Hands down, one of the most enjoyable audiobooks I've listened to lately was The Plant Hunter by Dr. Cassandra Leah Quave. It's a memoir of her life so far, from a childhood of science fairs and surgeries (due to a below the knee amputation when she was three) to an adult life as a world-traveling ethnobotanist, PhD, wife, and mother. All of it is fascinating and makes me want to drop everything and pursue ethnobotany, until I remember that unlike Dr. Quave, I am not suited to a life of rugged fieldwork in tropical and subtropical climates. (For those of you wondering, her fieldwork involves interviewing locals who use native plants for medicinal purposes, then finding the plants, collecting samples, and studying how they might be applied in commercial pharmaceuticals.) I appreciate how this memoir blends the author's personal and professional lives, showing how elements of each make the other possible. It's an up-close view of a remarkable life, and I highly recommend it to listeners and readers who enjoy memoirs and science writing, obviously, but also those who enjoy character-driven fiction.
