More Love for your Library: A 3-Book Giveaway!

On January 19, Algonquin will publish Diana Wells‘ Lives of the Trees: An Uncommon History. An author interview with Michele Norris just aired yesterday on All Things Considered — check it out here!Wells is the bestselling author of 100 Flowers and How They Got Their Names and 100 Birds and How They Got Their Names.

To celebrate this beautiful new book, we’re hosting a Book Booty giveaway which includes all three of Diana Wells’ fun-fact collection! We’ve concocted a quiz drawn from Lives of the Trees. To enter this contest, email your answers to katie [at] algonquin [dot] com…then come back here and leave a comment telling us your favorite tree! We’ll announce the winners next Friday — good luck!

  1. Which tree is also known as the upside-down tree (because the sparse branches resemble roots)?
  2. The leaves and bark of this tree contain tannin and caffeine, used in both North and South America to make tea. It’s also popular for hedging!
  3. This tree–also known as a harem tree–doesn’t bear fruit till it’s a decade old! The fruit is edible (and sometimes made into preserves), but it can also cause hallucinogenic sensations and, if ingested in quantity, can even cause death!
  4. Coffee (which helped keep monks awake during night vigils) became known as the “beverage of the friends of God.” But how much is too much? Name the French writer said to drink sixty cups of coffee every night — and let’s just hope most authors don’t practice this method of madness!

-christina

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9 comments on “More Love for your Library: A 3-Book Giveaway!”

  1. Reply

    My favorite tree? The cottonwood. I love to listen to the leaves rustle in the wind during summer.

  2. Reply

    Gosh, this is a tough question since there are so many fascinating ones. I love that a Ginkgo survived the atomic bomb in Japan (Hiroshima, I think it was?). That’s a remarkable living being to survive that.

    I love the stunning magnolia’s that grace our spring here in MD. Not the summer blooming grandiflora but the smaller flowered ones (sorry, can’t remember the cultivar!).

    But I guess Blue Atlas Cedars are my favorite. I know one that is several hundred years old and is a grandmother tree that is at least 15-16 feet around circumference and limbs that stretch out and up like trees within trees. That is my favorite all time tree. (sorry, can’t tell you where it is, private property of some gardening clients I have).

    thanks for the oppty for the fun question.
    mare

  3. Reply

    I love magnolia trees for their flowers and their excellent climb-ability. As a kid, I would climb up the magnolia tree in our backyard, find a perch, and read a book. It was my escape. So for nostalgia’s sake (and for good ol’ Southern pride), I have to say the magnolia tree.

  4. Reply

    Favorite trees are oaks…having lived on both coasts and places in between, I’ve seen so many varieties – glove-shaped leaves to holly-like leaves, rough bark to smooth. No matter where they grow, they are simply majestic and spiritual.

  5. Reply

    My favorite trees are fruit trees — apple, cherry, pear — because they’re not only beautiful to look at, they produce so many tasty things! 🙂

  6. Reply

    Sequoia sempirvens or the Coastal Redwood

  7. Reply

    My favorite tree is the Ginkgo. We have a gorgeous one in our backyard.

  8. Reply

    The hazel tree. Weird but beautiful.

  9. Reply

    One of my favorite trees (I have so many) is sweet olive. I love the smell of the tiny flowers.

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