the sharp, chemical smell was nothing like the hazy syrup of my dreams; the two were as different as indian and carolina jasmine, separation and attachment. I wanted her to be tough, distrustful, and full of anger: all characteristics that would be true to her his- tory of being abandoned at birth and never knowing love. So much fun to look through and see what sending a beloved flowers back in Victorian times meant much more than "I care about you. The novel was inspired by a flower dictionary, a type of Victorian-era book which defines what different types of flowers mean.

Laurie’s hasty decision not to tell Sarah is the second painful missed opportunity (after not getting off the bus), but Sarah’s happiness is so important to Laurie that she dedicates ample energy into retraining her heart not to love Jack. Gives a full overview of the topic and a comparison of the meanings of flowers from a selection of language of flowers books in the RHS Lindley Libraries. A violent surfacing of adolescence (which has little in common with Tarkington's earlier, broadly comic, Seventeen) has a compulsive impact. The list of roses details forty different kinds and colours, for instance, each having its own specific meaning.He also visits a sympathetic English teacher after trying on a drunken session, and when he keeps his date with Phoebe, who turns up with her suitcase to join him on his flight, he heads home to a hospital siege.

But I did not expect the story to rely so heavily on flashbacks to Victoria's time on Elizabeth's vine-yard - which triggered her all-consuming obsession about the meaning each decorative plant used to have in European culture – that climax in revealing the outrageous reason for the planned adoption to go amiss Her actions made me really irrevocably hate Elizabeth. Instead of finding a job, Victoria spends the next several weeks growing flowers in makeshift planters and is eventually evicted for not paying rent.

Our resources are crucial for knowledge lovers everywhere—so if you find all these bits and bytes useful, please pitch in. I was prepared for this book to lose me completely because of high-brow, literaryness, and get too tangled up in a vine-like metaphor. In fact what we are privileged to read is a facsimile of a handmade dictionary of flowers and herbs.