Mister Owitas Guide to Gardening by Carol Wall

Mister Owitas Guide to Gardening Reviews

• 
  Marilyn

  Boy do I feel out of step when I see what other readers have rated this book It wasn't that I didn't enjoy reading it or find it touching in places but and it is a BUT I felt it was so contrived Wall used the whole story of the gardener to augment her own story which felt like a gimmick Not that I doubted that she had a nice friendly relationship with the gardener but so much of the suspense seemed contrived and didn't evoke the sympathy I would normally feel for people in the same circumstances The fact that Wall would continually act rashly yet immediately recognize her fault for doing so just didn't feel authentic view spoilerIt seemed to me to be at base a fairly straight forward story about a woman who had cancer and was terrified for good reason with the fear of it returning and what that would do to her relationship with her husband Her parents were players in the emotional story but her children were curiously absent Mr Owita was a supporting character in the cast But since cancer stories are abundant an editor comes along and decides to dramatize the book bring Mr O to the front of the stage and have a mystery surround him drama with her aging parents and a totally weird vignette about her husband possibly having an affair Voila A book with drama foreshadowing etc etc hide spoiler
• 
  Megan

  This book has little do do with gardening It is about a selfish whiny middle aged woman who hires her neighbors gardener to help with her neglected yard Lucky for the Kenyan born Mr Owita Mrs Wall is not a racist which we know because she tells us and Mr Owita several times Like when she is holding up the line at the grocery store where he bags because she wants to discuss the bushes in the yard When the manager asks Mr Owita to help Mrs Wall take her purchases to the car and he will bag She sure it is racism and tells Mr Owita she does not support such attitudes silly me I thought the manager wanted to help cutomers get through checkout uicklyUnluckily though for the minimum wage earner she is a snob Mrs Wall hires Mr Owita after seeing his impressive work next door The neighbor runs a nursery where Mr Owita is an employee and hired him to help maintain her gardens Mrs Wall treats him like an idiot until the neighbor shares his nursery job application can anyone say privacy act? which shows his doctorate in horticulture She writes him insisting on the correct address of Dr Owita in future and proceeds to call him GilesI have to admit I did not finish I just couldn't take another line of her whiny selfish self adoring snobbish writing
• 
  Lisa

  A surprising friendship blossoms between two people with supposedly very little in commonSUMMARYCarol Wall was at a crossroads in her life Her children were grown she had successfully overcome an earlier illness and her beloved parents were getting older One day she notices a dark skin man working in her neighbors yard The yard was gorgeous while hers was well beyond “rough around the edges” It wasn’t the worst yard in the neighborhood but it was uickly moving in that direction She wanted to hire this gentleman to work on her yard His name was Giles Owita and he had immigrated from Kenya The book is about the relationship that develops between Carol and Mr Owita It is about the changes in both their lives and about how they helped each other overcome some difficult battles “I never liked getting my hands dirty This was one reason that our yard looks so sad but there were other reasons too— bigger reasons that were much harder to confront than brutal grass and overgrown bushes”REVIEWMy favorite part of this charming story was the silent war over Carol’s three azela bushes She detested them and wanted them yanked outMr Owita thought them beautiful and merely fertilized and trimmed them And so their relationship began She was furious he would not do what she wanted with the blasted azaleas she wanted to be in control Mr Owita was a soft spoken humble horticulturist with a huge smile for everyone He was full of wisdom about plants and about the difficulties of life A uniue and enjoyable part of the book were the letters that Mr Owita and Carol exchanged with each other Each letter from Mr Owita further conveyed his wisdom and bright attitude They were a joy to read The story written by CAROL WALL was part memoir and part tribute The writing was charming heartfelt and thought provoking It increased my awareness of the importance of treating all those around you with respect and dignity You never know what someone else is going through Publisher Berkley BooksPublished February 3 2015Review wwwbluestockingreviewscom“It’s seem to me like too many people spend too much of their time taking care of their houses instead of enjoying their spouses And where was the fun in that?
• 
  ☼Book her, Danno☼ thepam

  I have tried twice months apart to get into this book but I can't Part of my problem is that there is too much unpleasantness The title leads me to believe that the tale is going to be uplifting and wondrous A story of plants and personalities like A FARM DIES ONCE A YEAR but in reading the beginning chapters I keep falling across prejudices hateful concepts and speech and information that seems too personal and not at all about Mr Owita and Carol Wall's relationship but rather about Carol Wall and how she feels responsible for her parents' and children's' happiness The conversation about her sister's death decades before is an example It is curious and interesting but as a modern reader I'm a bit put off by her constant references to this sister as being mongoloid I know that's the term they used then but I find it repulsive and not a little bit off puttingI think I would have liked the book better if it had clearly indicated that is was really an autobiography
• 
  Carol

  Our yard is beautifully landscaped with green grass and trees much like a park My husband works hard to keep the grass trimmed bushes shaped and trees pruned Despite this I could relate to how Carol Wall felt about the rough around the edges look of her property No longer could she just call it natural What it lacked was color and flowers reminding me of mine This is totally my fault a lack of knowledge of where to start and a fear of getting it wrong I could use the gardening lessons Carol Wall hoped to learn from Mr OwitaMr Owita's Guide to Gardening How I Learned the Unexpected Joy of a Green Thumb and an Open Heart turns out to be much than the transformation of a person who sports a brown thumb into a green one It is a slow journey for Wall who finds that things are not always as they seem that assumptions truly do make an ass out of you and me and that in midlife she still has much to learn She does manage to learn a lot about plants flowers and balance along the way It was hard for Wall to separate her own story in writing a tribute to Mr Owita Some readers faulted her for this I enjoyed the blending of their lives that begins with Wall hiring a helping hand which then grows into a friendship built on caring and respect each benefiting from the best ualities of the other A touching read which kept my interest
• 
  Karen O&

