The Samurai's Garden: A Novel

Book Description

The daughter of a Chinese mother and a Japanese father, Tsukiyama uses the Japanese invasion of China during the late 1930s as a somber backdrop for her unusual story about a 20-year-old Chinese painter named Stephen who is sent to his family's summer home in a Japanese coastal village to recover from a bout with tuberculosis. Here he is cared for by Matsu, a reticent housekeeper and a master gardener. Over the course of a remarkable year, Stephen learns Matsu's secret and gains not only physical strength, but also profound spiritual insight. Matsu is a samurai of the soul, a man devoted to doing good and finding beauty in a cruel and arbitrary world, and Stephen is a noble student, learning to appreciate Matsu's generous and nurturing way of life and to love Matsu's soulmate, gentle Sachi, a woman afflicted with leprosy.

Customer Reviews:

A beautifully crafted novel.......2007-08-26

This story was simplistic and wonderful. I read it in two days and was mesmerized by the rich culture. The best book I've read in a long time

A sedate samurai.......2007-08-20

The plot of this book makes a terrific outline: A young Chinese man recuperating in Japan from tuberculosis while Japanese troops are slaughtering his Chinese contemporaries in the pre-World War Two invasion; a quiet but strong and wise caretaker who lives to rescue victims of leprosy, including a woman spurned by his best friend; a marriage crisis for the Chinese man's parents; a Romeo/Juliet type love story between the Chinese man and a young Japanese woman. Should be socko.

Instead, it's sedating. Whether it's the passive nature of Stephen, the young Chinese man, or the very pedestrian writing style of the author, I found this book consistently tepid. She shows off her new knowledge about Japanese culture, giving detailed descriptions of every meal and every kimono.

She tells the story through Stephen when the caretaker, Matsu, is the central character. Because Matsu is strong and silent, we don't get inside his character development.

Nevertheless, it's an interesting look at Japan before WWII: religion, relationship and customs.

Beautiful.......2007-08-15

A delightful story of a chinese teen, sent to japan on the eve of WW2 to recuperate after getting tuberculosis. He meets his father's servant who he gets to know and the locals, finding them friendly and welcoming even with the war. He finds the simple way of life, instead of being boring, fills his days and he is bereft when the war forces him to leave.

A wonderful piece of prose, this haunting story of the simple people and their tragic lives is a page turner.

Read this book when feeling calm.......2007-05-21

Reviews of the Samurai's Garden seem to fall into two camps. The "Oh my God, I loved it-best book evers" and the "Are you kidding me? This book stunk category!"

My problem with those in the latter category is that (with a few exceptions) readers who did not like this book tend to mount some moral literary high horse. They relish insulting other reviewers, as in "Anyone with any discerning taste and one scintilla of brain cells would NEVER like this book, ergo if you do you, I hate to break this to you, but you are a stupid, simple, idiot." Listen to yourselves! I wonder what it must feel like to these people to know everything?

Anyway. I did not particularly love this book, but I really can see how many did. The case can definitely be made that there were many layers of beautiful, intertwining lessons in this seemingly simple, yet really more-complex-than-it-looks book. In that sense, it kind of reminds me of the polarizing effect of the Ladies' Detective Agency series by Alexander McCall Smith.

My biggest problem with this book was that I don't think I was in the mood for it. I read it at a time when I had a lot going on, and couldn't sufficiently savor it. This is a book to be savored in peace. For most of my read of it, I wasn't in a peaceful frame of mind as a reader. My personal restlessness wanted more action, less bean cake eating. A few times, however, despite myself, I was caught flat-footed with awe by something in the story. The one thing I took away was to never forget that everyone has a story that helps define them. You just have to be still and listen.

Gorgeous Prose.......2007-02-12

Languish for a while in the Tsukiyama's Japanese garden and you may never want to leave. The serenity created in Matsu's little haven is contradicted by the military domination of the Japanese over the Chinese and the reclusive leper colony struggling for a peaceful existence in a realm beyond that of war. It is to this environment that a young Chinese boy enters into in search of healthier air and soothing salt of the sea . As his body begins healing, his emotions are delicately fractured by all that he learns of war, leprosy, first love, his family secrets, and the servant Matsu - who is truly a master of wisdom, honor, and faith. I wanted to walk through this garden again and again.

The $64 Tomato: How One Man Nearly Lost His Sanity, Spent a Fortune, and Endured an Existential Crisis in the Quest for the Perfect Garden

Average customer rating:

Great book gift for green thumbs (and brown thumbs)
A tasty little story
Enjoyable memoir of a man and his garden
For the Gardening Obsessed
As an animal lover...

The $64 Tomato: How One Man Nearly Lost His Sanity, Spent a Fortune, and Endured an Existential Crisis in the Quest for the Perfect Garden
William Alexander
Manufacturer: Algonquin Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

Memoirs | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 1565125576

Book Description

Bill Alexander had no idea that his simple dream of having a vegetable garden and small orchard in his backyard would lead him into life-and-death battles with groundhogs, webworms, weeds, and weather; midnight expeditions in the dead of winter to dig up fresh thyme; and skirmishes with neighbors who feed the vermin (i.e., deer). Not to mention the vacations that had to be planned around the harvest, the near electrocution of the tree man, the limitations of his own middle-aged body, and the pity of his wife and kids. When Alexander runs (just for fun!) a costbenefit analysis, adding up everything from the live animal trap to the Velcro tomato wraps and then amortizing it over the life of his garden, it comes as quite a shock to learn that it cost him a staggering $64 to grow each one of his beloved Brandywine tomatoes. But as any gardener will tell you, you can't put a price on the unparalleled pleasures of providing fresh food for your family.

