Coterie Books

2011-02-16T19:15:00.000-05:00

Moving...

2011-01-07T09:12:00.000-05:00

I've decided to migrate over to WordPress - new address is www.coteriebooks.wordpress.com - come on over!

A Voice from Old New York

2011-01-07T08:55:00.004-05:00

I met Mr. Auchincloss a couple of times when I worked for an old money investment firm in NYC right out of college as the assistant to the president (first big job!) - he was a lovely man and I have always enjoyed reading his books.

A Voice from Old New York: A Memoir of My Youth

At the time of his death, Louis Auchincloss—enemy of bores, self-pity, and gossip less than fresh—had just finished taking on a subject he had long avoided: himself. His memoir confirms that, despite the spark of his fiction, Auchincloss himself was the most entertaining character he has created. No traitor to his class but occasionally its critic, he returns us to his Society which was, he maintains, less interesting than its members admitted. You may differ as he unfurls his life with dignity, summoning his family (particularly his father who suffered from depression and forgave him for hating sports) and intimates. Brooke Astor and her circle are here, along with glimpses of Jacqueline Onassis. Most memorable, though, is his way with those outside the salon: the cranky maid; the maiden aunt, perpetually out of place; the less-than-well-born boy who threw himself from a window over a woman and a man. Here is Auchincloss, an American master, being Auchincloss, a rare eye, a generous and lively spirit to the end.

Allure

2011-01-03T09:55:00.000-05:00

Allure by Diana Vreeland....It's interesting that they've made this one into a cute little mini-sized version of the reprint of the original. I worked in production on the full-sized first reprint around 2001 if I remember correctly.

There is actually a version, signed by Diana Vreeland, of the original on eBay right now that I just stumbled on and it's in decent condition! Go here for details.

Isabella Blow: A Life in Fashion

2010-12-31T09:41:00.003-05:00

Isabella Blow: A Life in Fashion - As a longtime fan, I am really looking forward to reading this version of her life.

From Amazon:

In 2007, the news of Isabella Blow’s suicide at the age of 48 made headlines around the world—but there is more to the story of Isabella than her tragic end. The key supporter and muse of milliner Philip Treacy and designer Alexander McQueen, Blow was truly more than a muse or patron. She was a spark, an electrical impulse that set imaginations racing, an individual who pushed others to create their best work.

Her fascination with clothing began early, as did a willingness to wear things—and say things—that would amuse and shock. She began her fashion career in New York City as assistant to Anna Wintour at Vogue. Over time she became famous for her work, yet it wasn’t enough to assuage her devastating feelings of inadequacy. Still, in her darkest moments, even as she began a series of suicide attempts and prolonged hospital stays, Blow retained her wicked sense of humor, making her friends laugh even as they struggled to help.

Encyclopedia of the Exquisite: An Anecdotal History of Elegant Delights

2010-12-30T22:07:00.002-05:00

Encyclopedia of the Exquisite: An Anecdotal History of Elegant Delights - Another book I received for Christmas this year and highly recommend. I had previewed it on my Kindle but this is one of those book you really "need" for your bookshelf.

At Home with Books

2010-12-30T21:38:00.002-05:00

At Home with Books: How Booklovers Live with and Care for Their Libraries

This one has been on my Amazon wishlist forever and I received it as one of many books for Christmas this year. It's a beautiful book and I highly recommend it!

Dogs

2010-11-24T09:15:00.003-05:00

Dogs - Since the wolf first snuck into the caves of our ancestors to take warmth from the fire, dogs have been man’s constant companion. Dogs, multi-award-winning photographer Tim Flach’s stunning follow-up to the critically acclaimed Equus, delves deep into the psyche of this enduring bond with Canis familiaris to present an exquisite study of “man’s best friend.”

From specimens on show at Crufts and Westminster to shelter dogs lovingly rescued by volunteers; from the grace and agility of racing greyhounds to adored domestic companions; from Afghan hounds to Hungarian komondors to Chinese crested, the images featured in Dogs promise to deliver one of the most appealing, popular, and exciting photographic tributes to dogs ever published.

100 Dresses by The Metropolitan Museum of Art

2010-11-22T09:26:00.000-05:00

100 Dresses: The Costume Institute / The Metropolitan Museum of Art - What woman can resist imagining herself in a beautiful designer dress? Here, for the first time ever, are 100 fabulous gowns from the permanent collection of the renowned Costume Institute at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, each of which is a reminder of the ways fashion reflects the broader culture that created it.

Featuring designs by Paul Poiret, Coco Chanel, Madame Grès, Yves Saint Laurent, Gianni Versace, Vivienne Westwood, Alexander McQueen, and many others, this one-of-a-kind collection presents a stunning variety of garments. Ranging from the buttoned-up gowns of the late 17th century to the cutting-edge designs of the early 21st, the dresses reflect the sensibilities and excesses of each era while providing a vivid picture of how styles have changed—sometimes radically—over the years. A late 1600s wool dress with a surprising splash of silver thread; a large-bustled red satin dress from the 1800s; a short, shimmery 1920s dancing dress; a glamorous 1950s cocktail dress; and a 1960s minidress—each tells a story about its period and serves as a testament to the enduring ingenuity of the fashion designer’s art.

Images of the dresses are accompanied by informative text and enhanced by close-up details as well as runway photos, fashion plates, works of art, and portraits of designers. A glossary of related terms is also included.

French Essence

2010-11-17T09:31:00.000-05:00

French Essence: Ambience, Beauty, and Style in Provence - Ten years ago, Vicki Archer and her husband began restoring a seventeenth-century olive farm in Saint-Remy-de-Provence, resurrecting the ancient orchards and renovating the farmhouse. The story of Archer's dream come true is an enchanting one, captured on the pages of her debut book, My French Life. Now fully at home in this magnificent corner of the world, she brings us a guide for celebrating and re-creating Provençal ambiance.

A lover of architecture, art, furniture, and décor, Archer knows that the best interiors are inspired by the heart as much as the mind. French Essence is designed to spark both, with gorgeous photographs of lush gardens, timeless interiors, hauntingly beautiful village lanes, and inspired aesthetic details. Sumptuous cuisine and charming shops are also essential features of the tour, giging all readers the chance to vicariously savor the sensuous pleasures and effortless chic of this region. Reminiscent of Frances Mayes's lavishly illustrated books, In Tuscany and Bringing Tuscany Home, Archer's captivating words and scenes open the doors of inspiration for all who cherish the French way of life.

Women Then

2010-11-15T09:39:00.000-05:00

Women Then: Photographs 1954-1969 - A collection of rarely seen black-and-white photographs taken of women in the 1950s and 1960s, captured by the renowned New York City fashion photographer and filmmaker. Designed by Ruth Ansel, this elegantly produced volume captures the romance and glamour of women in the 1950s and 1960s. A mix of fashion and portraiture, it includes intimate and striking portraits of Nico, Faye Dunaway, Edie Sedgwick, Sharon Tate, and Catherine Deneuve. Jerry Schatzberg’s moody snapshots of a more innocent and whimsical New York on the brink of the important societal changes of the sixties form a compellingly nostalgic portrait of a stylish moment. Images of jetsetters at an airport terminal, lovers embracing in Central Park, and a woman waltzing in the street in the Financial District portray a time as well as a style. A New York City native, Schatzberg documented the period with the insider’s sensibility of Woody Allen or Martin Scorsese, but with the high-fashion style of Irving Penn and Richard Avedon. With a keen eye for the magic of the in-between moment, Schatzberg stealthily captured the elegance and beauty of a woman as her role was redefined in the sixties, while at the same time retaining an element of humor and surprise.

Edith Head

2010-11-11T09:38:00.000-05:00

Edith Head: The Fifty-Year Career of Hollywood's Greatest Costume Designer - All About Eve. Funny Face. Sunset Blvd. Rear Window. Sabrina. A Place in the Sun. The Ten Commandments. Scores of iconic films of the last century had one thing in common: costume designer Edith Head (1897–1981). She racked up an unprecedented 35 Oscar nods and 400 film credits over the course of a fifty-year career.

Never before has the account of Hollywood’s most influential designer been so thoroughly revealed—because never before have the Edith Head Archives of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences been tapped. This unprecedented access allows this book to be a one-of-a-kind survey, bringing together a spectacular collection of rare and never-before-seen sketches, costume test shots, behind-the- scenes photos, and ephemera.

