The Fruit Hunters
A Story of Nature, Adventure, Commerce and Obsession

I found this book incredibly frustrating. The subject matter is fascinating and the author clearly did a great deal of research. The book is absolutely packed with interesting facts about a seemingly endless variety of fruits, not to mention a wacky cast of characters - the fruit hunters - who are o......more

This book is, in a word, overwritten. Never one to forgo an adjective, or to use a simple verb when an ornate one will do, the author prefers sentences like, "Islets ringed with white sand merge into turquoise translucence." Landscapes "burst" with craters. Describing a situations where neighbors co......more

I don't read a lot of non-fiction, but I received an ARC of this book from the publisher and started to flip through the first few pages. It turned into a fascinating read! This book makes me want to travel to far-away places just to eat exotic fruits. And it make me incredibly annoyed at the paltry......more

Fascinating! Obsession in the orchard. I picked this up because Mary Roach, listed it among books she would have like to have written. And just about anything Roach writes is worth reading. It's as much about the enormous variety of indescribably scrumptious fruits we pursue and eat as the obsessive......more

Just wish I hadn't read it in the winter, because all those glorious exotic fruits are NOT to be had in New England in December and I wanted to try them all! Fun, fun read (great narrator on the audiobook). Starts slow but I'm so glad I stuck with it. I adore these "world history via a specific subj......more