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4th out of 4 books
—
2 voters
The Care and Handling of Roses with Thorns
by
Margaret Dilloway (Goodreads Author)
Thirty-six-year-old Gal Garner lives a regimented life. Her job teaching biology and her struggle with kidney disease keep her toggling between the high school, the hospital, and her home on a strict schedule.
Only at home, in her garden, does Gal come alive. It's here that she experiments with Hulthemia roses, painstakingly cross-pollinating various specimens in the hopes...more
Only at home, in her garden, does Gal come alive. It's here that she experiments with Hulthemia roses, painstakingly cross-pollinating various specimens in the hopes...more
Hardcover, 368 pages
Published
August 2nd 2012
by Putnam Adult
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Galilee (known as Gal) Garner is a 38-year-old biology teacher who breeds roses as a hobby. She's a loner, with her only friend being the art teacher at her private school. And she's on dialysis a few times a week, thanks to not only having had her kidneys die when she was a child but having rejected two donated kidneys; her doctor has her on the transplant list, but there are some blood flow problems to contend with first. The parents at her school are not happy with her, because in addition to...more
A book I mentioned in the Book Expo's Librarian Shout 'n Share session.
While this appears to be a "how-to" manual, it's actually a well-crafted novel of a woman's life. Despite having chronic kidney disease, "Gal" has carved out a life for herself while going between dialysis, teaching AP biology to high school students, and breeding new rose hybrids, but her strict life develops a kink when her 15-year-old niece comes to live with her. This novel has fabulous well-drawn characters and a story t...more
While this appears to be a "how-to" manual, it's actually a well-crafted novel of a woman's life. Despite having chronic kidney disease, "Gal" has carved out a life for herself while going between dialysis, teaching AP biology to high school students, and breeding new rose hybrids, but her strict life develops a kink when her 15-year-old niece comes to live with her. This novel has fabulous well-drawn characters and a story t...more
Gal (short for Galilee) is a biology teacher at a private, Catholic high school. Other than getting a kidney transplant, her dream is to win the opportunity to breed a hybrid rose that will be selected by the American Rose Society. Riley is Gal's 15 year old niece who shows up unexpectedly in the middle of the school year, left in Gal's care.
To me, The Care and Handling of Roses takes a realistic look at what happens when a single person has a teenager show up out of the blue, and is expected to...more
To me, The Care and Handling of Roses takes a realistic look at what happens when a single person has a teenager show up out of the blue, and is expected to...more
The story of Gal and her roses. Gal, a high school teacher, spends every other night in the hospital getting kidney dialyis as she waits for an available kidney suitable for transplanting into her worn body. Along comes her rebellious teen aged neice that she hasn't seen for years. I usually don't like books in which I don't like the main character but I've made an exception in this case. Gal is cold, not very likeable, unfriendly, not caring that others have feelings, she is hard and prickley,...more
What’s not to love in a story with a main character as prickly as the very thorned roses she tends to? Such is the case of 36-year-old biology teacher Galilee Garner – Gal for short – who says, “I love the Hulthemia roses. They are difficult and obstinate, thriving when I introduce them to an impossible variety of conditions.” Gal, a kidney dialysis patient from childhood to adulthood, shows that same fortitude throughout the story.
A self-proclaimed “half-assed optimist,” her direct, no-nonsense...more
A self-proclaimed “half-assed optimist,” her direct, no-nonsense...more
This book is about roses - the kind that grow in the ground. But it's also about people who are often thorny, and people who need careful attention, like roses, in order to thrive. "Gal" [whose mother, just back from the Holy Land, named her Galilee] is a single biology teacher waiting for a kidney transplant, who tends her roses like children. Roses are more than a hobby for her -- they keep her sane in a world of dialysis and hopeless hope.
Into Gal's life comes her niece, Riley, who has been...more
Into Gal's life comes her niece, Riley, who has been...more
I was so mad at my sister that "I could feel the wax melting in my ears." Yeah, I get that. Gal's sister Becky had a right to mess up her own life but did she have a right to neglect her daughter, Riley? That is one of many questions I had fun thinking about as I read this book.
