Go gently by Bonnie Wright

 

Published by Mariner Books in April 2022

295 pages

Back cover

Concerned about the environment, but unsure how to take meaningful action?  

Bonnie Wright is here to teach you just that: the simple steps we can all take, each day, to help reconnect to the natural world around us and join in the fight against climate change. As the title suggests, Go Gently encourages us to start small, with manageable shifts that will build into impactful life-changing habits. 

In Go Gently, Bonnie won’t tell you to overhaul your life. Instead, she’ll meet you where you are, offering a crash course in climate-related issues along with practical tips, skills, and recipes that can start you on your own best path. She’ll show you that small things like educating yourself on which materials can be recycled, and how learning to mend your clothes instead of throwing them away, or turning your coffee grounds into an incredible exfoliating scrub, will naturally lead to big-picture thinking and living. 

By shifting the way you approach seemingly small daily actions, you’ll begin to understand the larger systems at play and how your individual choices can make a big difference. It’s the little things we do each day that add up to the greatest impact. Once you’ve built a foundation with the small steps, Bonnie helpfully explains how to get involved with the larger community in a way that suits your personality and lifestyle. 

Go Gently is a guide to positive change that we can all use to treat our home and ourselves gently, and do our part to help protect this beautiful planet.

My review

I learned about this cover when I saw that the author was going to Montreal Comiccon. I knew she played in Harry Potter, but I discover a new side of her. Since the last two years, I am asking a lot of question about climate changes and how I can help to improve our future.

If you are asking yourself the same questions, I recommend you this book. Someone who only have a basic knowledge will be able to enjoy it. There is a lot of information in few pages with amazing pictures. I found a few tips that I did not know and I am sure everyone will find something that will be interested in. You don’t have to be a green-peace ecologist to help the planet, just by doing baby steps each day, you can help a little.

You will find 9 sections: Go learn, Go shop, Go see, Go cook, Go enjoy, Go organize, Go keep and Go beyond. I think it’s perfect for someone who want to start a journey to fight climate changes without being stressed. There a section to cook homemade meals, yoga pauses and short meditation. I also like short interviews (3 important questions) with important people that not everyone knows and it give the reader a chance to discover more about them.

At the end of major chapters, she wrote a few tips about what we can do to help and it’s what I liked the most about it.

Excerpts

The practices I have learned and discovered are by no means new ideas, my grandparents ‘generation would have more naturally taken care of what they owned. Out of pride, less access to replacements, and less of a culture of consumption, my grandparents would tend and mend their possessions. (p.178)

I love the internet and technology for the people and ideas it has connected me to, but the writing process has shown me just how important is to take action and time offline. (p.252)