Catie Gainor

Binding Agents, a new culinary bookstore featuring cookbooks and food-related literature for all ages, hosted its grand opening day and party last Friday at 908 Christian St. in the 9th St. Italian Market, Philadelphia, Pa. 

Describing the opening as "an amazing and delicious celebration, with well over 200 cookbook lovers coming through my tiny shop," owner Catie Gainor said, "Guests enjoyed hour-long flash sales on specific books and publishers, a very popular prize wheel featuring free gifts (such as mini spatulas and vintage cookbooks) and coupons to local businesses, and an apéro hour from 4-6 p.m. that included snacks, drinks and a sensational cake from local pastry pop-up Bask Bakery. (The cake flavor, in case you're interested and because I loved it: corn-vanilla cake layers, concord grape jam and a brown butter Swiss meringue frosting.) 

"The beautiful fall weather and festivities continued into Saturday, with many more culinary enthusiasts and passers by stopping in to check out our curated selection of cookbooks, book books and gifts."

The bookstore specializes in cookbooks, offering an extensive collection of contemporary and classic titles for experienced chefs, aspiring home cooks, eager eaters and everyone in between. Binding Agents also offers "a carefully curated selection of food-focused reads, including delicious memoirs, craveable fiction, savory (and unsavory) history and scrumptious books for kids."

Author signings, classes, cookbook clubs, and events held at the shop and partner locations are also part of the offerings. In August, Gainor launched an Indiegogo campaign to help launch the new business that raised more than $23,000.

Cellar Bird Books, featuring new books and book-themed gifts, will open next month in the Barley Flats building at 415 Bridge St NW, Suite B, Grand Rapids, Mich. Crain's Grand Rapids Business reported that owner Lea Kocurek, a former production manager at Paramount, is planning to launch the shop in a 1,170-square-foot space. 

Cellar Bird Books in progress

As an "avid reader" who is "really passionate" about storytelling, she said she has long dreamed of opening a bookstore: "I think storytelling is just something that I gravitate to, between movies and books." 

Kocurek's decision to open the bookstore follows six years working at Paramount's animation studio, where her film credits include The Book of Life, Rumble, Mr. Beast's Under the Boardwalk, and upcoming films Aang: The Last Airbender and The Smurfs Movie. 

She moved with her husband from Los Angeles to Grand Rapids in 2021, after they "felt a pull" to the area. "We bought a house sight unseen and we drove across the country and moved here, and we love it," she said.

Regarding her decision to open a bookshop, Kocurek noted, "I needed a change in some way. I wanted to try this."

She has signed a five-year lease for the storefront. Cellar Bird Books will be a general-interest bookstore, selling adult, YA, and children's fiction and nonfiction across all genres. She also intends to host book clubs and hold events at the store.

"I'm going to have to feel it out a little bit once I open and understand the customers a bit better," said Kocurek, adding that so far she has had a warm welcome on Bridge Street, noting that her fellow business owners have expressed excitement for the new bookstore. 

"I'm hoping that (Cellar Bird Books) ends up being a good spot for people to be able to come before or after a meal and browse," she said. "I've been really intrigued by the (Bridge Street) area. I really love that it's part of the downtown district. To me, it felt like a good spot to fill a gap where there's not a bookstore."

At Trident Booksellers & Cafe in Boston, Mass., mugs have become a "popular go-to" in early fall, co-owner Courtney Flynn reported. Flynn said the bookstore carries some "fun and crazy" varieties from Natural Life, including a lidded mug shaped like a mushroom. Other popular sellers include hats from Standard Goods, particularly one that says "Useless and Gay," as well as Frog & Toad-themed merchandise from House of Rodan. Last year the bookstore brought in Baggu tote bags, and "they've been flying off the wall ever since."

Natural Life's Mushroom Mug

Recently, the Trident team has brought in some merchandise they discovered at the NY Now and Shoppe Object gift shows in New York City, such as cheeky keychains from That's So Andrew and wellness and makeup products from Blossom. The bookstore is also gearing up for the winter holidays, and ornaments from Kurt S. Adler and Silver Tree Home and Holiday have been arriving. A new arrival that is not holiday-related is Stickii, which creates unusual sticker sheets in partnership with various artists; they've already been restocked multiple times at Trident.

