The Botanic Book Buddies reading group is open to all members, Docents, volunteers and members of staff. It meets 6 times a year – on the second Wednesday of the even months of the year, at noon, in the Lawn House. If the weather is fine you’ll find us outside on the patio. We bring a brown bag lunch and usually someone provides a delicious treat to share. The discussion is informal and generally pretty lively. If you have read a book that broadly relates to plants and would recommend to it to others, we’d like to hear from you. We try to select books that are readily available through the public library and published in paperback.

Please email me, Sarah Clayton, with any comments or suggestions.

BOTANIC BOOK BUDDIES  – READING LIST

JUNE:  The Orchid Thief:  A True Story of Beauty and Obsession by Susan Orlean

Available in various formats – check online and through the public library.   A DVD of the movie Adaptation, loosely based on the book blending fictional characters and situations with the lives of real people, is also available.

AUGUST:  The California Native Landscape: The Homeowner’s Design Guide to Restoring Its Beauty and Balance by Greg Rubin and Lucy Warren

Note – currently only available in Hardcover.   ISBN-10: 1604692324 or  ISBN-13: 9781604692327.   Price $34.95. Copies of this book are available through both the City and County library systems.  The City’s waiting list is much shorter than the County’s.

Greg Rubin will be speaking at an upcoming General Meeting and we have invited Lucy Warren to join us when we discuss the book on August 14.

 

OCTOBER:  Cadillac Desert:  The American West and Its Disappearing Water by Marc Reisner

The original classic about Western US water usage and its problems.  Revised edition 1993, original edition 1986.  Available in paperback – new $13 – 16 and through the City and County libraries.

For discussion on February 13, 2013 – Founding Gardeners, The Revolutionary Generation, Nature, and the Shaping of the American Nation -  Andrea Wulf

For discussion on April 10, 2013 – Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A year of food life – Barbara Kingsolver

Unless otherwise noted copies of these books are available through the City and County library systems.  In some instances only a few copies are available so it may be best to put in a request for the book to be sent to your branch well in advance of the meeting when the book will be read.  In addition to regular books some of these editions are available as downloadable audio/ebooks.  Copies of all of these books may also be purchased through online booksellers.  However, All My Edens: A Gardener’s Memoir by Pat Welsh is currently out of print and may be difficult to obtain.

Here is the list of the books we have read so far:

FEBRUARY 2012 – Wicked Plants by Amy Stewart

APRIL 2012 – Second Nature – A Gardener’s Education by Michael Pollan

JUNE 2012 – The Fruit Hunters – A Story of Nature, Adventure, Commerce and Obsession by Adam Leith Gollner

AUGUST 2012 – Flora Mirabilis:  How plants have shaped world knowledge, health, wealth and beauty by Catherine Howell

October 10, 2012 - All My Edens: A Gardener’s Memoir by Pat Welsh

December 12, 2012 - When the Killing’s Done by T.C. Boyle – Fiction