The Lost Garden | 
Early morning read & coffee.
It‘s a cold 45 degrees, pouring rain. Reading about a garden & love in midst of war makes me feel hope for sunshine.
booksandcoffee #shelfsweeper ##4Elizabeth
pickMy intro to Helen Humphrey. She was recommended by my cousin (more specifically Followed by the Lark, but this was the first book of hers I could get my hands on). I loved this so much! surprisingly so! It gave me an entirely new (more intriguing) direction for my own gardens 🌷🪻 and for such a short book I cried several times 😢
I‘ve since picked up more of her work. And bonus that she‘s a 🇨🇦 author from a town near by.
pickGem of a book with beautiful writing and imagery, as beautiful as the flowers and gardens described in the novel. Set against the war, it‘s quiet and melancholic as the story is about those who are waiting at home..those waiting for return of loved ones; for love; and to be sent off to war. It breaks my heart. There‘re so many great quotes, I took my time with the book. Read it for June‘s #TBRtarot 😅
My picks for #12daysof2023
May - The Lost Garden
June - Miss Buncle's Book
@Andrew65
My first Humphreys and I‘m super excited 🩷🌺🙌🏻And I‘ve been wanting to read this love.y hardcover from Bloomsbury 😍it‘s GORGEOUS ❣️Thank you SO MUCH @TrishB for the amazing birthday gifts 🌈💜🎂📚 You know I‘m LOVING the whole floral theme🪻🌸🪷💐🌼🌻🌺
pickWell that just broke my heart into pieces! 😭 At first I thought the prose might teeter into cloying, but it won me over. Exquisite!
My #doublespin for May. Good so far! Also, I've been reading a lot of longer books lately. Nice to read something fairly short.
pickLovely, short book about a group of women who volunteer to grow food for the WWII war effort. Lots of references to Virginia Woolf‘s To the Lighthouse, so an added benefit that it prompted a reread of that book for me.
#wondrouswednesday @Eggs thanks 🙏 for the tag @Ddzmini 1. Flower pot on balcony. 2. Sprouted sweet potato 🍠 vine last year 3. the tagged book. Tagging all Littens who would like to play
So this month was my first #BookSpinBingo. So much fun! Great way to #tackletheTBR. I read my #BookSpin AND my#DoubleSpin. AND will probably get a bingo! Can‘t wait for June!
Loved The Lost Garden, thank you @tdrosebud
Thank you Tanya! @tdrosebud . One of my favorite descriptions of a book is “a little gem”! I will be diving in to the yummy chocolates shortly. Happy Valentine‘s Day! 💕🌹💖
Thank you for organizing @candority #BookCupidSwap
pick“Home is the place where we‘ve felt the most, I will tell him. And that can be anyplace. Or anyone. It doesn‘t matter how long you lived there. It‘s what you‘ll always want to come back to. “
Oh this book really made me cry. It‘s so full of goodness & beauty , and so calming.
The three gardens ✨✨✨
So glad I finally read this.
Thanks Leah for this book.
pickBeautiful but so sad. Read if you enjoy books about gardens.
First outdoor reading session of the year on this gorgeous day ❤️
I've read Helen Humphreys' poetry but this is my first time reading her prose. Unsurprisingly, it's beautifully crafted; I'm really enjoying it.
pick5⭐️ Gosh, I really love this book. Reading this is just like taking a walk in the garden 💐 It‘s so refreshing, and sentimental at the same time. The ending is a perfect wrap of all the feelings explored throughout the story. It‘s perfection! 👌🏻
@Eggs said I wasn't too late so here we go! #wondrouswednesday
For me, writing talent is the intrinsic ability to link words together in a pleasing and compelling manner to tell your stories. That said, I don't believe talent is necessary to become a writer, and that hard work means as much as talent in the end.
My favorite writer living is Helen Humphreys. Her ability to weave poetry in prose blows me away every time.
Thanks for tagging me!
#autobuy Helen Humphreys. Humphreys is a Canadian poet and novelist. The first book I read was Afterimage, which I read many years ago. My favourite book is the tagged book. Because of that book, I visited the Lost Gardens of Heligan in 2007. Please add The Lost Garden to your tbr if you haven‘t yet read it. It‘s so beautiful. I have not yet read The Frozen Thames. I would love you to share your fave author piles with me!
Day 7. #7days7covers #covercrush
Thanks @Tiffiney for inviting me to play.
My first post, about A Certain Age, was more than 3 years ago and it got zero likes. My second post, which had no picture was for The Lost Garden and got one like from @charl08 . Fun to look back on this #firstlike @Texreader
My Helen Humphreys stack! (I have two of her books as ebooks). I've re-read through her wonderful collection! Now it's time to move on to other writers (until her next book comes out). 😍📚
pickI think this absolute gem of a novel is my favourite Helen Humphreys book. It's a story about reading where the text is an abandoned garden, the writer is the gardener who created it and the reader is the gardener who resurrects it. It's also a story of love and loss. An absolute pleasure every time I read it! 😍📚
Still re-reading my way through all Helen Humphreys books. Such a pleasure!