Portrait of Camelot

2010-11-08T09:00:00.000-05:00

Portrait of Camelot: A Thousand Days in the Kennedy White House - Published to commemorate the 50th anniversary of John F. Kennedy’s election as president of the United States, this book is a revealing and intimate portrait of a leader, husband, and father as seen through the lens of Cecil Stoughton, the first official White House photographer. Stoughton’s close rapport with the president and first lady gave him extraordinary access to the Oval Office, the Kennedys’ private quarters and homes, to state dinners, cabinet meetings, diplomatic trips, and family holidays.

Drawing on Stoughton’s unparalleled body of photographs, most rarely or never before reproduced, and supported by a deeply thoughtful narrative by political historian Richard Reeves, Portrait of Camelot is an unprecedented portrayal of the power, politics, and warmly personal aspects of Camelot’s 1,036 days.

DVD INCLUDED: packaged with a DVD created exclusively for this book, containing color and black-and-white film footage Stoughton created of the Kennedy family in the White House, in Hyannis Port, and on holidays.

Allegra Hicks: An Eye for Design

2010-11-05T14:56:00.003-04:00

Allegra Hicks: An Eye for Design examines textile, interior, and fashion designer Allegra Hicks’ approach to design and luxury. The book retraces the genesis of her patterns over the past decades of her work. Season by season, Hicks presents her original textile and pattern designs alongside beautiful photography of interiors, landscapes, and unexpected points of nature. Essays on design, color, and seasonal elements will inspire readers to look at interiors and fabrics in a new and different way. Pairing original textile and pattern designs with inspiring photography of interiors and landscapes, the book is an internal voyage through Allegra Hicks’ mind.

Louis Vuitton: 100 Legendary Trunks

2010-10-27T15:00:00.000-04:00

Louis Vuitton: 100 Legendary Trunks -- Trains and steamships transformed transportation in the mid-19th century and opened the world to a new breed of traveler. Louis Vuitton understood the need for more practical luggage, and strove to create products that were adaptable to all situations—and the travel trunk was born.

Authors Pierre Léonforte and Éric Pujalet-Plaà curate 100 of the finest trunks the Louis Vuitton company has produced on commission, including boxes made for movie stars from Douglas Fairbanks to Sharon Stone and couturiers from Jeanne Lanvin to Karl Lagerfeld, as well as cases designed for Ernest Hemingway, Leopold Stokowski, and Damien Hirst. Illustrated with 600 images taken from the Louis Vuitton archives and new photographs made especially for this book, this is the definitive history of personalized objects of both practicality and luxury.

The World of Gloria Vanderbilt

2010-10-26T09:22:00.000-04:00

The World of Gloria Vanderbilt -- Gloria Vanderbilt is many things: an heiress, a painter, a muse, a designer, a model, a writer, an entrepreneur, an actor, a socialite, a survivor, an icon. She brought the Vanderbilt name out of the Gilded Age and into the Digital Age, reinventing herself over and over along the way. Hers is a story of charisma, glamour, and heartbreaking loss, told here by Wendy Goodman, who had intimate access to Vanderbilt for this book. The illustrations include portraits of Vanderbilt and her extraordinary homes, filled with original and influential decorating ideas, by such photographic legends as Richard Avedon, Louise Dahl-Wolfe, Inge Morath, Horst P. Horst, Francesco Scavullo, and Annie Leibovitz. Vanderbilt’s son, Anderson Cooper, contributes a foreword.

Wendy Goodman is coauthor of Abrams’ Tony Duquette. She is the design editor of New York magazine, a well as contributing editor for Departures magazine and German and French Architectural Digest.

Eternal Chanel

2010-10-25T14:58:00.000-04:00

Eternal Chanel -- When Jean Leymarie’s monograph on Coco Chanel was originally published in 1989, he was known primarily as a curator and modern art historian, both in his native France and abroad. Bringing his expertise to bear on one of the most famous (and often controversial) couturiers of all time, Leymarie legitimized fashion as fine art.

Completely redesigned by Philippe Apeloig, Leymarie’s classic volume is back in print once more. Beginning with a brief history of fashion, Leymarie takes the reader through Chanel’s early days, when she mingled with Jean Cocteau, Igor Stravinsky, and Luchino Visconti, through the development of her brand after her death by Karl Lagerfeld. A special essay on Lagerfeld’s contribution to the Chanel legacy, written by journalist Marc Lambron, brings this new edition up to date.

Simple Times: Crafts for Poor People

2010-09-20T11:05:00.000-04:00

Simple Times: Crafts for Poor People -- America's most delightfully unconventional hostess and the bestselling author of I Like You delivers a new book that will forever change the world of crafting. According to Amy Sedaris, it's often been said that ugly people craft and attractive people have sex. In her new book, SIMPLE TIMES, she sets the record straight. Demonstrating that crafting is one of life's more pleasurable and constructive leisure activities, Sedaris shows that anyone with a couple of hours to kill and access to pipe cleaners can join the elite society of crafters.

You will discover how to make popular crafts, such as: crab-claw roach clips, tinfoil balls, and crepe-paper moccasins, and learn how to: get inspired (Spend time at a Renaissance Fair; Buy fruit, let it get old, and see

what shapes it turns into); remember which kind of glue to use with which material (Tacky with Furry, Gummy with Gritty, Paste with Prickly, and always Gloppy with Sandy); create your own craft room and avoid the most common crafting accidents (sawdust fires, feather asphyxia, pine cone lodged in throat); and cook your own edible crafts, from a Crafty Candle Salad to Sugar Skulls, and many more recipes.

PLUS whole chapters full of more crafting ideas (Pompom Ringworms! Seashell Toilet Seat Covers!) that will inspire you to create your own hastily constructed obscure d'arts; and much, much more!

Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk

2010-09-16T11:01:00.003-04:00

Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk: A Modest Bestiary- Featuring David Sedaris's unique blend of hilarity and heart, this new collection of keen-eyed animal-themed tales is an utter delight. Though the characters may not be human, the situations in these stories bear an uncanny resemblance to the insanity of everyday life.

In "The Toad, the Turtle, and the Duck," three strangers commiserate about animal bureaucracy while waiting in a complaint line. In "Hello Kitty," a cynical feline struggles to sit through his prison-mandated AA meetings. In "The Squirrel and the Chipmunk," a pair of star-crossed lovers is separated by prejudiced family members.

With original illustrations by Ian Falconer, author of the bestselling Olivia series of children's books, these stories are David Sedaris at his most observant, poignant, and surprising.

A Life of Style

2010-09-15T11:08:00.004-04:00

A Life of Style: Fashion, Home, Entertaining -- Style is a reflection of who we are, where we come from, and what we have experienced—the good, the bad, and the indifferent. It is what makes us into the unique beings that we are.

Star fashion designer Rebecca Moses has devoted herself to crafting chic garments for stylish women world-wide. Underpinning her years of innovative design has been a series of questions: What is style? How does it evolve? And what can we do to develop our own style? A Life of Style provides the answers. Consisting entirely of Moses’s inventive watercolors, which incorporate witty words of wisdom distilled from personal experience, A Life of Style encourages readers to draw upon and develop their innate style—traditional or modern, conservative or radical—and especially to cultivate the confidence to express themselves.

Rebecca Moses offers a style journey that is at once informative and imaginative. She persuades readers to listen to themselves and their instincts, to open their minds to new ways of thinking, and above all to search for inspiration. Once the style mind is engaged, she turns to fashion and beauty (“Don’t forget: We wear our clothes—they don’t wear us”), the home (“Creating a home is creating a world of your own”), and entertaining (“The best gift of all is the gift of relaxation and great pleasure”). Above all, says Moses, style is personal communication at its most profound, most ingenious, most original.

Style is not skin deep. It is soul deep. It is our most significant form of expression. It is how we communicate who we are to the world around us. It is our voice.

With Friends Like These

2010-08-23T09:47:00.004-04:00

With Friends Like These -- Have you ever been a less than perfect friend? To whom does your first loyalty belong—your best friend or your husband? With her trademark wit and empathy, Sally Koslow explores the entangled lives of women in this candid, fast-paced novel.

Quincy, Talia, Chloe, and Jules met in the early nineties after answering a roommate ad for a Manhattan apartment. Despite having little in common, the women became fast friends. A decade later, their lives have diverged, though their ties remain strong.

