The other night my husband and I were flipping through TV channels when we got sucked into the movie Forgetting Sarah Marshall. It’s filmed in Hawaii. As I watched the gorgeous scenery – a glowing sun, turquoise waves and white sandy beaches – I thought, “I want to live in Hawaii one day.” I first flirted with the idea of moving to Hawaii for college. My parents said I’d go “island happy” which sounded fine to me, but instead of applying to UH, I let them talk me into attending a school a few hours away in Ohio (where I went landlocked crazy). Anyway, maybe another opportunity to move to Hawaii will come along. Maybe a botanist will telephone me out of the blue and offer me a job, along with a car and a house. Hey, it could happen. It did to Lucinda Fleeson, author of the upcoming book Waking Up in Eden.

A journalist for the Philadelphia Inquirer, Lucinda leaves her job to become a fundraiser for the National Tropical Botanical Garden. She moves to a cottage on Kauai that’s so secluded she can eat mangos naked in her yard. Despite afternoons snorkeling in the sea, a fling with a guy dubbed The Surfer, and night skies offering the best star-gazing on the planet, she quickly learns paradise isn’t a pretty picture. Hawaii’s native plants are dying; many are already extinct (although an excursion to clear weeds indicates the invaders are doing just fine).

During her time on the island, she shares what she learns from conservationists, plant hunters, and scientists as she educates herself on preserving the local flora. Her writing chronicles the way she works through both her personal and professional struggles, indicating that by the end of her stay she probably agrees with her boss’s motto: gardens are for growing people.

Waking Up in Eden by Lucinda Fleeson (Algonquin, $23.95)