Re-reading this gem! 😍📚
Cottage! 😍📚
pick💔😢 how does the author pack so much into a little tiny book. I can‘t stop thinking about the ending, made me cry and hard to explain exactly why. Gentle but heart breaking and so beautifully written. Every time I went to post a quote I could see someone had got there before me. I understand the love 💕 I have also just downloaded To The Lighthouse as I‘ve never read...
Are the authors other books as good?
My next read, a total #blameitonlitsy specifically @saresmoore and @batsy . This one waved very vigorously from the tbr this morning!
Watched The Great American Read tonight and saw that my favorite novel, The Lost Garden by Helen Humphreys, didn't make the list.
Anyone else's favorite not make that list?
#thegreatamericanread #faviritenovel
1. Nuts and crisps 😋
2. Tagged is my most recent #blameit on Litsy, specifically @saresmoore but if never heard of Netgalley before so I'm blaming all ARCs on Littens too
3. Salmon 😔
4. Mostly clean but I struggle to keep my desk tidy at home
5. Arrival. I didn't like everything but it's a very interesting take on contact with an alien species
@mindea
#humpdaypost
pickA big thank you to @saresmoore for bringing this beautiful novel to my attention. Humphreys prose is so calm but there's so much depth and emotion to it. The surface story of love and loss and fear with a group of Land Girls and soldiers is wonderfully rendered but it's also a book about art, here the work of Virginia Woolf, and its power to move and change us and bring us within the reach of writers and people we otherwise cannot know ⬇️
Just got home to find that two of the books I ordered myself arrived along with the sweetest birthday card from @Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks Thank you so much Misty! It is such a wonderful surprise and means a lot to me.
pickFirst book that I have read by Helen Humphreys - a beautifully written historical novel set in the English countryside during the World War II London Blitz. The ending is heartbreaking but beautifully done. Will definitely add more books by this Canadian author to my reading list.
“There is a vocabulary to existing, to taking up living space in the world, that cannot be translated over the chasm of death” -speaking on the death of Virginia Woolf
🌷I think this is one of the most beautiful quotes I have read in some time. This book is already becoming a meaningful one for me that I am savoring. I‘ve had to pause a few times and just reread passages and marvel at the word choice and emotion it was eliciting from me.
🤓When your night owl partner politely asks you to relocate as your reading light is intrusive to sleep...stumbled down to a breakfast spread unlike any I‘ve encountered in a hotel.
🍶Cymbeline and The Lost Garden are my weekend reads.. though I brought five others just in case I change my mind... and bought three more along the way. What‘s everyone else reading this weekend?
#ShakespeareReadalong #VacationReads #Cymbeline
pickWhat a simply stunning book. This is such a powerful and honest story. Humphreys‘ observations and insecurities seem to sing along, if slightly off-key, to the tune of a rustling garden. Love, loss, longing are flora pinned to the backdrop of a blackout curtain, thick & heavy with war. I was struck time and again by her poignant brilliance, by the elegance of her patience. I took my time with this book and it changed me.
“When a writer writes, it‘s as if she holds the sides of her chest apart, exposes her beating heart. And even though everything wants to heal, to close over and protect the heart, the writer must keep it bare, exposed. And in doing this, all of life is kept back, all the petty demands of the day-to-day. The heart is a river. The act of writing is the moving water that holds the banks apart...”
I got up at six & did an hour of audio baking and cleaning with Dandelion Wine. Now it‘s time to settle in to my cozy reading corner with a tall cuppa and finish a book I‘ve been working on for ages!
#24in48 #Readathon
I read a number of beautifully-written books this year but this one stands out. She writes with a poet's eye; her language is rich yet precise and not overblown. Each page is lush and expansive and I was surprised that such a slim book could hold so much. #beautifullywrittenbook #AllTheBooksof2017
I‘ve been dipping in and out of this over the past few weeks and each time I do, I‘m refreshed and engrossed. How does she do it? Helen Humphreys is sure to join the ranks of my favorite authors.
What a wild ride it‘s been these last few weeks, preparing our house to be sold. But now that it‘s just about on the market, I‘m feeling accomplished and at peace. Unfortunately, I‘ve started three books and finished zero this month. Here‘s hoping I can steal some reading time this holiday week!
pickHere‘s my five-star (11.5 minute) review over on BookTube: https://youtu.be/1ZH_uynNcqY
#LostGardenBuddyRead
This article gives some fascinating details about how deeply the novel - which I finished a day or two ago and absolutely loved – is autobiographical!
http://januarymagazine.com/profiles/humphreys.html
#LostGardenBuddyRead
pickFinished this last night, told myself "Stop snivelling"; wrecked to tears anyway. A modest but beautiful gem of a book. The garden is a metaphor for how to live & the metaphor can occasionally be heavy-handed, but the prose is lucid & precise, attentive to the small details & the inner landscape of a person's unpredictable heart. Written in homage to Virginia Woolf, & also about the life of reading/writing/communing with nature. Life-affirming.
