I’ll admit it: I went into this book embarrassingly wrong about what it was actually about. I thought I was signing up for a deep dive into challenging old beliefs and embracing new ideas. Turns out, it’s about psychedelics. (Maybe I needed to, you know, read the back cover.)

That’s on me — but honestly, I’m glad I stuck around. The emerging science of psychedelics is fascinating, and Pollan, as always, has this rare ability to make even the most complex, delicate subjects feel approachable. His storytelling is effortless, his research thorough without ever feeling heavy-handed, and by the end, I found myself thoroughly engaged in a topic I didn’t even mean to pick up.

It wasn’t the book I expected, but it was a book I genuinely enjoyed. Pollan continues to be one of the best at making nonfiction feel like a conversation rather than a lecture — and for that alone, this was well worth the read.