If you can see potential in an old lampshade or a discarded cake-tin, then you'll find inspiration on every page as the authors share ideas for tuning unloved pieces into beautiful objects for every room in your home.

Behind the seemingly innocuous facade of St. Mary's Institute of Historical Research, a different kind of academic work is taking place. Just don't call it "time travel"-these historians "investigate major historical events in contemporary time." And they aren't your harmless eccentrics either; a more accurate description, as they ricochet around history, might be unintentional disaster-magnets. The first thing you learn on the job at St. Mary's...