Three Design-Related Books That I Adore

LOVING FRANK By Nancy Horan 

 Advance praise for Loving Frank: “Loving Frank is one of those novels that takes over your life. It’s mesmerizing and fascinating–filled with complex characters, deep passions, tactile descriptions of astonishing architecture, and the colorful immediacy of daily life a hundred years ago–all gathered into a story that unfolds with riveting urgency.”–Lauren Belfer, author of City of Light.

“I admire this novel, adore this novel, for so many reasons: The intelligence and lyricism of the prose. The attention to period detail. The epic proportions of this most fascinating love story. Mamah Cheney has been in my head and heart and soul since reading this book; I doubt she’ll ever leave.”–Elizabeth Berg

GREEN THOUGHTS By Eleanor Perenyi 

You do not have to be a good gardener to fall in love with Green Thoughts. It reads with the intrepid assurance of a classic. Mary McCarthy, The New York Review of Books

Unlike any other gardening book I know, with its Old World charm, its down-to-earth practicality, its whimsy and sophistication. Brooke Astor, The New York Times Book Review

One of those dangerous reference works that you reach for at a moment of horticultural crisis or indecision only to find yourself an hour later browsing far beyond the page where you began. The New Yorker -- Review

THE ARCHITECTURE OF HAPPINESS By Alain de Botton

From the back cover: The Architecture of Happiness is a dazzling and generously illustrated journey through the philosophy and psychology of architecture and the indelible connection between our identities and our locations. One of the great but often unmentioned causes of both happiness and misery is the quality of our environment: the kinds of walls, chairs, buildings, and streets that surround us. And yet a concern for architecture is too often described as frivolous, even self-indulgent. Alain de Botton starts from the idea that where we are heavily influences who we can be, and argues that it is architecture's task to stand as an eloquent reminder of our full potential.