Remodel kitchen with cheer*Everything andthe Kitchen SinkJanice...

Remodel kitchen with cheer

*

Everything and

the Kitchen Sink

Janice Anne Costa

and Daina Manning

Andrews McMeel, $16.95

Kitchen design experts Costa and Manning obviously had a ball writing this well-rounded book about remodeling the most-used room of the house. Humor abounds. One section’s title: “Cook It Like a Man: Tips for a Testosterone-Friendly Kitchen.”

Although the jokes can be excessive, Costa, the editor of Kitchen & Bath Design News, and Manning, a contributor to the publication, don’t let yucks get in the way of information. Readers can learn everything they need to know about budgeting, style options, appliances and even letters of complaint if a job goes badly. Plus they offer myriad Internet resources and do-it-yourself advice.

The book’s coverage of the topics is generally good and balanced. The information on interest rates and technological innovations is current and helpful, though it may soon be out of date.

The photographs could be clearer (many look like bad color photocopies), but they provide readers with useful visuals.

For most readers, the cheerful attitude of these authors makes even the less-cheerful aspects of kitchen remodeling -- like the financial expense and inevitable compromise -- a little easier to swallow.

-- Christy Hobart

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A collection of characters

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Obsessions

Stephen Calloway

Mitchell Beazley, $45

This book lives up to its title with a concise but richly detailed history of collecting that suggests the urge to “possess things that lie beyond the mere necessities of existence” is the foundation of civilization.

The collectors of “Obsessions” are a varied lot. Some, like the German collector of Native American kachina figures, store their pieces on metal utility shelves; others, including Los Angeles gallery owner Billy Shire, who collects religious imagery, create tableaux that are an integral part of their homes.

No snob, Calloway gives equal weight to rare butterfly and kitsch poodle displays. As one of his subjects, an American Gothic Revival furniture expert, says: “Collectors are exactly like dope addicts. We need the next fix.”

-- David A. Keeps

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Smaller

is better

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Mini House

Alejandro Bahamon

Harper Design, $19.95

This is a book with big ideas on small homes.

Alejandro Bahamon, a Columbian architect working in Spain, has compiled 26 minimal structures from around the world -- the largest is 1,291 square feet, the smallest is 344 -- that will make readers rethink “bigger is better.”

Owners of an 8,500-square-foot parcel in the forest on the northern slope of Mt. Fuji in Japan built a small home to “emphasize and enhance the enjoyment of the natural setting.” Same goes for weekend refuges in the middle of the Austrian countryside and on the Danish island of Omo.

The photos illustrate the architect-talk text well, however the computer-generated plans and elevations for each house add little for a lay person. But your mind will open as you study -- and dream about -- these structures.

-- Christy Hobart