Amy Sedaris, sister to humorist David Sedaris, brings her own brand of comedy to the crafting world with her new book Simple Times: Crafts for Poor People (Grand Central Publishing, 304pgs). This tome, along with her previous title, I Like You: Hospitality Under the Influence, establishes Sedaris as a sort of lifestyle maven for the warped home-maker. “Crafting, or ‘making things,’ has always been a delightful pastime of mine because it requires putting common elements together in order to achieve a lovely something that nobody needs,” she states in the book. The crafting guide blends a mixture corniness and odd practicality with a dash of the truly strange to create unique projects such as a doll wig doorknob and a miniature cardboard ghetto for a dying mouse. The projects are divided into nutty sections like “Knowing Your Knack for Knickknacks”, “Sausages” and “The Joy of Poverty”, and are peppered with photographs of Sedaris as various characters that tie in with the crafts.

Along with the crafts, the author provides helpful tips such as starting a crafting club, but keeping the membership exclusive. “After a few months of denying people membership to something they didn’t know existed, I sit back and watch them desperately flock to my circle, like deer to a bait pile,” she explains. Through every odd-ball project, Sedaris’ enthusiasm and humor shines through. “The actress-comedian is a practical crafting guide…Simple Times is steeped in ’70s campiness, with a youthful, can-do attitude walking through an extensive list of projects…[it] is an ideal gift for the crafter who has crafted everything,” writes Emily Fredrix in a review for the Associated Press.