Descriptions of around twenty American homes, including Auldbrass Plantation near Yemessee, South Carolina.

From the Joint Chief Curator at Historic Royal Palaces and BBC Television series including Lucy Worsley: Mozart's London Odyssey and Six Wives with Lucy Worsley, available on Netflix. “Worsley is a thoughtful, charming, often hilarious guide to life as it was lived, from the mundane to the esoteric.” -The Boston Globe Why did the flushing toilet take two centuries to catch on? Why did medieval people sleep sitting up? When were the two “dirty centuries”? Why, for centuries, did rich people fear fruit? In her brilliantly and creatively researched book, Lucy Worsley takes us through the bedroom, bathroom, living room, and kitchen, covering the history of each room and exploring what people actually did in bed, in the bath, at the table, and at the stove-from sauce stirring to breast-feeding, teeth cleaning to masturbating, getting dressed to getting married-providing a compelling account of how the four rooms of the home have evolved from medieval times to today, charting revolutionary changes in society.

Bartlesville, Oklahoma has been extremely fortunate to have fostered many historians over the past 100 years. These pioneers have documented memorable events and activities of early history, citizens and their families. A significant amount of research has been done to compile the stories and information presented in this volume.

The houses in this book tell their own story. Through photos and the houses speaking about their existence and their owners, If Houses Could Talk takes the reader on a fanciful ride to all those who might have lived in these miraculous structures. About the Author John E. Foss is a native of Wisconsin and was educated at the University of Wisconsin-River Falls (Bachelor of Science) and the University of Minnesota (M.S., Ph.D. degrees). He was involved in teaching and research at the University of Wisconsin-River Falls, University of Maryland, North Dakota State University, and the University of Tennessee. He has authored several hundred research publications on soil science and soil-geological interpretations of archaeological sites in the United States. International sites included Italy (Pompeii, Herculaneum, Hadrian’s Villa, and Horace’s Villa), Tunisia, Albania, and Guatemala. His awards include Fellow in the American Society Agronomy, Soil Science Society of America, and American Association for the Advancement of Science.

"Each of us has a true personal landscape, but some people never find it. I was lucky to find mine when I was a child, & never to lose it," says one author. Riveting, poignant, funny, the essays gathered here in Thoughts of Home all speak of the dreams, the memories - & the sometimes-painful realities - of the personal landscapes we call home. For some, home is defined be a passion for a place. On "The Trying-to-Leave-New-Orleans Blues" a young woman makes three vain attempts to "achieve escape velocity" from "the powerful force field" of New Orleans, where at lunchtime she will "walk down to the Napoleon House bar & cafe, one of the most wistfully beautiful interiors in America...The waiters are languid, understanding men in white button-down shirts with old-fashioned ribbed shirts shoeing through." For others home is the house where they grew up. In the mysterious "A Haunted Place" a daughter & son decide not to sell the family home after they hear the footsteps of their dead father on the stairs. In "The Time-Travel Game" a grown woman still returns to a Manhattan park bench in front of her childhood apartment when she needs to "reconfirm the past." & as "The Grandmother Who Could do Anything" makes clear, home is also about people we love. For this author it was a sturdy, down-to-earth woman who could both coolly chop the heads off live chickens & warmly open her arms to her granddaughter. "With Grandma holding me, my face against the bib of her apron, I felt invincible, as if nothing could ever hurt me." In "Mother's Gifts," an army brat who moved twelve times in her childhood honors her mother's ability to make a home no matter how dispiriting the circumstances. Her weapons were heirlooms, family rituals, & curtains. "By my mother's standards...we were not at home until every window was properly dressed. Even the wilder reaches of the natural world can become a home to those looking for a sense of quiet continuity. In "Almost Like Hibernation" a couple decides to live in a log cabin in the remote Yaak Valley in northwestern Montana, where the big excitement is watching otters play on the ice, or simply waiting for the mail. "We used to live in cities, where we felt clumsy, rushed, prone to mistakes...Now, finally, I think we have founds our level, somewhere way down near the bottom of things." The essays in Thought of Home provide vivid glimpses into other people's lives, but these stories - no matter how different from our own - always strikes a cord of recognition. Each somehow makes us appreciate our personal histories.

Valerie Green and Lynn Gordon-Findlay have put their ears to the walls of Vancouver Island's historic homes and transcribed the whispered secrets of bygone days when folk of every description left their echoes in the buildings where they lived, worked, played, and died. If the walls of a venerable mansion could speak, what stories would it tell? How about that rustic shack farther down the road? In her first book, If These Walls Could Talk,Valerie Green explored 50 heritage homes in the Greater Victoria area. In this second volume, she ranges further afield, covering Greater Victoria and Southern Vancouver Island, Duncan and the Cowichan Valley, Nanaimo, Port Alberni, Parksville, Qualicum Beach, Courtney and District, and Campbell River and the North Island, including homes in Telegraph Cove and Port McNeill. Each home tells of a way of life long past, of people who dwelt within its walls, when and how it was built, or how it is historically significant. Once again, Valerie's text is complemented by architectural artist Lynn Gordon-Findlay's exquisite drawings.

Winner of the PEN Center USA Literary Award for Creative Nonfiction • From the celebrated bestselling author of The House on Mango Street: "This memoir has the transcendent sweep of a full life.” —Houston Chronicle From Chicago to Mexico, the places Sandra Cisneros has lived have provided inspiration for her now-classic works of fiction and poetry. But a house of her own, a place where she could truly take root, has eluded her. In this jigsaw autobiography, made up of essays and images spanning three decades—and including never-before-published work—Cisneros has come home at last. Written with her trademark lyricism, in these signature pieces the acclaimed author of The House on Mango Street and winner of the 2019 PEN/Nabokov Award for Achievement in International Literature shares her transformative memories and reveals her artistic and intellectual influences. Poignant, honest, and deeply moving, A House of My Own is an exuberant celebration of a life lived to the fullest, from one of our most beloved writers.