Give ’til it hurts You’ve made big travel plans for the summer, and then you receive the call: Aunt Agnes, Cousin Curtis, and the rest of the family have rented a big house near the beach, and everyone is expected to be there for the month of July. Sigh . . . Guess where you’ll be spending your summer vacation? You need a little pick-me-up gift for yourself, under the circumstances. What gift doesn’t require a security deposit, seven-day advance purchase, or a Saturday night stay? Why, books, of course! Photographer Jeffrey Kraft’s exquisite photographs of Parisian cubbyholes and artifacts are not intended to entice one to visit the city; rather, his Literary Paris (Watson-Guptill, $18.95, 0823028305) is meant for those who have already been. The images are meant to inspire a memory from a time that has passed; this is not a fancy collection of tourists’ snapshots. Kraft has arranged his remembrances alongside excerpts from literary works by authors who stayed in Paris for extended periods of time. Kraft has captured the glimpse, the detail, the moment, rather than structures and sites. He offers an idea of what remains in the mind and heart, even years after the visit itself has ended. A wonderful gift for the Francophile in your life.

Ben Jonson said, He was not of an age, but for all time. He was, of course, speaking of his friend William Shakespeare. Children’s book author Aliki has written and illustrated William Shakespeare and the Globe (HarperCollins, $15.95, 006027820X), which describes not only Shakespeare’s life, work, and times, but even acknowledges visionary Sam Wannamaker, who spent years resurrecting the Globe. The book is designed much like a script, with acts and scenes and characters. An interesting add-on is the list of words and expressions, complete with illustrations, credited to Shakespeare; for example, sweets to the sweet and hush were apparently invented by the Bard himself. Seems we’ve been quoting Shakespeare without realizing it! Cities like Paris and London must make use of every tidbit of soil that can be found; as acreage diminishes in our growing world, green thumbs everywhere are striving to be more and more creative with their craft. Artisan has published Window Boxes: Indoors and Out with this in mind. Authors James Cramer and Dean Johnson offer fragrant, beautiful, and useful options for the, uh, land-challenged. Cramer and Johnson offer optional locations (who says a window-box is limited to being wooden, square, and outside?) and year-round planting options (a thriving garden in January?) With this book, the decision is no longer how to create a miniature garden, but rather how many miniature gardens you can create. Soil sold separately! Of course, if we’re talking land for land’s sake, Antarctica has land to spare. It’s been 85 years since Ernest Shackleton and the 27-member crew of the Endurance set out to cross the Antarctic on foot. Less than 100 miles from its destination, the Endurance was caught in an ice pack and was badly damaged. For over 20 months, the crew (along with 69 sled dogs) was marooned, but no lives were lost. Two books commemorate this remarkable true story of adventure and perseverance. First, there’s Knopf’s The Endurance: Shackleton’s Legendary Antarctic Expedition ($29.95, 0375404031), a sophisticated account of the expedition. There’s also Ice Story: Shackleton’s Lost Expedition (Clarion, $18, 0395915244), which may be better-suited to younger explorers. Both books feature expedition photographer Frank Hurley’s photographs and offer a chronological summary of this death-defying journey. Hurley started the expedition with professional equipment, but his final shots were taken with a pocket camera. Endurance author Caroline Alexander, in association with the American Museum of Natural History, carefully researched this volume, complete with some of Hurley’s photographs that had not been published previously. Ice Story author Elizabeth Cody Kimmel presents the journey in storybook format, but the information is accurate and anecdotal. Both books would make great gifts for anyone who has a taste for adventure and hopeful endings.

Agnes and Curtis decide that the grown-ups need to take the children to the waterpark which happens to be 50 miles away for the day. Fifty miles can seem like 500 without Fun on the Run: Travel Games and Songs (Morrow Junior Books, $17, 0688146600). Brimming with silly stories, limericks, brain teasers, and songs, this book helps to fill travel time without batteries or messy cleanup. Familiar songs and games such as The Ants Go Marching and Hangman are included, but Fun on the Run contains nearly 125 pages of other games and songs that can be a part of any trip. If you still confuse Darth Vader with Darth Maul, fear not; Dorling Kindersley has published two books that will help you keep the prequel and the original trilogy straight: Star Wars Episode I: the Visual Dictionary ($19.95, 0789447010) and Star Wars Episode I: Incredible Cross Sections ($19.95, 078943962X). Like their predecessors (or would it be their descendants?), these books are designed to keep facts, characters, and plots straight. Archaeologist David West Reynolds, an obvious choice for the author, approaches this much like he did his previous Star Wars works. One feels as if he is on an archaeological dig or scientific study of another world. May the source be with you!

