Editor's note: Each month we see lots of books. Some of the curiouser arrivals are featured in this space.

Biting the Dust:
The Joys of Housework
By Margaret Horsfield
St. Martin's, $24.95
ISBN 0312212143

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Other People's Dirt:
A Housecleaner's Adventures from Cape Cod to Kyoto
By Louise Rafkin
Algonquin, $17.95
ISBN 1565121627

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"Glassware, silverware, chi-na! Dirty dishes and kitch-en utensils!" This was the mantra of our seventh-grade home economics teacher -- a rally call signaling us to start cleaning. Mrs. Douglas chirped these words as we sat scowling by our assigned "kitchenettes." There were some of us, however, who secretly liked home ec -- some of us who still do.

These two fabulous books are for those who have gotten in touch with their inner housecleaner.

Don't let the cover fool you, Biting the Dust: The Joys of Housework by Margaret Horsfield is no campy portrait of domestic bliss but an exhaustive exploration of housework and its history. It will surprise you with its humor and insight.

Appealing to the voyeur in all of us, Louise Rafkin escorts us into strangers often strange homes in Other People's Dirt: A Housecleaner's Adventures from Cape Cod to Kyoto. This is hilarious, though at times shocking, stuff -- think David Sedaris as a maid.

It would "behoover" you to read both of them.