The Language of Flowers / by Vanessa Diffenbaugh

Life hasn't been all roses for Victoria Jones. Dumped at an orphanage by her birth mother, she's bounced around the foster care system her where she's learned to live hard and act tough. Though never much good at school and certainly not one to get along well with others, there is one thing Victoria has become very, very good at--flowers. A fascination born from spending years alone outdoors, Victoria self-educated herself on the world of flora, having learned by heart all of the different kinds of bulbous, long-stemmed and pollen carrying as well as learning to distinguish even the slightest differences between everything from geraniums to snapdragons and azaleas to tulips, even maintaining a slapshod garden of potted plants out of halved milk gallon containers. Now at the point of "aging out" on her eighteenth birthday, Victoria's more or less relegated to a life on the street where she's taken living (and gardening) in the city park. By chance when she aids a woman loading boxes of plants into her car, Victoria maneuvers her way into a job as an assistant florist where her gifts and most importantly her passions are put to good use.

A great novel about the beauty of nature offsetting the harshness of humanity, The Language of Flowers explores the importance of having a place and the significance of relationships within the families we make for ourselves. Victoria's not an especially secure person when she's first introduced, very much the tormented soul. It's not hard to see why as the narrative toggles back and forth between Victoria's life as a new adult and her girlhood a decade earlier. And yet the story may be that much more poetic for it. As Victoria learns from her boss the "language of flowers", how certain types of flowers can communicate various emotions from giver to receiver, she steadily begins to find her own place in the world. (FIC DIFFENBA)

The Girl's Guide to Homelessness: A Memoir / by Brianna Karp

Born in Southern California to a family of fourth generation Jehovah's Witnesses, Brianna Karp and her mother bounced around a lot, often displaced with Brianna in and out of foster homes. They didn't have a lot of help with abusive, philandering fathers and step-fathers. Dreaming of the day she could set down her own roots in her own home and determine her own outcomes, Brianna finished school, got a job as an executive assistant and thought she was finally beginning her new life at the age of twenty-two. But when the 2008 recession hit, Brianna lost her job and ultimately her home despite voracious attempts at finding employment. After six months of no-hope job searching, she began to blog about her trials. When her father committed suicide, Brianna inherited a travel trailer which she began lived in, stationing it in the local Wal-Mart Parking lot where others just like her had done the same. She began to blog about her situation, gradually gaining newer and ever more eye-opening acquaintances who shared her plight and could resonate with her circumstances.

Karp is a talented writer but there's been some issues with this book. The title is a little too misleading because even though the original blog title was "a girl's guide to homelessness", the memoir is a more about Brianna's own reality of a transient lifestyle rather than the truth of homelessness and destitution (she was never without a roof over her head). A strong argument could be made that her "homelessness" was really "joblessness" and that certain decisions (family relationships, spending choices, lifestyle patterns, etc.) may have preserved Karp's situation more than she admits to--choosing to live in one of the priciest and most economically volatile locales in the country (Orange County, CA) couldn't have helped matters just as saving for a European vacation and then flying to Scotland during her homeless stint doesn't really coincide with book's main emphasis. There's a definite resilience to her character though and a gumption not found in young people her age. Add to that a miserable childhood full of lies, mistreatment and abuse and the memoir is very admirable. Even her very open and vindictive bitterness seems somewhat acceptable and it was enough to get her a book deal and an highly laudable internship at Elle magazine. But, eh, you be the judge. (B KARP)

The Mercy Rule / by Perri Klass

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Dr. Lucy Weiss has come a long way. As a child she spent her early years bouncing around various foster homes until ultimately being adopted by one of her teachers. Now a pediatrician, Lucy manages a clinic specializing in care for the disadvantaged and travels the country delivering speeches on the particular medical needs of children under foster care. Also a devoted wife and mother, Lucy's the central figure in the lives of her professor husband, her gifted 10-year-old daughter Isabel and her mildly challenged son Freddy. Lucy's commitments to both her work and her family bring her into contact (and conflict) with seemingly endless series of confrontational issues including what to do when a mother abandons her 3 school-age children, when and how to cross the line of professionalism when dealing with clients and colleagues and what to do about David's increasingly retreative lifestyle.

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Klass, an M.D. as well as an author, delivers another warmhearted but practical novel on the ups and downs of life providing for the medical needs of the less fortunate. Dr. Lucy is a well-rounded character and the supporting cast, though marginalized, present a largely believable scenario. This book doesn't really have a plot; there's no real story arc and situations don't really develop or resolve themselves by the book's end. But it doesn't seem to matter. The novel does fine without any major plot twists and Klass's writing is able to keep readers interested through various anecdotal pieces like Lucy's airplane conversations with a kid being flown from one parent to the other--essentially a modern-age "foster" child, reflections on her own childhood and intriguing conversations between Lucy and her patients.