Tag Archives: Gardens

2024 Adult Reading Challenge! May

Adults! Welcome to year 3 of our year-long reading challenge. Explore different genres, discover new authors and be entered to win prizes. To complete the challenge, read just one book in each category by midnight on December 31st, 2024. Earn bigger prizes by reading more!

To register, or to sign in, please click here.

May’s genre is Flower Power – focus on books about gardening or with garden themes. Here are a few suggestions to get you started.

FLOWERS AND FOUL PLAY by Amanda Flower

“The well-constructed plot, seasoned with humor, builds slowly toward a surprising conclusion. Cozy fans will look forward to Fiona’s further adventures.” ~Publishers Weekly

For more information, or to place a hold, please click here.

THE CREATIVE VEGETABLE GARDENER : 60 WAYS TO CULTIVATE JOY, PLAYFULNESS, AND BEAUTY ALONG WITH A BOUNTY OF FOOD by Kelly Smith Trimble

“Experienced vegetable gardeners, as well as those considering growing a garden for the first time, will relish this informative, charming book, enhanced by the many lovely color photographs of gardens and plants. It simply brims with creative ideas for planning and growing a thriving vegetable garden.” ~Library Journal

For more information, or to place a hold, please click here.

A BOTANIST’S GUIDE TO PARTIES AND POISONS by Kate Khavari

“An exciting debut with a determined protagonist whose future is sure to contain romance and mystery. ” ~Kirkus

For more information, or to place a hold, please click here.

THE LAST GARDEN IN ENGLAND by Julia Kelly

“A country house in rural Warwickshire is the scene for Kelly’s (Whispers of War, 2020) touching, immersive read with definite appeal for aficionados of Downton Abbey and Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows’ The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society (2008).” ~Booklist

For more information, or to place a hold, please click here.

The Savage Garden

Title: The Savage Garden

Author: Mark Mills

Summary: The Savage Garden, written by Mark Mills, is the story of two murders, committed 400 years apart, and the attempt to solve the mystery of both crimes.

It’s 1958 and Adam Strickland, Cambridge undergraduate, has just been dumped by his girlfriend. When he is offered the opportunity to study a Tuscan Renaissance garden for his art history thesis, he accepts the offer. The garden was built in 1577 as a memorial to the villa owner’s wife Flora, who died at a very young age. During his research, Adam begins to see the garden’s statues and inscriptions as clues to Flora’s murder, not as a memorial to her death.

As Adam deciphers the clues in the garden, he begins to suspect that the more recent murder-that of the current villa owner’s son, may not be as clear cut as everyone thinks. Signora Docci’s son, Emilio, was shot and killed by Nazi officers on the third floor of the villa and the area has been sealed off ever since. Though everyone is excited about the revelation of Flora’s murder, Adam finds himself in danger when he begins to question the events surrounding Emilio’s death.

Recommended by: Sue, Circulation Coordinator