Customer Reviews:

Great book gift for green thumbs (and brown thumbs).......2007-08-09

I HATE gardening, but thoroughly enjoyed reading Alexander's odyssey of his quest to build his dream garden. Very funny account of epic battles with weeds, rodents, and bugs as he tries to prevent his little "hobby" from ruining his life. Your gardening friends will love this book (and non-gardeners will too!)

A tasty little story.......2007-08-02

His wife's insistence on an old fixer-upper of a house means the author can have the garden, orchard, and even meadow he's always dreamed. Once the house is livable--and everyone in town knows it has to be repaired to be livable--the owners start on the grounds. Landscape contractors, who are always late and leave their backhoe to winter in the author's yard, promise a garden to be proud of--and then bring plans for some very ordinary rectangles.

Not to be daunted, Alexander picks heirloom plants to grow his produce. He is determined to have the same fruit and experiences he remembers from his father's gardening. Organic gardening should be easy when he has only four trees and a small garden. He can pluck off the hungry worms and organically protect his crops from predators of all types.

After learning how much time is involved in using the organic bug sprays--first you find the caterpillar, then you spray him--how much it costs to put in something other than grass walkways, and that some animals are not deterred by six thousand volts, he gets down to serious gardening.

His wife and children begin to question his sanity. His plants don't always grow the way he expected. Who knew growing roses would kill the corn? Sitting down to calculate the cost of his succulent heirloom tomatoes gives him a jolt he thought he'd only get from his electric fence. Did his dad really do it this way? Had he been hoodwinked about how much fun this all was? When did the hobby become a second job?

You needn't be a gardener to enjoy the humor in this book. The history of tomatoes and potatoes, and insights on the Anasazi Indians thrown in with ridding the garden of Superchuck, the groundhog, is true fun for the reading. Cultivated entertainment.

Armchair Interview says: Humor and hoeing, planting and waiting, bugs and bug sprays flow together to give you an enjoyable read.

Enjoyable memoir of a man and his garden.......2007-07-26

I am by no means a gardening expert, more of a beginner, but I enjoyed this memoir of one man's obsession with and relationship with his garden. I found it informative and funny. I took as much what not to do, as what to do, from the book. I mean, you can see the excessiveness of his spending and learn from it as much as you can learn from the ways he fights pests on his fruit trees. I read books like this for inspiration and I was inspired by his mistakes and successes. All in all it was an enjoyable light read.

For the Gardening Obsessed.......2007-07-26

This book speaks to every obsessed gardener in America. The majority of the public, however, won't get it. They put in a few pansies, water them when they think of it and go on with their lives. But a few of us have an insatiable drive to work the soil, wage a constant war with the elements and beat off ravaging beasts just so we can be overwhelmed with too much produce.

Our neighbors think we're nuts--why would someone put themselves through all that labor and expense to get something they could buy at the corner market for $0.85 a pound? (Yeah, well I don't get the mountain climbing thing either.)

I like Alexander's writing--it was cute and witty and perfectly illustrated a man trying to work in his career, family and home improvement projects around his gardening obsession. All 2,000 square feet of it.

Although organic gardeners will be disgusted with how often Alexander reaches for the spray can, most will be able to relate to his journey.

A really cute read but I can't review the recipes as I didn't try them out yet.

As an animal lover..........2007-06-28

... I too was distressed by the chapters where the authors obsession defies his place at the top of the food chain and his "logical" abilities. When the local fauna decide that his exorbitantly expensive garden is the local salad bar, he goes on the war path and attempts to destroy everything alive that is not a plant.

While this is somewhat disheartening, it is also illuminating. I place this book alongside ElectroBoy on my bookshelf, and alongside The Omnivore's Dilemma, because it makes such a natural segue between the two.

William Alexander is truly obsessed with his garden. What ought to be a nice, pleasant way to pass time and to get some exercise and food turns into a dangerous obsession, resulting in damage to his finances, his health, his psyche, and his marriage.

It is amusing, in parts, however.

Read it, if only to see what lengths people will go to in order to save their hobby. It is an interesting study, really. Probably not a book I will read again, but it is one that I will think of from time to time.

Harkius

The Findhorn Garden: Pioneering a New Vision of Man and Nature in Cooperation

Average customer rating:

I've been there.
Wonderfully Whacky
Food for thought
IS FINDHORN FAKERY?
Stunningly weird.

The Findhorn Garden: Pioneering a New Vision of Man and Nature in Cooperation
The Findhorn Community
Manufacturer: Perennial (HarperCollins)
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Gardening & Horticulture | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books

General | New Age | Religion & Spirituality | Subjects | Books

Parapsychology | Occult | Religion & Spirituality | Subjects | Books

General | Spirituality | Religion & Spirituality | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 0060905204

Book Description

An amazing journey into the beliefs of the Findhorn Community. "A beautiful book, including about 100 wondrous photographs."--Library Journal

Customer Reviews:

I've been there........2005-04-28

I became attached to The Findhorn Foundation before reading any of the publications that have made it famous. It is an amazing place, and although I did not personally connect with Nature Spirits during any of my visits, I did have what I can only call spiritual experiences that prevent me from doubting any one else's connections to energy we don't understand. To those who have placed reviews that judge the place without going there, you should open your minds. It is not a hoax, but a place where many people are able to access a different perception of life. Findhorn really isn't about gardening, but about people and their relationship to the earth and each other. That's what makes this book so beautiful. It gives us an insider's look at some of the Founding members of a place that has nutured a diverse collection of caring, open minded, peole. Findhorn Foundation members have been advisors to the UN and are on the leading edge of the Ecovillage movement, reforestation, herbal remedies, spiritual and personal development, and alternative medicices that have all come closer to the mainstream since the 1960's. For me, The Findhorn Garden is both a history of a place I love, and an inspiration in keeping my mind open to the infinite possibilities of the universe -- even though I'm quite happy just having an ordinary life with an ordinary garden!

