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There are currently 21 member reviews
for The Garden of Small Beginnings
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Cindy C. (Withee, WI)
You have to start somewhere
I loved this book. It makes you laugh and it makes you cry. The characters are very real. You find yourself cheering on the characters as they make good decisions and bad decisions. And although I think the book is about Lili's journey back to fully living life after the death of her husband, it is also about the other characters. Meeting each other in the gardening class and forming a "team" and friendships changes all of their lives. And the way they learn to work together in the gardening class extends to helping each other outside of that experience. The gardening tips interspersed in the story were just a bonus. If there were one criticism of the book, it is that it ended too soon. I hope the author decides to write a sequel so we can all learn what happens in the next chapter of the lives of all the characters.
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Darra W. (Mendocino, CA)
From the tiniest seed...
The garden as metaphor for rebirth is hardly new, but in the hands of author Abbi Waxman, this familiar convention blooms anew. Lilli, a thirty-something widow and mother, discovers an unexpected source of healing when she finds herself coerced into a local gardening class. Briskly paced, crackling with wit, cast with a wide assortment of memorable characters, and sprinkled with beautifully written (and useful) gardening tips, "The Garden of Small Beginnings" offers a master class in love, loss, grief, and giving. I couldn't stop turning the pages!
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Alline Anderson
I laughed, I cried - really!
I really enjoyed this book. So many of the tangential conversations are laugh-out-loud funny, while the very real grief comes through loud and clear,. I have about 20 pages with my favorite sections dog-eared, and they never fail to make me smile, even when I know what's coming. This book seems better than the average "chick lit" (hate that phrase, but it is what it is); comparable to early Jennifer Weiner or "The Girl's Guide to Hunting and Fishing," a generation later. Recommended for when you need a not-too-serious but still well-written and absolutely charming book!
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Martha S. (Mentor, OH)
Friendships
I loved this book! I want to be friends with the main character, Lilian. She lives a full, zany life, although she doesn't appreciate all the wonderful pieces and parts to her life. You'll learn in the prologue that her husband was killed in a car crash and she fell apart in the aftermath. Most of us would too. Her sister is her best friend, main backup and more. After each chapter is a one page "How To Grow" a certain vegetable. A humorously written although seemingly correct plan. I don't garden so I can only assume the directions are correct. Lilian also does not garden, but she signs up for a class to learn. From this class come more adventures. Even her kids and sister have adventures from this class. This book is written in a breezy style and I had a hard time putting it down. You will enjoy reading this book and probably laugh out loud.
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Laura G. (Conroe, TX)
A cute book!
I really enjoyed this book and I am so grateful to get an ARC from BookBrowse. I especially liked the gardening tip references at the end of each chapter, they were really informative . Not to mention the acknowledgement page at the beginning of the book was a humorous surprise! So often I read downer books about grief, but this one was a lighthearted one that intertwined drama & comedy. It actually made me chuckle out loud several times. I'm equally impressed on the characters in this book, some are quirky; but more like real life people. I adored the relationship between the main character, Lillian and her sister. I would recommend this book to anyone who likes Chick Lit genre, you will not be disappointed!
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Rory A. (Henderson, NV)
Laughter on every page
"The Garden of Small Beginnings" is an unexpected, welcome delight with chuckles, guffaws, and outright loud laughter on every page. There's something for everyone to relate to here, from widows to beginning gardeners, to even dogs wanting fallen chicken nuggets and having the law on their side.
If you can, save this one for the heat of summer. Stay indoors and your laughter will add still cooler relief to your air conditioning.
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Deborah M. (Auburn Hills, MI)
Beautiful book
This was a beautiful book that I was allowed to review. I would and have been recommending this book to all my reading friends. This story is a delightful story of Lilli and her two young daughters. The voice is so true and the events are genuine, one moment you are laughing out loud and the next you are wiping a tear away. Lilli is a widow who four years after her husband death she is still raw with emotion. Her sister Rachel helps her out and as the story evolves it interweaves the lives of a small group of people who are also taking a gardening class. Lilli is taking the class to to fulfill a commitment to her illustrating a gardening book for her job. Her life makes some significant changes as a result of the gardening class and the people she meets there. People who become a community and take care of each other. Growing relationships as their garden comes to life.
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