Our book club grows and we have some more books for consideration!
First, Gardener in Mexico is going to send a list of books upon return to Chacala. This is definitely a blog to visit when the snow is flying up north, with lots of bright, cheery tropical flowers.
Earth Girl and Nature Girl sent me their lists via comments. (Hey, Earth Girl is in Indiana like me, I’m going to add her to my list of Indiana garden bloggers!)
Nature Girl’s list includes:
Anatomy of a Rose by Sharman Apt Russell
Garden Poems…selected and edited by John Hollander (I think this is our first poetry book suggested!)
Night Gardening by E.L. Swann. (She’s really peaking my interest with this comment: “by far my favorite enchanting journey into a real and metaphorical garden! I’ve read it 3 times and posted about it “mid summer nite” back in June I think.”)
Earth Girl’s list with her comments includes:
“The Botany of Desire: A Plant’s-Eye View of the World by Michael Pollan
Night Gardening by E.L. Swann (I’m stuffing the ballot box because it sounds so interesting.) Anything by Henry Mitchell (we are definitely going to have a least one book by Henry Mitchell!)
The Wild Braid (again because I want to read it.)
There was also a book about an Elizabethan lady who discovered gardening when forced to spend time in her country estate. I haven’t read it but I understand it is a classic.”
(Can anyone help identify what book this is?)
Myrtle Luma sent this list:
Dig by Meredith Kirton (great photographs).
Anything by Richard Mabey – Flora Britannica is fabulous.
Anything by Anna Pavord – The Naming of Names and the Tulip are both fabulous.
The Plant Hunters by Musgrave, Gardner, and Musgrave and
The Origin of Plant by Maggie Campbell-Culver
And here’s Blackswamp_Girl’s list with commentary on each
Planting Design: Gardens in Time and Space by Piet Oudolf and Noel Kingsbury (my all-time favorite gardening book so far in terms of turning my planning/thoughts around)
Dear Friend and Gardener the correspondence of Christopher Lloyd and Beth Chatto (haven’t read it yet, but am fascinated because of the two personalities involved)
Beth Chatto’s Gravel Garden Beth Chatto (only read excerpts of this so far at Borders, but this always intrigues me because of the thought and planning that went into the garden’s construction)
Wild Fruits or Walden Henry David Thoreau (the former is a collection of unfinished essays published posthumously… and the latter needs no explanation but I haven’t read it since high school and probably should again)
Earth Girl had a good idea… stuff the ballot box. I think I am counting 10 lists of books so far, so feel free to comment with your pitch for any of the books you’ve seen that you really, really think should be read by all of us! Or, let me know via a comment that you have a list for inclusion in a post on your blog or just list the books in a comment here.
Still plenty of time to suggest a book or two!
(Oh, and if you sent me a list prior to me posting this update and I’ve not included it here or on yesterday’s blog posting, let me know!)
I just had a thought: Once you post the “winners” list (one book for each month) will you please list out all of the losers, too? I read quite a bit and would love to cull some finds out of the “losers” list–but I’m having trouble keeping track! 🙂
Yes, there are a lot of lists and I’m keeping track of them all “offline”. I should be able to post the “books not selected” along with those selected. (I have a hard time calling them “losers” because there are some many good books on the list, some good books will have to be left off.)
Thank you very much, Carol! That will be wonderful… and I, too, was referring to the books-not-selected as “losers” very losely. Maybe you can just post the list of “additional suggested reading” like they used to give us in school. 🙂
Hi Carol – I’ve posted my list on my blog this morning. But everyone’s suggestions are interesting. Rather you than me choosing 🙂
Does Earth Girl mean “Elizabeth and her German Garden” by Elizabeth Von Arnim? It was published in 1898, and so is Victorian, not Elizabethan. Maybe the author’s name confused her.
I just reread “Tottering in My Garden” by Midge Ellis Keeble and enjoyed it even more the second time than the first. Eventually I’ll get around to writing a review of it on my blog.
One of the funniest books and most observant books I’ve ever read about gardening is Karel Capek’s “The Gardener’s Year”.
And I never tire of reading Antonia Ridge’s “For Love of a Rose” about the 3 generations of rose growers who formed the Meilland family and developed the ‘Peace’ rose.