Baths are good! Baths are bad! They are a social affair. They are a private affair. They should be hot. Cold. Tepid. What a controversy! The Dirt on Clean: an Unsanitized History by Katherine Ashenburg is a nice, often humorous history on bathing. It was interesting to learn who kept clean and why (or didn't, and why). At some point scents, deodorants and so forth were introduced because, after all, no one wanted to smell like, well, a human! And then, in what must have been one of the greatest advertising campaigns ever, sprays or powders or pastes to take care of smells you didn't even know you had (but that others might notice)!

Reading about food can be fun, as was proven with Save Room for Pie: Food Songs and Chewy Ruminations by Roy Blount, Jr. Full of short essays and poems and (fake) news stories, this book kept me amused for some time! Yes, I did skip or skim every so often, but a word of warning here ... the humor can sneak up on you so it's best not to be drinking a cold beverage until you've finished an entry! ;-)

It all started with the discovery of one Federal Art Project poster for Grand Teton National Park. Next was a search for any other posters that had survived (not many) then it became a project to recreate the lost posters, and on to designing new posters in the old design! National Parks: History of the WPA Poster Art by Deborah T. Zindell and Jeanne-Marie P. Hudson was the result and it is amazing! I was so captivated by this book that when I finished it, I started it all over again.

Reading Hermit With Dog