Review Round-Up

Here at David R. Godine, Publisher, we strive to produce high quality books above all else. So, when our books and authors are praised, we hope you'll forgive us for acting like proud parents. Please join us in celebrating the recent success of a few of our talented authors.

The Washington Post called Rosemary Verey, by Barbara Paul Robinson, an “irresistible biography of horticultural sage.” Michael Dirda, author of the article, was drawn to the book by the lush and “ravishingly gorgeous” cover.

Here is an excerpt from the article:

As [Verey] once told another gardener: “We don’t do things because they’re labor-saving or low-maintenance or because they’re horticulturally correct. We do them because they’re pretty.” And very pretty, too, is this neatly designed book from the publisher David Godine. Robinson, a New York lawyer by day and a gardener by avocation, writes not just clearly but also affectionately about her beloved, influential and rather spiky subject.

Continue reading the article here and don’t forget to pick up your copy of Rosemary Verey today!

Black Sparrow author Naomi Replansky was profiled in The Jewish Daily Forward and HuffPost Books for her recently published Collected Poems. Replansky is a poet whose verse combines the compression of Emily Dickenson, the passion of Anna Akhmatova, and the music of W.H. Auden. Both articles highlight Replansky’s life-long journey as a poet.

Here is an extract from the HuffPost Books article:

She started writing at ten; riding "surges of feeling," she disciplined by 15 with a poetic craft beyond her years, forging a plain-spoken, yet highly allusive, style from a stew of influences that included William Blake, black spirituals, Latin American Surrealism and Mother Goose. She pulled in the socialist ideals nurtured by a childhood of working-class poverty, in the secular, Jewish home of immigrant parents. Born months before the end of World War I, long before any formal gay consciousness, she became boldly self-liberated, writing poems to a girl she fell in love with in high school.

You can read the rest of the HuffPost article here and the entire Jewish Daily Forward article here. Add a copy of Replansky’s Collected Poems to your bookshelf today!

The Buffalo News highlighted Jane Marinsky, author and illustrator of Just Perfect, for her whimsical new picture book that combines the story of wanting a new pet and welcoming a new baby into the family.

Here is a passage from the article:

Particularly delightful is the octopus, who "made a mess of everything." A bright orange giant octopus, its tentacles waving and stirring what might be chocolate pudding, wreaks havoc in the kitchen – milk spilled, eggs broken, a pot boiling over, the sink overflowing. […] Right down to the charming ending, this book is a delight, "Just Perfect" in every way.

Continue reading the article here and don’t forget to pick up your copy of Just Perfect today!


Congratulations to Barbara Paul Robinson, Naomi Replansky, and Jane Marinsky!