Recommended Reading ~

Maria’s Favorite Herbals

Which author or book do I recommend most? Well, that depends on what your needs are, if you want more on a specific topic (gardening, women’s health…) and your taste (readable, quick reference, scientific, folk…)...

Quick Links ~

  1. Favorite Overall & Beginner-Intermediate Herbals (followed by additional great general herb books)
  2. Favorite Authors
  3. Advanced & Evidence-Based Herbals
  4. Formulation Books
  5. Historic Herbals
  6. Medicinal Mushrooms
  7. Localvore/Bioregional Herbalism (Northeast & Elsewhere)
  8. Field Guides, Botany & Identification
  9. Foraging & Wild Foods
  10. Herbal Gardening & Farming •
  11. Cooking with Herbs
  12. BIPOC- & Trans/GNC-Written Herbals & Resources
  13. Pregnancy, Parent, Baby & Child Herbals
  14. Discover Herbs with Children
  15. Bodycare & Aromatherapy

    * Note that Maria's Home Herbalist, Beyond and Advanced series students have access to a deep discount on Chelsea Green Publishing books - see the intro section of your course materials for details.

Some of Maria's faves ~

  1. Of course, my book, Body into Balance - it's an excellent introduction to herbs and thinking about the body systems and common health concerns holistically. It's now used in several herb schools across the country as a core textbook, yet it's easy and fun to read. It covers the course material in my introductory herbal courses very closely.
  2. Rosalee de la Foret & Emily Han's Wild Remedies is FANTASTIC not only for profiles of favorite wild medicinal herbs but also for harvesting, ethics, relationship with the plants, botany, creative recipes, etc. Also of note is Rosalee de la Foret's Alchemy of Herbs for common herbs of commerce and gardens, excellent, detailed write ups of select popular herbs. Rosalee's website also has some great plant profiles for free and offers lots of great info, recipes, and plant profile e-books via her newsletter list.
  3. Christa Sinadinos' The Essential Guide to Western Botanical Medicine is an incredibly comprehensive tome of 750+ full-color pages including 129 in-depth plant profiles that will be invaluable when working on your monograph homework assignments, particularly geared towards academic-minds and intermediate-advanced herbalists/students but useful for all levels
  4. Andrew Chevallier’s Herbal Medicine
  5. Sharol Tiglner’s Herbal Medicine (some parts of old edition available online)
  6. Julie Bruton-Seal & Matthew Seal's Backyard Medicine (excellent book for common wild plants) - the newer Big Book of Backyard Medicine is two books in one - all the content of Backyard Medicine plus nearly another book's worth of additional plant profiles on common (sometimes obscure) weeds..

But why stop there??

Additional Great Beginner-Intermediate Level Herb Books

Also, don't forget that I have lots of articles on my blog - by health concern, remedy making, materia medica plant profiles, and more

