Themes : old fashioned garden to go with our Victorian house. Not a rose garden, but a garden with roses in it. Untidy, rampant, exuberant, volunteer flowers welcome, and messy. In this picture the roses are behind the wall, along with other things, and in front of the wall are ground covers, bulbs, and volunteers. Jackie

I read "Botany of Desire" last summer and found some parts fascinating (apples), and others drawn out & a bit boring (hemp). I learned a lot from it, and though I wouldn't recommend it to a general reading audience, if you are interested in learning about food and like physical science it will probably appeal. I read "Shanghai Girls" this summer and I really enjoyed it. I knew little about Chinese history and culture in the timeframe featured in the book, 1937-'53ish. I learned a lot and found the characters' stories compelling. I began Julia Child's "My Life In France" right before I was hit with an avalanche of stayover guests. Still hoping to finish it before I see "Julie & Julia." The movie might leave the theatres before I do, as more folks are coming for Labor Day weekend. DH & I both read "The Tender Bar" in July, and we both loved it. That was one from last summer's list.. Despite all the rain we had, this didn't turn out to be much of a "reading summer" for us.

Last night, I finally finished Old Filth. I hated to have to take a break from it, but there were book club books that needed to be read first (The Woman Who Walked Into Doors - Roddy Doyle, and Main Street by Sinclair Lewis). Thank you to everyone who recommended this book. Like WIG, I was shocked at the parents' treatment of the Raj orphans. We have but one childhood and it seemed such a sad way to spend it. Yes, cece, I did read Guernsey twice. Like you, I must have a copy. But it seems that my copy has been out to friends and family for the past month being loved and shared by all who pick it up. Siobhan, so sorry to hear about your full time job. I have my fingers crossed and wish you the best in your search for another. In the meantime, enjoy that tea and your books! I am quite envious. Please tell us what your are knitting, too! If memory serves, it was last year at about this time that we started a thread pertaining to our knitting projects. Perhaps we should do so again since this cold winter weather seems to make us all pick up our needles. I am now turning back to Main Street by Sinclair Lewis. Book club has come and gone. Although I gave it "the ol' college try", I failed to finish it in time for the meeting. I would like to finish it. However, the library just called... I have two books on hold. Decisions, decisions. HAPPY THANKSGIVING TO ALL OUR FRIENDS FROM THE USA, and to all of our friends from other nations, I give thanks for your friendship. PAM

Woodnymph, although I realize what Mangan was trying to do with her psychological thriller, Tangerine, I feel she was only partially successful. Like you, I enjoyed the setting and descriptions of Tangier especially. The part in Bennington, Vermont was not as interesting to me, but I suppose it was necessary to set up the dynamics of the relationship between Alice and Lucy and to a lesser extent the relationships of the women with John, Alice's husband. However, I think the characterizations were not well defined beyond Alice is weak and Lucy is bad; John seems barely drawn, in my opinion. That's the reason it is hard for readers (I'm one) to distinguish the women characters in the every-other chapter narration, which btw has become trite (it appears so often in today's novels that I'm tempted to impose a self-ban of reading any story told in that style). I've noticed in the past five years -- maybe as much as a decade -- crops of newer writers are trying to resurrect some of the older genres. Nothing wrong with that, because many of the old stories are fascinatingly atmospheric. Unfortunately, many of these writers don't have the skill to recapture the old style -- or even update it well. One example -- and Mangan is guilty, I think: Writers use opacity as a substitute for subtlety because they simply haven't worked out how to be subtle. Mangan's pastiche of Highsmith (I definitely see this influence) and maybe Tartt bear comparison. I don't know Gillian Flynn for anything but her Gone Girl which I didn't like, so I can't say about Flynn's and Mangan's styles being similar. As for a reviewer saying Mangan is a "literary descendant of Daphne du Maurier" - Ha! I've heard and read that as a lure for hopeful readers for going on sixty years now, and my mother says that particular come-on has been used since the 1930s. Hype is lazy, sometimes, and Mangan's Tangerine is as overhyped as any new thriller is nowadays.