Jude Piesse

I found this book over-academic, rambling and long-winded. Parts of it feel like a botany text-book, parts of it like an academic treatise. There are a few brief moments of human interest, when the author tells us about her young daughters, or how she's going about her research, but they're scattered here and there rather than in one introductory or concluding chapter.

Perhaps for someone with a good visual imagination it might be easier to read, but I found the descriptions rather tedious and the botanical detail entirely uninteresting. I appreciated a few details about the young Charles Darwin and his sisters but their characters didn't really develop and it was all told factually rather than as a story.

I struggled to finish the book, skimming not just paragraphs but some entire sections - however, it's clearly very well-researched. Others have found it inspiring, and most reviews are positive, so don't necessarily take my word for it. I wouldn't personally recommend it, however.

Longer review here: https://suesbookreviews.blogspot.com/2023/06/the-ghost-in-garden-by-jude-piesse....… (meer)

The Ghost in the Garden: In Search of Darwin's Lost Garden
by Jude Piesse is a sweet and interesting book about gardens, Darwin, and little excerpts from Darwin's Origin Of Species.

I read Origen a long time ago, enjoyed it then and I enjoyed it now. To be honest, my favorite parts of this book were the embedded narratives. I became very fond of the little stories involving Julie and her family.

I also enjoyed the little excerpts about Darwin and his family. All in all this was an enjoyable book and a perfect escape during a time when things are neither sweet nor happy.… (meer)

I have struggled my way through this book for the past two months. There is nothing wrong with it, but I think the combination of long COVID brain fog and additional health issues have put me off nonfiction for a while. I just lose my place and end up reading the same paragraphs again and again. This is unfair to the author because the few occasions when my head was not feeling foggy and out of focus, the story seemed very interesting. I liked reading about Darwin's mother, for example, and liked the bit of bite in the author remarking that material on his mother was there if people bothered to look. This tells me that if I were in better health, I would find this book engaging.

At the moment, though, I feel adrift in it. I am going to set it aside and perhaps after I am less affected by illness, go back to it and try to finish.… (meer)