  1. Katja Swift & Ryn Midura's Herbal Medicine for Beginners - really well done!
  2. David Winston, Adaptogens (topic specific - stress, vitality, but still covers a lot of herbs in fantastic detail)... Donald Yance's Adaptogens book is also great - more academic and expansive in its content but not as approachable as Winston's
  3. Steven Horne & Thomas Easley's The Modern Herbal Dispensatory - more on medicine making techniques, but excellent (though very short) plant profiles - one of my go-tos for quick reference, doses, basic energetics
  4. Kathi Langelier, Herbal Revolution - fantastic recipes organized by body system and beautifully laid out with photographs, plus nice (though very short) plant profiles
  5. Robin Rose Bennet, The Gift of Healing Herbs - organized by body system, full of great recipes, and a lovely folk and spirit minded tradition, loaded with great info
  6. Mimi Hernandez, National Geographic Herbal - I really enjoy Mimi's teaching, and many common and less-often-covered herbs are covered in this beautiful book. This book is particularly good for background history of each plant, the vibe of the plant, popular key benefits, and botany (note that there are other National Geographic herb books, too - such as the one listed further below)
  7. Rosemary Gladstar's Medicinal Herbs: A Beginner's Guide (really lovely! Somewhat similar to but less dense than Rosalee's Alchemy book) and her other books.
  8. Henriette Kress’ Practical Herbs Vol 1 & 2
  9. National Geographic's Guide to Medicinal Herbs - great for extra info on history, traditional use, growing, co-authored by several experts including Teirona Low Dog and Stephen Foster
  10. David Hoffman, Medical Herbalism - heavy reading, HUGE textbook with LOTS of information...
    for a MUCH LIGHTER beginner book (which is good and great for learning herbal actions, but nowadays I think those by Rosalee de la Foret, Rosemary Gladstar, are more comprehensive) see his The Herbal Handbook
  11. Mary Colvin, The Herbalist’s Guide - a fantastic resource for fledgeling home herbalists and students looking for an affordable and approachable yet thorough resource to learn herbalism and incorporate it into their daily lives. It's like a beginner/foundational herbal study program in book form. The exercises speckled throughout are a gem to gain *experience* with the  herbal medicine while learning the plants, body, and building a home apothecary.
  12. Allan Tillotson, The One Earth Herbal Sourcebook - a bit out of date now but still nice, covers some TCM and Ayurvedic herbs and organized by body system
  13. Michael Moore, Medicinal Plants of the Pacific West and Medicinal Plants of the Mountain West
  14. Lesley Tierra, Healing with the Herbs of Life - lovely introduction to TCM
  15. Michael Tierra, Planetary Herbology or The Way of Herbs
  16. Matthew Wood, The Book of Herbal Wisdom, Earthwise Herbals (2 volumes), and other books
  17. James Duke, The Green Pharmacy Herbal Handbook
  18. Also check out Henriette Kress' recommended reading list

Advanced Herbals

The beginner/intermediate books mentioned previously are an excellent starting point (particularly my Body into Balance, Rosalee's books and website, Sharol Tilgner's books/website, Easley/Horne's Modern Herbal Dispensatory, Seal's Backyard Medicine, the Adaptogens books by David Winston and Donald Yance), but these will step your bookshelf and herbal learning up a notch:

  1. ***The aforementioned book by Christa Sinadinos is TOP NOTCH and highly recommended.
  2. **Marisa Marciano & Nikita Vizniak, Evidence-Informed Botanical Medicine Manual, 2nd edition (2019) - Naturopath-written, relatively affordable, excellent quick reference for many medicinal herbs geared towards trained practitioners (not beginners), lots of excellent additional information and charts for clinicians although the plant profiles; medicinal uses sections are quite cursory and often lacking, includes toxic herbs, interactions, nutrient deficiency/toxicity/interactions, etc. Though the medicinal use info is too short and lacking IMHO, for all the additional info and appendixes, this is still a highly recommended book for advanced students and professionals.
  3. *Dr. Jill Stansbury's Herbal Formularies for Health Professionals, various volumes by body system - advanced herbal information as well as a list of potential formulas and some information on how to formulate
  4. Dr. Sharol Tilgner, Herbal ABCs - advanced information by body system
  5. David Hoffmann, Medical Herbalism
  6. Simon Mills & Kerry Bone, Principles and Practice of Phytotherapy
  7. Also see the starter herbals, botany/identification books, and evidence-based books lists

For students in my Advanced series, other highly recommended (but not required) books include:

