As a botanist, Robin Wall Kimmerer has been trained to ask questions of nature with the tools of science. As a member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation, she embraces the notion that plants and animals are our oldest teachers. In Braiding Sweetgrass, Kimmerer brings these lenses of knowledge together to show that the awakening of a wider ecological consciousness requires the acknowledgment and celebration of our reciprocal relationship with the rest of the living world. For only when we can hear the languages of other beings are we capable of understanding the generosity of the earth, and learning to give our own gifts in return.
Not exactly the most traditional of books to be reviewing, and even less so on this blog. But once again I find it pertinent to mention and at least disseminate this knowledge into the world, so here we are! Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teaching of Plants is more of the full title, and gives you a better glimpse as to what the book is about. If you’re ever looking for something that is more worldly, but still told like a story, please feel free to give this one a try!
I chose this book as a way to connect to the community but also because of its scientific relevance which I found appropriate for my background. I found it extremely intellectually stimulating and emotionally evocative, and if you also have a science background, undoubtedly you will find an extra connection to the words of the author. But even if not, all the information is very easy to absorb, and I promise you the journey is worth it.
As a third-year Ph.D. candidate, Olive Smith doesn’t believe in lasting romantic relationships–but her best friend does, and that’s what got her into this situation. Convincing Anh that Olive is dating and well on her way to a happily ever after was always going to take more than hand-wavy Jedi mind tricks: Scientists require proof. So, like any self-respecting biologist, Olive panics and kisses the first man she sees.
That man is none other than Adam Carlsen, a young hotshot professor–and well-known ass. Which is why Olive is positively floored when Stanford’s reigning lab tyrant agrees to keep her charade a secret and be her fake boyfriend. But when a big science conference goes haywire, putting Olive’s career on the Bunsen burner, Adam surprises her again with his unyielding support and even more unyielding… six-pack abs.
Suddenly their little experiment feels dangerously close to combustion. And Olive discovers that the only thing more complicated than a hypothesis on love is putting her own heart under the microscope.
I know this is definitely by far not an unknown book at this point, so I will keep my review more to what I personally really loved about The Love Hypothesis. And LOVE is definitely by far the right word to describe this book. It was un-put-downable (is that even a word??), and I absolutely devoured this one as fast as I could to get to Olive and Adam’s deserved ending.
Ph.D grad student Olive Smith, right off the bat, finds herself in a sticky situation when she grabbed the nearest man to kiss – which of course ends up being the jerk Dr. Adam Carlsen – in order to fake a relationship for her best friend’s sake. But by the weirdest circumstances, he suggests they continue the farce and pretend to date one another until a certain date where both parties would have accomplished what they needed from this “relationship”.
Uh, YES! Fake dating trope (with enemies to lovers thrown in there) at its very finest. Second to maybe unrequited best-friends-to-lovers trope, I absolutely ADORE this one, and Ali Hazelwood did NOT disappoint with how this was written. The angst! The miscommunication and unrequited love angle! The will-they-finally-do-something-about-their-obvious-chemistry? component! I couldn’t have asked for more in the romance department.
I loved how the relationship was explored little by little as the animosity between them slowly dissipated as they got to know one another. Or should I say, the animosity may have been more one-sided than mutual? It felt so real as Olive learned more about what made Adam tick and vice versa.
But I’m sure many other people have raved about this stuff already, and it deservedly meets the hype that is absolutely EVERYWHERE about this book.
The question is: why did I want to read this book? Yes, I’ve seen it everywhere but even before that, I fell in love with the synopsis. Because this book is about women in STEM, particularly in science. As a grad school graduate in the sciences, I felt so seen in this book. The little science references were scattered everywhere! I know this may fly over a lot of non-science background audience’s heads, but I thought these were hilarious.
“What’s wrong?” [Olive] had expected the answer to be The production of my reagent has been discontinued or My p-value is .06.
I mean, a p-value of 0.06 is nightmarish for research. Is it statistically significant? No. But clinically significant? Maybe? Who will publish it though???
And the lab work! I worked with mice for my fourth year thesis project in undergrad and just the little snippets about mice work here made my poor little heart feel like I’m not alone. Though I did really enjoy this one snippet about working with fruit flies.
Jeremy smiled, pointing in the direction of his lab. “I need to go isolate a bunch of virgin fruit flies. Before they’re not virgins anymore, you know?”
‘Cause that’s actually a HUGE problem with fruit fly work. They like to reproduce really quickly…so yeah, I had a friend who literally spent every morning isolating his virgin flies if he wanted them to say virgins. This made me smile so widely seeing even such a minor reference thrown in here.
To put in other words, I love the accurate depiction of how science is done, the every day concerns and normalizing women in this field where it once was dominated by men only. It’s a long road and definitely requires sacrifice – I’ve seen many postdocs struggle to get out into their own lab long after they graduated with their Ph.D. We don’t see enough about science careers in fiction, let alone very thorough and accurate portrayals. Ali Hazelwood, you are my hero for being a woman of science while also writing such an amazing piece of literary fiction we all adore. It is so rare to find someone in science who likes to read contemporary fictions, let alone write them, and I feel like I’ve found a kindred spirit here.
