Welcome to this week's edition of Top Ten Tuesday which is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl.This week the theme is May flowers and I immediately thought of Flower Fables (1854),which was Louisa May Alcott’s first published book, written for Ralph Waldo Emerson’s daughter. It features six to nine fairy tales involving flowers, sprites, and fairies, inspired by LMA's walks near Walden Pond. I won’t count this because I haven’t actually read it but I’ve seen a first edition at the Concord Public Library. Here are some other flower favorites:
I recommend Eight Cousins (1875) and Rose in Bloom (1876), my two favorite books by Alcott. Rose, the eponymous heroine, is an orphan who pays visits all her relatives before choosing the one she wants to live with.Alcott wrote sympathetically about children playing house and would have enjoyed Dandelion Cottage by Carroll Watson Rankin (1904), in which four little girls turn a deserted house into a clubhouse. One of my favorite juvenile historical series is the Mantlemass books by Barbara Willard, which extend from 1485 to 1644. In The Iron Lily (1973), Lilias runs away from an unhappy home situation and ends up running an iron foundry, although the pressures of being a girlboss make her seem hard and rigid to others, including the daughter she loves. The Iron Lily won the Guardian Award for Children’s Literature for 1974. I feel a Mantlemass reread coming on and I wonder who else read this series.The Mystery at Lilac Inn by Carolyn Keene (1930) is Nancy Drew’s fourth mystery as she tries to locate her friend Emily Crandall’s inheritance. Not one of the best, but don’t we all have a weakness for Nancy?My Lady of the Fuchsias by Essie Summers (1979) is one of her classic stories of an upright young woman trying to do the right thing but it not working out as planned: Priscilla is in love with her boss but he is engaged, so she leaves to help elderly Rosina with three children - and the boss turns out to be Rosina's difficult nephew.Rhododendron Pie - a cake made of flowers - is a birthday tradition in this novel about a quirky family by Margery Sharp (1930), which I read for Dean Street December. My review.Daisy’s Back in Town by Rachel Gibson (2004) is a fun contemporary romance, launching a series set in Texas. Daisy Monroe is back in town but not everyone is pleased to see her, especially Jackson Parrish, the man she walked out on 15 years ago (she had her reasons).I carried The Golden Tulip by Rosalind Laker (2007) to Amsterdam and back a year ago without finishing it but there is still time! The main character, Francesca, is studying painting with Vermeer, as one does, and maybe knowing there is no historical evidence he actually taught any women, except possibly his daughter, caused me to lose interest. Francesca is in love with a tulip merchant but her father has other plans for her.I found out that Iris in Winter by Elizabeth Cadell is back in print and my copy is arriving today! You’ll have to wait for me to review it as I think it is one I have never read. For those who enjoy historical fiction set in India, Flowers in the Blood by Gay Courter (1990) is about a powerful Jewish family in the opium business in the 19th century. Courter was a bestselling author when I worked at Penguin/NAL and this was one of our best cover designs.
Have you read any of these? If you participate, what was your Top Ten list this week?
I chose the same idea, thanks for sharing your #TTT
ReplyDeleteDandelion Cottage sounds adorable.
ReplyDeleteEven reading it for the first time as an adult, I thought it was sweet but I wish I had found it at 8 or 9.
DeleteGrowing up, I prefered Trixie Belden to Nancy Drew. I think it was because I could relate to her in so many ways.
ReplyDeleteHere's my TTT for the week: https://readbakecreate.com/even-more-may-flowers-book-covers-with-flowers/
Oddly, I never came across Trixie as a child but did read Nancy, and the Dana Girls and I especially liked Judy Bolton. A neighbor owned that series and I read all of her books.
DeleteI love your choices, although Rhododendron Pie and the Nancy Drew are the only ones I've read. I've also read some of Rosalind Laker's other books, but not The Golden Tulip. I used books with flowers in the title for a previous TTT post, so went with characters named after flowers this time.
ReplyDeleteI'm surprised you haven't read the Mantlemass books, Helen!
DeleteThe series of children's historical fiction looks great...I can't believe I never stumbled upon them before.
ReplyDeleteI started to read Elizabeth Cadell when many of her books were being re-issued a while back. I read quite a few and loved some and liked most, but if I am not confusing titles, I think that Iris in Winter was the one I liked least. I just couldn't like Iris. I hope you enjoy it more than I did. Sometimes a book just doesn't fit a person or sometimes it is just the wrong time. Like an earlier commenter, I preferred Trixie Beldon to Nancy, I was reading those books when I was young enough that I struggled to relate to someone old enough to own/drive a sports car. Trixie and her friends on foot or riding ponies were adventures I could manage to imagine myself into. Don't get me wrong, I read all the Nancy Drew books that came my way, along with the Hardy Boys and many others, but I don't think I owned any till I was an adult. Not sure if Trixie had any titles with flowers!
ReplyDeleteI am guessing that the ones I never read are not the strongest; possibly never published in the US. I liked Cadell's heroines because they were nearly always working girls!
DeleteI never knew Eight Cousins had another title, as well. That's interesting. That and The Golden Tulip are the only books I read from your list.
ReplyDeleteHere is mine:
https://momobookblog.blogspot.com/2026/05/top-ten-tuesday-may-flowers.html
Eight Cousins does have another title (rarely used), The Aunt Hill, but Rose in Bloom is the sequel. There is one very sad chapter: I remember sobbing through dinner and my father became very perturbed because he had found his mother’s LMAs in the attic and given them to me. He read mostly legal thrillers and didn’t realize a book could be so emotional.
DeleteHe probably didn't think a children's book could have that effect. But they definitely can. I recently read Where the Red Fern Grows and several other bloggers mentioned how they had cried their eyes out.
DeleteAnd yes, I have indeed heard The Aunt Hill before. Just forgot. Thanks for the reminder.
What a fun, nostalgic post! I adore ANNE OF GREEN GABLES and have read it many times, but I've only read a couple of the other books in the series and that's it by LMA. I really need to read more of hers. Thanks for the reminder :)
ReplyDeleteHappy TTT (on a Thursday)!
I like the sound of My Lady of the Fuchsias, written when Harlequin (or MIlls and Boon) novels were actually quite well written and fun to read. I remember devouring quite a few.
ReplyDeleteI loved Mary Burchell's books particularly and Essie Summers' books made me want to visit New Zealand!
DeleteThose Alcott books were some of my favorites of hers. I think I read Rose In Bloom a jillion times as a young girl. Know I also read that Nancy Drew book. Very nice choices!
ReplyDeleteGood list! I haven't read these. But I'm trying to think of some I have .... The Rose Code ... and The Name of the Rose ... as well as Valerie Perrin's Fresh Water for Flowers ... wait.... also Lisa See's Snow Flower and the Secret Fan. Yes!
ReplyDelete