  1. Energetic Herbalism by Kat Maier (secondarily, Matthew Wood's The Practice of Traditional Western Herbalism) for herbal energetics
  2. 1+ top quality field guides for your bioregion,
  3. Thomas Epel's Botany in a Day
  4. Herb-drug interactions resources (such as Mosby's Nursing Drug Consult)
  5. Aviva Romm's Botanical Medicine for Women's Health textbook, if this is an area of interest for you
  6. Robin Rose Bennet's The Gift of Healing Herbs takes a body system approach with a beautiful wise woman approach that incorporates simple yet profound hands-on backyard herbs, kitchen herbalism, and the magic of plants plus lots of recipes and formulation tips (versus Tilgner's Herbal ABCs and Stansbury's Formularies books, which are also excellent but more science/academic/clinical-minded)
  7. Tierona Low Dog's Fortify Your Life for assessing nutrient deficiencies and depletions (the Evidence-Informed Botanical Medicine Manual also highlights this data succinctly)
  8. Ann Armbrecht's Business of Botanicals
  9. And others, which will be suggested in your class notes


Evidence-Based Herbals & Reference Books
In general, websites will be more up to date: https://wintergreenbotanicals.com/links/#science (use these websites for homework science sources), but these following are nice summaries of the research written or edited mostly by herbalists: Note that some are now quite out of date, which is why I also like using the aforementioned websites.

  1. Christa Sinadinos, The Essential Guide to Western Botanical Medicine - amazingly detailed plant profiles with both science and traditional herbalism intertwined, released 2021
  2. Marisa Marciano & Nikita Vizniak, Evidence-Informed Botanical Medicine Manual, 2nd edition (2019) - Naturopath-written, relatively affordable, excellent quick reference for many medicinal herbs geared towards trained practitioners (not beginners), lots of excellent additional information and charts for clinicians although the plant profiles; medicinal uses sections are quite cursory and often lacking, includes toxic herbs, interactions, nutrient deficiency/toxicity/interactions, etc.
  3. David Hoffmann, Medical Herbalism
  4. Simon Mills & Kerry Bone, Principles and Practice of Phytotherapy
  5. Rob McCaleb, The Encyclopedia of Popular Herbs
  6. Mark Blumenthal, The ABC Clinical Guide to Herbs
  7. Mark Blumenthal,  Expanded German Commission E Handbook
  8. American Herbal Products Association Botanical Safety Handbook
 (safety data only)
  9. David Winston, Herbal Therapy & Supplements
  10. Mosby’s Nursing Drug Reference
 (not herbal, for drug side effects and interactions)
  11. Michael Murray, Encyclopedia of Natural Medicine
  12. Michael Murray, Encyclopedia of Nutritional Supplements
  13. Murray & Pizzorno, Encyclopedia of Natural Medicine


Formulation & Recipes

Many herbals have a section or some information on blending herbs and formulating, especially more newly published herbals. Some that are more specific to the topic...

  1. Kathi Langelier, Herbal Revolution - fantastic recipes organized by body system and beautifully laid out with photographs, plus nice (though very short) plant profiles - not specifically on formulation but excellent for starting with good recipe and then learning how to tweak them
  2. Holly Bellebuono, an Herbalist's Guide to Formulary - a lovely starting point
  3. Dr. Jill Stansbury's Herbal Formularies for Health Professionals, various volumes by body system - advanced herbal information as well as a list of potential formulas and some information on how to formulate
  4. Bone's Clinical Guide to Blending Liquid Herbs


Older/Historic Herbals

  1. Maud Grieve, A Modern Herbal Vol. I & II  www.botanical.com
  2. Rudolph Weiss, Weiss’s Herbal Medicine, Classic Edition
  3. Many classic herbal texts are available for free on www.henriettesherbal.com in PDF format as well as on archive.org.


Medicinal Mushrooms

  1. Christopher Hobbs' Guide to Medicinal Mushrooms (newly published by Storey in 2021) is gorgeous, up to date, easy to read, with recipes, charts, psychedelic medicine section, focuses on the most common mushrooms
    (his old Medicinal Mushrooms is nice too, more text-dense, but a bit out of date)
  2. Greg Marley, Mushrooms for Health (approachable, NE mushrooms)
  3. Robert Rogers, Fungal Pharmacy (huge and amazing guide - lots of mushrooms covered and lots of details on each one, plus photographs)
  4. Paul Stamets - various books
  5. David Wichland at Wichland Woods in Keene doesn’t have a book, but he grows great mushrooms and teaches classes. His speciality is growing mushrooms in the landscape, and he sells equipment and teaches classes on this.