Asked about local brands, Flynn said some of the store's Boston-themed merchandise comes from Somerville company Anna Whitham Co., and both Trident employees and customers enjoy McCrea's caramels, which come from Massachusetts. Recently the store partnered with Kat Maus Haus, in Beverly, to offer custom designs depicting the store in the evening. The store also sells her illustrations of Boston neighborhoods.

On the subject of perennial favorites, Flynn remarked that Boston-themed items are always popular, especially in summer, and fridge magnets from Fridgedoor make great souvenirs. Other staples include The Found, which makes all sorts of items referencing pop culture, candles from Calyan, and Seltzer Goods, which has been on Trident's shelves for a decade.

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Book Valet from Broken Window Creations

Terri LeBlanc, co-owner and operation manager of Swamp Fox Bookstore in Marion, Iowa, said the shop's store-branded merchandise is doing well at the moment, spurred in part by visitors participating in the Iowa Indie Bookshop Tour. Other popular items include a stuffed Chauncey (a character from TJ Klune's The House by the Cerulean Sea) from Wildly Enough, a Book Valet from Broken Window Creations, and greeting cards from Muddy Mouth Cards.

Locally sourced items include bookish bookmarks from local watercolor artist Kristin Folden, and the shop's T-shirts and sweatshirts are made in partnership with CauseTeam in Mount Vernon, Iowa. LeBlanc explained that the store usually does one design per year that debuts around Indie Bookstore Day, and in the winter, the store uses its fundraising platform to raise money that will go toward books for families in need.

Asked about perennial favorites, LeBlanc mentioned stickers, as well as Book It!-themed items like pins and bookmarks, both from Imperfect Inspiration. She added that "anything with a curse word," whether it's a calendar, card, or sticker, seems to sell well.

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Book Nook Kit from Hands Craft

In Mendocino, Calif., Gallery Bookshop & Bookwinkle's Children's Books sells plenty of playing cards and carries around 30 designs at any given time, reported owner Christie Olson Day. Designs include Jane Austen, dinosaurs, tattoos, vintage cards, cannabis, and much more; Day said that if she sees "a deck of playing cards in a catalog, I order it."

Christmas ornaments sell year-round, with Day noting that Cody Foster offers a huge selection. Instead of going for holiday-themed ornaments, the store chooses subjects like nature, science, politics, and general bookishness. Book Nook Kits from Hands Craft sell very well despite being expensive, and the store goes through roughly 80 moon calendar cards, sourced from Norton, each calendar season.

Stuffies from Douglas, particularly those of local fauna, are popular, as are Fly Paper bookish candles--Day pointed out that Fly Paper offers custom labels with a minimum of just 12. The shop is doing well with items that "come in a big rainbow of colors," like Leuchtturm1917 journals and Pentel EnerGel retractable pens.

The shop continues to "sell the living daylights" out of Blackwing pencils; the team gives them a whole table, and the store carries almost everything the company makes. The items are "a delight to handsell," and Gallery Bookshop even sold one of its $125 sharpeners. --Alex Mutter

If you are interested in having your store appear in a future Sidelines Snapshot article, please e-mail alex@shelf-awareness.com.

The first-ever Bloomington Book Festival will be held October 29-November 2 in Bloomington, Ind., to celebrate books and authors. Sponsors include Morgenstern Books, Indiana Humanities, and Indiana University.

Saturday, November 2, with all events held that day at Morgenstern, will be "a special day" dedicated to community engagement, including publishers, booksellers, and local businesses. Book festival events include panels, live music, food, writing classes with C.L. Clark and Alexander Weinstein, movie viewings, and more. Author events include Ross Gay in conversation with Hanif Abdurraqib; Michael Koryta in conversation with Richard Chizmar; and appearances by Vauhini Vara, Larissa Lai, Michael Martone, Kim Howard, among others.

British author Laura Fish died just weeks before her third novel, Lying Perfectly Still, was due to be published. She was 60. The Bookseller reported that the novel's manuscript had previously been awarded the SI Leeds Readers' Choice prize in 2022 and finished third in the SI Leeds Literary Prize the same year. It is scheduled to be published October 24 by Fly on the Wall Press.

Laura Fish

Isabelle Kenyon, the publisher's director, said, "Our thoughts and prayers are with Laura's partner, Michael Wild, and her family at this terrible time. It has come as an awful shock, having worked so closely with Laura over the past year since we agreed to publish her third novel." 

