Category Archives: gardening

Gardening Without Work by Ruth Stout

When I saw the full title of this book I decided it was must read.

Gardening Without Work (Sounds great so far!) For the Aging, (Happens to all of us.) the Busy, (Yes?) and the Indolent. (I can’t be bothered to look this up but I think it applies as well.)

Within I found a ridiculously easy sounding gardening method delivered in an easy to read humorous sort of way by a person who loves to question the “experts”.

Would I recommend it? What’s not to love? OK, maybe, there were a few parts that I was uninterested in but the beauty of nonfiction is if you don’t want to grow squash you don’t have to read about it!

The Night Strangers by Chris Bohjalian

I’ve read most of Chris Bohjalian’s other books so when I saw his newest on the shelf I dove right in.

Oops.

While some of his others were nightmare inducing for other reasons they didn’t involve seeing dead people, and contemplating killing your own children, not to mention and the extra chill inducing ending.

Please read something by Bohjalian… just maybe not this one.

Would I recommend it? No, well written, but just no.

The Wideacre Trilogy by Phillipa Gregory

Wideacre

The most wonderfully written car crash of a book I’ve ever read. I couldn’t look away and I couldn’t stop reading even when I wanted to.

Would I recommend it? No. It’s well done, but I just can’t recommend a book full of incest, I can’t do it.

The Favored Child

One of those books where you know the end.  Right from the beginning you know the chances of a happily ever after are slim, very, very, slim. Then it gets worse, and you see the character falling into trap after trap and then end is coming and all of a sudden it’s back to the car crash that you just can’t look away from.

Would I recommend it? No.  See recommendation above and add in verbal and physical abuse and a barn owl that says “whoo, whoo”

Meridon

Wow.

Would I recommend it? Well, you can’t just go read the last book of a trilogy, it’d make no sense whatsoever.  This one almost made the rest worth it.

The end result:

While this won’t be a trio of books I’ll be highly recommending, my lack of recommendation is only due to the content. While they are clearly not for everyone I believe that they are remarkably well written, go read something else of Gregory’s I doubt you’ll be disappointed!

A Garden For A Groundhog by Lorna Balian

Happy Groundhogs Day!

Actually I’m not a big fan of Groundhogs day.

We live in Wisconsin, there is ALWAYS six more weeks of winter.

This Groundhogs day the groundhogs  at my house today may be  smarter than my husband.

My husband is on the road to work in the below zero wind chill, and blowing snow,  you know the blizzard that’s caused the state to declare a civil emergency in this area.

I’m certain the groundhogs are sleeping through the blizzard instead of checking for shadows.

So, who’s smarter John or a groundhog???

But, regardless  of my own feelings on Groundhogs Day (or my husbands activities) I thought the girls should have a book so they could learn the whole crazy Groundhog Day tradition. I picked the cutest looking one from the pile at the library and headed home not expecting much.

The book is about the O’Learys and their little farm.  On about page three I thought this book might have something going for it:

Then Mrs O’Learys response to Groundhogs Day really had me hooked…

By the time Groundhogs Day really rolled around I was loving it.

When spring came and Mr O’Leary put in action his plan to foil the ground hog I was planning a new blog.And by the end I was convinced that this is the best Groundhogs Day book ever!

Would I recommend it? Yes!

Truck by Michael Perry

I can’t decide if it’s odd that I enjoyed a book named Truck or if it makes perfect sense. When he goes and fixes up his old truck throughout the book and starts talking technical he loses me sometime after “impact wrench” and “headlights” and before “diamond plate” and “carburetor bowl”. But then there is the whole loving an old rusty pickup truck thing and since this lives at my house. I could relate.

The book also includes such essentials as fried chicken, spirea, gardening,  deer hunting,  and of course a girl.

Would I recommend it? Yes. I didn’t love all the parts but it was funny and so very Wisconsin I couldn’t help but like the whole.