This book was entertaining and not annoying. There was no attempt to tie things up perfectly at the end or explain every danged thing to the reader. There was enough space for the reader to wonder. Gal, Galilee, has a pas...more
This book was entertaining and not annoying. There was no attempt to tie things up perfectly at the end or explain every danged thing to the reader. There was enough space for the reader to wonder. Gal, Galilee, has a pas...more
The fleeting perfection of an exquisite rose in bloom is something human beings cannot hope themselves to attain. Even so, people nurture, cultivate, feed, water and lavish loving attention upon the thorny splendor of the rose. In "The Care and Handling of Roses with Thorns", author Margaret Dilloway introduces us to just such a person. Gal Garner is a teacher, a dialysis patient, and a grower of roses. Not just any roses, but specially cross-pollinated hybrid roses, which she hopes will win "Qu...more
Originally published at Reading Reality
The "rose" who requires rather careful care and handling in this women's fiction novel by Margaret Dilloway is Gal Garner, and she very definitely has thorns. But just like the flowers that she nurtures so carefully, there are definitely rewards for navigating your way through Gal's prickly, thorny life.
You can learn a lot about actual rose gardening while reading The Care and Handling of Roses with Thorns, or at least, rose breeding and rose gardening in S...more
The "rose" who requires rather careful care and handling in this women's fiction novel by Margaret Dilloway is Gal Garner, and she very definitely has thorns. But just like the flowers that she nurtures so carefully, there are definitely rewards for navigating your way through Gal's prickly, thorny life.
You can learn a lot about actual rose gardening while reading The Care and Handling of Roses with Thorns, or at least, rose breeding and rose gardening in S...more
Galilee (who goes by Gal) has had a hard life. For pretty much her entire life, she has had kidney disease and she's been on dialysis for eight years. She's hoping for a transplant, but she's not a very likely candidate. Still, though, she enjoys her job teaching...but her main passion is roses. She grows them and breeds them, hoping one day to win Queen in Show. Then one day her niece shows up. Gal's sister has moved to Hong Kong for a job and Riley needs a place to stay. So, surprise! here she...more
The Care And Handling Of Roses With Thorns
By
Margaret Dilloway
My " in a nutshell" summary...
Gal has kidney disease. Gal loves roses. Gal gets a surprise visit from her niece. Gal is gruff and has lots of issues.
My thoughts after reading this book...
My heart sort of melted as I read this book...there were so many characters that made me feel so much for them...Gal and Riley and Walters and Gal's mom. Gal's illness has caused her mom to just feel so guilty. Gal needs a new kidney and this isn't ev...more
By
Margaret Dilloway
My " in a nutshell" summary...
Gal has kidney disease. Gal loves roses. Gal gets a surprise visit from her niece. Gal is gruff and has lots of issues.
My thoughts after reading this book...
My heart sort of melted as I read this book...there were so many characters that made me feel so much for them...Gal and Riley and Walters and Gal's mom. Gal's illness has caused her mom to just feel so guilty. Gal needs a new kidney and this isn't ev...more
The Care and Handling of Roses with Thorns is about feisty, thirty-six-year-old Galilee Garner, a science teacher and rose breeder with kidney disease who is suddenly left to care for her teenage niece, Riley, when her delinquent sister takes a job overseas. For a woman who would rather rub aphids off rose leaves, inheriting a girl with social issues while dealing with dialysis every other night does not exactly excite her. Troubles at her job with her principal and also with her best friend, th...more
I received The Care and Handling of Roses with Thorns as a Goodreads First Reads Giveaway. It is the story of Gal Garner, a high school biology teacher who is living with kidney disease. Due to her disease, everything in her life from her diet to her dialysis appointments to her job to her relationships with family and friends must be carefully planned. Gal has built up walls around herself to keep everyone at arms distance. It is easier than allowing herself to be disappointed by others. Her on...more
A ran across this title a few weeks ago and decided to order it for my Nook. I'm glad I did. Although I'm not a huge fan of a novel with a first person point of view, I did get used to it so it seemed less awkward after a few pages. The plot had a number of conflicts and complications along with some surprises. Not all was tied up neatly in a bow by the end of the novel, but as I followed the narrator's life as a high school teacher whose passion is her roses, I was drawn in since I too teach te...more
