The author took a cutesy idea and stretched it out to fill a book. There is little or no useful information here for do-it-yourselfers. This whole volume could be condensed to a forgettable article in an in-flight magazine, and it would still be lame. Does not deserve the star I gave it.

'Care For Your Home' is a valuable contribution to the do-it-yourself canon. By implicitly condoning and even lauding a heretofore immoral trait, the authors of the Lazy Way series have begun the hard work of stripping away the residue of the Protestant and Jewish work ethic in order to help us achieve a worthier goal: total, unrestrained hedonism.

The target audience of this book seems to be young homeowners who have day jobs and are therefore unable to give a lot of time to the maintenance and improvement of their abodes. It's a sort of cross between Heloise and Norm Abrams with a little Painting For Dummies thrown in. I personally don't like the Dummies/Complete Idiot approach, with its relentless attempts at cuteness, but if it helps to bring software geeks and policy wonks to a fuller understanding of gutters and studs, then so be it. Terry Meany isn't so cloying as some of the dummy advisors, and with a little acid this book could be made downright enjoyable.

The discussion of wood gutters could be dropped altogether. Perhaps they're common in Seattle, but in my experience they're as rare as California condors. If you do own a home that's old enough to have wood gutters, it's likely you've got lath and plaster walls, which render the studfinders Meany recommends totally worthless, whether they're magnetic or electronic. Probably a third of the homes in the country have plaster walls, which makes the alternative to studfinders worth mentioning: measure over 16 inches from a corner or doorway, then drive in and pull out a 2 inch nail every inch to the left and right until you hit something solid. Fill up the little holes with spackle, then touch up or hang a picture over them (which is probably why you were looking for the stud in the first place).

I both applaud and deplore Meany's section on yards. He recommends hiring somebody to cut your lawn, which may not be 'A Complete Waste of Time', but is certainly a total waste of money, which, when you consider that most people exchange their time for money, translates to A Complete Waste of Time. When you add to that time spent watering, you approach if not embrace A Massive Waste of Time. Yet, reading on, I found that Meany has actually hit upon the correct solution, which is low and no-maintenance plants. Rip out the grass (that is a task you'll want to hire out), till the soil, and plant tough, aggressive groundcovers and shrubs. For groundcover, vinca can't be beat. You can walk all over it, neglect it, never mow or trim it, and it still looks great. It even has little purple flowers in the spring. For shrubs, there is the usual assortment of evergreens, which grow to shapes varying from elephant to doormat. And Meany forgot to mention herbs such as sage and oregano. You can put in a little pint-size sage plant in the spring, and by October it will be bigger than a lawnmower. The rule of total neglect applies here, too. And it's great on chicken!

It was disappointing to see Meany taking part in the government inspired hysteria over lead paint. Lead, like asbestos, doesn't hurt you unless you eat it or breathe the dust in large quantities. The same can be said of concrete or glass or fiberglass or even some types of wood. The lead paint rules in standard housing contracts are simply boilerplate: legalese put there by politicians reacting to a public horrified by child poisonings. If you're a slumlord, you better cover up or 'abate' your lead paint. But if you're a regular homeowner, you have nothing to worry about unless your paint is peeling off in flakes and your children go unsupervised for long periods. If that is the case, scrape it, apply some of the primer that is specially formulated to stop peeling, and put on a topcoat of quality latex. Then go pay some attention to your kids.

In the tool department I would make some adjustments to Meany's list. For example, I would replace the hacksaw on the Good-Idea Tools list with the reciprocating saw. If you've ever tried to hack through a pipe with a manual saw, you'll know what I mean. The electric reciprocating saw, along with the microwave, is one of the hallmarks of the late 20th century, things that save exponential amounts of time. It's much less dangerous than a circular saw, and far more versatile, mainly because of its shape. It's a cylinder with a blade on the end that can be slipped into the smallest of spaces like a key, whereas a circular saw is roughly the shape of a pumpkin. Trying to use a pumpkin like a key is the cause of many accidents, both to bodies and property. The reciprocating saw can be used on everything from wallboard to fences to pipes to branches. Don't forget to get the kind that doesn't require a chucking tool to change blades.

You may be wondering if "the lazy way" will actually accomplish anything. I know I've tried "the lazy way" many different times and had it back fire, and we all have a few pink t-shirts in our closets. But I can tell you from first hand experience that the suggestions in this book, though lazy, are effective. You can consider me a guinea pig of sorts, for I am the only child of Terry (& Jeanette - his wife). I've endured the strange smells, odd piles, and creative "tools" my dear old dad has come up with in order to come up with these lazy suggestions, and he, obviously, only included those that worked. I will grant that I am somewhat biased, but I definately can say, "seen it, done it, been there". So check it out. It really does work. Way to go Dad!

Being one who visits the Golden Road almost yearly, I purchased the book with enthusiasm. My experience was mostly positive.

Gould demonstrates vast knowledge about the area. He describes: the realities of the Maine woods experience, personalities of the inhabitants, varieties of visitors, wildlife, history and industry.

One area of disappointment was Gould's frequent choice of vocabulary and references. While reading, a dictionary had to be at my side. Also, frequently used french, latin and some historical references made reading more difficult and not fun.

Mr. Gould did at times poke fun at his intellectual perspective. However, his choice of words does not seem suited for most.

All in all, the book is a positive experience. One can take a trip to Maine's Golden Road, from their favorite arm chair.

The 'Walden' is very interesting book

The gardens at Winterthur are undoubtedly beautiful, but were grandly assisted by being built upon a magnificent stretch of undulating territory and executed by 300 gardeners during its development. DuPont's role is certainly worth lauding, but not in the embarrassingly fawning, reverential way this book is written. Even his daughter presents a more realistic portrait of the man, his garden, and his collecting obsessions in her own recent book.

He was such a shy and inarticulate man, that the quotes throughout the book are almost embarrassing. He sounds like Chauncy Gardner in "Being There." The author and her Winterthur sponsors would have served their subject better had they not expressed their admiration in such florid, effusive prose. A great garden speaks for itself.

Read, instead, Hal Bruce's, "Winterthur in Bloom" for a rich, lyrical tour of the natural garden without the irritating hype and turgid writing.

As a director of Winterthur Garden near Wilmington, Delaware, the author is hardly about to criticize her employers or their deceased benefactor, Henry Francis Dupont, but she sometimes gets carried away with her praise for Harry while failing to provide much information on the Bidermanns, who started the estate, or on how gunpowder money, and the deaths of hundreds of thousands of soldiers, funded Dupont's hobby which basically involved non-formal color woodland landscaping concentrating on rhododendrons. The book includes attractive color photos of the woods around the estate but provides only a small b/w map of the present estate and gardens, hardly suitable for use when touring the gardens. Not recommended for gardeners on tight budgets, but of interest to those who are fascinated with the Duponts.