She called Lying Perfectly Still, a novel giving voice to the women of Eswatini in southern Africa during the AIDS epidemic of the late 20th century, "a powerful and beautiful story," describing Fish's work as "of great literary quality, integrity and generosity." Kenyon added that the author "had hugely important things to say and I intend to make sure her voice remains present."

Fish's previous novels include Strange Music, which was longlisted for the Women's Prize, and Flight of Black Swans. She worked as assistant professor in English and creative writing at Northumbria University, where Tony Williams, professor of creative writing, observed: "Laura has been a valued colleague at Northumbria for many years, and her death comes as a terrible shock to colleagues and students. She was an original and ambitious writer whose new novel took forward her exploration of race and identity." 

Clare Malcolm, founder and CEO of New Writing North, commented: "Laura cared deeply about injustice and believed strongly in the ways writing, storytelling, dance and art can give a voice to the unheard. The world has lost an important writer, we have lost a warm and wise colleague, and international literature has lost a great ambassador." 

Julia Park Tracey (l.), author of the historical novel Silence (Sibylline Press), poses with Kristine Jelstrom-Hamill, manager of Buttonwood Books and Toys, Cohasset, Mass., after her reading at the Old Ship Church in Hingham, Mass. Tracey is doing a Retracing the Witch Trials Tour to bookstores and historical societies throughout New England, where witch trials took place in the 17th and 18th centuries.

Congratulations to Rizzoli Bookstore, New York City, which is celebrating its 60th anniversary with a series of events that began this fall and will run into 2025. They include conversations with Laurie Anderson, David Godlis, Garth Greenwell, Jhumpa Lahiri, Ira Sachs, Patti Smith, and Chris Stein, among others. In addition, New York ensemble Tredici Bacci pays tribute to Rizzoli's influential role as a film producer with a concert inspired by the soundtracks Nino Rota composed for Federico Fellini's films. There will also be limited-run collections of anniversary tote bags and pencils.

The store was founded in 1964 by Milanese entrepreneur Angelo Rizzoli, who was a publisher of books, newspapers, and magazines, and owner of a chain of bookstores in Milan, including the Rizzoli flagship store located in the Galleria. He also was a producer of classic films such as Fellini's 8½, Une Parisienne, and La Dolce Vita.

The original store was in Midtown in the Scribner Building at 597 Fifth Avenue. The store later moved to the Henri Bendel Building at 712 Fifth Avenue, and then to 57th Street, where the shop became an institution. Additional stores opened in Chicago, Los Angeles, Boston, San Francisco, and other cities, as well as three additional locations in New York. While the other locations no longer operate, in 2014, Rizzoli Bookstore relocated to its current home on Broadway in the Beaux-Arts Saint James Building in the heart of the NoMad neighborhood.

During its 60 years, the bookstore has had both a screening room and served as the backdrop for many TV shows and movies, including Law & Order, Manhattan, Falling in Love, The Room Next Door, and more.

Rizzoli Bookstore specializes in literature, photography, architecture, interior design, culinary, and the fine and applied arts. The store also stocks a selection of Italian-, French-, and Spanish-language fiction and nonfiction. The bookstore regularly hosts a range of events, including book launches, concerts, performances, wine tastings, and creative workshops.

"It's no secret we love fall here at City Lit Books! Time to get cozy or scared, your choice," City Lit Books, Chicago, Ill., posted on Instagram, along with a photo of the shop's sidewalk chalkboard message: "Haunt your local indie booookstore."

"Several days ago we were going about our regular bookstore business when we heard loud cheering coming from this corner," Blacksburg Books, Blacksburg, Va., posted on Facebook. "We turned around to watch a toddler take their VERY FIRST STEPS right in our store. It was magical. Even more magical--they made a beeline right for our 'spooky fiction' display. This is a milestone we can get behind!*

"*But seriously--books on the 'spooky fiction' shelf are not recommended for babies. We are not footing the bill for therapy."

Disturbing the Bones by Andrew Davis and Jeff Biggers (Melville House).

Today:
Fresh Air: Nick Harkaway, author of Karla's Choice: A John le Carré Novel (Viking, $30, 9780593833490).

