Tastemaker and designer Danielle Rollins invites readers to join her at home for a primer on living and entertaining in style. Danielle Rollins is renowned for her elegant touch. In her second book, she welcomes readers into her world and shows them how to create gorgeous style at home in rooms tailor-made for gatherings, get-togethers, cocktail hours, dinner parties, and intimate suppers. Traveling room by room through the house, Rollins shares practical advice and design inspiration. Drawing on her background as an expert hostess and noted designer, Rollins delivers a live-your-best-life guide rooted in the function and design essentials that keep a house beautifully humming: the primacy of a useful floor plan in creating spaces people actually live in and use; the necessity of organization for beautiful, stress-free table settings and entertaining; and creating vivid and happy color schemes that flow seamlessly from room to room. The book will also include more than a dozen entertaining occasions and tablescapes, including Easter brunch in the garden, a fried-chicken buffet supper, and a candlelit Christmas Eve dinner in the living room. With tips for a gracious life, from organizing your china pantry to setting a memorable table, this book is a celebration of the power of opening up your front door and inviting people in.

Gavin Plumley considered himself a distinctly urban being...until he met his rural husband, Alastair. Together, they bought Stepps House - a three-storey building in Pembridge, Herefordshire - on love at first sight. But then came the inevitable question from an insurance salesman: 'How old is it?' With ancient beams crossing the ceiling, the date they'd been given of 1800 seemed out by centuries. As Gavin traced Stepps House through various hands and eras, he saw the picture of a past emerge that resonates powerfully with our present. A hybrid work of domestic history and European art, of memoir and landscape, A Home for All Seasons is both grand in its sweep and intimate in its account of life on the edge of England.

By the author of the bestselling picture book Petunia, The House of Four Seasons is a bright and lively family picture book about colors, imagination, and compromise When Father, Mother, Billy, and Suzy go house hunting in the country, they fall in love with a grand old house nestled among tall weeds and trees. It is in need of repair, and soon a carpenter, mason, and tinsmith come to set things straight, but it needs painting too. The family agrees it would be more fun to paint the house themselves, but no one can agree on the color, and to make matters worse, the hardware store only carries three colors: red, blue, and yellow. But Father has an idea. “You’ll see, he says, “colors can do many tricks when they get together,” and with a sudden flourish, a color wheel appears! Budding artists and engineers will love this surprising story, and adults would do well to note how Father arrives at a winning trifecta of negotiation, education, and thrift.

Bequeathed a century-old house, four estranged friends return to their home town, Calingarry Crossing, where each must stay for a season to fulfil the wishes of their beloved benefactor, Gypsy. Here they finally face the consequences of the tragic accident that occurred twenty years ago and changed their lives forever. Sara, a breast cancer survivor afraid to fall in love; Poppy, an ambitious journo craving her father’s approval; Amber, a spoilt socialite looking for some purpose to life; Caitlin, a doctor frustrated by a controlling family At Dandelion House, each will discover something about themselves and a secret that will bind them forever.

While most attention is given to the booming mega-cities in China and the associated problems of over-population, the rural areas in China are being largely ignored. Yet, a sustainable development of the rural areas is precisely that, which will be decisive for China’s future. Through its rapid development into an industrial country, China now needs to tackle far-reaching problems such as increasing population, growing income gap between the poor and the rich, rural exodus, decreased agricultural production, and environmental pollution. Rural Urban Framework is a work group at the University of Hong Kong that not only researches the far-reaching changes of the last thirty years in China’s rural areas, but has also realized concrete projects aimed at improving supply and infrastructure on site. In this publication, the authors present for the first time the results of their research as well as their built projects in the Chinese backlands, and question whether China’s only future model lies in cities.

Robbie the Raccoon and his friends love Father Oak and worry that he is sick when his leaves begin to turn color and fall off, but Robbie's mother explains what the change means and helps him plant some acorns as a sign of hope for spring.

Norm and Lynn are having problems. Big problems. Rather than hide from the issues, they go on a marriage retreat together while Stephanie goes to cheerleading camp and Diana stays with her father. But when everyone returns, things seem worse than ever. So bad, in fact, it looks like Stephanie and Diana may not have to put up with each other anymore, which is what they wanted all along. This final book in the Sisters in all Seasons series brings the story of Stephanie and Diana to a close, and shows what happens when two opposites become friends, and maybe sisters.