pbA Best Book of the Year at iThe New YorkeribbrbA Must Read at iThe Boston Globei, iLiterary Hubi, iThe Millionsi, and iGarden Gunib pbA lyrical incisive novel . . . about a changing climate, the invisibility of women's work, and the perseverance of unofficial histories. bb--iThe New YorkeribbrbbrIn Katy Simpson Smith's bibThe Weedsbib, two women, connected across time, edge toward transgression in pursuit of their desires.b pA Mississippi woman pushes through the ruin of the Roman Colosseum, searching for plants. She has escaped her life, signed up to catalog all the species growing in this place. Crawling along the stones, she wonders how she has landed here, a reluctant botanist amid a snarl of tourists in comfortable sandals. She hunts for a scientific agenda and a direction of her own. pIn 1854, a woman pushes through the jungle of the Roman Colosseum, searching for plants. As punishment for her misbehavior, she has been indentured to the English botanist Richard Deakin, for who