Lots of random books lately; I’m sure I’m missing a few here.
Most of my recent reading has been old favorites:
- Deneice Schofield, Confessions of a Happily Organized Family and Kitchen Organization Tips and Secrets. The former is pretty good; the latter, while a nice book, doesn’t do enough for me, and someone was willing to buy my copy for a pretty good price.
- Madeleine L’Engle, And it was Good and Penguins and Golden Calves. Two of L’Engle’s theology books.
- Robin McKinley, The Hero and the Crown; The Blue Sword. Two wonderful fantasy novels.
- Louisa May Alcott, Little Women. Still a classic.
I also got to spend a few quiet minutes in the library and check out some unfamiliar books.
- Karen Kingston, Clear your Clutter with Feng Shui. Still mulling over what I think of this one. It’s well written with a cheerful and friendly tone, and I got a few good insights. It also has some newagey bits that make me go “um….” I’m highly skeptical about colon cleansing, for example. I’m not sure I buy into the Feng Shui bagua, but I can see using it in the same way as I use Free Will Astrology or tarot cards — a Rohrschach blot equivalent to give me insight into what I think about situations in my life, rather than a Magic Divination Method. Overall, I don’t plan to buy this one new, but if it ever shows up in a used book store for cheap, I might get a copy.
- Barbara Sher, I Could Do Anything if I Only Knew What It Was. I’ve always liked Sher’s Wishcraft, and this one runs in a similar vein. Sher looks at various reasons why people have trouble figuring out what they want to do with their lives and gives strategies on how to work through those issues. (I’m rather a Scanner myself; there’s just too many interesting things out there to devote my life to just one!)
- I haven’t been buying Alexandra Stoddard’s books lately, but Feeling at Home turns out to be one that works for me, so I’ll keep an eye out for it at the used book store. What I like most is the long section that’s an interview with a family about how they want to change their house to make it more useable and attractive to them. (Clearly an advice column about interior decorating problems would be high up on my entertainment reading list.) I’m still occasionally tempted to write to Stoddard and say “hey, I like a lot of your books, but to be blunt, my economic class is a helluva lot lower than what you seem to be aiming at”, but this book didn’t set off that reaction nearly so much.
- Madeline Robins, Point of Honor. In a slightly alternate-history Regency England, a fallen woman earns a living as a private investigator. A fun story, which doesn’t whitewash the problems a woman would face trying to live independently.