The Secret Garden
by Frances Hodgson Burnett
Genre: Children’s Classic
Publisher: Kingfisher Publications
Publish Date: 2002 (orig 1911)
Format: Hardcover Illustrated | 384 pages
Ten year old Mary Lennox was not the most likeable child. After her parents died during a cholera outbreak in India, Mary was sent to live with a clergyman until a permanent home could be found for her. Most people found her to be quite disagreeable and she easily earned the nickname “Mistress Mary Quite Contrary” from the local children.
Mistress Mary, quite contrary, how does your garden grow? With silver bells, and cockle shells, and marigolds all in a row.
Eventually Mary is sent to Yorkshire, England, to live with her uncle. No one at the Yorkshire Manor has much time for her, so she is left to amuse herself. One of the servants tells Mary a story about a Secret Garden which was locked up and abandoned 10 years ago after the sudden death of her uncle’s wife.
With the help of Robin Redbreast, Mary locates the garden and the key to the gate. Later she shares her knowledge of the garden with Dickon, the maid’s brother, and her cousin, Colin, a frail boy who rarely ventures outside. Together they begin an amazing journey of discovery and restoration. Through their care and nurturing the garden returns to life and, with Dickon’s help, Mary and Colin transform into healthy, happy children.
This was my first reading of The Secret Garden. While I’ve been an avid reader all my life, somehow I missed reading this book as a child. I’ve always intended to read it, someday, but never did. My motivation was the read-a-long hosted by Sheila at BookJourney.
After finally reading the book, I realize why it is so beloved by so many people. While the book has many themes, motifs and symbols, at it’s core is a beautiful story about children and their natural love of nature and its healing powers. As the garden returned to life, the children grew happier and healthier. Humans have a connection to the land and the animal creatures. To deny it is unhealthy but to embrace it encourages growth and strength.
This is much more than a children’s story. There is a message here for adults too: Slow down, appreciate nature, go for a walk in the park, spend a little time in the garden with the plants and animals, it’s good for the soul. As an avid gardener I can attest to the therapeutic feeling of nurturing a garden and experiencing it coming to life, of watching a bird build a nest, the eggs hatching and then feeding the little ones.
It probably goes without saying that the robin was my favorite character. He was the first one to befriend Mary and encourage her to enter the garden. From my experience with birds, they are naturally cautious and keep their distance. If a bird takes a liking to someone, it must be a person he feels he can trust.
When the robin meets Dickon, his presence in the garden didn’t disturb the bird at all, not even when he had a nest and eggs to look after, because Dickon understood feathered speech and could talk to the Robin. Dickon was a magical presence, he could communicate with all the birds and other small creatures like the rabbits and squirrels. The portions of the story that took place in the garden were like a fairy tale. Other times the book read like a literary novel.
There is something here for everyone, young or old. Anyone who already knows the joy of the garden returning to life in the spring will be delighted as the children experience each new day. If you haven’t read this yet, what are you waiting for?
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A few notes:
The photos are my own garden. Already this year I have blooming flowers, budding vegetables, baby bunnies, baby squirrels and too many birds to count. Robin Redbreast in The Secret Garden is a European Robin. The photo here is an American Robin, the type seen in my yard. Similar name, entirely different birds.
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Source: Public Library
Available as a free download from Project Gutenberg.
© 2012 Under My Apple Tree. All rights reserved.
Almost wordless: While out looking for birds I found a Painted Turtle, the Illinois State Reptile, sunning himself in the pond.
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More Wordless Wednesday. © 2012 Under My Apple Tree. All rights reserved.
Mailbox Monday
Mailbox Monday was created by The Printed Page. It is the gathering place for readers to share the books that came into their home last week.
Mailbox Monday is currently on tour, hosted by a different blog each month. The May host is Marthas’s Bookshelf.
From TOR Books:
Earth Unaware
by Orson Scott Card
Before Ender Wiggin was born, before the Battle School was built, the aliens brought war to Earth…
The mining ship El Cavador is far out from Earth, in the deeps of the Kuiper Belt, beyond Pluto. Other mining ships, and the families that live on them, are few and far between this far out. So when El Cavador’s telescopes pick up a fast-moving object coming in-system, it’s hard to know what to make of it. It’s massive and moving at a significant fraction of the speed of light.
Three audiobooks for review:
Stolen Prey
by John Sanford
An up-and-coming banker and his entire family are butchered in an affluent Saint Paul suburb. There were no witnesses, no fingerprints, no clues other than the scrawled-in-blood message, “We’re coming.” It doesn’t take long for Lucas Davenport to find that the banker wasn’t as clean as he seemed, and his killing is just the tip of an iceberg of greed and corruption.