  As someone who loves flowers and gardens I was attracted to the title of this memoir even before I read the publishers note Imagine my surprise when in the Prologue the Author states her hatred for flowers Carol Wall is a white woman living in a neighbourhood in America where an African man will definitely be noticed Despite being raised by parents who teach her to not to judge a person by the colour of their skin Carol nevertheless jumps on her brakes when she notices such a man in her friend Sarah’s garden She learns his name is Giles Owita he is from Kenya and he is very good at gardening When Carol employs Mr Owita as her gardener she means for him to tidy up get rid of weeds and dispose of the azaleas she hates He seems to not fully understand her instructions when he tells her he will prune and fertilize the azaleas Despite a beautifully written note in English Mr Owita leaves in Carol’s letterbox she wonders if perhaps he has trouble understanding her instructions Who wins? Do the azaleas stay or go and what about Carol’s hatred of flowers? You will have to read the book to learn the answers to those uestions although the subtitle may give you a hintNonetheless whilst the garden is the heart the soul of Mr Owita’s Guide to Gardening is friendship Despite their huge cultural differences Carol Wall and Giles Owita become friends although both have secrets not easily revealed Discussions about the garden turn into discussions about lifeMany people in this day and age have difficulty understanding a friendship between a man and a women which does not threaten the other relationships in their lives Carol and Giles are two beautiful souls meeting at the right time in their lives for a friendship to blossom This is a life affirming memoir beautifully written by this first time author so much of which resonated with me on a deeply personal level Both Carol Wall and Giles Owita have faced many challenges in their lives and Carol tells their stories with humour pathos and love Thanks to Random House Australia via NetGalley for my prepublication copy of Mr Owita’s Guide to Gardening; it’s a pleasure to meet such uality people
• 
  Connie G

  25 stars rounded up to 3 starsCarol Wall has written a memoir about her friendship with Giles Owita a horticultural specialist and African immigrant They bonded as they gardened and faced other challenges especially health problems Although I felt empathy for the author battling breast cancer Mister Owita's story was the compelling The charismatic man found such beauty in nature and approached life with optimism and wisdom I wish of the book had been devoted to Mister Owita
• 
  Alexa

  I hated this I hated her adjective loaded meaningless descriptions I hated her arrogant assumptions that she is so insightful and wise I hated her meandering attempts to tell us what should have simply remained between herself and her therapist I hated her instant bestowal of “natural” wisdom “close to the earth”ness on a chance met unknown black man I hated her need to immediately start displaying her non racistness to him I hated her assumptions of his magicalness I can’t help wondering if she is really this unpleasant in real life or if this is just a disservice she has done herself by displaying her innermost thoughts to usThe first third of this is horribly written and I just didn’t want to hear this woman’s whining and watch her put her foot in her mouth or be her therapist After the first third it got a touch better – she began to show us what was so interesting about this man instead of all the mystical nonsense she’d been feeding us; perhaps she was just guilty of heavy handed foreshadowing? But it is still so awkwardly written and the unrecognized racism and blind assumption of privilege that underlies this is truly disturbing
• 
  Gaildb

  It really wasn't Mr Owita's story It was Carol Wall's story of her life Disappointing
• 
  Louise

  Amy Einhorn Books|March 4 2014|Hardcover|ISBN 978 0 399 15798 1MISTER OWITA'S GUIDE TO GARDENING is about a wonderful friendship between Carol Wall and Giles Owita It's a book about illness and also how we need to learn to not make assumptions Carol Wall is a high school teacher living in the United States and is happily married with grown children Giles Owita also lives in the United Sates is happily married and has young children but is originally from Kenya Carol and her husband never much cared about how their garden looked it just wasn't a priority in their lives One day she was admiring a neighbours garden which was breathtaking when she began to have a change of heart Why subject her community to their mess when everyone else had well maintained yards Carol noticed a black man working in the neighbours yard and figured she'd ask him to come and speak with her about doing her garden The woman who owned the home was a master gardener herself so Carol thought Giles must be good if she let him maintain her yard Carol assumed because Giles was a yard worker that he was automatically uneducated and probably not very bright When Carol first met Giles she wasn't overly friendly and fought him on a lot of the ideas he had to improve her garden Over time they became the best of friends even though Carol was occupied with worry over her cancer returning She and Giles although happily married to other people enjoyed a completely platonic but intimate friendship As their friendship blossomed and their complete trust in each other grew they began to reveal private and tragic secrets to each other As Carol confided in Giles Giles too confided in Carol further cementing their relationship Carol said my conversations with Giles Owita became my ideal postgraduate education I even took notes This memoir is a very personal account really of two people's lives And there is a lot to Giles Owita than meets the eye You'll be surprised at what you learn about this charming man from Kenya We'd all be lucky to meet and befriend a Giles Owita I liked the line where Carol wrote Fate had sent a professor to my door and my conversations with him were like a dream class I enjoyed this book thoroughly and will be sharing it with friends and recommending it to other people