This is a really important book, and I'm so grateful y'all put this on my radar. I have read Montgomery's other title so I'd like to think I'd have eventually found this, but I'm grateful to have found it sooner rather than later!

Montgomery frames this quasi-memoir quasi-history book through 8 different trees/plants - Pecan, Sycamore, Willow, Poplar, Mulberry, Oak, Cotton, Apple. In each chapter she lays out personal history, familial history, and American history with each of these trees/plant. We hear childhood memories, family stories, family and cultural traditions, and historical events. All of these are a mix of tender, loving moments and harrowing, gut wrenching ones. The connection African Americans (the term Montgomery largely uses, so I'll use here) historically have with plants is woefully under-discussed and she seeks to rectify that. Additionally, most chapters also include some basic facts about the tree/plant, and how the product of the plant is or was often used, along with cultural significance.

While Montgomery's writing is very accessible in terms of language and progression, this is not an easy read. We pretty candidly discuss the realities of USAmerica's racialized violence and the legacy that is still in effect today in relation to trees and plants. We frankly discuss lynchings, slavery, labor exploitation, racist interactions the author has dealt with, and grapple with what it means for trees to have biological memory when they've been used to enact that racialized violence and are still alive today. The sycamore also effectively hid those fleeing violence along the Underground Railroad and during Jim Crow, too; what does remembering both do to a tree? What can a tree's growth tell us about these difficult pasts? In particular I appreciate that Montgomery often includes North American Indigenous uses and history as well, painting a full picture of how the land has been exploited by settler colonialism.

Montgomery is not without, hope, though. She maintains wonder, encouraging those who have a tumultuous history with plants, crops, trees, and nature at large to still find the beauty that exists and to reclaim comfort and enjoyment where possible.

While discussing on my status updates I reflected with someone that my ability to view plant-books as safe, low risk reading is entirely due to my privilege as a white person. There isn't anything in my family or cultural history that puts me at odds with laboring in my garden or with any particular plant or tree. There is no difficult past to reckon with for me, and for probably the vast majority (but not all) of white people who would pick this up, and so I encourage folks to pick it up. It's important for us to be aware of how land ownership and stewardship can have such different implications for all of us. And as the resident plant-enthusiast, I want to be mindful of those differences, and again am grateful that Montgomery has shared this with us.

2.75 rounded up. tbh I'm pretty on the fence about this one and so, a bullet point list:

• There are not a lot of books about algae out there. The few that I could find mostly seem way too niche andor academic. Kassinger is pretty accessible in the language she uses, so that's a tick in the pro column. She also is largely talking about algae in a way that is practical to you and me. This books highlights largely how the average person can or could interact with algae, or ways that we should be aware algae can be used. So another tick in the pro column. • The four sections are pretty well divided and organized. Evolution, Food, Daily Use, Climate Change. I think the first and last were the best - with the first paragraph of the book literally rewiring my understanding of plant life and algae; algae aren't plants. and seaweed is algae. 🤯🤯 This book shines best when it is talking about algae specifically and directly. It's interesting to hear how algae developed, the different properties of different types, and also all the cool ways it interacts with ecosystems and could potentially solve some of our climate disaster related needs. Personally I didn't find the food section that interesting, but that's likely due to being someone who already pretty enthusiastically eats seaweed in various forms on a regular basis. • There are recipes in the back! That's good. Pro-column. • Unfortunately there are two times when Kassinger uses really unfortunate language that give me pause. Once with an outdated medical term based in ableism, and another with active language that positions a pregnant person as "depriving" the fetus if they are themselves deficient in certain vitamins/minerals - which is a wild way to frame "this person's nutritional needs are not being met and as such the fetus's nutritional needs aren't being met." So, two ticks in the con-column. • There is a chapter where she interviews Israeli scientists to discuss their work with growing algae on land, and while I get the allure of talking to people doing cool things in science, I am forever annoyed at not engaging with or acknowledging the context those scientific advancements are happening in. Specifically in this case, harvesting seaweed is tricky. Seaweed is full of nutrients, but seaweed (and algae at large, and many many plants in general) pulls what is in the water into itself. This means that seaweed grown in contaminated or polluted water is not safe to eat, or even use in some ways at all. This Israeli company is exploring ways to grow seaweed in a green house/farm like situation, so that those who don't have access to clean water can still have clean seaweed. Do you know who doesn't have access to clean water? Palestinians. Is that talked about at all? No, of course not. Big tick in the con-column. • The real focus of this book is seaweed. Other types of algae do make appearances here and there, but we talk about seaweed (macro-algae) far and away the most. For me this is a small tick in the con-column because there are so many kinds of algae, so it would have been nice to hear about more of them. (Not to indicate seaweed isn't cool! It is! And there are lots of different kinds!) • Kassinger doesn't get any credit for this, but the audiobook narrator did a great job. I was able to get the ebook and audio book both (thank you, public libraries) so can also affirm that if you prefer audio books you aren't missing anything. This book doesn't have any cool pictures or anything, and the footnotes don't really add too much - AND, the audiobook does include the recipes!

SO. All in all, I wish Kassinger was more culturally competent, but if you want to learn more about algae this will meet that goal. Kassinger can be funny/cheeky, so it's not a super dry read, which is nice. You'll likely learn some cool things, and if you don't already I bet you'll be at least be interested in exploring adding seaweed to your diet.

WOW. Don't hate me, but I hated this.

I don't mean to yuck anyone's yum, and I can see the appeal of viewing this like a day time soap opera, but truly - I found nothing about this novel to be worth while. The characters are all insufferable and that insufferableness doesn't serve a purpose. The constant violence and abuse is so normalized it also fails to make a commentary. No greater message is delivered, no shining beauty is outlined in the midst of the suffering, nor is there any meaningful hope to be found. Nor is the "love" love; it is toxic and possessive and poisonous and often wildly inappropriate.

I do truly understand that sometimes life just sucks, and there are an abundance of people who only live in misery begot by misery begot by misery. I want more from my books, though. I want a clarion call, a seed to nurture, anything to make wading through a litany of melancholy to be worth it. Emily Bronte offers us no such thing in Wuthering Heights and I (respectfully) genuinely do not understand why so many people love this or why it's an enduring classic. 😭