In case anyone missed the PBS special The Botany of Desire which premiered Wednesday, October 28, 2009, you can still watch the entire program online. It's incredible. Book turned documentary. BOTANY OF DESIRE is a documentary which tells the utterly original story of everyday plants and the way they have domesticated humankind. An interpretation of the relationship between plants and people. This two-hour documentary explores plant evolution and takes viewers from the potato fields of Peru and Idaho, the apple forests of Kazakhstan, and the tulip markets of Amsterdam. View online in it's entirety: here This is another related program by the same presenter on LINK TV (a cable access channel) which is timely: Deep Agriculture Traditional methods of agriculture in most developed nations have long ignored environmental concerns. Factors such as soil erosion, water shortage and the impact of chemicals on bio-systems have been overlooked in favour of massive crop yields and cheaper food. But what impact does this have on our health and our environment? View online in it's entirety: here __________________________ Sit down with a cup of tea or coffee and witness the evolution of an Organic Kitchen Garden.

Frieda - The Siege of Krishnapur would be in the OK category for me. Nothing special, but not bad either. I've got a bit of a soft spot for it, though, as it was the last one I needed to get to complete my collection, so I was very pleased when I found a nice copy on ABE and the parcel arrived through the door. It's a while since I read The Sea, The Sea so I don't remember the particular scene that you mention - obviously it didn't strike me in the same way as it did you. Life of Pi is most certainly not a fantasy, and it doesn't have any talking animals. Part of the pleasure of the book is the unsentimental way that animals are treated. Here's my review of it from the RP review thread we did a few years ago. (I think I might try reviving that...) ================================================== This is one of the few times when a Booker Prize winner lives up to the type. I've rarely enjoyed a book so much. It's not a difficult read, but it's got enough in it to make anyone think. It's full of little twists, and some lovely touches of humour. It's the story of a sixteen-year-old boy called Pi (as in 3.14159 - you'll have to read the story to find out why!). He and his family are on a cargo ship on it's way to Canada, carrying several large zoo animals; the ship is shipwrecked, and Pi finds himself on a lifeboat with a zebra with a broken leg, a hyena, an orang-utan - and a 450-pound Bengal tiger. Which makes for a bit of a tense atmosphere.... It really is one of those books where I envy anyone coming to it for the first time. I'm sure I'll read it again soon. Here's just a few extracts that particularly appealed to me. I hope they give a flavour of the book, without giving anything away. It was my first clue that atheists are my brothers and sisters of a different faith, and every word they speak speaks of faith, Like me, they go as far as the legs of reason will carry them - and then they leap. I'll be honest about it. It's not atheists that stick in my craw, but agnostics. Doubt is useful for a while. We must all pass through the Garden of Gethsemane. If Christ played with doubt, so must we. If Christ spent an anguished night in prayer, if He burst out from the Cross, "My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?" then surely we are permitted doubt. But we must move on. To choose doubt as a philosophy of life is akin to choosing immobility as a means of transportation. I am not one to hold a prejudice against any animal, but it is a plain fact that the spotted hyena is not well served by it's appearance. It is ugly beyond redemption. He's petulant! It's morning in Bethany and God's hungry; God wants His breakfast. He comes to a fig tree. It's not the season for figs, so the tree has no figs. God is peeved. The Son mutters, "May you never bear fruit again," and instantly the fig tree withers. So says Matthew, backed up by Mark. My fellow castaway came into view. He raised himself on...

A bit of unfinished business before letting this thread sink into oblivion: I want to apologize for my seeming abandonment. I didn't intend it, but I got stuck in 'Ultima Thule'. Lydia, thank you for talking Annpan into giving us a hint about the Reginald Hill book. Annpan, I've acquired the first four Dalziel/Pascoe books. I hope I'm perceptive enough to figure out which is the clever one you've talked about. It will be fun, as I do enjoy Reginald Hill even when he's being extra expansive. I usually burn out on any series after about three or four books (unless I read them over several years with lots of time between), so I hope the book in question is one that I have! Lydia, re The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie: the structure of the film is linear while the book is told in flashback. I can understand why it was changed for the film adaptation. Actually, Muriel Spark's way of telling the story annoyed me a few times, especially when, thunk!, she flashed forward to Sandy Stranger in the 1950s(?). This is typical shtick, though, for Spark as she employed it in at least a couple of her other books. Easy Rider: Yep, I agree, Lydia. It was rather the fashionable thing to do in the late 1960s and into the 1970s -- leave the reader/viewer perplexed and asking "that's it?" Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid also comes to mind, and I think there were several others.

Cat in the Hat -- Dr. Seuss (One of my all-time favorite reads. It's SUCH a classic!)