Wonderfully Whacky.......2004-07-30

This book gets you thinking about why some people's gardens flourish and others perish under the same conditions. Second half of the book gets a bit tedious in places, but worth a read.

Food for thought.......2004-07-08

This book is lovely and fun! Sure its concepts are also outrageous to the logical mind, but remember so was microbiology 100 years ago. The controversy of this book doesn't reach the underlying meaning: Through a lot of love, humility, faith and hard work you can lead a gentle and honerable life that creates beauty and gives life and hope where it appears hopeless. Even if you think you can't hear nature spirits and they are someone else's imagination, you can still find strength and peace while working with the natural world. Plus the more people learn to appreciate and love the natural world as part of us, the more we will collectively be able to hold for the future. The people who founded Findhorn are inspiring on many levels. It is wonderful.

IS FINDHORN FAKERY?.......2003-09-24

MY MOM FIGURED OUT FINDHORN A LONG TIME AGO - GOT SOME INFO FROM THE DEPT OF AGRICULTURE IN SCOTLAND AND FOUND THAT THE GROUND FINDHORN SITS ON IS PERFECT FOR GROWING ANYTHING. IN MY OPINION, THE WHOLE OPERATION IS A FAKE.

Stunningly weird........2003-08-29

The story of the Findhorn Garden is somewhat like that of Lourdes or Old Faithful--I don't know exactly how to describe it, but it is by turns hyperreligious, extraterrestrial, down-to-earth, and just plain bizarre.

The woman of the house talks to the spirits of plants, and they tell her how to plant them (sort of an interactive Burpee service), and they grow in sand and fertilizer, blooming in extraordinary abundance where there was nothing but an ugly, abused mobile-home park once.

Book Description

A sensational bestseller when it appeared in 1986, The Garden of Eden is the last uncompleted novel of Ernest Hemingway, which he worked on intermittently from 1946 until his death in 1961. Set on the Côte d'Azur in the 1920s, it is the story of a young American writer, David Bourne, his glamorous wife, Catherine, and the dangerous, erotic game they play when they fall in love with the same woman. "A lean, sensuous narrative...taut, chic, and strangely contemporary," The Garden of Eden represents vintage Hemingway, the master "doing what nobody did better" (R. Z. Sheppard, Time).

Download Description

A sensational bestseller when it appeared in 1986, The Garden of Eden is the last uncompleted novel of Ernest Hemingway, which he worked on intermittently from 1946 until his death in 1961. Set on the Cote d'Azur in the 1920s, it is the story of a young American writer, David Bourne, his glamorous wife, Catherine, and the dangerous, erotic game they play when they fall in love with the same woman. "A lean, sensuous narrative...taut, chic, and strangely contemporary," The Garden of Eden represents vintage Hemingway, the master "doing what nobody did better" (R. Z. Sheppard, Time).

Customer Reviews:

Quite boring..........2007-07-04

Hemingway failed to engage me in this particular story.

Perhaps, in this day in age, the antics of this goofy sexual saga, lacks enough juice and shock value to carry us through it with interest or enthusiasm.

In addition, I found that his writing style was quite different than in his other works...

Somewhat boring and disappointing

Garden of Eden.......2007-03-08

This is Hemingway's worst book. It's hard to know if he was going for the "titillation factor" or if he was simply this jaded, cynical and without compassion. If "three ways" thrill you, this is your Hemingway book; otherwise, it simply illustrates how superficial and careless he could be -- and his writing in this one is pitiful.

Hemingway and Eros: A Complex Combination.......2006-08-23

This is one of those books, published posthumously, that encourages readers to go back and read all of an author's previous works in its light. It's essential reading for anyone who wants to understand the psychology of Hemingway's work--and especially for anyone who thinks he already understands it. The games Hemingway's characters play with gender and sexuality in this novel cause us to reconsider the role of gender--and gender AS a role played by characters--in much of his earlier work. It's not surprising that this book was greeted with slight embarrassment upon publication. It reveals a Hemingway whose view of sexuality is much more complex and Modernist than that of many of his more conservative readers.

Diamond in the rough.......2006-06-07

I loved it. That said, I understand why it is in some sense unfinished - by which I mean 'not polished,' instead of incomplete. The story is fantastic and the characters some of the best Hemingway ever created. Perhaps the most enjoyable is the meta-writing: his writing on writing through the main character, who is forced to confront that many of his ideas about what he is doing and how it is to be done are too rigid - perhaps even totally wrong. Then again, the steamy affair and brutal exchanges leading to the climax ... masterful. None of his other books got me as hot or as emotionally involved as this one. Another 15 years and this might have been the best thing he ever wrote. Enjoy.

Should You Or Shouldn't You Read It.......2006-03-22

Yes, you should. It is strange and it is racy and the safari stuff does not really fit but this is a great book. It is closest to The Sun Also Rises and if he had written 100 books about people who just seemed to hang around I would have read them all.

Also, do not be scared off because it says "unfinished work". The ending works perfectly as is.

4 1/2 stars!

Average customer rating:

I have no idea what "Virgin" is all about,
Another Winner....
A.S. Byatt does it once again!
A letdown
brutal going

The Virgin in the Garden: A Novel
A.S. Byatt
Manufacturer: Vintage
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Literary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

ASIN: 0679738290
Release Date: 1992-01-15

Book Description

The Virgin in the Garden is a wonderfully erudite entertainment in which enlightenment and sexuality, Elizabethan drama and contemporary comedy, intersect richly and unpredictably.

Customer Reviews:

I have no idea what "Virgin" is all about,.......2007-08-24

except to sell books. I cannot identify with any of the characters. Incredibly outlandish (another reviewer said "unpredictable" -- a real understatement). I picked the book up a discount retailer after thumbing through it. Set in Yorkshire, England, 1952/1953, it provided me memories of Robin's Hood Bay (the hike); the names of all the plants (interestingly, gorse was never mentioned -- did I miss that one?); and the petit point hassocks for the pews at St Bartholomew's. Hmmmm.

