Starting our Summer Reading List | Book Picks for June 2020

Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants, by Robin Wall Kimmerer

"It is the way she captures beauty that I love the most - the images of giant cedars and wild strawberries, a forest in the rain and a meadow of fragrant sweetgrass will stay with you long after you read the last page"

~Jane Goodall"Braiding Sweetgrass is instructive poetry. Robin Wall Kimmerer has put the spiritual relationship that Chief Seattle called the 'web of life' into writing."~Oren Lyons, Faithkeeper, Onondaga Nation and Indigenous Environmental LeaderAs fans of Mary Oliver's Upstream and Peter Wohlleben's TheHidden Lives of Trees, we can't wait to start reading this book of essays on nature, humanity and our environment.The interconnectedness of all beings is an exquisite truth that we are privileged to encounter and explore in Braiding Sweetgrass.Order this title from our Bookshop.org page!

About the Author

Robin Wall Kimmerer is a mother, scientist, decorated professor, and enrolled member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation. She lives in Syracuse, New York, where she is a SUNY Distinguished Teaching Professor of Environmental Biology, and the founder and director of the Center for Native Peoples and the Environment.

Breath: The New Science of a Lost Art, by James Nestor

"A transformative book that changes how you think about your body and mind."

~Joshua Foer, New York Times-bestselling author of Moonwalking with Einstein: The Art and Science of Memory

Breathing is the foundation for transformations both physical and spiritual...How much can our breathing habits impact our experience of life? James Nestor participates in a startling experiment to find out..."Starting today, I'll spend the next quarter of a million breaths with silicone plugs blocking my nostrils and surgical tape over the plugs to stop even the faintest amount of air from entering or exiting my nose. I'll breathe only through my mouth, a heinous experiment that will be exhausting and miserable, but has a clear point."What he discovers, and all of his supporting research on breath and breathing, is a joyous dive into science and the relation between body, mind and spirit.Order this title from our Bookshop.org page!

About the Author

James Nestor has written for Outside, Scientific American, The Atlantic, Dwell, The New York Times, and many other publications.His bookDeep: Freediving, Renegade Science, and What the Ocean Tells Us about Ourselveswas a finalist for the 2015 PEN/ESPN Award for Literary Sports Writing, an Amazon Best Science Book of 2014, and more.

The Power of Ritual: Turning Everyday Activities into Soulful Practices

"If you are passionate about community building or simply seeking what feels good in life and how to get more of it...consider this book your new bible. "

~Cleo Wade, Author of Heart Talk and Where to Begin

"The Power of Ritual is essential reading for anyone interested in how to find meaning in our strange, new world."

~John Green, Author of The Fault in Our Stars

Passion, spirit, connection, gathering...People need people, and we need connection to Source, and in the modern world spiritual nourishment can be found in surprising places.Ingenious, creative, pragmatic and solution-oriented...people never stop inventing new ways and rituals to engage with the material world and the spiritual plane. Casper Ter Kuile lends an open mind and a curious eye to the new patterns of ritual in our society.Order this title from our Bookshop.org page!

About the Author

Casper Ter Kuile is the co-host of the award-winning podcast Harry Potter and the Sacred Text, a Ministry Innovation Fellow at Harvard Divinity School, co-founder of startup Sacred Design Lab, and former Director of Possibility at the On Being Impact Lab.His work has been featured in the New York Times, Boston Globe, Vice, The Atlantic, and the Washington Post and on PBS.He is the co-author of seminal paper, “How We Gather,” and has presented his research at venues like the Aspen Ideas Festival, Institute for the Future, and Cannes Lions Festival.