A funny, lyrically brilliant memoir of learning to grow psychedelic mushrooms and discovering the vast power of mycelium wisdom and medicine.
APT TIMING: The Decriminalize Nature Movement has gained traction in major cities, resulting in a recent surge of public interest in the appropriate use and legalization of psilocybin mushrooms and other plant-based medicine.
A TRAILBLAZING MEMOIR: With the lyricism of Charlotte Runcie's Salt On Your Tongue and in the way that Gabriela Wiener's Sexographies transformed how we think of the human body and mind, The Wild Kindness is a lyrical, unprecedented portrayal of psilocybin mushrooms as a source of personal healing and transformation.
RESPECTED AUTHOR: Williams has published two books previously and her work has also been published by Lenny Letter, Out Magazine, and the Chacruna Institute for Psychedelic Plant Medicines.
BUILT-IN AUDIENCE: Williams and her partner, Beth Hill, produce a podcast called No Cures, Only Alchemy, for which they won the 2018 Kindle Foundation Maker's Muse Award.
CONTEMPORARY THEMES: As a timely response to the current flood of New Age products in mainstream culture, Williams reminds us of the implications of race, cultural appropriation, and indigenous rights surrounding psilocybin mushrooms.
A hot lesbian living in the American Southwest decides to grow her own psychoactive mushrooms. "You'll never guess what happens next!"...In general, this is a balm. It is the polar opposite of that Michael Pollan book.
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GOSSAMER
An exuberant endorsement of the use of psychedelics as an instrument of self-discovery.
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KIRKUS
Bett Williams brings to the table one of the best overviews of contemporary psychedelic culture in a long time.
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THE EROWID REVIEW
You don't need to be interested in doing psychedelic drugs to find yourself in deep with Williams' chronicle of finding meaning and healing through mycelium. You might start by merely appreciating the book's colorfully shroomy cover and compact, ride-along size before you dip a toe into the pleasant warmth of the free-flowing narrative.
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SANTA FE REPORTER
Like any good memoirist, Williams performs surgery on herself and holds up each organ for inspection...This is a book that requires you to "go with the flow," but the flow is awfully inviting.
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MOLLY YOUNG,
Vulture
Like a trip, the book builds and plateaus but never settles down...Williams can be brainy, funny, wounded, macho, nurturing, self-absorbed, reverent, and absurd...For the sake of all those newbies seeking psychedelic transformation out there, I almost hope she becomes a guru. But she'd hate it, and that's why she's awesome.
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ERIK DAVIS,
The Burning Shore
Bett Williams is a renegade...this book is a useful tool.
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THE ROGUE LITERARY SOCIETY
The Wild Kindness is absolutely electric. It's not only the subject matter, which is mystical and fascinating. Bett William's voice is untamed and inspired, full of gonzo humor, ambitious daring and high-vibrating heart. The personal, the political, the spiritual and the unknown come together into a mesmerizing read that is full-on literary fireworks.
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MICHELLE TEA, author of
Valencia,
Black Wave,
Astro Baby, and more
On the surface, a book about mycology. Immediately beneath this, a safe trip facilitated by a guide who places herself between heaven and earth, between the fight for love and the fight itself; wholly engaged by both magic and the material plane.
—
KRISTIN HERSH, singer-songwriter
Bett's writing has brains, charisma, beauty and wit.
—
DENNIS COOPER, author of the George Miles cycle
