Our August Community Read discussion will bring us to Tess's book, The Bone Garden.

I have to be honest and say that so far The Bone Garden is my favorite book by Tess, hands down. I love the historical story that takes place in Boston during the 1830's. Its historical perspective on medicine is both interesting and horrifying! It gives, "wash your hands", a new depth to its meaning. The current day portion of this medical thriller is set in rural Massachusetts and Islesboro, Maine.

Stay tuned for Tess's write up about how she conducted her background research for this amazing book, The Bone Garden.

Mary

I am almost finished this book- I can't wait to sit down and finally finish it! The first letter grabbed my attention and I am constantly trying to figure out how all of the characters are related...Can't wait to begin this discussion!

Thanks for introducing me to this wonderful book! I also just picked up The Surgeon- and will be starting it as soon as I am finished!

-D

Hi Dawn!

Glad you are enjoying The Bone Garden! What do you like about this book? I just loved it too. I love historical fictions so to see that woven throughout this story just made my day! And Tess does it in such a way that you just can't put it down! She is so good at descriptions that you can visualize her scenes so well.

Mary

Happy August 3rd and welcome to the second book of our summer community read, The Bone Garden!

As I mentioned when we began our summer read with Gravity, the purpose of this summer read is to read adult literature with a science focus for pure enjoyment and to discuss the books with other folks who also enjoy reading and science. But, if you would like to discuss how to use this book and/or specific literacy strategies with your students let's start a thread for that. I'll follow your lead.

I've decided that for this read we're going to let our discussion flow a bit more loosely than we did with Gravity. I've heard from a lot of people that they have already finished The Bone Garden! BUT....some have not so we need to be careful in our conversations not to spoil the ending!! So why don't you tell us where you are in the story and what you think of the book so far. We'd love to hear what caught your interest and curiosity.

As you read through The Bone Garden think about the science related areas and ideas that arise and how they make this story so darn good! Just like Gravity, The Bone Garden is a medical mystery but sooooo very different! I find myself comparing the medical science of each of the books. How do you think they compare? I found myself thinking of microbes. How they are both central to both stories but in very different ways. Why do you think Tess was so successful at incorporating microbes into each story so successfully?

Hope you are enjoying your read and I also hope you take a minute to let us know your thoughts. It's so much more fun to hear from others!

Mary

I absolutely LOVED this book! Yes, the history and suspense kept me so interested! I really enjoyed living in Rose's world and couldn't wait to find out what happened next. I constantly found myself turning back into previous chapters, to see if there were any hints in the letters...but I could not figure out who was in the garden.

Maybe I was just wrapped up in the suspense, but did anyone else find themselves scurrying around trying to figure out who was in the garden or did you have an inkling all along? I have read books where after awhile you can make a pretty good guess at the ending, but this one kept me in the dark until the last minute.

With all of the history and detail, I find myself wanting to read it again, just to see if I missed anything. Great book!!

-Dawn

I, too, loved this book, even more so than Gravity. I think it was because of the history and the fact that the setting was in a place that I'm familiar with. I must admit that when I was about 3/4 of the way through the book. I took a peek at the ending to see if my predictions were correct. It did not stop me from reading the book till the ending, though. I would have liked to have seen (maybe on Tess's web site?) a family tree of sorts to make sure that I got all the connections right. I found the medical science in The Bone Garden easier (for me) to comprehend than that in Gravity - somehow more "real life".