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While the information in this book isn’t particularly new or groundbreaking, its straightforward language and expressive illustrations of many different cat species make it a helpful read for families with children who are getting their first pet cat or for new cat owners looking for an easy manual to help guide their understanding of their new feline family member.
PREMIUM
Seed to Table: A Seasonal Guide to Organically Growing, Cooking, and Preserving Food at Home
For his first print book, Ghafari, who created the Urban Farm and Kitchen blog, has written an approachable, deeply useful work for beginner gardeners that is enlivened with recipes and great images.
A foreword by Jane Goodall and quirky dog drawings enhance this title. For comprehensive collections of materials on dog studies, animal cognition, and psychology and for general readers who love their pet dogs.
Fascinating for gardeners and ecology-minded readers. May induce a hankering to seek out or grow brown badger peas, Johnson’s Wonderful Longpod beans, and Hanging Lobster tomatoes.
PREMIUM
The Garden: Elements and Styles
The reference use of the title will be high, but consider buying it for the circulating collection too, for this is a work that readers will pore over.
PREMIUM
The Tiny but Mighty Farm: Cultivating High Yields, Community, and Self-Sufficiency from a Home Farm
A great book for aspiring small farmers and readers interested in improving their gardens. Libraries with well-circulating plant and garden sections will not be able to keep this on the shelf.
Recommended for all public and academic library collections and especially for those with patrons who have an interest in recycling or composting. This title can easily fit in humor, sustainability, or memoir sections.
This book shares aspects of design, love, and the sacred to encourage readers to cultivate with intent the most important space in their lives: home.
Experienced gardeners and other plant aficionados will likely enjoy exploring this distinctive compilation. Recommended for larger public libraries and ones with a botanical focus.
For gardeners who want to abandon the staid lawns-and-borders approach to gardening. This book provides stimulating incentives and tips to create the biodiverse meadow of their dreams.
Readers hoping to grow their own vegetables and seeking a friend to help them begin will be happy to meet Mistry via her bright and bountiful work.
This attractive and useful addition to the DIY home design shelf will appeal to both new and experienced crafters.
This attractive, authoritative introductory guide to growing cacti and other succulents will be relished by gardeners of all levels, who will likely want to add these fascinating plants to their indoor plant collections.
An adorable read with colorful illustrations and brief breed descriptions, this book might be helpful for first-time dog owners, although it’s not an essential guide.
Reading much like a memoir, this gardening guide is simply lovely. It should appeal to those who hope to make a garden, those who share Yates’s love of gardening, and those hoping to find a bit of beauty and calm joy in a reading experience.
Written by a backyard homesteader who committed to providing fresh food for her children who experienced health challenges, this is a recommended and comprehensive guide on how to produce one’s own food.
Raven’s book is a font of information and inspiration, written with a lovely tone and an inviting approach. Readers will wish the year with her would never end.
This head-to-paw guide to domestic cat behavior is the purr-fect addition for cat and science lovers who want to learn more about Felis catus and their large, wild cousins.
While much of the information in this guide will be familiar to longtime cat caretakers, the quirky presentation is both appealing and accessible. Recommended for public library collections.
This book would be a great selection for a library with a well-used design section. Best for new homeowners and readers looking to redecorate, but the visual details could attract a variety of creative people.
This is a detailed and nonintimidating floor-to-ceiling guide that encourages DIYers to build beautiful yet functional bathrooms.
This book is full of ideas that will appeal to readers trying to eliminate their household toxins, reduce their environmental impact, and live a little greener.
An excellent addition to any library, this plant guide will prove to be a lasting resource for gardeners and nature lovers.
Ideal for readers ready to do the work themselves and for those more interested in anecdotal explanations than concrete design images.
This book will appeal to those searching for quotes regarding pet loss as well as stories about familiar personalities and their beloved pets. A worthy addition to libraries that see steady circulation of nonfiction that tugs at the heartstrings.
A charming, browsable, useful book for beginners, although some of the plants here might be more challenging to grow than the author says.
There are many books on the subject, but the presentation and comprehensive style of Sweet’s will stand out from the rest. A good source of information about growing cannabis for medicinal purposes, ideal for beginners.
A comprehensive, beautifully illustrated book useful for beginner and experienced gardeners who plan to add native plants to their gardens.
