Non-Fiction Book Club to Discuss – “The Botany of Desire: A Plant's Eye View of the World” by Michael Pollan – Thursday, April 4, 2013 at 6:30PM

Hey! All you Mill City Growers* out there! Excited for Spring? While you’re getting your gardens ready, read up and then head on down to the library, Thursday, April 4th at 6:30pm to discuss Michael Pollan’s classic horticultural non-fiction gem “The Botany of Desire: A Plant’s Eye View of the World.”

If you haven’t’ read this book yet you are certainly in for a treat. And if you have, you should give it another go around. In The Botany of Desire, Pollan takes the reader on a fascinating tour of the co-evolutionary process between humans and their crops that singled out four separate plants (apple, tulip, cannabis & potato) each of which has won the artificial selection game by appealing to the basic human desires for sweetness, beauty, intoxication, and control.

About the Author:
For the past twenty-five years, Michael Pollan has been writing books and articles about the places where nature and culture intersect: on our plates, in our farms and gardens, and in the built environment. He is the author of four New York Times bestsellers: Food Rules: An Eater’s Manual (2010); In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto (2008); The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals (2006) and The Botany of Desire: A Plant’s-Eye View of the World (2001).  Pollan is also the author of A Place of My Own (1997) and Second Nature (1991).

*As a special treat we’re excited to welcome Francey Slater, Co-Director of Mill City Grows to this book discussion. She’ll be sharing her thoughts on the book and and informational material about Lowell’s burgeoning Community Gardens.