Some updates for the Garden Bloggers’ Book Club
August-September Virtual Meeting.
I’ll be posting the August-September virtual meeting post on September 30th, so if you are planning to participate, please leave me a comment or send me an email so I can find you and grab a link to your post. Again, the August-September selection is the garden mystery A Hoe Lot of Trouble: A Nina Quinn Mystery by Heather Webber, or you can choose to read another garden mystery book and post about it. If you don’t want to read a garden mystery or didn’t have time to do so, you can still participate by telling us about a real life mystery in your own garden. The more the merrier!
Survey Says.
Thank you to all who participated in the book club survey. Based on the survey…
We will stick to a book every other month, so the next selection will be for October – November. We’ll also keep offering a related topic to post about for those who want to participate in the virtual meeting post, but don’t have time to read the book or for some reason can’t get the book.
Your comments were very kind and encouraging and helpful. Thank you!
October-November Book Selection.
Regarding annual asters, the author of our next book selection wrote… “I can’t resist them and invariably let optimism get the better of judgment, which come to think of it may be the first principle of gardening.” Can you guess which book was the one with the most votes in the survey?
Green Thoughts: A Writer in the Garden by Eleanor Perényi
I’ve had this book on my shelf for maybe twenty years, and it has been awhile since I read it. I’m excited to be reading it again and sharing favorite quotes and thoughts with others through the book club. I hope you are also pleased with this selection and will join us in reading this classic garden book. And if you don’t have a chance to read this book and still want to post something in late November, post about what the quote above means to you as a gardener.
Happy Fall Gardening and Happy Reading!
I reviewed the book here.
I’m afraid I didn’t read the chosen book, but I do have another to recommend: “Common or Garden Crime” by Sheila Pim. Billed as “an Irish village gardening mystery set during World War II,” it’s a quick but fun read. The main character, Lucy Bex, ends up involved in the investigation of a local “murder by monkshood” in the midst of preserving her tomatoes, puzzling over local plant thefts, and preparing to host the villiage flower show. It’s not a thrilling read, by any stretch (one of my favorite back-cover quotes for it is “Vivacious as a wall lizard”), but it’s relaxing and interesting as well as informative–both about their attitude toward gardening as well as to how food shortages were managed during “The War.” One of my favorite passages: “Going round a garden is a serious performance, almost a rite. You are not supposed to wander at will; the owner is sure to have his planned itinerary. You must know how slowly to move, when to pause and gaze, enraptured, at a vista, and when to stoop down, put on spectacles, and peer minutely at some individual plant. All that was second nature to the Clonmeen contingent, but the other elements in the party were inclined to be unmanageable.” Another mystery by the same author, Hive of Suspects, focuses (not surprisingly) on beekeeping and possibly tainted honey (was it really the rhododendrons at fault?), and there are two others, I think. They’re worth checking out!
delighted to see Green Thoughts is the next book; this means I can participate. I actually am rereading the book now, as inspiration for something I’m working on in my spare time…I didn’t read the mystery of course and because I’m still recuperating I probably won’t write anything in relation to this month’s selection. Will make up for it next time, I promise!
Hello Carol,
My review is just up – and how cool to have Eleanor Perenyi’s Green Thoughts for the next meeting!
Annie at the Transplantable Rose
You can probably get to my review if you right click this link. I’m pretty sure that if you click it normally the page gets jammed into the little comment window. Or is that another thing that happens in Explorer but not in other browsers?
Hi Carol! Just wanted to pop in and say hello… It’s been a while. I’m at the Garden Writers Association Symposium in Oklahoma City this weekend. Any chance you will be here too? If not, I can’t wait to share all the fabulous info with you.
Callie
Xylem & Phloem
Bill… thanks for joining in, I left a comment on your review.
Nan Ondra… Sounds like an interesting book. We have someone who reviewed another Sheila Pim book for her post, so check back on Sunday to see that. I love that passage you quoted about touring a garden!
Jodi… I’m going to hold you to your promise to join us next time!
Annie… thanks for joining in again! I don’t know what that “jamming” is all about, but I’ve experienced it too and I use Explorer.
Callie… No, I’m not at the symposium. I would love to have you share whatever info you get. Don’t forget to go to the forum on garden blogging!
Thanks all for the comments and for joining in the book club.
Carol at May Dreams Gardens
Oh, cool. I have that book, I love it, and it’s been maybe 20 years since I last read it.
I’ve never read Green Thoughts, but it looks like something I would enjoy. Can’t wait to read it!
Hi cArol, I love the idea of the book club and I really enjoyed the book. My review is here. I hope it’s ok. http://www.farmingfriends.com/gardenbloggers-book-club/
Sara from farmingfriends