Localvore Herbalism:


Using Wild - and Sometimes Cultivated - Herbs in the Northeast
(overlaps greatly with mid-Atlantic, Midwest, Great North Woods, Canada region plants and south to approximately/including North Carolina)

(Not all herbs covered in these books are “local” to NH,  but many are.)

  1. Rosalee de la Foret & Emily Han's Wild Remedies is FANTASTIC not only for profiles of favorite wild medicinal herbs but also for harvesting, ethics, relationship with the plants, botany, creative recipes, etc.
  2. Edible & Medicinal Wild Plants of the Midwest, 3rd Edition by Matthew Alfs - Mostly focused on common weedy herbs and native plants - many of which are not often profiled in herbals. Amazing VERY detailed profiles on common and less common wild plants found not only in the midwest but also throughout much of New England and the temperate USA. Incorporates vast historical (such as Eclectic and reports on Indigenous use), some scientific, and Matthew's own experiences with the plants. Full color photography and illustrations, annotated with sources.
  3. Julie Bruton-Seal & Matthew Seal, Backyard Medicine or their "double feature" Big Book of Backyard Medicine, the later has even more "obscure" (less commonly covered) medicinal weeds included
  4. Michael Moore, Medicinal Plants of the Pacific West and other books
  5. Arthur Haines, Ancestral Plants Volumes 1 & 2 - hard to find but very well done - see the author's website
  6. JJ Pursell, The Herbal Apothecary
  7. Beverly Gray, Boreal Herbal Wild Food and Medicine Plants
  8. Matthew Wood, The Book of Herbal Wisdom
  9. M. Wood, The Earthwise Herbal (especially the New World Plants volume)
  10. Maud Grieve, A Modern Herbal Vol. I & II  www.botanical.com
  11. Guido Mase, Wild Medicine Solution

Other Bioregions:

  1. Southwest/West: several books by Michael Moore
  2. Timber Press’ Medicinal Plants guides by region (Pacific Northwest, Midwest, Mountain States, etc.)
  3. Matthew Alfs' aforementioned Edible & Medicinal Wild Plants of the Midwest, 3rd Ed  - LOTS of cross over with the Northeast plants, too!
  4. CoreyPine Shane's Southeast Medicinal Plants
  5. Phyllis Light, Southern Folk Medicine (Southeast)
  6. Patricia Kyritsi Howell, Medicinal Plants of the Southern Appalachians (Southeast) 
  7. Luisa Teish, Jambalaya (African American/Southeast)
  8. Various Timber Press/Workman "Medicinal Plants" regional books (there are also region-specific "Foraging" books though these are more focused on edible qualities)
  9. For Hawaii, Caitlin Duquette suggests La'au Hawai'i: Traditional Hawaiian Uses of Plants, Plants in Hawaiian Medicine, and Medicine at Your Feet: Healing Plants of the Hawaiian Kingdom.
  10. See Chestnut School's Bioregional Field & Foraging Guide list here

*  Also check out Chestnut School of Herbalism's regional foraging/field guide recommendations here

Field Guides & Botany Books

See my Plant Identification blog post here.

  1. Also check out 7Song (a guru of herb ID/botany)’s recommended books/botany resources here
  2. And while NO website or app is complete for ID, this is one of the best for New England: gobotany.nativeplanttrust.org (note, Native Plant Trust was formerly called New England Wildflower Society) and for the entire United States, see wildflowersearch.org is... meh....
  3. Once you're pretty sure of your plant ID or have it narrowed down to the species, you can check out the USDA Plants Database, Ladybird Johnson Wildflower Center, and other sites.
  4. If you're really stuck, ask around on FB groups Botany Everyday or Plant Identification (still double-check those results!)
  5. NEVER rely on a website or app as your sole source of ID. That said, Seek is meh (maybe right 2/3 of the time?) and Picture This (for pay but not too much $) is more accurate but still makes mistakes. ALSO use field guides and/or floras to confirm.

