Plant Fiction

Talking to Plants is about how a man comes to terms with his growing relationship with nature. You might not view a pot plant in the same way once you have heard his story. His imagination is affected as he receives communication that engages his life. We talk about a plant lover rather jokingly at times, but this really takes the cake. Who knows, maybe there are some people out there who have gone through what he has. Do plants really talk to us? This is not what they teach us at school.

Eustacia Rose is a Professor of Botanical Toxicology who lives alone in London with only her extensive collection of poisonous plants for company. Her life is quiet. Her schedule never changes. Until the day she hears a scream and the temptation to investigate proves irresistible. Through her telescope, Professor Rose is drawn into the life of an extraordinarily beautiful neighbour, Simone, and nicknames the men who visit her after poisonous plants according to the toxic effect they have on Simone. But who are these four men? And why does Eustacia Rose recognize one of them?

The Mozinskis experience music like no family you've ever met. Struggling musicians Vincent Mozinski and Grace Klinefelter marry in the early 1960s, drawn together by the shared ability to see the music they play. The two pass this unique skill along to their ever-growing family of musical prodigies: Clara, Ellington, Bix, Allegro, Thelonious, and Viola. After the children record a radio commercial for a local business, Vincent realizes the best chance of achieving his dream of musical stardom is with and through his children.

When a group of animals and plants in a Jamaican mesic forest learn that the government of Jamaica has implemented the construction of a major highway that is supposed to run through and destroy their forest home, the helpless animals and plants enlist the help of a twelve-year-old asthmatic orphan boy. Clueless as to where to begin, the powerless boy put together a motley crew that includes a Rastafarian callaloo, a mentally disturbed marijuana, a posh rose, a facetious croaking lizard, a warmonger tomboy worker bee, a gentle blackbird, a protester layer chicken, and the boy’s rescued ...

The CIA's most valuable assassin, Agent J.D. Mikel, wasn't supposed to fall in love with anyone - especially not Kate Morningside, a woman coveted by another powerful world player. When Kate is kidnapped, J.D. is pulled into a dangerous game of cat and mouse, and one false move could cost him everything. Indeed, there are players - and then there are the masters who make the rules, only to break them.

When Christmas comes for the four March girls, there is no money for expensive presents and they give away their Christmas breakfast to a poor family. But there are no happier girls in America than Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy. They miss their father, of course, who is away at the Civil War, but they try hard to be good so that he will be proud of his ’little women’ when he comes home.

In this instalment, Leah the biology expert and Gustavo the history buff are whisked away on a mission to a forest in North Carolina, USA. There, they meet a botanist working to protect the amazing Venus flytrap - an endangered species of plant - from being stolen by poachers and sold for money. It'll take every bit of brainpower, bravery and expertise that Leah and Gustavo have to stop the poachers and rescue the plants.

Trees are storehouses of the complex origins and histories of city growth, coming as they do from different parts of the world, brought in by various local and colonial rulers. From the tree planted by Sarojini Naidu at Dehradun's clock tower to those planted by Sher Shah Suri and Jahangir on Grand Trunk Road, trees in India have served, above all, as memory keepers. They are our roots: Their trunks our pillars, their bark our texture, and their branches our shade. Trees are nature's own museums.

Meet Nancy Youngblood, a blithe and vivid heroine of an investigating disposition. When Nancy inherits a minor interest in a factory soon to become vital to the winning of World War II, she sees it as a chance to get closer to Robert Dalhart, who has taken over the factory on his father's death. Nancy has always loved him but because they grew up together on the same block Robert thinks of her as a kid sister. But soon sabotage, murder, and strikes threaten the plant and Robert - who evidence suggests may be the culprit, perhaps as an agent of the German government.

After spending a life wandering around, confused, anxious, and alone, Terra, a florist, acquires a series of six esoteric self-help discs that are designed to help those struggling to ascend to their higher selves from her sister’s yard sale.