At the time Virginia Woolf's "Mrs Dalloway" was published, a critic said it would not be read in 50 years. I can't imagine "The Virgin in the Garden" being read 50 years from now, but with sequels, etc., it appears the author is hoping for lucrative movie deals, ala Harry Potter.

Another Winner...........2005-06-26

It seems as if it is impossible for A.S Byatt to write a bad or even a mediocre story. After this novel, she is one of my new absolute favorites and I have vowed to read everything this amazing author has written.
I began to read The Virgin in the Garden, and could not put it down. I was enraptured by the beautiful descriptions of the two contrasting "Elizabethian ages" and the characters. Frederica has to be one of the most despicable, and yet intriguing literary characters in years. My breath was also taken away by the story of Marcus Potter--a haunting, amazing character that will stay with you for days.
The way Byatt writes, she transports you to 1950s England and the lives of the Potters. I felt as if I knew these characters like family, and could almost sit down to lunch with them by the end of the book. Her style, timing, and subtle metaphors of passion and life are irresistible and amazing. This is truly a writer who will stand the test of time to become an icon in the likes of the Brontes, Jane Austen, and Kate Chopin.
I cannot wait to share this book with everyone I know. Highly, highly reccomended. Go to the bookstore or your local library, ignore the new glossy bestsellers that try and cheat you out of your money and instead pick up this gorgeous, powerful read that new authors cannot hold a candle to.

A.S. Byatt does it once again!.......2004-10-01

This is one of the best literary works I have read. I cannot fathom the bad reviews here. The story of the eccentric Potter family and the quirky works of their minds enthralled me from beginning to end. Frederica Potter is my favorite character in the book. She takes me back to heroines made famous by authors the like of Jane Austen. She is one of the most colorful characters I have ever read. All of the central characters are great. This novel chronicles the life of an eccentric family with subtle magic realism and palpable dark language.

This novel's setting floored me. Fifties Britain is described in such a way that made me feel as though I had been alive during those times. The Elizabethan backdrop is also mesmerizing. And I love the quirkiness and darkness in this book. A.S. Byatt is no doubt one of the best writers of this era. Hers is a voice you cannot help but love. She writes with beautiful prose. I have read her short-story collections and now this book and I cannot wait to read her other works. I cannot recommend The Virgin in the Garden enough.

A letdown.......2004-05-23

She obviously knows how to write. However, I didn't like or identify, or find interesting any of the characters. In addition she is very good at spouting out allusions, but most of them hindered the plot development instead of helping it.
After reading this I did not read the sequels.

brutal going.......2004-01-25

there's no music, as it were, in what a.s. byatt does: i have read three of her novels now and i'm, i think, in a pretty good position to judge her stuff as utterly pretentious and banal. read just one page of hers and compare it to a paragraph (a single sentence?!) of James Joyce. i am an english prof--hence all the lit allusions in this novel just kinda made me sick. she drops so many names/quotations you need an imaginary broom to sweep them away. dreadful dreck. you need something Englishy to read--investigate William Boyd or Julian Barnes. byatt is like a parody of good writing. only salman rushdie's fiction is more onanistic (though his criticism's pretty cool). byatt is the literary equivalent of Stevie Nicks! Icky!!!!

Beautiful Madness: One Man's Journey Through Other People's Gardens

Average customer rating:

To Know the Soul of Those Who Garden - Read On!!
A Treat for Gardeners

Beautiful Madness: One Man's Journey Through Other People's Gardens
James Dodson
Manufacturer: Amazon Remainders Account
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: B000H5ULRK

Book Description

Beautiful Madness will do for competitive gardening what Word Freak did for competitive Scrabble, and what Best in Show did for competitive dog breeding. It's Susan Orlean's The Orchid Thief with a sense of humor. You'll never look at a potted plant the same way again.

During an amazing year of living botanically, James Dodson went behind the scenes of the world's two most important garden shows (the Philadelphia Flower Show and the Chelsea Garden Show in New York City); spent time with the Botticelli of Bulbs; attended a rare plant auction of high rollers; sneaked into a Hosta convention; communed with the kindred spirits of Thomas Jefferson and John Bartram; met a man smuggling exotic day lilies; learned the inside poop on ten or twelve of the Western world's most influential gardens; swiped cuttings from a Founding Father's shrubbery; hung out with ten or twelve of the most accomplished gardening fanatics on earth; built three new gardens of his own; and wound up hanging perilously from a limb on the side of a cliff in Southern Africa, the birthplace of an estimated one-third of the world's flowers, where he capped off his year of incalculable learning and discovery by tagging along with four of America's leading plant hunters on an expedition into the rugged jungles to find the exotic new species of tomorrow.

This yeoman's tale of shared horticultural obsession burrows deeply into the story of how Americans became such fanatical gardeners and are today, in fact, at the forefront of what everyone agrees is a new Golden Age of Gardening, an unprecedented growth in gardening's popularity that has—according to a recent Gallop poll—an astonishing eighty percent of adult Americans claiming to be primary hobby gardeners.

Customer Reviews:

To Know the Soul of Those Who Garden - Read On!!.......2006-07-01

James Dodson has an amazing ability to make any aspect of his life that he cares to share with us interesting, readable and enjoyable. I have read all of his books. He has collaborated with Arnold Palmer on his autobiography.

He has written eloquently about his relationship with his father in a moving book entitled Final Rounds. He has written several books that talk about his relationshiip with his children and family. He has written about The Dewsweepers, a group of men who share a love of golf and true friendship. His personal books are about relationships, spiritualty and life and they are all very moving and very entertaining.

