I picked this up on a whim based on the title and cover art and reading up on the book's premise afterwards. Don't know a thing about gardening but I was curious to know what the author's experiences are with gardening and that world, and what it was like a Black woman to navigate that landscape (pun intended). I know a bit about communities that restrict what resident can and can't do (plus experiences from others, etc.) but I was unfamiliar how gardens are policed and was curious to find out more.

In a series of essays, Dungy talks about a lot of things. Which is both good and bad. From gardening to racism to environmental justice to her family and how Black people (and other marginalized groups) are policed for so many things. No reason to believe that gardening/landscaping/etc. would be any different from anything else.

I knew this was an essay collection going in, but the negative reviews consistently refer to it as "disjoined" which is the most accurate description to me. There are bits that are interesting and then all of a sudden the author will begin talking about something else as a train of thought. The essay format also does not help with that, either.

I also personally didn't feel the writing was beautiful or that any passages stuck out. This is personal preference and not a critique of how well the author writes. Just that this is also a common theme among the reviews (positive and negative) and I disagree. There's certainly been worse writing, though! I think that the disjoined nature of the work is what derails anything else for me.

So as you can see, this was not for me. I'm sure it is for others, based on the positive reviews here, but in the end I thought this was pretty skippable. Borrowed from the library and that was best for me. ( )

There is much inside Dungy's memoir, making in more than a simple story of turning a Colorado yard into a Prairie Garden. "Soil" is one of those books I picked up thinking it would merit a quick thumbing through. Instead, I found myself reading it slowly, carefully, finding it full of interesting and useful stories.

There is her history, her parents, grandparents, daughter, husband, and the history of Black people in America over four centuries of repression and inequality of the worst kind.

She tells about nature literature and environmental writing, how it has been and continues to be dominated by white, male authors who seemed to have no families, no children, and nothing else to do but wander the landscape and write about it.

It is also about her growing education about plants, animals, their interactions and their relationships with us human animals with our destructive ways. I should have paid more attention to her biological details, but still learned much from her descriptions of soil, climate and seasons.

Camille T Dungy is a poet, a memoirist, an essayist, I need to read more of.
. ( )

nonfiction/memoir - poet/writer/professor/mother undertakes a project to turn her Colorado yard into an oasis for native plants and animals while also educating and raising her young daughter during the COVID2019 pandemic, contemplating the complex history and state of the nation we live in now (ecologically and sociopolitically disastrous in many ways), and sowing hope in the beauty and resilience of her garden's plants and the wildlife it supports. (TW: enormous wildfires, details of Elijah McClain's death and other murdered Black lives -- recommended reading despite unpleasantness unless it is too triggering for your health)

I need to read this again (and buy my own copy), to spend the time to really take in the author's words. I thought at first I might enjoy it more as an audio (the beginning/middle has a meditative effect) but also think I need to devote fuller attention.

Thank you for writing/publishing this and I hope more is coming. ( )

TW/CW: Racism, murder, police brutality, natural disasters, death

RATING: 4/5

REVIEW: I received a free copy of this book from Edelweiss Books and Simon & Schuster and am voluntarily writing an honest review.

Soil is a memoir, the story of a Black poet and mother who works to transform her Colorado lawn into a natural, diversified place that matches and strengthens the natural landscape around it. This garden becomes a metaphor for her life and history as she relates her garden, ecology and nature to the political and sociological realities of Black people, women, and mothers.

This is a beautiful story. Although I’m not an expert on plants or flowers, you don’t have to be to enjoy this book. Dungy’s writing is beautiful and often poetic (not a surprise since the author is a poet), and her talent with words causes her stories to hit deeper than they otherwise might. There is a great deal of sadness in this book, but there is also a great deal of beauty.

The one thing that bothered me about this book is that there were parts where it didn’t really seem to flow. It was kind of choppy in places and would drift back and forth from one topic to another without much of a segue. This isn’t something that makes me dislike this book – not at all – but I think it could have been even more powerful and beautiful if it was a little more organized.

As a whole, I enjoyed this book and would recommend it to anyone interested in gardening, Black voices, and/or ecology. ( )