I never keep track of where my recommendations come from and my to-read list is, well, I won't finish it in this lifetime. So I have no idea why I picI never keep track of where my recommendations come from and my to-read list is, well, I won't finish it in this lifetime. So I have no idea why I picked this book up. It's reasonable to guess, however, that it's because it is a sort of modern back-to-the-land fumbling memoir of the author, his wife, their young daughter and the baby-on-the-way moving out of the city to an old family farm. It's not a how-to book. It's a memoir, and his farming experiences are mostly just context for Perry's meander down memory lane. This book is really about family and rural America. It's about the author's experiences in a small town, growing up on a farm himself, being part of a large family, his parents taking on a lengthy parade of special needs foster kids, being raised in a secretive fundamentalist Christian sect (which is weird, but not evil like it sounds), the community that surrounds all those going-on's of life, and balancing work, family, and farm. This book took me way too long to get through. My initial goal was to finish it in a week, but it dragged into two and then two and now it's taken me a full week to write the review.
The slaughter of the pigs and meat birds is less graphic and more poetic than that in Farm City, but the sentiments are the same - pigs are smart, challenging, and funny, but a lot more work than expected and the fresh bacon is unbelievable. I will not raise pigs in my backyard, though! Perry has a lot of guilt about the balance of his career and his farm's workload, and he really struggles with going on the road for a book tour and leaving his wife alone with two kids to care for, homeschooling, and a farm that needs tending. His wife is very capable, a farm girl herself, and manages just fine without him thank you very much. The idea to go back to the farm was a shared dream, the animals were his project, and the crops were almost entirely hers. This was a little disappointing to me, since the end result is that the book has not much about the plants, and plants are the most interesting things to me. The chicken stories, however, are lovely. Raising the chicks into ugly pullets into handsome hens, and his daughter's love for the most "special" chicken, the heartbreak when a laying hen passes away, and all of the love and loss and laughter of having laying hens and their strong personalities around - these are eggs-actly why I read these kinds of books, man.
When I settled down with this book, it was easy to read 100 pages quickly, but I had a hard time getting excited about setting aside the time, and that is the crux of this book for me. It was really good to read, but hard to get fired up about meandering Small Town / Rural Life prose. Perry's writing style is charming and earnest. His anecdotes and meditations are sincere and thoughtful. His love for his daughters touches my secret parenthood nerve. When he talks about his father in those dry, secret ways that only the best kind of man can talk about loving his daddy, my heart clenches up in my throat. There is something about the quiet sentimental emotional life of rural masculinity that I find so charming, and in Coop, it's paired with a modern man's sense of intellectualism and responsibility. ...more
Update in 2020: I read this again because they’re making a movie of it again. It was a totally different experience than the past times I’ve read it! Update in 2020: I read this again because they’re making a movie of it again. It was a totally different experience than the past times I’ve read it! Getting older is weird. I tried to share it with my kid and it was a complete failure, but I enjoyed reading it alone, although parts of it have not aged as well.
From 2009:
I read this book when I was younger, as did most people I've been asking about it since I have been re-reading. It came out in the late 1970s, and won a Newbury medal, so if you were of reading age in that time, and prone to reading Newbury books, there's a good chance you read it as well. It was also adapted (quite terribly, I assume) into a made-for-tv movie in the late 1990s. The movie adaptation's failure is disappointing because this is the kind of story that could make a great YA movie. Anyway, re-reading this almost made me want to read the best of Newbury Medalist books, but let's be serious here, I need to focus on garden and plant books for the next 4 or 5 months. I have no time for YAF.