He has written what I consider the definitive biography of Ben Hogan which was a total departure from his previous efforts. A real tour de force.

In this book, golfers and golfing are hardly mentioned. This book is about gardeners and gardening. Is it ever.

A transplanted son of the "mid-south", Dobson and his family live now in Maine. A place where gardening does not come easy. Much of one's time, if they live in Maine and garden is planning for those few months where the climate is hospitable to plant life. The rest of the time, Mother Nature does her best to make life miserable for growing things and the people who care for them.

I did not buy this book. My wife did. However, before she was ready to read it, I spotted it, noted the name of the author, wondered if there were two James Dodson's, determined that the one I was familiar with was one and the same with this author and started to read.

It is perfectly logical that my wife would buy the book. She is a gardener, both flower and vegetable. She has lovely gardens and I enjoy admiring them, photographing them and keeping the lawns that surround them looking neat and trimmed. However, as I told her many years ago, "I don't weed." So, for me to start reading a book about the subject was unlikely. And I can assure you that if Dodson was not the author I would not have.

I was not long into the book before he had me hooked as he laid out his passion for gardening and related it to so many aspects of the gardening world and it's people. He even reintroduced me to an old friend I have not seen in a very long time - a lady by the name of Polly Logan. What a special treat THAT was.

As I closed the covers on the book, I was not invigorated to start turing over the earth and setting out a garden of my own. I did have a new appreciation of those who do and I enjoyed the travels that Dodson took the reader on to many of the pantheons of gardening around the world.

It truly is a beautiful madness and we are all enriched because of it.

A Treat for Gardeners.......2006-03-18

From the knowledgeable plant growers to the every day gardeners, the encounters Dodson writes about are most interesting and informative. I especially enjoyed the behind the scenes of the Philadelphia Flower Show and his return visit there the next year. His expedition to Africa opened my eyes to the flowers growing there, the trees, animals and customs of the county. A must read for all who enjoy gardening where ever you live. I did not want it to end.

Average customer rating:

Simply, the best
One Man's Garden
Gardening essays to beat the winter blahs....
This book is a delight

One Man's Garden
Henry Mitchell
Manufacturer: Houghton Mifflin
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Essays | Gardening & Horticulture | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books

General | Gardening & Horticulture | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 0395957699

Amazon.com

Mitchell is a miracle in the world of garden writing, where so much careful prose instructs with patronizing intent. Henry Mitchell blazes, bullies, roars, then whispers, awed by the beauty he enables us to see through his eyes. This is a man who once took two weeks off from work so that he could watch his iris bloom. Here his failures and foibles are cataloged along with his triumphant successes. He grew water lilies from seed, achieving a single plant instead of the expected 50, but as he admits, 50 would really have been a bit much, while one seedling water lily became a source of considerable delight to the proud parent. To prevent heat stroke in water-lily season (Washington, D.C., summers are fierce), he cooled off by eating iced Walla Walla onion sandwiches as he gazed at the flowers for two or three minutes at a stretch before the intense heat won out. Quirky, funny, wise, and impassioned, this book is a lasting treat, the kind that rewards each year's rereading with fresh insights and heartfelt laughter.

Book Description

In the sequel to The Essential Earthman, the Washington Post columnist offers a harvest of sharp observations and humorous adventures gathered during a year in his garden, along with much down-to-earth advice on horticulture.

Customer Reviews:

Simply, the best.......2007-01-21

This collection of Henry Mitchell's essays, mostly from his Washington Post gardening column, should stand as an example of how to write. Mr. Mitchell wrote as he spoke; simply, but eloquently and with a wink. His wry sense of humor and disdain for posturing are evident throughout his work. I believe his essay on sunflowers to be the most enjoyable piece of garden writing in existence.

One Man's Garden.......2007-01-10

I ordered "Any Day". You sent me "One Man's Garden" which I already own. So, I sent it back and you charged me for the shipping as you claimed I had ordered it. "One Man's Garden" is a wonderful book and would really have liked to have added "Any Day" by Henry Mitchell to my Collection.

Gardening essays to beat the winter blahs...........2001-01-22

Okay, it's the middle of winter, Christmas is past, and now is the time to break out the gardening catalogs and begin plotting the new growing year. According to Henry Mitchell, we can enjoy the garden year-round if we plan strategically and the middle of winter is a good time to begin.

Mr. Mitchell wrote two weekly columns for the Washington Post for a number of years--one of them a garden column I never missed reading. His garden columns have been preserved in several books. ONE MAN'S GARDEN follows his first book THE ESSENTIAL EARTHMAN which spread his well-earned reputation as a garden guru far beyond the Post market area. These two books were published while he was alive so one must assume they were collections of his favorite essays. The essays are arranged by season and correspond to the months he wrote them.

Mitchell can be read by gardeners living anywhere. Although his essays contain information helpful to those working in Zone 7, the reader can glean sage advice applicable anywhere. He shares anecdotes about his experiences in his own backyard, and while that might seem far from novel as every other Tom, Dick, and Henrietta is writing a garden book these days, his essays are the best. His writing is funny, philosophical, useful, and a joy to read, especially on a cold winter day when you need to be reminded of irridescent dragonflies hovering over lily ponds (former horse troughs).

In his essay on dragonfiles (July) he informs us they require lily pads for landing, they can't just plop on the water like a pelican. This little item helped me understand I needed to do more to make my back yard friendly to butterflies, dragon flies, and their insect kin. I now have shallow spots in my birdbaths where they can dip their tiny feet.

Mr. Mitchell shares all sorts of interesting insights from his adventures with clinging vines--planting them where they will not grow, growing native variants such as the American Wisteria. The American Wisteria is often overlooked by those who grow the "Oriental" kind from China which Mitchell says if left untended can form a 20-foot clump in the middle of your yard. The Chinese Wisteria is very ornate, and the U.S. Park Service has planted it all over the National Gallery of Art on the Mall, but the American Wisteria is a pretty little thing better suited for the back yard. Mitchell says you can see this Wisteria in bloom at the Henry Botanical Foundation in Philadelphia.

