Hmm. Sounds like you (or your reader) like the narrative non-fiction books... Perhaps you might like Cod: A Biography of the Fish That Changes the World by Mark Kurlansky. Or perhaps his Salt: A World History by the same author?

One book that I really enjoyed was called The Genius Factory by David Plotz about a short-live scheme to have a sperm bank filled with only Nobel Prize winners... Or perhaps the social history of the kitchen in America - The Warmest Room in the House - Steven Gdula...

Jon Krakauer has loads of good NF books out there... if you like either adventure (Into the Wild or that one about Everest) or his one about an extreme arm of the LDS church was very good.

If you like medical-related things, a good book that I have read this year was about the 1800's cholera epidemic in London that led to proper sewage, paved the way to better public health and is a really interesting story in its own right. (See The Ghost Map - Steven Johnson.)

An arty and very interesting take on the biog of Marie Curie was called Radioactive by Laurie Redniss...

Are any of these close to what you're interested in? :-)

Jeff, since I noticed a certain plant-themed orientation in the two books you listed, how about one of these?

In Search of Lost Roses by Thomas Christopher

The Botany of Desire by Michael Pollan

Both are excellent.

Rosefolly

I second In Search of Lost Roses, a really interesting book even for someone who doesn't especially like plants.

A very funny book is The $64 Tomato: How One Man Nearly Lost His Sanity, Spent a Fortune, and Endured an Existential Crisis in the Quest for the Perfect Garden by William Alexander.

Anna Pavord also wrote The Naming of Names: The Search for Order in the World of Plants. It is a more serious book but fascinating in its coverage of the history of naming plants. I have not read all of it because it requires more time that I've had for a while but someday I will finish it. The book itself is beautiful with many old plates of botanical drawings.

The Brother Gardeners: A Generation of Gentlemen Naturalists and the Birth of an Obsession and Founding Gardeners: The Revolutionary Generation, Nature, and the Shaping of the American Nation are both highly recommended for their enjoyable relating of how plants came to be so desired by Europeans and Americans. These books were written by Andrea Wulf.

I learned so much by reading American Chestnut: The Life, Death, and Rebirth of a Perfect Tree by Susan Freinkel.

And then we have Weeds: In Defense of Nature's Most Unloved Plants by Richard Mabey.

Allen Lacy wrote several books of essays about gardening that I just loved. Henry Mitchell also published books of essays from his column in The Washington Post years ago.

As you can see, I could go on and on because these are among the types of books I enjoy the most but I don't want to overwhelm you.

Hello Jeff -

What about David Sedaris? He's Very very funny ... a good author for this jolly season. Every chapter is full of anecdotes. Haven't read his latest one, though; so can't vouch for that. The funniest one of all is "Naked." "Me Talk Pretty One Day" tells of his more recent life in France.

I also go along w/ Lemonhead's suggestion of the Jon Krakauer book about Everest. ... I read it a couple years ago -- during winter -- a perfect book for the season ... could really get into the "atmosphere" of the place. It recounts one climbing group's doomed expedition some years ago. An exhilarating -- if tragic -- adventure story.

A big favourite here is Beverley Nichols - an Englishman with a passion for gardens, old houses, cats, and people -- mostly eccentric ones, it seems! I'm now reading "The Gift of a Home" by him ... first book I've read by this author -- and finding it soooo charming. Your Glyphs name has "nyc" in it -- can I assume you're in New York City? If so, why not try the Strand Bookstore down in the Village -- they have tons of new and old and very old books -- fict. and non-fict. Everything there - including new hard- and soft-covers are marked down ,,, even if they're best-sellers. They're online, too. This is where I bought the B.Nichols book -- just yesterday.

Sorry! I should have specified books dealing with plants and/or gardening.

Regardless, these are all terrific recommendations. Any others would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you!
Jeff

You might enjoy the newly released One Writer's Garden: Eudora Welty's Home Place by Susan Haltom. I have not yet read it myself, but based on a friend's review, I am eager to do so.

Another suggestion is Teaming with Microbes: The Organic Gardener's guide to the Soil Food Web by Jeff Lowenfels and Wayne Lweis. This book is an absolutely fascinating book about soil, and every gardener I know who has picked it up has simply loved it.

