Oh, Victoria

Hola. Firstly, if my thought go wildly besirk, I blame my newly moisturized legs that cause my computer to be sliding all over the place and the distracting ad man on Spotify. Continuing right along, then! Ah this book, maybe it was the fact that it was my first novel of the summer, but I ate this book up. Suspense of any kind kills me, and all an author has to do is keep switching between the past and the present to keep my eyes firmly glued to the page. I loved the idea of the language of the flowers. I am such a sucker for stuff like that! I love meanings, and I thought it was so interesting how everything had a meaning. I think it also appealed to me because I love it when someone is so good at one thing. I think I am fine with being a well-rounded person who doesn't have one, all-consuming passion, but I find people that do facinating. I liked how when Victoria was working with flowers in the shop, or talking about flowers, she turned into someone entirely different, and as much as she was buried in her guilt, she couldn't guilt or pity her way out of her passion for the language of the flowers. It was something she was good at without trying. She had so many issues. Like, SO many. The foster care system makes me so sad, and kids who end up like her. For the people who are successful foster-parents and the kids who get adopted happily, it's awesome, but I feel like it is very realistic that some kids end up like her- jaded, angry, closed down, and convinced there is something distinctly unloveable about her. That was the part that made me sad, and made me sympathize with her. She was such a PUNK, but I think it was the little tid-bit about the foster mom who made her eat frozen peas, and starved her, or the family who made her sleep outside when she was 5. I understand the feeling of wanting to push people (like Elizabeth) who don't seem like they could love you, just to make sure they do. As for themes...oh boy, I was never good at this in school. Part of me wants to say forgiveness. or second chances (or in her case, like 550th chance). But then again I don't know, it's a tough one. I agree with you, Em, in that it was frusterating how everyone just kept trying to help, and love her, and she kept pushing people away. Also, pet peeve, it drove me crazy how the guy always cooked for her, and she never said thank you, she never learned how to cook, and she never did anything for him. Also, the low point for me was when she gave up on breastfeeding, and then dropped Hazel off at the dad's house. At that point I almost threw down the book. But then it turned out ok, I was just ready to wring her neck. Overall, it was a worthwhile book in that it made me think, and I love that we have this book club, and this blog, so that I can actually be help accountable to finish a book (i am like you in that, Em!), and then to process my thoughts on it. Claire, i know what you mean about the yellow roses! I had the same thought, I was like "hey, no, they mean friendship!" but i agree, stick to your definition! I seriously thought about copying down the whole back index of the book for the flowers meanings, though, i just think it's SO COOL. I want to give people secret messeges in flowers now.

Let the Flowers Speak

Disclaimer: I was trained in high school to be able to pull stuff out of no where and twist it to sound somewhat good so just tell me if you think that's what I am doing at any point. :)
I don't know who renamed this blog "The Window Seat" but I love it. I want a window seat to be able to read in so very badly!! I always have. :)
So I have realized that I should have written more of my thoughts as I went along instead waiting until I have a lot of thoughts all piled up and probably won't remember all of them but oh well here goes nothing.
I have finished both Part 1 and 2 at this point in time. I got a big junk of it "read" thanks to the audio version i listened to on my trip to and from Ann Arbor! Books on "tape" what a wonderful invention. Sorry for the stream of consciousness just roll with it, my friends. 
At first I was a little weary of this book. Ok that's a lie. When I first picked up the book and read the description I was super excited! I love flowers and was excited at the thought of a book with them as a main character in a sense. When I first started reading it, however, I had a hard time getting into it because it seemed pretty slow and depressing but then I kept going and it got me hooked to want to know if this poor girl's life would turn around. 
This poor Victoria girl has oh so many problems. She's nuts. I don't blame her considering her life but phew baby she has some majorly messed up views of herself.
I really enjoyed the part when she finally had the realization that she wanted to be a florist. It was rather satisfying and almost relieving that she made a  definite decision that would help her to move on in her life. I guess this book is a classic journey of self discovery. Which is kind of where we all are in our lives. I guess the whole journey of life contains moments of discovering ourselves but right now is the prime time of establishing who we are and where we want to go with our lives. 
I feel like this book was simply about life and how life has it's ups and downs it has its good days and bad days. There are days where you want to run away  but some times all running away does is get you no where only farther away from where you are aiming to go and I think Victoria's problem was that she was nerve given the chance in her life to choose where she would aim to go and grow. So when she was given the freedom she didn't know how to handle it and therefore reverted to putting up walls so she wouldn't get hurt. 
I was mad at first when they were talking about yellow roses and how they mean sad things because yellow roses are one of my favorites because of some past experiences with them but then I decided it didn't matter what the book had to say I had my own meaning for yellow rose and I will stick with it.  
I like how in the end it's finally established that you have to work for love at  least I think that was established. I do like happy endings and I think this is as close to a happy ending as you can get with these characters.
I don't know what else to say. 
Em, I don't know how to help you appreciate the book. It's ok if you didn't like it. You're allowed to not like it. I don't think I would read it again or recommend it to others but overall I was glad to have read it. 


:) 

Mostly Uncomfortable with Only Slight Appreciation

The Language of Flowers by Vanessa Diffenbaugh

Hello blog friends. I am finally having the time to blog. Hurray, tis a good day. (Though, I would like to say I'm home from work because I puked--shocker. Some Italian food didn't sit well with me. But still a good day.)

First of all, ladies, thank you for agreeing to read and discuss! Maureen, the blog name is much better. Thank you also for finishing the book. I respect you for reading it through. I will say that I actually got through the whole thing BECAUSE of you guys. When I don't like a book, I don't finish it. But I was encouraged by the two of you and felt accomplished to be done with it (even if I did some hard core skimming. Though it's more than I would have done.)

Victoria was a weirdo. I think a significant reason I did not care for this book was because I slightly identified with her grossness: sleeping all day, not talking to people, being oddly emotional and abrupt. These are all things I see myself prone to and was frightened beyond belief to see them sort of immortalized. I kept thinking, "oh gosh, what if I end up like that..." Her character was unique though. I think the idea behind her was successful, but I never really felt connected to her or close to in the way I wanted to. I'm not a very literature-oriented person so I guess there could be a technique behind writing a semi-repulsive main character but this one didn't work for me. I respect contemporary ways of writing characters but there was something I did not quite like about Victoria and this story.

The idea behind the language of flowers and the way Victoria helped people communicate through it was cool. Interpersonal communication seemed to be a theme. Victoria was the only one who hardly reached out to others. Everyone reached out to Victoria even though she was a hag and she eventually was converted by their persistence. Love won out in the end and she learned to allow people to love her. That was cool. But I did not get this sense until THE END of the book. The whole time I felt uncomfortable with Victoria and it was not until I finally heard her say "I plan to take my life one step at a time and learn to love and allow myself to be love..." (paraphrased). I hope that makes sense.

Heavy criticism: didn't like the descriptive sexual stuff. I skipped over that. Also didn't like the descriptive pregnancy stuff. I just feel uncomfortable reading that, especially if I dislike the character.
You probably could have seen this comment coming.

What do you think the overall theme was? Can we talk about that? I feel like I need some help appreciating this book.

Ciao.