The Serviceberry: Abundance and Reciprocity in the Natural World
4.6 | 1,723 ratings
Price: 11.53
Last update: 11-30-2025
Product details
- Publisher : Scribner
- Publication date : November 19, 2024
- Edition : Illustrated
- Language : English
- Print length : 128 pages
- ISBN-10 : 1668072246
- ISBN-13 : 978-1668072240
- Item Weight : 7.2 ounces
- Dimensions : 5 x 0.7 x 7 inches
- Grade level : 7 - 9
- Best Sellers Rank:#742 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- Nature Writing & Essays
- Botany (Books)
- Plants in Biological Sciences
- Customer Reviews:4.64.6 out of 5 stars(1,742)
Top reviews from the United States
- 5X Space CadetGifts, Gratitude, and ReciprocityThis beautiful little book gives you plenty to think about. The illustrations complement the text perfectly and help convey it's sweet message. I expected it to be a bit longer, but it's the expansion of an essay/article done previously.
I love the author's insights based on her Native American heritage. There is so much wisdom there. The core message of the analogy to the serviceberry is reflected in the subtitle, "Abundance and Reciprocity in the Natural World." Everything we have and need comes from the Earth as a gift. We should take only what we need. Greed and hoarding are not how nature operates. When do we attain the feeling of "enoughness?"
It's message is also nicely expressed in Chief Seattle's quote, "Take only memories, leave only footprints" from a speech he gave on honoring the environment.
Sharing builds friends and community. Giving back benefits both the donor and the recipient. She states, "Gratitude and reciprocity are the currency of a gift economy, and they have the remarkable property of multiplying with every exchange, their energy concentrating as they pass from hand to hand, a truly renewable resource."
Indigenous cultures had a beautiful concept of community and taking care of one other. Small communities often operate in a similar manner. Each of us could start with our families by instilling the concept of giving, reciprocity, and gratitude, then expanding it to friends, neighbors, and relatives.
After all, it's the family where such beliefs should begin. - Minneapolis MomThis is a perfect bookI ate up this book in one sitting. It was something that I could do and wanted to do. The author's writing is concise, easy to read and deeply profound. It is a good size, feels good in the hand and forever referred to again and again. It is a perfect book to share in these times -- both in size, texture, price, appearance, and most importantly, in spirit. It is a gift that will keep giving and we circulate its implicit inspiration for connection, sharing and gratitude. Thank you to Robin Wall Kimmerer and all the many people who helped bring this beautiful book to my doorstep.
- Carl J. NollenHow to Promote a New Economy PhilosophyI will admit that the cover of a book influences my decision to buy it. The beatiful picture of a cedar waxwing on serviceberry branches appeals to me. The author uses the abundance of berries to show us there is plenty of fruit for humans and birds from this one bush. But, the ideal of reciprocity and a gift economy is practical only in rural areas, as regarding food. Over the decades we have transitioned from rural to urban. The result is an increasing disconnect from nature. Even many people in rural areas are not inclined to plant fruit trees, raise small animals or plant gardens. Too many would rather cover their acreages with grass carpeting so they can indulge their favorite hobby of mowing lawns and even their ditches with their riding lawn mowers. Who among us have more than enough of anything to give away. Well, zucchini squash, maybe. Years ago I gave away many bagsful of apples from my orchard. The popularity of farmers markets and food stands are good, but this still does not make a gift economy. The popularity of this book may reach some of us in our urban, crowded, overpopulated cities and help spread the author's philosphy. Amazon's price is reasonable for this small 5x7 hardcover book.
- Ani GiaWonderful read, like all of Kimmerer's booksThis book is such a little gem, I absolutely loved it to the last page. I previously read Robin Wall Kimmerer's Braiding Sweetgrass (and loved that one as well) but this one is a bit more fun, lighter on the science and a wonderful message. Highly recommend!
- P. NicholsonGreat short read.Robin is one of the best writers I have read. She has a grasp of the unity of all things that few others have but she doesn't present it in a preachy, new age way but more as a way of living, as being a part of an ongoing pageant of life.
- AhhlingBringing back the intelligence of natureHaving loved Braiding Sweetgrass, I was intrigued to read this much smaller book. It is deceptive in its length and the simplicity of the examples and messages, taken from the natural world as well as an increasingly extinguishing way of living where neighbors and community matter. But the message is powerful. I have long been troubled by the rampant market economies and the idea that a small few get to determine not just the way Mother Earth is exploited, but also define what is valuable and to have us all chasing after the fear of 'scarcity'. Kimmerer turns much of this on its head, but not b/c she is the genius who devised these other paradigms of seeing life. But because she resurfaces the ancient wisdom or natural and earlier ways of living that valued cooperation, gratitude, reciprocity and relationships. I truly hope that the people she mentions- working on new models for more natural economies, or to reeducate us on the concept of the 'gift economy', will succeed in their efforts to help us all. We are so far removed from the natural world and the principles of true thriving. Read this and then pass it along - as a gift to others and to share the gentle but quite powerful message.