Those who have watched the PBS series "Antiques Roadshow" will be familiar with the Keno brothers Leigh and Leslie. The twins came by their love of antiques naturally since parents and relatives were also into collecting. Hidden Treasures: Searching for Masterpieces of American Furniture, by Leigh Keno and Leslie Keno is part biography, part mystery, part adventure ... all in all an excellent read. Their love for what they do comes through in their writing. My favorites are in here: how refinishing a truly ugly wardrobe into something elegant actually reduced it's value by tens of thousands of dollars, to the end table that was purchased for 25 dollars and sold for more than 400 thousand.

With the same title (sort of) but an entirely different story .... Hidden Treasures: What Museums Can't or Won't Show You, by Harriet Baskas. Museums all have items they can't or won't display and this book explains many of those reasons (everything from needing a carefully controlled environment, to security, to sensitivity to the viewers, to condition of the item). Some of those items are pictured.

The title of this book caught my eye first, then the subtitle convinced me to give it a try: A Field Guide to Fields: Hidden Treasures of Meadows, Prairies, and Pastures, by Bill Laws. There is a lot here! What a field is, what grows on (or under) a field such as rice, wheat, grasses, tulips, or potatoes. Wild, or 'bramble' fields. The animals that live or crawl on, or fly above these fields. Once there were small fields needing a lot of hard hand work to plant seeds. They got bigger and bigger, first by using a horse and plow, and then tractors which allowed larger and larger areas to be used. Fields show up in literature, poetry, art, and song (the yodel was a means of communication). There are even sections of folklore and superstitions! What a fun book!

Reading Hermit with Dog