Anyway! The book takes place mostly in Sunset Towers and the Westing Mansion, both of which are on the lovely shores of Lake Michigan. It is winter in Wisconsin. Rich, old, crazy Mr. Sam Westing, who vanished from the public eye years ago, is reported to be dead. He leaves a mysterious will, with 16 named heirs, who happened to all be residents of Sunset Towers. OOOOH, MYSTERIOUS. Solve the will, get the money, a couple hundred million dollars. One of the highlights of this book is the cast of heirs - they are diverse, the characters are likable, even the unlikable ones, there are strong female characters, sensitive male characters, clever children and petulant adults. I mean, it is really like the best of the American Experience kaleidoscope. There is a lot of positive reflection on capitalist society and the "American Dream," complete with totally unrealistic expectations of what you can achieve if you just "work hard enough," which I believe is a detrimental myth to feed to children but it's all sort of shrouded in cynical irony so maybe it's not that bad. The elements of mystery, however, are handled well. There is no easy, obvious solution, and the characters chase a lot of red herrings and dead ends. I have always felt the fruitless search to be an important part of a mystery, even if Nancy Drew skipped it most of the time. At the end, the story sort of flashes forward five years to a neatly packaged future, so you get to know what happened to all of the characters and it's all just a little too contrived. If the Westing Game ended at that one dramatic sunrise moment before the five year jump, I would have been pleased. Still, I have fond childhood memories of this book and I'm glad I revisited it as an adult....more
I actually liked this book less than the very similar garden book from the same author, but for some reason I can't bring myself to give it 1 star. ThI actually liked this book less than the very similar garden book from the same author, but for some reason I can't bring myself to give it 1 star. The too-small pictures that seem adequate in the garden book are frustrating here. The interiors look dated (in a bad way), which is a trap the author avoided in the garden book because exteriors tend toward more classic designs, unlike most interiors, where trends move more rapidly. Many of these pictures look very Nineties. There's a whole other conversation there, but suffice to say, this book was a waste of time. ...more
I read this book because my friend Imogen Binnie told me that she loves (LOVES!) Amy Bender. Imogen has good taste in books, so I thought, How Could TI read this book because my friend Imogen Binnie told me that she loves (LOVES!) Amy Bender. Imogen has good taste in books, so I thought, How Could This Be Bad? I requested it from the library. I had a sense of déjà vu reading this book; I have read one (or more) of the stories in one of their previously-published incarnations. So in that case, it was like an old friend and a friend of a friend, plus I read it in one of my favorite places (the bathtub), and the point I'm making is that this book really had everything going for it from the starting point.
OK, but the actual book! This is a collection of short stories that show off Aimee Bender's extraordinary imagination. There are funny parts, but mostly you feel a little hollow, fragile, like you were just slapped by your ex-best friend on an important day. There are magical happenings - not like a dragon or a dungeon, but like a hole through the gut. There are many instances where you, the reader, must suspend disbelief entirely to make it to the next page. The characters are a party mix of lovable and unimaginably irritating. There is a humanity in all of this, but it is not from planet Earth. The humanity here is surreal, complicated, sort of sick, and removed from limitations of reality. The stories stick to crevasses of your brain and you could try to use a toothpick, but you will probably never pick them all out. These stories stay with you. I think my favorite (it's hard to pick) is The Healer, about two girls in an isolated town. One has a crackling hand of ice, the other has a burning hand of fire. When they hold hands, both hands are perfectly normal hands, but if they aren't in contact, the elemental form returns. They used to be friends, then they stopped. (thinking back, that is probably why this is my fave) The ice-hand girl volunteers at the hospital as a healer, the fire-hand girl becomes destructive, their lives are intertwined, and then, well, you know you should really read this. ...more
First, I just want to mention that it is kind of ridiculous that the 100th book I read this year is a giant book of pictures of various garden featureFirst, I just want to mention that it is kind of ridiculous that the 100th book I read this year is a giant book of pictures of various garden features. I hope that doesn't diminish my dedication to young adult fiction, Oprah's book club authors, and quality graphic novels.
Secondly, about this book. First of all, the title is completely a lie. There are far more than 1,000 ideas for a garden in this book. How many ideas can you fit in one picture? Well, then, it's a lot. There are pages and pages and pages of fences, paths, edging, color, hedges, water features, steps, containers, benches, statues, vistas and so on. There is no shortage of fancy "estate garden" formality in this book. There is the occasional nod to "Modernism" in the garden, and even less recognition of urban or small space gardening. Allegedly 40 years of garden tours produced this book - I believe it. Some of these pictures look like they were taken in 1961 (in a charming way, not a dated way). So, yes, most of the ideas won't suit your home garden at all, but I found value in the vast diversity of fences, gates, paths, etc. It is interesting to bath your mind's eye in 100 different kinds of pavers and patterns. And I loved the section on benches, but what can I say? I am totally gay for garden benches. By the time they got to water features, though, forget it. I was asleep from boredom. The hedges and statuary were also majorly boring sections. Also, how can a section on COLOR in the GARDEN be so boring?! What the heck!
