Customer Reviews

Tending Roses (Tending Roses Series, Book 1)

5 star:		(81)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

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.

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.

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 :)

"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 book is not to be missed! This summer, while healing up from surgery, I read quite a few books trying to lift my spirits and keep from feeling housebound. Among those I read were Tuesdays With Morrie and The Prayer of Jabez, both of which have had tons of media attention, and both of which are good books.

By far the most profound and uplifting book I read this summer, however, was Tending Roses. If you want something really beautiful, where and old person teaches a young person what truly matters at the end of life, read Tending Roses. I can not begin to describe it to you, except to say, read it yourself. You won't be disappointed. Ms. Wingate, wherever you are-- Thank You and Grandma Rose for taking me away from my troubles!

Tending Roses is truly one of the best books I've ever read. Thought provoking and emotional, I was drawn into the story from page one, and through Ms. Wingate's words, I lived on that Missouri farm right alongside Kate and Ben and the rest of Grandma Rose's family. There isn't a person on this earth who wouldn't be able to relate to the situations these characters go through, whether it be motherhood or sibling rivalry, financial problems or marital tension, or the stress and worry over an aging grandparent. But what makes this book so wonderful is the way each and every one of these characters must find the answers within themselves, to learn forgiveness and acceptance, and to learn what truly matters in life. I cried, I laughed...then I called my grandmother.

Tending Roses is a simple book. There are no unbearable traumas,no heart stopping tragedies. Just a story of regular people trying to find their way in the world. Kate and Ben have gone to stay with Nana Rose in order to get her ready to go to a nursing home. Through the weeks that they stay with her, they both make several discoveries about themselves and their families. Often touching, sometimes sad, but in the end an uplifting and special book. Buy one for your Mom, she'll thank you for it.

I agree that Tending Roses is a KEEPER. A couple of girlfriends had mentioned to me that they loved this book, and then I happened by it in the airport, so I bought a copy. It was, no question, one of the finest reads I've ever had anytime, anywhere, by any author. Lisa Wingate creates characters who are flawed yet sympathetic, and impossible to forget, and she endows her characters with deep and awakening souls. I identified particularly with Kate's struggle to balance the demands of motherhood, family, and caring for an elderly relative. I loved that, in the end, she grew through the experience and learned to forgive shortcomings in other members of her family. Don't we all need to do that?

Reading Tending Roses made me want to be a better person. It helped me understand that the people in my life I clash with or don't understand have troubles of their own. They, like I, are struggling to find a place in the world, and we are all a product of our pasts. Tending Roses is a wonderful spiritual experience, one I plan to share with my mother and sisters, and someday my daughters when they are older. If you're looking for a book that will speak to you and leave you feeling good about life and the people around you, read this one. Five stars and more. I am rushing to buy Lisa Wingate's next books!