Green Thoughts: A Writer in the Garden [Paperback]

Eleanor Perenyi (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 12, 1983

This collection of essays covers an enormous range of gardening subjects and it will charm and instruct gardeners everywhere.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Modern Library expands its scope into gardening with these two titles. Published in 1981, Perenyi's text offers a collection of essays on topics from annuals to wild flowers and everything in between. The practical information is laced with anecdotes and historical tidbits about gardens and gardeners. Reaching back to 1871, Warner's volume also offers helpful advice along with much humor and even drama as he uses plant life to draw lessons for daily living. A nice break from the straightforward how-to books.
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Review

“You do not have to be a good gardener to fall in love with Green Thoughts. It reads with the intrepid assurance of a classic.” —Mary McCarthy, The New York Review of Books

“Unlike any other gardening book I know, with its Old World charm, its down-to-earth practicality, its whimsy and sophistication.” —Brooke Astor, The New York Times Book Review

“One of those dangerous reference works that you reach for at a moment of horticultural crisis or indecision only to find yourself an hour later browsing far beyond the page where you began.” —The New Yorker

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 289 pages
• Publisher: Vintage; 1st Vintage Books ed edition (September 12, 1983)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0394717147
• ISBN-13: 978-0394717142
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.1 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,294,731 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

26 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "Green Thoughts" by Eleanor Perenyi, January 16, 2001

By 

Bruce Cramer - See all my reviews

This review is from: Green Thoughts: A Writer in the Garden (Paperback)

Although I have not gardened in years and have no plans to start now, I have been enchanted by "Green Thoughts." Ms. Perenyi's writing is crisp, intelligent, and witty. Anyone who can take such non-riveting subjects as worms, mulch, and compost (to name a few) and turn them into elegant, fascinating essays deserves some sort of prize. If E.B. White had written a gardening book, it would probably resemble this one. A real treat.

19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Bring it back!, July 15, 2000

By 

Susan Cooper Cronyn (Fairfield, CT USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Green Thoughts: A Writer in the Garden (Paperback)

I must have blinked when this book went out of print; I've had a stockpile of copies for years to give to deserving friends. Now my children are old enough to have gardens and I NEED Eleanor Perenyi. BRING HER BACK! PLEASE, PLEASE! This is the best book for gardeners ever written.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Divine reading experience, February 27, 2000

By 

Carol R. Sommers (New York New York) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Green Thoughts: A Writer in the Garden (Paperback)

If you love amateur gardening and you love food, you have to love this book. Perenyi is informed, witty and timeless and she writes like a dream. She is way up there with one of my other all-time favorites, MFK Fisher. I've given this book as a gift at least a dozen times and now that I want to again, I find that it's out of print. What a travesty. Bring it back!