There were some cool pictures, a few goood ideas, and I do think that the diversity of so many gardens is valuable, but there was very little direct/practical information that I could bring to my own yard. Also, if you are the kind of person who NEEDS sources for various materials, please do no read this book. It will drive you completely insane when you cannot locate the manufacturer of some exquisite container or a specific type of rhododendron, or whatever other crazy thing catches your eye. If you are reading this for the garden porn, skip it. The pics are too small to really satiate your hunger for lush, verdant, creative garden pr0n. ...more
I picked this up because I read The Time Traveler's Wife, I vaguely remember liking that novel, and my friend Nikki Thomas ranked it recently on goodrI picked this up because I read The Time Traveler's Wife, I vaguely remember liking that novel, and my friend Nikki Thomas ranked it recently on goodreads. I picked it up from the library on my way to get pho for dinner with my adorable wife and my precious stepson. Waiting for our pho, we read most of the book together. Thankfully it's short on words and the pictures are big and descriptive enough to fill the gaps in the story. It's sort of perfect, in that way, for sharing over the dinner table. Yes, I just said that. The illustrations are sort of childish, simple line drawings/etchings. After I learned more about the aquatint method, I felt they were quite beautiful, but it might be difficult to really appreciate them without that knowledge. I like creepy, terrible, haunted stories of women torn to pieces by their jealousy and competitive urges. I appreciate heartbroken loss, the sort of consuming grief that makes you leave the room because you can't watch, and unsettling disaster that devastates families. This book was almost there, but somehow fell a little short. Maybe it's a little too earnest or a bit overwrought.
My stepson was a little baffled by the story, "I don't understand how they were incestuous." That is a reasonable question from a young adolescent, since it says INCESTUOUS but fails to deliver with sister-on-sister boning. I explained that incestuous does not mean only "constituting or involving incest," but also "excessively or improperly intimate or exclusive." I think it made more sense to him when he thought about it that way, but he may have felt misled by his expectations based on the title. I wasn't shy to share this with my stepson, but it was a little weird to read a giant (legal sized pages, y'all) book with INCESTUOUS on the cover and pictures of naked boobs and people having sex inside. Anyway, once you get past the social/performative aspect of reading this book in public, this is a good story. It speaks at once like the secret whispers inside Audrey Niffenegger's brain and also an epic fable that spans time and culture. It is allegedly a labor of love, written over a period of 14 years, and that was clearly evident in the work. It feels like a story that someone picks up, puts down, polishes, leaves, and returns to again and again. I think it could be that for a reader, too, as well as the creator, but back to the library it must go. This book would probably also make for a good movie, but I doubt it would be the kind you would see at the local cineplex-14....more
My wife was suspicious of this book when I picked it up from the library. Since we live someplace that is so rainy, yarn bombing sounds like a pretty My wife was suspicious of this book when I picked it up from the library. Since we live someplace that is so rainy, yarn bombing sounds like a pretty bad idea. However, some of these knitters live in Vancouver, which is pretty rainy too. I think acrylic yarn would hold up well enough even to our weather, and if you used a natural fiber, it would biodegrade (eventually) even if it didn't hold up as well to the elements. Whether you become a knitting graffiti artist after reading this book or not, it's exciting to see photos of the various styles yarn bombing. Even if i never crochet a single tag in my life, I will always love the idea of monster feet on a postal box. There's something adorable about yarn graffiti. I like it when sharp corners and edges and rocks and trees have sweaters on them. It's unexpected and charming, and it made me want to crochet a doily sweater for a tree. ...more
This is adequate as an introduction to an edible garden. A wide variety of topics are covered with a fairly small amount of information on each one. IThis is adequate as an introduction to an edible garden. A wide variety of topics are covered with a fairly small amount of information on each one. It's enough info to get you started, but not make you an expert. There are fortunately giant, full color photographs on every page, a luxury often absent from lower-budget publications. So yes, this is a glo$$y production, but that makes it pornographically delicious in an ocean of lower budget books. Normally I prefer underdog style, but there is something inspirational about these photographs, even if it's not all my style. The book is broken up into sections of basic landscape design principles, seasonal gardening advice, composting, etc. Pretty much the entire second half of the book is a collection of recommended plants and varieties for edible gardening. This can be redundant if you already have an idea of the varities and types of veggies you want to grow, but if your vegetable exprience is limited to the super market, there is a world of variety to discover. At the end, there is a small resource list that is a good place to start, but by no means exhaustive. Some of my favorite suppliers are there, but others are notably absent. Some of the bigger picture concepts are missing - unless I totally skipped the section on companion planting? All in all, The Edible Garden an inspirating starting point, doesn't alienate or intimidate a beginner, and the pics are nice. I like Sunset's gardening publications for those reasons....more
After my intense experience with The Bean Trees, there was no question that I would follow up with Pigs In Heaven as quickly as the library could deliAfter my intense experience with The Bean Trees, there was no question that I would follow up with Pigs In Heaven as quickly as the library could deliver it to me. The audiobook is read by C J Crit, the same person who read The Bean Trees audiobook. That continuity was nice - it really felt like volumes one and two of the Taylor & Turtle chronicles. While I was relieved to have more of Turtle's story, and feel some kind of resolution of their family's story, I can readily admit that I preferred The Bean Trees, although only a smidge. BT felt more like an unexpected gift, unwrapped carefully and totally surprising. PIH felt more formulaic and a little too "gotcha!" But it's a fantastic read if you can forgive the semi-contrived plot points.
