I've always enjoyed Pollan's books, so I was more than excited to review this one. He takes the reader through his personal experience with three drugs. I can't imagine myself trying opium or mescaline recreationally and the thought of getting rid of caffeine from my daily routine absolutely terrifies me. It was a nice easy read and something I can see myself picking up again.

Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher, and the author for the opportunity to review this book in exchange for an honest review.

I'm a big fan of Michael Pollan, but this one was just okay. It honestly felt like he was rehashing material he'd already covered elsewhere. Felt kind of like a cynical money grab.

A fascinating trio of essays by Pollan on three different plants with human-altering properties (coffee beans/caffeine, poppies/opium, and peyote cactus/mescaline). All three sections are well researched and told with humor and a deft personal touch.

He takes the reader along with him as he personally experiences all three and discusses the different cultural contexts around each plant. Each section deals with complex issues and they are adeptly handled with nuance, curiosity, and humor, and importantly with a distinct lack of condescension or judgement. With the section on peyote, he discusses the Native American religious ceremonies and associates with peyote in a manner that acknowledges that he is a white man and not the appropriate sole voice and gives Native Americans room to say their own narrative without making them into a monolith.

I learned a lot from this book, and have shared sections with friends ad nauseum. While some of the sections are rereleased, I think that having them published here together gives them something extra as they interweave. I haven't read any of his other works, but I am definitely going to now.

A great book for those interested in science, nature, counterculture, and/or just a fun well written narrative that gives you something to ponder over.

I'd listened to Pollan's piece on caffeine through Audible so that whole section of the book felt like a repeat. The way the first section (opium) was written, with the old piece followed by updated information felt lazy. The 3rd section suffered from lack of in-person interviews and experiences, which was due to covid, but Zoom was mentioned over and over again. I didn't read his book on psychedelics, but wonder if I'd also read it how much of the book would have felt like something I'd already read. Despite the positive reviews, this book felt lazy.

As like most of Pollan’s works there is more autobiography than science. His books are personal exploration of plants. The focus in this book is on three substances. The first with his experience of obtaining and growing poppy plants, particularly the type from which opium is derived. Next is about caffeine, with a bit more science added, and the last about peyote, or mescaline. The last also discusses the religious ceremonies of Native Americans and his own wife’s experience during a ceremony they both took part in.

Some of the material in this book is a re-release, with a long essay partially published as a journal article in the mid-1990s and most of the caffeine section being released as an Audible original audio last year.

This is a good book for Pollan fans, continuing on his journey of plants and experiences. For a science-based look at these plants, or even a wider social account of what these mean, this book is a good supplement.

3.5
I enjoyed this book which explores the author's personal opinions and experiences with three mind altering substances. I especially appreciated the bits of fact and history that are included. Personally, I found the chapter on caffeine to be the most interesting, perhaps because I am highly sensitive to caffeine and found the history and background, as well as the culture of it, to be fascinating. This book is mostly observation and Pollan's personal experience (experimentation?) with the substances rather than about science. While some readers may not enjoy this as much as a scientific and purely fact-filled book, I liked Michael Pollan's writing and hearing his perspective on the substances.

It took me a long time to sit down and write a review of <i>This is Your Mind on Plants</i>, and it's hard exactly to say why. The whole time I was reading it, and after I had finished, I would repeatedly tell people how engaging it was, how captivating, how informative - and yet, I felt like I couldn't really concisely say just why I'd been so absorbed.

Maybe it's because I'm an avid (indoor) gardener, and when I go for a hobby, I <i>really go for it</i>. No, I'll never be growing poppies or coffee beans or peyote in my house and not just because I don't really need Mr. DEA Man to come knocking at my door, but that doesn't mean I don't want to know about all the wonderful and weird ways that plants affect our brains, our personalities, our cultures. Or maybe it's because plants are where I'm at my most libertarian if you will, believing that we should be able to grow what we want, how we want, for our own personal consumption, despite the fact that the only things I currently consume that my mind is on are hearty helpings of tea, coffee, and fermented yeast and hops, and it seems that Mr. Pollan and I are on the same page as far as that's concerned.

Or maybe it's just that... plants are fascinating. They literally change us. They, to use the title of another of Pollan's books, change our minds. We live with them and beside them, and we use them and try to regulate them, and all they want to do is go on to live their planty little lives, growing and fruiting and photosynthesizing, seeding and sporing and doing it all over again. We assign labels, values to them like "good" and "bad" and "legal" and "illegal," completely regardless of the fact that they were here first and will be here long after anyone able to label anything is long gone.

But until that day, they will continue to shape us and our laws and society, and they will just go on growing and photosynthesizing - and occasionally being written about in both exacting and reverential tones, hopefully by people as thoughtful and capable with words as Michael Pollan.

Longer review to come, but short version: this is the book I've been waiting for since Pollan's "Opium Made Easy" essay, and it doesn't disappoint.

Thoughtful and personal, this title tackles complicated issues with reverence for science and a social lens.

I really enjoyed This is Your Mind on Plants! I had read the author's How to Change Your Mind with my library's nonfiction book club and was blown away by the author's skill and research. This is sort of a sequel to that book and I really, really found myself sucked into the book immediately. Pollan is a compelling and convincing author. We will be purchasing for the library.

This was another hit from Michael Pollan. He has such a way with writing nonfiction that makes you truly lost in the book. This Is Your Mind on Plants focuses on opium, caffeine, and mescaline. Diving deep into the three plant drugs is absolutely phenomenal.