Tomorrow:
Good Morning America: David Greenberg, author of John Lewis: A Life (Simon & Schuster, $35, 9781982142995).

Also on GMA: Dr. Jessica Shepherd, author of Generation M: Living Well in Perimenopause and Menopause (Union Square & Co., $18.99, 9781454954897).

Live with Kelly and Mark: James Patterson, co-author of American Heroes (Little, Brown, $32.50, 9780316407205).

Drew Barrymore Show: Owen Han, author of Stacked: The Art of the Perfect Sandwich (Harvest, $29.99, 9780063330658).

The View: Yulia Navalnaya discusses Patriot: A Memoir by her late husband Alexei Navalny (Knopf, $35, 9780593320969).

Late Night with Seth Meyers: David Remnick, author of Holding the Note: Profiles in Popular Music (Vintage, $19, 9780375702310).

Dates and a theatre have been announced for the highly anticipated Broadway run of The Picture of Dorian Gray, based on the classic novel by Oscar Wilde, Playbill reported. The 14-week limited engagement will begin previews March 10, 2025, at the Music Box Theatre, with an official opening March 27. 

Sarah Snook, star of the hit TV series Succession, will make her Broadway debut with the transfer, playing 26 characters in a solo version of the novel. Adapted and directed by Kip Williams, the production is coming to New York following a sold-out run in London's West End earlier this year. It originated at Sydney Theatre Company (where Williams is artistic director) in 2020.

"I could not be more thrilled to have found a home for The Picture of Dorian Gray at the Music Box Theatre," Williams said. "Its stunning design makes it the perfect venue for our show, and I extend my great thanks to the Shubert Organization for the honor of presenting Dorian in a space that has celebrated so many remarkable productions. I eagerly anticipate the moment when audiences can experience this new adaptation of Oscar Wilde's extraordinary story in such an exquisite theatre."

"We are delighted to be calling the Music Box Theatre our home for The Picture of Dorian Gray," added producer Michael Cassel. "This stunning theatre, home to so many legendary plays and musicals over its 103-year history will enhance the production's unique storytelling, allowing us to share this timeless tale in an extraordinary, resonant setting."

The production features set and costume design by Marg Horwell, lighting design by Nick Schlieper, music and sound design by Clemence Williams, video design by David Bergman, and dramaturgy by Eryn Jean Norvill.

Naomi Shihab Nye has won the $100,000 2024 Wallace Stevens Award, given by the Academy of American Poets and honoring "outstanding and proven mastery in the art of poetry."

Evie Shockley has won the 2024 Academy of American Poets Fellowship, which recognizes "distinguished poetic achievement" and includes a stipend of $25,000 and a residency at the Eliot House in Gloucester, Mass.

Ricardo Maldonado, president and executive director of the Academy of American Poets, called Nye and Shockley "two major voices who have made a space for the extraordinary possibility of poetry as a register of observation and reflection, compassion and togetherness, justice and grace."

Academy chancellor Afaa Michael Weaver said Nye: "In a stunning spectrum of works published in a period beginning nearly 50 years ago, Naomi Shihab Nye has borne witness to the complexities of cultural difference that connect us as human beings, evidencing a firm commitment to the poet as bearer of light and hope. In celebrating her Palestinian heritage with a gentle but unflinching commitment, her body of work is a rare and precious living entity in our time, when the tragic conflict between Gaza and Israel threatens to deepen wounds and resentments everywhere. Rooted in the profound influence of her family's love of their culture, Nye's commitment to hope establishes her as one of the most important poet ambassadors in our time, extending as she does the image of the American literary artist as global citizen. In supporting civility in all spaces, she echoes the concerns of William Stafford, an important influence. What her work would have us know, namely that only peace brings lasting peace, is what her grandmother and elders taught her as a child, the ubiquitous power of the beauty of simple things, the necessities of life that we must share if we are to endure."

