Did you know that would-be brides used to run around holly trees to make their husbands magically appear? Or that the cowslip flower is said to have bloomed after St. Peter accidentally dropped the keys to heaven? What about the unexpectedly dark and twisted legend behind the delicate, starry blossoms of the forget-me-not? Floriography, authored and gorgeously illustrated by Jessica Roux, is one of those rare finds that's packaged as a light, novelty gift, but is secretly a one-of-a-kind read that's both enlightening and a bit coquettish. Each page introduces a different flower: its scientific and colloquial names, origin myth and historical uses, and what to pair it with to express everything from "newfound affection" to "displeasure at an outcome."
"Oh, I've been meaning to get around to Invisible Women..." is exactly what Perez is seeking to address in her spot-on analysis of the global gender data gap. History is riddled with missing information about the labor and lives of over half the Earth's population, and yet little is being done to investigate (let alone correct) this massive omission. A perfect read for changemakers with a knack for statistics, Perez's razor-sharp reporting will leave readers wondering, "Is unisex really unisex? Or is it just another way to say, 'one size fits man'?"
