Bloom Books

My mom bought this one for me when I was about eight years old. I'm nineteen now and I still love it. :) The pictures are exquisite... awesome illustrations bring Shakespeare to life so much it will be familiar to even little kids years later. These pictures are really buried deep in my memory and I'm glad. :)

I checked this book out of the library...hoping the beautiful pictures would captivate my 3 and 5yr old and they would then listen to Shakespeare. It WORKED!!! So I knew it was worth purchasing. The book contains only small selections from Shakespeare's work...but a great way to introduce your child to the beauty of his words. Wonderful Illustrations!!!

Leslie Rebecca Bloom does an excellent job of articulating how feminist poststructuralism can be a useful theoretical lens for doing research. Her text is an excellent example of praxis, practice informed by theory. She has the courage to interrogate her methodology as she is in the moment of conducting her research by consistently being reflective of her actions and analyzing the possiblities and limitations of narrative inquiry and the relationships involved in research.

Leslie Rebecca Bloom does an excellent job of articulating how feminist poststructuralism can be a useful theoretical lens for doing research. Her text is an excellent example of praxis, practice informed by theory. She has the courage to interrogate her methodology as she is in the moment of conducting her research by consistently being reflective of her actions and analyzing the possiblities and limitations of narrative inquiry and the relationships involved in research.

This is not your ordinary autobiography. It is a fabulous read. I wish the book were longer, containing more of Rob's life adventures. Thoughtful book that I think you too will enjoy!

"MY BOOK IS YOUR AMERICA. An album of my old friends and your new ones. Real citizens you deserve to greet, and know, and possibly remember. You shall know me by the people I have known."

With over sixty-five books published, including the highly acclaimed novel A DAY NO PIGS WOULD DIE and a series of Soup books that won him the prestigious Mark Twain Award, Robert Newton Peck is a well-seasoned author with an established readership. His books have explored a variety of subjects from his boyhood experiences in rural Vermont to tales about making ends meet while growing up on a farm, as a cattle rancher, or as a solider during the French and Indian War. WEEDS IN BLOOM, Peck's latest literary endeavor, is a simple yet enjoyable autobiography that unfolds as a series of sketches of various people who have influenced his life over the past seventy years.

True to his word, WEEDS IN BLOOM has no plot. Instead, each chapter focuses on a character who fits respectively into one of three periods in Peck's life: his "Vermont Boyhood," his "Early Manhood," and the "Florida Years." Although some readers may miss the safety that accompanies a linear story line, others will feel less bogged down by the lack of a traditional arc, and will delight in using their own imaginations to continue where Peck has left off in each tiny vignette. It is as if he has knowingly created 25 beginnings to 25 possible stories, and by reading through them, his readers are given access to the essence of his life by getting to know the people he has encountered along the way.

In Part I: Vermont Boyhood, Peck explores his childhood in all its rugged, wide-eyed glory. Here, we bear witness to his life at home with his family, complete with all the trappings of a carefree adolescence: practicing baseball in the sweltering summer heat, playing in the dirt until dusk, and learning life-long lessons from his elders. Two of the most memorable chapters in the book are in this first section --- "Miss Kelly," when Robert writes his first poem and shares it with his teacher, Miss Kelly (who proves to be a lasting inspiration for Peck), and "Keepsake," when he and his best friend Luther sneak into a truck stop bathroom to buy their first condom at the age of ten. (A humorous side note: Peck actually kept this same condom with him until well after his return from the Army, when he promptly buried the torn and ratty thing in the backyard as a tribute to his boyhood.)

Part II: Early Manhood charts Peck's life in the army and the years immediately following his return. In "Dear Elliot," we meet a dear friend and fellow soldier who touched the lives of those around him by simply sharing his care packages from home. Unfortunately, he was killed in battle, but not before altering Peck's life for the better. In "Saw" and "Paper," Peck tells of his grueling yet enlightening experiences in the saw and paper mills, and in "Dr. Granberry" we are introduced to a football scout for small colleges that would change Peck's life forever by pushing him to go to college and providing him with a scholarship.

