April 1, 2011
Noted psychiatrist, professor, and activist Bolen has written previously about the need for women to become a force for spiritual and political change. Here she combines that call to action with a discussion of trees and the role they play in keeping our planet healthy. Chapters treat subjects as varied as the sacred treatment of trees throughout history in religion and myth, the effects of deforestation on carbon emissions and subsequent global warming, womens reproductive rights and their effect on population growth, places where women have brought about human rights advances (Northern Ireland, Liberia, Sierra Leone, and, thanks to the Chipko Movement, India), and such recent action groups as the Green Belt Movement. Coming full circle, she then compares women to trees in their ability to survive despite the oppression they experience worldwide. In what Bolen describes as a spiral path of thought, information, feelings, and images, she outlines her fervent hope that there is still enough time for trees and tree people to save our beautiful planet from turning into a wasteland.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2011, American Library Association.)