What I've Been Reading: Late August 2022

Books about art, boundaries, and housekeeping

Collage Your Life: Techniques, Prompts, and Inspiration for Creative Self-Expression and Visual Storytelling by Melanie Mowinski

This is such a lovely book! It's a guide to the basic techniques of collage, with several dozen prompts to encourage you to explore various ideas and methods through the art of cut and torn paper. It inspired many of my collages I made at Art Night, and got me back into the medium as a whole. Even if you don't consider yourself an artist, this is a fascinating hobby to try out!

Empowered Boundaries: Speaking Truth, Setting Boundaries, and Inspiring Social Change by Cristien Storm

Another in my list of books about boundaries, this book approaches the topic from a different angle than usual, specifically addressing the concept of boundaries within communities. Most of the books I've read (Boundaries, The Dance of Anger, and Set Boundaries, Find Peace, for instance) focus on the nuclear family, and while they were all helpful, I appreciated the more alternative vibe of this book as Storm discussed the concepts within the context of her work with Home Alive, an anti-violence network that has a lot of overlap with the Seattle punk/anarchist scene. The book discusses personal boundaries, relationship dynamics, various frameworks for understanding safety, and ways that boundary-setting can look like in practice.

It could've used a bit more proofreading (the inconsistent fonts drove me a little nuts), but the concepts were thought-provoking, and were a welcome addition to the more mainstream advice about boundary-setting. I highly recommend checking it out.

Organizing for the Rest of Us: 100 Realistic Strategies to Keep Any House Under Control by Dana K. White

Since housekeeping is my main job, it's no surprise that I'm a nerd for books about decluttering, cleaning, and general homemaking. This book had a lot of great suggestions for curbing clutter and tackling overwhelming projects. She includes a lot of tips that run counter to the typical advice, such as decluttering one item at a time to avoid the situation where you make a bigger mess and give up halfway through when trying to organize. Recommended for any housekeeper trying to keep things under control!

Previously on What I've Been Reading:

Early August

Late July

Early July

Late June

Early June

Late May

Early May

Late April

Early April

Late March

Early March

Late February

Early February

Late January

Early January

All What I've Been Reading posts

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