In this overwrought ode to doing it yourself, Make magazine editor Frauenfelder attempts to "forge a deeper connection and a more rewarding sense of involvement with the world" by making more of the things his family uses and eats. His DIY projects are varied-organic gardening, building a chicken coop, constructing cigar-box guitars, keeping bees, tutoring his daughter-and not uniformly successful: chickens get devoured by a coyote; the bees subsist on sugar-water handouts; his daughter fails the big math test. (Not to worry, he insists, since accepting mistakes is foundational to the DIY ethos.) Frauenfelder's hand-making procedurals are engaging, but, for him, practicality takes a back seat to spirituality, to living authentically, to grokking "the Japanese concept of wabi sabi, the beauty found in an object's imperfections." He often presents DIY as a form of therapy: spoon-whittling isn't about spoons, it's about "the calming and focusing effect of spoon-whittling." (And like most therapies, these projects often require lots of disposable income-a thousand dollars for a load of mulch!-and spare time.) People have hobbies because they are interesting and fun; by inflating hobbyism into a belief system, Frauenfelder doesn't add much to their appeal. (June) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

Author Frauenfelder (editor in chief, Make magazine; cofounder, boingboing.net) takes listeners on a fascinating journey into the vibrant and currently hot world of do it yourself (DIY). Frustrated with today's throwaway culture and driven by his innate desire to invent and improve, Frauenfelder and his family embarked on a yearlong journey during which he tried his hand at DIY projects including organic gardening, constructing cigar-box guitars, keeping bees, and tutoring his daughter. Here, he tells of these varyingly successful endeavors, offering as a foundation to the DIY ethos heartfelt acceptance of one's mistakes and finding beauty in imperfection. Actor/musician/comedian Kirby Heyborne's slow-paced, earnest reading nicely suits the material, which is rooted in the 1960s Whole Earth movement. For all DIYers. ["Frauenfelder offers an original perspective.and this title should appeal to a tech-savvy audience," read the review of the Portfolio hc, LJ 6/1/10.-Ed.]-Dale Farris, Groves, TX (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.