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The Garden Against Time: In Search of a Common Paradise
The Garden Against Time: In Search of a Common Paradise | Olivia Laing
10 posts | 2 read | 1 reading | 8 to read
An Oprah Daily Summer Reading Recommendation Named one of the most anticipated books of 2024 by the BBC, The Observer, Irish Times, The Guardian, and The Millions. Inspired by the restoration of her own garden, "imaginative and empathetic critic" (NPR) Olivia Laing embarks on an exhilarating investigation of paradise. In 2020, Olivia Laing began to restore an 18th century walled garden in Suffolk, an overgrown Eden of unusual plants. The work brought to light a crucial question for our age: Who gets to live in paradise, and how can we share it while theres still time? Moving between real and imagined gardens, from Miltons Paradise Lost to John Clares enclosure elegies, from a wartime sanctuary in Italy to a grotesque aristocratic pleasure ground funded by slavery, Laing interrogates the sometimes shocking cost of making paradise on earth. But the story of the garden doesnt always enact larger patterns of privilege and exclusion. Its also a place of rebel outposts and communal dreams. From the improbable queer utopia conjured by Derek Jarman on the beach at Dungeness to the fertile vision of a common Eden propagated by William Morris, new modes of living can and have been attempted amidst the flower beds, experiments that could prove vital in the coming era of climate change. The result is a humming, glowing tapestry, a beautiful and exacting account of the abundant pleasures and possibilities of gardens: not as a place to hide from the world but as a site of encounter and discovery, bee-loud and pollen-laden.
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review
Chelsea.Poole
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Mehso-so

On paper, I should have loved this. I listened to the audiobook which I found uninspiring and flat. The tone made it difficult to engage with, even though I was interested in the topic: Laing is restoring a garden in Suffolk which she uses as a point to explore the ways humans have created “paradises” over the years. Gardens exist for the wealthy through slave labor. What‘s the impact of this? This gets lots of praise, so I should have gone print.

TheKidUpstairs I really want to read this one. Good to know that print is the way to try it! Hopefully it works better in that medium. 2mo
BarbaraBB I love the cover but I have tempered my expectations! 2mo
kspenmoll I have it in print but not reading it -hope its better than your experience with audio. 2mo
65 likes3 comments
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kspenmoll
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We thoroughly enjoyed our annual lobster roll end of summer celebration yesterday. Cool breezes, sunshine, blue sky - perfect weather to sit by the sea. A stop for ice cream in Madison demanded a visit to Indie bookstore RJJulia‘s.As I have a book buying ban, I limited myself to 2 books- 🤫 #endofsummer #familycelebration

Lesliereadsalot I‘ve had Reykjavik on my TBR list forever. 3mo
kspenmoll @Lesliereadsalot It sounds really great! 3mo
49 likes2 comments
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AnneCecilie
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The staycation is over. Actually it ended on Monday when I had my first workday at 3 weeks of vacation.

So how did my reading go?

I finished my current reads, A Flat Place & Caledonian Road. I kept up with my buddy reads Nancy Drew, Shardlake , Sherlock Holmes and started Unwell Women #SheSaid

From my stacks I read the ones with dots next to them.
So 8 of 19 that I owns and 5 of 10 library books, so in total 13 books

AnneCecilie I‘m quite happy with that since I had plans for 11 of the 23 days. Some of the plans was only for a few hours while other where all day plans. 3mo
TrishB Great progress 👍🏻 3mo
kspenmoll Wonderful!!! 3mo
AnnCrystal 📚👏😉👍💝. 3mo
56 likes4 comments
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AnneCecilie
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Pickpick

Right before the pandemic, Laing and her husband buy a house w a garden. Laing want to restore the garden to its previous glory. As she is doing that, she‘s looking into how the garden has been seen as a paradise. But what will stay with the most after reading this is Laing‘s look into how the owners of the big estates with big gardens acquired their land, but also how they got the money to make these amazing gardens.

