Summer reading 2015
This has been a busy summer, full of travel, family changes, work, and good food! During the past three months, I’ve also had a chance to read a few books – a couple just okay, one interesting, and one terrific. So here’s a short summary, from mediocre to recommended. The Language of Houses: How Buildings Speak to Us, by Alison Lurie. I picked up this 2014 book – with its promise to highlight how buildings speak to us in ways simple and complex, formal and informal – with great anticipation. Written by a Pulitzer Prize winning author, I expected great – or at least good – writing that would pull me along. Unfortunately, I found it a simplistic and rather bland work that I had trouble finishing. This is a topic that holds a great deal of promise. Unfortunately, Lurie’s work doesn’t deliver. The House with Sixteen Handmade Doors: A Tale of Architectural Choice and Craftsmanship by Henry Petroski. I bought this quirky work in Seattle while on my cross-country trip with Claire in 2014. …