OPL BOOK SUMMARY:  Two months ago, I finished The Ministry for the Future, and it still lingers with me. It is science fiction at its best. You get to be in a future world that changes how you see things. It is a powerful story of climate change in the next 30 years. Kim Stanley Robinson masterfully combines real elements of science, finance, organizations, and human behaviors with fictional characters trying to save the world for the future.

It begins in 2025, the pivotal decade to reduce CO2 to avoid the worst of climate change.  It’s the first fiction book I have read where people struggle in a plausible way to stay within the 2-degree Celsius threshold. There is much drama and competing forces as people, groups, organizations, and countries take different approaches.  The solutions used exist today, are in development, or are being discussed. At the same time, climate change is brutal, and a staggering number of people die.  The Ministry for the Future is haunting and hopeful. It hangs around my mind as I wonder how we will survive and how to help—a highly recommended read.

Available used at BetterWorldBooks.

OPL BOOK SUMMARY:  Braiding Sweetgrass is a unique and endearing “braid” of stories about our reciprocal relationship with the planet. Dr. Robin Wall Kimmerer is a scientist, a teacher, and a masterful storyteller. She draws on her deep indigenous heritage to bring us inspiring stories from her cultural history and her life “that can be medicine for our broken relationship with the earth.”

Sweetgrass is sacred in indigenous cultures and is considered the first plant to grow on earth. Kimmerer uses the sweetgrass and its evolution to symbolize ecological balance and as a means to weave her magnificent stories together. Flowing throughout her stories is a deep current that: 

• Teaches us about the indigenous wisdom of living connected to Earth
• Reminds us to bring gratitude and reciprocity into our lives and the earth
• Calls each of us to action and restoration

Braiding Sweetgrass is an immersive experience into our connection and responsibilities with our home, earth, by one of the best storytellers of our time. 

“Whatever our gift, we are called to give it and to dance for the renewal of the world. In return for the privilege of breath.”

Available used at BetterWorldBooks.