Quincy, a Midwestern introvert, is trying to overcome a set of tragedies by hunting for the perfect home; Talia, a high-energy Brooklyn wife and mom with an outspoken conscience, is growing resentful of her friends’ greater financial stability and her husband’s lack of ambition; timid Chloe, also a mother, is trying to deflect pressure from her husband, a hedge fund manager, to play the role of trophy wife; while Jules, a fiercely independent actress/entrepreneur with a wicked set of life rules, is confronting her forties alone.

When Jules gives her new boyfriend the inside scoop on the real estate gem Quincy is lusting after, and Talia chases a lucrative job earmarked for Chloe, the women are forced to wrestle with the challenges of love and motherhood. Will their friendships and marriages survive? And at what price? Punchy yet tender, a high-five to sisterhood, this book will hit an emotional bull’s-eye for anyone who has had—or been—less than a perfect friend.

Note: I enjoyed Little Pink Slips also by this author but not so much her one after that which was The Late, Lamented Molly Marx

Nina Garcia's Look Book

2010-08-20T09:39:00.001-04:00

Nina Garcia's Look Book: What to Wear for Every Occasion -- Every woman, at one time or another, has contemplated an all-important job interview, first date, formal party, or important presentation and wailed to herself and to her closest girlfriends, “ What should I wear?” In Nina Garcia’ s Look Book, style guru Nina Garcia solves this universal quandary with an inspired and unbeatable combination of fashion knowledge and common sense. She shows us the pieces, the accessories, and the strategies to create the looks that will take us from the first day on a job through the day we ask for a raise and beyond, from the first time we meet our boyfriend’ s parents (or his children) through the day we see our own children walk down the aisle. With Nina by your side, you can’ t go wrong. You’ ll have all the tips you will need to navigate every day looking your best.

True style is not about having a closet full of expensive and beautiful things— it is instead about knowing when, where, and how to utilize your collection.

Note: I loved Nina's previous book and this one too!

Slicker

2010-08-18T09:36:00.002-04:00

Slicker -- Even life in the greatest city in the world can sometimes feel like a little too much. For this New Yorker, running away to the Heartland may be just the antidote.

When New York City native Desirée Christian-Cohen flees her sometime-boyfriend, unhappy mother, Nina (who’s recently learned her soon-to-be ex-husband Patrick is gay), and failing grandfather, she picks the flight plan by randomly dropping her finger on a map and hitting: Honey Creek, Kansas, population 1,623. And if being a “tourist” in Honey Creek weren’t noticeable enough, try hanging out in the Sweet Tooth luncheonette, where you’re referred to as “half a Jew.” Wary of , but wanting to, fit in with the local populace, Desirée is forced to defend herself and define herself in a world that feels vastly different from her own. Her Yale boyfriends were never like Bobby McVicar, the son of two ageing hippies, who finds all he needs in his pinprick of a hometown. And never—even as an only child of typically doting Manhattan parents—has anyone paid so much attention to Desirée.

Over one surprising, transformative and sometimes very funny summer, Desirée Christian-Cohen, member-in-good-standing of the Self Esteem Generation, discovers how an impulsive escape from home and family turns out to be much more than that.

The Surf Guru

2010-08-16T09:32:00.000-04:00

The Surf Guru -- Dorst's acclaimed debut, Alive in Necropolis, folded sci-fi, horror, and noir elements into a layered coming-of-age story, and a similar mix of lively imagination and love of craft are on display in this excellent collection. "Splitters" hilariously recreates a scholarly treatise, replete with bloated footnotes and period photographs, by a biologist unloading personal grudges upon colleagues. In the title story, dozens of short vignettes have the effect of snapshots or glimpses that the reader is challenged to piece together. A similar method is used, but to a grander effect, in "Twelve Portraits of Dr. Gauchet," which borrows its title from a Van Gogh painting and depicts the life of the famous artist's physician. The narrative in the poignant and surprisingly suspenseful "Dinaburg's Cake" coils in the obsessive mind of its protagonist, a cake maker in pursuit of a lost client with whom she imagines a significant connection. Whether it's the campaign adviser shackled to a loser in "The Candidate in Bloom" or the hapless dreamers in "Vikings" and "What Is Mine Will Know My Face," the humanity in Dorst's characters can break a reader's heart.

Last Night at Chateau Marmont

2010-08-13T10:13:00.001-04:00

Last Night at Chateau Marmont-- Brooke loved reading the dishy celebrity gossip rag Last Night. That is, until her marriage became a weekly headline.Brooke was drawn to the soulful, enigmatic Julian Alter the very first time she heard him perform “Hallelujah” at a dark East Village dive bar.Now five years married, Brooke balances two jobs—as a nutritionist at NYU Hospital and as a consultant to an Upper East Side girls’ school, where privilege gone wrong and disordered eating run rampant—in order to help support her husband’s dream of making it in the music world.Things are looking up when after years of playing Manhattan clubs and toiling as an A&R intern, Julian finally gets signed by Sony. Although no one’s promising that the album will ever hit the airwaves, Julian is still dedicated to logging in long hours at the recording studio. All that changes after Julian is asked to perform on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno—and is catapulted to stardom, literally overnight. Amazing opportunities begin popping up almost daily—a new designer wardrobe, a tour with Maroon 5, even a Grammy performance.At first the newfound fame is fun—who wouldn’t want to stay at the Chateau Marmont or visit the set of one of television’s hottest shows? Yet it seems that Brooke’s sweet husband—the man who can’t handle hot showers and wears socks to bed—is increasingly absent, even on those rare nights they’re home together. When rumors about Brooke and Julian swirl in the tabloid magazines, she begins to question the truth of her marriage and is forced to finally come to terms with what she thinks she wants—and what she actually needs.

The Patterns of Paper Monsters

2010-08-06T16:11:00.002-04:00

The Patterns of Paper Monsters -- Jacob Higgins's teenage rage rarely simmers below the surface for long. He despises his negligent mother and her alcoholic boyfriend, Refrigerator Man, and he's indifferent to school and his friends--though a little less casual about girls and marijuana. His antics have landed him in a North Virginia detention center, where nihilism, freedom, and redemption all take on unexpected guises. In a voice filled with confusion, yearning, and sardonic humor, Jacob narrates his improbably sweet romance with Andrea, an inmate with whom he shares rare glances, melodramatic conversation, and waxy cookies at rigidly chaperoned "socials." But when David, a mysterious, conniving adolescent, handpicks him to assist in a plot to bring about the center's demise, Jacob has to weigh the frail new optimism of his relationship with Andrea against the allure of destruction, rebellion, and escape. In her pitch-perfect debut, Emma Rathbone adroitly captures the drama, both comic and deadly serious, of growing up.

Portrait of an Addict As a Young Man: A Memoir

2010-07-21T08:45:00.000-04:00

Portrait of an Addict as a Young Man: A Memoir -- Bill Clegg had a thriving business as a literary agent, a supportive partner, trusting colleagues, and loving friends when he walked away from his world and embarked on a two-month crack binge. He had been released from rehab nine months earlier, and his relapse would cost him his home, his money, his career, and very nearly his life.

What is it that leads an exceptional young mind want to disappear? Clegg makes stunningly clear the attraction of the drug that had him in its thrall, capturing in scene after scene the drama, tension, and paranoiac nightmare of a secret life--and the exhilarating bliss that came again and again until it was eclipsed almost entirely by doom. He also explores the shape of addiction, how its pattern--not its cause--can be traced to the past.

The Carrie Diaries

2010-07-19T10:19:00.000-04:00

The Carrie Diaries -- Before Carrie Bradshaw hit the big time in the City, she was a regular girl growing up in the suburbs of Connecticut. How did she turn into one of the most-read social observers of our generation?

The Carrie Diaries opens up in Carrie's senior year of high school. She and her best friends -- Walt, Lali, Maggie, and the Mouse -- are inseparable, amid the sea of Jens, Jocks and Jets. And then Sebastian Kydd comes into the picture. Sebastian is a bad boy-older, intriguing, and unpredictable. Carrie falls into the relationship that she was always supposed to have in high school-until a friend's betrayal makes her question everything. With her high school days coming to a close, Carrie will realize it's finally time to go after everything she ever wanted.

Rabid fans of Sex and the City will love seeing Carrie Bradshaw evolve from a regular girl into a sharp, insightful writer. They'll learn about her family background -- how she found her writing voice, and the indelible impression her early friendships and relationships left on her. We'll see what brings Carrie to her beloved New York City, where the next Carrie Diaries book will take place.

