Living on Your Own

B.J. Busch is associate librarian of academic and information services
at the University of Alberta.

This very basic guide to moving out of the nest for the first time
includes useful information on moving, rental agreements, and the like.
For those who have never had to deal with such essentials as doing
laundry, housecleaning, or organizing cupboards, the book offers
step-by-step instructions. There are lists of daily, weekly, and yearly
chores—e.g., daily make your bed, wash the dishes, etc. The book also
deals with lifestyle issues such as recycling and decorating. Its final
chapter is devoted to entertaining on a budget, and includes some simple
recipes. The book’s few illustrations are mostly decorative; the space
could have been more productively used to illustrate potentially
confusing areas such as spatial organization.

This is a “beginner’s” book, one you might stick in a Christmas
stocking for a high-school senior or present to a houseguest who has
overstayed his or her welcome. Some readers may be annoyed by the
numerous typos, but the book is otherwise quite helpful to true novices.