Absolutely stunning. A gorgeous and unique collection. I loved the refreshing, watercolor photos and enjoyed the companion poems. There were many poems I'd never seen before.

Highly recommended. I bought myself a copy, because I liked it so much.

I did not decide to review this book on good reads as I didn’t finish it and didn’t want to leave a negative review. I LOVED the illustrations. They were gorgeous and I so enjoyed perusing them. Most of the short stories I read I didn’t love. I think I was expecting lighter stories. Probably a me issue more than a book issue

This was a really lovely collection of poetry and essays about different American Wildflowers, organized by flower and accompanied with watercolor illustrations. I read it slowly over several weeks and enjoyed it immensely! It's given me a new, deeper appreciation for the wildflowers all around us.

Thanks so much to Susan Barba and Abrams for this ARC through NetGalley. American Wildflowers: A Literary Field Guide is available now!

The selections are wide ranging and dynamic, and the illustrations add a sense of wonder in the reading.

This was a well thought out book, with pretty illustrations and poems. I will say, I don't think I'm the market for it, but I would give it as a gift for a coffee table book.

Beautiful poems and artwork, this book would make a great present for a nature enthusiast so they can take their time and go through the book. Reading it on a e-reader takes away some of the charm of this book.

A wonderfully edited anthology with an unlikely focal point: wildflowers. From Queen Anne’s lace to cotton flower to (my personal favorite) goldenrod, American Wildflowers: a Literary Guide is complete with beautiful illustrations perfect for the avid reader or botanist alike.

An all around beautiful book. A wonderful gift for anyone who loves nature and her wonders. Wildflowers are disappearing from the lives of so many people, let this book inspire you to seek them out and renew their presence in your life.

This is a gorgeous book. It's artful, contemplative, thoughtful, and soothing.

Let's start with the artwork in American Wildflowers. Leeanne Shapton's watercolors set the perfect tone for the book.

The collection of essays and poetry invite the reader to settle in, slow down, and breathe in the calming words. This book is meant for those who enjoy the nature side to our world.

This book has been on my Amazon pre-order list for a few months now. I was so delighted to have a chance to get a sneak peek before my physical copy arrives! Thank you to NetGalley and Abrams for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

This collection of poetry, prose, and American wildflower facts, accompanied by Leanne Shapton's beautiful watercolors, is just lovely. A "coffee table" book that you actually want to read, that I know I will look at again and again.

I was originally drawn to this book because I'm interested in nature poetry and watercolor. I was happy to find such a great mix of new and established voices in the writing and vivid illustration, but reading Susan Barba's introduction and Leanne Shapton's notes on the inspiration for the illustrations helped me to fully understand and appreciate the beauty and purpose of her book. I was underlining something on almost every page - a reference to return to, a quote that made me feel something - and it was just the introduction!

I added bookmarks to my favorite pieces in my digital copy and know I will revisit many of them again. I look forward to reading more of some of these authors and poets after finding them here in American Wildflowers.

Shapton's illustrations are gorgeous and I love the concept of painting pressed flowers - it somehow made this literary field guide feel more intimate and special to me. They must be even more beautiful on the page and I am excited to discover them again when my book arrives. I'd be hard-pressed to find a favorite among them.

This was a beautiful text that has a very specific audience. The watercolor images were gorgeous and the combination of poetry and literary works mixed with actual facts and information was delightful. I can see this going to a professional in the field of botany, a hobby gardener, or even a poetry lover. Emily Dickenson, Walt Whitman, Sandra Lim, and Jericho Brown. There were a few essays that I felt were quite lengthy but I am sure they were someone else's cup of tea. Overall I think this would make a wonderful gift or coffee table book. With an eclectic reference section they did not leave any stone unturned.

What a beautiful anthology for lovers of wildflowers and poetry alike! Divided up according to different species of American wildflower, delicate full-page illustrations done in watercolor by Leanne Shapton are paired with poems and prose excerpts celebrating a particular plant. Care has been shown to include writers from a range of eras and backgrounds. There's work here by Walt Whitman, Natalie Diaz, Allen Ginsberg, Leslie Marmon Silko, Jericho Brown, Sandra Lim, Emily Dickinson, and many, many more. It's wonderful volume to dip into and revisit as the mood or season strikes.