The language in this book is beautiful, in the way that Barbara Kingsolver calls out the most extraordinary visuals and metaphors. Barbara Kingsolver writes sentences like Storm clouds with high pompadours have congregated on the western horizon offering the hope of cooler weather, but only the hope. There are a million more examples, but it would really be better if you read the book & found them yourself, catching your own breath when her words shift your perception.
Also, this is an epic roadtrip story, one of the best type of stories you can read. Additionally, the characters spend a ton of time in Washington and Oklahoma, two places I have major soft spots for in literature.... since I live/d in both. ...more
I wish that I owned this book, or that I had checked it out from the library during the spring or summer when I could have identified more stuff with I wish that I owned this book, or that I had checked it out from the library during the spring or summer when I could have identified more stuff with it. Regardless, this book is a beautiful guide to North American trees, sorted by families and with a lot of basic/background botanical information in case you don't even know where to start with identification. Hopefully I can revisit it when the trees have leaves, but in the winter it's nice to pour over the illustrations and think about leaves and fruit. ...more
So Lloyd Kahn travels around the pacific coast, mostly from northern CA to BC, and photographs structures, interviews builders, and creates a portfoliSo Lloyd Kahn travels around the pacific coast, mostly from northern CA to BC, and photographs structures, interviews builders, and creates a portfolio of sorts of each builder. Most of the profiles include a little interview, some perspective, insight on technique/materials/training, and at least several structures the person designed/built. This book is totally eye candy, especially if you have ever been to the Pacific Northwest and admired the scenery. If you appreciate the forests and water of this region, then this book is like porn.
When I started to read this book, I knew that I would never be able to live in any of these structures, limited either by taste, geography, or economics. It's still worth reading, however, because the work is so inspirational and extraordinary. It makes you reconsider the basic box that makes most of our homes. There are infinite numbers of creative ways use, reuse, repurpose and reinvision the materials; everything is clay, wood, stone, and metal. There is a section for the indigenous builders of the Pacific Coast, and several of the white builders refer to these traditions. Even if a lot of the dwellings are way too hippie-ish for me to live in, there are a lot of lessons here about how buildings relate to people and space. In a time when more people are thinking "green" and "sustainable," this book is even more fascinating. "Sustainable" is not a slick, well-marketed, over-packaged solution you can buy at a local big box store and get delivered - it is noticing and respecting the woodgrain, the type of stone, and the stories of the place. There is so much room for quiet reflection in this book, it took much longer to read it than I expected from a large format, photo-heavy "coffee table" book. ...more
This is the second in the series of gnome books I've been reading lately. This book was a best seller from the 1970s, which means you can get tons of This is the second in the series of gnome books I've been reading lately. This book was a best seller from the 1970s, which means you can get tons of copies of it at used bookstores for very affordable prices and you will never have to wait to get a copy at the library. It also means that I just barely missed being part of the generation that read this book as a child, since I was born a few years too late. It's a largeish format book with really delightful illustrations, the kind of stuff that makes you consider getting a gnome tattoo (or maybe that's just me?). The mythology of the gnome is explored here in great detail with a tongue in cheek scientific air, and data points ranging from physiology to sociology of the gnome. From lifespan to honeymoon rituals, basically every aspect of the gnomes lives are chronicled here. I never knew that gnomes gave birth to twins every time! And I never saw a picture of a gnome mama tandem breastfeeding her gnome twins before, and if you haven't either, this book is worth a gander. ...more
This is the first in a series of gnome books I've been reading lately. I can't explain it. Anyway, this book is light on much information about the myThis is the first in a series of gnome books I've been reading lately. I can't explain it. Anyway, this book is light on much information about the mythology or history of gnomes, but there are some spectacular photos of different types of gnomes in various environs, different countries, etc. It's definitely a "get it from the library" kind of book. I was glad I flipped through it, but I don't need to own it. ...more
I feel like this is about a two point five stars kind of book, but since goodreads forces you into this "full stars only" system, and it's the holidayI feel like this is about a two point five stars kind of book, but since goodreads forces you into this "full stars only" system, and it's the holiday season, my generosity of spirit is rounding up to three stars.
