It was really awesome. I don't think the author wants to "blame" the plants at all, and in fact the book is as much about people as it is about plants. She likes to tell good stories.

She had wanted to buy an old medicine bag or doctor bag and then fill it with parts of plants to take on her book tour. She told her publisher about that idea, and they thought it was very unlikely she could find such a thing. Upon leaving the publisher's office, in downtown Manhattan, she found a store with antique curiosities in it and found an antique leather box. Upon opening the box, she found it contained glass bottles labeled with things like "tincture of opium"! It turns out it was a very old collection of poisons and their antidotes!

So she took out various bottles and told us stories about the plants. In some cases she had re-filled the jars -- for example in the tobacco bottle she had placed a single cigarette. In the case of the rosary pea, she had bought some of them on eBay (where they were intended for jewelry making!).

I really enjoyed it. The author really loves plants and is enthusiastic about their various uses. She even has a poison garden at her home.

I bought her book and when she signed it for me, she wrote, "Watch out!". Heh.