Talking to Girls about Duran Duran

2010-07-14T08:38:00.000-04:00

Talking to Girls About Duran Duran: One Young Man's Quest for True Love and a Cooler Haircut -- In this tuneful coming-of-age memoir, the glamorous New Wave band Duran Duran presides spiritually over the all-consuming teenage male efforts to comprehend the opposite sex. Music journalist Sheffield (Love Is a Mix Tape) chronicles his passage through the 1980s in a series of chapters in which period groups—from headliners like Roxy Music and Prince to one-hit wonders like Haysi Fantayzee of Shiny Shiny semifame—provides musical accompaniment to his adolescent angst. They are the soundtrack to his fumbling attempts to dance or make passes at girls, to weather a winless stint on the high school wrestling team, to survive a summer job as an ice-cream truck driver. The relationship insights he arrives at—chiefly, the imperative of unquestioning submission to female whims—are no more or less cogent than the song lyrics he gleans them from. The book really shines as a collection of free-form riffs on the glorious foolishness of Reagan-era entertainment—the movie E.T., he writes, was about a sad muppet who thought he was David Bowie—and its weirdly resonant emotional impact. The result is a funny, poignant browse from a wonderful pop-culture evocateur

The Island

2010-07-12T08:49:00.001-04:00

The Island -- From Publishers Weekly: At the start of this steamy woman's novel, recently divorced Birdie Cousins is busy planning the September wedding of her older daughter, Chess, at the family house on Tuckernuck, a privately owned island near Nantucket. Birdie hopes to spend some quality time with Chess on Tuckernuck in July, but then Chess breaks her engagement to her consummate Ivy League golden boy fiancé, Michael Morgan. Michael fatally plunges off a Utah crag just when Birdie acquires her own new beau--a married man with a wife stricken with Alzheimer's. Birdie, Chess, and their support team--Birdie's computer-guru younger daughter, Tate, and Birdie's bohemian widowed sister, India--hare off to Tuckernuck. There hunky handyman Barrett Lee flutters hearts and dampens underwear in a breathless month of supercharged estrogenic imbalances. This never-never land portrait of the rich and randy will please those looking for a satisfying beach read.

Update: I read this on vacation. It was my first book by this author and it was just ok. Predictable plot & it went on too long.

Secrets to Happiness

2010-07-08T08:13:00.000-04:00

Secrets to Happiness -- Holly Frick has just endured the worst kind of breakup: the kind where you're still in love with the person leaving you. While her wounds are still dangerously close to the surface, her happily married best friend confesses over a bottle of wine that she is this close to having an affair. And another woman comes to Holly for advice about her love life--with Holly's ex!

Holly decides that if everyone around her can take pleasure wherever they find it, so will she. As any self-respecting 30ish New York woman would do, she brings two males into her life: a flawed but endearing dog, and a good natured, much younger lover. She's soon entangled in a web of emails, chance meetings, and misguided good intentions and must forge an entirely new path to Nirvana.

Secrets to Happiness is a big-hearted, knife-sharp, and hilariously entertaining story about the perils of love and friendship, sex and betrayal--and a thoroughly modern take on our struggle to be happy.

Thin, Rich, Pretty

2010-07-06T08:20:00.000-04:00

Thin, Rich, Pretty -- Twenty years ago, Holly and Nicola were best friends at camp, united in their hatred of the cabin bully, Lexi. Now, Holly, who owns a Washington, D.C., art gallery, is “pre-engaged” to controlling Randy, who will propose if she can drop 20 pounds. Nicola is an actress in L.A., struggling to follow up her one sleeper hit, but being turned down left and right for roles because she doesn't look right. As Holly sheds the weight, Randy's unpleasantness becomes impossible to ignore, and Nicola undergoes plastic surgery that leaves her unrecognizable even to her grandmother (and doesn't get her any work). Meanwhile, Lexi's father dies and her stepmother cuts her off, leaving her destitute. When Holly runs into Lexi, she realizes that undoing a prank she and Nicola played on her years ago at camp could potentially reverse her fortune.

Vintage Affair

2010-06-29T08:36:00.002-04:00

Every dress has a history. And so does every woman.

In Isabel Wolff’s captivating A Vintage Affair, a treasured child’s coat becomes a thread of hope connecting two very different women.

Her friends are stunned when Phoebe Swift abruptly leaves a plum job at the prestigious Sotheby’s auction house to open her own vintage clothing shop in London—but to Phoebe, it’s the fulfillment of a dream. In the sunlight-flooded interior of Village Vintage, surrounded by Yves Saint Laurent silk scarves, Vivienne Westwood bustle skirts, cupcake dresses, and satin gowns, Phoebe hopes to make her store the hot new place to shop, even as she deals with two ardent suitors, her increasingly difficult mother, and a secret from her past that casts a shadow over her new venture.

For Phoebe, each vintage garment carries its own precious history. Digging for finds in attics and wardrobes, Phoebe is rewarded whenever she finds something truly unique, for she knows that when you buy a piece of vintage clothing, you’re not just buying fabric and thread—you’re buying a piece of someone’s past. But one particular article of clothing will soon unexpectedly change her life.

Thérèse Bell, an elderly Frenchwoman, has an impressive clothing collection. But among the array of smart suits and couture gowns, Phoebe finds a child’s sky-blue coat—an item with which Bell is stubbornly reluctant to part. As the two women become friends, Phoebe will learn the tale of that little blue coat. And she will discover an astonishing connection between herself and Thérèse Bell—one that will help her heal the pain of her own past and allow her to love again.

Mad Men Unbuttoned

2010-06-28T08:51:00.001-04:00

Mad Men Unbuttoned: A Romp Through 1960s America
Perfectly timed for the new season! Available July 20th!

One Day

2010-06-25T09:34:00.005-04:00

One Day -- It's 1988 and Dexter Mayhew and Emma Morley have only just met. They both know that the next day, after college graduation, they must go their separate ways. But after only one day together, they cannot stop thinking about one another. As the years go by, Dex and Em begin to lead separate lives—lives very different from the people they once dreamed they'd become. And yet, unable to let go of that special something that grabbed onto them that first night, an extraordinary relationship develops between the two.

Over twenty years, snapshots of that relationship are revealed on the same day—July 15th—of each year. Dex and Em face squabbles and fights, hopes and missed opportunities, laughter and tears. And as the true meaning of this one crucial day is revealed, they must come to grips with the nature of love and life itself.

Update: This book was a little tooooo long for me and had a depressing ending which was a total buzzkill.

Vera: The Art and Life of an Icon

2010-06-18T09:24:00.001-04:00

Vera: The Art and Life of an Icon -- Legendary designer and artist Vera Neumann (1907-1993) believed in art's ability to inspire and enrich lives. An innovator and one of the most successful female entrepreneurs of her time, Vera built her company on a radical philosophy: fine art should be accessible to everyone, not just a select few. Known for her iconic images of cheerful flowers, trendy geometrics, and vibrant ladybugs, people should surround themselves with art in every aspect of their lifestyle. For the first time, "Vera: The Art and Life of an Icon", tells her inspiring story through the art and designs she created. "Vera" is a biography about a creative soul, but also a woman who was adventurous and entrepreneurial, traveling across the world from Bombay to Lima gathering inspiration along the way. Richly illustrated with Vera's original sketches, paintings, and photographs of her worldwide travels, readers are introduced to the amazing woman behind the art and the dynamic designs that continue to inspire the world of art, design, and fashion.

About the Author: Susan Seid is an art lover and the owner of The Vera Company based in Atlanta, Georgia. She graduated from The Fashion Institute of Technology and has held various executive positions in the retail and direct marketing industry. Jen Renzi is a freelance writer based in New York and has written for publications including the New York Times Magazine, Surface, New York, Interiors, Wallpaper, and CondeNast Traveler. Previously a senior editor at House & Garden and Interior Design magazines, she is the author of The Art of Tile and has written or contributed to a number of design books.