Outside the Northeast?

  1. Check out Chestnut School's Bioregional Field & Foraging Guide list here
  2. For Great Lakes/Midwest/Michigan, jim mcdonald recommends the Field Manual of Michigan Flora (which is very technical botany, not beginner level) and What's Doin' the Bloomin'? A Guide to Wildflowers of the Upper Great Lakes Regions, Eastern Canada And Northeastern USA (easier to use, more picture-oriented). Many of your standard field guides (Newcomb's, Peterson's, etc) will also encompass the Great Lakes region. Note that forager Sam Thayer is also in this region.
  3. For the Southeast Blue Ridge Mountains/Appalachians/Ashville area, CoreyPine Shane and others recommend Wildflowers of Tennessee, the Ohio Valley and the Southern Appalachians by Carthart and Horn as one of the best semi-beginner guides for the region. Newcomb's will help at least get to the family or genus. For more advanced botanical keys, consider Guide to Vascular Plants of the Blue Ridge by B. Eugene Wofford. For herbals (not ID) for this region, consider the aforementioned books by Patricia Kyritsi Howell and Phillis Light as well as the work of Tommie Bass and Juliet Blankespoor.
  4. My Pacific Northwest friends suggest the Revised Plants of the Pacific Northwest Coast: Washington, Oregon, British Columbia & Alaska.and A Visual Guide to Medicinal Plants of the Pacific Northwest. Note that forager John Kallas is also in this area.

WILDFLOWER Field Guides for the Northeast:

  1. Lawrence Newcomb, Newcomb’s Wildflower Guide - The BEST field guide for our area (organized by flower shape and leaf arrangement NOT by bloom color, great mostly B&W illustrations, includes distinctive flowering trees and shrubs, which most other wildflower guides do not include, Latin names are very out of date)
  2. Marilyn J. Dwelley’s New England-specific guides
 (easy to use, organized by color and then by plant family, which is pretty cool, alas, terrible illustrations), but they appear to be out of print
  3. Peterson’s Wildflowers (organized by color, expansive, but slow to flip through, ok illustrations)
  4. Audubon Wildflower Guide
 (organized by color, good photos)
  5. Clemants & Gracie’s Wildflowers in the Field and Forest (Northeastern US) (organized by color, up to date, great info and Latin names, but oddly hard to use, not great photos, includes distribution maps color coded by bloom season)
  6. Ted Elliman & New England Wildflower Society's Wildflowers of New England (well organized by color, then flower shape and leaf arrangement, photos not always great representations, up to date Latin names)

TREES:

  1. Sibley Guide to Trees (entire US) tricky b/c the range is so big, but includes distribution maps and great multifaceted illustrations of leaves, tree structure, flowers, fruits... exemplary for this. No shrubs, though.
  2. National Audubon Field Guide to Trees (Eastern)
  3. Peterson’s Eastern Trees (personal fave)
  4. Dwelley’s Trees and Shrubs of New England

HERBS IN COMMERCE

  1. Wendy Applequist, The Identification of Medicinal Plants 


  2. Also check out Chestnut School of Herbalism's regional foraging/field guide recommendations here

Botany & Natural History

  1. Thomas J. Elpel, Botany in a Day - general understanding of plant families & medicines, his website is also loaded with great information (Montana-focused)
  2. Marc Williams, Botany Everyday www.botanyeveryday.com (online classes, FB group)
  3. GoBotany by the New England Wildflower Society gobotany.newenglandwild.org
  4. Stokes Guide to Nature in Winter


Foraging & Wild Foods

  1. Ancestral Plants Volumes 1 & 2 by Arthur Haines - Northeast and North Woods specific
  2. Any book by Samuel Thayer,  particularly Nature’s Garden - see excerpts online
  3. Dina Falconi, Foraging and Feasting - backyard wild herb-focused, stunningly beautiful, loaded with tips
  4. Any book by Euel Gibbons, particularly Stalking the Wild Asparagus
  5. Other good authors: John Kallas, Steve Brill
  6. Peterson’s guide to Edible Wild Plants as backup only!
  7. Also check out Chestnut School of Herbalism's regional foraging/field guide recommendations here


Herbal Gardening

Also see my herbal gardening blog hub here.

