CATEGORY

God knows--uh, sorry--Buddha knows that this book was released during the feng shui design-fad glut. But in a workbook-handy softcover and at a price that won't throw off your chi, it's a fun, interesting, and erudite hands-on guide to designing your living space along the principles of "fung shway"--that ages-old Chinese practice of directing invisible energy, or "chi" through your home for maximum physical, mental, and spiritual health and balance. Whether this do-it-yourselfer is a pure distillation of feng shui theory and practice or a conveniently Westernized version of them, most of its advice seems to accord with both general good design instinct and common sense. No pretty-but-vague viewbook, Feng Shui Chic breaks it all down with a wealth of nice color shots of home interiors and exteriors robustly explained in captions and call-outs, plus lots of floorplan charts, boxed sections, and checklists for everything from adjusting each room's yin and yang to bringing just the right balance of earth, fire, wood, and water energy into a space. A lot of the interiors lean toward suburban baroque, but you'll still want to live in half of them, especially if, like this reviewer, you live in an apartment so small that all the chi in the world won't make it chi-chi. --Timothy Murphy