"During the dog days of summer, the heat can drive even the most devoted gardener indoors. Fortunately, there’s plenty of vicarious gardening to do by reading about it.…Most of us have a story about how we got into gardening or what our gardens mean to us. If you’re curious about other people’s experiences, Garden Voices: Stories of Women & Their Gardens by Carolyn Freas Rapp shares the stories of 12 women who find joy, peace, purpose, healing, and many other intangible benefits in their gardens. Along with cultivating the soil, through their gardens, these women cultivate everything from lifelong friendships to a better understanding of themselves. Together, their stories are a testament to the power of gardens to enrich our lives in myriad ways."
--The American Gardener magazine
"Garden Voices presents a dozen tales about heartache and triumph set within plots of lovingly cultivated land. While many outcomes of gardening are visible and tangible, these pages reveal the rewards of delving in the soil: daily wonders, gradual discoveries, and life-changing epiphanies."
--Virginia Small, Senior Editor, Fine Gardening magazine
"Don’t be swayed by the title to think this is a book of interest only to female realers. It has something for all gardeners…Enjoy this quick journey through the lives of these women and you’ll probably find at least one of whom you’ll say, ‘I know someone just like her’."
--Dr. Richard Churchill, People Places & Plants magazine
"People who are passionate about gardening will love this book because they will recognize the deepest levels of themselves in the stories of these women and their relationship to their gardens."
-- Monica Lear, Ph.D., Extension Agent, Arlington, VA
"Garden Voices is a pretty little book that digs up the personal narratives that lie beneath the flowers of a dozen women’s lives."
-- Alison apRoberts, The Sacramento (CA) Bee
"Oh, if only our gardens could talk! What stories they could tell!…Rapp shares the stories of 12 women who explain how gardening helps heal, inspire and nourish their lives."
--Kathryn McKay, Washington Woman, DC
"…A series of vignettes done in an oral history style similar to Studs Terkel’s.…the seamless narratives capture each subject’s personality and views. Rapp introduces each woman briefly, tells how they met, then lets the women state in their own words how gardening enhances their lives. The stories are life-affirming, funny and edifying."
--Brian Trompeter, Sun Gazette Newspapers, Alexandria, VA
"Thank you for helping to make our Earth Day 2005 celebration at Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens National Park a great success. All who heard you speak about Garden Voices: Stories of Women and Their Gardens gave you uniformly high praise. Your writing and the way you conveyed your stories moved folks deeply."
--Alan Spears, Associate Director-Diversity, National Parks Conservation Association, Washington, DC