Ask a Bookseller: Part memoir, part home redecorating saga

The book Sandy Koropp of Prairie Path Books in Wheaton, Ill., is "crazy about right now" is part memoir, part home redecorating saga. Its descriptive title sets the stage; it's called “The Bee Cottage Story: How I Made a Muddle of Things and Decorated My Way Back to Happiness” by Frances Schultz.Schultz made her career as a style maven, says Koropp, and this 2015 memoir expands on a popular series Schultz wrote for "House Beautiful" magazine. Schultz had bought a house in East Hampton, N.Y., with her partner, full of ideas for their future. Instead, he left; she stayed and remade the house, reflecting on her new path in life as she went.The book is filled with pictures of the process. Schultz is "hilarious, very Nora Ephron-ish," says Koropp, "and she makes herself very vulnerable. She draws you in as if you're [sitting] with a cup of tea and a friend."