Academy chancellor Ed Roberson said that "Evie Shockley's 'wine-dark sea,' unlike Homer's, is 'a half-red sea permanently parted, the middle she'd pass through, like the rest.' What she would bring through, out of that passage, is an astonishing achievement of poetry in the English language. In her poetry, she uses the persons of history in the way that other writers and landscape painters use the colors of the light on things to create space and time. In an early poem, 'London Bridge,' it isn't the expected children's rhyme, but the sound of a Negro spiritual sung by an English cathedral choir--its 'blues estuary... de-negroes de notes'--that wash into the Thames, floating the singing head of the baritone, Paul Robeson. Fallen into this river also are Othello, Elizabeth I, Gladstone, Disraeli, and Churchill. Shockley here has rewritten the textbook on mythological and historical poetic allusions, among her other innovations in American poetry. In her biographical and genealogical poems, the identity which is writing itself into existence does not have to fabricate a simulacrum of the immensity of its pain or achievement, no need for virtuosic figures of speech. Her figures speak for themselves and more; she makes these identities larger than both history and our individual selfies, and makes them speak for the total of us."

Bestselling authors Rob Hart and Alex Segura join forces on Dark Space (Blackstone Publishing, October 8, 2024), a sweeping sci-fi spy thriller that blends the epic scope and character-driven spark of Star Trek with the intrigue of John le Carré.

Rob Hart is the author of Assassins Anonymous; The Paradox Hotel, which was named one of NPR's best books of 2022; and The Warehouse, which was published in more than 20 languages. He lives in New York City.

Alex Segura is the author of Secret Identity, a New York Times Editors' Choice; the YA Spider-Verse novel Araña and Spider-Man 2099: Dark Tomorrow; Poe Dameron: Free Fall; the Pete Fernandez Miami Mystery series; the upcoming sequel to Secret Identity, Alter Ego; and a number of comic books featuring iconic characters including Spider-Man, Superman, X-Men, Avengers, White Tiger, the Question, and his own creations. Segura lives in New York with his family.

On your nightstand now:

Rob Hart: Hillbilly Elegy by J.D. Vance. I bought it from a used bookstore so it wouldn't count for Vance's sales. It's been widely derided but I want to see for myself, especially considering the level of power he could have. I'm about to crack into Assume Nothing by Joshua Corin, which I am way more excited to read.

Alex Segura: I just finished Vinson Cunningham's wonderful novel, Great Expectations. I'm immersed in Lev Grossman's inspiring The Bright Sword, and early copies of Sara Sligar's Vantage Point, Marc Guggenheim's In Any Lifetime, and Rachel Howzell Hall's upcoming romantasy, The Last One.

Alex Segura (photo: Irina Peschan)

Favorite book when you were a child:

RH: I can't point to a particular book but I can say I was obsessed with the Hardy Boys until about eighth grade, when I become obsessed with Dean Koontz. I was way too young to be reading those books and it probably explains a lot about where I am now.

AS: I read The Godfather by Mario Puzo way too early, but it stuck with me. It taught me the power of a plot twist and pulling the rug out from under the reader. I also really loved Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson and the Holmes stories, plus lots of comic books.

Your top five authors:

RH: Tom Spanbauer, Amy Hempel, Charles Williams, Alex Garland, Fyodor Dostoyevsky.

AS: This is tough. If we're just talking novels, then Jim Thompson, Margaret Millar, Elmore Leonard, John le Carré, and Laura Lippman.

Rob Hart (photo: Michael McWeeney)

Book you're an evangelist for:

RH: In the City of Shy Hunters by Tom Spanbauer. One of the most beautiful books I've ever read, and one I am pushing on people constantly. Also the best representation of New York City in a fictional work--it really gets down to the city's charcoal heart.

AS: Night Film by Marisha Pessl. I first read this book years ago when it came out, and I still think about it all the time. The way she weaves real cinema into the dark mystery was a huge influence. A more recent choice would be Real Easy by Marie Rutkoski--a "serial killer" novel in name only, that explores the cost of violence and the victims with the same care and nuance authors tend to give to the killer.

Book you've bought for the cover:

RH: Money Shot by Christa Faust.

AS: Silver Nitrate by Silvia Moreno-Garcia. I know Silvia's work well, so I knew it would be great, but the cover just made it a must-buy.

Book you hid from your parents:

RH: I didn't have to hide anything--my mom suggested I read Dean Koontz! I think she was just happy I was reading.

AS: Probably The Godfather once I got a few chapters in!

Book that changed your life:

RH: Survivor by Chuck Palahniuk. That was the book that made me want to do this.

AS: Michael Chabon's The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay. I still remember being on the bus between campuses in college, reading the novel, and dreaming of reading comics based on the superheroes created in the book. I didn't realize that inspiration would roll into my own work, with Secret Identity and Alter Ego.