Part III: The Florida Years covers the last third of Peck's life up to the present. For the most part, these stories take place in Florida and bear the fruit of his past journeys. As most storytellers are apt to do when looking back on their lives, he sounds wiser and well-worn in these passages, and the people (and animals) we meet in this section are weathered as well. The last entry entitled "Just as I Am" is a delightful list of thirty-three tried-and-true beliefs and expressions that he has stumbled across and stuck to throughout his life, the last of which being: "Wish not for apples. Grow strong trees."

All in all an interesting and personal retrospective of an accomplished author and well-loved cowboy, WEEDS IN BLOOM will surely satisfy young adult readers, particularly those fond of autobiographies and nonfiction.

--- Reviewed by Alexis Burling

This writer captures a time and place in a way that allows me to close my eyes and step into the pages of her books. The historical details trigger flickers of memory from childhood teachings, and the rich descriptions fill in the rest. There's an innocence to the storyline that matures along with Maria's character. As someone who loves animals, loves the South, and has worked to restore old houses, I'm so at home in these stories and I look forward to the next in the series.

I love these books! The second one is as good as, if not better than, the first!

I just finished reading "Where the Creosote Blooms" this week while visiting my Mother who still lives in the home where I grew up -- you guessed it, on Mountain Avenue, in El Paso, Texas! Although my house was "up the hill" a few blocks, and my growing up years in that neighborhood were about 30 years later than the book's author, Mary King Rodge, the similarities were still abundant.

I, too, used to cross Copia Street after a day of school at Rusk Elementary to choose from the array of candy at Quinn's Grocery. Life was slow but sweet in the shadows of Sugar Loaf and Mount Franklin. And as Mafra says, there was the sun, always the sun.

Because of that sun, how we cherished the rain! While on my visit to my Mother's, we had one of those "gully-washer" thunderstorms that the author describes. Ahh, the wonderful smell of the creosote and the sagebrush after a rainstorm in the desert...

I'd recommend this book highly to anyone who grew up in El Paso. You will be pleasantly reminded of things you may have long forgotten! The author spins a page-turning tale of her personal memoirs of her adolescent years, but also a colorful description of life in El Paso in the 20's and 30's.

Where the Creosote Blooms, by Mary King Rodge is a delightful romp through the outer reaches of El Paso, Texas in the mid-twenties and very early thirties. MafraUs adventures are believable, and are true to the thoughts, feelings and actions of the people of her old neighborhood.

The description of the flash-flood coming from McKelligon Canyon on a day when her house got only a moderate amount of rain was exactly the way those floods occur. The trash, mud, snakes and debris has to be seen to be described with such vividness. She describes this flood in an arroyo that has had houses and a park built over it for at least the past fifty years, and flood control dams upstream have reduced the floods, and books with descriptions like this are our only touch with a wilder, more unrestrained past in a city that was just becoming tame.

She has caught the essence of her neighborhood that was still there twenty five years after her book closes. I can remember in the mid fifties the feeling around Rusk School that White's Grocery (Mr. Printz's) was not a good place, and Quinn's Grocery across the street was good. I don't know why we thought that; it was just the feeling that pervaded the elementary school. Now, having read about Mr. Printz and the person he was, I understand my neighborhood better.

Growing up was easier in those days. The villians were clear, and friends were faithful through it all. There was humor in her neighborhood, both in thought and in deed. The chapter about learning to ride a bicycle only during lunch when it was available was very funny. I especially enjoyed her ride down the hill while hollering to all who were in earshot to tell her where the brakes were.

I recommend this book to late teens and adults with an interest in history of the Twenties, the problems of growing up on the edge of civilization, and general history of the Southwest. The story is delightful and the book flow along with little effort. It is a gem of personal history.

As a young person working in the magazine industry and a person that studied creative writing in college, I found Lary Bloom's book to be a highly readable guide to pursuing creative non-fiction with integrity.

Seasoned editor Lary Bloom knows what any good screenwriter knows -- people love stories. Stories that include honest detail, true emotion, conflict, a point of view, and that show ordinary people's struggles and journeys. In this book, he reminds us that such drama is in everyday lives. He encourages journalists and non-fiction writers to take the time to explore the human drama behind the obvious bullet points of their works-in-progress. The many writing examples used in the book (Bloom has been editor to many writers) shows how doing just this elevated what could have been so-so stories with limited audience appeal to stories that are interesting to many of us.

