NPR featured a story recently about the rise of books on the topic of “nostalgia and reclaiming older, more refined ways of life in the modern world.” They featured three “elegantly old school” books: Home Economics: Vintage Advice and Practical Science for the 21st-Century Household by Jennifer McKnight Trontz; Let’s Bring Back: An Encyclopedia of Forgotten-Yet-Delightful, Chic, Useful, Curious, and Otherwise Commendable Things from Times Gone by Lesley M.M. Blume; and Encyclopedia of the Exquisite: An Anecdotal History of Elegant Delights by Jessica Kerwin Jenkins. We wish Linda Wertheimer had asked us because we would have recommended she include A Householder’s Guide to the Universe: A Calendar of Basics for the Home and Beyond by Portland author Harriet Fasenfest, who covers some similar territory regarding home economics but with less fancy and more dirt under her fingernails. Fasenfest will appear at Third Street Books in McMinnville on Thursday, January 6 at 7:30 pm.
Borrowed Copy
From the We Wish They'd Asked Us Category
December 27, 2010
— posted by
Jamie
Another fun book in this category is “How to Sew a Button, and Other Nifty Things Your Grandmother Knew” by Erin Bried, and the companion book, “How to Build a Fire and Other Handy Things Your Grandfather Knew.”