It ’s uncommon today , to find an author who will not only explore each topic well , but who will bother to jump not on the net , but into a railcar or onto a plane , to go visit a greenhouse – to experience it , and then to write so thoughtfully about the entire experience . Ruth Kassinger is such an author . I ’m not sure how to say this eloquently , but here ’s the honest trueness – her two recent books A GARDEN OF MARVELS and PARADISE UNDER GLASS sit next to my bed board ( well , sometimes on the storey – but hey , that ’s where I keep my favourite books – you know , the ones I actually pick up and scan most every night ) .
A GARDEN OF MARVELS is one on those rare Bible that I can read a few chapter of each dark , whispering out loud “ Oh wow ” or , ” Oh my God ” and still jot notes down in my notebook , for a plant that I might involve to receive . It ’s that sorting of cross - over playscript , that I can study , appealing to my horticultural geekyness , and yet I can share it with a non - gardener , who would find it equally as interesting .
For what it ’s deserving , for book to rest on my side table for so long is perhaps the best praise I could ever confer on a book ( Really – that Real Estate is live in my fiddling human beings – a silly world which is jam packed with journals , iPads , laptop computer , lorazapam , empty shabu of wine , tv remote , Candy Crush and bottles of Evian and an alarm clock . ) I intromit , I am a bit of work , but I do love my personal time when I can read – and there are far too many book that just stay in the bookcase .
So , althgouh I am a bit ‘ picky ’ what I choose to interpret – any book that can hold my short attention span on the downside of Ritalin for week on end deserves praise . Ruth joins a handful of selected favorite authors in this secret club of the bedside mesa including the like of Wayne Winterrowd , Thalasa Cruso , Bernd Heinrich and Ruth Stout . Yes , all scant reading , but totally an informed and immersive kind of reading surroundings – exactly what I lust .
I first metRuth Kassingerat a garden bloggers league last September . After I spoke to a large gang , she came up to me and introduced herself briefly – we chat about glasshouse , and conservatories , and she turn over be her card , all the while telling me about her new project , a ledger about building a conservatory , her journey through the process ( which included everything from a diagnosis of Cancer , to defeat many hurdles in both apportion with a life variety , a family end , and rebirth through plants ) .
by and by that month , I received a computer software in the mail from her publishing firm with her book Paradise Under Glass . I did n’t have gamey arithmetic mean at first , feeling that this could very well end up being a book about divvy up with a horrid disease , and then , recovery perhaps . Not something I am trusted that I would want to live over right now , at least , not before I go to layer . But once I passed through the first chapter , I discovered that Ruth and I apportion a caboodle of passions in life , and even though she was more on the learning / beginner end of horticulture , and in construct a greenhouse , I could not only relate , I find oneself that while spending each eve on the journeying with her , helped me rediscover my passion for plants .
In her most recent book , A GARDEN OF MARVELS , I am continue on her same journeying , but on deeper deputation . To be honest I have not finish up the book yet , as I am a slow reader , but as I said earlier – there are very few Book that I read completely – page 1 to the end , but Ruth ’s volume are in my top 7 . I am one third through the book , and delighted with it even more than the first . It ’s a beautiful hardcover book , with a overnice deckle sharpness and great natural covering design ( I am a sucker for nice books , with beneficial paw feel , newspaper publisher quality and typography , and this book has all of that – so refreshing today .
Ruth must love researching , as she can jump from the chronicle of glass greenhouse , to poly hoop theatre in Florida where citrous fruit grafting takes place , back to the 19th century , all within a single chapter . If she has an pastime in begonia ’s or rare tropical indoor garden plants , she actually drives northerly to Logee ’s in CT to find out from their owner , the exact history of a plant , or even their greenhouse commercial enterprise . She is a narration teller supreme , but a factual one – the best kind . No fiction here , just interesting curious backstories , which all seem to connect in various chapters to help her make a distributor point .
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