The Signature of All Things by Liz Gilbert, given to me by NetGalley and Bloomsbury in exchange for an honest review, really really made me sit up and think.

This is 3/3 of the Gilbert files. I associate her as more of a non-fiction confessionalist; however, I have been particularly intrigued by her two major works of fiction. City of Girls was a colourful exploration of New York City in a time of uncertainty and change. A bit like Eat Prey Love, Gilbert is a romantic who blends sexual identity into her works.

So, the Signature of Things, a lengthy tome, is her excuse as a writer to explore historical fiction, botanical developments across the 19th century and a sort of story of how relationships and love are not always easy to maintain but always relevant.

She can write. Absolutely. This book had words such as gallimaufry, catamite etc, which I felt were designed to stretch my vocabulary. On top of this, it’s quite a varied book, separated into five sections. The first, charting a self-made Brit who made it to America. His daughter, Alma is a plain Jane of the Jane Eyre variety. Through luck and chance, she has a sister, Prudence and a friend, Rena, who become involved, inadvertently in a sort of competition of sort to marry the two men available to them. Alma, who we track also joins the matrimonial party, but things are not quite as they seem. I.e., Alma’s life is complicated by her inability to have what others have.

It's a two for me only because although this book was absolutely worth the time to read, I don’t think it was the most readable novel and I wasn't expecting it to be as scientific as it qas. It got significantly, *significantly* better over the second half and the conclusion, in a tropical paradise, was well worth the price of admission. Perhaps, some with any biographical novel it can be a bit starchy, although the length here I think was the problem.

I think, based on this book, it does make sense to read the other works of fiction by Gilbert. Finish the hat as it were. Possibly even read her grief memoir. Gilbert is very much a giver in her writing. She wants you to lap at the shore and enjoy what the book is offering for the reader.

Great storytelling, intriguing plot, well researched historical backgroun and vivid characters
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher for this ARC, all opinions are mine

4.5 beautiful writing, an unconventional heroine and science. I'd love to be able to read it again for the first time, as it was such a surprising read.

What a wonderful read. We follow the life of Alma Whittaker, born 1800 to an unusual household. Her straight-talking Dutch mother is married to Henry Whittaker, a man from humble London beginnings who since boyhood has been eager to ‘better himself’, to not be like his ‘passive' father who worked hard as a gardener (earning the name ‘the apple magus’) but achieved nothing, in his son's eyes. We learn Henry's story too; his outspoken, ‘streetwise’ personality which gets him noticed as a teen, his willingness to take on tasks, his goal: to be recognized as a ’gentleman’. His anger, determination and drive that result when disabused of that possibility.

Years later we meet Alma; his lonely, single child who spends her time in the company of adults, dining with her father’s guests of learned botanists and scientist, invited so that Henry can pick their brains and expertise. She develops her own interests through the superb library at home, and by listening and learning at the dining table and making her own contacts in the field. She begins to publish papers (her female name disguised by the initial) and discovers a fascination with mosses. She eventually makes a friend, and acquires an adopted sister. Travel eventually takes her to Tahiti to solve a mystery. Don't want to give spoilers, but Alma's incredible ability to cope with very different situations is astounding.

The characters, situations and storyline are at turns amusing, horrifying and graphic. You never stop supporting Alma and want her to be successful and find love and company. The odd husband, ‘Tomorrow Morning’, her mother, the Dutch housekeeper, the Tahitians – all really resonate. The ballgame in Tahiti is worth a mention on its own! I was really touched by this book and upset to finish. I'd bought a copy for my best friend when I was two thirds through – you know when a book can’t be missed, and this for me was one of those.

Elizabeth Gilbet knows how to build worlds within her writing. so you open her books and you are right there. you are in for the duration and not sad to be so. it was actually her book City of Girls that bought me to her writing and not Eat Prey Love like most. and its that book that went on to cement my love for the way she writes.
Alma was a brilliant character to follow along. what a brilliant woman!also in her life she has some wonderful friends we get to know. each character in this book is imagined to perfection and i felt like they were living breathing people amongst the pages.
the way Elizabeth goes into her botany talk is also so captivating and unless she has somehow hidden her degree in this work from us the amount of research this book must have taken to write in inspiring.
this book is about so much. so much about growth of all things from the plants to science, to our characters themselves. Alma goes on a journey in this book and its one she aches to go on. shes trying to find her fit. trying to find herself whilst also battling against the times she lived in as a woman, as a daughter. how dare a woman be smart. how dare a woman use her intelligence or want to use it. how dare a woman....
this book took me entirely into its world and for the time i was there i didn't want to leave. it felt like i was floating around in pages so beautifully told, so wonderfully researched.
you know when books are just good. you get books that are just really really good books. you dont need to know anything but that and to read it. read it now and you wont regret it.

Set in the 18th/19th centuray this tale follow the Whittaker family and their interest and work in botany.

it is a well researched read and at times I had to remind myself that this was a work of fiction, such is the brilliance of the author it has a feel of reality.

it is an interesting and as you would expect covers themes of feminism, sexuality alongside the botanical aspect.

It is at times deeply sad and a moving read and alma and ambrose are fascinating characters. Alma's journey through life is as spiritual as it's interesting.

i loved it

Gilbert creates a dazzling novel that takes the reader all the way from the greenhouses of 18th-century Kew Gardens across oceans to America, Tahiti and Holland. The result is a book that is epic in scope but human in resonance.

A book about enlightenment: understanding each other, connection and the natural world it is set against a backdrop of enormous technological and scientific change.

Savant Alma Whittaker is born with the century in 1800 in Philadelphia and yearns for friendship, love and knowledge. Her Dutch mother Beatrix is formidably intelligent and her powerful and irascible father Henry is a self-made man of enormous wealth and ambition. Alma is no beauty and has little opportunity for friendship but she is a brilliant scientist and a shrewd business woman combining her parents’ skills. She is also a fighter and survivor like her father.

Her early self discovery with the poignant‘Binding Room’ is beautifully described and her joy at meeting Ambrose Pike, a flash of pure beauty in Alma’s steady middle age is at once exquisite and alarming to read: will Alma find physical intimacy at last after a life time of frustrated abstinence?

Alma Whittaker is so believable, so deeply drawn and so likable for her complexity and open spirit, that it is impossible not to be engrossed by every twist and turn of her thoughts and imaginings as we follow her life from birth to very old age.

I don't know why I had missed this book, considering how many I have read by this author, but it is certainly one of the ones I enjoyed the most. On the one hand, Alma's character is definitely fascinating, both because the parallels between self-discovery and the discovery of the evolution of plants and in particular mosses seemed to me to be well constructed, and on the other hand, because the drive for the pursuit of knowledge always seems to me to be a good thing to take a cue from.

Non so perché questo libro mi fosse sfuggito, considerato quanti ne ho letti di questa autrice, ma sicuramente é uno di quelli che mi é piaciuto di piú. Da una parte il personaggio di Alma é decisamente affascinante, sia perché i paralleli tra la scoperta di se stessi e la scoperta dell'evoluzione delle piante ed in particolare dei muschi, mi é sembrata ben costruita, dall'altra, perché la spinta alla ricerca della conoscenza mi sembra sempre sia una cosa giusta da cui prendere spunto.

Exactly as I expected from this fabulous author. The story gripped me right from the beginning with amazing characters. I definitely recommend