Finally I will suggest two more, first, Everything I Want to Do Is Illegal by Joel Salatin, an innovative farmer who believes that government regulation gets in the way of truly sustainable farming. The second one is The Contrary Farmer by Gene Lodgson. He suggests what he calls the Cottage Garden, a small, carefully managed mixed family farm as a viable alternative to agribusiness.

Frances Mayes's books, although maybe more geared towards cooking, detail her extensive gardens at her summer home in Tuscany. Particularly the first one, Under the Tuscan Sun, but all of them have descriptions of gardens and what one does with the products of those gardens.

This is completely nonsequitor, but one thing I like about her and her books is that she and her husband still live in Bramasole, the home she meticulously restored. So often one finds the place about which the author waxes lyrical has been long deserted for larger/better/greener pastures.

How could I forget? The Curious Gardener's Almanac - Centuries of Practical Garden Wisdom by Niall Edworthy is wonderful and I think it fits perfectly into the the category of book that you are looking for.

I just had to mention one more, one of my all-time favorite books on the general topic of gardening. It is The Nature of Landscape Design by Nan Fairbrother. Now this book has been out of print for years, but if you track it down and read it you will find that the way you look at gardened spaces is transformed. Not a how-to book, but a series of essays on why spaces appeal to us or do not. Heartily recommended.

Rosefolly

You might try All My Edens: A Gardener's Memoir by Pat Welsh.

(From GoodReads: In an appealing narrative style reminiscent of the writings of M.F.K. Fisher and Vita Sackville-West, this beguiling memoir takes readers on a stroll through the many gardens which acclaimed writer Pat Welsh has cultivated and loved. Accompanied by a wonderful array of vintage photos, excerpts from letters, and other memorabilia, All My Edens also includes a wealth of practical advice for gardening enthusiasts. 86 halftone photos & illustrations.)

Thanks for all of the recommendations!! I've ordered five of the books already!!!!!!

Jeff

SEEING TREES by Nancy Hugo

"The Tree" by John Fowles.

"The White Garden" (the story of the gardens of Vita Sackville-West).

THE 3,000 MILE GARDEN

Two professional gardeners, one British, the other American, having met at a New Hampshire "mushroom foray," continue to share their gardening adventures in this delightful collection of their letters. Journalist/author Land (The Modern Country Cook) has country gardens in Cushing, Maine, and upstate New York; Phillips, a prolific writer/lecturer and plant photographer (Quest for the Rose), gardens by committee in London's three-acre city park at Eccleston Square. The difference in their situations intrigues them both and is instructive. They exchange discoveries about climate, garden design, rare and common cultivars, soils, mulches, pests and numerous other details of concern to gardeners. They spice their letters with botanical myth and gossip, bits of local history and geography and custom, and compare favorite recipes for their edible plants. Among other titillations, Phillips tells her how he heated a ham in mulch, and Land describes her experiments with diluted urine as a greening agent. But every page in this chatty, exuberant book is a feast of tips and surprises whose abundance and utility well serve any gardener. Photos not seen by PW.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Library Journal
Land is an American food writer who gardens; Phillips is a London-based plant photographer and writer who cooks. The two met in 1989 at a mushroom bash in New Hampshire and began a conversation that was too good to end. They continued it by mail. The resulting letters, through 1994, make up a book that is an exchange of ideas, drawings, practical tips, recipes, and personal tidbits. The correspondence is also the basis of a public television series that will air beginning in December of this year. Of particular interest are Phillips's references to the garden squares of London. We learn a bit about their history, the committee that oversees them, and the assaults on them by builders of high rises and car parks. Land's garden is in Maine, and the reader enjoys following her struggles with weather, soil, and terrain. The letters, witty and entertaining, are unfortunately published with no linking narrative, leaving gaps and unanswered questions. Though not an essential purchase, this book nevertheless will be enjoyed where anglophilic gardeners or public television fans are numerous.
Carol Cubberley, Univ. of Southern Mississippi, Hattiesburg
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Jeff, glad to hear we were of some help to you. Let us know how you like them once you've read them.

Rosefolly

I'm fond of the essays by Elizabeth Lawrence. Mostly OOP I imagine.

Inspired by the replies, I went looking for kindle books available from the local library on the subject of gardening. All the Beatrix Potter books were listed. Sigh.