The Writer Within is a delightful read, as Bloom applies these guidelines to his own writing.

When this book first came out in 1987, it transformed the idea of "gardening" (previously in my mind the purview of elderly aunts and cranky bachelors) to something that I, myself, could play at -- "play" being a most important word when other responsibilities pressed fast and hard. Ann Lovejoy's light-hearted reporting on happenstance in her little (35 foot wide by 60 foot deep) lot stirred me to think that something beautiful could happen just outside my own front door. In this little book, organized helpfully (for maritime Pacific Northwest readers) by month, one chases the heady scent of the possible.

We have long since moved from our capacious lots in the Northwest to an unpromising tiny scrap of land in Zone 5 (if we're lucky) at about 5,000 feet (the altitude being something that can contribute to bad luck for gardeners). Surprisingly, I find myself turning again to this first book of Ann Lovejoy's, even though much of the specific data does not pertain. Here's what is so engaging. First, you will not find a more practical book about the vagaries of gardening on a postage stamp lot shared with cats, children, and the inevitable surprises of urban life. Second, some of the information translates beautifully across zones; see, for instance, her lovely idea about moonlight on white roses. Besides which, her homage to "Just Joey" pre-dated its award as favorite by many years. Finally, her enthusiasm infects the reader, sends her students out in search of their own tiny scrap of gardening paradise.

Here is a durable and informative guide to finding fulfillment on the tiniest plot, against what you thought were the odds of finding success in the garden.

A how-to book broken down month by month. Advice from a Seattle native on how to add color to your garden. The book is fun and takes you beyond the usual Northwest gardenscape. Did you know that the winter foliage of azaleas can be as spectacular as their Spring blooms?

This book is like a breath of fresh air. Sometime life's circumstances can leave you gasping for answers to The What and Whys of Life (chapter 10). Things that may have happen to you in the past. "You Can Bloom Again" helped me realize, as a victim of abuse, no matter what my past experiences were that God has a plan for me, a hope and a future without pain. It encouraged me to get healing and begin breaking the cycle of abuse in my life and to help other women who may experience the same. EXHALE!

This is a book that touches the heart and core of hurt and pain many are facing today. It helps you to see the ways being wounded have effected you and how you can be an overcomer and move on to the destiny God has planned for your life. I would recommend it for anyone wishing to move forward in their lives.

Philippe Glade's spectacular images,in this weekly engangement calendar, bring fantastic pleasure in the simple grace and beauty found in flowers. Each week reveals botanical images, such as a stem, stamin or petal; brought in focus in a colorful and glorious "brilliance". Perhaps it's not so much the focus but the vibrance of color surrounding the cental point which is equally spendid.

Rare is the gardening book where I actually read the text instead of just gazing at the photos. This highly readable resource first caught my eye in the bookstore just by its title - I am a student of the "say yes to abundance" way of spirituality and I am grateful I said "yes" to this book! Its tone is not a bit hoity-toity like some of its ilk, and it offers a very approachable, manageable, yet dramatic method of banishing any signs of visible dirt from your flower gardens. Although I have been gardening for 20+ years, when I moved into a newly constructed house with unconstructed garden space two years ago, I made the mistake of buying hundreds of plants in a frenzy just to fill the spaces. Currently I am left with a haphazard melee of my own design (or lack of design) and now I need to put some fundamental order into the chaos. This book is going to be a close companion for me this summer. And the photographs - wow, I made myself take two days just to look at them all when the book arrived because I simply did not want the experience to end. There are chapters on gardens for cut flowers and romantic cottage venues. Other chapters provide ideas on how to use architecture, water features, and garden-related implements in the plantings. Each chapter visits a specific garden and gives insight into each owner's personality as manifested in their creations. And the captions of each photo are actually useful; they identify plants while at the same time explaining methods involved to create the look. I highly recommend this book for any flower gardener. It's already a favorite for me!