We continuously strive for a healthy work/play balance here at Alabama Chanin. And so we found ourselves charmed by The Charleston Academy of Domestic Pursuits, by Suzanne Pollak and Lee Manigault, which manages to combine elements of work, domestic pursuits, and modern living.

Pollak and Manigault created the Charleston Academy of Domestic Pursuits (located in Charleston, North Carolina) in 2011 – after meeting at a dinner party – in hopes of teaching the value and importance of domestic home life. The Academy’s unique curriculum includes everything from cocktail-party etiquette and business entertaining, to dealing with household guests and cooking for the holidays.

This guide to domestic living is a number of things: a cookbook, a handbook for modern living, a witty and readable publication, and an insight into contemporary Charleston. Suzanne and Lee (or, as they refer to themselves in the book, The Deans) share secrets they have perfected over the years (running their own households, logging thousands of miles poking their noses into other cultures, and raising six children between them).

“After reading only a few pages, each reader will realize that the most crucial truths of pleasurable living are held within these pages,” The Deans note in the handbook’s introduction.

Pick up a copy and start your journey toward balanced domestic living. According to The Deans, “living life as an academy grad will make your life twice as charming.” That sounds like an