An excellent resource about the natural properties of plants.
Thirty mushrooms and plants get well-deserved recognition for their healing and sustenance potential in this nonfiction work.
Wouter Bijdendijk has a doctorate in anthropology and specializes in pharmacognosy, a branch of pharmacology focused on the study of the physical, chemical, biochemical, and biological properties of medicines of natural origin; Joris Bijdendijk, his brother, is a Michelin-starred chef. Together, they have collaborated on a unique book about the medicinal and culinary properties of plants and mushrooms. An introduction details factors that affect the immune system and the connections between lifestyle, food, nature, and health. Thirty individual plants are described in chapters covering mushrooms, fruits and nuts, herbs and spices, leaves and flowers, and bulbs and roots. Each chapter begins with a conversation between the brothers about the subject, often including their childhood experiences. Individual plants within each chapter are described in detail, including their uses, appearance, and extraction and dosage guidelines. Historical backgrounds of the plants contextualize their importance to cultures worldwide throughout history. Garlic, for instance, which was considered sacred in ancient Egypt, “was also mentioned in the Edda (the sacred Icelandic and Norwegian poems from the 10th century)” and “was first described as a medicine 2000 years BCE” in China. A highlighted sidebar for each entry emphasizes distinctive properties, sourcing, and warnings about interactions. Full-color photographs and two recipes by Joris accompany each description. Chapters end with “further plant journeys” spotlighting plants that are known to have psychoactive properties. The authors’ passion for the natural properties of plants is evident, as is their respect for knowledge from non-Western cultures worldwide and concern for the world’s biodiversity. The prose, ably translated by Jansen, is accessible to the nonprofessional reader. Extensive footnotes and a section of resources on each subject provide guidance for anyone interested in delving further. This unique combination of evidence-based resource for plant and herbal medicines, how-to guide, and cookbook will fill a gap in most personal and library collections.
An excellent resource about the natural properties of plants.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: -
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: April 8, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
The lessons to draw are obvious: Smoke more dope, eat less meat. Like-minded readers will dig it.
The chef, rapper, and TV host serves up a blustery memoir with lashings of self-help.
“I’ve always had a sick confidence,” writes Bronson, ne Ariyan Arslani. The confidence, he adds, comes from numerous sources: being a New Yorker, and more specifically a New Yorker from Queens; being “short and fucking husky” and still game for a standoff on the basketball court; having strength, stamina, and seemingly no fear. All these things serve him well in the rough-and-tumble youth he describes, all stickball and steroids. Yet another confidence-builder: In the big city, you’ve got to sink or swim. “No one is just accepted—you have to fucking show that you’re able to roll,” he writes. In a narrative steeped in language that would make Lenny Bruce blush, Bronson recounts his sentimental education, schooled by immigrant Italian and Albanian family members and the mean streets, building habits good and bad. The virtue of those habits will depend on your take on modern mores. Bronson writes, for example, of “getting my dick pierced” down in the West Village, then grabbing a pizza and smoking weed. “I always smoke weed freely, always have and always will,” he writes. “I’ll just light a blunt anywhere.” Though he’s gone through the classic experiences of the latter-day stoner, flunking out and getting arrested numerous times, Bronson is a hard charger who’s not afraid to face nearly any challenge—especially, given his physique and genes, the necessity of losing weight: “If you’re husky, you’re always dieting in your mind,” he writes. Though vulgar and boastful, Bronson serves up a model that has plenty of good points, including his growing interest in nature, creativity, and the desire to “leave a legacy for everybody.”
The lessons to draw are obvious: Smoke more dope, eat less meat. Like-minded readers will dig it.Pub Date: April 20, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-4197-4478-5
Page Count: 184
Publisher: Abrams
Review Posted Online: May 5, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2021
Skloot's meticulous, riveting account strikes a humanistic balance between sociological history, venerable portraiture and...
A dense, absorbing investigation into the medical community's exploitation of a dying woman and her family's struggle to salvage truth and dignity decades later.
In a well-paced, vibrant narrative, Popular Science contributor and Culture Dish blogger Skloot (Creative Writing/Univ. of Memphis) demonstrates that for every human cell put under a microscope, a complex life story is inexorably attached, to which doctors, researchers and laboratories have often been woefully insensitive and unaccountable. In 1951, Henrietta Lacks, an African-American mother of five, was diagnosed with what proved to be a fatal form of cervical cancer. At Johns Hopkins, the doctors harvested cells from her cervix without her permission and distributed them to labs around the globe, where they were multiplied and used for a diverse array of treatments. Known as HeLa cells, they became one of the world's most ubiquitous sources for medical research of everything from hormones, steroids and vitamins to gene mapping, in vitro fertilization, even the polio vaccine—all without the knowledge, must less consent, of the Lacks family. Skloot spent a decade interviewing every relative of Lacks she could find, excavating difficult memories and long-simmering outrage that had lay dormant since their loved one's sorrowful demise. Equal parts intimate biography and brutal clinical reportage, Skloot's graceful narrative adeptly navigates the wrenching Lack family recollections and the sobering, overarching realities of poverty and pre–civil-rights racism. The author's style is matched by a methodical scientific rigor and manifest expertise in the field.
Skloot's meticulous, riveting account strikes a humanistic balance between sociological history, venerable portraiture and Petri dish politics.Pub Date: Feb. 9, 2010
ISBN: 978-1-4000-5217-2
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: Dec. 22, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2010
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