Community Read 2025-2026: Braiding Sweetgrass

Animism--the belief in supernatural entities--is a classic anthropological concept rendered problematic in light of recent critiques of Western notions of reality. Harvey (religious studies, Open Univ.) seeks to radically redefine animism as the belief that "the world is full of persons, only some of whom are human, and that life is always lived in relationship with others." After an exploration of the theoretical history of animism, Harvey highlights particular cultures, including the Ojibwa, Maori, and modern pagans, who live with and negotiate the terms of relationships with nonhuman individuals.

Gathering together powerful voices of feminist writers, peace activists, and matriarchal studies scholars from around the globe, The Legacy of Mothers reconceptualizes mothers, motherhood, and mothering as an alternative human logic to create a new sociopolitical order. The contributors draw on ancient knowledges, Indigenous perspectives, and African traditions like Motherism to argue for the reordering of our world according to a distinctly transformative feminism. The book then explores where this new logic is already taking root, demonstrating that a better world is not just possible but already evolving.

Humans have much to learn from plant behavior, argues Montgomery, professor of biochemistry and biology at Michigan State University, in her impassioned if cursory debut. She first explores “how plants sense and respond to the environment,” explaining how they deal with fluctuations in light intensity (by shifting their leaf position) and nutrient concentration (in poor-quality soil, plants devote more of their energy to root development). Montgomery also accessibly describes how plants communicate with one another to learn about environmental threats arising from competitors and predators. But while she successfully makes the case that understanding plants provides an entry point for having a deeper connection with nature, she rarely moves beyond the superficial, as in her conclusions that “the humble bean seedling provides an excellent example of how to adjust and readjust to outside circumstances,” or that from symbiotic fungi relationships “we can see the importance of establishing an ecosystem of support, collegiality, and community.” Though this doesn’t break new ground, the author’s knowledge and enthusiasm will have readers looking at plants in a new light.

Pecans are America's native nut, one rarely seen outside North American kitchens. Although the New World readily exported tobacco, tomatoes, chili peppers, and potatoes to Europe, there was simply no market for pecans, perhaps because they seemed too similar to Europe's walnuts and because pecan wood is not generally desirable for lumber. From the beginning, pecans were harvested from the wild, but growing demand soon rendered such foraging obsolete. By the turn of the twentieth century, advances in grafting made pecan orchards possible, and the number of pecan trees increased exponentially, especially in Georgia. The invention of corn syrup gave birth to pecan pie, and the pecan became indissolubly linked with Southern cuisine. Recent years have witnessed a remarkable and hugely profitable resurgence in pecan cultivation due to explosive demand for the nut from China, where pecans' exotic novelty has transformed the humble nut into a coveted status symbol.