Carol Stocker, long-time garden writer at the Boston Globe, gave Paradise a glowing review. “When the days grow shorter, I always find myself toying with the idea of adding a greenhouse or sun room full of thriving oxygen producing plants to make winter bearable. If you do, too, you’ll be inspired by a new book written by a non-gardener who, starting with zero knowledge and a ridiculously brown thumb, built a lush conservatory onto her Maryland home that became a center for family life, entertaining, and her own revitalization after a bout with cancer. “Paradise Under Glass; An Amateur Creates a Conservatory Garden,” by Ruth Kassinger is my favorite gardening book of the year. It is actually five books in one. There’s the personal uplifting memoir of re-embracing life through a passionate project. Interwoven with this is an actual how-to book of hard won advice on building a functioning plant conservatory. The big bonus is that since the author is also an award winning history and science writer, she has included (perhaps she couldn’t stop herself) an amusing history of greenhouses, character sketches of leading American houseplant growers, and up to date scientific information about green industry technology.”

WETA’s Book Studio interviewed me about Paradise Under Glass. Go to the Videos page, and you can watch. Amy Stewart, author of Wicked Plants, Flower Confidential, and other books, asked me to be a guest blogger at GardenRant.com. Look on my Articles page, and you can read my rant about sex in the garden.

The New York Times calls Paradise “enchanting … Ms. Kassinger’s writing is chatty and intimate, but she has clearly done her library research.”

Library Journal gave the book a starred review. “Verdict: Informative and extremely entertaining. Kassinger’s indoor gardening memoir seems a surefire antidote for a midlife crisis or the winter blues. Highly recommended.”

Booklist says, “Seamlessly blending her extensive research on the history of conservatories and plant exploration with her own personal anecdotes of raising everything from butterflies to Boston ferns, Kassinger’s personal odyssey into the crystalline world of gardening under glass offers an uplifting and instructional message.”

Publishers Weekly writes that “The book vividly chronicles [Kassinger’s] initiation into the world of indoor gardening as well as the fascinating and unlikely histories of greenhouses and the flamboyant gardens they have housed…The characters Kassinger encounters, literarily and in the flesh, are as quirky as their plants.…Kassinger’s lush writing and exotic stories will delight the armchair gardener and historian.”

Mary Jasch, editor of  Dig-It  magazine, wrote a lovely review, which you can read at dig-itmag.com.

I frequently speak at garden clubs, conservatories and arboretums, and to industry groups. If you’d like to find out about booking me as a speaker, visit www.greatgardenspeakers.com where you can find out more about my topics. You can also contact my agent, Michelle Tessler, at michelle@tessleragency.com.

You can buy Paradise Under Glass, as well as my books for young adults, Reinvent the Wheel, Build A Better Mousetrap, and my series on the history and science materials (Gold, Glass, Ceramics, Iron and Steel, and Dyes) wherever books are sold.