I’ve been reading an advance copy of Chicago journalist Ed Zotti’s The Barn House: Confessions of an Urban Rehabber, which hits bookstores in September, and I have to say it’s making me feel a lot better about the rehabbing of my own house (his process, complete with not only ugly additions built by previous owners, but burglars, sounds painful). Zotti, who edits the syndicated column “Straight Dope” that appears in the Chicago Reader, chronicles his woes with great humor and detail (sometimes a bit too much detail about things like electrical wiring if you ask me; on the other hand, lots of fun footnotes with tidbits of Chicago history). It’s worth picking up if you want to commiserate and chuckle at Zotti’s dry wit.

—Gina Bazer