A Beginner’s Guide to Succulent Gardening: A Step-by Step Guide to Growing Beautiful & Long-Lasting Succulents by Taku Furuya

Guest reviewer Kevin Tipple is back with his review of a book on succulent gardening.  Check out his blog Kevin's Corner for more book reviews and book news, as well as links to topics of interest.

As we roll into spring, thoughts here in North Texas turn to planting as well as worries over baseball sized hail, tornadoes, and all matter of insect and bug many of which sting. Though the rains have been plentiful these last several months, drought is always a fear lurking just over the horizon. Cacti are always an answer to drought. Like cacti, though not thorny at all in many cases, are succulents. A solidly good resource on them is the new book from Tuttle Publishing, A Beginner’s Guide to Succulent Gardening: A Step-by Step Guide to Growing Beautiful & Long-Lasting Succulents by Taku Furuya.

The 100 page book is designed for the novice succulent gardener. It features twenty-one popular varieties with tons of information by way of color graphics of various types. Then there are the numerous pictures throughout the book showcasing various succulents and their possibilities.

After a little bit of general information including how to use the book, the book really gets going with opens with a section on “Spring/Fall Types” starting on page eight. In addition to the picture of the plants, there are several pages of information on how to pick a healthy one at the nursery, best soil, how to transplant from the store bought container, how to propagate (how to make more off that first plant), and various tips on growing them including a simple month by month chart. Along with pictures of the various versions of the particular type of succulent, there is clear and concise color coded information on when they flower, level of difficulty to grow, the origin of the plant, and more. Each section is setup the same way with a lot of information and plenty of pictures for the particular variety.

You may or may not know that cacti are a form of succulents. While you may think that Cacti always meant something with spikes or thorns, it does not always. In this case, most of the varieties depicted in these pages do not have spikes or thorns making them safe from children and pets. Obviously, you don’t want either one eating succulents, but you don’t have the thorn issue that you do with many cacti.

Though some do and if you have pets or children this is something to pay attention to so that one avoids injuries. The first selection in the Spring/Summer/Fall Types starting on Page 64 makes that very clear. “Moon Cactus” starts the section off and it should be a familiar one to anyone who spends time shopping towards Christmas as such items are always in the grocery stores. There is a lot of info including the fact that the native region for those is Japan. I now know my high school biology teacher was wrong about them and a certain test grade should be adjusted immediately. While many of the chosen varieties in the previous section did not have thorns or spikes, many in this section do and that may or may not be of concern depending on your personal environment.

Fall/Winter/Spring Types is the final section and starts on page 80. The very few listed here the more difficult ones to grow in the book. Nothing in this section is easy and all of them require significant amounts of care.

A Beginner’s Guide to Succulent Gardening: A Step-by Step Guide To Growing Beautiful & Long-Lasting Succulents by Taku Furuya closes with a couple of pages devoted to the growing fundamentals for all succulents, a glossary, and a short section how to combat diseases and pests.

This is a comprehensive book aimed at beginners that will also prove very helpful to experimental Gardner. Whether you want to grow just a couple inside the house or multiples ones outside in the yard, there are suggestions here for you. Something and quite possibly more than one will strike your fancy in the very good book, A Beginner’s Guide to Succulent Gardening: A Step-by Step Guide To Growing Beautiful & Long-Lasting Succulents by Taku Furuya.

A Beginner’s Guide to Succulent Gardening: A Step-by Step Guide to Growing Beautiful & Long-Lasting Succulents

Taku Furuya

Tuttle Publishing

http://www.tuttlepublishing.com

ISBN#978-0804851190

March 2019

Paperback

96 Pages

$14.99

Material supplied by Twyla Marr, Publicist, Tuttle Publishing with no expectation of a review. 

The Bristol Public Library does own a copy of this book.  Check the new nonfiction shelves to see if it's available!  If not, you can put it on reserve.

Kevin R. Tipple ©2019

Nevermore: An Elderly Lady Is Up To No Good, Ice Swimmer, Never Cry Wolf, Someone, Eternal Wonder, American Marriage

Reported by Ambrea

This week, Nevermore started their gathering with An Elderly Lady is up to No Good by Helene Tursten, translated by Marlene Delargy.  Thanks to a clause in a hastily negotiated contract, 88-year-old Maud has been living rent-free in her family’s apartment in Gothenburg and she spends her days traveling the world, surfing the net, and enjoying her solitary existence.  She likes living alone and, when problems arise, she doesn’t let a little thing like murder get in her way.  Our reader absolutely adored reading Tursten’s story collection.  She joked that she wanted to be like Maud.  “I don’t necessarily want to kill people,” she explained, “but, if I see a problem, I want to be able to solve it.”  She highly recommended An Elderly Lady is up to No Good, saying it was a treat to read.

