>Flowers, Books & San Francisco

>
Is anyone else tired of the rain? I shouldn’t complain, because here in Memphis, all those April showers have certainly brought lots of beautiful May flowers. In my yard, the Azaleas have come and gone, as have the blossoms on the tulip tree, and my peony bush was magnificent this year!

Thanks to Michael and Tim Elliott of Elliott Lawns, LLC, our yard is already shaping up for spring. We haven’t been able to grow grass under our three tall crape myrtles out front, so Michael designed these lovely beds and surrounded them with shade-loving sod. His crew also added some ornamental grasses in the beds near the street (not pictured) and replaced a few dead shrubs with new ones.

And the clematis keeps coming back every year, although we pulled it up with some annoying prickly roses a few years ago! Yeah, we’re ready for May here in midtown Memphis.

Meanwhile, the rainy weather kept me inside for a few days, with a great opportunity to read. My bookshelf of “to reads” is finally getting manageable, but I’m having a hard time deciding what’s next. Here are a few that have made it to the top of the stack. If anyone has read any of these and would like to comment pro or con, please do! I’m heading for San Francisco for a week tomorrow, and I’ve decided to take one memoir and one novel with me. Hmmmmmmm I’ll let you know next week which ones I read! (And you know me, I’ll probably find a really cool independent bookstore down one of those streets in San Francisco and add to my bookshelf, like City Lights or Green Apple Books. I’ll let you know if I find them, and what treasures I discover! Oh, and our hotel is only a couple of blocks form the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. And… okay, now I’m getting excited. Off to bed so I’ll have the energy to get up and leave for the airport by 8 a.m.

The Emperor’s Children by Claire Messud

Thin is the New Happy by Valerie Frankel

Bound South by Susan Rebecca White

One Mississippi by Mark Childress

Goldengrove by Francine Prose

The Girl With No Shadow by Joanne Harris (author of Chocolat)

Lark & Termite by Jayne Anne Phillips

The Story of Edgar Sawtelle by David Wroblewski