Arm Candy

2010-06-14T10:11:00.004-04:00

Arm Candy -- Eden is the gorgeous, glamorous muse and lover of abstract painter Otto, who is much older than her. Twenty years ago, she was a struggling model, and she broke her own heart by choosing money and security over her doting boyfriend. Though Otto and Eden have been together since then and have a son, they never married, and Eden turns a blind eye to Otto’s dalliances in exchange for wealth and ease. Now that she is nearly 40, the arrangement doesn’t seem so appealing, and she leaves Otto. Not long after, she meets Chase Lydon, as blue-blooded a New Yorker as they come—and 11 years her junior. She loves the whirlwind new life, but just as their relationship blossoms, Eden’s first love comes back into her life. Eden isn’t sure if it’s her age or her ego, but she knows she is on the cusp of an important choice. Kargman’s third novel is a romance for anyone who has felt that age is just a number.

Update: I LOVED this book but then again, I loved all the others as well. This is a great quick read. I couldn't put it down!

Coco Before Chanel

2010-06-11T09:32:00.000-04:00

Coco Before Chanel -- Before she became Coco, the world-famous fashion designer, Gabrielle Chanel (Audrey Tautou) struggled to make ends meet. After her mother's death, her father deposited her and her sister, Adrienne, at an orphanage, where they learned to sew (and where Chanel developed a taste for monochromatic ensembles). They went on to become cabaret singers, but when Adrienne runs off with a wealthy suitor, the newly christened Coco must go it alone until she meets gentleman farmer Étienne Balsan. She lives comfortably at his chateau, but he refuses to take her out in public, so she puts her skills as a seamstress to good use and designs outfits for his lady friends, like Emilienne, an actress. Chanel's situation improves further when British investor Arthur "Boy" Capel enters the scene. Her working-class origins present less of a problem with Capel, though the couple will have other issues with which to contend. In the meantime, he gives her the money to open her own Parisian studio, and the film ends with the tweed suit-clad Chanel of the popular imagination. Until that time, writer-director Anne Fontaine presents a very different character, a woman who wasn't worldly or sophisticated, but who saw no reason why fashion--or "style," as she called it--should be complicated or uncomfortable. In transforming herself, Coco Chanel transformed an entire industry and, arguably, an entire gender.

Fifth Avenue, 5 A.M.

2010-06-09T13:32:00.001-04:00

Fifth Avenue, 5 A.M.: Audrey Hepburn, Breakfast at Tiffany's, and the Dawn of the Modern Woman -- Audrey Hepburn is an icon like no other, yet the image many of us have of Audrey—dainty, immaculate—is anything but true to life. Here, for the first time, Sam Wasson presents the woman behind the little black dress that rocked the nation in 1961. The first complete account of the making of Breakfast at Tiffany's, Fifth Avenue, 5 A.M. reveals little-known facts about the cinema classic: Truman Capote desperately wanted Marilyn Monroe for the leading role; director Blake Edwards filmed multiple endings; Hepburn herself felt very conflicted about balancing the roles of mother and movie star. With a colorful cast of characters including Truman Capote, Edith Head, Givenchy, "Moon River" composer Henry Mancini, and, of course, Hepburn herself, Wasson immerses us in the America of the late fifties before Woodstock and birth control, when a not-so-virginal girl by the name of Holly Golightly raised eyebrows across the country, changing fashion, film, and sex for good. Indeed, cultural touchstones like Sex and the City owe a debt of gratitude to Breakfast at Tiffany's.

In this meticulously researched gem of a book, Wasson delivers us from the penthouses of the Upper East Side to the pools of Beverly Hills, presenting Breakfast at Tiffany's as we have never seen it before—through the eyes of those who made it. Written with delicious prose and considerable wit, Fifth Avenue, 5 A.M. shines new light on a beloved film and its incomparable star.

Update: See related NY Times article here.

2010-06-09T11:24:00.001-04:00

Confessions of a Prairie Bitch

2010-06-07T09:28:00.000-04:00

Confessions of a Prairie Bitch: How I Survived Nellie Oleson and Learned to Love Being Hated - For seven years, Alison Arngrim played a wretched, scheming, selfish, lying, manipulative brat on one of TV history's most beloved series. Though millions of Little House on the Prairie viewers hated Nellie Oleson and her evil antics, Arngrim grew to love her character—and the freedom and confidence Nellie inspired in her.

In Confessions of a Prairie Bitch, Arngrim describes growing up in Hollywood with her eccentric parents: Thor Arngrim, a talent manager to Liberace and others, whose appetite for publicity was insatiable, and legendary voice actress Norma MacMillan, who played both Gumby and Casper the Friendly Ghost. She recalls her most cherished and often wickedly funny moments behind the scenes of Little House: Michael Landon's "unsaintly" habit of not wearing underwear; how she and Melissa Gilbert (who played her TV nemesis, Laura Ingalls) became best friends and accidentally got drunk on rum cakes at 7-Eleven; and the only time she and Katherine MacGregor (who played Nellie's mom) appeared in public in costume, provoking a posse of elementary schoolgirls to attack them.

Arngrim relays all this and more with biting wit, but she also bravely recounts her life's challenges: her struggle to survive a history of traumatic abuse, depression, and paralyzing shyness; the "secret" her father kept from her for twenty years; and the devastating loss of her "Little House husband" and best friend, Steve Tracy, to AIDS, which inspired her second career in social and political activism. Arngrim describes how Nellie Oleson taught her to be bold, daring, and determined, and how she is eternally grateful to have had the biggest little bitch on the prairie to show her the way.

Real Housewives Get Personal

2010-06-04T09:47:00.000-04:00

Real Housewives Get Personal --The 10 million-plus fans of Bravo's top show The Real Housewives want to know what happens when the cameras aren't rolling. In this behind-the-scenes companion, the women from Orange County, New York, Atlanta, and New Jersey dish on everything from plastic surgery to personal growth and share their top-secret tips on shopping, styling, travel, fitness, and real estate. Candid personal profiles reveal what the ladies really think about the other cast members and provide a backstage view of the show's most priceless moments: Tamra getting Gretchen drunk at her dinner party, the 'retouching incident' between the Countess and Bethenny, Teresa's infamous table-flipping, and many, many more. Brimming with color photos, entertaining tidbits, straight-talking advice, and unforgettable quotes, this book is an absolute must-have, dahling!

Husband and Wife

2010-06-02T13:12:00.000-04:00

Husband and Wife -- In this new novel by the celebrated author of The Myth of You and Me, a young mother discovers that her husband's novel about infidelity might be drawn from real life.

Sarah Price is thirty-five years old. She doesn't feel as though she's getting older, but there are some noticeable changes: a hangover after two beers, the stray gray hair, and, most of all, she's called “Mom” by two small children. Always responsible, Sarah traded her MFA for a steady job, which allows her husband, Nathan, to write fiction. But Sarah is happy and she believes Nathan is too, until a truth is revealed: Nathan's upcoming novel, Infidelity, is based in fact.

Suddenly Sarah's world is turned upside down. Adding to her confusion, Nathan abdicates responsibility for the fate of their relationship and of his novel's publication—a financial lifesaver they have been depending upon—leaving both in Sarah's hands. Reeling from his betrayal, she is plagued by dark questions. How well does she really know Nathan? And, more important, how well does she know herself?

For answers, Sarah looks back to her artistic twenty-something self to try to understand what happened to her dreams. When did it all seem to change? Pushed from her complacent plateau, Sarah begins to act—for the first time not so responsibly—on all the things she has let go of for so long: her blank computer screen; her best friend, Helen; the volumes of Proust on her bookshelf. And then there is that e-mail in her inbox: a note from Rajiv, a beautiful man from her past who once tempted her to stray. The struggle to find which version of herself is the essential one—artist, wife, or mother—takes Sarah hundreds of miles away from her marriage on a surprising journey.

Wise, funny, and sharply drawn, Leah Stewart's Husband and Wife probes our deepest relationships, the promises we make and break, and the consequences they hold for our lives, revealing that it's never too late to step back and start over.

Note: I read The Myth of You and Me. It was awhile ago but I'm pretty sure I liked it. I remember the book jacket!

Beach Week

2010-05-31T09:14:00.000-04:00

Beach Week -- Ah, “beach week”: a time-honored tradition in which the D.C. suburbs’ latest herd of high school grads flocks to Chelsea Beach for seven whole days of debauched celebration. In this dark comedy, ten teenage girls plan an unhinged blowout the likes of which their young lives have never seen. They smuggle vodka in water bottles and horde prescription drugs by the dozen. Meanwhile, their misguided, affluent parents are too busy worrying about legal liabilities to fret over some missing pills or random hookups.