  1. My own book, Grow Your Own Herbal Remedies - excellent for beginners and backyard gardener-herbalists who want easy-to-grow herbs and then recipes to make medicine with them, organized by body system/health goals
  2. Jeff & Melanie Carpenter, The Organic Medicinal Herb Farmer - possibly the BEST for those who are farming herbs commercially on a small-medium scale (also nice for gardeners)
  3. Juliet Blankespoor's The Healing Garden: Cultivating & Handcrafting Herbal Remedies This delightful book finally released in 2022 after many years in the works. It's gorgeous and delightfully dense, rich with stunning photography, delicious culinary and medicinal remedies, step-by-step illustrated remedy making tips, and detailed herb gardening information. More than 400 pages long, it includes tips on landscaping, building soil, dealing with plant pests and diseases, container gardening, propagation, harvesting and drying, foundational herbal medicine tips, and approximately 30 detailed plant profiles on both cultivated and wild medicinals including less commonly covered plants including anise hyssop, ashwagandha, bee balm, hibiscus, gotu kola, prickly pear cactus, and passionflower. With this book, Juliet weaves together her own unique skills including photography, herb cultivation, botany, and medicinal plant education. For students doing herb homework, these 30+ profiles will be useful for your monograph homework; they contain highly detailed information on the plants!.
  4. Peg Schafer, The Chinese Medicinal Herb Farm - excellent for farmers, permaculturists, and gardeners who want to grow Chinese and popular Ayurvedic herbs
  5. Richo Chech, Growing At-Risk Medicinal Herbs and other books - highly popular with herbalists
  6. Tammi Hartung, Growing 101 Herbs that Heal (which has market value for herbs) or newer edition: Homegrown Herbs
  7. Christopher Hobbs & Leslie Gardner, Grow It, Heal It
  8. Jekka McVicar, The Complete Herb Book - many plants are covered although the gardening tips are cursory, Jekka is famous in the UK for growing herbs
  9. Susan Belsinger and/or Art Tucker have written many great books, primarily on growing culinary herbs
  10. Patrick Lima, Herbs: The Complete Gardener’s Guide
  11. Shatoiya & Richard de la Tour, The Herbalist’s Garden


Cooking with Herbs

Also see the cooking hub of my blog here.

  1. Jekka McVicar, Jekka’s Herb Cookbook
  2. Brittany Wood Nickerson, The Herbalist's Kitchen
  3. Holly Bellebuono, The Healing Kitchen
  4. Dina Falconi, Foraging and Feasting
  5. Jerry Traunfeld, The Herbfarm Cookbook and The Herbal Kitchen
  6. J. Traunfeld, The Herbal Kitchen
  7. Kami McBride's The Herbal Kitchen
  8. Susan Belsinger's many books


BIPOC/Herbalists of Color: My training in western herbalism is admittedly White/European-American centric. I'm just starting to delve into the herb books written by herbalists of color, and more are (finally!) releasing, which is wonderful!

