band":"medium","label":"Nature in Literature","score":0.7438,"source":"bisac_hint_model"}],"publisher":[{"bisac_code":"NAT010000","confidence_band":"high","label":"Ecology","score":1,"source":"onix_publisher_code"},{"bisac_code":"NAT024000","confidence_band":"high","label":"Nature Writing","score":1,"source":"onix_publisher_code"},{"bisac_code":"SOC021000","confidence_band":"high","label":"Native American Studies","score":1,"source":"onix_publisher_code"}]},"genres":[{"label":"Wilderness & Wild Places","score":0.7525,"slug":"wilderness-wild-places"},{"label":"Shamanism","score":0.7441,"slug":"shamanism"},{"label":"Nature in Literature","score":0.7438,"slug":"nature-in-literature"}],"reader_fit":["Good for readers interested in indigenous knowledge and ecological science","Those who appreciate reflective essays on nature and spirituality"],"related_lists":[],"series":null,"similar_books":[{"authors":["Kathryn Gillespie"],"book_id":"9781478032861","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9781478032861.jpg?v=20260414T151606Z%3A2026-04-14T15%3A16%3A06Z","score":12.4247,"title":"The Sound of Feathers","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9781478032861"},{"authors":["David Hinton"],"book_id":"9781645471479","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9781645471479.jpg?v=20260414T151606Z%3A2026-04-14T15%3A16%3A06Z","score":12.3596,"title":"Wild Mind, Wild Earth","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9781645471479"},{"authors":["James Reed Mooney"],"book_id":"9798880920006","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9798880920006.jpg?v=20260414T151606Z%3A2026-04-14T15%3A16%3A06Z","score":11.3576,"title":"Sacred Formulas of the Cherokees","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9798880920006"},{"authors":["Duckert","Lowell Duckert"],"book_id":"9781517913588","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9781517913588.jpg?v=20260414T151606Z%3A2026-04-14T15%3A16%3A06Z","score":11.2969,"title":"Arcticologies","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9781517913588"},{"authors":["Lyanda Lynn Haupt"],"book_id":"9780316426480","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9780316426480.jpg?v=20260414T151606Z%3A2026-04-14T15%3A16%3A06Z","score":11.2581,"title":"Rooted","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9780316426480"},{"authors":["John Vaillant"],"book_id":"9780525434245","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9780525434245.jpg?v=20260414T151606Z%3A2026-04-14T15%3A16%3A06Z","score":10.2873,"title":"Fire Weather","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9780525434245"},{"authors":["Randall K. Wilson"],"book_id":"9781640096653","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9781640096653.jpg?v=20260414T151606Z%3A2026-04-14T15%3A16%3A06Z","score":10.2368,"title":"A Place Called Yellowstone","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9781640096653"},{"authors":["John MacNeill Miller"],"book_id":"9780813951782","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9780813951782.jpg?v=20260414T151606Z%3A2026-04-14T15%3A16%3A06Z","score":9.9211,"title":"The Ecological Plot","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9780813951782"}],"topics":[{"evidence_refs":["keyword:natural history"],"label":"History","score":0.6093,"slug":"history"},{"evidence_refs":["keyword:science"],"label":"Science","score":0.3185,"slug":"science"},{"evidence_refs":["phrase_map_match"],"label":"Book Club","score":0.2144,"slug":"book-club"},{"evidence_refs":["keyword:spirituality"],"label":"Spirituality","score":0.0531,"slug":"spirituality"}],"what_you_get":["Themes: Indigenous Wisdom, Ecological Consciousness, Reciprocal Relationship with Nature.","Pacing: reflective, voice-and-character forward.","Themes: History, Science, Book Club."]},"llm_signals":{"confidence":0.9,"pacing":"reflective","reader_fit":["Readers interested in indigenous knowledge and ecological science","Those who appreciate reflective essays on nature and spirituality"],"themes":["Indigenous Wisdom","Ecological Consciousness","Reciprocal Relationship with Nature"],"tropes":[]},"source_presence":{"amazon":true,"book_detail":true,"goodreads":true,"llm_signals":true,"similarity_seed":true},"stats":{"amazon_ratings_count":0,"goodreads_ratings_count":179030,"goodreads_reviews_count":25315,"quality_score":1}}