Dummy, how does your garden grow? The writers of the Dummies series of garden books are modest folks. They label the series for beginners, but these helpful books are also for those who have come back to gardening after a long absence and need a review of the basics. Even the experienced gardener isn’t knowledgeable about every facet of gardening the field is too vast. These books offer all gardeners an introduction to any unfamiliar area of gardening by using an easy-to-read, easy-to-understand format that is both instructive and entertaining. Gardening for Dummies by Michael MacCaskey and the Editors of the National Gardening Association is a gardening encyclopedia in miniature. It’s fully illustrated and covers the most current tips, techniques, and resources in major areas such as annuals, perennials, vines, trees, shrubs, lawns, soil, pruning, propagation, weeding, and pest control. For those who don’t know a Cape Cod Weeder from a dibber, there is even a section on tools. The appendix lists books and magazines that will broaden your gardening knowledge while the section on gardening Web sites will answer questions and provide further information. Vegetable Gardening for Dummies (IDG Books, $19.99, 0764551299) by Charles Nardozzi and the Editors of the National Gardening Association teaches the fundamentals of vegetable gardening. If you think store-bought tomatoes taste the way tomatoes are supposed to taste, you’re in for a surprise. The basics of soil, climate, and water are covered as well as cool season and warm season vegetables, legumes, vine crops, salad crops, herbs, fruits, and many other edibles. Disease identification and prevention for each vegetable is included, and there’s a bonus delicious recipes. Vegetable Gardening for Dummies is an excellent reference for the first-time vegetable gardener.

Landscaping for Dummies (IDG Books, $16.99, 0764551280) by Philip Giroux, Bob Beckstrom, Lance Walheim, and the National Gardening Association takes the mystery out of landscaping and will convince you that there can be more to your backyard than just a fence and a lawn; you can customize your outdoor space to suit your needs. The book covers everything from planning to planting and also includes a chapter on problem situations accompanied by helpful diagrams. Chapters on patios, arbors, trellises, decks, walls, gates, and paths will show you how to create more visual beauty and interest while keeping costs down. If you don’t know where to begin in designing your home landscape, this book will get you started.

No matter what your level of gardening expertise, 1,001 Ingenious Gardening Ideas (Rodale, $27.95, 0875968090) is another reference you should add to your gardening library. Edited by Deborah L. Martin, this book offers environmentally safe, non-toxic suggestions to make gardening easier, plants sturdier, and yields bountiful. There are chapters on creative garden care, season stretchers, seed-starting secrets, and solutions to garden problems. There are gardening ideas, tips, and suggestions about everything from vegetables and herbs to birds and butterflies. In addition, there are also sources for ingenious gardening supplies, a recommended reading list, and the latest USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map. Clear illustrations serve as helpful guides as the author takes you through each season with advice for making your garden less work intensive and more cost affective. There are tips for all gardeners here.

If there were no gardening references on your bookshelves, this selection of four would offer the best, basic advice covering the most general areas of horticulture. The topics they don’t cover can be found in the sources listed at the end of each book. But the best part about these books is that most of the information is usable year-round not only during the growing season.

Pat Regel writes and gardens in Nashville.

Dummy, how does your garden grow? The writers of the Dummies series of garden books are modest folks. They label the series for beginners, but these helpful books are also for those who have come back to gardening after a long absence and need a review of the basics. Even the experienced gardener isn’t knowledgeable about every facet of gardening the field is too vast. These books offer all gardeners an introduction to any unfamiliar area of gardening by using an easy-to-read, easy-to-understand format that is both instructive and entertaining. Gardening for Dummies (IDG Books, $19.99, 1568846444) by Michael MacCaskey and the Editors of the National Gardening Association is a gardening encyclopedia in miniature. It’s fully illustrated and covers the most current tips, techniques, and resources in major areas such as annuals, perennials, vines, trees, shrubs, lawns, soil, pruning, propagation, weeding, and pest control. For those who don’t know a Cape Cod Weeder from a dibber, there is even a section on tools. The appendix lists books and magazines that will broaden your gardening knowledge while the section on gardening Web sites will answer questions and provide further information. Vegetable Gardening for Dummies by Charles Nardozzi and the Editors of the National Gardening Association teaches the fundamentals of vegetable gardening. If you think store-bought tomatoes taste the way tomatoes are supposed to taste, you’re in for a surprise. The basics of soil, climate, and water are covered as well as cool season and warm season vegetables, legumes, vine crops, salad crops, herbs, fruits, and many other edibles. Disease identification and prevention for each vegetable is included, and there’s a bonus delicious recipes. Vegetable Gardening for Dummies is an excellent reference for the first-time vegetable gardener.

