The Signature of All Things (Elizabeth Gilbert)

This novel traces the long and complex life of Alma Whittaker throughout the 1800s. She was born to wealth, with parents who made their fame and fortune with plants, and developed from early childhood a strong mind with a love of science, languages, and most of all plants. In this leisurely, richly detailed book we see her childhood relationship with her parents and her adopted sister, her various unlucky loves, her travels to exotic lands, and her brilliance as a botanist. Alma is a complex person with layers and layers of strengths and weaknesses, and it is wonderful to watch her make her way in the world, sometimes battered, sometimes doing the battering herself. All the characters, settings, and events are vivid and three-dimensional. This book will disappoint those looking for action, but there is adventure in plenty of a quieter sort.