"beautiful Brain"

Her Beautiful Brain is Ann Hedreen's story of what it was like to become a mom just as her beautiful, brainy mother began to lose her mind to an unforgiving disease. Arlene was a copper miner's daughter who was divorced twice, widowed once, raised six kids singlehandedly, survived the turbulent '60s, and got her B.A. and M.A. at 40 so she could support her family as a Seattle schoolteacher—only to start showing signs of Alzheimer's disease in her late fifties, taking Ann and her siblings on a long descent they never could have anticipated or imagined.

Sometimes, the best place to begin is at the end. If you really want to dig deep into Illusory Walls, the fourth album by The World Is a Beautiful Place & I Am No Longer Afraid To Die, it definitely helps to do that. That's because epic closer "Fewer Afraid"-all 19 minutes, 44 seconds of it-doesn't just revisit the themes and ideas on the ten songs that precede it, but also offers a self-aware summary of the Connecticut band's entire history.

What could be better than a woodworking project that expands your woodworking skills, results in a gallery-worthy project that will bring hours of entertainment, and could even make a dent in your pile of scrap wood? 20 of those projects compiled into one great book.