Mesquite: An Arboreal Love Affair

This book is something special. It is an intimate portrait of both an incredible species, and its author. Common knowledge warns us not to judge a book by its cover (though the cover of this book is admittedly beautiful and inviting). Gary Nabhan takes that message to heart and runs with it. "Mesquite" is unvarnished look at both Nabhan and this tree, an incredible shape-shifting and wise survivor that has been equally maligned and revered over the many millennia that it has sheltered, protected, nourished, outsmarted, and may yet out live humans. I appreciated that Nabhan doesn't try to make either mesquite or himself appear perfect. Indeed he celebrates the imperfections along with the incredible. If you want to learn just how much humans influence their environs and how those environs in turn influence and shape we humans, you couldn't pick a better subject than mesquite (the tree) or book (Mesquite). Getting to know one of the great creative thinkers of our time is an added, and indeed integral, bonus.

I have followed the distinctive desert tree Mesquite across the Southwest from the Honey Mesquite bosques of Death Valley National Park, some of which have been maintained by the local Timbisha Shoshone for centuries, to the Velvet Mesquites of the Sonoran Desert in southern Arizona, where the tree plays a central role in Tohono O'odham culture. Gary Paul Nabham humorously but meticulously writes of the natural and human history of Mesquite and how it permeates our lives in the desert from the sweet flour made from its beans to the smoke that coats our grilled meats and vegetables. A remarkable and unusual food book by a remarkable writer!

Fast, reasonably priced, and book arrived as described. What more could you want!?

I have 10 mesquite trees on my property and I thought I knew quite a bit about them, but Gary opened my eyes (and ears and taste buds and nose) to so much more. My knowledge about mesquite has increased ten fold. And I learned by being entertained by a master story teller. Cudos! Thank you Gary!

The presentation may be a little unusual, but not only is the content solidly informative and interesting, the storytelling conceit grew on me until I was thoroughly swept up and as in love with mesquite as the author. This is a wonderful new work from a long-time favorite writer.

This is a beautifully written book with such important information about Nature and Life.

Delivery was early, packaged well and book as described. Grateful customer.

Kind of weird.