Anatomy of a Rose: Exploring the Secret Life of Flowers by Sharman Apt Russell

Delphinium.
Red Skyrocket (or it's formal name: Ipomopsis Aggregata).
Philodendron Selloum (The only plant I've ever been able to grow!).
La Reina de la Noche (Queen of the Night).
Monkshood.
Pale Lousewort (Wait a minute - didn't I date him once?).
Elephant's Head.

I like to think that a person is a reader because they simply love words. (As a child, I used to read the dictionary as if it were a novel - an illuminating mystery of words.) And with such delicious words for the waving stems we so often pass with hardly a notice how can a reader not fall head first into Anatomy of a Rose: Exploring the Secret Life of Flowers by Sharman Apt Russell.

Words aside, in a collection of sixteen essays ostensively about plants, Sharman reminds us that we are not the center of the universe, no matter what we think.

The life of flowers she gently lays bare for our blind eyes to see (the second essay titled "The Blind Voyeur" in fact instructs the reader on how much we will never see - because there is a whole spectrum of colors that we literally cannot see - intended for the sight of bees) exist not to delight us but to accomplish that most important of tasks in an organism's life - reproduction.

And oh what a task that is. Enticement. Deception. Destruction. Dissolution. Delight. (Sounds familiar, doesn't it?)

Sharman's descriptions of the "romantic" strategies of plants, is delightfully and resolutely scientific. But reading the facts of a plant's life brought to my mind the last line L.L. Cool J. says in his song "Back Seat of My Jeep" - the question "Everything is sexual?".

Oh yeah.

No wonder the lecture on the parts of the flower is school's first tentative attempt at the birds and the bees.

Sharman brings back the memory of that old school days lesson in her essay on the parts of the flower (I love the Parts of a Flower illustration in the book -- I recognized it at once from grade school!), gives a quick lesson on vision or the lack there of, speaks of time, competion and cooperation.

And it's not just botany. Zoology, paleontology, climatology all get a turn in the sun the sunflowers turn to. (Speaking of climate - she caught me off guard with her reference to that terrible summer here in the Midwest a few years ago when so many died.) Sharman's pose is so accessible that you pause sometimes surprised to realize that you're reading science - and plenty of it!

It gets 5 roses from me (or 5 thorns if you're that kind of person). Do yourself a favor this summer, grab a copy and settle down for a glimpse of that secret world all around us.

Ideally in a garden.

(An absolute aside: I LOVED the feel of this book! As you can see above it has a lovely cover and, at only 4 3/4 inches by 7 1/4 inches, fits the hand like a glove. But the feel of the cover is absolutely lux! I don't know how they did it, but the cover has a soft feel that makes you just want to hold it. A lovely plus!)

I've been bad....

VERY bad!

However, it had to happen. I just could not resist that 3 for 2 /4 for 3 deal that's going on at Borders right now! So yesterday I went buckwild and left with 8 books!

And what did I buy?

3 for 2: I let my frustrated inner physicist go free and brought the following:

A Brief History of Time - Stephen Hawking

The Elegant Universe - Brian Greene

The Fabric of the Cosmos - Brian Greene


4 for 3: Ranging the world:

The Secret Life of Bees - Sue Monk Kidd

Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress - Dai Sijie

My Name is Red - Orhan Pamuk

Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed - Jared Diamond

Now it was not a total triumph. I had intended to by Beloved by Toni Morrison - but there were no copies left!

So am I done buying? Come on, you know better!

And the next book is...

After all my angst about picking my next book, it actually turned out to be a no brainer.

As I was restacking my books, I picked up Salt: A World History by Mark Kurlansky, opened it and started reading the first few pages almost without thought.

I heard an interview with the author back when the book was first published and he made the topic sound so interesting I always wanted to read the book. When I saw that the paperback was being offered as one of the 3 for 2 choices as Borders, I couldn't help snapping it up.

So Salt it is. I'll remember not to look back.

So what's next?.....

So now that I have finished Anatomy of a Rose - what's next?

I'm back in that, unexplainable uncomfortable position of having to chose something to read.

I'm not sure why these days that becomes a process fault with anxiety. In my youth, grabbing a book and settling in to read it was as simple as breathing. Now, when I think of what to read next, I feel as if on this decision the future of humankind rests.

Maybe it's the fact that, unlike when I was young, I don't have all the time in the world to read. All those numerous things that make claim to my time now -- work, parents that need a hand, errands that have to be run when I'm not doing the first two, school work(yeah, yeah, I'm just plain crazy on THAT one!) and, I admit it, far too much TV watching and Gameboy playing!--just were not factors when it was MY parents that did all the worrying!

I guess the above just makes me feel like my time is a precious as gold -- and that I should treat the spending of it just so (which begs the question of why I waste any of that currency on TV!).

Whew! Just typing all that make me feel better! And feeling a lot more at ease at plucking a new choice from that pile of books on my floor!

Yes I Finally Finished...

Anatomy of a Rose. (Actually, finished about a week ago.)

My thoughts on it up coming....

In brief - I liked it and recommend it.