Landscaping for Dummies (IDG Books, $16.99, 0764551280) by Philip Giroux, Bob Beckstrom, Lance Walheim, and the National Gardening Association takes the mystery out of landscaping and will convince you that there can be more to your backyard than just a fence and a lawn; you can customize your outdoor space to suit your needs. The book covers everything from planning to planting and also includes a chapter on problem situations accompanied by helpful diagrams. Chapters on patios, arbors, trellises, decks, walls, gates, and paths will show you how to create more visual beauty and interest while keeping costs down. If you don’t know where to begin in designing your home landscape, this book will get you started.

No matter what your level of gardening expertise, 1,001 Ingenious Gardening Ideas (Rodale, $27.95, 0875968090) is another reference you should add to your gardening library. Edited by Deborah L. Martin, this book offers environmentally safe, non-toxic suggestions to make gardening easier, plants sturdier, and yields bountiful. There are chapters on creative garden care, season stretchers, seed-starting secrets, and solutions to garden problems. There are gardening ideas, tips, and suggestions about everything from vegetables and herbs to birds and butterflies. In addition, there are also sources for ingenious gardening supplies, a recommended reading list, and the latest USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map. Clear illustrations serve as helpful guides as the author takes you through each season with advice for making your garden less work intensive and more cost affective. There are tips for all gardeners here.

If there were no gardening references on your bookshelves, this selection of four would offer the best, basic advice covering the most general areas of horticulture. The topics they don’t cover can be found in the sources listed at the end of each book. But the best part about these books is that most of the information is usable year-round not only during the growing season.

Pat Regel writes and gardens in Nashville.

Dummy, how does your garden grow? The writers of the Dummies series of garden books are modest folks. They label the series for beginners, but these helpful books are also for those who have come back to gardening after a long absence and need a review of the basics. Even the experienced gardener isn’t knowledgeable about every facet of gardening the field is too vast. These books offer all gardeners an introduction to any unfamiliar area of gardening by using an easy-to-read, easy-to-understand format that is both instructive and entertaining. Gardening for Dummies (IDG Books, $19.99, 1568846444) by Michael MacCaskey and the Editors of the National Gardening Association is a gardening encyclopedia in miniature. It’s fully illustrated and covers the most current tips, techniques, and resources in major areas such as annuals, perennials, vines, trees, shrubs, lawns, soil, pruning, propagation, weeding, and pest control. For those who don’t know a Cape Cod Weeder from a dibber, there is even a section on tools. The appendix lists books and magazines that will broaden your gardening knowledge while the section on gardening Web sites will answer questions and provide further information. Vegetable Gardening for Dummies (IDG Books, $19.99, 0764551299) by Charles Nardozzi and the Editors of the National Gardening Association teaches the fundamentals of vegetable gardening. If you think store-bought tomatoes taste the way tomatoes are supposed to taste, you’re in for a surprise. The basics of soil, climate, and water are covered as well as cool season and warm season vegetables, legumes, vine crops, salad crops, herbs, fruits, and many other edibles. Disease identification and prevention for each vegetable is included, and there’s a bonus delicious recipes. Vegetable Gardening for Dummies is an excellent reference for the first-time vegetable gardener.

Landscaping for Dummies by Philip Giroux, Bob Beckstrom, Lance Walheim, and the National Gardening Association takes the mystery out of landscaping and will convince you that there can be more to your backyard than just a fence and a lawn; you can customize your outdoor space to suit your needs. The book covers everything from planning to planting and also includes a chapter on problem situations accompanied by helpful diagrams. Chapters on patios, arbors, trellises, decks, walls, gates, and paths will show you how to create more visual beauty and interest while keeping costs down. If you don’t know where to begin in designing your home landscape, this book will get you started.

No matter what your level of gardening expertise, 1,001 Ingenious Gardening Ideas (Rodale, $27.95, 0875968090) is another reference you should add to your gardening library. Edited by Deborah L. Martin, this book offers environmentally safe, non-toxic suggestions to make gardening easier, plants sturdier, and yields bountiful. There are chapters on creative garden care, season stretchers, seed-starting secrets, and solutions to garden problems. There are gardening ideas, tips, and suggestions about everything from vegetables and herbs to birds and butterflies. In addition, there are also sources for ingenious gardening supplies, a recommended reading list, and the latest USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map. Clear illustrations serve as helpful guides as the author takes you through each season with advice for making your garden less work intensive and more cost affective. There are tips for all gardeners here.

If there were no gardening references on your bookshelves, this selection of four would offer the best, basic advice covering the most general areas of horticulture. The topics they don’t cover can be found in the sources listed at the end of each book. But the best part about these books is that most of the information is usable year-round not only during the growing season.

