3.99 average · 286 reviews
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I had honestly forgotten just how much I enjoy reading niche nonfiction until I picked this up.
I found this book delightful. It is rich with history, thought-provoking, and amusing. It detours slightly here and there, giving the reader additional fun, non-tomato related facts. It gives not only an ingeresting, well-rounded (no pun intended) history of tomatoes, but it also teaches the reader about tomato science, farming, and wider history.
I really enjoyed this book and will be thinking about what I learned for sometime. Definitely pro-tomato!🍅🍅
I’ve found that a hallmark of so many good books is that the food and drink are described in such rich detail that it makes me hungry just to read about it. Often I’ll find myself googling recipes inspired by whatever I’ve just read about or heading to the store to see try something new. I’m assuming that I’m not alone in this, so what’s your favorite meal, food, or drink that you’ve tried because you read about it or something similar in a book? Or one you’d like to try?
The author, Yossi Yovel is a researcher at Tel Aviv University, and the absolute first sentence of the book mentions Israel. In solidarity with Palestine during an ongoing genocide, I’m trying not to read books that normalize Israel. Wanted to put a note for other folks doing the same.
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madbee commented...
Thank you for sharing!!
For anyone looking for a wonderful nonfiction book about bats in replacement for reading this book, Merlin Tuttle’s The Secret Lives of Bats is wonderfully written, informative, and extremely engaging. He’s also a huge conservationalist who was largely responsible for the movement away from viewing bats as creatures to be exterminated and towards seeing them as valuable parts of our ecosystems. The book also includes some of the photographs that he’s taken himself. Strongly recommend to anyone interested in the topic!