The Rabbit Room

In 2002, Andi Ashworth, the co-founder of Art House America (along with her husband, music producer Charlie Peacock) published, Real Love for Real Life: The Art and Work of Caring. The book is Andi’s care-filled challenge to find creative ways of bringing beauty into the lives of those around us, and it’s become a book beloved by readers everywhere. Sadly, Real Love for Real Life went out of print and copies became scarce. When Andi approached us to discuss the possibility of putting it back into print as a second edition, we were more than happy to help.

Rabbit Room Press is now proud to announce the release of the second edition of Andi Ashworth’s acclaimed Real Love for Real Life: The Art and Work of Caring, featuring a new preface to the second edition written by the author. If you, like many, have been anxious to read it but haven’t been able to find it available, fret no longer. It’s now on sale in the Rabbit Room store.

Russ Ramsey discussed the book back in 2008. And Jill Phillips discussed it in 2010. Look for a new Rabbit Room review and an new interview with Andi Ashworth in the next week.

Here’s what Publisher’s Weekly had to say:

“Edith Schaeffer’s The Hidden Art of Homemaking (1971) and What Is a Family? (1975) have sold steadily in Christian bookstores for over a generation, and now Ashworth offers daughters (and sons) of Schaeffer’s early readers an equally inspirational tribute to caregiving. Wife and business partner of Nashville musician Charlie Peacock, Ashworth maintains in this solidly biblical yet culturally aware book that caregiving, loving, and serving other people is to some extent the duty of every Christian. For certain Christians, caregiving is also a lifelong vocation that, though undervalued in our productivity-obsessed world, deserves as much respect as any paid employment. Ashworth is no Martha Stewart: she provides encouragement rather than crafts and recipes. Nor is she Pollyanna: she recognizes that caregiving can be tedious and exhausting, and only those who set firm boundaries and rely on God’s help are likely to persist. Ashworth’s own struggle with balancing business and home life increases her credibility as she promotes flower gardens, hospitality, and leisurely conversations over dinner . . . If her abundant anecdotes evoke nostalgia for a bygone era, they also reinforce her point that “when we create beauty in our environment, relationships, music, cooking, poetry, and celebrations we express our hope for the new heaven and new earth that God promises.” Ashworth does not provide a detailed road map to her peaceable kingdom, but she clearly shows that if it is ever to be created, someone must care.”