An excellent resource for individuals and communities interested in homesteading, permaculture, and sustainability.
Cat lovers and fans of Sweeney’s other works will be excited about this title. This is a good spiritual nonfiction book, a cozy one for patrons to sit with over a cup of tea or in a meditation pose with a cat curled in their lap.
Enhanced with numerous lovely color photographs, this inviting book is a wonderful overview on sustainable gardening.
The clear instructions, attractive photos, and graphics make this an essential starting place for sewing and a foundation to continue to build on.
The alphabetical profiles of easy-to-grow plants will entice beginner gardeners to embark on a delicious journey to feed themselves physically and spiritually.
Experienced vegetable gardeners, as well as those considering growing a garden for the first time, will relish this informative, charming book, enhanced by the many lovely color photographs of gardens and plants. It simply brims with creative ideas for planning and growing a thriving vegetable garden.
The real value of this book lies in the author’s core philosophy of being mindful about every aspect of raising chickens. This isn’t so much a how-to guide to dip into when needed as it is a practical ode to trusting your instincts and loving your chickens. Mixed in with the good advice are several anecdotes from the author’s parents’ days in Guatemala, as well as several Guatemalan family recipes featuring eggs (of course).
PREMIUM
Home Therapy: Interior Design for Increasing Happiness, Boosting Confidence, and Creating Calm
This is a perfect book for readers looking to combine self-help and self-care with interior design and organization.
PREMIUM
Prefabulous for Everyone
A wonderfully curated design book for fans of Koones or readers looking to downsize.
Readers can learn much from Wentz’s book, even if these homes and renovations are beyond their budget. A complete list of sources for furnishings, wall coverings, and textiles is included.
PREMIUM
Yarn Spinning with a Modern Twist: How To Create Your Own Gorgeous Yarns Using a Drop Spindle
This book may be intimidating for readers who have no experience with or easy access to raw wool. It is geared much more to those who are already spinning wool and seeking more specialized advice.
A highly engaging and informative book with vivid pictures that celebrates an era of unforgettable and influential style. This must-add to public libraries will likely delight both fans of interior design and art history buffs, but it’s also accessible to the casual but curious reader.
This is a thorough entry into the world of paper crafting, with beautiful photos to accompany each project and enough pieces for readers of every skill level to enjoy.
While not every family can afford a vacation home, these designs will inspire homeowners to opt for Gilbreath’s unique blend of simplicity and elegance.
A no-frills book that both newbies and experts will find useful when planning or replenishing their gardens.
This book presents an easy entry point for readers interested in exploring mindfulness and the cottagecore lifestyle.
The text provides insight into the collaborative process between McGraw and her clients. The photos are gorgeous, and the layout is clean and simple; the photo captions explain why various elements, colors, textures, layouts, and shapes were chosen to enhance each space.
This step-by-step guide is a good introduction for beginners who need specific directions for planning and planting a vegetable garden. Gardeners looking for expanded details on growing individual vegetables may wish to consult a work such as Edward C. Smith’s The Vegetable Gardener’s Bible.
Novices and advanced gardeners alike will find valuable tips and strategies in this resource. Recommended as a companion to strong gardening collections.
This is a short but comprehensive and enjoyable companion piece for cross-stitch fans looking to add a little humor to their next project.
Strambio’s appreciation for the art of macramé and her encouragement for readers to give knotting a try and let mistakes be part of the unique quality of a hand-crafted piece make this book a celebration of creativity from start to finish.
As recycling and sustainability keep growing in importance, this is a creative way to avoid ditching clothing that readers aren’t ready to give up.
This well-structured primer will appeal to artists looking for a new medium, as well as beginning to intermediate–level pyrographers interested in adding new skills and techniques.
While the crocheted instructions are adequate, and there are useful sections on blocking and finishing, the book contains several technical errors and omissions with the embroidered topstitching instructions. Only recommended for libraries where there is demand for the author’s books.
PREMIUM
Satisfying Stitches: Learn Simple Embroidery Techniques and Embrace the Joys of Stitching by Hand
Highly recommended, especially for libraries looking to expand their beginner-embroidery offerings.
For gardeners who would like a more natural look rather than curb appeal, this is an essential resource.
While this book focuses specifically on the UK, readers from around the world are sure to find useful ideas to help them create sustainable and unique gardens using recycling methods.
