By Karen England, for Let's Talk Plants! January 2024.
Please join the SD Hort Book Club and read some great horticulturally imbued books along with us. Some titles are old, some new, some historical, some biographical, some fictional, some educational and all enjoyable.
To join the SDHBC, just send an email to Karen at info@sdhort.org with "Book Club" in the subject line to receive the Zoom link to the meetings.
We meet on Zoom the first Monday of most months at 4:30p for social/5p for discussion.
Please note that due to the New Year's Day holiday we are not meeting for book club on January 1. We will resume our regular schedule on February 5, 2024, books to be read to be announced soon.
However, we are taking a field trip in January instead on Thursday, January 11, 2024, at noon –Temecula, CA to visit the Pechanga Cultural Resources Department's tour of the Great Oak, one of the oldest living oak trees in the Western U.S. This ancient oak tree is in San Diego County on the Pechanga Indian reservation.
Announcing the next quarter books that we are reading:
February 5, 2024 4:30p/5p Zoom Brave the Wild River by Melissa L. Sevigny. 2023. The untold story of two women who mapped the botany of the Grand Canyon. Non-fiction.
March 4, 2024 4:30p/5p Zoom Birnam Wood by Eleanor Catton. 2013. Fiction.
April 1, 2024 4:30p/5p Zoom The Signature of All Things by Elizabeth Gilbert. 2014. Novel.
SD HORT BOOK CLUB'S Previously Read List:
January 2021 - The Language of Flowers by V. Diffenbaugh 👍
February 2021 - The Food Explorer by D. Stone 👍👍
March 2021 - Green Mansions by W. H. Hudson👍
April 2021 - A Memory of Violets by H. Gaynor 👍
May 2021 - Founding Gardeners by A. Wulf 👍👍
June 2021 - Elizabeth and Her German Garden by E. von Arnim 👍
July 2021 - In Praise of Tomatoes by S. Shepherd 👍👍
August 2021 - Undaunted Courage by S. Ambrose 👍👍
September 2021 - Around the World in 80 Plants/Trees both by J. Drori 👍👍
October 2021 - American Eden by V. Johnson 👍
November/December 2021 – Finding The Mother Tree by S. Simard 👍👍
January 2022 – Braiding Sweetgrass by R. Kimmerer 👍👍
February/March 2022 - The Seed Keeper by D. Wilson 👍
April 2022 - In Search f Lost Roses by T. Christopher 👍👍
May 2022 - Turn Here Sweet Corn by A. Diffley 👍👍
June/July 2022 - The Arbornaut by M. Lowman 👍👍
August 2022 – Orwell’s Roses by R. Solnit 👍
September 2022 - The Nature f Oaks by D. Tallamy 👍👍
October 2022 - Vanilla: Travels in Search of the Ice Cream Orchid by T. Ecott. 👍
November 2022 - The Complete Writings f Kate Sessions in California Garden – New Edition - San Diego Floral Association. U👍👍
December 2022 - The Multifarious Mr. Banks: From Botany Bay to Kew, The Natural Historian Who Shaped the World by T. Musgrave 👍
January 2023 – the Botanist’s Daughter by K. Nunn. 👍.5
February 2023 – Eating to Extinction by D. Saladino. 👍👍
March 2023 - The Natures of John and William Bartram by T. Slaughter. U👎
June 2023 - The Plant Hunter by C. Quave. U👍👍
July 2023 - The Overstory by R. Powers. 👍.3125...
August 2023 - Tulipomania by M. Dash. 👍.21428...
September 2023 - Garden Spells by S. Addison Allen 👍
October 2023 - Agave Spirits by G. P. Nabhan Ph.D., & D. S. Piñera 👍.5
November 2023 - The Oak Papers by J. Canton U👍👍
December 2023 - The Last Garden in England by J. Kelly. 👍.21428...
Our Ratings System Explained -
👍👍 Two thumbs up = excellent
👍 One thumb up = good
✔️ No thumbs up or down = okay
👎 One thumb down = bad
👎👎 Two thumbs down = awful
U The letter U = unanimous vote
Karen England, the SD Hort Book Club Head Muckety-muck, agrees with writer and poet Jorge Luis Borges who famously said,
"I have always imagined that paradise will be a kind of library."