<p>My garden is my most beautiful masterpiece.</p>
<ul>
<li>Claude Monet</li>
</ul>
<p>Its summertime, and while the livin is easy, the CC book club is going to do its best to lure you into long, leisurely days of reading with our first-ever combo selection (or as newccuser dubbed it, the Garden duet):</p>
<p>The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett</p>
<p>and</p>
<p>The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton</p>
<p>Kate Mortons novel was influenced by the Burnett childrens classic, and the two booksone classic, one modernshould complement each other nicely and provide us with plenty of food for discussion.</p>
<p>So enjoy the rest of June and all of July, watch your children and your gardens grow, and then join us on August 1st for The Secret Garden and The Forgotten Garden.</p>
<p>The Secret Garden can be read online free through a number of sites. It can also be downloaded free onto an iPod. And for those of you with a Kindle - you can find it free on Amazon.</p>
<p>I admit, though, to just buying the hardcover copy illustrated by Tasha Tudor. ;)</p>
<p>could you tell me more about the Forgotten Garden? (I mean, without wrecking it for the readers.) the Secret Garden is possibly my favorite childhood book, one of the biggest influences on me of anything i’ve ever read. I will admit I have a hard time imagining someone else writing something connected to it. But I am intrigued. I’ll go read it up on it a bit.</p>
<p>" was also eager to play with 19th-century gothic conventions in The Forgotten Garden. I adore books like Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights, and I wanted a gloomy old house, wicked aunts, secretive servants, hidden identities, mysterious whisperings–the lot. But when my garden grew walls, I suddenly remembered The Secret Garden, and with my theme of fairy tales and storytellers and the vital role that such things play in a child’s imagination,…"</p>
<p>(Mary nice first post, hope this entices many CC readers )</p>
<p>Funny–I don’t remember much about fairy tales in Secret Garden. I always thought of it as being about tossing out the secretive, the dark, the mysterious whisperings,and instead getting one’s hands into real dirt, under real sunlight, surrounded by healthy living stuff. Kind of anti-Gothic, really. Very pro-imagination, of course, but imagination in terms of sympathetic understandings of the actual world rather than a made-up one. But, it’s been years since my last re-reading, so I might be remembering selectively.</p>
<p>Garland, on the thread from the previous book discussion, Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet, we started the process of selecting the next book.</p>
<p>Several proposals were for a “classic”–ie To Kill a Mockingbird, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, or a newer release. </p>
<p>Mary, proposed a compromise to an "either / or " situation, and suggested we read The Secret Garden, because the author listed it as “one” of many inspirations for her book The Forgotten Garden, one of the finalists for our next book.
These books may be very different, which will make for lots of discussion, Mary’s goal! Hope you join in!</p>
<p>This is so nicely put and jibes with my (admittedly foggy) recollection of The Secret Garden. I don’t know how many parallels there will be with *The Forgotten Garden<a href=“if%20any”>/i</a>, but I’m looking forward to finding out. I decided not to do any pre-reading about Kate Morton’s book, because I find it works better for me to go into a story “blind.” Otherwise, I tend to be too swayed by critics’ opinions before I’ve had a chance to develop one of my own. </p>
<p>I’m going to read The Secret Garden first (probably aloud since I still have a willing young listener at home) and then I’ll move on to The Forgotten Garden.</p>
<p>Sigh, I have a policy against buying a Kindle book that is priced higher than the paper back book. Guess I’ll have to see if I get to a book store. But I really do boycott those publishers when they do that.</p>
<p>^ Singersmom I hear you about Kindle costs, I have bought more books since the purchase. Did not realize that some Kindle costs are higher than paperback. Need to pay more attention! I liked the price of The Secret Garden …0.</p>
<p>Curious about something - Mary stated above she doesn’t like to “pre-read” about the books, and I hope my “amazon ratings” did not spoil anything. </p>
<p>A friend, avid reader, and I discussed the issue about ‘pre-reading’ the discussion questions before reading the selection. She is in a book club, and thinks by doing this she will glean more from the reading and be able to remember when it’s time to discuss the selection. Usually she has read many books in the meantime. </p>
<p>So "Have you experimented with “pre-reading” the suggested publisher book discussion questions or do you do as Mary, does and just jump in? "</p>
<p>Not at all! I like to know the average number of “stars” (I would be wary of a book that had hundreds of one-star reviews, for example). And it’s important to have a general idea of what the story is about, to gauge its appeal. (We’ve ruled out some titles in the past based on violence-heavy plot lines.) But I don’t read the in-depth summaries or the discussion questions beforehand. Far too many spoilers!</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Good to know! I hope you’ll come back and share with us on August 1st.</p>
<p>And once you read The Secret Garden, see the lovely movie (directed by Agnieszka Holland.) Not 100% faithful to the book, but sweetly done and very enjoyable to watch. Available on Netflix.</p>
<p>^ Katliamom you read my mind. I just finished the book, and know there are many versions of the movie. Thank you for pointing me in the right direction- I love , love , did I say LOVE netflix. Hope it’s a streaming movie. TY !!!</p>
<p>Movie update- Katliamom’s suggestion not a streaming version, so didn’t work via netflix. When I checked streaming Amazon- not available. Drats.
Netflix does have this BBC tv version available …might be watchable?</p>
<p>.Starring: Sarah Hollis Andrews, John Woodnutt
Directed by: Katrina Murray
Runtime: 1 hour 46 minutes
Release year: 1983
Studio: BBC</p>
<p>Mary13–I do appreciate your literary insight! I’ll check out FG if I can, but I’m doing an online class and some personal projects, so I may not get to it. If I do, I’d be happy to join in.</p>
<p>Just saw BBC’s version of The Secret Garden via streaming Netflix.
Don’t know how it compares to the other versions, but it was true to the story, nicely acted, and enjoyable.</p>