So this is the kind of book I don't read that often. It's historic fiction, a 350 page novel about things like Women's Friendships (knitting circles), but there is some suffragette activity, and a battle over women's choices, like midwifery versus modern medicine, which is enough to get me through it.
Basically, Dora Rare is a the only girl in family that has only birthed boys for centuries, so you get the feeling that she is sort of special from the start. She is befriended by the local midwife, and ends up sort of apprenticing under her to catch some babies. Modern Medicine comes to down, dragging a pompous, arrogant Dr. and his Sterile Modern Birthing Center for Women. There's a sort of struggle between the Dr and the Midwife, the midwife moves onto the next world, and Dora Rare gets married off to a drunken, belligerent, cowardly, well-to-do fellow. Husbint disappears, and Dora is left alone, eventually to provide services for women & babies against "the law," the insurance company, and the will of the Doctor. Of course, it's easy to see the bias here - women are courageous and strong and competent and know their bodies and minds. Women are struggling for the right to vote in the US, women are struggling for the right to birth where they choose in Scots Bay, it's all the same, sort of. I probably would have enjoyed this a lot more when I was younger and more inclined to be inspired by historic fiction. Now I am old, gnarled and jaded. Also, I kind of take issue with giving yourself a main character that is "marked" with special "otherness" from the beginning. I'm not sure it's the most interesting or convincing way to share a story. Also, the final chapter/ending/conclusion is just way too neat and tied up with a bow for my tastes. I like a little more messiness in endings.
And this book is like, so, Canadian. Like, Nova Scotia and Halifax and shit. I don't think I've read fiction about Canada since Surfacing. I think I picked this up because it's somehow related to Labor of Love, but I didn't make a note to myself, so I really have no idea. Also, I looked at the author's website, and I thought the cover for the version published in Lithuania was far superior to the US book cover. ...more
This book is fun to flip through in the way that most photojournalists careers are interesting when viewed as a body of work. Walker spends much of heThis book is fun to flip through in the way that most photojournalists careers are interesting when viewed as a body of work. Walker spends much of her time in DC or following politicians on the campaign trail, so those photos make up a lot of her subject material. There are a few sections of particular people or subjects, and a few shots collected around each theme - parties, politicians, Hillary Clinton, Jamie Lee Curtis, etc. I picked up this book in particular for one photo of Steve Jobs in his single days, sitting cross-legged in a nearly empty apartment. He said, "This was a very typical time. I was single. All you needed was a cup of tea, a light, and your stereo, you know, and that's what I had." It was 1982, the year I was born, a few years before Macs got famous. There are some other good Steven Jobs shots, a really fantastic picture of Nancy Reagan sitting on Mr. T's lap (he's dressed as Santa), and a great shot of Terence Smith caught leering at a slinky lady's chest at a party - the lady flashed opened her fur stole to reveal a mirror, his own face staring back at him, and the look on his face is unbelievable. So, I hope those are the images I remember from this book. ...more
For the eight hundredth time, I really don't like books that used to be blogs so I don't know why I keep reading them, but here I am. Once again. HereFor the eight hundredth time, I really don't like books that used to be blogs so I don't know why I keep reading them, but here I am. Once again. Here is the book version of dooce.com's pregnancy, birth, postpartum depression, mental breakdown, and healing process. I liked this book because Heather B. Armstrong is a very funny person. She overshares. She says the things you are not supposed to say. She's a little blue island in the middle of big red Utah, and her mom is the Avon World Sales Leader. She is painfully honest about all the ways she feels she falls short as a parent, a wife, and a person. She's painfully honest about checking herself into a mental hospital, and she still manages to be funny about it. This book is a nice romp through the early days of Heather's new motherhood, and a nice primer for someone who may have recently stated reading her blog. It's a beacon of hope to other moms who have postpartum depression. She says she would not be alive, her child would have no mother, her husband would have left her except she made the totally righteous move to get help to fix her brain. I think Heather helps to destigmatize getting help for depression, and that's cool. At the end of the day, this is a 250-something page mommy blog. If you can handle that, you will lol. ...more
I read this book because I once loved FLB, and here is one of her books that I haven't read, so of course I have to read it. But here it is, two starsI read this book because I once loved FLB, and here is one of her books that I haven't read, so of course I have to read it. But here it is, two stars. It's not that I can't appreciate good poetry, but mostly that the sort of angst, sorrow, mourning, lonely tragedy/difficulties of girlhood and womanhood translate into poetry in a way that is just sublimely irritating to me. So, it's hard for me to discuss the poetry because it's just not my thing. Many apologies to the angsty, healing lady poets I'm insulting right now.
