I obsess shamelessly and tell everyone

At a party this week I met the charming Michael Woestehoff of the purely magnificent blog on hotels (architecture, cocktails, interior design, and events), The Washington Lobbyist. If there is any blog to add to a read list this year, it is this one. It is magnificently photographed and executed with no angle of these beautiful structures left unturned.

I hope you enjoy it as much as I have over the past few days, ah-hem, in nearly every free waking moment. Truly fascinating stuff, even if one was only in it for the photos.

Summer reads once you get there

While I am on subjects of southern things, I am advised by the kind folks at HarperCollins that these new, decidedly southern, books are newly available by beloved and best-selling authors in their stable:

Crowning Glory of Calla Lilly Ponder (excerpt here), by Rebecca Wells, author of Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood.

Return to Sullivan's Island (excerpt here), by Dorothea Benton Frank, author of Sullivan's Island and Isle of Palms.



And for those wishing for something non-fiction, this is one of my favorite books on Charleston and the definitive, truthful, work on chasing a low country family history to the land grant period: Slaves in the Family, by Edward Ball. Buy it and find brief reviews here, see the house where the Ball's live when you get there, and be privy to the family recipes in Charleston Receipts - yes, that Ball family.

Beach reading for those of you kicking back at IOP this summer.