Mitchell's essays range far and near, from Jefferson at Monticello to flower shows in faraway places. He writes in December of bananas, not a local plant in Zone 7 by any means, but one Mitchell considered a "great good plant" nevertheless and he grows one in his back yard in a pot. Although MItchell died several years ago, his essays are every bit as timely useful and funny as ever, and not to be missed.

This book is a delight.......2000-01-18

This book is a delight and a pleasure to read aloud. The author has helped us focus on spring planting even though the wind chill factor has been -35 degrees most of the weekend. One Man's Garden helps "cure" the cabin fever that rages at this time of year in the northeast. Well worth the money it's a refreshing window into the love of gardening.

The Beast in the Garden: A Modern Parable of Man and Nature

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Beast in the Garden Review
Beast in the Garden
I loved this book.
The Beast is Brilliant
A Cautionary Tale for Garden Dwellers

The Beast in the Garden: A Modern Parable of Man and Nature
David Baron
Manufacturer: W. W. Norton & Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Animal Rights | Nature & Ecology | Science | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0393058077

Book Description

The true tale of an edenic Rocky Mountain town and what transpired when a predatory species returned to its ancestral home.

When, in the late 1980s, residents of Boulder, Colorado, suddenly began to see mountain lions in their yards, it became clear that the cats had repopulated the land after decades of persecution. Here, in a riveting environmental fable that recalls Peter Benchley's thriller Jaws, journalist David Baron traces the history of the mountain lion and chronicles Boulder's effort to coexist with its new neighbors. A parable for our times, The Beast in the Garden is a scientific detective story and a real-life drama, a tragic tale of the struggle between two highly evolved predators: man and beast. 3 illustrations, 2 maps.

Customer Reviews:

Beast in the Garden Review.......2007-09-19

Extremely well written. I've recommended this book to all my friends and family.. not only is it intriguing and interesting, but its also incredibly informative. It opens your eyes to issues that you probably have not ever thought of. I'd give this book 10 stars if I could.

Beast in the Garden.......2007-06-27

I read this book because a friend at work had it.
I bought two copies from Amazon after reading it: one for me, and one for a friend researching/photographing mountain lions in South Dakota. I've already loaned out my copy to another friend who lives in Colorado and Nebraska and he said he remembers when the Idaho Springs incident happened.
This book is well written and does read like a detective story - but the reality is chilling. I couldn't stop reading it. I can't wait to read it again.
Thanks to Mr. Baron for such excellent work.
Tim Reigert

I loved this book........2007-03-08

"Beast in the Garden" was an extremely interesting book. It was full of facts and entertaining, although although a bit disturbing, at the same time. I live in an area where there are bears in many back yards and this book really takes a very informed look into the suburban/wildlife dynamic. I would definitely recommend it. My daughter is reading it now.

The Beast is Brilliant.......2007-01-09

This is a simply brilliant exposition of the Boulder that I grew up in. Baron examines the situation well and pays attention to the wildlife issues that were relevant at the time and are still relevant now. A few historical problems do come up, but they are merely anecdotal and hardly detract from the story.

Two things really make this a great book:
-if you're from Boulder or the Front Range, you'll be saying "Oh, I've been there" or "Hey, I know that guy" throughout the whole book.
-this book is action-packed. If they could make a movie out of it, they should.

Most of all, Baron pays attention to the characters and really goes in depth with who they are. I'm mostly interested in wildlife, however I found his portrayal of the people the most exciting.

A Cautionary Tale for Garden Dwellers.......2006-11-03

A fitness freak teenager, Scott Lancaster, skips his lunch period to run - his track a mountain trail just upslope from his Idaho Springs, Colorado, high school. The track lies within a few hundred yards of I-70, not far from Colorado's gambling towns, Central City and Black Hawk, about 40 miles west of Denver. Not unusual behavior for a youngster who often cut classes to go running.

But Scott Lancaster did not come back to school or to home. Two days later, a search team including many of Scott's fellow students, about ready to give up looking, found his brutally assaulted body in heavy underbrush, just off his trail.

A Beast in the Garden killed Scott.

The book tells the tale in a readable way. How the Garden came to be. How the wilderness areas at the edge of human development along the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains were set aside as nature preserves in which the Beasts could live undisturbed. How the Beasts' natural predators were driven off. How the Beasts adapted to co-existence with the humans at the edges of the Garden. How the Beasts were seen moving further and further into developed areas like Boulder and Idaho Springs. How the Beasts showed their killer instinct with dogs and cats and sheep and other smaller animals. How the Beasts changed their ways, hunting in broad daylight, killing animals people said it feared. How the Beasts repeatedly attacked humans, even though it was said they would not. How a Beast treed Lynda Walters. How Andy Peterson saved himself by gouging out another Beast's eye. How a Beast killed Scott.

The Beasts in the Garden were mountain lions.

The book is the story of a killing and the hunt for the killer. It is also a story of a young naturalist, Michael Sanders, then of the Boulder County Parks and Open Space District, helping humans learn to live with the raccoons and other small invaders from the Garden. Mountain lion sightings piqued Sanders' fascination for big animals. Sanders and others began to build a systematic knowledge base of verified mountain lion sightings. They showed how the population of mountain lions appeared to be growing. How the sightings were of behaviors that proved more and more dangerous to domestic animals, even to humans. How Sanders warned that mountain lions posed significant danger - and was often ignored.

