Waking Up in Eden, by journalist Lucinda Fleeson is partly a memoir, partly a botany lesson, and fully a wonderful story of what it means to live in Hawaii.

Flesson left her job with the Philadelphia Inquirer to come to Kauai and work at the National Tropical Botanical Garden. This book tells the story of her journey, and along the way we learn of the imperilled state of Hawaii’s native plants.

At it’s heart, it is a very personal story of one woman’s quest to simplify her life and find what truly matters. There were some parts of the book that felt out of place when Fleeson veered too far away from the subject at hand, but overall it was a wonderful and educational read. Highly recommended.