Tending Roses (Tending Roses Series, Book 1) [Paperback]

Lisa Wingate (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 12, 2001

While living in a remote Missouri farmhouse-and struggling to care for her husband, baby, and aging grandmother-Katie Benson finds inspiration in the pages of her grandmother's journal....

Stop what you are doing and experience Tending Roses. Here is a rich story of family and faith that reminds us of the bittersweet seasons of life and our call to care for each other. A rich story of family and faith. (Lynne Hinton, author of Friendship Cake)

Tending Roses is a story at once gentle and powerful about the very old and the very young, about the young woman who loves them all. In Katie, Lisa Wingate has created a wonderful character. Tending Roses affected me from the first page. (Luanne Rice)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

First-time author Lisa Wingate drew upon her relationship with her grandmother for inspiration in writing Tending Roses. Her sensitive and able crafting of language, character, and situation pierces through the turmoil and stress of everyday life, illuminating its message with almost painful intensity: "Maybe you should start wanting less." Wingate's words resonate as readers are introduced to Kate Bowman, her architect husband Ben, and their infant son. Kate, on maternity leave from her high-profile Chicago job, has been given the unenviable task of convincing her increasingly frail and forgetful grandmother that she can no longer live alone on the Missouri farm that has been her home for almost half a century. Kate and Ben are struggling to deal with mounting debts and medical bills as they strive to build a lifestyle, rather than a life. Frustrated by dealing with her stubborn, if well-meaning, grandmother, Kate finds solace and clarity in Grandma Rose's handwritten journal. The simple stories of earlier, less complicated times renew Kate's understanding of the truly important things in life. Through the journal, Kate discovers the essence of the remarkable Grandma Rose and is forced to reevaluate her priorities and those of her family.

Simply put, Wingate's aim is to exhort readers to "stop and smell the roses." The daily race to achieve and have more, more, more is clearly and all-too-accurately portrayed in these pages. I guarantee readers will stop to think of their own lives and where they are spending their energies. Let's hope Lisa Wingate has other relatives as inspiring as Grandma Rose for future novels. --Alison Trinkle

From Booklist

Christmas is going to be difficult for Kate Bowman this year. Traveling with her husband and infant to the family farm in Missouri, she has the unpleasant task of convincing her 89-year-old Grandma Rose to move to a nursing home. Kate hasn't been back for six years and is dreading the confrontation with Grandma as well as the first family reunion since the death of her mother. But Grandma Rose makes things easier by leaving her journal out for Kate to read, enabling her granddaughter to realize just how much more there is to Rose than she thought and how very important the farm is to her. This helps Kate find her way through her financial and emotional problems and cues her to what's truly really important in life. Wingate's touching story of love and faith proves the old adage that we should take time to smell the roses and try to put our modern problems in perspective. Patty Engelmann
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Paperback: 274 pages
• Publisher: NAL Trade; 1st edition (June 12, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0451203070
• ISBN-13: 978-0451203076
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.3 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.1 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (103 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,175,789 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Lisa Wingate is a magazine columnist, inspirational speaker, and the author of a host of mainstream fiction novels, including the national bestseller, Tending Roses, which is currently in its fourteenth reprint. Her books have been featured selections for Doubleday and Literary Guild book clubs, selected for The Reader's Club of America, and have garnered LORIES Best Fiction and Reader's Choice Awards, and been nominated for the ACFW Book of the Year Award. Recently, the group Americans for More Civility, a kindness watchdog organization, selected Lisa along with Bill Ford, Camille Cosby, and six others, as recipients of the National Civies Award, which celebrates public figures who work to promote greater kindness and civility in American life. Lisa loves sharing with readers via Facebook, Youtube, and her website. More information about Lisa's novels can be found at www.Lisawingate.com

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

26 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars If you only read one book this year, READ THIS ONE!, June 12, 2001

By 

Adine Auel (Panama City, Florida) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Tending Roses (Tending Roses Series, Book 1) (Paperback)

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.

20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Husband and I Both Loved It! Great book to share with famil, July 1, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Tending Roses (Tending Roses Series, Book 1) (Paperback)

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.

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Thank you Grandma Rose, July 25, 2001

By 

Debra F. Gilbert (Alton Bay, NH United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Tending Roses (Tending Roses Series, Book 1) (Paperback)

What drew me to this story was the fact that my Mom is a Nana Rose, and what was amazing to me was I could picture the lessons that "Grandma" Rose was trying to teach her grand daughter coming from my mother to my daughter some day in the future. We take so much of life for granted, and when it's coming to an end, we often look back to see all the things we could/should have done differently. For the beauty and simplicity of the stories by Grandma alone, this book is worth the read, if you have an elderly grandparent, like I do, it is a nice reminder that they were once young & full of life, and that the important things they NEVER forget. A truly touching story.

Enjoy :)