Hi Ingrid, Here are some of the books I've found very helpful and enjoyable. I'm posting the front and back covers of each. They're all different but still handy to have for various purposes. I bought them all in the garden shop of Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden (which is conveniently quite close to where I live and within walking distance if I'm feeling adventurous and don't intend to buy any plants!). Bart O'brien who co-authored all 3 has long been on staff at RSABG and is a noted authority on California native plants, including one of my favs Rosa minutifolia. Carol Bornstein was the Director of Horticulture at the Santa Barbara Botanic Garden. She's a great advocate for locally appropriate plants, and champions one I'm still having trouble finding, the lovely grass, Bothriochloa barbinodis (Silver Beadgrass). David Fross is the founder of Native Sons Wholesale Nursery a source for many of the companion plants I've selected to grow with my roses. Btw, David Fross introduced a cultivar of a Calfornia native rose--Rosa californica 'Los Berros' (and yes I have it!). From From Gardening Books This one is arranged like an encyclopedia (by scientific names but with common names provided too, plus there's an index), showing many CA native plants in gardens or their natural environment. For each plant there is standard information provided such as what kind of plant it is, where it grows, light, soil, and water preferences, etc. Here's an excerpt from page 102 that describes California buckwheat: "Eriogonum fasciculatum California Buckwheat Plant type: Evergreen shrub. Geographic Zones: All except high mountains. Light: Sun to partial shade. Soil: Adaptable; well-drained preferred. Water: Drought tolerant to occasional. Natural Habitat and Range: Dry slopes and canyons in coastal scrub, chaparral, desert woodland, and desert scrub below 8000 feet; Alameda County south to northwestern Baja California and east to southwestern Utah and Arizona." Then there is a color photo of the plant along with information about the location of the photo, followed by 5 paragraphs of detailed notes, including multiple named cultivars. And that is the basic format for the whole book, with the amount of notes varying from plant to plant. There are in addition some excellent appendices that list places to see native plants growing as well as where to buy them. I consult this book all the time when considering what to add or not to add to my garden. It has saved me a lot of grief! 271 pages. From Gardening Books From Gardening Books This one has all sorts of handy data. There's a great plant list where the plants are grouped by form--trees, small trees/large shrubs, shrubs, sub-shrubs/perennials, vines, groundcovers, and cacti/succulents and arranged by watering needs--very low, low, medium, and high. There are sections on soil (including a neat quick test and table for determining the soil type in your garden), watering, climate, planting, care, pests, weeds, etc. 238 pages. From Gardening Books From Gardening Books This book is packed full of suggestions for replacing the traditional lawn and how to go about it. It is loaded with color pictures of examples of various options. Lawn replacements that this book covers include: greenswards, meadows, rock gardens, succulent gardens, carpet and tapestry gardens, kitchen gardens, green roofs. There is also an encyclopedia (like the one in California Native Plants for the Garden) of plants for those recommended. 154 pages. Melissa

Well, I also won a "completely restored" John Deere lawn tractor from the local Old Engine club a couple of years ago. It ran for about 15 minutes then blew up. LOL And now, the real prize. Elery and I went to a Taste of Home Cooking Show, he got tickets as a gift from his sister. One of the sponsors was a woman's shelter and a local builder donated a $1,500 island, beautiful handmade cabinetry with some kind of composite counter top that looks like granite. Raffle tickets were sold, proceeds went to the women's shelter. Elery bought 3 tickets, gave them to me. Yup, the island will be delivered to Elery's next week, we tried to sell it back to the builder because there's no place in either of our houses to install it. I think we've decided to keep it and put it into the new house when we build in a couple of years. It's a very, very nice prize but who the heck wins a kitchen island? Annie

Murder on the Orient Express, Agatha Christie (Too easy and obvious, maybe.)

Nope, Kathy, you're not the only one who gets lost in long paragraphs! I don't know if you have tried to read Austerlitz by W. G. Sebald, but, if not, be warned: it only has ONE paragraph in 298 pages (paperback edition), interspersed with occasional photographs. If the photos weren't there, I would probably have given up. Not only is there only one paragraph, a single sentence might take up a whole page or more. Sebald wrote in German and very long sentences are a characteristic of the German language. (It goes with their super-agglutinated words.) The translator was faithful to Sebald's German style, as much as she could be and still make it comprehensible in English. Mark Twain wrote the best spoof of reading German. He said something like: You have to read ten pages before you get to a verb. Austerlitz is actually a very affecting story if the reader can keep track of where she is in it, so I'm not disparaging the story itself or the German style, really. I'm just noting its difficulty for many English-speaking readers.