Wicked Plants: The Weed that Killed Lincoln's Mother...

Wicked Plants:  The Weed That Killed Lincoln’s Mother & Other
Botanical Atrocities, by Amy Stewart.
Guest Review by Jennifer Cuddeback

My reading passions run more towards nonfiction, and so I was invited
to give a review of a recent nonfiction read for this blog to help add
variety.

Wicked Plants, written by Amy Stewart, is a layman's foray into
botanical warfare, and is handled with aplomb.  If you're looking for
a narrative book, this is not it - I wanted to get that out of the way
in the beginning.  It's written rather like an encyclopedia, except
instead of being arranged alphabetically, it is arranged thematically.
Steward often gives historical uses or perspectives on the plants she
discusses, such as how certain plants got their names.  For example,
the plant we call Jimson Weed owes it's name to the colony at
Jamestown and to it's use during the Revolutionary War.  Steward's
auto-didactic style ranges from literature and ancient history to
little known facts, and the connections she makes are quite
interesting to the lay reader.  There is again no central narrative or
plot to tie the information together, but the book holds a wicked
fascination all its own even without that.  The reader might wish for
more details about some plants - more anecdotes or references - and
occasionally the layout is confusing.  For instance, one plant may
appear in one area while a very similar and related plant appears in a
completely different place.  However, the overall feel of the book
holds together well.  The book is illustrated with etchings of the
plants by Briony Morrow-Cribbs and clever, descriptive drawings by
Jonathon Rosen (which do occasionally detract from the overall flow of
the text).  For a pocket guide to backyard menaces, Wicked Plants is
certainly worth a place on any bookshelf.