Book Review: The Herb Book by John Hurst

Title: The Herb Book
Author: John Lust
Publisher: Dover Publications
Publishing Date:July 16 2014
Rating:4/5 Stars

Description:
Also known as “The Natural Remedy Bible,” The Herb Book provides a comprehensive resource for building a livelier, healthier, happier life. More than 2,000 listings offer remedies for ragged nerves, nightmares, and coughing fits as well as suggestions for adding spice to recipes, coloring fabrics, freshening breath, and a host of other benefits. Complete and concise descriptions of herbs, illustrated by more than 275 line drawings, offer the most comprehensive catalog of “miracle plants” ever published.
Written by an expert and pioneer in the field, this easy-to-use reference features three parts. The first presents introductory historical information and background for using the rest of the book. The second part features individual numbered listings of medicinal plants with their botanical descriptions and uses. The third part emphasizes the variety of uses for the plants listed in Part 2, including mixtures for medicinal treatments, nutritious and culinary plants, cosmetic and aromatic purposes, plant dyes, and other applications. The book concludes with a captivating look at plant-related astrology, lore, and legends.” (Description by Netgalley)

Overview:
I was really looking forward to finding a reference book that promised to be not only comprehensive and thorough, but included additional information, even if only in its basic form, to add to my library.
The book is large and detailed, reaching 480 eBook pages, with very specific and thorough information on many herbs, even those who are not too common, as well as their uses.

What I loved:
In addition to the information on the individual herbs, this book offers an extensive list of resources, which includes websites for further studies. The author also took his time to add information on the various methods of preparing herbal remedies, and did this in a more extensive way, than most reference books of this nature offer. I loved the addition of the astrological associations, as well as the tidbits of lore. It added a charm to the book, even if I would recommend to purchase separate and specialty volumes if you are interested in that subject matter.

What I did not like:
The illustrations where very basic. As they were called in the introduction, they are line drawings, nothing more. In order to really identify a specific herb from the visual clues given, or for those like me whom are visually oriented, a different volume would be more appropriate.

In all, I liked the book. It does deliver what it promises, an extensive and comprehensive catalog of herbs and their information. This is a resource to keep on our shelf, and enjoy over and over again.

This book was provided to me by Netgalley.