2011 Holiday Gift Ideas

Friday, July 31, 2009

Book Review: New biography of America's plant wizard

EVANSTON, Ill. (AP) — Chicago author Jane Smith clearly does not want to see her books all shelved in one category at the public library. Among her seven works are two murder mysteries, two books about the fight against polio, a biography of prominent interior decorator Elsie De Wolfe and a novel set largely in Provence, France.

But don't let the genre-hopping mislead you. Smith, a cultural historian and an adjunct professor at Northwestern University, sees a common thread connecting her various titles."I am consistently looking at individuals and social periods where there were changes that were so fundamental that we assume that is the way it has always been," Smith says. "I try to go back and say: Where did we get this enormous change?

"Her latest book is "The Garden of Invention: Luther Burbank and the Business of Breeding Plants."

Read more>

Shop for Book>

No comments:

Post a Comment