I write the blog Floriography for the ecommerce site birthdayblossoms.com. It will not surprise you to know that the subject of most of my posts is flowers, and when it isn’t flowers specifically, it is generally botanical in nature. But I do manage to work in books, mostly because I can’t resist. I love literature too much to not talk about it, even when I am talking about flowers. June’s birth month flower is the rose, so that was the subject of my most recent post. I talk

Can a reader like a novel when he or she does not like the main characters or the plot? I was compelled to consider this question on completion of my book club’s April selection, The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny by Kiran Desai. The book came with the imprimatur of the literary community – shortlisted for the 2025 Booker Prize, fawning and starred reviews in major publications, respectable ratings on Good Reads and Amazon, and President Obama put it on his list of favorite b

Those who consider themselves bibliophiles generally like to receive books for Christmas. I do consider myself as such, and I very much like to find books under my Christmas tree. I also understand the difficulty of buying a book for a bibliophile. Absent some sort of wish list, it can be difficult to select a book that the bibliophile would a) like and b) not have read. The market solution to this challenge is the book-adjacent gift. Barnes & Noble has been aggressive in thi