Throughout their married lives, baseball star Gaspar Bethlen's wife gave him a lovingly crafted mystery every year for Christmas. Solving the clues led him to his present, but the mysteries themselves were the true gift. Now, Beth has died, leaving Gasper a wreck of a man. But Beth left behind a clue, the beginning of one final Christmas mystery, and it's much more than either of them expected.

Plant Stories: original stories related to plants plus a taste of plant-related African, Yoruba myths. Every culture has its myths and fables - tales from around the world that have evolved to explain how we interact with each other, nature, and the elements - tales that, above all, have evolved to help us cope with our fears, achieve our dreams, and help us understand our planet and our place in it.

Imagine the mid-1980s, last day of school, summer break. A teen rushes to meet his mother, who is being released from the hospital after cancer surgery. When the teen arrives, he finds out his mother is dead, but his ex-gangbanging dad, who's been in jail the last eight years, is at the hospital, ready to take the teen home. Mendel is a coming-of-age story about a high school senior who must learn how to forgive as he navigates life without his mother. To honor his mother, he joins Mendel's track team, but his father's thuggish past catches up with them.

Jimmy Kozlowski has a regular gig playing Paul McCartney in the Beatles tribute band Help!. The band is part of a cottage industry built around mimicry, where each group strives to be the ultimate Fake Fab Four. And none strives harder than Help!, thanks to Gene Klein, its John Lennon and leader. Gene's just gotten his Medicare card and spends much of his time caring for his ailing mother. But he hasn't lost a step on guitar or vocals and is determined to take Help! to the top, his goal being to perform in Liverpool one day.

Ben Seidel wasn't sure how serious they were when he and his wife, Shira, discussed having an open marriage. But when Shira announces that she is going on a date with Liz, any ambiguity evaporates. Suddenly, every day is new terrain for Ben, navigating between keeping things together with Shira and exploring new partners. And when one of those new partners begins to matter to him more than he ever anticipated, he discovers that the complexities of this new life are only just beginning.

In the 1990s American workplace, survival of the fittest is sometimes less about clawing your way to the top than developing good camouflage. And Audrey Rohmer is doing her very best to blend in as an undistinguished middle manager. Uninspired by her job and uneasy about her father's new marriage, Audrey coasts through the work week leaning on her “partner in apathy”–an admin assistant named Pooter–to keep her relationship with the married head of her department from becoming water cooler gossip.

The arrival of Julian Mack, an openly gay new student quickly gaining the attention of bullies, draws Nate into a friendship that tests the limits of what he can endure. Absorbed by the need to please Julian, Nate is quickly at odds with his best friend Michelle and her efforts to protect him. As Nate struggles to find what meaning music has in his life, rumors about him swirl around school, leaving him to decide between defending Julian and his reputation or the safety and comfort of his haven of music and color.

Holding onto tin helmets, obscured vision through suffocating gas masks, tumultuous clouds of debris tumbling through a convoluted, mid-night sky from above, the girls scampered from installation to installation, from shelter to shelter in an attempt to, time the speed and distance of descending shells with a futile delusion of child like imagination.

Gestatten: Yu-Hee mit dem grünen Daumen – bei bösen Männern sieht sie rot. Yu-Hee kann mit Menschen nicht viel anfangen. Ihre eigentliche Liebe gilt den Pflanzen. Und so tauscht sie ihren frustrierenden Bürojob gegen einen eigenen Pflanzenladen in Sejin. Hier, zwischen Avocado, Agave und Rosmarin fühlt sie sich wohl. Ihr "Pflanzen-Shop" wird zu ihrer Oase. Und auch andere Frauen sehen in Yu-Hees Pflanzenladen bald einen Rückzugsort vor ihren persönlichen Dramen und Nöten, die nicht selten mit übergriffigen Männern zu tun haben. Für ihre Kundinnen hat Yu-Hee immer ein offenes Ohr.

Mina Kane’s next undercover op is of the green thumb variety. Tasked to break into a penthouse at the tip-top of a megascraper and air-meld incriminating data on a hydro-shipping mogul, Mina must first pose as an apt gardener who knows a thing or two about roses. The only problem is the rookie’s along for the ride, and he’s a pro at making everything more difficult than it has to be.