"The Language of Flowers"--a book review

Last month our book club read The Language of Flowers by Vanessa Diffenbaugh. The book revolves around Victoria, who grew up in the foster care system, and what happens to her when she is emancipated at age eighteen. It is not so much about the foster care system but how Victoria's time in foster care affects her life choices. The story switches back and forth from present day to when she was 10 years old and living with Elizabeth, who wanted to adopt her. Elizabeth teaches her the language of flowers—the Victorian idea that each flower and plant represents an emotion or idea. This connection to flowers helps Victoria find her way in the real world.

The story is simple in some ways. There are a limited number of characters and a lot of foreshadowing. But in other ways, it is complicated. Because of Victoria's background, she doesn't react and behave as most people would expect. This creates suspense and anticipation in the novel.

What did my book club think about the novel? Everyone liked it. In fact one person said that it was the best book she had read in a long time. She considered it a page turner. But to be quite frank, I don't remember a lot of the discussion because 

I hadn't finished the book. Actually, I hadn't even started it. Therefore, I couldn't relate to most of what was said.

However now that I've read The Language Flowers, I will have to agree with the others. I liked the book. Not only did I like Victoria's story, I liked the backdrop of the plants that were discussed. And my club and I are not alone in our like for the book. It was on the New York Times best seller list and every major newspaper in the country gave it a favorable review.

My recommendation: Read it--especially if you like character driven books. However, if you only like non-stop action, robots, and blood and guts, don't look here.

But wait, there's more,

Diffenbaugh has actually had several foster kids and based much of what she wrote on things she learned during those experiences.

But wait, there's even more.
 I don't like book reviews that give away too much of the story, so I try not to do that. If you want to know more about this story, you can read about it here.

A Second Look--May 1, 2013

Here are a few of the things I found this week during a Second Look.

Dogwood

All of our dogwoods are white except this one.

Most of the daffodils have faded, but these white ones are still blooming.

The azaleas started to bloom this week.

This deer was munching on some day lilies.

It was raining while I did most of my walk this week as you can see by the raindrops on this violet.

It's hard to get a picture, but we have bluebird eggs in one of our boxes.

Being a grown up

Do you ever do something that you don't want to do because you have to be a grown up? It's the kind of thing you don't really like doing, but if you're going to be responsible, you should do. Well, I did that last night. I went to an estate planning seminar.

The seminar had been on the calendar for over a month so I really couldn't ignore it even though I wanted to. I scheduled another appointment before it secretly hoping that it might run over and Ward would have to attend by himself. No such luck. And even as much as I thought about dawdling on the way home from my other appointment, I couldn't do that in good conscious. So I went.

We spent 2 ½ hours learning about tax laws, wills, trusts and probate among other things. It was an informative presentation, however there were no breaks much to my disappointment. And the even bigger disappointment was the fact that there were no cookies for us—only water. :(

I'm proud of myself for doing the first thing on the grown-up list that we have made. There are too many things on it for me to look ahead much to see what else I have to do. One thing at a time. In the meantime, I am going to make sure that I have my own supply of cookies as a reward for the next thing I do.

Do you have a list of things that you've been meaning to get to? 

 

Our Trip and a Poem

Since April is National Poetry Month, I have been posting poems then and again. Today I am posting a poem about our trip to Boston this past weekend. We were visiting my sister-in-law and her family. She has been ill and we were hoping that this visit might buoy her spirits. I hope that it did that for her. I know it did for us.

 Our Trip

Trip: From Baltimore to Boston to Belmont

Belmont: Home to little sister, big nephew, and bigger dad

Dad: Showed movies, gave directions, and told stories

Stories: About big brother and little sister

Sister: Modeled black, green, and blue hats

Hats: Protected from sunshine at sheep festival

Festival: Amazing dogs, Morris dancing, and beautiful day

Day: Day turned to evening and grill cooked steaks

Steaks: Carnivores were happy

Happy: Everyone was happy with trip

Trip: From Belmont to Boston to Baltimore

Scenes from the Sheep Sheering Festival

Thankful Sunday, April 28, 2013

I am thankful for my living room rug.

Not only am I thankful that it is of good quality and the colors work well with the rest of the furnishings, I am thankful that it hides cat hair.