Country Living Magazine's contributing editor Randy Florke has produced a great book. Your House, Your Home (2005 ANF 747.0973 FLO) takes you into his homes past and present, room by room. Every page is filled with colour photographs and his warm, friendly approach to home decorating.
As I often do with this kind of book, I opened it up in the middle and was presented with a photograph of a bathroom retreat.
As well as the expected fixtures, there right by a sunny window was a chaise lounge.
A pile of books was on the floor beside it topped by a cup of hot chocolate (probably coffee but I prefer hot chocolate). Two puffy pillows were placed just right for snuggling in and having a good long read.
The table of contents hints at more pleasures with chapter headings like Gathering Places for kitchens and Watching The World Go By for porches.
All the luscious pictures, the descriptions and the highlighted quick hints sections almost made me want to rush out and get started redecorating. Not quite, though, as I first have to figure out how to get a comfy chair into my bathroom.
Try some of these other interesting, informative titles.
Sacred Places Around The World : 108 Destinations written, photographed and illustrated by Brad Olsen. 2004. (ANF 203.5 OLS)
Use this as a travel guide, or an armchair read, to venture off the beaten path for a closer look at sacred mountains, modern pilgrimage routes, lost cities, prehistoric pyramids and other lesser-known locales.
Death By Thunder by Gretchen Sprague. 2005. Mystery. (MYS SPR)
Janet Upton is trying for dramatic photographs in the mountains near the Hudson River when she sees a body flying down from the rocks above her. The victim is Broderick Hale, a man of strong opinions, and Janet suspects murder.
Bruiser by Ian Chorao. 2003. Fiction. (FIC CHO)
Nine-year-old Bruiser is trying to make sense of the pain and confusion of a troubled home life and decides to take to the open road with Darla, a ten-year-old kindred spirit who lives across the alleyway.
Alex : The Fathering Of A Preemie by Jeff Stimpson. 2004. Biography (ANF 618.92011 STI)
Alex weighed twenty-one ounces when he was born two months early in June, 1998. His father writes of the first year spent in the hospital,the crash course in caring for a special-needs child, and the on-going battle to give Alex a fair shot at childhood and at life.
Relativity : The Special And General Theory by Albert Einstein. 2005. (ANF 530.11 EIN)
What could be better than an introduction to the theory of relativity by the originator himself? Here is the original text, written for the layperson nearly a century ago, with insights from today's leading experts.
The Geography Of Thought : How Asians And Westerners Think Differently-- And Why by Richard E. Nisbett. 2003. (ANF 153.4 NIS)
Nisbett's work in cultural psychology leads him to believe that different cultures perceive the world differently. What does this mean for the future of global relations?
Juicing The Game : Drugs, Power, And The Fight For The Soul Of Major League Baseball by Howard Bryant. 2005. (ANF 362.290887 BRY)
The time after the 1994 players' strike came to be known as the "Juiced Era" for the resurgence of the game and for the explosion of the use of performance-enhancing drugs.
Here is the complete history.
- For more information or to request books online, go to www.virl.bc.ca