E. Gilbert's "The Signature of All Things"
A couple of days ago, I finished reading Elizabeth Gilbert's The Signature of All Things. It's a longish novel that follows the life of a woman born into a wealthy family in Philadelphia, back when Philadelphia was still a smallish city. Alma Whittaker, our protagonist, is a botanist and the daughter of a botanist who became an entrepreneurial tycoon. Until her mid-40s, her life is very quiet, nearly all of it internal except for her daily observation and study of various mosses that grow near her family's home. And then she meets a man and marries him . . . for a while. It's at that point that all hell breaks loose for the last third of the book. Gilbert knows how to tell a story and use dialogue, and does both very, very well. Recommended.