  1. Some of the BIPOC-authors and BIPOC-Centered Herb Books I love ~Working the Roots by Michele Elizabeth Lee: Also see KhadiYah's video review of Michele’s book  This book weaves together stories of elder healers, popular remedies, and history.
  2. The Art & Practice of Spiritual Herbalism by Karen M. Rose: Well-respected Empress Karen Rose of Sacred Vibes Apothecary in Brooklyn released this beautiful, heart- and spirit-centered book on herbal medicine in 2022. Easy to read yet multifaceted and deep in its approach, Karen teaches herbalism through the body systems, the coinciding patterns of emotions, healing, and ancestral medicine, energetics, ritual, and cosmology all in one approachable, enjoyable, meaningful book. Released 2022.
  3. Farming While Black by Leah Penniman of Soul Fire Farm: Though this book is more about homesteading, reclaiming a connection to the land, and justice, it also interweaves herbal medicine and history of African and African American herbal healers into a practical and impactful book.
  4. Wild Apothecary: Reclaiming Plant Medicine for All by Amaia Dadachanji with Claudia Manchanda: Though not specific to African or African American herbalism, this gorgeous book teaches practical herbalism through a lens accessible to all people including those in the BIPOC community. Released 2021.
  5. Handbook of African Plants by Maurice M. Iwu: Though the out-of-print physical book is pricey, you may find second-hand or electronic versions that are more economical. The 400+ page resource catalogs common medicinal plants of Africa and then profiles individual plants in depth. 2014.
  6. Jambalaya: The Natural Woman's Book of Personal Charms and Practical Rituals by Luisah Teish: Though not as specific for medicinal herbalism, Yeye Teish is a respected herbal elder, storyteller, and priestess of Oshun. First published in 1985, this book is a classic mix of memoir, spiritual teachings, and African American traditions. 2021 latest edition, the original version published in 1985 and is among the first herbals/spiritual books I personally read and enjoyed in my early days. 🙂
  7. KhadiYah Preciado of the Her Healthy Home YouTube Channel shares her favorite books on African Herbalism here. KhadiYah also offers herb classes online through an African herbalism lens here.
  8. New & Forthcoming Books:
    • KhadiYah Preciado's Herbal Holistic Healing: African Herbalism for Modern Times (e-book releasing February 2023) will be full of detailed information, plant profiles, and more!
    • African American Herbalism by Lucretia Van Dyke Releasing later in 2022, Lucretia will take you through the origins of African American herbalism including Egypt, tropical Africa, into the Caribbean and the United States, interweaving stories of individual healers, and practical medicinal and spiritual ways to connect with the plants in your daily life. Lucretia is a wonderful teacher!
    • The Curanderx Toolkit: Reclaiming Ancestral Latinx Plant Medicine and Rituals for Healing by Atava Garcia Swiecicki, released July 2022. Herbalist and curandera Atava Garcia Swiecicki (founder of the well-respected Ancestral Apothecary herb school) spent decades gathering this traditional knowledge of curanderismo, Mexican folk healing, which had been marginalized as Chicanx and Latinx Americans assimilated to US culture. She teaches how to follow the path of the curandera, as she herself learned from apprenticing with Mexican curanderas, studying herbal texts, and listening to her ancestors. In this book readers will learn the Indigenous, African, and European roots of curanderismo.
    •. Earth Medicines: Ancestral Wisdom, Healing Recipes, and Wellness Rituals from a Curandera by Felicia Cocotzin Ruiz released November 2021, interweaving Felicia's heritage as a Latinx-Indigenous healer in the Southwest as trained by her abuelas. This gorgeous book is arranged by the elements - earth, air, fire, and water - incorporating practical, beautiful culinary, medicinal, and spiritual recipes, seasonal living, and short rituals that will support all people in their healing and joy of nature and herbs.
  9. You'll find a nice starter list in the resources section compiled by Alyson Morgan here.
  10. If there's a book or author you love that you think I should check out, let me know! Email office@wintergreenbotanaicals.com I'm super excited to see more and more herbals coming out featuring authors and topics that have historically bee under-represented.

Trans/GenderQueer/NonBinary Herbalists: Definitely check out this generous and amazing clearinghouse of information and resources by Vilde and Larken. I suspect that we'll have more books available soon on these topics.

Pregnancy, New Parents, Children, Babies

Camille Freeman has some great "safe" lists for nursing and pregnancy. on her freebee page here.

