Tending Roses

This book, the first 50 pages were so depressing, I tossed it. I dont do this very often, but this was one! They owed money, Her company was in a missing money deal, His company lost a contract they needed. He couldnt get on line where he was. Everyone elses fault. Anyway, that book is GONE!

I was looking for books on the Walmart shelving and this one caught my eye. I don’t usually like to read fiction but thought I would give it a try. From the first page I couldn’t put it down. I laughed, I cried and and cried some more. It taught some great life lessons and I will look at things differently now. Read this book!!!!

I have purchased about a dozen of these books. It is a clean, thoughtful story of a grandmother who is getting aged and needs either a care facility or live in help. This is such a tender warm story. I love giving this books as gifts to special people.

"Tending Roses" was a book picked for an online book club I am in. It is not a book that I would have ever picked up on my own, so I am extremely glad that I am a part of this book club.Kate Bowman and her husband Ben and infant son Joshua have temporarily moved from Chicago to Hindsville, MO to prepare Kate's grandmother, Rose Vongortler, for an impending move to a nursing home. Grandma Rose has recently had a stroke and though she has physically recovered, her mental abilities come and go. Her daughter, Jeane and son Jack (Kate's father) decided a nursing home was best when Grandma Rose left the iron on and nearly burned down her house. While Kate is there, Grandma Rose has a few other household accidents. The focus of this book is how Kate comes to realize that though Grandma Rose is unable to care for herself, she still has much wisdom to impart - which she does by means of a journal that she places strategically for Kate to read.This book has many messages about us and our society - simplifying life, caring for the elderly and so on. It is a wonderful read and will certainly make you think!

As a professor of literature, I must admit, I did not expect to like this book. I generally approach "feel good" books with trepidation, yet Tending Roses is one I find myself recommending to everyone. Yes, it is a sentimental read, but it also contains passages so beautiful they caused me to cry. I commend this author's ability to contradict the contemporary wisdom that quality fiction must be dark and centered around characters who have survived horrible trauma. The reality is that most people are much like the characters in Tending Roses, struggling to find a place in the world. The words of this author caused me to feel, to experience, to consider my own life. In the end, this must be the mark of great fiction. Tending Roses is a novel not to be missed.

With tears in my eyes and a smile on my lips, I finished this book at 1:30 in the morning. What a treasure! Grandma Rose, Dell, Kate, Ben, Joshua, etc are friends I am going to miss. So much. I have already ordered a copy for my mother for Mother's Day....and am thinking of getting copies for my sisters as well. Tending Roses is a highly readable, nonpreachy story of love, faith and family that I enjoyed from the first page and could not put down until I had finished! Highly, highly recommended!

This is a wonderful story! My husband saw me laughing and crying as I read it, and he picked up the book and started on it. We fought over it until we both finished, and we have been telling everyone to read it. Tending Roses is a wonderful story about a family that has let petty things and busy schedules separate them. When they are forced to come to the family farm to decide whether to put their elderly grandmother in a nursing home, it is the family that learns a lesson. Through the wonderful stories in Grandma Rose's journal, the younger generation learn the real value of love, forgiveness, family, and time spent well. After reading the book, I feel like I learned right along with the characters! It was an amazing experience, and I highly recommend it as a book to share with friends and family. I am going to share it with my reading group.

I COULD NOT put this book down. I stayed up all night reading, slept for three hours in the morning, then got up and started reading again. I bought a copy of this book through a Z-shop a few days ago, and since then I have been telling everyone they must read Tending Roses! I am buying copies for all of my daughters, sisters, and friends. This book has it all-- a wonderful story, charaters who are real and compelling, and beautiful family memories delivered by a grandmother to a granddaughter. When you read it, you will laugh often, and cry often, but you will be very touched by Kate and Grandma Rose. Both ornery, wise, and loving, Grandma Rose is a character I will never forget. I can not wait to see this author's next book. I love to read, but I have never, ever been affected like this by a book before.