Favorite line from a book:

AS: "To say goodbye is to die a little" from Raymond Chandler's The Long Goodbye.

RH: "She was pretty, but not the pretty that made other women want to push her in front of a train," from Land of Shadows by Rachel Howzell Hall. I hope to one day write a sentence half as good as that.

Five books you'll never part with:

RH: They Don't Dance Much by James Ross and In the City of Shy Hunters by Tom Spanbauer--both signed first editions. The Collected Stories of Amy Hempel. I Am Legend by Richard Matheson, which my grandmother gave me. My beat-up copy of Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury.

AS: A Firing Offense by George Pelecanos, Dare Me by Megan Abbott, Beast in View by Margaret Millar, Devil in a Blue Dress by Walter Mosley, Darkness, Take My Hand by Dennis Lehane. Haunting, mesmerizing novels that make me want to be a better writer each time I reread them.

Book you most want to read again for the first time:

RH: A Head Full of Ghosts by Paul Tremblay. I have never been so viscerally terrified by something. I was shaking through the last 20 pages.

AS: The Killer Inside Me by Jim Thompson. It blew my mind and opened all the doors of possibility.

Books and/or experiences that most directly inspired you to write Dark Space:

RH: I mostly just wanted to jam on a novel with Alex! But as a lifelong fan of all things sci-fi, including Star Wars and Star Trek, and then a later-in-life fan of stuff like Dune and the Expanse series, I thought it would be a lot of fun to write some space stuff.

AS: I read a lot of Star Wars and Star Trek novels as a kid, and Dark Space sprang from that--of wanting to create a future vision of what might be. There are a lot of underappreciated classics that might be ignored because they're "licensed" novels--but the work of legends like Diane Duane, Michael Jan Friedman, Timothy Zahn, and Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens was a big part of my childhood. That and the core Smiley novels by John le Carré make up most of the DNA for me, with a dash of Isaac Asimov's great Caves of Steel robot PI series.

Visual historian Andy Warner (Pests and Pets) traces the evolution of 10 agricultural products to highlight pivotal turning points in the relationship between plants and humans in the second entry of his Oddball Histories series, Spices and Spuds: How Plants Made Our World, a sweeping and instructive middle-grade graphic nonfiction.

All 10 plants covered are likely familiar to young readers: wood, wheat, corn, rice, peppers, sugar, potatoes, tea, tulips, and cotton. "Plants are things that people shape. And anything people shape, shapes people." Warner digs into "this relationship between people and plants, and how we changed each other," using humorous visual storytelling and exceptionally comprehensive text blocks as he spans the globe and millennia. Warner follows human consumption of the 10 pivotal plants and their subsequent impact on social issues, including migration, warfare, immigration, health, and politics. And he doesn't sugarcoat or shy away from the distressing moments, because "telling history is tough if you try to get somewhere honest." Warner draws salient points of connection "through the length and hurt of history" across eras, continents, and cultures--linking, for example, Chinese workers "fleeing war and famine" with descendants of formerly enslaved West Africans in the United States.

Warner strikes a quippy and conversational tone in his wildly informative, highly engaging text. He frames each of the 10 chapters as an independent narrative, allowing the book to be read from start to finish or enabling eager readers to skip among topics. Warner thoughtfully offers page references to connect issues such as colonialism-spread illnesses and the fire hazards of wooden structures, plus an index, though no bibliography. Biting humor is primarily delivered through speech bubbles with banter and pointed witticisms; a British East India Company representative, having invaded India, observes, "It's wild how profitable it is to just take stuff from people." Chapter lengths vary but Warner's relentless pacing complements his remarkably intricate, full-color illustrations. Particular attention to fashion and architecture adds layers to the visual elements, and every page bursts with detail. The end result should appeal to fans of Marc Aronson et al.'s Bite by Bite, Nathan Hale's Hazardous Tales, and the You Wouldn't Want To... series.

Readers will likely devour this ambitious and immersive survey of agricultural connections and interdependence. --Kit Ballenger, youth librarian, Help Your Shelf

Shelf Talker: This visually sweeping and instructive middle-grade graphic nonfiction traces 10 agricultural products across continents and millennia to highlight the relationship between plants and humans.