The Storm
by Clive Cussler
In the middle of the Indian Ocean, a NUMA research vessel is taking water samples at sunset, when a crew member spots a sheen of black oil ahead of them. But it is not oil. Like a horde of army ants, a swarm of black particles suddenly attacks the ship, killing everyone aboard, while the ship itself goes up in flames. A few hours later, Kurt Austin and Joe Zavala are on their way to the Indian Ocean. more.
The Art of Intelligence
by Henry A. Crumpton
A legendary CIA spy and counterterrorism expert tells the spellbinding story of his high-risk, action-packed career while illustrating the growing importance of America’s intelligence officers and their secret missions. The Art of Intelligence draws from the full arc of Crumpton’s espionage and covert action exploits to explain what America’s spies do and why their service is more valuable than ever. more.
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It’s Monday! What Are You Reading?
It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? is hosted by Sheila at Book Journey.
Share what you read last week and what you are currently reading.
Not a lot of sit-down reading time this past week. I’m glad I discovered audiobooks. Now I can still listen to a couple of books a week even if I don’t have time to actually ‘read’ them.
I’m still gardening, digging and landscaping. I’ll take some pictures this week but it doesn’t look like much yet.
Finished Listening/Reading Last Week:
Finished up The Secret Garden. My review will be posted on May 31st as part of the read-a-long garden party.
Insurgent wasn’t as good as the first book, but maybe my expectations were too high. Tough Sh*t was surprisingly good and funny … not what I was expecting at all.
Reading/Listening This Week:
My name finally came up on the library list for The Lifeboat so I’ll be listening to it this week.
Not sure what I’ll read after I finish Taste of Tomorrow. It’s an interesting look at where the food industry is heading; not a fast read though.
What Are You Reading?
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© 2012 Under My Apple Tree. All rights reserved.
The European Starling is fairly common bird. They can be found pretty much everywhere across North America; in cities, parks and backyards. Most of the year, with the exception of the breeding season, they travel in large noisy flocks. When you see a large group of birds roosting on the utility wires, they are probably starlings.
A few days ago I heard chattering and squawking noises by the bird feeders. Apparently the Starling that had been hanging around all winter and sleeping in the roost box decided he liked the neighborhood enough to nest nearby. Where, I’m not sure, but close enough to bring the new family of six little ones by for a visit.
Dad is very busy feeding the babies
Males and females look alike. I assume it was dad because it’s usually the male that shows the youngsters where to find food. A second adult, presumably mom, showed up a few minutes later.
Gazing up at dad and the food
Fledglings check out the food on their own
Interesting Facts:
- Starlings are a non-native bird in North America first brought here by Shakespeare enthusiasts in the nineteenth century in an effort to introduce every bird species mentioned in Shakespeare’s works.
- The original 100 birds released in Central Park by the Shakespeare enthusiasts in the 1890s now number close to 200 million.
- Starlings are great vocal mimics: individuals can learn the calls of up to 20 different species.
- Starlings are strong fliers that can get up to speeds of 48 mph.
Saturday Snapshot is hosted by Alyce at At Home With Books. Visit her blog to see more great photos or add your own.
© 2012 Under My Apple Tree. All rights reserved.
The Shoemaker’s Wife
by Adriana Trigiani
Narrated by Annabella Sciorra and Adriana Trigiani
Genre: Historical Fiction
Publisher: HarperAudio
Publish Date: April 3, 2012
Format: Audio, 18 hours | 19 minutes
Audio Listening Level: Intermediate
Rating: 4½ of 5
“– a breathtaking multigenerational love story that spans two continents, two World Wars, and the quest of two star-crossed lovers to find each other again.”
It is the early 1900s. Ciro and Enza are teenagers when they first meet in a mountain village in the Alps of Northern Italy. Circumstances separate the two, but neither of them ever forgets the other. Eventually they both move to America. Although Enza and Ciro do not find each other until well into the story, the title gives you the foreshadowing necessary to know that it will eventually happen. However, by the time they meet Enza has established herself as superb dressmaker for the Metropolitan Opera and Ciro, who turns out to be quite the ladies man, is learning a trade as a Shoemaker.
The story is told from the alternating perspective of Ciro and Enza, a beautiful tale that is richly detailed and filled with Italian traditions, family and emotion. We experience life as an immigrant, feel the pain of being forced to leave the home you love, not knowing the language in a new country and enduring financial hardship.
The descriptions of the food were some of my favorite parts and made me hungry and longing for traditional Northern Italian food. My grandparents are from Tuscany and many of dishes described are meals they prepared for our gatherings. I now have a craving for Torrone, a treat I haven’t had in years!
I listened to audiobook and the 18 hours flew by. I put the book on my mp3 player and listened at every opportunity for three days, much of the time in the garden. There are two narrators. The first part, in Italy, is read by actress Annabella Sciorra and the remaining two-thirds in America is by the author herself. Dual readers were the author’s idea, with the intent of creating the concept of a radio play. While I found each vocalization to be well done, the switch in narrators was a bit jolting at first as the two readers have dramatically different styles. Annabella reads in a smooth, storytelling voice while Adriana is much more emotional, passionate, and involved in the story.
