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23 reviews for:
How Carrots Won the Trojan War: Curious (But True) Stories of Common Vegetables
Rebecca Rupp
3.38 AVERAGE
23 reviews for:
How Carrots Won the Trojan War: Curious (But True) Stories of Common Vegetables
Rebecca Rupp
3.38 AVERAGE
halloweenqueenofvermont's review
funny
informative
medium-paced
4.5
This book is both informative and humorous.
proflover's review
4.0
Title may not be fitting, but it is a collection of history and science about a variety of vegetables that is very readable.
metaphorosis's review
4.0
reviews.metaphorosis.com
4 stars
Subtitled Curious (but True) Stories of Common Vegetables, this is a fun, easy reading book that makes you wonder why no one has written a history of vegetables before. With Rupp's light-hearted approach, the subject suddenly seems an obvious one to explore. (As Rupp's extensive bibliography makes clear, there have, in fact, been many books on similar subjects, but somehow none caught my attention before this.)
Rupp makes no pretense at presenting serious science here. She takes a Mary Roach approach, focused on anecdotes and tidbits. There's the occasional nod at anthocyanins, etc. to explain colors or poisons, but the focus is on human perception of the vegetable in question - which is usually more than amusing. I kept this as my bedtime reading for a couple of weeks, and my wife found she made little progress in her own book, as I was constantly interrupting her with curious facts about cucumbers and pumpkins.
Rupp relies a little too heavily on a few staples - Burpee seed catalogs and Thomas Jefferson - and the book is an appropriate length. More, and the fun might have worn out. But for what it is, it is very amusing and well worth reading.
If you have any interest at all in vegetables, or are just looking for something light to read, take a look at this book.
sage01's review
2.0
Food trivia fluff. Falls partway between a Mary Roach book and a bathroom trivia book.
elinnotellen's review
3.0
Interesting book, but read more like a textbook than a collection of fun stories about vegetables.
villagrandres's review
Reading this book has become a chore. I do not look forward to reading it because I never feel joy from what I’ve read. I also do not enjoy the writing style at all. The book is written like the author threw up their research all over the pages and didn’t want to leave out any details. While this may be very appealing to vegetable and useless fact fanatics, it’s incoherent and annoying to me. This book might be really fun for many people, but I am not one of them.
peacefulcress's review
3.0
I really really wanted to like this book more but it followed a very specific pattern for each chapter to the point that my eyes began scanning for "Thomas Jefferson grew X varieties at Monticello" (which was literally in every chapter almost verbatim). The information was very interesting but it was presented dryly and towards the end I was struggling to get through it. I'm a little sad because the fun tidbits that were there really were good and I wanted more like that.
willmarinojr's review
3.0
Initially, I wanted to read this book because of its title. I quickly learned, though, that only one sentence of the book is dedicated to the Trojan War. Regardless, it was a very informative book and, like other reviewers, I learned a lot. However, I do wish that it covered fewer facts and went into more detail on the interesting stories.