I re-read Robin Wall Kimmerer's Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants (2013). 

Occasionally you will come across a book that weaves itself into your worldview and stays there. I am a different, better person for having read it--though as with all books that reshape me, I struggle to adequately describe it.

Part memoir, part botany text, part indigenous philosophy, Braiding Sweetgrass shows us a different way of thinking and existing, a world where an economy of gifts and reciprocity replaces our current economy of capitalist extraction. It's a world where people care for each other...and not just human people, but animals and plants. A world where maple trees are people, and so are rivers, and so are the domesticated ducks who live in the pond out back.

I worry I am making this sound fluffy or Disneyfied. The book is neither shallow nor saccharine. It is a serious book that draws on indigenous knowledge and the lessons of plants to describe a better way to live. The topics are heavy, but the tone is hopeful. I listened to Kimmerer narrate the audiobook with her soothing voice (she reminds me in several ways of religious writer Anne Lamott) and I kept breaking out in tears as I walked my dog, not just because of the heaviness of the topics but because of the joy and hope. 

The other reason I love this book is because Kimmerer is a superb writer. As she contemplated college, she was torn between botany and poetry. Usually when I read, my editor brain is turned on, thinking of spots where I would have chosen different words or phrasing. Not with this book. Kimmerer's words are a pleasure to read. 

Though The Gospel of Loki is only my second time reading Joanne M. Harris, I feel comfortable extrapolating: She never disappoints.

I love her care with the language and her inventive storytelling. Here we get Norse mythology from the perspective of Loki, everyone’s favorite lying trickster liar. It is true that he is a philandering sociopath with dubious paternal instincts and a penchant for sowing discord, but he’s funny and charming and he can shift back and forth between his fire aspect and his human form.

If you’re familiar with Norse myths, you will recognize these stories, but Harris delivers them in a fresh way, so you won’t be bored. I enjoyed the audiobook narration Allan Corduner, who reads Loki with the charm and suaveness he deserves.

I confess I haven't finished the audiobook yet for Stone Blind, written and narrated by Natalie Haynes, but it's based on Greek myths so I'm sure everyone is happy in the end and no one dies.

Okay so. I was not expecting much from this, for the very simple reason that Madeleine Miller's Greek retellings knocked my socks off, and Claire North has a retelling out recently that I expect will additionally knock my socks off, and there's only so much room for talent to go around.

Oh I was wrong.

Haynes is funny, let's get that out of the way first. The section she wrote from the perspective of a crow had me clawing at my throat for more air, I was gasping so hard. Or here's this bit from the perspective of an unnamed Nereid:

"Mortals have a word for this kind of arrogance, the kind that makes a person think she can compare herself favorably to a goddess. The word is hubris. And while I am all in favor of using precision to describe something, might I suggest that you would be better off not doing something so dangerous so often that you need a specific word for it. Perhaps develop your self-control rather than your vocabulary."

Contrast that to the section where the gods of Olympus were marching to war with the giants. It's told from the point of view of Athene and I swear I felt an emotion I can only describe as battle lust. I wanted to march with some comrades in arms and hit something. For the record my typical emotional response to anything is crying a lot.

I was never much into the gods when we studied classical antiquity in high school English. I found them capricious and arbitrary. Haynes maintains these flaws while making them believable.

As for her prose: follow me for any time and you will find I am insufferable about word-smithing. I have such unforgiving standards. And here I was listening to the prose and wondering if maybe I could write like that, if I worked hard at it.

As for the narration: it is perfect. Haynes is not a voice actor and doesn't bother attempting different voices for different characters but it doesn't matter. She's so expressive with each one. And she has the type of English accent that is kryptonite for American listeners. Occasionally Medusa comes out as Medus-er.

p.s. It's also a fine time to listen to Tom Waits singing "Stone Blind Love."