Next, Nevermore checked out The Ice Swimmer, the sixth book in the Oslo Detective series by Kjell Ola Dahl.  When a dead man is found in the freezing waters of Oslo Harbor, Detective Lena Stigersand isn’t happy to add another weight to her already complicated life.  But, as she investigates what happened to the man discovered beneath the ice, she finds the murder may be linked to a conspiracy—that reaches deep into the heart of the Norwegian government.  Our reader enjoyed Dahl’s novel.  She told her fellow Nevermore members that she’s a very big fan of Nordic noir and The Ice Swimmer really fits the bill.  Well written but not especially gruesome, Dahl’s novel seemed to hit all the right notes.

Switching to nonfiction, Nevermore explored Never Cry Wolf:  Amazing True Story of Life Among Arctic Wolves by Farley Mowat.  When Farley Mowat was sent by the Canadian Wildlife Service to investigate why arctic wolves were killing caribou, he spends months living alongside these creatures, developing a deep affection for the wolves and a local tribe of Inuit people known as the Ihalmiut (or “People of the Deer”).  Our reader said Mowat’s book was absolutely wonderful.  She loved that the author personalized the wolves—that is, he let their personalities shine through.  She really liked his writing and she enjoyed learning more about wolves, the Inuit, and conservation efforts.  She highly recommended it to her fellow readers, especially those who are fans of Jane Goodall.

Nevermore returned to the realm of fiction with a look at Someone, a novel by Alice McDermott, which tells the story of Marie, an ordinary woman with an ordinary life—and takes a glimpse at how the ordinary can be truly beautiful.  Our reader, who absolutely loves Alice McDermott’s work, said she enjoyed Someone immensely.  Although it was only a look at the life of one ordinary woman, it felt like an epic story with its twists and turns going from Marie’s childhood to her marriage to the disruption of World War II.  “It was fascinating,” our reader gushed, to see how McDermott could take an average story and make it so beautiful, so vibrant and lovely.

Next, Nevermore shared The Eternal Wonder, a final novel by Pearl S. Buck published nearly forty years after her death.  Randolph Colfax (also known as Rann) is an extraordinarily gifted young man, a man with an eternal sense of wonder that leads him from his small town in Ohio to New York, England, Paris, and beyond.  When he meets the beautiful and equally brilliant Stephanie Kung, he finds himself falling for her, even as they both struggle to reconcile their identities within the world and find a sense of meaning.  Our reader, who has explored Buck’s novels in the past, said this latest story was interesting.  It felt like a bit of a departure from the author’s usual style; however, our reader said she liked The Eternal Wonder and definitely found it worth reading.

Last, Nevermore wrapped their meeting up with An American Marriage by Tayari Jones.  Celestial and Roy are young, newly married, and incredibly happy.  He is a young executive, while she is an artist on the brink of an exciting career; however, when Roy is charged with a crime he didn’t commit, they find themselves growing distant as they learn to lead very different lives.  Our reader said she loved reading An American Marriage.  The novel, she noted, felt intimate and moving, combining heartbreak and hope and insight into human foibles to create a story that was singularly extraordinary.  She loved it, and she highly recommended it to her fellow readers.

Gothic Suspense—Rebecca and My Cousin Rachel by Daphne du Maurier

Reviewed by Kristin

Rebecca has been one of my favorite novels since I was a teenager.  “Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again…” remains one of the most memorable first lines ever written.  When I graduated from the young adult series featuring Trixie Belden, Nancy Drew, and Cherry Ames up to the dusty aisles of adult fiction at my hometown library, I found Elisabeth Oglivie, Mary Stewart, Eugenia Price, and Daphne du Maurier.  Characters who were often moodily walking across bracken filled moors or strolling on sun-dappled beaches were appealing to the landlocked Midwesterner that I was.  I’m sure I didn’t know what a moor was (until I looked it up in the encyclopedia) but it seemed to be a fine place to take brisk walks with the wind whipping across my face.

Rebecca is perhaps the best known of du Maurier’s novels, selling almost 3 million copies in the first three decades after its 1938 publication.  The unnamed narrator is the second Mrs. de Winter, the first being Rebecca—the dead first wife whose presence overshadows the Manderley estate.  Maxim de Winter and his young second wife return home to Cornwall after meeting and marrying abroad in Monte Carlo.  The narrator is fearful of not living up to the elegance and sophistication of Rebecca, a fear strongly reinforced by housekeeper Mrs. Danvers.  Not surprisingly, not all is as it seems.  What kind of gothic suspense would this be if it was predictable?  Events unfold and rise to a crescendo, teasing and tantalizing readers from the original publication to today.

Alfred Hitchcock directed the film rendition of Rebecca in 1940, which won two Academy Awards for Best Picture and Cinematography.  Featuring Sir Laurence Olivier, Joan Fontaine, and Dame Judith Anderson, the movie remains a classic well worth remembering.

