<< 1 >>
Rating: 
Summary: Passionate About Gardening
Review: I am really enjoying this book. I am not done yet, but I have already started looking at my garden differenly. I am thinking about getting some more garden books to help me improve my garden. This book is whimsical and delightful. The author writes with a wonderful style. I hope that he is allowed to stay at his rented bungalow forever. My only complaint is the books that Amazon suggests you should get if you enjoyed this book. They all seem to be about being Gay. This book is so much more than a book about a man coming out of the closet. I think anyone would like this book straight or gay. Have to go and stroll in my garden. Enjoy the book!
Rating: 
Summary: Best Book to Read in the Garden with a Cup of Coffee Award
Review: Out of all the gardening books I've purchased for our public library in the last four years, I would recommend Dean Riddle's book first and foremost to our readers as a balm to the soul, an inspiration to gardeners everywhere, and a plain old good read. The focus of the book is informative yet personal: it is the story of one man's coming of age in the garden, his connection with the strange and often-ignored vibrancy of the horticultural world, and his joyous appreciation of people, plants, dirt, sticks, old glassware, fried eggs, and just about everything else. For four months a year I read virtually nothing but gardening books of all types as our orders come in to the library. Very few of the writers are able to touch and inform readers at the same time, and it is this gift that Dean Riddle brings to his writing. The book is organized in such a way that Riddle is able to incorporate stories into his highly readable and clear descriptions of his own garden plans. Within the space of a few paragraphs, the reader finds himself in Dean's world. The fully-colored images and sensations of Dean's garden stay brilliantly painted in one's mind long after the book is closed.
Rating:
Summary: Never too late
Review: The librarian at Skene Library in Fleishmanns, NY foisted this book upon me as I had missed Dean Riddle's personal appearance and reading. I politely took it home. I started to skim read and three hours later had finished the book and made a list of pages to return to for information. This book is a jewel of a read and a must for any Catskill gardener. I have had a "failed garden" for ten years in the Felishmanns area. I used to be a good gardener. Not in the Catskills! Mr Riddle provides a virtual how to manual for my next year's garden. But beyond the practical, it is a delightful, fast paced, funny read.
Rating:
Summary: Never too late
Review: The librarian at Skene Library in Fleishmanns, NY foisted this book upon me as I had missed Dean Riddle's personal appearance and reading. I politely took it home. I started to skim read and three hours later had finished the book and made a list of pages to return to for information. This book is a jewel of a read and a must for any Catskill gardener. I have had a "failed garden" for ten years in the Felishmanns area. I used to be a good gardener. Not in the Catskills! Mr Riddle provides a virtual how to manual for my next year's garden. But beyond the practical, it is a delightful, fast paced, funny read.
Rating:
Summary: Flowers, friends and more
Review: This charming book with lovely illustartions made me laugh and cry and want to plant Mexican Sunflowers! And most of all wish Dean Riddle were my friend and neighbor...I feel like he is both after reading this book. Full of wonderful gardening information (I kept wanting to make notes and write down names of flowers to plant though I couldn't quit reading long enough)but even better it is filled with wisdom and love of not only gardening but life.
Rating:
Summary: A new "old" friend
Review: This charming book with lovely illustrations made me laugh and cry and want to plant Mexican Sunflowers! And most of all wish Dean Riddle were my friend and neighbor...I feel like he is both after reading this book. Full of wonderful gardening information (I kept wanting to make notes and write down names of flowers to plant though I couldn't quit reading long enough)but even better it is filled with wisdom and love of not only gardening but life.
Rating:
Summary: Passionate About Gardening
Review: This is one of the most comforting books I have ever read! Mr. Riddle gives the non-gardener a chance to experience gardening with such a passion you will honestly feel like a gardening expert! The book filled me with such a child-like wonder, that I could actually smell the flowers through the pages! I must get OUT and plant!
Rating:
Summary: A Beautiful Life Indeed
Review: To say this is a gardening book is to approach it with a focus much too narrow. To say it is a gay memoir, or an AIDS loss memoir, is to have missed the passion and dedication of one incredible man in search of his own joy. I agree with Jean from Kentucky... there is nothing I would enjoy more than a cup of coffee with Dean at daybreak, walking through his little green dewey acre, talking about the plants, the design, the view, the stories, the hopes, the fears and dreams that we sometimes hide and sometimes share. Also of note are the fantastic, Warhol-esque illustrations. In a world far too hectic in the quest for more, he has said, "I have enough." And with this, he has set his soul free to live every day of his life. Hey Dean, nice refrigerator!
<< 1 >>
| 
