A couple book reviews...

Everyday Crochet: Wearable Designs Just for You can maybe be best described as a collection of themes and variations. Doris Chan starts with a few basic garments (a tank, a cardigan, a vest, a pullover), and then alters them, playing with gauge, material, and design details to create different garments (the tank can become a nightgown; the pullover is made into a snuggly-warm sweatshirt and a cute, lacy crop top).

The designs, in general, are fairly basic - Chan set out to provide garments that could become wardrobe staples, and I think she succeeded. (There are a couple that you'd need a certain style to pull off, though). Most of the garments are available in a huge range of sizes - the basic tank goes from 30" to 52" finished bust - and there are also hints given for adding shaping to garments. I think there's something in here for everyone from the Hip Young Crocheter to the Soccer Mom to the Traditionalist Grandma.

Also included are a handful of crocheted belts and instructions for turning two shank buttons into the link-style closures the cardigans call for.

On the other hand, I was almost a bit disappointed with Crochet Me, maybe because I was expecting something...different? Or maybe just because pretty much none of the garments would work with my body; the size range generally fits a 30"-42" bust, so even the couple designs I liked, I'd have to scale up myself, and some of the styles are guaranteed to elicit a "yes" to "does this make me look fat?".

They were definitely aiming for the Hip Young end of the crocheter spectrum, and pretty much hit it; no surprise, if you're familiar with the original incarnation of crochetme.com, since most of the designers were regular contributors there. There's a wide variety of patterns - wearables, two bags (both were, I have to admit, cool - a felted messenger bag with a nifty gimmick to it, and one of the more artistic mesh market bags I've seen), and home decor (neither towel toppers nor TP cozies, of course!). There's technical instructions for a few of the more unusual techniques (Tunisian and tapestry - making a point of the one seemingly-trivial-but-actually-important detail that makes a difference between your tapestry crochet looking hot and your tapestry crochet looking crappy) and a quick reference to some other things you can do with yarn and a crochet hook that didn't come up in the context of the book.

To summarize: I would recommend Everyday Crochet to almost anyone, and it's going on my Amazon.com wishlist; Crochet Me is not for me, but it may be for you.