At the end of the book the author mentions that she used her own grandparent’s life story for the basis of the novel. They met in America, not Italy as Enza and Ciro, but her grandfather was a shoemaker and while her grandmother loved Caruso, the job as a seamstress is fiction. This lends a nice personal touch and air of authenticity.
My grandparents are also from Northern Italy and came to America shortly after the end of The Great War in search of work. They intended to earn some money and return home, but it didn’t work out that way. They stayed in America, raised a family and it wasn’t until 40 years later that they made a trip back for a visit. By that time many of their family in Italy were no longer alive. It wasn’t until I myself visited Tuscany that I realized the beauty of the land they left behind and what they gave up by staying in America. I could feel for Enza and her pain at leaving the mountain, at never seeing her family again.
This story is happy, sad, a big mix of emotion, and one I highly recommend. This is the first book I’ve read by Adriana Trigiani and it won’t be the last.
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Source: Review copy.
© 2012 Under My Apple Tree. All rights reserved.
The Year of The Gadfly
by Jennifer Miller
Genre: Mystery
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Publish Date: May 8, 2012
Format: Hardcopy | 374 pages
Rating: 4½ of 5
Mariana Academy, an east coast prep school with a gothic environment, is the setting of this well-constructed debut fiction by Jennifer Miller.
Iris Dupont’s parents and doctor feel a change of scenery is necessary and that Mariana Academy will provide the environment she needs to recover from the recent loss of her best friend. Instead she finds stressful surroundings in the form of bullying students and a mysterious secret society intent on exposing teachers, students, and the school for any indiscretion they can dig up. Iris, an aspiring journalist who’s mentor and frequent confidant is the great Edward R. Murrow, is determined to investigate this society and unravel the mystery.
The story is told from three different points of view, both past and present. Iris tells her story in the present. The second voice, from the past, is Lily, an albino girl who attended Mariana a decade ago. After leaving school it is rumored she is out of the county and has not been heard from again. Ironically, the home Iris and her parents are now renting is owned by Lily’s father, the former Mariana headmaster, and Iris has been given Lily’s old room. In it she finds a book, Marvelous Species: Investigating Earth’s Mysterious Biology, that will be significant in solving the mystery.
The third voice is Jonah Kaplan, a science teacher at Mariana and former student, who was in the same class as Lily. Jonah speaks in the present and occasionally flashes back to his time at Mariana. He has his own secrets to conceal and a twin brother that was Lily’s boyfriend who died in a car accident. Or was it a suicide?
I engaged in the story immediately. There were a lot of elements I liked: A bit of science (it’s ok if you are not a science-y type), a good mystery, Edward R. Murrow (even if he was in the form of an apparition), a secret society, or perhaps I just liked the characters. I especially enjoyed Iris’ witty conversations with Murrow as she conjured up his ghost to ask his advice. “What would Murrow do” became her mantra. When he began to appear without her summoning, I had to smile in delight.
While it seems like I’m describing a complex, wandering story with many directions, that definitely is not the case. Part of my pleasure while reading was discovering new bits and pieces of information about each character from each of their perspectives and putting it together. The story is tightly plotted with great dialog that moves easily between the speakers as their stories are woven together.
I’m not usually drawn to prep school type stories but this wasn’t a typical prep school tale nor is it aimed at the YA crowd, even though the main character is a teenager. I’m always a sucker for a well-drawn novel that alternates the past with the present and ties it all together in the end.
A Giveaway
Does this sound like a book you’d like to read?
I have a copy of The Year of the Gadfly to give away to one of my readers. Leave a comment by Sunday, June 3rd. The winner will be notified by email and will have 48 hours to respond with a mailing address, US/Canada only.
To read what other reviewers had to say, click HERE for the tour schedule and list of links. Some of them are also hosting a giveaway.
About the Author
JENNIFER MILLER, author of Inheriting the Holy Land: An American’s Search for Hope in the Middle East, holds an undergraduate degree from Brown and graduate degrees in journalism and fiction from Columbia. Her work has been published in the New York Times, Marie Claire, Men’s Health, the Christian Science Monitor, Salon.com, and others. She is a native of Washington, D.C. and lives in Brooklyn.
Connect with Jennifer: Website | Facebook | Twitter
Contest Closed
Winner: Serena of Saavy Verse & Wit
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Source: Review copy.
© 2012 Under My Apple Tree. All rights reserved.
Almost wordless: Imagine my surprise when I found a toad instead of a vegetable seedling. This was a few years ago, and ever since I’m cautious when I inspect the plants. No toads this year, only cucumbers.
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More Wordless Wednesday. © 2012 Under My Apple Tree. All rights reserved.
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