Enjoy reading an entertaining book about gardening.
August is a great time to lounge outside with a good book and a cold drink. Here’s an idea for your leisure time: read a book about gardening that will both entertain and educate you. Here are three recommendations. Cheers!
Second Nature: A Gardener’s Education
In Second Nature, Michael Pollan sets out to create a garden in which the environment is allowed to take its “natural course.” This works well until a woodchuck invades, and Pollan declares war on the critter.
As he considers alternatives to all-out war on nature, Pollan begins to develop a philosophy, a gardener’s ethic. In the process, he explores the Great American Lawn, the sexual politics of roses and more.
The American Horticultural Society chose Second Nature as one of the 75 greatest books ever written about gardening. Here is what some reviewers had to say:
- “The best book about Americans and their gardens in decades. Second Nature reads like brilliant entertainment, but it is serious wisdom. Michael Pollan … is a genuine heir to my favorite nature writer, Mark Twain.” (The Boston Globe)
- “As delicious a meditation on one man’s relationships with the Earth as any you are likely to come upon.” (The New York Times Book Review)
Michael Pollan has written several other best-selling books, such as The Botany of Desire and The Omnivore’s Dilemma. He is one of our most important and beloved writers on modern man’s place in the natural world.
Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life
Barbara Kingsolver and her family moved to the country and started a farm in order to create a simpler life. They vowed that for one year they would only eat food that they grew themselves or was raised by others they knew personally. While describing the family’s eating experience, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle contrasts the idea of community sustainable agriculture with the ecological costs of factory farming.
The book was one of the first to embrace the idea of eating locally. In the years following its publication, “locavore” became a trend. The book spent years on bestseller lists and won a James Beard Award.
While Kingsolver wrote most of the book, her husband added interesting facts about agribusiness, and her daughter included some great recipes. Reviews included:
- “Charming, zestful, funny and poetic…a serious book about important problems.” (Washington Post Book World)
- “Engaging…Absorbing…Lovely food writing…[Kingsolver] succeeds at adopting the warm tone of a confiding friend.” (Corby Kummer, New York Times Book Review)
Barbara Kingsolver’s work has been translated into more than 20 languages. She was awarded the National Humanities Medal, our country’s highest honor for service through the arts.
The $64 Tomato: How One Man Nearly Lost His Sanity, Spent a Fortune, and Endured an Existential Crisis in the Quest for the Perfect Garden
When William Alexander set out to create a simple garden, he had no idea that he would end up doing battle with pests and weeds, planning his vacations around the harvest, and enduring the pity of his wife and kids. When he added up the costs of everything from a live animal trap to Velcro tomato wraps, he discovered that it cost $64 to grow each of his tasty Brandywine tomatoes. But they were great tomatoes.
The $64 Tomato describes Alexander’s journey from starry-eyed idealist to a man who loves his garden, despite the challenges. Be forewarned: the author ends up NOT taking an organic approach to his garden. Reviews included:
- “Gardening as extreme sport. . . . Engaging, well paced and informative.” (The New York Times Book Review)
- “Money, sex, aging. That’s real gardening!” (The New York Observer)
William Alexander, the author of two critically acclaimed books, lives in New York’s Hudson Valley. When not gardening, baking or writing, his day job is director of technology at a psychiatric research institution.