  1. *Mary Bove, ND, An Encyclopedia of Natural Healing for Children and Infants*
  2. *Aviva Jill Romm, Naturally Healthy Babies and Children*
  3. *A.J. Romm, Natural Health After Birth*
  4. *A.J. Romm, The Natural Pregnancy Book*
  5. Rosemary Gladstar, Rosemary Gladstar’s Family Herbal
  6. Sheila Humphrey, The Nursing Mother’s Herbal
  7. Colleen Dodt, Natural Baby Care
  8. Andrea Candee & David Andrusia, Gentle Healing for Baby and Child. Pocket Books
  9. Janet Zand, et al.,Smart Medicine for a Healthier Child

Students have also recommended books and courses by Demetria Clark (I am leery about essential oils in pregnancy though, which is the topic of one of her books)  and Mel at the Herbalist's Path but I haven't had the chance to check these resources out to totally endorse them.


Discover Herbs & Nature with Children

Definitely also check out my blog on this topic here.

  1. A Kid’s Herb Book by Lesley Tierra
  2. Walking the World in Wonder by Ellen Evert Hopman
  3. Song of the Seven Herbs by Waling Night Bear & Stan Padilla
  4. Sharing Nature with Children by Joseph Cornell
  5. Last Child in the Woods by Richard Louv
  6. Visit the Children & Nature Network at www.cnaturenet.org to find a movement in your community.


Natural & Herbal Body Care, Essential Oils & Aromatherapy

  1. For information and recommended resources for Aromatherapy and Essential Oils, click here
  2. Rosemary Gladstar's Herbal Recipes for Vibrant Health
  3. Donna Maria, Making Aromatherapy Creams and Lotions
  4. Janice Cox, Natural Beauty at Home and other books
  5. Greta Breedlove, The Herbal Home Spa
  6. Dina Falconi, Earthly Bodies & Heavenly Hair

Some Amazon links are affiliate links. If you use these links to purchase this book, a small portion of of the proceeds will support my work at no extra cost to you.

You Can’t Go Wrong

with almost any book, class, article, blog, or lecture by...

Matthew Alfs

Rosita Arvigo

Betzy Bancroft

Paul Bergner

Juliet Blankespoor

Mark Blumenthal

Mary Bove

Larken Bunce*

Stephen Harrod Buhner

Lana Camiel

Vilde Chaya Fenster-Ehrlich

Bevin Clare

Richo Cech

Sam Coffman

Amanda David

Rosalee de la Foret*

Linden de Voil

James Duke

Thomas Easley*

Steven Foster

Margi Flint

Camille Freeman*

Cascade Anderson Geller

Kate Gilday*

Rosemary Gladstar*

James Green

Mindy Green

Emily Han*

Mimi Hernandez*

Christopher Hobbs*

David Hoffmann*

Steven Horne*

Kathi Keville

Susan Kramer*

Henriette Kress

Jessica LaBrie

Phyllis Light

Dr. Tierona Low Dog*

Richard Mandelbaum*

Guido Mase*

Rob McCaleb

Anne McIntyre

Debbie Mercier

jim mcdonald*

Amanda McQuade Crawford

Michael Moore*

Michael Murray

Olatukunbo "Ola" Obasi

Leah Penniman*

Ember Peters*

Nancy & Michael Phillips

Aviva Jill Romm
*

Kiva Rose*

Wendy Snow Fogg

Deb Soule

Katya Swift & Ryn Midura

Paul Stamets

Tammi Sweet

Lesley Tierra

Michael Tierra

Sharol Tilgner*

Allan Tillotson

Dr Andrew Weil

Leslie "Leslita" Williams

David Winston*

Matthew Wood

7Song

*/bold = personal favorites

I'm still getting acquainted with a better diversity of  herbal teachers. Those listed above are folks I have had the pleasure of learning from directly, listening to, or watching speak in person or via recordings. I urge you to also check out BIPOC and Queer and Trans herbalists compiled by Toi at the Queering Herbalism blog. <3

HerbalBookshelf