This was a gamble for me from the start. Botany isn't something I'm interested in at all. Yet there was so much beauty within the pictures and works of this collection. I'm glad to have taken a chance on this.

First thing, this book is beautiful. The cover, the contents and the images all work together to create a work of art.

Susan Barba curated a selection of plants and texts that celebrate the diversity that is both America and the nature that inhabits it. This collection has foreign-born writers writing about American plants and American writers on non-native plants.

There are rural writers, urban writers, female writers, Black writers, gay writers and indigenous writers. There are botanists like William Bartram, George Washington Carver, and Robin Wall Kimmerer, and horticultural writers like Neltje Blanchan and Eleanor Perényi. There are poems from Walt Whitman, Emily Dickinson, William Carlos Williams and T. S. Eliot, Allen Ginsberg and Robert Creeley.

At the start of every section, there are BEAUTIFUL watercolors by Leanne Shapton. I was excited to continue reading on to see what the next print would look like and I was never disappointed. Each print embodies the feeling you get when looking at wildflowers in nature.

Overall, this collection has a wide variety of types of texts and that might work for most people but I was really looking forward to the poetry aspect. There were a couple of essays that I felt dragged on for the topic and meandered their way to the point. While I understand the original author's intent, it did seem to stunt the flow of the collection and created some incongruencies among the rest of the beautifully curated collection.

My favorites were:
1. Work by Yusef Komunyakka
2. what woman by Deborah Diggs
3. The Steeple-Jack by Marianne Moore
4. What Beauty Does by Patricia Spears Jones
5. The Water Hyacinth by James Merrill and more.

Final Thoughts: If you love wildflowers and the natural world, you will love this book. It has a wide variety of topics and keeps you interested and would make a great gift.

Thank you Netgalley and Abrams for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Anyone who knows (or is) a nature lover, here is the perfect gift! Edited by a poet, Ms. Barba has organized a wonderful and diverse collection of poetry and prose about American wildflowers. She also writes an excellent introduction. There are contributors who are alive, dead, white, black, indigenous,male, female, so all welcoming and inclusive. Biographies of the contributors may be found at the end of the book. The water color illustrations throughout this title are gorgeous and coexist perfectly with the text. All in all, a delightful, thoughtful book and one to savor.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Abrams for this title. All opinions are my own.

Really lovely and creative reference book on wildflower literature. Recommend to any outdoor or literature lover.

American Wildflowers: A Literary Field Guide would be the perfect book to read on a picnic, while exploring a botanical garden, or as a present for anyone who loves flowers. The book features a selection of literary poems, essays, and writings about wildflowers accompanied by artwork by Leanne Shapton. I can't speak for the layout of the book, as the digital e-ARC edition wasn't super compatible with my device to really get the whole picture, but I loved the contents. I'm biased towards watercolor artwork, especially involving flowers, and could see this being a great edition to any collection.

Some of the writing included in this collection was stellar, poignant, and thoughtful, and after reading this, I have several authors whose work I'd like to follow up on, to read more. However, outside of these pieces, other writing in the collection seemed mediocre and dry, with very little (seemingly) informing the editor's choice of inclusion outside a stated intent of diversity which met some success, but unfortunately, there were at least two pieces in the book whose content was antithetical to the diversity and justice goals set by the author. Additionally, I wish the collection had been more cohesive and better as a whole because the idea of a literary field guide is an excellent one.

I really didn't know what I was getting into when I started this book, but it ended up being a sweet collection of poetry and narratives paired with flowers and magnificent watercolor by Leanne Shapton. Susan Barba did a great job arraging the works and pairing up the poetry and illustrations. There is a nice variety of authors so you get different styles and patterns throughout the book.

Perfect for lovers of flowers and literature, this book combines the two into a beautiful book! The selections are wonderful, and the way that the editor paired them with the flowers was really cool. I also enjoyed getting to see all the information about the flowers included.