Title: Where Lilacs Still Bloom
Author: Jane Kirkpatrick
Rating <3 <3 <3 <3 <3
Summary: German immigrant and farm wife Hulda Klager possesses only an eighth-grade education—and a burning desire to create something beautiful. What begins as a hobby to create an easy-peeling apple for her pies becomes Hulda’s driving purpose: a time-consuming interest in plant hybridization that puts her at odds with family and community, as she challenges the early twentieth-century expectations for a simple housewife.
Through the years, seasonal floods continually threaten to erase her Woodland, Washington garden and a series of family tragedies cause even Hulda to question her focus. In a time of practicality, can one person’s simple gifts of beauty make a difference?
Review: Where the Lilacs Still Bloom, was a beautiful story about a young German housewife/Frau in Washington in the early 1900's who encouraged by her Father's word's follows her passion in cultivating an orchard and garden, and growing new varieties of apples and flowers (specifically lilacs eventually) in it. Her first project is an apple which she wants to make crisper and easier to peel for the pies she makes her husband; this is also how she presents the project to her young German husband to it will be easier for him to accept her new hobby. In the time she is living Hulda is pushing the boundaries for a simple young house frua who should really just be taking care of her family and helping with the chores of the farm but Frank her husband support's and love's her, and assists her with her gardening endeavors, at one point even selling part of their cow herd so she can order flowers from France. The way he and their family see it is flower's are part of God's creation and can be seen as a part of worship for his wife so as long as the family's needs are seen to everything is fine. The story follows the Klager's and their family's lives as their children grow through the garden and they face love, sorrow, and the emotions that every family does. Changes affect this family as any other but you see it through the changes in a young woman , than a more mature woman, as when she says,"We're blessed Frank. We planted good seeds in our children and tended them well." This is a wonderful work, and anyone who loves gardening or flowers, will love it, or anyone who enjoys a good book in general I would recommend it or its author.
Author's Web Site
Through the years, seasonal floods continually threaten to erase her Woodland, Washington garden and a series of family tragedies cause even Hulda to question her focus. In a time of practicality, can one person’s simple gifts of beauty make a difference?
Review: Where the Lilacs Still Bloom, was a beautiful story about a young German housewife/Frau in Washington in the early 1900's who encouraged by her Father's word's follows her passion in cultivating an orchard and garden, and growing new varieties of apples and flowers (specifically lilacs eventually) in it. Her first project is an apple which she wants to make crisper and easier to peel for the pies she makes her husband; this is also how she presents the project to her young German husband to it will be easier for him to accept her new hobby. In the time she is living Hulda is pushing the boundaries for a simple young house frua who should really just be taking care of her family and helping with the chores of the farm but Frank her husband support's and love's her, and assists her with her gardening endeavors, at one point even selling part of their cow herd so she can order flowers from France. The way he and their family see it is flower's are part of God's creation and can be seen as a part of worship for his wife so as long as the family's needs are seen to everything is fine. The story follows the Klager's and their family's lives as their children grow through the garden and they face love, sorrow, and the emotions that every family does. Changes affect this family as any other but you see it through the changes in a young woman , than a more mature woman, as when she says,"We're blessed Frank. We planted good seeds in our children and tended them well." This is a wonderful work, and anyone who loves gardening or flowers, will love it, or anyone who enjoys a good book in general I would recommend it or its author.
Author's Web Site
I totally completely loved this one too.
ReplyDeleteIt's one of the best books I've read in quite awhile, I'd like to read more by this author.
ReplyDelete