I've recently subscribed to
ONE STORY, a Brooklyn-based print publication
that "contains, simply, one story" and no author is published more than once. So once every month my mailbox is graced with a cute little envelope. The first ONE STORY I received after subscribing was
Elizabeth's Gilbert's The Signature of All Things, which I didn't realize until 2 weeks ago is also a novel by the same title. As a short story, the tale was charming. Alma is the daughter of a prosperous and self-made eighteenth century plant cultivator who makes his fortune in the South American quinine trade. Alma is raised brilliant, on a health diet of science and intellectual conversation; however, in the short story, readers also witness Alma's absence of childhood, and instantly, readers fall in love with Alma, her intelligence, her flaws, and her dreams for self and world discovery.
You can't imagine how excited I was when I found the novel which covers the entire span of Alma's lifetime as she is one of the first women of botany (she is the world's first documented curator of mosses).
I must admit I was not a fan of Elizabeth Gilbert's
Eat Pray Love. I decided (after seeing the movie only) that it was fluffy and self-indulgent. And even though I had made assumptions about Gilbert's writing from my glimpse of Julia Roberts, I found I had no trouble in promptly setting my "chick lit" assumptions aside to enjoy the novel
The Signature of All Things.
This October I've also read:
And have reread:
And in November I plan to read:
