Spark Joy: An Illustrated Master Class on the Art of Organizing and Tidying Up

February 26, 2016

...praise be–diagrams of her arcane folding techniques. These things made the book worthwhile for me. The book itself is interesting as an object. It’s smallish, and pretty. Inside, the illustrations are Japanese-cute line drawings. It doesn’t look like any cleaning or organization book I’ve ever seen, and that is what makes it special. Kondo understands that tidying is a spiritual activity, not an organizational activity. The same week we got this b...

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Book Review: An Everlasting Meal

Mrs. Homegrown

March 8, 2013

Food, Reviews

6 Comments

...also on track with last week’s posts about cheap eating and beans. Adler’s book is not a cookbook. It has recipes throughout, but its mission is more about imparting an attitude, a style, a way of thinking in the kitchen, than delivering recipes. In fact, the core of her message is that you don’t need a recipe to cook. I was attracted to this book because it is reportedly inspired by M.F.K. Fisher’s book, How to Cook a Wolf, which is one of my fav...

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Everything Must Go Part II: Books

Mr. Homegrown

January 12, 2015

Cleaning, Domesticus, Tidying up

41 Comments

...the first steps on Kondosans’ path to a tidy house is to go through one’s books. We managed to accumulate more books than our shelves could hold. An untidy and anxiety producing book pile had developed in the living room. It was time for a book cleansing. But let me first state our rule about buying books. My gym is mere steps from the Los Angeles Central Library from which I can easily access over 6.2 million books, movies, CDs and downloadable...

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Josey Baker Bread: One Bread Book to Rule Them All

Mr. Homegrown

May 14, 2014

Bread, Food, Reviews

18 Comments

...to hold up half a dozen. Not any more. Now I can send students to just one book: Josey Baker Bread. The appropriately named Josey Baker (who used to work with another baker named Dave Miller–who mills his own flour, naturally) has written a perfect bread baking course in book form. Everything I’ve figured out about teaching how to bake is in here–start with a simple white bread, graduate to sourdough and then start baking with whole grain. Having...

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Book Review: What the Robin Knows

Mrs. Homegrown

September 9, 2013

Animals, Reviews

14 Comments

...deepest respect of long term practitioners of any art. I just finished the book and spent 40 minutes this morning in the backyard, utterly puzzled. It’s a beginning. A note on the text: The book is not structured like a “how-to” manual. It’s full of anecdotes and has a relaxed, meandering tone which is actually quite nice. It’s easy to imagine you’re just hanging outwith Jon Young in some nice green place, listening to his bird stories. The key co...

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