You Have a Green Thumb — Or Wish You Did

Are looking forward to the summer concert season or are looking for a sparkling mystery

Hi friends,

Happy belated publication day to friend of the newsletter Lily Easton! Her debut, Summer of Love, is perfect for anyone bingeing “Love Island” right now. It’s available in paperback in the UK and eBook and audiobook everywhere else.

And now, what to read if …

You’re Spending a Lot of Time in the Garden

The Light Eaters by Zoë Schlanger

Last year, I planted dahlia tubers, and I saw one dahlia in October, two days before DC’s big frost. This year, I already have multiple buds. It’s a good reminder that there’s only so much we can do to control plants, a lesson I also learned in Zoë Schlanger’s The Light Eaters.

Schlanger provides readers an inside view of a debate occurring among the world’s botanists: Whether or not plants are “intelligent.” Researchers have learned plants can communicate with one another, recognize their kin and camouflage themselves. They’ve also discovered plants can store memories and manipulate animals to act for their benefit. Yet, despite these findings, a large number of botanists are repelled by the word “intelligence,” concerned it implies the same kind of thinking humans and animals do.

I love a book that examines obscure, internecine academic battles (see my recommendation of Shakespeare Was a Woman) and a book that explores the magic of everyday life. The Light Eaters does both. Listening to it while walking through the neighborhood caused me to appreciate the plants I strolled past more.

Reminder Recs: Lyndsie Bourgon’s Tree Thieves and The Orchid Thief by Susan Orlean are both fantastic books at the intersection of plants and true crime.

You Know Summer is Live Music Season

The Final Revival of Opal & Nev by Dawnie Walton

I caught some of J.Lo and Paris Hilton’s sets at the World Pride Music Festival while sitting on a friend’s porch on Friday, an enjoyable, if far chiller way to experience them than attending the concert. Live music fans won’t want to miss Dawnie Walton’s The Final Revival of Opal & Nev, one of my favorite books of 2021. As I wrote when I first reviewed it:

The Final Revival opens with the editor of the “oral history,” S. Sunny Shelton, disclosing that her father, Opal & Nev’s drummer, was killed at one of their shows. Sunny seeks to understand the forces that led to her dad’s death and how Opal & Nev’s two albums became so important to her. It features well-drawn characters with distinct voices — and a twist that caused me to gasp out loud.

The audiobook, with a full cast recording (also a Daisy Jones parallel), is a particular treat. It brings the oral history structure alive. I laid in my bed late at night listening to it, knowing I should turn it off, but always deciding to listen to just one more chapter.

You’re Looking for a Royal Read

A Death in Diamonds by SJ Bennett

The year is 1957, just four years after Queen Elizabeth was officially enthroned, and the young royal is working to repair and rebuild relationships with other countries following World War II. And while an official trip to Paris appears to be going swimmingly — she’s drawing crowds of adoring French (!) fans and winning over dignitaries — the Queen is convinced a member of her staff is working to undermine her, and perhaps the whole royal institution.

While Her Majesty is abroad, a bizarre murder captures the attention of all of London. An escort, wearing a diamond tiara, is found dead with a man in the home of church figure.

Upon returning to London, the Queen tasks code breaker-turned-palace secretary Joan McGraw with quietly looking into both cases. As the two women uncover state-buried secrets, they hurtle towards an unknown danger that could undermine the U.K. government.

A Death in Diamonds is the fourth book, but the first chronologically, in the Her Majesty Investigates series (think Godfather II). It works as an intro to the series for new readers or as a flashback for established series fans looking to understand how the Queen became an amateur sleuth. The books combine political intrigue, a sympathetic look at the Queen and tightly plotted mysteries. A great choice for mystery lovers or royal watchers.

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