Having really enjoyed Dilloway’s debut novel, How to Be an American Housewife, I was very enthusiastic about her sophomore attempt, and it didn’t disappoint. The writing was cleaner and more confident and the characters were very well developed. This is a day-in-the-life portrait of Gal: kidney patient, high school biology teacher, rose enthusiast, and sudden foster parent. The reluctance she initially feels when her 15 year old niece Riley shows up requires Gal to shift her priorities. No longe...more
I don't usually trust blurb, but once in a while I do allow myself to be intrigued by it. Like this book. I was (and still am) reading another book by this author How to Be an American Housewife, and God, that book was horrible. I have not even finished it as I write this review. Against any logic should I be picking up her other works, but that part "Filled with gorgeous details of the art of rose breeding" in the synopsis captured me. I have a little something for roses. For once I let that li...more
I should really trust my insticts more. I almost did not check this out, because I was not interested in the synoposis but I wanted to give it a chance. That was the worst mistake I made, this book fell flat on so many areas. Although I enjyoed the first few pages about a woman's love for roses but I felt that it was repeititve, boring and uninteresting. How many times do you have to explain how much you love something? It got ridicilous afterwhile, it was like the author was trying to give me a...more
I love novels with cranky heroines, and the one in this novel has a good reason for her attitude, having suffered from kidney disease since childhood that has left her hooked up to dialysis machines every other night. I like the way that Gal very slowly and very slightly softens up after the appearance of her niece Riley. She is also impacted by the hiring of a new teacher at the private school where she teaches biology. Through these relationships and several others, Gal realizes eventually tha...more
I loved Margaret Dilloway's last book. This one was a disappointment to me. I have spent a lot of time in hospitals and I have learned there are two types of patients the ones that are optimistic fighters and the others that are bitter cynics.
Gal is definitely bitter. She hates everyone and everything. Anything anyone says or does she finds fault with. She is so judgmental of people I wasn't sure if she was correct about her sisters drug problems. Riley never said anything really bad about her...more
Gal is definitely bitter. She hates everyone and everything. Anything anyone says or does she finds fault with. She is so judgmental of people I wasn't sure if she was correct about her sisters drug problems. Riley never said anything really bad about her...more
I have just finished this book - glad to hear about it early enough to be one of the first to get it at the library after processing. I had read her prior/first book and enjoyed it. This one is different from the first one, and I enjoyed it also.
I enjoy books I can also learn something by reading. In this one, I learned about rose breeding (never thought about it, though I recall my parents using fish fertilizer on their climbing roses). I had to look up some of the roses described - the first o...more
I enjoy books I can also learn something by reading. In this one, I learned about rose breeding (never thought about it, though I recall my parents using fish fertilizer on their climbing roses). I had to look up some of the roses described - the first o...more
In my opinion, this is a brilliantly written book. The story deals with family relationships, personality issues, ethics, forgiveness, science, transplant medicine, and horticulture.......
I learned a great deal about "prickly personalities" and had to admit that I am included in this category. "Something to ponder".
I also learned a great deal about horticulture and the propagation of roses. I would never have the patience to do this, but it was fascinating. (Hey, I am a liberal arts major!)
I wou...more
I learned a great deal about "prickly personalities" and had to admit that I am included in this category. "Something to ponder".
I also learned a great deal about horticulture and the propagation of roses. I would never have the patience to do this, but it was fascinating. (Hey, I am a liberal arts major!)
I wou...more
If you liked Margaret Dilloway’s debut novel “How To Be An American Housewife”, then “The Care and Handling of Roses With Thorns” will either equate to it or come about halfway. The author’s latest tale is about 36-year old Galilee “Gal” Garner, a high school biology teacher whose failing kidneys force her to live a restricted life. Her one pleasure is her roses, flowers she has cultivated and cross-bred to create a one-of-a-kind grand prize bloom that no one has ever seen or smelled. But when h...more
I loved this book. Wonderful well told story, with people I could relate to, and it helped that I have lived in most of the cities in the book.
