Kepler's 2020 Project in the News:
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"Weeds" is the kind of nonfiction reading that I love best. I'm a fiend for all things historical, especially when it comes to the history of daily life. How did average people feel about very average things? I know that could be dead dull to some, but I lap it up. The chapter devoted to Culpeper makes the book worth reading - compare Culpeper's cheerfully bizarre herbalist sense to modern devotees of archaic remedies. Not much has changed in a few hundred years.
Mabey's book is a delightful meandering path examining some weeds from the common to the utterly bizarre and how they've contributed to, and shaped, culture over hundreds of years (hint: without weeds, it's doubtful we'd have Velcro). It is profoundly educational, but it reminds me of documentaries like Helvetica: it makes you look at something you see every day with a whole new perspective. Mabey's love of his subject comes through in every chapter, and you can't help but share his enthusiasm as he blithely cheers the weeds that grow in his own garden (once, he even ends up with literal weed - his garden was once a cannabis field). --Sarah L. |
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