The Food Explorer

Daniel Stone delivers a fast-paced narration of this globe-spanning audiobook about the botanist David Fairchild. The story is delivered as an adventure travelogue of Fairchild's exploits around the globe, which brought mangoes, cashews, and avocados to the American farm and table. The Kansas-bred Fairchild was both smart and lucky. He had a chance encounter with millionaire traveler Barbour Lathrop, which evolved into a patronage and friendship that allowed the intrepid botanist to travel the world collecting cuttings and bringing back the remarkable seeds for foods that changed Americans bland nineteenth- century diet. Stone's engaging reading style suits his subject well. Sadly, Fairchild ends up an embattled bureaucrat, but the excitement of his discoveries leaves the listener satisfied. A.D.M. � AudioFile 2018, Portland, Maine