The Care and Handling of Roses with Thorns
Margaret Dilloway - Author
ISBN 9781101588871 | 368 pages | 02 Aug 2012 | Putnam Adult | 18 - AND UP
Summary of The Care and Handling of Roses with Thorns
Summary of The Care and Handling of Roses with Thorns
Reviews for The Care and Handling of Roses with Thorns
An Excerpt from The Care and Handling of Roses with Thorns
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Winner of the ALA Reading List Award Difficult and obstinate. Thriving under a set of specific and limited conditions. That pretty much describes me. Maybe that’s why I like these roses so much. Roses are Galilee Garner’s passion. An amateur breeder, she painstakingly cross-pollinates her plants to coax out new, better traits, striving to create a perfect strain of her favorite flower, the Hulthemia. Her dream is to win a major rose competition and one day have her version of the bloom sold in the commercial market. Gal carefully calibrates the rest of her time to manage the kidney failure she’s had since childhood, going to dialysis every other night, and teaching high school biology, where she is known for her exacting standards. The routine leaves little room for relationships, and Gal prefers it that way. Her roses never disappoint her the way people have. Then one afternoon, Riley, the teenaged daughter of Gal’s estranged sister, arrives unannounced to live with her, turning Gal’s orderly existence upside down. Suddenly forced to adjust to each other’s worlds, both will discover a resilience they never knew they had and a bond they never knew they needed. Praise for The Care and Handling of Roses with Thorns: “Dilloway artfully weaves the intricacies of rose floriculture with her characters’ teen angst and epiphany, an anguished wait for a new kidney, lost and newfound friends, reconciliation, and hope.” —Kit-Bacon Gressitt, North County Times “[An] exquisite little novel . . . Dilloway's keen prose and an unexpected ending lift The Care and Handling of Roses With Thorns above mere schmaltz into something special.”—Entertainment Weekly "Believable situations with well-drawn characters make this novel as lovely as the roses Gal tends. Dilloway's second novel is a captivating study of how love and understanding nurture our lives. Engaging, enlightening, thoughtful, this is a winner." —Library Journal "A richly textured diversion from standard treatments of family angst, Dilloway’s new novel expresses a graceful understanding of the virtues of mercy."—Booklist “I was captivated from the very first page. This uplifting novel about family and forgiveness brought me to both laughter and tears. By the end of this honest, engaging journey, I had grown to love all of the characters and was left with a new appreciation of the fragility and beauty of our daily happiness.”—Jean Kwok, New York Times–bestselling author of Girl in Translation "Dilloway's rapturous new novel showcases a prickly heroine who shows what happens, when despite the formidable odds before us, we risk blooming. What flowers is knockout and to say I loved this book is understatement."—Caroline Leavitt, New York Times bestselling author of Pictures of You “Galilee Garner is as prickly, thorny, and gracefully sweet as one of her prize roses. and her supporting characters bloom with their own quirks and virtues. A fun and uplifting read.”—Tiffany Baker, New York Times bestselling author of The Little Giant of Aberdeen County "The Care and Handling of Roses with Thorns is a tender, moving story that shows how family not only has the capacity to wound, but offers us the possibility to bloom again."—Shilpi Somaya Gowda, bestselling author of Secret Daughter “Even readers with black thumbs will be enchanted by the bramble beauty that is Galilee Garner. Dilloway has cultivated a fascinating plot in the rich science and magic of flower breeding. A story about family and the ways in which the unexpected blossom is often the most cherished. This novel is a rose personified.”—Sarah McCoy, author of The Baker’s Daughter and The Time It Snowed In Puerto Rico |
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