Mysterious, complicated women seemed to be a favorite of du Maurier.  Recently I decided to pick up another of her titles:  My Cousin Rachel.  Confirmed bachelor Ambrose Ashley lives on a Cornwall estate and has raised his young cousin Philip as a son and heir.  Ambrose goes abroad for his health and meets Rachel, a young widow in Italy, falling in love and marrying her.  When Ambrose falls suddenly ill and dies, Philip is prepared to intensely dislike his cousin’s bride.  Rachel comes to visit the Ashley estate; Philip holds his distance as long as he is able, but soon becomes captivated by her charms.  Is Rachel what she seems?  Du Maurier is a grand dame of drawing out the suspense as the characters take actions which will change their lives forever.

What’s next?  I certainly have my choice of several novels as well as works of non-fiction set in du Maurier’s beloved Cornwall.  Her works have inspired other novelists to imagine sequels to Rebecca, including Mrs. de Winter by Susan Hill and Rebecca’s Tale by Sally Beauman.  Du Maurier’s works remain relevant today, with devotees maintaining a website at dumaurier.org and a Twitter account @D_DuMaurier.  Who says I can’t have one foot on those Cornish moors while I also browse the internet in search of more to read?

Romance Novel Round Up: Foster, Morgan, and Van Dyken

Reviewed by Ambrea

Time again for a romance novel round up:  new romance novels to make you fall in love again—or gag from the saccharine sweetness.  I found this batch of romance novels on Tennessee READS simply by good fortune or, in the case of Sarah Morgan, purely by accident when I found their work in an ebook bundle.

In Driven to Distraction by Lori Foster, Mary Daniels is a professional in all aspects of her life.  She acquires rare artifacts and unusual collectibles for her obscenely wealthy boss, and she keeps her private life as far away from her public persona as possible.  But when she’s forced to hire a new driver as courier, she meets Brodie Crews, a seemingly rough and rowdy playboy, and she finds her professionalism—and her heart—is put to the test.

I’ve never read anything by Lori Foster, but I’ve seen her name pop up quite a bit and I thought it was time I dived into some of her work.  (That, and I’m a sucker for books with muscle cars.)  Driven to Distraction is the first book in Foster’s “Road to Love” series, which recently published in November 2018.  Although it’s just the start of the series, it’s a pretty great book.  I really liked Mary, because she’s feisty, strong, and not about to take anyone’s crap—least of all Brodie’s; moreover, I really liked Brodie, because he’s unexpectedly insightful and, as it turns out, he’s a big ol’ marshmallow.

It’s an incredibly steamy romance novel, but it’s also very sweet and unexpectedly nuanced with enjoyable characters, compelling relationship building, and (my favorite) a lovable dog.

Some Kind of Wonderful by Sarah Morgan recounts the story of Brittany Forrest, an archaeologist homebound after an injury, and Zachary Flynn, a daredevil pilot who has come back to his roots to help his foster father.  Brittany and Zach were married when they were only eighteen—and then their marriage went up in smoke after only ten days.  Now, a decade later, they’re reconnecting and discovering that time doesn’t heal all wounds.

I found Some Kind of Wonderful rolled up with The Ladies Man by Susan Mallery and, after losing interest in Mallery’s novel, I decided to give Morgan’s story a shot.  I really enjoyed reading Some Kind of Wonderful.  It’s not your typical boy-meets-girl romance; rather, boy-meets-girl and then they divorce and reconnect much later.  Their relationship is complicated and painful and, occasionally, embarrassing, but the rekindling of their romance is believable and, I think, paced very well.  Their rediscovery of each other feels genuine and sweet.

I’ll admit, it has a bit of a sappy conclusion, but I enjoyed it immensely and I may or may not have squealed with delight.  It’s the first novel I’ve read by Sarah Morgan, and I can’t wait to find more.

In The Wager by Rachel Van Dyken, Char Lynn, a disgraced TV reporter, and Jake Titus, a playboy billionaire of the first order, reconnect—and not in a good way.  Char and Jake share a best friend, and they’re both included in the wedding, which makes everything horrible and awkward, especially since Char and Jake already have a not-so-good history together.

I finished reading The Wager, but I really didn’t like it as much as I hoped.  I liked Jake’s nutty grandmother and I liked the hijinks that ensue when Grandma Nadine conspires to get Jake and Char together, but I just really did not like Jake.  The book has some good parts (i.e. Grandma Nadine); however, I just couldn’t get past the general feelings of meh I had for Jake.  He’s rich, he’s entitled, and he has a chip on his shoulder.  He changes too quickly for the changes to feel believable, and he’s just not very likable at the beginning or the middle or, dare I say it, the end.

Overall, I felt very ambivalent about the entire book.  I think I just don’t like novels with snotty, entitled billionaires as the male lead.  Money can’t buy happiness—and it can’t make me like you when you’re a horrible character.