One Hundred Daffodils: Finding Beauty, Grace, and Meaning When Things Fall Apart

In her intimate and wise memoir, Winn (Whimsical Gardens) examines the painful breakup of her 25-year marriage. During her divorce, Winn realized that her most deeply held longing was to create her own identity and “to be known... and understood.” The author, who owns a landscape design company, chronicles her post-divorce life using garden nomenclature such as fallow, germination, emergence, and florescence. Throughout the thematic essays, Winn takes on the voice of a friendly advisor, as she explains the importance for her of being present with one’s pain, embracing others’ positive views of oneself, dealing with her need for external validation, and appreciating the beauty of the moment . She writes of purging toxic frenemies and learning to eventually appreciate her her ex-husband (“I was grateful that my marriage to Dan was able to end peacefully and develop into a friendship”). Readers enduring a rough patch in life will benefit from Winn’s empathy and hard-won wisdom. (Mar.)