My Reads

  • “The Forgotten Botanist” by Wynne Brown

    Not only is this an amazing biography about a 19th-century female scientist, but it is also beautiful book. Sara Plummer Lemmon had a fascination with plant life, among other interests. She was also an accomplished artist. Brown includes some of Sara’s watercolor botanical illustrations in full-color plates. Sara Plummer was thirty-three and single when she…

  • Along a Dry Ditch

    Dear Friends, I’ve decided to expand the offerings on my author-site blog. For now that will simply be an occasional haiku posted on Fridays. Later I may add some essays on writing that don’t really mesh with my long-standing Myricopia blog site. Along a Dry Ditch Dead sweetclover stems Milkweed pods exposing seeds Winter dormancy

  • “The Fault in Our Stars” by John Green

    This highly acclaimed book came out in 2012, so I’m a bit late to the party. One knows going in that this is a book about teens with cancer. Heartbreak is a given. Worth it. Green wrote the book as a tribute to a cancer patient he dealt with as a student chaplain. She died…

  • “Saving Vincent” by Joan Fernandez

    This is my top pick for historical fiction I’ve read this year. Fernandez put many years of research into this story about the life of Jo van Gogh-Bonger, wife of Vincent’s brother, Theo van Gogh. If you’ve ever wondered how Vincent van Gogh’s art became world-renowned, you will find the answer in the life of…

  • Articles of Interest – December 2025

    Instead of a book review, I’d like to share some articles I’ve read recently. I enjoy getting the weekly digest email from JStor, the repository of academic journal articles and much more. This piece on Jane Goodall has some great quotes and links to some of her work. What an incredible force for good in…

  • “The Light Eaters” by Zoë Schlanger

    If ever there was a book to appeal to a botanist such as myself, this is primo! But even better, it’s written for people who aren’t scientists. Schlanger quit her job as a staff writer for The Atlantic to pursue a subject that had fired her curiosity for years: What is the true nature of…

  • “The Dutch House” by Ann Patchett

    Over the past several months, my two book clubs have selected a variety of fiction and nonfiction, but the themes have been dark. I threw in another dark work, The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead. After about the fifth or sixth book about human behavior at its worst, I realized the impact they were having…

  • “Thinking Fast and Slow” by Daniel Kahneman

    This bestselling book is nonetheless an academic tome. But worthwhile reading. Kahneman was a psychology professor at Princeton who applied his theories to economics, for which he won a Nobel Prize. I was intrigued by the title, because I consider myself to be a “slow thinker” in the sense that, while I am reasonably intelligent,…

  • “By the Fire We Carry” by Rebecca Nagle

    Nagle’s book centers on a case that traveled from Oklahoma to the US Supreme Court from 2019 to 2022. The effect of the decision, which stretched out over two court terms, impacted five Native American tribes that had originated in the eastern part of the continent, and had been forcibly removed by the Andrew Jackson…

  • “Prodigal Summer” by Barbara Kingsolver

    Let’s start with a little quiz: What is the definition of “prodigal”? (Answer at bottom) An author I greatly admire is Barbara Kingsolver. She writes fiction, nonfiction, essays, and even poetry. She is also a biologist (like me) and environmental issues often feature in her work. I’ve read nearly everything she has written. This book,…