Recently read: Jo Packham’s Where Women Create

The subtitle is Inspiring Work Spaces of Extraordinary Women, and this book is full of lush color photographs of rooms and studios in old farmhouses, modern homes, apartments and even a boat. Each artist is featured in her work area, and provides her own tips on making the space not only inspiring, but practical. A potter uses the hayloft of an old dairy barn, a designer has supplies and finished work from floor to ceiling while another designer uses the dishwasher to store her paints and brushes, a painter has a garden studio filled with flowers, and a quilter hangs works in progress on siding panels. The colors of the various materials and the ingenious storage methods are fun to look at. The only downside to this wonderful book is that now MY office looks so boring and banal—how can anything magical come out of it?