Pat Regel writes and gardens in Nashville.

Dummy, how does your garden grow? The writers of the Dummies series of garden books are modest folks. They label the series for beginners, but these helpful books are also for those who have come back to gardening after a long absence and need a review of the basics. Even the experienced gardener isn’t knowledgeable about every facet of gardening the field is too vast. These books offer all gardeners an introduction to any unfamiliar area of gardening by using an easy-to-read, easy-to-understand format that is both instructive and entertaining. Gardening for Dummies (IDG Books, $19.99, 1568846444) by Michael MacCaskey and the Editors of the National Gardening Association is a gardening encyclopedia in miniature. It’s fully illustrated and covers the most current tips, techniques, and resources in major areas such as annuals, perennials, vines, trees, shrubs, lawns, soil, pruning, propagation, weeding, and pest control. For those who don’t know a Cape Cod Weeder from a dibber, there is even a section on tools. The appendix lists books and magazines that will broaden your gardening knowledge while the section on gardening Web sites will answer questions and provide further information. Vegetable Gardening for Dummies (IDG Books, $19.99, 0764551299) by Charles Nardozzi and the Editors of the National Gardening Association teaches the fundamentals of vegetable gardening. If you think store-bought tomatoes taste the way tomatoes are supposed to taste, you’re in for a surprise. The basics of soil, climate, and water are covered as well as cool season and warm season vegetables, legumes, vine crops, salad crops, herbs, fruits, and many other edibles. Disease identification and prevention for each vegetable is included, and there’s a bonus delicious recipes. Vegetable Gardening for Dummies is an excellent reference for the first-time vegetable gardener.

Landscaping for Dummies (IDG Books, $16.99, 0764551280) by Philip Giroux, Bob Beckstrom, Lance Walheim, and the National Gardening Association takes the mystery out of landscaping and will convince you that there can be more to your backyard than just a fence and a lawn; you can customize your outdoor space to suit your needs. The book covers everything from planning to planting and also includes a chapter on problem situations accompanied by helpful diagrams. Chapters on patios, arbors, trellises, decks, walls, gates, and paths will show you how to create more visual beauty and interest while keeping costs down. If you don’t know where to begin in designing your home landscape, this book will get you started.

No matter what your level of gardening expertise, 1,001 Ingenious Gardening Ideas is another reference you should add to your gardening library. Edited by Deborah L. Martin, this book offers environmentally safe, non-toxic suggestions to make gardening easier, plants sturdier, and yields bountiful. There are chapters on creative garden care, season stretchers, seed-starting secrets, and solutions to garden problems. There are gardening ideas, tips, and suggestions about everything from vegetables and herbs to birds and butterflies. In addition, there are also sources for ingenious gardening supplies, a recommended reading list, and the latest USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map. Clear illustrations serve as helpful guides as the author takes you through each season with advice for making your garden less work intensive and more cost affective. There are tips for all gardeners here.

If there were no gardening references on your bookshelves, this selection of four would offer the best, basic advice covering the most general areas of horticulture. The topics they don’t cover can be found in the sources listed at the end of each book. But the best part about these books is that most of the information is usable year-round not only during the growing season.

Pat Regel writes and gardens in Nashville.

The winter garden Adrian Bloom’s Year Round Garden: Color in Your Garden from January to December (Timber Press, $39.95, 0881924571) is gorgeous and absolutely packed with information. This could either be inspiring or daunting, depending on one’s level of gardening confidence and ambition. Reader be warned: Bloom’s garden is in England the magical gardening isle where everything that gets poked into the dirt blooms to Edenic excess. But, since climate varies wildly even in that tiny country, the plant directories provide a huge range of material, and we Yanks will find more than enough choices to satisfy our local requirements. If your goal is to have something pleasant in the garden every month of the year, pick Bloom.

Decking the halls with ease Wreaths and Garlands by Paula Pryke is one book you won’t want to be without while you finalize your pre-holiday decorating plans. Pryke shows you how to introduce color, texture, and scent into your home during the holiday season and the rest of the year.

This unique book includes foldout pages for creating 50 wreaths and garlands using flowers, fruit, plants, and many other decorations to produce a stunning effect. Included among the many projects are sunflower garlands, rings of autumn leaves, scented wreaths, eye-catching centerpieces, chair decorations, and even a bride’s floral headdress.

This practical, spiral-bound book contains a helpful list of materials needed for each project, step-by-step instructions for easy assembly, and colorful photos of finished wreaths and garlands. Decking the halls doesn’t come any easier. (Candles by Paula Pryke is also available.)