Gardening Books

Time-Saving Gardener: Tips and Essential Tasks, Season by Season by Carolyn Hutchinson. This book is for gardeners with only a few hours a week to spare, it is organized by season and task. It includes detailed instructions and illustrations, and an alphabetized directory of easy-care plants.

Front Yard Gardens: Growing More than Grass by Liz Primeau. Learn to plan, design and plant a mixed garden, consisting of flowering plants, shrubs and cacti. More than 200 color photographs are provided. Have a landscape that requires less watering and chemicals.

The Gardener’s Color Palette: Paint your Garden with 100 Extraordinary Flower Choices by Thomas Fischer. With 100 flower selections presented by color scheme, each entry in this book includes photographs and information on plant size at maturity, bloom time and hardiness zone. Recommendations are made on attractive pairings and controlling aggressive plants.

Starter Vegetable Gardens: 24 No-Fail Plans for Small Organic Gardens by Barbara Pleasant. Enjoy flavorful vegetables and save money when growing one of these gardens. The text includes information on plants and materials required, planting instructions, maintenance tips for the season, and more.

The Shadow of Your Smile

Here is another in a long line of light mystery/romance novels from writer Mary Higgins Clark. In this book, the potential announcement of a long-suppressed family secret threatens to disrupt two undertakings. One is the effort to achieve beatification for Sister Catherine, a now-deceased nun who possibly had brought about two medical miracles. Jeopardizing the success of this endeavor is the suspicion that Sister Catherine had given birth to a child out of wedlock in her youth; a child that subsequently was given up for adoption. The second undertaking is the survival of the Gannon Foundation, nearing bankruptcy because of mismanagement by greedy heirs. Pediatrician Monica Farrell unknowingly is involved with both of these situations. Is she also the granddaughter of Sister Catherine? The criminals eventually are exposed and romance is revealed. The plot moves along smoothly and the characters are likeable, except for the villains who are suitably corrupt.

The Three Weissmanns of Westport

Author Cathleen Schine presents what has been called the modern version of Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility. This novel depicts the lives of Betty, an elderly well-to-do woman and her two middle-aged daughters, Miranda and Annie. Reality takes a calamitous turn when Joseph, the husband and father, announces that he wants a divorce after almost fifty years of marriage. Of course, another woman is involved. Left homeless while divorce proceedings plod on, Betty accepts an invitation from a wealthy friend to stay at an available property that he owns in Westport, Connecticut. Her daughters decide that they will temporarily live with their mother until she has adjusted to her situation. Together again, life as they know it takes a turn both humorous and stressful.

Ms. Schine’s razor-sharp assessments of the various characters that the three women meet and socialize with, and her satirical views on modern-day society, are worth the price of admission to this complicated world.