Galilee (Gal) Garner is a high school science teacher with an interesting hobby: breeding roses; and she also has a big health problem—she needs a kidney transplant. Her life is divided between teaching in the day and every few nights sitting through dialysis. Because of her life long illness she’s never married or had children. She lives alone and enjoy...more
Galilee (Gal) Garner is a high school science teacher with an interesting hobby: breeding roses; and she also has a big health problem—she needs a kidney transplant. Her life is divided between teaching in the day and every few nights sitting through dialysis. Because of her life long illness she’s never married or had children. She lives alone and enjoy...more
For the most part I enjoyed this book and would recommend it. It was very interesting to learn more about the cultivation of roses and rose shows, as well as the process of dialysis. But there were times when I just wanted to smack the main character, Gal. She was so, so self rightgeous, demanding and self centered. Very bright but sooo prickly--just like the roses she cultivated. Which I guess was what the author was trying to say.... She would be such a hard person to remain close to! I did be...more
I read Ms Dilloway's first book, How to Be an American Housewife and really liked it. It was poignant, funny, tragic and real. I very much enjoyed the process of reading this one and raced through it as it was an easy and engaging read, but something was a little missing for me.
The main character, Gal (Gallilee) suffers from kidney disease and has led thirty-odd years of life dealing with this issue and all the health problems associated with it. She is a participant in life up to a point, holdi...more
The main character, Gal (Gallilee) suffers from kidney disease and has led thirty-odd years of life dealing with this issue and all the health problems associated with it. She is a participant in life up to a point, holdi...more
Gal Garner is a crusty biology teacher who is coping with kidney disease. She is spending much of her time at the hospital hooked up to a dialysis machine while she waits for a transplant. The joy in her life, and the distraction from her problems, comes from breeding roses.
Then her teenage niece, Riley, shows up at Gal's workplace. Riley's irresponsible mother had to fly to Hong Kong to work for several months, and sent her off to Gal's without any notice. Riley gets more structure in her life,...more
Then her teenage niece, Riley, shows up at Gal's workplace. Riley's irresponsible mother had to fly to Hong Kong to work for several months, and sent her off to Gal's without any notice. Riley gets more structure in her life,...more
Roses are center to this book, which I chose because I have a "rose" friend and did learn a lot more about how to care for them (far more than I have ever done!). But it's also about dialysis, which the main character, Gal, undergoes every other day and has for eight years. Although I've had cousins who had dialysis, I never knew how hard it is. And it's about step-parenting, kind of, when the sister of Gal sends her daughter, Riley, to Gal without warning and without estimated time of retrieval...more
Taciturn, prickly high school biology teacher Galilee "Gal" Garner is determined to discover a new rose variety that will win queen of show in a major competition. Though she has kidney disease and must have dialysis every few days, Gal manages to teach and garden with the help of one of her students, Brad, who helps with the roses, and Dara, the school's art teacher and Gal's friend.
Gal's world is altered when her teenage niece, Riley, arrives unannounced. Seems Gal's estranged sister, Becky, h...more
Gal's world is altered when her teenage niece, Riley, arrives unannounced. Seems Gal's estranged sister, Becky, h...more
Gal Garner's life is governed by three things: her rose breeding hobby, her job as a high school biology teacher and her kidney disease, which has plagued her since childhood. When her teenage niece Riley appears on her doorstep, Gal's life is shaken up. Riley's life has been unstable, thanks to her mother's frequent absences and disregard for others' needs, and Gal provides some much-needed stability. As the two women learn to navigate life with each other, they wonder how they ever managed to...more
"Some people are always grumbling because roses have thorns, I am thankful that thorns have roses" I love this quote, and it is in the beginning of the book. This is a story of a curmudgeon who most people just see her surliness, yet her friends see her individual beauty. She's a thorn but is a rose. I love this book because she is a rose breeder, a world I knew nothing about nor had given much thought about. Also, she has kidney disease, another world I hadn't given much thought about. It made...more
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Margaret Dilloway is the author of HOW TO BE AN AMERICAN HOUSEWIFE and the upcoming THE CARE AND HANDLING OF ROSES WITH THORNS (August 2012).
Dilloway lives in Southern California with her husband and their three young children. Her blog, “American Housewife,” can be found on her website, www.margaretdilloway.com.
More about Margaret Dilloway...
Dilloway lives in Southern California with her husband and their three young children. Her blog, “American Housewife,” can be found on her website, www.margaretdilloway.com.
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Dec 20, 2012 07:12am