Singing for Your Supper or The Kitchen Gardens at Heligan

Singing for Your Supper: Entertaining Ways to Be a Perfect Guest

Author: Edith Hazard

In this witty and practical successor to RISING TO THE OCCASION, Edith Hazard offers the answer to awkward gatherings--twenty-six games, gimmicks, performance pieces, and projects, that you can bring to dinner parties, cocktails, family outings, and weekends in the country or at the beach. SINGING FOR YOUR SUPPER is illustrated with drawings and diagrams, but it's more than just how-to instructions. This is a philosophy--a way of looking at your role and responsibility when you're invited out. A perfect guest, Hazard suggests, knows when and how to help the host keep things moving. It means giving something of yourself, something that contributes to the success of the event.

Publishers Weekly

With 6500 entries, Disney A to Z: The Official Encyclopedia, edited by Dave Smith, chief archivist for 25 years at the Walt Disney Archives, it hardly seems possible that anything has been left out. Each of the 128 Donald Duck cartoons is described; the voices of the cartoon characters are identified; the tale of how Mortimer came to be called Mickey is related; and a selected bibliography is included, going back to 1942 books. There are b&w photos throughout, plus an eight-page color insert. (Hyperion, $29.95 576p ISBN 0-7868-6223-8)

BookList

Before television, everyone was forced to bring some sort of amusement or entertainment to a dinner or party. Now etiquette master Hazard revives the almost lost art of guesthood by describing and explaining the how-tos of parlor games and outdoor antics. The 26 forms of amusing others en masse are woven into a gracious, never-ending narrative that paints rather vivid pictures. Think reading a palm is the province only of gypsies? Is juggling restricted to urban street-corner mendicants? Or is the art of hanging a spoon best learned by the under-10 set? Wise and witty ways to enliven a party and indulge the child in all of us.

Book review: Images of Organization or The Smartest Investment Book Youll Ever Read

The Kitchen Gardens at Heligan: Lost Gardening Principles Rediscovered

Author: Tom Petherick

The Lost Gardens at Heligan sold more than 200,000 copies—and this new look at Britain’s most beloved garden examines one of its chief glories. Originally created to make the house they served self-sufficient, the still-productive kitchen gardens have since undergone a complete restoration under the guidance of Tom Petherick. He, with the help of a leading garden photographer, reveals how he went about his work, and how best to keep flowers, fruit, and vegetables: the entire output of a good garden. Packed with advice, hints, tips, and professional secrets, it is a must-have for any gardener.