Reviews for Waking Up in Eden: In Pursuit of an Impassioned Life on an Imperiled Island

The average rating for Waking Up in Eden: In Pursuit of an Impassioned Life on an Imperiled Island based on 2 reviews is 5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2009-07-27 00:00:00 Abhishek Swarnkar Many dream of dumping everything and going off to live on a tropical island. Lucinda Fleeson actually did it. "Waking Up in Eden" tells her story and it makes for a lively, engaging tale. Fleeson was a top-notch, award-winning journalist who found the profession she loved undergoing massive, distressing changes as the digital age reconfigured the newspaper industry. Offered a job at the Nation Tropical Botanaical Gardens in Kauai, she sold her house, shed years of routines and belongings and left her old life behind. Fleeson ruminates on many personal topics, from the sudden loss of both parents to her thoughts on being a single woman confronting a future without the traditional husband and kids that she had always assumed would be there. But it's the investigative reporter in her that provides some of the most colorful moments of "Waking Up in Eden". Her description of the death-defying botanists who climb to high mountain ledges to rescue endangered plant species is an eye-opener. And her research into the wealthy, original owners of the estate which has become the National Botanical Garden reveals a colorful, jazz-age tableau of underground gay history in Chicago before the Great Depression. Fleeson also uncovers the writing of Isabella Bird, a 19th century woman writer who's adventures in Kauai both echo and inspire Fleeson's own. Interspersed throughout the book are moments of workplace intrigue, romance, tragedy and humor (the ladies rowing team story is a delight), told with a reporter's skill and insights. I highly recommend "Waking Up in Eden" as an interesting, entertaining and worthwhile read.

Review # 2 was written on 2009-07-23 00:00:00 Nancy Rosborough Unlike other memoirs I've read about unmarried women reinventing themselves, this book incorporates an education of natural history. While it is a highly personal account of the twists and turns (and battles) in a professional woman's life, we are also allowed to learn something about the place in which she has her transformation. The writer has a strong sense of place, making the story valid and compelling. Her sensitive descriptions of the unique island characters, and their place in the world, is absorbing. She makes friends with the most unlikely of characters, and she is unapologetic in descriptions of her enemies in non-profit management. The author writes, "The essence of grace was to live within the mysteries, accept the uncertainties, and greet whatever develops." The essence of a memoir should do the same, and this one does. The book could have benefited from some pictures, but just as the author desired to retrace the journeys of Isabella Bird, I wanted to get to Kauai and find that cottage house, and set my own eyes on the Allerton Gardens. Inspirational!