Book Review: Hopeless Maine: Inheritance by Tom and Nimue Brown

Inheritance by Tom Brown
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The Inheritance episode in the Hopeless Maine series swells with creepy but gorgeous artwork that feels like the story is reading the reader right back. The Island of Hopeless Maine, isolated and crawling with secrets is certainly one I'd hope to escape.
Torn between her friend, the wasting illness and rapid decline of the woman who took her in, and the discovery of an eccentric family member, Sal begins to push out on her own, but at what cost?
I love the mood of the piece and the beautiful artwork, but the story was a little disjointed for me, and at times, the voices of the characters seem at odds with the attitudes in which they're drawn. I liked it and will read it again, because the creepy art deserves a revisit.

Sustainability Book Review- Tiny Homes: Simple Shelter by Lloyd Kahn

Tiny Homes: Simple Shelter by Lloyd Kahn
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Written as a collaborative work featuring the homes and space, written by the people who built them, Tiny Homes is a great source of inspiration for smaller more sustainable living. Many of the homes and spaces (studios, saunas, offices) were built using salvaged materials, opening up the readers options, not only in size, but also in economy.
Covering a great number of less-than-conventional but earth and pocketbook friendly construction methods, like straw bale, cobb, and palate, and including an article on the basic municipal planning and building approval process, Tiny Homes: Simple Shelter is a valuable resource for people dreaming tiny.
After reading this book, I look around my ridiculously oversized spaces filled with too much stuff and feel compelled to pare down the clutter and live with more of the things I use and less of the things that just take up space.
What makes this book special, beyond the valuable information, is the peak into the lives of the diverse people who have decided to live somewhere tiny and sometimes hand built for very different reasons and in very different places. I also like that tiny home builders featured throughout the book are easy to find and contact because the inclusion of website information from the contributors. All in all, it's a great resource filled with beautiful pictures sure to plant the seeds of a plan in readers' minds.