“A glorious piece of prose . . . Pollan leads readers on his adventure with humor and grace.” —Chicago Tribune A captivating personal inquiry into the art of architecture, the craft of building, and the meaning of modern work “A room of one’s own: Is there anybody who hasn’t at one time or another wished for such a place, hasn’t turned those soft words over until they’d assumed a habitable shape?” When Michael Pollan decided to plant a garden, the result was the acclaimed bestseller Second Nature. In A Place of My Own, he turns his sharp insight to the craft of building, as he recounts the process of designing and constructing a small one-room structure on his rural Connecticut property—a place in which he hoped to read, write, and daydream, built with his own two unhandy hands. Michael Pollan's unmatched ability to draw lines of connection between our everyday experiences—whether eating, gardening, or building—and the natural world has been the basis for the popular success of his many works of nonfiction, including the genre-defining bestsellers The Omnivore's Dilemma and In Defense of Food. With this updated edition of his earlier book A Place of My Own, readers can revisit the inspired, intelligent, and often hilarious story of Pollan's realization of a room of his own—a small, wooden hut, his "shelter for daydreams"—built with his admittedly unhandy hands. Inspired by both Thoreau and Mr. Blandings, A Place of My Own not only works to convey the history and meaning of all human building, it also marks the connections between our bodies, our minds, and the natural world.

Using original sources, this unique book focuses on the Deaf community during the 19th century. Largely through schools for the deaf, deaf people began to develop a common language and a sense of community. A Place of Their Own brings the perspective of history to bear on the reality of deafness and provides fresh and important insight into the lives of deaf Americans.

Virginia Woolf's playful exploration of a satirical »Oxbridge« became one of the world's most groundbreaking writings on women, writing, fiction, and gender. A Room of One's Own [1929] can be read as one or as six different essays, narrated from an intimate first-person perspective. Actual history blends with narrative and memoir. But perhaps most revolutionary was its address: the book is written by a woman for women. Male readers are compelled to read through women's eyes in a total inversion of the traditional male gaze. VIRGINIA WOOLF [1882–1941] was an English author. With novels like Jacob’s Room [1922], Mrs Dalloway [1925], To the Lighthouse [1927], and Orlando [1928], she became a leading figure of modernism and is considered one of the most important English-language authors of the 20th century. As a thinker, with essays like A Room of One’s Own [1929], Woolf has influenced the women’s movement in many countries.

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.

After leaving home at a young age and defying her parents to marry the dashing Garrett Maupin, Martha Maupin's future became bound up with some of the most extraordinary events in antebellum American history, eventually leading to her journey to a new life on the Oregon Trail. After Garrett Maupin died in 1866, leaving her alone on the frontier with their many children, Martha Maupin was torn between grief and relief after a difficult marriage. Lone mothers had few options in her day, but she took charge of her own dream and bought her own place, which is now one of the few Century Farms in Oregon named for a woman. A Place of Her Own is the story of the author’s great-great-grandmother’s daring decision to buy that farm on the Oregon frontier after the death of her husband--and story of the author's own decision to keep that farm in the family. Janet Fisher's journey into the past to uncover her own family history as she worked to keep the property interweaves with the tales from her ancestors' lives during the years leading up to the Mexican-American War in the East and her great-great-grandmother's harrowing journey across the Oregon Trail with her young family and finally tells the tale of Martha's courageous decision to strike out on her own in Oregon. This book will hold special appeal for Oregon Trail buffs and the many people in this country whose ancestors took that terrible trek, as well as others interested in American history of that period.

The 2:45 A.M. alarm was always going to have a shelf life. Katie had an existence that looked great on paper with a big market on-air TV career. But out of the public view, she was miserable. No one else was going to fix her situation. In My Happy Place, Katie lays out her DIY roadmap to authentic personal bliss: how she self-audited and beat down roadblocks to actualize her most joyous path, plus her practical steps to ensure the good times keep rolling. A relatable, hopeful memoir/how-to hybrid, My Happy Place is for all the people-pleasers trying to take back control of their own lives. “Katie’s writing is so authentic, you don’t even feel like you’re reading. You feel like you’re part of a great conversation. Be ready to cry a little and laugh a LOT. My Happy Place is both painful and uplifting, and filled with practical advice to find your own joy.”- Chris Jansen, Head of U.S. News and Publishing, Google “My Happy Place is an entertaining, fun, and relatable read that shows what can happen when you bet on yourself and conquer the self-doubt nonsense that holds you back.” - Christine Hunsicker, Founder and CEO of CaaStle and Gwynnie Bee, star of Project Runway: Fashion Startup “Success is so much more than a paycheck. For each of us to be truly happy, our work and lives need to strike a better balance. Katie’s powerful story proves the mainstream American concept of living the dream isn’t necessarily everyone’s ideal.” - Alejandro Bedoya, Professional Soccer Player, Philadelphia Union Captain, U.S. Men’s National Team “Katie’s book is inspiring, relatable, humorous and a breath of fresh air! This is a wonderful book that will motivate you as well!” - Dr. Jennifer Caudle, Family Physician, TV Health Expert, Associate Professor, Rowan University

"A Little House of My Own" offers humble dreams of solitude, romance, oasis for meditation, and whimsy, all less than 325 square feet. Includes the technical details of the structure from the building materials and woodworking techniques to estimated cost of construction. 300 color and b&w photos.