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World of Herbs: Recipes, Remedies, and Decorative Ideas
Tying-in with a five-part television series to be presented by the author, this book contains the history, folklore and numerous uses of all five parts of the herb plant - the seeds, leaves, flowers, roots and essential oils. It covers their aromatic, culinary, cosmetic and medicinal uses, and provides recipes, household tips, advice on gardening, ingredients for potions and remedies and ideas for decorating the home. The author also wrote the bestselling "Complete Book of Herbs", and has frequently appeared on television.
- GenresHerbsNonfiction
175 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1990
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February 5, 2014
I purchased this book from my local Pagan shop - it was really overpriced at $20. This is especially true, considering the fact that it is a) very aged and/or b) used.
I have wanted to learn more about herbs and their uses from a practical standpoint for a long time. I am interested in learning about how we can use plants to heal ourselves, and incorporating this into my paganism. When I go to the pagan store, or any bookstore, and look in the "New Age" section at the books, I'm not satisfied with the "green magick" offerings. Each book is basically a magickal encyclopedia of herbs (and, these books tend to be expensive, and all of the information is easily accessible on the internet, rendering these types of books sort of antiquated/unnecessary) or a gardening guide. They weren't the type of book I was looking for.
A few weeks ago I went searching to find a "green" book that worked for me - an Imbolc gift, of sorts. This book stood out.
I like how this book is organized. If you don't know a lot about herbs, or even plants, the book is broken down into chapters about the parts of the plants - seeds, leaves, flowers, roots, and essential oils. Each chapter includes a basic explanation of how each part of the plant works, and how you can tend to those parts of the plant. I found these parts of the book to be the most rewarding, and I'm really happy I purchased the book, if only for these sections.
There are some instructions for basic processing of herbs - infusion, decoction, maceration - and basic uses - facial steams, herbal baths, making wreaths/garlands, potpourri, essential oils, etc. I also really enjoyed these parts of the book - just basic explanations of herbal uses. This is what I really wanted to learn. I also really, really enjoyed the sections on ginseng (and the following information about Traditional Chinese Medicine.) I didn't know a lot about it and it was eye-opening, definitely a topic I want to learn more about.
Each chapter also includes some cosmetic, household,cooking, and medicinal uses of each part of the herb. These parts of the book felt sort of random. The author chooses some random herbs, inserts them into cosmetic/household/cooking use, and present three to five sentences to describe the purpose. Some of these inclusions were definitely interesting and/or useful, but I would have liked to know why they were selected. Some of these entries included some background, but I would have loved to know more about their development. What I would have preferred were more basic categories about herbs/working with herbs as detailed in the last paragraph. This was the true information I was after, but in a way, these random listings of uses really showed me that herbs can do a lot in our lives.
The book also felt a little disjointed. Although each chapter contains similar content, and all of the content made at least a little sense (if it wasn't a little random,) the chapters were organized really poorly - the topics jumped, and had no flow. Each chapter did not share a similar structure. It emphasized the randomness of some of the facts.
I had trouble believing the author's accuracy on this topic. Some of the facts in the introduction seemed a little too convenient to the author's purpose. (Although the book flap says this book explores the folklore of herbs, be warned - this book is mostly practical uses, and I would say that description is a bit misleading. This disappointed me, I didn't want a "magickal" book but more information would not have hurt.) The random facts also made this seem like a cheap, new-agey book at times - the author did a quick bit of research, scrambled, and put the facts together. One could easily interpret the book this way. But, I think the author seemed genuinely passionate about the topic at times, and I think her lack of organization and lack of any sources (not even a "further reading" source) really hurt her authenticity.
I have wanted to learn more about herbs and their uses from a practical standpoint for a long time. I am interested in learning about how we can use plants to heal ourselves, and incorporating this into my paganism. When I go to the pagan store, or any bookstore, and look in the "New Age" section at the books, I'm not satisfied with the "green magick" offerings. Each book is basically a magickal encyclopedia of herbs (and, these books tend to be expensive, and all of the information is easily accessible on the internet, rendering these types of books sort of antiquated/unnecessary) or a gardening guide. They weren't the type of book I was looking for.
A few weeks ago I went searching to find a "green" book that worked for me - an Imbolc gift, of sorts. This book stood out.
I like how this book is organized. If you don't know a lot about herbs, or even plants, the book is broken down into chapters about the parts of the plants - seeds, leaves, flowers, roots, and essential oils. Each chapter includes a basic explanation of how each part of the plant works, and how you can tend to those parts of the plant. I found these parts of the book to be the most rewarding, and I'm really happy I purchased the book, if only for these sections.
There are some instructions for basic processing of herbs - infusion, decoction, maceration - and basic uses - facial steams, herbal baths, making wreaths/garlands, potpourri, essential oils, etc. I also really enjoyed these parts of the book - just basic explanations of herbal uses. This is what I really wanted to learn. I also really, really enjoyed the sections on ginseng (and the following information about Traditional Chinese Medicine.) I didn't know a lot about it and it was eye-opening, definitely a topic I want to learn more about.
Each chapter also includes some cosmetic, household,cooking, and medicinal uses of each part of the herb. These parts of the book felt sort of random. The author chooses some random herbs, inserts them into cosmetic/household/cooking use, and present three to five sentences to describe the purpose. Some of these inclusions were definitely interesting and/or useful, but I would have liked to know why they were selected. Some of these entries included some background, but I would have loved to know more about their development. What I would have preferred were more basic categories about herbs/working with herbs as detailed in the last paragraph. This was the true information I was after, but in a way, these random listings of uses really showed me that herbs can do a lot in our lives.
The book also felt a little disjointed. Although each chapter contains similar content, and all of the content made at least a little sense (if it wasn't a little random,) the chapters were organized really poorly - the topics jumped, and had no flow. Each chapter did not share a similar structure. It emphasized the randomness of some of the facts.
I had trouble believing the author's accuracy on this topic. Some of the facts in the introduction seemed a little too convenient to the author's purpose. (Although the book flap says this book explores the folklore of herbs, be warned - this book is mostly practical uses, and I would say that description is a bit misleading. This disappointed me, I didn't want a "magickal" book but more information would not have hurt.) The random facts also made this seem like a cheap, new-agey book at times - the author did a quick bit of research, scrambled, and put the facts together. One could easily interpret the book this way. But, I think the author seemed genuinely passionate about the topic at times, and I think her lack of organization and lack of any sources (not even a "further reading" source) really hurt her authenticity.
Displaying 1 of 1 review