But, in reading this book, I did happen upon a deep insight that may change my world view. It occurred to me that Jenny Schecter (L Word Character) is like a knock-off version of FLB. Jewish, Los Angeles, childhood trauma, queer tendencies, writer, etc etc etc. Is FLB getting some royalties from Ilene Chaiken? Just Curious. ...more
If you have ever had a friend that was far away, this book is talking to you. Two friends are 3,191 miles apart, each in a Portland (one Maine, one OrIf you have ever had a friend that was far away, this book is talking to you. Two friends are 3,191 miles apart, each in a Portland (one Maine, one Oregon), and sharing (publicly) one photo each every morning for a year. This book is the organized collection of those pairs of photos. The rules are simple: before noon, no collaborating. In these random snippets of disparate mornings, there are secrets about how a day moves, and over the course of the year you watch the seasons change and lives shift. And there are mornings that make you catch your breath - a black and white striped tee shirt mirrored across the divide, a particular shade of green, gray, blue, yellow appearing in Maine and Oregon on the same day. One day seems suited for fresh produce; another, for shoe gazing and another for sea shells and sand.
When I have a friend far away, I find that we can talk through long conversations, phone calls or quick emails, post cards, hand written letters, or smoke signals, or telepathic messages and we always miss something. Usually you talk about the big things - the house, the work, the family, and if you are close, you talk about the feelings, like big open hopeless loneliness and failure, or an embarrassing level of self-contentment and smug daily gratitude. But you skip the things that make you love your friends -- the way they cook an egg, or how they drink coffee, or the stupid things the cat does, or the stripes in their tee shirt or the particular way they slice an apple or braid their daughter's hair. Is there anything to make you feel more like a stranger than to suddenly realize your latte-sipping friend drinks drip coffee black now?? And they never told you? So, in that heart-aching way I think about all the friends I miss, the people I have spread across the country like a diasporic art installation as I follow my heart and horizons, I liked this book. The photos could have been bigger, or printed on glossy paper, and the whole book could have tolerated a little more critique on the connectedness of the human condition, but c'est la vie. It is adequate and warms the cold coals of my heart. ...more
I picked this up because it was reviewed on Re-Nest. I'm not sure what about their review (including the use of the world "basic" multiple times) madeI picked this up because it was reviewed on Re-Nest. I'm not sure what about their review (including the use of the world "basic" multiple times) made me think I needed to read this, but I did anyway. It's a smaller, coffeetable-style book, not a text heavy academic tome. The pictures, interestingly enough, appear to be from a stock "interior design" catalog, and often have nothing to do with the "green tip" on that page. The best word to describe this book is "okay." I don't think there was a single idea in the 100 that I hadn't already considered, but if someone had good intentions and little experience, I could see this being an eye-opening experience for them. By the time you are looking for comprehensive plans to green your home, however, you are probably way past this book. I did appreciate some of the more subtle irony - one of the Case Study sections is Whole Foods, and there are a lot of non-green things about Whole Foods! They certainly are not one of my green rolemodels. Also ironic -- the authors use the word "greenwashing," as in, "Beware of greenwashing." But then they turn around and recommend a variety of practices that are greenwashing at best - and downright harmful or counterintuitive to a green lifestyle at worst. All in all, this was mostly disappointing because it was put out by National Geographic, and generally I expect way more from them. ...more
There are some good explanations of basic design ideas and principles, and some nice examples of rooms from the Domino staffers. The rooms illustrate There are some good explanations of basic design ideas and principles, and some nice examples of rooms from the Domino staffers. The rooms illustrate principles, and consequently, don't have all the sources for all their items listed. This can be frustrating if you see something that you know your house "needs" but there's not a source to track it down. It can inspire some treasure hunts, though. This book is going to be sadly very dated inside of 10 years, but most decorating books are. For the here & now, this is good enough, although I prefer Apartment Therapy....more