Annie's Garden Journal: Reflections on Roses, Weeds, Men, and Life [Hardcover]

Annie Spiegelman (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1, 1996

A warm, touching and funny book on family, gardening, Hollywood, marriage and life.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

This journal of a comically obsessed gardener chronicles not only the plantings, prunings and what "went bust" but also the emotional divagations of a hip New Yorker transplanted to California. Gardening metaphors abound here to illuminate the author's relationships with her divorced parents, the challenges of siblings and her mixed emotions about an imminent marriage to her longtime companion. Frustrations lurk, both personal and garden variety, especially in the garden where she works so hard "and it still looks like hell." Among gardening tips and rose obsessions are wry observations about sisterhood and the comic aspects of the forthcoming wedding. Spiegelman, an assistant director and a member of the Director's Guild of America, writes knowingly of the travails of responsible adulthood in a way that is appealing to women.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Poor Annie finds so much to complain about?her past, her job, her garden, her shrink, her relatives, her fiance. "Everything sucks," she writes, "especially this stupid garden journal." For one year, while tending her California garden, Spiegelman muses about growing up in a broken home in New York City and vying with her three sisters for the love of an angry mother and an absent father. When her companion of seven years proposes, she worries for months because marriage "means fighting, leaving, and broken promises." Spiegelman's hostility, depression, and negative attitude pervade the book. Her rambling, unpolished style is laden with recurrent cliches and vulgar slang. Not recommended.?Ilse Heidmann, San Marcos, Tex.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 220 pages
• Publisher: Birch Lane Pr; First Edition edition (October 1, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1559723734
• ISBN-13: 978-1559723732
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.7 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,531,910 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Raised in the asphalt jungle of New York City, with a can of Raid in her hand, Annie Spiegelman moved to the Bay Area over ten years ago and became a passionate environmentalist and Master Gardener. She is the author of two previous books on gardening (and life). ANNIE'S GARDEN JOURNAL: Some Thoughts on Roses, Life, Weeds, and Men and GROWING SEASONS: Half-baked Garden Tips, Cheap Advice on Marriage and Questionable Theories on Motherhood.

Her third book entitled TALKING DIRT (Penguin Group), an organic gardening how-to guide, will be in bookstores nationally on February 23, 2010.

Readers can visit her website at www.dirtdiva.com

Spiegelman writes a popular organic gardening column entitled 'Dirt Diva' in the Bay Area's Pacific Sun newspaper while also working in film production as a First Assistant Director.

She claims she spends her days dodging bullets from the cutthroat publishing business, the maniacal movie industry and her teenage son. And rarely uses medication.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Just the book I was looking for...., March 21, 2000

By 

Talulaloop (Sacramento, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Annie's Garden Journal: Reflections on Roses, Weeds, Men, and Life (Hardcover)

'Annie's Garden Journal' was like reading someone's diary. I've felt all the same emotions Annie writes about, and some of them were painful, but I could laugh about it! I read this book in 3 separate sittings, didn't want it to end! I'm glad to see that she's working on another book, I'll be sure to get it too!

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Sometimes funny, pretty pages, and interesting., June 26, 1999

By 

[e-mail] (Marietta, GA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Annie's Garden Journal: Reflections on Roses, Weeds, Men, and Life (Hardcover)

I enjoyed the honesty of the book and how the author shared her life with her readers. Honesty is a quality not often found in authors, especially new ones. I'm eagerly awaiting Annie's next book, and interested in how Bill's chiropractic career is going.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars The worst book I've read in a long time., February 15, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: Annie's Garden Journal: Reflections on Roses, Weeds, Men, and Life (Hardcover)

Please, choose something else. This book is so terrible it makes me consider being a writer. Everything about it is embarassingly cliche. She has a mother and sisters who she really loves, but GOSH, they sure bicker and drive her crazy! She has a boyfriend who she really loves, but GOSH, marriage is so scary! To make things worse, her sisters' names are Carol, Sharon, and (?), but she calls them "Ca," "Sha," and "Ga" throughout the entire book. She also uses the word "bust" at least 200 times, which is incredibly annoying. She also seems to think she is the first person on earth to be politically liberal and have morals. I think that I need to say no more after telling you that this is an actual sentence from the book: "I rollerbladed around downtown, rocking to Annie Lennox and U2 on my Walkman." Please, the world is full of great literature. Find some, this isn't it!!