AnneCecilie I will never look at a grand garden in the same way ever again. I will always wonder who had to sacrifice their life, so someone else became wealthy because some of the money came from slavery 4mo
kspenmoll Oh I want to read this! Lovely review!stacked 4mo
Tamra Sounds terrific! 4mo
53 likes5 stack adds3 comments
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AnneCecilie
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#BookReport

I finished Dissolution #ShardlakeBR and Real Estate

I read West, On the Calculation of Volume. III and My Friends

Which means that my only current read at the moment is The Garden Against Time

dabbe Yay! 🩵💙🩵 4mo
43 likes1 comment
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AnneCecilie
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#WeeklyForecast

Hopefully I‘ll finish Dissolution #ShardlakeBR

Just started The Garden Against Time and want to continue that

I‘ve also just started Real Estate and want to finish that. I also want to read West and On Calculation of Volume III

I also want to get a good start on My Friends

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AnneCecilie
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My staycation started after work today. So I found all the books I want to read

I own the books on the left and that‘s 19 books
On the right are my prioritized library books and that‘s 10 books. I currently has 23 books out

So for 23 days off work, I got 29 books, needless to say I won‘t get to everyone

This doesn‘t include my current reads (A Flat Place & Caledonian Road) or buddy reads (Nancy Drew, Shardlake & Sherlock Holmes)

KadaGul @AnnCecilie It does not matter what you can finish in 23 days what matters is that you have plenty of books 📚 to choose from for your staycation or vacation 🌅. #Staycation #Bookish 4mo
Jari-chan What a lovely stack to choose from! 4mo
AnneCecilie @KadaGul I know, but there‘s something about telling yourself and putting it out there that this is overly ambitious, just so that I don‘t get it my head that‘s it‘s doable. Since I do hope to do some other things as well. 4mo
See All 13 Comments
AnneCecilie @Jari-chan 😊 4mo
dabbe What fun! You deserve it! 🤩🤩🤩 4mo
AnneCecilie @dabbe Thank you 😊 4mo
Deblovestoread Enjoy your staycation! It is always good to have choices! 4mo
MemoirsForMe Enjoy! 📚📚📚 4mo
Librarybelle Lovely! Enjoy! 4mo
LiteraryinPA Oooh, have a wonderful staycation!! 4mo
kspenmoll Fantastic!!!! I have too many library books to read- I cannot control myself!!!! 4mo
sarahbarnes Happy reading!! 📚 4mo
AnneCecilie @Deblovestoread @UwannaPublishme @Librarybelle @LiteraryinLawrence @kspenmoll @sarahbarnes Thank you. It‘s almost impossible not to have a great staycation with all this books 😊 4mo
72 likes13 comments
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RowReads1
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My Birthday book booty.

Ruthiella Happy Birthday! 🥳🥳🥳 4mo
RowReads1 @Ruthiella Thank you! 4mo
dabbe HB! From one 🦀 to another 🦀! 🤩🤩🤩 4mo
See All 7 Comments
PurpleyPumpkin Happy birthday! Looks like you‘re having the perfect celebration. 📚🎉🎂🥳📚 4mo
TheBookgeekFrau Happy Birthday!!! 🥳🎉 4mo
Bookwomble Happy Birthday 😊🎂🎁📚 I really like the Steven Mithen books I've read, so I'll be stacking that one 😀 4mo
51 likes7 comments
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RowReads1
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rockpools
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I‘ve had the bookiest birthday in years! Here‘s the rest of my birthday book hall.

Second Star is meditations on lingering, observing and noticing…

I haven‘t quite worked out what the Garden Against Time is yet, but it‘s very beautiful (with endpaper 🥰)and is blurbed by Nigel Slater and Neil Tennant. Which seems random?

And Manny has been on my radar, and just looks cool.

squirrelbrain Ooh I was eyeing up the Laing book - as far as I know it‘s NF, following the author as she grows her own garden 5mo
45 likes1 stack add1 comment