House Thinking: A Room-by-Room Look at How We Live (P.S.),   ISBN:9780060538804

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House Thinking focuses on each room and its function, historically and personally. One example is how a "Great Room" came about and how people in the past used such a space and how your own family activities and needs might fit with one. Gives a different and useful perspective on home space, room by room.

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Ms. Gallagher wows us again with her wit, intelligence, and insight into the American "living condition". If you loved her book the "Power of Place", you'll really appreciate "House Thinking" because it tackles the newly emerging field of the home as a topic of environmental psychology. If you are considering moving, building a house or a second home, read this book first. You will look at your choices differently after reading her book. Our houses are NOT machines for living - they are living and breathing with us in them!

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This sounded like a great book. I'm interested in books about houses and how people live, and I enjoy reading about everything from home decorating to psychology. What's not to like about a book that combines lots of my interests?
Unfortunately, I just couldn't get through this book. I kept picking it up and then putting it back down, frustrated by the writing style. The author seems to have been overwhelmed by her research, and throws together statistics and quotations in a way that is very difficult to read. There is no clear point of view, just a mishmash of facts and opinions. For example, in the chapter "The Child's Room" is this sentence: "Children under the age of twelve remain an environmentally underprivileged group in a world that's mostly designed for adults, which puts them at risk, particularly where sudden confrontations with cars are concerned." Apparently children are getting run over by cars while their bedrooms, or this sentence would be in a chapter about driveways. The author then goes on to complain that children get the smallest rooms, and then complains about children's unbridled consumerism. So what is the author's point? Are modern children spoiled or underprivileged?
Unfortunately the entire book that I've read so far (I'm on page 209) seems to suffer from this lack of organization and viewpoint. There may be lots of good information in this book, but it needs to be re-written. I'm disappointed, and I won't be finishing the book.

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I first heard Ms. Gallagher interviewed on NPR and found her to be interesting and articulate.
The book is just as wonderful! Informative, interesting and beautifully written. I urge anyone who is thinking of buying a house to read this book FIRST - then start looking at the real thing. Ms. G. provides us with a mini architectural degree and a phd. (small case) in the phsychological aspects of our most important space - our homes. Thank you for a great book. I have bought several copies for friends and family about to embark on this important mission and they have all been delighted to be exposed to Ms. Gallagher's knowledge and insight.

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This book reminds me of those stands at farmer's markets where someone with a passion for knitting has decided to sell all their crafts. It isn't really a piece of art, nor is it anything with substance. You buy the craft simply to take it home, to enjoy it and move on.

Such is this book. It is non-threatening, direct in its look at houses. I read this book as a Canadian so I quickly got the hint that the 'we' in the subtitle implies 'We as Americans'. And so it is. This book is written by an American for Americans about the American house. Gallagher traces the history of the rooms of house-life, circumventing the terrain of Anglo-Saxon fame - frequent mention of Britain and the Victorian home. Again, because the 'we' implies American, there is no real look at the homes and rooms of other nations. There are passing glances but the focus is entirely US of A.

There is nothing critical to this book. Gallagher writes the kind of book that would never actually say something offensive - when she talks about McMansions and such, she never 'actually' offers us her opinions (if she has any) on their crudeness and impact on the environment (because she wouldn't want to offend potential upper-middle class buyers of her book). It is like reading a commentary without the human element. The book is like a digestive cookie in this sense. Palatable but nearly tasteless.

There are no pictures so when she mentions Monticello in Virginia, the reader must either dig up an old art history class memory of architectural slides or either go to the website page at the back of the book and look up the URL. (The lack of pictures also makes the book feel unfinished and unpolished. A book that discusses the layouts, presentation, contours of rooms without pictures - it would be like writing an art history book without prints of famous art.)

I read The Power of Place (a much better read) recently and I found the same kind of easy-to-digest reading. Gallagher writes about the house,the various rooms of the house and we know what she's talking about, but it's like the rest of the world doesn't exist and her 'home' is in a complacent universe. If life was like a sitcom, then maybe this book would be 100% non-fiction.