Book Rec of the Day 3/12-3/14/2008

HOUSE BEAUTIFUL

Designer and decorator Nate Berkus, head of Chicago design firm Nate Berkus Associates and regular Oprah Winfrey guest, wants you to live well, and in a place you love. This is his book to bring that about. Room by room, step by step, he helps you find the home that best reflects you. From easy “instant makeovers” to organization and design tips to the Berkus philosophy on living well—it’s all here, stylish, practical, and accessible.

HOME RULES: TRANSFORM THE PLACE YOU LIVE INTO A PLACE YOU’LL LOVE, by Nate Berkus (Hyperion, 2005)

A NEW TAKE ON GOBLINS

“The Stolen Child is a wonderful, fantasy-laden debut, and looks poised to become a word-of-mouth bestseller.”—Newsweek

Keith Donohue’s extraordinary first novel is about a changeling and the stolen boy he replaced. The story is told in alternating chapters: one telling about the boy and how he lives in a hobgoblin world and the other recounting the quite different fate of the changeling who takes over the boy’s life. Neither feels quite natural in his world, and as they try to recover their forgotten pasts, they venture down roads that must eventually meet.

THE STOLEN CHILD, by Keith Donohue (Nan A. Talese, 2006)

STAR TURN

Infamous talent agent Henry Willson found a gorgeous 19-year-old named Art Gelien and turned him into a major teen heartthrob named Tab Hunter. Tab Hunter Confidential is Hunter’s story: life in Hollywood with the likes of Natalie Wood, Debbie Reynolds, and Tallulah Bankhead; life in the closet and his two-year relationship with Anthony Perkins; and, after he came out, new success in several John Waters movies. It all makes a fascinating, juicy Hollywood memoir.

TAB HUNTER CONFIDENTIAL: THE MAKING OF A MOVIE STAR, by Tab Hunter and Eddie Muller (Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, 2005)