But to end off this review, there was one thing the characters mentioned a few times when the going got tough, and I think this should be a motto for many of us. Maybe it will also help us when we are challenged by what life throws at us. So I will end us off with it:
“What do I always tell you?”
“‘Carry yourself with the confidence of a mediocre white man.'”
Overall Recommendation:
The Love Hypothesis is everything I could’ve hoped for both in the romance department and the accurate science grad student experience. Filled with the best kinds of romantic tension, angst and chemistry between our two leads, Olive and Adam’s journey to genuine relationship was wonderful to follow and I absolutely could NOT put this down, even when I probably should’ve. What I loved equally much was the beauty of science described here, the good and the bad side of lab work, and the fun biology references thrown in there for us science people (or those who love science) to enjoy! Ali Hazelwood is automatically on my auto-buy list of authors for this alone as I have never felt more seen in my science career depicted in a fictional romantic contemporary. She’s a fellow kindred spirit, a scientist who writes fiction on the side, and I look forward to seeing more fictional (or nonfictional) work from her!
Perfect for readers of The Hazel Wood and The Night Circus, this lush and layered story about magic and the captivating power of dreams is delivered with acclaimed author Rebecca Ross’s signature exquisite style.
A curse plagues the realm of Azenor—during each new moon, magic flows from the nearby mountain and brings nightmares to life. Only magicians, who serve as territory wardens, stand between people and their worst dreams.
Clementine Madigan is ready to take over as the warden of her small town, but when two magicians challenge her, she is unwittingly drawn into a century-old conflict. She seeks revenge, but as she secretly gets closer to Phelan, one of the handsome young magicians, secrets begin to rise. Clementine must unite with her rival to fight the realm’s curse, which seems to be haunting her every turn.
**Dreams Lie Beneath comes out November 2, 2021!**
Thank you Edelweiss and HarperCollins for this copy in exchange for an honest review.
I have read Rebecca Ross’ books since her debut, The Queen’s Rising. And her latest standalone novel is just a testament of her growth as a writer and the marvelous worlds she creates.
The realm of Azenor isn’t super detailed in its world building but that is no matter because the characters and their history carry the story through. In a place where nightmares come alive every new moon, there rises magicians who use their skills to conquer and keep their delegated citizens safe.
Clementine is our heroine and I loved reading through her POV. Headstrong and loyal to her family, she never gave up on the home she grew up in, the people she cared for, as the daughter of a magician who taught her everything she knows.
The plot of the book is separated into 3 acts. I won’t go into super detail about each as I think a realm of surprise is an experience for this novel. But the pacing was superb, and it really felt like there was a climax within each act that kept me flipping the pages nonstop.
The first act really focuses on the world we’re settling into. Magicians have their own village or section within a city they are responsible for. They tend to the nightmares of these citizens so they are prepared to fight them on the new moon. But, sometimes, a magician can challenge another magician for that land they oversee, and oh boy, do we get introduced to our love interest here.
Clem obviously wanted revenge and so the book also embarks on this enemies to lovers romance wherein she decides to enact a crazy plan in order to make her enemies hurt as much as she suffered. Of course, one doesn’t expect she’ll start falling for the guy she’s spying on, our sensitive hero Phelan.
Yet at the heart of this is a mystery surrounding the curse that started the magical nightmares once a month. With a whole kingdom lost to whatever magic binds it, other things are in the works behind the scenes that Clem stumbles upon that may lead to the end of everything she grew up knowing. The key players involved in breaking the curse were not immediately known and so I had a blast trying to guess and figure out who in the story may be a player in disguise.
I feel knowing a little less about this book is better than knowing too much because it keeps the surprises going. I was constantly wondering where Rebecca was going with this plot, and I was always pleasantly surprised when I couldn’t quite guess it.
I did wish a bit more of the secondary characters had more depth to them, or just more of an appearance in the book. For example, Phelan’s twin brother is just a jerk but I really don’t know anything else about him that makes him more three-dimensional. At the heart of it, this story is really about Clem and Phelan. I’m not complaining about that in any way because I love them both, but some of the other characters felt a little like they had to be introduced in order to play a minor role.
There’s a lot of focus on family in this story too, and I definitely got emotional at the end. I loved the growth Clem goes through as she had to make choices to determine who she really wanted to become. By no means she’s always right, but I understood where she was coming from and her journey drew me in.
With magic in the air and a curse hanging over their heads, Clem’s story was a beautiful one filled with love, self-reflection and plenty of intrigue. I definitely recommend you look out for this book!
Overall Recommendation:
Dreams Lie Beneath is a solid standalone fantasy that follows young magician Clementine who is tasked to fight nightmares, as the consequence of a curse, that come alive every new moon. When unexpected events turned her life upside down, she plots to take back what she’s owed, but unwittingly starts falling for one of the magicians who may not be as bad as she thought. The curse breaking was another exciting element that gave a layer of intrigue as we follow Clem in decoding who the major players are for this task. So if you love a story with solid pacing, a sprinkle of mystery and plenty of slow burn enemies to lovers romance, my friend, this one is for YOU.
Down the Rabbit Hole 