February 2018 Book Report

As I mentioned in my recent Life Lately post, I signed up with NetGalley to read some pre-published books at the beginning of the month. Two of those books are on this list and I’ll note them in the summary. I’m in the middle of two others with a third on the back burner because it doesn’t expire until May.

+The Garden in Every Sense and Season by Tovah Martin: *NetGalley* If you are familiar with Tasha Tudor you may already know who Tovah Martin is as she wrote a couple of books about Tudor, the more known book being Tasha Tudor’s Garden. The Garden in Every Sense and Season is a series of essays surrounding the five senses in the garden during each season. The first couple of essays really stuck with me regarding the whirlwind of spring and I appreciated feeling that connection to my own feelings about gardening, especially when I’m in the midst of it right now. There’s a lot to do and not enough time to pack it all in before time slips away. As with many garden writers, they always seem to be northern gardeners, which can sometimes be hard to identify with when you live in the south. Reading the Winter section proved more difficult for me because I don’t have to deal with the trappings of snow.

Overall I enjoyed the series of essays and it will go well with other garden writers who have written similar books over the years. The photos are gorgeous, too, and I was very envious of the lush gardens she has!

+Backpack Explorer: On the Nature Trail by the Editors of Storey Publishing: *Net Galley* This feels a bit like cheating because it is a kids book, however I thought it was really cute and Forest even flipped through it with me. I think the age was for 4-6 or 7 and I would said 5 or 6 would be a better age for it to used interactively, such as with a nature journal. The younger readers would probably enjoy it just for looking at the pictures and learning with an adult. I will probably look for this to purchase for Forest later this year when the book is published because it is right up his alley!

+The Desire Map by Danielle LaPorte: I’ve listened to LaPorte on various podcasts throughout the years but I’ve never been able to buy into some of the woo surrounding her. That said, this book, both audio and digital versions, is free on her website right now so I downloaded it and listened to the audio portion. It is comprised of two volumes, the first a typical book that addresses how to create your core desires and working to create the action plan and the second volume an actual workbook for you to sit down and freeform write out all of the key items in your life. I’m still working on the workbook section and I’m doing that on the PDF. I don’t think I would have outright bought this unless it was reasonably priced—and free is beyond that! However, LaPorte is the narrator of the audio and she has an amazing voice and paired with some very mystical music, it makes for a lovely audio experience. Worth downloading if you are into brainstorming life goals and narrowing down your focus!

+The New Shade Garden: Creating a Lush Oasis in the Age of Climate Change by Ken Druse: A commenter on a blog keyed me into a super duper bargain for this book on Amazon…I think I bought it for a little over $5 with tax and this is normally a $40 coffee table book! It’s been on my list to read for several years now but was never any kind of priority read…but super cheap on Amazon moved it right on up to the top of the list. It’s a gorgeous book filled with all sorts of useful plants to add to a shade garden. Being as a lot of our garden is comprised of shade, one of my goals this year is to get more lower layers into the garden, more creeping or low lying groundcovers to fill out gaps. While this book would be slightly more helpful to those in the northeast or mid-Atlantic due to Druse living in that area, you can easily take suggestions from the book and find the analog for your region. I love this book and I’ll be pulling it to read out for years to come!

The other two NetGalley books I’m reading are Wildflowers of Texas by Michael Eason and The Landscapes of Anne of Green Gables by Catherine Reid. Both are fabulous and both I will have to purchase, especially the wildflower guide—it is the most comprehensive field guide for forbs I’ve seen for the state. Plants I’ve not been able to identify because I haven’t seen them in any guide or they are hard to figure out online—I’ve seen them in this book! I’m also listening to Delancey by Molly Wizenberg, which is so far fairly good but at the same time odd considering she’s no longer married to Brandon and has come out as bi-sexual and is with another partner. I mean, the latter part is not odd to me, just the fact that I’m sitting here in 2018 knowing that as she’s writing this six years ago or whatever and that she doesn’t know she’s not going to be married to Brandon. Anyway…interesting to read so far!

On another note, I was going through Feedburner the other day and noticed that Adventures Reads is my second most read blog post. Which is weird because I have no comments on it and I don’t know where I got all of those hits from—someone must have linked to me somewhere, I just have no idea where! It gave me the idea to do Adventure Reads Part II, so look for that soon!

What are you reading these days?