This is a lovely book about home design from Joanna Gaines. Thanks to HGTV and Hulu, I've recently become obsessed with the show Fixer Upper, and I was excited to flip through this big book and hear more from Joanna. She also provides some Troubleshooting tips, like how to deal with "Toys Everywhere," in Kid Spaces. I am a huge fan of Joana Gaines' design aesthetic/philosophy. I have followed Joana and Chip's show 'Fixer Upper' over the years and always came away with something that I truly liked. I don't prescribe to all her looks and 'distressed' being one of them, but how she approaches a space based on her clients personalities and what 'season of life' they are in, shows me the thought and care that goes into the overall design and finished product. Though I think young women would benefit the most from Rupi's words, I recommend this book to anyone struggling with issues of self worth or past abuse. I love that most of the twenty-two "case study" homes, introduced at the beginning of the book, are a blend of the six foundational styles (farmhouse, modern, rustic, industrial, traditional, boho); I didn't love that the book is then organized room by room, so it isn't easy to follow which home is which or to really get a good feel for each home as a whole.

Homebody has a lot of art illustrated by Rupi. That alone always magnetizes me to read her books. To me, some of her illustrations are slightly child like...but for some reason I enjoy them and the creativity behind them. I don't think as many illustrations existed in Homebody like the last 2 books Rupi has written. Regardless, they are very nice to look at. I found the book to be more inspirational than informative — there are descriptions of different styles, lots of photographs and drawings, and some general advice about the design of different rooms (such as Entryways, Kitchens, Bedrooms, Bathrooms, etc.). Mostly Joanna wants to inspire her readers to create a cozy home in their own style, and there are some short and sweet introductory words to each type of room. Recommended for fellow Jojo fans. Besides the setting, I enjoyed the set-up: Don, a lonely former contractor, having lost his family and most of his savings to a legal battle followed by a tragic accident, takes solace in renovating abandoned houses. The house he chooses is a once-magnificent mansion that has since been cut up into student apartments and finally abandoned all together. As I have dedicated a fair amount of time to fixing up my very old house, I enjoyed the loving descriptions of the house and its construction, as well as Don's renovation work. Since this is an Orson Scott Card book, there is something a bit strange and otherworldly about the house, and soon enough that becomes the focus of the story. Share a moment of time with your readers. Don't lecture them. Don't tell them things they already know. Yes, the earth is heating up. Yes, there is racism. Yes, the world is chaotic and no one will live forever. Not you. Not me. Not your mother or your father. We all experience pain. No one is special. Depression and anxiety are everyday occurrences. We are all apart of this experience. But, who are you? That's what matters. Who are your loved ones? What are some of your bad habits? What are you interested in? Besides these and other science fiction novels, Card writes contemporary fantasy ( Magic Street, Enchantment, Lost Boys), biblical novels ( Stone Tables, Rachel and Leah), the American frontier fantasy series The Tales of Alvin Maker (beginning with Seventh Son), poetry ( An Open Book), and many plays and scripts.

Joanna Gaines

From a beloved and bestselling master of speculative fiction comes this chilling tale of a soulful loner who must overcome demons from his past -- and the demons he unwittingly unleashes -- when he starts renovating a faded Southern mansion. As Homebody eloquently proves, no contemporary writer outshines Orson Scott Card in crafting unlikely heroes or in suffusing the everyday world with an otherworldly glow. The broad ideas in her collection are powerful, exactly because of their universality, but the execution is just not. She capitalizes on that. Good for her, don't get me wrong! but this is not poetry. Also, I find it disappointing that her work does not foster public discourse. She conveys a simple and very agreeable message and it ends there. She is not engaging with us! I am not even sure she actually can. Her goal is accessibility but poetry has never been about *simplicity* and *mass culture or readership*. Orson Scott Card is the author of the novels Ender's Game, Ender's Shadow, and Speaker for the Dead, which are widely read by adults and younger readers, and are increasingly used in schools. I find the writing thoroughly genuine and refreshing. I appreciate it more when the author expressed her concern over the unrealistic expectations to write more so that her work would bring her 'more' of what others believe would bring.

Receiving this book as a Christmas present from my son this past year, was a delight. I have slowly gone through each section reading and viewing the pictures of their home and others she has created, providing me with various visuals. It gives insight into how they started off and the epiphanies/lessons-learned she has garnered over the years. I didn't read most of the book, but I did get some good inspiration from the multitude of pictures that were included (and their captions)! If reading such lines still make us feel uncomfortable then I feel we still have a long way to go. I feel we need to express ourselves and it's our right to celebrate our bodies and our thoughts which others are so ready to judge and demean.

From the Publisher

Summary: A great design book for beginners, without much specific advice, but with pictures arranged to help you figure out your own style. Everything she wrote is way too general. There is more to dive into, there has to be. Instead of her writing about how she wants to be in the present over and over, how about describing the present around her. How does she wake up? What surrounds her home? What's inside her home? What does she do to relax or when she's alone? I think people need to stop describing themselves like warriors and survivors and definitely stop making themselves victims and instead open up. Tell me who you are. All I know about Rupi is that she is a woman of color, but you can just google search her for that. Everything is so vague. There's nothing deep here. I wanted to think that as a poet she will develop and become a better writer. Unfortunately, I think she is regressing, because this is the same stuff she has been selling.