Finally, the book is a study in eco-sociology. Of the forces that created and still maintain the Garden as a preserve for wilderness creatures. Of the conflicting values of those living on the edge of the Garden, those who would remove mountain lions from the Garden, those whose saw humans as the intruders onto the mountain lions' natural home. It is a story that pits neighbor against neighbor. More instructively, it pits Sanders and his friends against the State and Federal park and wilderness managers. It pits emerging reality against common wisdom.

David Baron is a reporter on science and the environment for National Public Radio who first became interested in the behavior of mountain lions in developed areas while doing a 1996 story on a hiker who was killed by a mountain lion near Auburn, CA. His interest took him to the Garden that is the wilderness near Boulder and to Scott Lancaster's and Michael Sanders' stories. Beast in the Garden is a very good read, a well-written mystery that would be thoroughly satisfying were it not for the macabre reality.

The reality is not unique to Colorado's Front Range. My local newspaper has reported many sightings in the town north of my community, sightings and attacks on sheep, goats, and other small animals. A cashier at the local supermarket lost her dog to a mountain lion that is a frequent visitor in the community 15 miles south of mine. A nearby vineyard owner reports a female that has given birth to twin kits annually for several years. The regional paper has reported mountain lion sightings in urban areas, one just a few blocks from the county's community college. On a recent ten-day swing through the Pacific Northwest, there were reports of mountain lion sightings in developed areas in the Tacoma News Tribune, the Vancouver Sun, the Lewiston, Idaho, Tribune, and the Portland Oregonian.

So reality reminds us that my community, a former sheep ranch of about 3000 acres that has been developed with 2300 properties and more than 1500 acres of common land - forests and meadows - is a Garden, too. We, too, are seeing mountain lions. Not just in the forests, but in our meadows, close to the trails along the ocean bluff. Deer kills are reported routinely. We, too, have lost some of the sheep we keep to reduce fire risk, and there are musings about pets that have gone missing. No attacks on humans - yet.

The lessons in Beast in the Garden do not stop at the Front Range; they are applicable in my community - and maybe yours.

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A former customer of Jeff Bale...
A Man's Garden

A Man's Garden
Warren Schultz
Manufacturer: Houghton Mifflin
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Essays | Gardening & Horticulture | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books

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Garden Railroading: Getting Started in the Hobby

ASIN: 0618003924

Amazon.com

Right from its jacket image, which cribs shamelessly from the famous album-sleeve cover shot for Bruce Springsteen's virile classic Born in the U.S.A., A Man's Garden wants to let you know without question that it's aimed at REAL GUYS. It's evident in nearly every line of copy profiling 14 men around the country who keep king-size, unconventional, or otherwise extraordinary gardens, from this opener: "When you come upon the four massive Corinthian columns ... you know this is a man's garden" (why?) to ridiculous flourishes of rhetoric such as, "Ask a man why he gardens, why he feels compelled to push the earth around and wrestle crops from it." This overcompensation is all the funnier in light of double-entendres like the one directed (winkingly or not) at Manhattan-art-gallery-manager-turned-Connecticut-gardener Tim Mayhew, who, according to author Warren Schultz, "has given plenty of thought to men in the garden."

Maybe this hypermasculinization of gardening was just a new angle to market a very pleasurable coffee-table book filled with lovely color photographs of 14 completely enchanting gardens--because that's exactly what this book is, and frankly, it doesn't matter whether they were cultivated by men, women, or hermaphrodites. There's nothing inherently manly or womanly about Pearl Fryar's fabulously surreal and almost erotically suggestive topiary in Bishopville, South Carolina, or the way the above-mentioned Mayhew drags no end of crumbling old statuary and curiosities into his lush verdure to create a kind of uniquely American ruins. Nor is there anything gender-specific about lawyer-cum-weekend-farmer Robert Kaufman's robust vegetable garden, which runneth over with 200 colorful and semirare varieties, or the Willie Wonka junkyard garden Felder Rushing has built up around his Jackson, Mississippi, home, complete with walkways embedded with Mardi Gras beads, whole "trees" of cobalt-blue pop bottles, and giant jack-o'-lanterns cut out of old tires painted bright orange. There's nothing particularly "American Joe" about the exquisite meditation garden Jeffrey Bale has nurtured on a tiny lot in a rundown part of Portland, Oregon, with its lush rhododendrons, potted bamboos, and Far East statuary, nor about David Alford's Blue Lake Ranch in Durango, Colorado, surrounded by a homegrown prairie exploding with the infinite color of irises, peonies, petunias, echinacea, rudbeckia, and calendula.

A Man's Garden isn't even a hardcore how-to so much as a handsome invitation to botanical reverie and inspiration (though utilitarians can suss out plenty of practical gardening wisdom along the way). So much for the "real-guy" angle. But then again, we all know books like this are meant to be bought by women as presents for their fathers, sons, or husbands--and that any man actually buying this book is probably buying it for his husband, too. --Timothy Murphy

Book Description

"I'm tired of being told that gardening is women's work," writes author Warren Schultz. "I don't like the way my buddies roll their eyes when I tell tham I'd rather weed a border than watch a hockey game between Saskatoon and Moose Jaw, but there's no shame in being a gardening man. Farmers? Men. Landscape architects? Men. Golf-course greenskeepers? Men. Plant breeders? Men."
Do men have a different style of gardening from women? You bet your last six-pack they do. In fact, there are several archetypal styles. Some men's gardens are playful, others competitive; some are places to fool with tools, others to play with toys. Men like large plants and bright colors. The big straight-row vegetable garden is classically a man's territory, where he can fulfill the need to provide for his family. As Schultz says, "A guy likes to make a splash with his garden." His pumpkins will be the biggest (Howard Dill); his perennial border the longest (John Craighead) And who but a man (Ralph Velez) would plant 483 palm trees on a 60-by-150-foot corner lot?
For the man who wonders whether he too might enjoy gardening, this book offers portraits of fifteen men who garden in different ways and for different reasons. By no means all macho men, they approach their gardens from various points of view, including those of the scientist, the colorist, the folk artist, and the New Age meditator. For all of them, gardening has filled an important niche in their lives.
Schultz points out that even today, the interior of a house is likely to be a woman's domain, but outdoors a man can decide what to plant around the deck and how short to prune the flowering shrubs. He can plant trees and carve beds; in short, he can make the garden his own outdoor room.

