I quite liked this, but I have seen a lot of reviews that complained that this isn't a book just filled with facts. If you are someone who doesn't typI quite liked this, but I have seen a lot of reviews that complained that this isn't a book just filled with facts. If you are someone who doesn't typically read (or maybe isn't expecting) first-person inflected journalism, this might not be your cup of tea (or coffee, as it were). Pollan is a journalist, not a scientist, and I have always liked his style, which combines history, cultural contexts, (yes) science, and his own personal experiences with his subjects - in this case a depressant (opium), a stimulant (coffee), and a hallucinogenic (peyote/mescaline). I think this approach is both engaging, informative, and from science, you wouldn't get that first-hand description of how something feels to a person, which in this case is so illustrative; he's really engaging with his subjects and also loading you up with what these substances mean throughout different cultures, how they are (or aren't) regulated, and even how they have shaped the course of history in a bunch of ways. I think I gave this a 4.5 on StoryGraph but alas, Goodreads doesn't let me be more specific so 4 stars it is....more
Roach is always great to read and I’m a huge fan of her specific brand of pop science. This is incredibly informative and I learned a lot about both “Roach is always great to read and I’m a huge fan of her specific brand of pop science. This is incredibly informative and I learned a lot about both “nuisance” animals and the innumerable different methods man has used to try to fix pest problems. And of course, the repercussions of these fixes. I couldn’t really track Roach’s often breezy tone with the important subject matter; her light touch felt incredibly at odds with her very troubling discussions of animals being poisoned, species extinction, and most troubling of all, man’s ability to uphold a network of cognitive dissonance despite so much information and even experience....more
As beautifully written as The Overstory but better edited, I just had trouble buying into the premise. I eventually let the father/son relationship wiAs beautifully written as The Overstory but better edited, I just had trouble buying into the premise. I eventually let the father/son relationship win me over but the ending kind of kicked me back out again. I know I’ll be thinking about this for a while but it feels so much more propagandistic that his previous novel that it kind of took me out a little. ...more
This was really beautiful and Robin Wall Kimmerer’s narration on the audiobook is really warm and lovely. I feel like I learned a lot about ecology, hThis was really beautiful and Robin Wall Kimmerer’s narration on the audiobook is really warm and lovely. I feel like I learned a lot about ecology, history, botany, and native/indigenous land practices, much of which I really didn’t know anything about, and if I did, I learned a new way of thinking about it. Grateful to this book for slowing me down and making think about how I interact with the world around me just a bit more than I did before. ...more
Loading...
