The Light Eaters

 The Light Eaters by Zoë Schlanger, 304 pages.

Journalist Zoë Schlanger dives into the rapidly emerging, and highly controversial, field of plant intelligence. She focuses especially on plant communication and problem solving, both topics notable for how poorly they are understood, and for how quickly new information is being added. She also focuses on the scientists making these breakthroughs, the biologists who risk academic exile for researching things that seem to go against the way we understand plants. 

This was a fascinating book! Although it felt at times like it focused more on academic politics than I may have preferred, I still left with a plethora of astounding plant facts, in addition to a broader understanding of the field of research. This is definitely the kind of nature writing that leaves the reader with a lot of big questions to think on, which I always find impressive. I would recommend this book broadly to anyone with an interest in plants, but especially for fans of Ed Yong's An Immense World. 

Houseplants for all

 

Houseplants for all: how to fill any home with happy plants / Danae Horst, 196 pgs.

A common sense guide with fantastic photos. Great for beginners but there is something for everyone to learn.  I liked the explanation of uneven growth and how to rectify it. Also the signs of over or underwatering that leave little to chance. Solid and helpful.

The Drunken Botanist

The Drunken Botanist: The Plants That Create the World's Great Drinks by Amy Stewart, 381 pages

In this botanical encyclopedia, Stewart discusses the many plants that are malted, distilled, pressed, fermented, and otherwise manipulated to make the intoxicating alcoholic beverages of the world. In doing so, she offers brief histories of each plant, explains how it's manipulated and imbibed, details where and how the plant grows (with tips on how to grow your own, if you so choose), and provides cocktail recipes.

While it probably isn't meant to be read straight through, I did so (well, I listened to the audiobook, but you get the point), and spent my drives home prepping my palate for the next mixed drink I'd try from Stewart's book. This had something for everyone, from the casual tippler to the seasoned bartender to the thirsty librarian. I loved it.

Braiding Sweetgrass

Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants by Robin Wall Kimmerer  391 pp.

Dr. Kimmerer is a botanist and plant scientist and a professor in the SUNY Environmental and Forest Biology Department. She is also a member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation and learned about Native plant science from her family and tribal elders. Using her scientific and traditional knowledge, Kimmerer explains how living beings, including plants and animals, rely on each other for growth and survival, and how the current methods of farming, logging, industry, and construction have destroyed the fragile connections between all living things leading to environmental catastrophes and climate change. She also describes programs she has developed where botany students spend an extended time in a wilderness area studying and tabulating plant information while learning the ancient Native ways of survival and living a hunter-gatherer existence and the importance of being connected to the natural world. I have been recommending this book before I even finished it. I listened to the audiobook which is read by the author. 

Lab Girl

Lab Girl / Hope Jahren 320 pgs.

Hope Jahren wrote this little memoir filled with personal stories and scientific facts in her spare time after running an award wining lab...you know the kind, where SCIENCE is done.  Hope has built it all with her best friend and lab manager, Bill.  Hope and Bill have had a lot of adventures together and done an amazing amount of important scientific work.  I loved reading about their amazing projects and their attitude about work, life and each other.

I might be a little bit in love with Hope Jahren and she makes me want to plant a tree.  This is my favorite book so far this year.

Counting by 7s

Counting by 7s by Holly Goldberg Sloan  378 pp.

This is another of the books for the Treehouse Book Club. This is a wonderful book. Twelve year old Willow Chance is a genius who is on the autism spectrum and has a problem with social skills. She has obsessive interests in plants and human diseases. Willow's coping mechanism is counting by sevens, her favorite number. Her adoptive parents are supportive of her interests but send her to middle school in hopes that it will improve her life. After finishing a standardized test in 17 minutes with a perfect score, she is accused of cheating and sent for weekly visits with a counselor who is more dysfunctional than she is. When her parents are killed in an auto accident (yes, she now has lost two sets of parents) Willow ends up temporarily with the family of her only friend, a teen-age girl whose brother is a client of the same counselor. But they live in a garage behind the small manicure shop owned by her friend's mother, a Vietnamese immigrant. The mother and daughter conspire to commandeer the counselor's apartment to make social services believe the temporary situation is adequate. In the end, the lives of Willow, her friends, the counselor, a friendly cab driver, and others in the community are changed in a myriad of ways. I enjoyed this book even more the second time around.

Wicked Plants

Wicked Plants: the weed that killed Lincoln's mother & other biological atrocities by Amy Stewart  235 pp.

The gist of this book is that darn near every plant has at least some part of it that can be dangerous or deadly, even the ones we commonly eat. It is written in an engaging manner that introduces the reader to common and uncommon plants that may grow in your own yard or in a far away jungle. Many are mildly dangerous, causing discomfort, rashes (like the bane of my existence, poison ivy), or other allergy symptoms. Others are so dangerous even a  minor encounter can result in serious illness or even death. You may have some of the toxic offenders blooming prettily in your flower beds. Included are tales of how various plants have caused illness and death or, as in the case of Mussolini's men using castor oil, used for torture. There's a lot of information packed in this small book and it's written in an engaging way. This is a worthwhile read for anyone who gardens.