For Jordan McMillan and her family, though, this rite of passage threatens to become more than just frivolous fun. The teen’s parents, Leah and Charles, might not let their only child go at all. Their marriage is in shambles, their old house is languishing on the market, and the bills are stacking up. With all that stress, it soon seems they’re behaving as irresponsibly as their daughter and her friends.

With the wit of Nora Ephron and the insight of Tom Perrotta, Susan Coll satirizes a new teenage rite of passage, in the process dismantling the lives of families in transition. Beach Week is a hilarious, well-observed look at the end of childhood and the human need to commemorate it—expensively.

The Summer We Read Gatsby

2010-05-26T09:06:00.003-04:00

The Summer We Read Gatsby -- Two half-sisters search for the thing of utmost value in an inherited ramshackle Southampton cottage in Ganek's witty new novel (after Lulu Meets God and Doubts Him). The story is narrated by introverted, newly divorced, would-be writer Cassie, but the flamboyant center of the story is her older half-sister, Peck, a theatrical socialite determined to bring out her sister while thwarting Cassie's sensible plan to sell Fool's House, the cottage they've jointly inherited from their eccentric aunt Lydia. As they wonder whether the house's treasure is a Jackson Pollock painting, a first edition of The Great Gatsby, or a family secret, the sisters' contrasting personalities clash in hilarious ways. During a summer marked by parties that recall both the artsy milieu of Pollock and the posh extravagance of Gatsby, the two sisters run into long-lost loves, strange neighbors, aggressive real estate agents, and charming artist hangers-on as they ponder the legacy of their beloved Aunt Lydia and their relationship to each other. Even though many of the novel's revelations can be seen a mile away, getting there is a fun, witty, and surprisingly moving trip.

Note: I read Lulu Meets God and Doubts Him when it was first published and LOVED it. I can't wait to read this one!

Update: As I predicted, I loved this book. It's a great, fun summer read especially if you are familiar with the Hamptons!

Imperial Bedrooms

2010-05-05T09:06:00.001-04:00

Finally, the long-awaited follow-up to Less Than Zero (which happens to be one of my favorite movies)...Imperial Bedrooms will be released at the end of June...Bret Easton Ellis’s debut, Less Than Zero, is one of the signal novels of the last thirty years, and he now follows those infamous teenagers into an even more desperate middle age.

Clay, a successful screenwriter, has returned from New York to Los Angeles to help cast his new movie, and he’s soon drifting through a long-familiar circle. Blair, his former girlfriend, is married to Trent, an influential manager who’s still a bisexual philanderer, and their Beverly Hills parties attract various levels of fame, fortune and power. Then there’s Clay’s childhood friend Julian, a recovering addict, and their old dealer, Rip, face-lifted beyond recognition and seemingly even more sinister than in his notorious past.

But Clay’s own demons emerge once he meets a gorgeous young actress determined to win a role in his movie. And when his life careens completely out of control, he has no choice but to plumb the darkest recesses of his character and come to terms with his proclivity for betrayal.

P.S. I don't care what the reviews are for this book. I've read every B.E.E. book and I'll read this one too.

Update: I finished this book in two or three sittings. This is classic Bret Easton Ellis and I really enjoyed it. It's a quick read but I recommend re-reading or watching Less Than Zero as a refresher beforehand if you aren't familiar with the characters since this is considered the sequel.

A Desirable Residence

2010-05-03T08:40:00.001-04:00

A Desirable Residence -- Chick lit superstar Wickham is in stellar form in her latest, a story of intersecting fates set in suburban London. Self-centered Liz Chambers, bored with her job and under a mountain of debt, frequently lashes out at her even-tempered husband, Jonathan, and begins an affair withA wealthy realtor Marcus Witherstone, who proposes that Liz and Jonathan rent their unsold house to a young couple, Ginny and Piers Prentice, with whom Liz and Jonathan's sullen teenage daughter, Alice, strikes up an unexpected friendship. Ginny, meanwhile, pins her hopes on would-be actor Piers getting a part in a soap opera, and Jonathan is put on a pedestal by Marcus's wife, Anthea. Marcus begins regretting a shady business deal that could land him in huge trouble, and as Liz grows more delusional, Ginny becomes more worried and desperate, and Anthea more unforgiving and relentless. It all comes to a head at a party Ginny throws on the eve of Piers's big audition. A well-executed and unexpected ending caps the dizzying action and demonstrates why Wickham is so deservedly on her genre's A-list.

The Heights

2010-04-30T09:10:00.000-04:00

The Heights - Hedges's first novel in more than a decade reads a lot like Tom Perrotta minus the satire or Jonathan Tropper with less humor, but Hedges's excellent characterization and writing render it a worthy outing. Tim Welch and Kate Oliver are happily married, living the urban dream in Brooklyn Heights, until the wealthy and beautiful Anna Brody moves in nearby, forcing them to question if happiness is enough. Anna's arrival coincides with the forced retirement of Tim's father, a celebrated women's basketball coach, due to a sexual scandal; a lucrative job for Kate; and the reappearance of Kate's former love, now a television star. And while the entire neighborhood is fascinated with Anna, it's Tim and Kate she pulls into her orbit—intent on taking Tim as a lover—causing the seams of their marriage to fray and forcing them into situations they never would have predicted for themselves, even if the reader isn't exactly surprised at how things play out. The plot tends toward busy, but Hedges (What's Eating Gilbert Grape) keeps it under control, his sympathetically real characters holding down the novel's solid center.

NY Times book review is here.

The Swimming Pool

2010-04-28T09:04:00.001-04:00

The Swimming Pool - I've had this one on my radar for awhile. Looks like great summer reading although I'm not waiting and starting it now. I will report back when I'm finished!

NY Times Book Review is here and I was laughing out loud reading it - always a good sign.

The Kentucky Derby

2010-04-27T14:29:00.003-04:00

The Kentucky Derby: 101 Reasons to Love America's Favorite Horse Race - Long shots and closers. Secretariat, War Admiral, Citation, and Seattle Slew. The astonishing ride of Mine That Bird. The lovable spirit of Smarty Jones. Trainers and owners. A sea of spectacular hats. A classic mint julep in a silver cup. The break from the gate. Photo finishes. Holding the winning ticket. These are only a few of the things that make the Kentucky Derby the most exciting two minutes in sports.

The Kentucky Derby offers a compendium of the legendary horses and rich history, the personalities, and the real-life experience of Derby Day from the backstretch to the winner’s circle. With colorful anecdotes and striking photography, Sheri Seggerman and Mary Tiegreen have captured the rivalries, fanfare, and unpredictability that give the Run for the Roses its allure. The third title in a series that celebrates the nation’s most iconic sporting events, The Kentucky Derby captures the pageantry and the passion of this great American race.

Angel Face*

2010-04-26T09:10:00.001-04:00

Angel Face: The True Story of Student Killer Amanda Knox - Despite all the airtime devoted to Amanda Knox, it’s still hard to reconcile the fresh-faced honor student from Seattle with the sexually rapacious killer convicted of the November 2007 murder of her British roommate. Few Americans have heard all of the powerful evidence that convinced a jury that Knox was one of three people to sexually assault Meredith Kercher, brutalize her body, and cut her throat. In Angel Face, Rome-based Daily Beast senior writer Barbie Latza Nadeau – who cultivated personal relationships with the key figures in both the prosecution and the defense – describes how the Knox family’s heavy-handed efforts to control media coverage distorted the facts, inflamed an American audience, and painted an offensive, inaccurate picture of Italy’s justice system. An eye-opener for any parent considering sending a child away to study, Angel Face reveals what really went on in this incomprehensible crime.

*I read this book over the weekend - very quick read. I'd give it a B+. Really interesting if you followed the case even a little bit.

Dead End Gene Pool

2010-04-23T08:15:00.000-04:00

Dead End Gene Pool: A Memoir -- In the tradition of Sean Wilsey's Oh The Glory of It All and Augusten Burrough's Running With Scissors, the great-great-great granddaughter of Cornelius Vanderbilt gives readers a grand tour of the world of wealth and WASPish peculiarity, in her irreverent and darkly humorous memoir.

For generations the Burdens were one of the wealthiest families in New York, thanks to the inherited fortune of Cornelius "The Commodore" Vanderbilt. By 1955, the year of Wendy's birth, the Burden's had become a clan of overfunded, quirky and brainy, steadfastly chauvinistic, and ultimately doomed bluebloods on the verge of financial and moral decline-and were rarely seen not holding a drink. In Dead End Gene Pool, Wendy invites readers to meet her tragically flawed family, including an uncle with a fondness for Hitler, a grandfather who believes you can never have enough household staff, and a remarkably flatulent grandmother.

