The book that helped make Michael Pollan, the New York Times bestselling author of Cooked and The Omnivore's Dilemma , one of the most trusted food experts in America. Every schoolchild learns about the mutually beneficial dance of honeybees and flowers: the bee collects nectar and pollen to make honey and, in the process, spreads the flowers' genes far and wide. In The Botany of Desire , Michael Pollan ingeniously demonstrates how people and domesticated plants have formed a similarly reciprocal relationship. He ...
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The book that helped make Michael Pollan, the New York Times bestselling author of Cooked and The Omnivore's Dilemma , one of the most trusted food experts in America. Every schoolchild learns about the mutually beneficial dance of honeybees and flowers: the bee collects nectar and pollen to make honey and, in the process, spreads the flowers' genes far and wide. In The Botany of Desire , Michael Pollan ingeniously demonstrates how people and domesticated plants have formed a similarly reciprocal relationship. He masterfully links four fundamental human desires--sweetness, beauty, intoxication, and control--with the plants that satisfy them: the apple, the tulip, marijuana, and the potato. In telling the stories of four familiar species, Pollan illustrates how the plants have evolved to satisfy humankind's most basic yearnings. And just as we've benefited from these plants, we have also done well by them. So who is really domesticating whom? Praise for the narrator: Scott Brick uses his skill with expression...to produce an audible intoxication. -- AudioFile
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Add this copy of The Botany of Desire: a Plant's-Eye View of the World to cart. $37.10, good condition, Sold by Bonita rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Newport Coast, CA, UNITED STATES, published 2013 by Brilliance Audio.
Author Pollan adds an interesting alternate look at the desirability by humans for four well known botanicals. Additionally he adds many very interesting side comments which make this book a very good read. Clearly, he has put a lot of fact gathering into this book!
Frogprints
Jun 8, 2007
What you didn?t know about plants . . . . .
Quite rightly considered to be a masterpiece, a unique take on our relationship to the natural world.
A cracking good read too!
Bookie
Apr 3, 2007
A Great Read
Mr. Pollan examines the place four plants have played in the human experience. Sounds boring, right. In his able writer's hands it's anything but boring. It's a mind expanding whirlwind tour. Highly recommended.
Sara
Apr 2, 2007
beautiful and interesting book
An unusually elegant narrative style for nonfiction, this book is a must-read. Pollan is a witty, literary, and smart writer. This book may or may not change how you think about your diet (the way some of his work will), but the stories and the history are important links in the missing knowledge of the history of our food system, and the book is an enjoyable read. Nonficiton at its finest.