PREMIUM
Taming the Potted Beast: The Strange and Sensational History of the Not-So-Humble Houseplant
Part microhistory, part tips and tricks, this book is ideal for beginners and experts alike. A great read for all those who love their flora.
This entertaining listen will appeal to patrons hungry to learn more about science, environment, ecology, animal husbandry, and how one person can make a real difference.
Committed environmentalists interested in upping their game and being better citizens of planet Earth will find this guide useful. Highly recommended for all libraries.
This book moves beyond the home to include everyday activities and lifestyle. It’s likely to be in high demand due to Kondo’s popularity.
PREMIUM
Drawing for Illustration
A robust bibliography and index are included. The result is an appropriate update for art collections, particularly for universities and large public libraries with teens and adults interested in this craft.
Recommended for readers interested in homesteading, organic living, and sustainable and eco-friendly poultry farming.
PREMIUM
The Beginner’s Guide to Hand Building: Functional and Sculptural Projects for the Home Potter
Geared toward the absolute novice, this book will appeal to those interested in working with clay but are not looking for glazing or firing instructions.
A thorough guide to the art of sashiko that will inspire hand-embroidery enthusiasts, as well as hand- and machine-quilters looking for geometric designs.
An asset for all library collections that include art tutorials for beginners testing the waters of a new hobby.
A great introduction to amigurumi crochet and crafting three-dimensional creatures. Recommended for most public libraries.
Casey’s thorough and well-designed guide provides an extensive overview of color theory and the ways color can be used in art. Although there’s some beginner-friendly content, it’s best suited to artists with some experience with oil paints.
For those interested in living off their land and starting a homesteading lifestyle, this book does a great job providing practical tips, recipes, and inspiration to get started on a sustainable path.
The patterns and instructions are lovely. The gimmicky, surface-level nods to Japanese culture are not.
Buy where there is reader demand for intermediate-level knitting projects, with the caveat that this is for experienced right-handed U.S. knitters; left-handed and non-U.S. knitters will need to know how to do their own conversions and where to look for stitch abbreviations.
This guide is for those who love to bullet journal or craft. It’s also recommended for those needing to pick up a new meditative hobby.
Fans of the elegance and distinctive design styles featured in Michael Henry Adams’s Style and Grace: African Americans at Home will likely love this book as well. This is also a great book for those interested in increasing their cultural awareness and learning more about United States history, racial inequality, and interior design.
This beautiful book is chock-full of information about many uncommon plants and seems geared to the collector or at least the intermediate houseplant grower because of the rarity, strict growing conditions, or expense of many of her choices. Tovah Martin’s The Unexpected Houseplant is another solid choice for those who want to grow unusual houseplants; beginners could start with Barbara Pleasant’s The Complete Houseplant Survival Manual or Darryl Cheng’s The New Plant Parent.
This is a jam-packed volume filled with clear instructions and ample color photographs to help crafters master shibori tie-dyeing and incorporate it into their projects. Best suited for those who enjoy crafting, sewing, or designing clothes.
The authors make sewing both inspirational and inviting for beginning sewists, in a book that reflects the modern ethos of environmental sustainability and the ethos of thrift from earlier eras. An optional purchase for libraries with a strong crafts section.
Purchase only where other titles by Chanin have been popular. For patrons who want to sew their own Chanin originals, purchase the author’s 2008 Alabama Stitch Book instead.
A beautifully illustrated and detailed look at the history of chair design in America. Owing to the unique topic, it will best serve academics, students, and aficionados of style and design.
A well-written book that will continue to expand embroidery collections and encourage creativity along the way.
Crocheters of all levels will likely find this to be a useful reference guide. Recommended for most public libraries.
Beginners can use this book to learn and practice new stitches, while advanced stitchers may find inspiration for their own pattern designs. Recommended for most public libraries.
Green-Hite’s book is full of simple yet extraordinary patterns that would be a fun addition to any library collection.
McClain’s title is an easily digestible, interior design book that would be an asset to any library shelf.
The very niche nature of the work narrows the checkouts it may receive, but purchase where coffee-table decor books are popular.
PREMIUM
Extraordinary Interiors
A delightful peek at the extraordinary interiors of the extraordinarily wealthy.
The subject matter may be interesting to those looking to experiment with a new medium or discover a new way to view the world around them.
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