At the heart of the story is Wendy's glamorous and aloof mother who, after her husband's suicide, travels the world in search of the perfect sea and ski tan, leaving her three children in the care of a chain- smoking Scottish nanny, Fifth Avenue grandparents, and an assorted cast of long-suffering household servants (who Wendy and her brothers love to terrorize). Rife with humor, heartbreak, family intrigue, and booze, Dead End Gene Pool offers a glimpse into the fascinating world of old money and gives truth to an old maxim: The rich are different.

Rooms for Children

2010-04-06T08:32:00.000-04:00

Room For Children: Stylish Spaces for Sleep and Play - The first book to present excellent design for children’s rooms, these unique spaces are created by well-known designers, parents, and often even the kids themselves.

Proving that good design is not just for the rest of the house, Room for Children takes children’s spaces with creative seriousness. Whether for a newborn, toddler, or teenager, the rooms shown here enrich the experience of childhood while inspiring with their imaginative design. Showcasing work by top-notch designers, including Kelly Wearstler, Charlotte Moss, Alessandra Branca, Amanda Nisbet, and Thomas Jayne, among many others, the rooms offer a diversity of styles, from traditional to modern, formal to whimsical. Whether in apartments, houses, or country homes, for a single child or for several children, each creates a vision of childhood at its best. In addition to bedrooms, children’s spaces devoted specifically to work or play areas illustrate clever solutions to typical design problems. With stunning photography by top interior photographers, such as Pieter Estersohn, Paul Costello, William Abranowicz, and Melanie Avecedo, Room for Children proves that children’s rooms are a new frontier in design and is sure to appeal to designers as well as kids and their parents.
Biography

Susanna Salk is the author of Weekend Retreats and a contributing editor for Bon Appetit magazine, 1stdibs.com, and ivillage.com. Kelly Wearstler is a renowned interior designer and author of several books.

Beach: A Book of Treasures

2010-04-01T08:00:00.000-04:00

Beach: A Book of Treasures -- Beloved author Josie Iselin's collaged images of the treasures we live with as reminders of the beach—from sea glass to driftwood, shells to stones—evoke the timeless elements of sand, ocean, and refreshing sea air. In her writings, Iselin shares thoughts on the varied ways we experience the beach while also providing fascinating insights into the scientific ecosystem of the ocean, such as how the oyster constructs its shell and the ways in which algae is classified. At once an exploration and a meditation, Beach: A Book of Treasure will delight and inspire anyone who values the unique environment of the seashore and the myriad wonders found therein.

San Francisco-based artist Josie Iselin has exhibited her work at several coveted art spaces, including the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts and SF Camerawork, among others. She uses a flatbed scanner to create her still life imagery.

Confessions of a Rebel Debutante

2010-03-26T09:00:00.000-04:00

Confessions of a Rebel Debutante -- A delicious, laugh-out-loud funny Southern-fried memoir about growing up a "proper young lady"...or not.

A strict regimen of Southern-belle grooming should have prepared Anna Fields for a lifetime of ladylike behavior.

But it didn't.

As it turned out, Anna-a smart, outspoken, bookish girl- was a dud at debbing. After being kicked out of cotillion classes, the "Rebel Deb" left North Carolina to seek her fortune. Her first stop was Brown University-right in the heart of Yankee-land-and then the crazy world of Hollywood talent agencies and celebrity-packed restaurants. After a disastrous stint as Diana Ross's personal assistant, Anna headed off to the Big Apple, where she worked for one of Bravo's Real Housewives. It's a rollicking, unlikely success story from a natural-born storyteller.

Sharp, sweet, and sassy, Confessions of a Rebel Debutante proves you can take the girl out of the South, but you can't take the South out of the girl!

The Best of Friends: Martha and Me

2010-03-24T08:00:00.001-04:00

Totally reading this after I finish what I'm currently reading...will be great for vacation in a couple weeks and it's available on the Kindle!

The Best of Friends: Martha and Me -- Set in a world of luxury and power, this is the story of two remarkable women and a friendship that changed both their lives forever.

For more than two decades, Mariana Pasternak and Martha Stewart were nearly inseparable. They first met over a garden gate in Westport, Connecticut, two suburban wives wedded to successful men but with grand aspirations of their own. Their bond only deepened after their marriages ended in divorce. Struggling as a single mother, but drawn into a seductive world of privilege and adventure, Pasternak watched with admiration as her friend built an empire that would make her one of the richest women in America.

A European ÉmigrÉ with sophisticated tastes, Pasternak helped to smooth Stewart's rough edges, while Stewart drew Pasternak into a rarefied world, where together they navigated the sometimes hilarious and often difficult challenges of being single. The depth of their friendship not only benefited them both but also influenced how they defined themselves, through good times and bad. Friendship between women is never simple and this one was no exception.

With Stewart's newfound success and Pasternak's zest for adventure, the two women's friendship was based on their mutual quest for wonder and discovery. They rode horses through the desert dunes of Egypt, hiked the winding Inca Trail to the mysterious Machu Picchu, paddled at night in dugout canoes through the Amazonian jungle. They toasted the good life with thin-stemmed champagne glasses and sipped “jade dew" green tea in Martha's Turkey Hill kitchen. This was no ordinary life.

As time passed, money, men, and the arrogance of wealth frayed the bonds they had built so carefully over more than twenty years. The final break came when Pasternak was called as a witness in the high-profile trial that brought about Stewart's conviction and prison sentence. Pasternak's deeply personal memoir tells the story of their friendship with honesty and candor, reflecting on the power of such intense relationships to change our lives, and the devastating aftermath when those relationships end.

Liz Claiborne

2010-03-22T09:30:00.001-04:00

Liz Claiborne: The Legend, The Woman

Mrs. Darcy and the Blue-Eyed Stranger

2010-03-22T08:47:00.002-04:00

Mrs. Darcy and the Blue-Eyed Stranger -- A celebrated novelist, Lee Smith is likewise recognized as a master of the short story and has been compared with such luminaries as Katherine Ann Porter, Eudora Welty, and Flannery O’Connor. Now she collects fourteen stories—seven brand-new ones along with seven favorites from her three earlier collections. The result? A book of dazzling richness.

Famous for unmistakable voices and a craft so strong and sure it seems effortless, Lee Smith’s stories strike dead center at the turning points of her characters’ lives. Here those characters range from an eight-year-old boy obsessed with vocabulary words to a young bride who has married "way up" to Mrs. Darcy herself, an older woman making it through widowhood her own way. As the New York Times Book Review put it, "In almost every one of [her stories] there is a moment of vision, or love, or unclothed wonder that transforms something plain into something transcendent."

With this collection—her first in thirteen years—Smith reclaims her place as the reigning queen of the bittersweet short story.

True Prep: The Preppy Handbook Sequel

2010-03-10T15:23:00.003-05:00

It's about time! Pre-order True Prep: It's a Whole New Old World now, it will be released August 10th!

From the author of The Official Preppy Handbook comes a new take on the old world that Lisa Birnbach turned into an international best-selling phenomenon thirty years ago.

True Prep looks at how the old guard of natural-fiber-loving, dog-worshipping, G&T-soaked preppies adapts to the new order of the Internet, cell phones, rehab, political correctness, reality TV and . . . polar fleece.

A small sample:

• Wardrobe: Recent prep brands we are forced to recognize. How to tell Casual Friday from, say, Saturday.
• Money: We never talk about it.
• Food: Does the Food Network mean we’re going to have to cook? Bake? Now you’re going too far.
• Scandals: Poor Mrs. Astor. When Mummy’s plastic surgery goes terribly wrong. Rehab and the slammer: the new prep schools.
• We’re outta here: When to name something after yourself, and when not. The right obituary. What to do with your dogs if you predecease them.
• NO TEXTING AT THE TABLE, PLEASE.

True Prep promises to be a whole new old sensation.

