Sometimes I think a meteor could strike the earth and wipe out mankind with the exception of my mother’s Bridge club — Roz, Bea, Bette, Rhoda, and Jackie — five Jewish octogenarians who continue to gather for lunch and Bridge on Mondays as they have for over fifty years. When I set out to learn about the women behind the matching outfits and accessories, I never expected to fall in love with them. This is the story of the ladies, their game, and most of all the ragged path that led me back to my mother.
Let us know praise famous men. Please lift your glass to our good friend Vivian Swift on the publication of her third book, Gardens of Awe and Folly. Full disclosure: I’ve been pissed at Vivian ever since she said she was a size two and her secret to dieting was learning how to be hungry. That aside, this book is gorgeous and soul-stirring and magical. Congratulations, Vivian!
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Bliss! The day has finally arrived. I’ll adding this to my Vivian Swift collection immediately. Heartfelt congratulations, Vivian. Thank you for all your absolutely beautiful work.
Vivian, congratulations, and best wishes for continued success.
Congratulations Vivian! I love the title…and the cover!
Congratulations, Vivian! A celebration of color and beauty and a great title.
OH, hey! I didn’t expect this! Thank you, Betsy, for crowning me Queen for a Day (Look Ma! I’m on Betsy’s blog!)
Funny thing about book covers. Just so you know, for my first two books Bloomsbury told me that it was a terrible, awful, sale-killing idea to take an image from the book to put on the cover; and now for the third book, all they wanted was this image from the book to put the cover. (The image is a view I painted from the balcony of a rich friend’s flat in London in 1999 and I really like that view in real life, so I’m OK with it.) But goes to show you — publishing doesn’t have any rules, really.
Thank you for the feedback about the title. I didn’t have it until the last minute, right before the pages went to the printer, when I sat down and pounded out syllables that scanned to “Gardens of earthly delight” (the phrase has been rolling off the tongue for 500 years, so why re-invent the wheel?) until I hit on “awe and folly”. But, sometimes, I wonder if I shouldn’t have gone with “50 Shades of Green”, or “The Life Changing Magic of Gardens”, or “Wild, the Gardening Version”.
Kudos!
Congratulations Vivian.I still take Le Road Trip down from the shelf often to dip into. This one sounds wonderful too.