Margaret Roach

Please join us on Sunday, April 28th at 3 pm as we welcome to the Bookshop Margaret Roach, author of The Backyard Parables, and Katrina Kenison, author of Magical Journey, in a joint book reading and discussion.

Margaret Roach, author of And I Shall Have Some Peace There, has been harvesting thirty years of backyard parables – deceptively simple, instructive stories from a life spent digging ever deeper – and has distilled them in a memoir, The Backyard Parables: Lessons on Gardening, and Life, which also includes her best tips for garden making.

Margaret Roach has returned to her garden, insisting as ever that we must garden with both our head and heart or, as she expresses it, with “horticultural how-to and woo-woo.” Roach has a fundamental understanding of nature, philosophy, and life, and in The Backyard Parables, she explores the ways that gardening saved her and meditates on the science and spirituality of nature, reminding her readers and herself to keep on digging.

Katrina Kenison is the author of The Gift of an Ordinary Day and Mitten Strings for God: Reflections for Mothers in a Hurry and, with Rolf Gates, Meditations from the Mat: Daily Reflections on the Path of Yoga. Her writing has appeared in O: the Oprah Magazine, Real Simple, Family Circle, Redbook, Woman’s Day, Health, and other publications. From 1990 until 2006, Kenison was the series editor of The Best American Short Stories, published annually by Houghton Mifflin. She co-edited, with John Updike, The Best American Short Stories of the Century. A certified Reiki master and Kripalu yoga teacher, Katrina lives with her family in rural New Hampshire.

Location: Street: 65 Main Street City: Concord, Province: Massachusetts Postal Code: 01742-2503 Country: United States (added from IndieBound)… (more)

Margaret Roach has been harvesting thirty years of backyard parables-deceptively simple, instructive stories from a life spent digging ever deeper-and has distilled them in this memoir along with her best tips for garden making, discouraging all manner of animal and insect opponents, at-home pickling, and more.

Margaret Roach has returned to the garden, insisting as ever that we must garden with both our head and heart, or as she expresses it, with "horticultural how-to and woo-woo." In The Backyard Parables Roach uses her fundamental understanding of the natural world, philosophy, and life to explore the ways that gardening saved and instructed her, and meditates on the science and spirituality of nature, reminding her readers and herself to keep on digging.

Margaret Roach is the author of the memoir And I Shall Have Some Peace There. She has been an editor at the New York Times, fashion editor and garden editor at Newsday, the first garden editor for Martha Stewart Living magazine, and the editorial director of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia. Margaret is now a consultant and avid gardener, keeping fans up to date on her website A Way to Garden, which Anne Raver of the New York Times called "the best garden blog" she'd seen. Margaret is also the author of A Way to Garden, named Best Garden Book of the Year by the Garden Writers' Association of America.

Location: Street: 29 Tinker St Additional: City: Woodstock, Province: New York Postal Code: 12498 Country: United States (added from IndieBound)… (more)

Join Katrina Kenison and Margaret Roach for an event inspired by their much-anticipated new books, “Magical Journey: An Apprenticeship in Contentment,” and “The Backyard Parables: a Meditation on Gardening, and Life.” Katrina has spent twenty-five years nurturing a marriage, raising two sons to adulthood, tending to the myriad demands of home and family life. Margaret has spent precisely the same amount of time nurturing countless plants in the garden – a generous plot that has proven to be as worthy and complicated a life partner as any human mate. Now, despite different paths and charges, they find themselves in much the same spot, asking “What next?” -- even as they learn to let go of what was, clearing space for new growth. Come connect with two authors, two friends, two lives, two books -- and some common themes that we hope you will join in the discussion of as well.

Location: Street: 4869 Main St Additional: City: Manchester Center, Province: Vermont Postal Code: 05255 Country: United States (added from IndieBound)… (more)

This event will be held at Oblong Books & Music, 26 Main Street, Millerton, NY.

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Order signed copies here.

Former Editorial Director of Martha Stewart, Margaret Roach, has been harvesting thirty years of backyard parables-deceptively simple, instructive stories from a life spent digging ever deeper-and has distilled them in this memoir along with her best tips for garden making, discouraging all manner of animal and insect opponents, at-home pickling, and more.

After ruminating on the bigger picture in her memoir And I Shall Have Some Peace There, Margaret Roach has returned to the garden, insisting as ever that we must garden with both our head and heart, or as she expresses it, with "horticultural how-to and woo-woo." In The Backyard Parables, Roach uses her fundamental understanding of the natural world, philosophy, and life to explore the ways that gardening saved and instructed her, and meditates on the science and spirituality of nature, reminding her readers and herself to keep on digging.

Location: Street: 6422 Montgomery St., Suite 6 City: Rhinebeck, Province: New York Postal Code: 12572-0482 Country: United States (added from IndieBound)… (more)

An inspiring, beautiful book for every woman whose children have grown up—but isn’t done growing herself.

A book of reflections, Magical Journey by Katrina Kenison is about the reality of a new life without children at home. More an account of a spiritual journey than a physical one, this transformation begins and ends with a home, a life and a marriage. Magical Journey explores the belief that even as old identities are outgrown, new ones begin to beckon—inspiring readers to summon enough courage to heed their call.

Harvesting 30 years of backyard parables, Margaret Roach has collected tons of deceptively simple, instructive stories from a life spent digging deeper and deeper—and has distilled them down into this beautiful memoir (including tips for gardening, discouraging pesky insects, at-home pickling and more).

After ruminating on the bigger picture in her memoir And I Shall Have Some Peace There, Margaret Roach has returned to the garden—insisting more than ever that we must garden with both our heads and our hearts. In The Backyard Parables, Roach uses her fundamental understanding of the natural world, philosophy and life to explore the ways in which gardening saved her. By meditating on the science and spirituality of nature, she reminds her readers (and herself) to always keep digging for those higher truths.

Katrina Kenison is the author of The Gift of an Ordinary Day and Mitten Strings for God: Reflections for Mothers in a Hurry. Her writing has appeared in O, Real Simple, Family Circle, Redbook, Better Homes and Gardens, Health and other publications. For 16 years, Kenison served as the series editor of The Best American Short Stories and in 2000, co-edited with John Updike for The Best American Short Stories of the Century.

Margaret Roach is the author of the memoir And I Shall Have Some Peace There. She has previously served as an editor at The New York Times, fashion and garden editor at Newsday, the first garden editor for Martha Stewart Living magazine and the editorial director of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia. (MDGentleReader)… (more)

Margaret Roach reads from And I Shall Have Some Peace There: Trading in the Fast Lane for my Own Dirt Road.

Margaret Roach worked at Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia for 15 years, serving as Editorial Director for the last 6. She first made her name in gardening, writing a classic gardening book among other things. She now has a hugely popular gardening blog, A Way to Garden. But despite the financial and professional rewards of her job, Margaret felt unfulfilled. So she moved to her weekend house upstate in an effort to lead a more authentic life by connecting with her garden and with nature. The memoir she wrote about this journey is funny, quirky, humble--and uplifting--an "Eat, Pray, Love" without the travel-and allows readers to live out the fantasy of quitting the rat race and getting away from it all. (bookconscious)… (more)