Last year I fell in love with Thor Hanson's Buzz, a deep dive into the evolution, biology, and purpose of bees. I loved the digestible and humourous writing, making it one of my favorite non-fiction books I've read in a long time. The Triumph of Seeds is written in a very similar manner, breaking down the vast history and human connection of seeds into bite-sized chapters: covering the likes of coffee, cotton, and poisonous plants.

This one took me a while to get through. I admit that I was busy with starting a new job and tying up end-of-summer to-do lists, but I found myself less interested in this book compared to Buzz—which I chalk up entirely to the subject matter. Hanson's writing is just as inviting and well-composed as the latter, but I just found the inner workings and various lifestyles of bees more interesting. I don't regret reading this one bit though, and I look forward to Hanson's upcoming book on climate change's effect on nature and biology.

Some of my favorite tidbits from The Triumph of Seeds:

-The entire chapter detailing the formation of coal from Carboniferous forests and preservation bias (p. 60)

-The journey of De Clieu's coffee tree and it's subsequent effect on Europe and colonialism (p. 145)

-Noelle Machnicki's curt explanation of the purpose of capsaicin in plants, specifically in defense against fungus and foragers (p. 137)

-My eyes being opened to the universal usage of guar gum (p. 49)

-The mystery of seed cell structure memory during inactivity/dehydration (p. 99)

What a great read. Very well written.

Ugh, you can tell this was written by a man and not just a man, but a white one. Just reeks of sexism and racism. There's a very pompous undertone, as well, which is a bit ironic since he claims things are just theories or just a hint of an answer so many times, I started to wonder why he wrote this if he didn't learn anything. I don't know for sure but I definitely felt like he was treating a lot of this stuff as more up for debate than it really is. Constantly telling stories about his toddler. That is not what I am here for and it's just something to fluff out your book with all the lack of actual information.

Anyhoo, specifics on the sexism and racism. 1) He spoke to female scientists few and far between and was very gross in how he described. Not quite coming out and saying whether they were hot or not but it was definitely implied by his tone, like how one of them made him laugh all the time. And when he is talking to the women, he always tries to twists their words into some dumb analogy and then they have to tell him that's not quite right. He even goes so far as to claim that the women who work for a seed bank have never once thought about why their work might be important in the face of climate change and he is the one who pointed it out to them. 2) The racism. Constant idolization of Christopher Columbus, like he mentions him A LOT and calls him the good admiral. Yeah, he raped, mutilated, and murdered a whole bunch of indigenous people, let's not congratulate the man. He also tells a cutesy story about Mao Zedong, yet another person who has perpetuated genocide. Bombastic side-eye.

The author is definitely a capitalistic shill. Comes across as anti-environmentalism which is crazy coming from a botanist or whatever the hell his degree is in, I actually have no idea. Pro-fossil fuels cause it's good for the seed industry. And poor coal companies, facing stimgatization for not following safety protocols and being blamed for global warming. Also, the villains of large scale habitat loss and agricultural change are "faceless" as if we can't name the exact companies that are the most to blame for their corporate greed. We'll just have to adapt to climate change instead of changing our behavior to stop it.

Men are stupid, by the way. He tells another about him and his thesis advisor (a liver cancer survivor) eating seeds that have been banned from being food additives because even a small amount damages the liver. That's not funny, that's reckless. His advisor's cancer then comes back a couple months later and he dies.

The only part I enjoyed was about the different defense mechanisms of seeds, talking about caffeine, peppers, and poisons. Those chapters were interesting. But the rest was kind of a slog. He spent a lot of time trying to give technical explanations about how seeds work for a general audience but it was not done in a compelling way. I had to push to finish this.

You might think that a book about Seeds would be dry. This is not that at all. The author has a fantastic and dynamic voice.

Absolutely fascinating. A must-read for gardeners, science geeks, and lovers of food history.