I've been thinking a lot about this lately, not having any idea there is actually a book that addresses it. We sold our home at the top of the market in late '05 after having updated it to reflect some of the HGTV trends of the day. We purchased a home built in 1977 with outdated bathrooms and gold and blue shag wall-to-wall in the upstairs bedrooms. Obviously that wall-to-wall needed to be replaced since it was 30 years old, but what I've realized is how silly it is to turn my home into a showplace based on how it might benefit potential resale value one day. I've read many times on this and other forums (but this one is particularly bad for it) some condescending and even downright snotty advice from people who perhaps unwittingly give off the impression that not only would butter not melt in their mouths, but that they would sooner run naked over hot coals than cook an omelet on anything less than a Wolf or Viking range. Don't get me wrong--I do enjoy living in a nice home, and my home is indeed a nice one. It's just not one that is currently or will anytime in the near future be tricked out with granite, stainless, 'hardwoods' (because 'hardwood' is no longer in fashion; it's 'hardwoods' in the plural or we all might just as well go with the horror commonly known as laminate), or a marble counter in the bathroom topping a trendy but completely impractical vanity. I still enjoy home improvement projects--at least, I enjoy the result--but these days I seem to be looking at the most cost-effective way to update rather than the one they would do on any number of HGTV shows. I think it might actually be a bit more fun than throwing money at the biggest, shiniest/most matte model of modern design I might come across. Granite, soapstone, marble, inexplicably vast expanses of reflective stainless? They are great. I enjoy coming across them here and there. However, one place I am unlikely to come across them is here in my very nice, certainly above average, structure that has truly become home to my family. I will continue to enjoy tweaking things and decorating my 31-year-old home, and I will enjoy the process as well as the result.

Jodi, I read Moloka'i. I liked it, loved the characters. It is unlike anything I've read before because of the subject matter and setting. Great book! I am not crazy about a romance. But I did read a book a while back that was a really good love story at the heart of it. It was so much bigger than a love story, though. It was the most poetic, lyrical novel I've ever read. Beautiful language and just a beautiful story about the couple's life and fate. I'd put it in my top 5 favorite books ever. It's how John Steinbeck would write if he were a woman. ;o) It's a well imagined and very well told story, but it's breathtaking how artistic it is. The symbolism and metaphors are perfect. I know I make it sound all serious with my literay talk, but it is so good it can be appreciated on so many levels. I'd call it epic. Sweet, sad, funny, touching. It just flows from page to page. It's just... wow! Read it slowly, savor every word. Here it is... drum roll... "Evidence of Things Unseen" by Marianne Wiggins.

Finished Steve Jobs, and I highly recommend it. It was one of the best liked books my book club has read, right up there with Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand. Now that may be in part because everything in the book is so familiar to residents of Steve Jobs's home turf. One member even remembers him from high school! We found ourselves wondering if people from other parts of the country would find it as fascinating as we did. Fascinating or not, I'm confident that any reader would find it to be well written. Now I have moved on to American Eden by Wade Graham. I like this too but suspect you would have to have some interest in gardening or landscaping to want to read it. Perhaps not; an interest in cultural history might be enough. The author examines how trends in what people do with their gardens reflects what they think about themselves and the society they live in. Again, it is well written. It reminds me how much a clumsy style or dreary pedantry can throw a barrier between a reader and even a topic that intrigues him. Fortunately neither of these books has that problem. Finally, as a quick light read, I re-read Elisabeth Ogilvie's Dancer in Yellow. I like most of Ogilvie's books, though not so much the Bennet Island series. Perhaps that is because I could never keep the family relationships straight. This one I enjoyed. Rosefolly

Carolyn, I read a couple some years ago. I must check and see if my library has reprints. I am reading my books slowly at present, there seems to be so many other things to do, like dropping off to sleep! My D gave me a small CD player for Xmas with handy top buttons. Just right for listening to recorded favourite books. I have been accumulating some in case of being confined to bed or having the eye operation for cataracts. I am doing a Scarlett O'Hara on that!