Oaxaca Journal by Oliver Sacks

Oaxaca Journal was a great find.

Oliver Sacks is a physician and neurologist best known for the movie/book Awakenings and the terrific and fascinating book The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat.

One day, while wandering the New York Botanical Garden, he joins a lecture of the American Fern Society. Founded in the 1890s, the society is not just filled with botanists, but also doctors, scientists, housewives, and a bus driver—all fern people who welcome him in. They plan a trip to the southern Mexican region of Oaxaca, and the journal is part travelogue and part expedition to find new species of ferns.

Oaxaca has a richness of variety, more than any other place in Mexico. One of the group has discovered more than 60 new species in the area, and there are around 690 species in Oaxaca. As they travel through Mexico, we get to know the members, discover rare birds, plants, foods, and visit churches and villages. I found in this book just enough botany to educate me, allowing me to join in the excitement of discoveries, as well as a tour of a culture and part of Mexico I'd love to see. The cocoa, tobacco, chiles, peppers, rubber, and villages of weavers.

I learned there are many more species of fern than I thought, how they reproduce, and the delicate differences between them. I also met some interesting people who think outside the box and make connections between life and nature.

One of those books you pick up, flip open, and think, I'd love to read this again!

A real treat, and a book I'd recommend to anyone who likes travel lit, plants, adventure, and Mexican chocolate.

2012 / Tradeback / 176 pages

My other reviews for Oliver Sacks:

The Mind's Eye