Customer Reviews:

A former customer of Jeff Bale..........2007-07-23

If Jeff Bale is featured in this book, I applaud the author for highlighting Mr. Bale's work.
We hired Jeff to create a backyard experience featuring a stone firepit which is fabulous.
He also crafted a beautiful pergola to showcase a large whisteria plant
that had grown into a heaping mound. The pillars were set in wood and nicely designed.
The base is lined with a narrow stone path on the ground intorducing the arbor.
This stone outline that travels the width of the entire framed arbor.
It was also designed with one step lifting on to a flat bed garden
and highlights two sections of white impatiens to showcase our pool.

A couple of years after Jeff architected our new landscape design,
we had a scout from Better Homes and Garden ask if they
could feature our yard in their magazine.
Jeff's work is timeless and incredibly creative!

A Man's Garden.......2001-05-16

My male friends (plutonic or not) have always been a bit amused of my tireless quest for the "perfect" garden. They have always lent their support when my creations needed a bit of brawn in the form of starting a tiller or moving a stone. I am always tickled when they tried to hide their delight in watching the garden "become" something, or watching the kaleidoscope of color. My unscientific research reveals that finding peace & beauty in a garden conjurs up fears of being emasculted. This book confirms that men flourish in a garden. Gardens like art reflect the male personality, they can be strong or soothing. If it's true that best chef's are men... then'll I'm ready to meet my gardening match - OUTSIDE, after he sees this book.

The Landscape of Man: Shaping the Environment from Prehistory to the Present Day

Average customer rating:

Great Great book
It's All Here
Perfect to understand man's perception of the unbuilt
History in magnificent photographs - by the hundreds
An excellent start in the study of landscape architecture

The Landscape of Man: Shaping the Environment from Prehistory to the Present Day
Geoffrey Alan Jellicoe , and Susan Jellicoe
Manufacturer: Thames & Hudson
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Architecture | Professional & Technical | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0500278199

Customer Reviews:

Great Great book.......2007-06-17

The book is great, easy to understand and great images.

It's All Here.......2005-12-01

Beautiful gardens and parks don't simply settle themselves on a site. They are planned, developed and planted by caring human beings. Those of us who are amateur gardeners and landscapers are influenced by the great public gardens and parks of the world. And the public gardens and parks didn't just appear out of thin air. All of what we find beautiful was influenced by something older or from somewhere else. And this wonderful book takes us back in time and on the highways and byways to times and places where man first came upon natural sites and imagined the possibility of recreating at least the impression of what his eye beheld.

This beautiful volume with its fine black and white photographs and drawings makes everything seem simple. It takes us down two main roads, the formal and informal. What could be more basic? Yet over half a century or more of shaping the land around half a dozen houses and reading dozens of books, some very useful and beautiful, I do not recall seeing an explanation of how these two main roads came to be trod. But in The Landscape of Man, it is all here from the beginning, from the time when farmers gathered on the banks of the Tigris and the Euphrates gazed upon the fields spreading before them and other such early independent beginnings.

We are the descendants of those who sought beauty and consolation in gardens large and small in the great civilizations of the past. Each of these, over great time frames, came to influence and cross pollinate with one another. And the Jellicoes trace all of these rivulets and streams from their headwaters down to the well established gardens of the world to which we are heirs. The writing is simple and direct, the photos illuminate their points, and their site drawings are clear and useful.

This is a book for gardeners to enjoy over the winter so that they may dream about how they might shape their little spaces and understand a little more of the shoulders on which we all stand as we place our first trees and shrubs in the bare ground before us. It is a great book, and I recommend it not just for professionals but for those whose gardens lie far in the future. It is the best book I have ever come across in explaining the history and possibilities of landscaping.

I have owned my copy for years. Hundreds of sentences are highlighted and notes fill the margins. I should have reviewed this fine work many years ago.

Perfect to understand man's perception of the unbuilt.......2004-06-01

This book as a classic. It is not only for those who want to study our changing perceptions of our landscape and our moves to define it over the past few millennia, but also to architects who build 'buildings'. This tome takes us through man's history, and outlines our aesthetic evolution with our landscape as a changing canvas that represent our different social conditions. A must-have if you are a student, an architect, or just a person who wants to see how we became what we are!

History in magnificent photographs - by the hundreds.......2002-12-10

The original edition, hardcover with beautiful dust jacket, was printed in 1975 in England. It is one of my favorite all-time photo books, since in includes shots of Borobudur, the Ziggurat, the Red Fort in Delhi, Angkor Wat, Ctesiphon in Iraq - lots of photos hard to find even on the net. History all the way to the opera house in Sydney. A most fascinating book. Large: 9 1/4 x 11 3/4, 383 pages, a sound minimal text with each plate numbered and easily referenced - to me this is one of the great books. Everyone who has travelled, or who wants to travel, will enjoy this tremendously. (Many of the areas shown are difficult and often dangerous to visit, now.) Try it. You'll like it.

An excellent start in the study of landscape architecture.......2000-04-28

This volume should be among the first 5 books anyone interested in the history of landscape must buy, no wonder it's included in the academic readings in many fine schools. The B&W photographs are remarkable, and it's filled with plans and diagrams from all over the world. In the last revised edition, covers the actual trends in landscape architecture, as well as asian and pre-columbian cultures. As an architect starting out in this field of study, I found it very helpful, and I'm sure others will!

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