“The Garden Room”
by Timothy Mawson, 176 pages (Clarkson Potter, $24)
“While you are here be happy.”
Even though this saying easily might fit on a bumper sticker, don’t be too hasty in dismissing its message as just a bunch of trite hooey. Written on a garden wall featured in this lovely, colorful soft-cover book, these words actually capture a good deal of wisdom and, certainly, the spirit of “The Garden Room.”
Whether showing off Country Garden Rooms, Pastimes and Pleasures, Garden Room Fantasies, and Time and Privacy, Ivan Terestchenko’s photographs and illustrations show the many reasons why it is so easy for the owners of these gardens to be happy in them.
You’ll find yourself examining the details of a stone birdbath or feeling suddenly at peace seeing a cat curled on top of a tree stump surrounded by tall fountain grass.
Timothy Mawson’s narrative paints an equally impressive picture. The story in the Country Garden Rooms section called “Rustic Refinement” takes us to the Connecticut home and gardens of writer Nancy Cardozo. Through Mawson’s words, readers get a sense of how Cardozo’s garden inspires her to write about life’s simple pleasures.
This is an enchanting page-turner that will fill readers with the same inspiration and moments of contemplation these lucky homeowners gain from their personal patch of green.
“The Artful Table” by Donna Gorman and Elizabeth Heyert, 169 pages (William Morrow and Co. Inc., $25).
Food is the main course but not the only delicacy in this book. There are suggested seasonal menus such as creamy soft polenta topped with a mixture of earthy-flavored mushrooms, fresh mashed fava beans sauted with garlic and olive oil, and a French cassoulet composed of duck, sausages and slabs of bacon served with white beans.
All are mouthwatering, but the way authors Donna Gorman and Elizabeth Heyert set the stage for them is the best part of this glossy hardback photo album: They provide tips on how to set your table by mixing patterns, textures, materials and colors to accompany the book’s suggested menus and help create a mood by which to dine.
Artful tables can be created by painting fabrics, scattering exotic fruits across the table and adding unusual touches, such as mounds of oyster shells. The suggestions go far beyond the right china to use. Readers will pick up ideas from this book that will make the table as memorable as the meal.