Take Ivy (Re-Issue)

2010-03-05T14:24:00.004-05:00

Preppy style — otherwise known as "trad" — has been having a major menswear moment, thanks to designers like Michael Bastian and a host of Web sites celebrating the blazer-and-button-down look of the 1950s and '60s. Behind the renewed interest is a cultish book called Take Ivy, a collection of photographs taken at Ivy League campuses first published in Japan in 1965 but rarely available in the U.S. (copies have sold for upwards of $1,500 on eBay). We've just heard that Take Ivy will be reissued in August by powerHouse Books with an English translation and a far more affordable price tag, leaving plenty to splurge on a $600 pair of Michael Bastian shorts. {via W Mag}

Even though the book will not be released until August, you can pre-order now via Amazon.

Someone Will Be with You Shortly by Lisa Kogan: Book Cover * Someone Will Be with You Shortly: Notes from a Perfectly Imperfect Life

2010-03-02T07:41:00.001-05:00

Someone Will Be with You Shortly: Notes from a Perfectly Imperfect Life-- Lisa Kogan is a forty-nine-year-old single woman who maintains that every human being deserves a great mattress, a comfortable pair of shoes, and a very smart shrink, and that no one has grown a decent tomato since 1963. She used to think the world wasn't all that complicated, but along came AIDS and crack and Rush Limbaugh, and she had to think again. Still, she's nostalgic for that time when you had to walk all the way across the room to change channels and there was no such thing as a spy satellite capable of spotting a precancerous mole on her left thigh.

In Someone Will Be with You Shortly, Kogan grapples with issues big (her six-year-old daughter, Julia, and the 8,000 miles that separate them from Julia's father) and small (her recent apartment renovation, which consisted of turning over the sofa cushions and then realizing that they looked better the other way) with the self-deprecating humor and deep appreciation for what really matters that have made her column in O, The Oprah Magazine so beloved. Here is a book for anyone who has ever been unnerved by pleather pants, lunch meat, or ambivalent men (not necessarily in that order), but believes that life is a fragile bit of luck well worth living.

Yves Saint Laurent

2010-03-01T06:00:00.001-05:00

Yves Saint Laurent -- One of the most distinctive and influential designers of the second half of the twentieth century, Yves Saint Laurent takes his place in the pantheon of French couturiers, alongside Coco Chanel, Christian Dior, and Jeanne Lanvin. Yves Saint Laurent, the first comprehensive retrospective of his life’s work, will accompany an exhibition of some 250 garments from the collection of the Fondation Pierre Bergé–Yves Saint Laurent at the Petit Palais in Paris.

From his early days working under Dior and heading the House of Dior after his mentor’s death, to the opening of his first prêt a porter shop on the Rive Gauche and the debut of the Le Smoking tuxedo, to the muses he adored, Loulou de la Falaise and Catherine Deneuve among them, this volume reveals the breadth and scope of the designer’s entire career. With a preface by Pierre Bergé, author Faride Chenoune explores the sources of inspiration that drove Saint Laurent’s continuous innovation, drawing upon painting, sculpture, theater, opera, literature, and cinema.

The September Issue

2010-02-26T10:00:00.000-05:00

I do most of my book/dvd shopping through Amazon but in this case I purchased from Barnes & Noble because they were offering an extra disc with footage from the Metropolitan Museum of Art Costume Gala. If you are any sort of fashion follower, this is a must see. I happened to see it in the theater and as soon as I did, I knew I was pre-ordering the DVD. It's fabulous! Of course I'm now kicking myself that I tossed my September 2007 issue of Vogue. I just don't have the room for all those heavy magazines in addition to all my books - something has to give.

The Catwalk Cats

2010-02-25T14:00:00.006-05:00

This is not a "new" book but I was watching "The September Issue" last night and was reminded of Grace's great drawings.

Grace Coddington & Didier Malige: The Catwalk Cats -- For more than 20 years, the fashion powerhouses Grace Coddington and Didier Malige have lived together with a menagerie of incorrigible cats. This delightful, giftworthy book records their relationship through photographs (Malige's) and drawings (Coddington's) that document the couple's highly entertaining private and work lives through the eyes of their feline friends. These include Henri, an old-school, catnip-addicted, surfing chartreuse; his sister Coco, a couture-obsessed chartreuse on a sashimi diet; and her pal Baby, who doesn't quite share Coco's discipline, and will, sadly, never fit into a sample size. Then there's Puff, a mixed-up long-hair from Harlem whose curiosity--anyone for fortune-telling at Dave?--hasn't killed him yet; and finally Bart, the Persian youngster who would rather sit on the rooftop terrace than in the front row. The Catwalk Cats, a visual diary introduced by the irrepressible Puff, gives us a window into four madcap seasons in the life of this fabulous furry brigade, with sections devoted to the Collections, the Campaigns, and, of course, the Catfights. At once delightful and dishy, it is both a convincing argument for the fundamental similarities between felines and fashionistas and a moving meditation on love and life as a family.

The Bag Lady Papers

2010-02-16T08:00:00.000-05:00

The Bag Lady Papers: The Priceless Experience of Losing It All -- A victim of Bernie Madoff's ponzi scheme, mom and former Self magazine editor-in-chief Penney, hyperventilates her way through this intriguing memoir of putting it back together. Finding herself almost entirely without money, Penney faces the unexpected need to retrench with a daunting sense of paranoia; brought up by aloof parents, Penney lived for a long time with a chronic, seemingly irrational fear of becoming a destitute bag lady. As a "Person of Reduced Circumstances", Penney bolsters herself with chin-up wisdom ("unless you've been mummified, you have choices and alternatives") and bravely vows to apply her own nail polish while eulogizing her days as an expensively-dressed editrix at Conde Nast. While she ponders lists labeled "money can still buy" and "money can't buy," a collection of well-heeled and influential friends encourage her with quotes from Emerson, invitations to the Caribbean and tax advice. With considerations like, "Is it worse to have had money and lost it? Or is it worse to never have had money at all?" Penney can be an (admittedly) unsympathetic protagonist, but her struggle is genuine, her charm expansive and surprising, and her strength winning.

Note: This title is available on the Kindle.

Perfect on Paper

2010-02-12T08:00:00.000-05:00

Perfect on Paper: The (Mis)Adventures of Waverly Bryson-- Waverly Bryson is a late-20s successful businesswoman who almost has it all: dream job in Sports PR, two best friends, and a bar where everybody knows her name. What she doesn't have is a ring on her finger, and after being left at the altar, she's in no hurry. Besides, she has plenty of other issues to tackle, including her wayward father, a new rival at work, and an ever-shrinking amount of personal time. To keep sane, Waverly makes a habit of jotting down "Honey Notes," her own brand of self-deprecating wisdom and pipe-dream for a line of greeting cards.

As Waverly stumbles back into the dating scene (no stalkers or jean shorts, please), her personal and professional lives threaten to collide. Perfect on Paper reminds readers that everyone has a bad date (or twelve), and that everyone needs a best friend to tell them, “Honey, you are not alone."

About the author: Maria Murnane is currently an independent marketing writer, residing in New York City. She spent several years in San Francisco as an agent in sports PR, before quitting her job to pursue her passions in life: writing and soccer. She ended up in Argentina where she played semi-pro soccer and wrote the first draft of Perfect on Paper.

If You Have to Cry, Go Outside: And Other Things Your Mother Never Told You

2010-02-11T12:14:00.004-05:00

If You Have to Cry, Go Outside: And Other Things Your Mother Never Told You-- Kelly Cutrone, the brash, brutally honest boss and mentor to Whitney and Lauren on the hit MTV series “The Hills” and “The City,” and star of Bravo's new "Kell on Earth," combines personal and professional stories to share her secrets for success without selling out.

Kelly Cutrone has long been mentoring women on how to make it in one of the most competitive industries in the world. She has kicked people out of fashion shows, forced some of reality television's shiny stars to fire their friends, and built her own company—one of the most powerful PR firms in the fashion business—from the ground up. Through it all, she has refused to be anything but herself.

Kelly writes in her trademark, no-bullshit style, combining personal and professional stories to share her secrets for success without selling out. Let's face it: this is a different world than the one in which our mothers grew up, and Kelly has created a real girl's guide to making it in today's world. Offering a wake-up call to women everywhere, she challenges us to stop the dogged pursuit of the “perfect life” and discover who we are and what we really want. Then she shows us how to go out there and get it. Much of our culture teaches us to muzzle our inner voice and follow the crowd; Kelly enables us to stop pretending and start truly living.

With chapters on how to find your tribe (those like-minded souls who make your heart sing), how sometimes a breakdown is really a breakthrough, and how there is no such thing as perfection, Kelly also shares practical advice, such as how to create a personal brand and how sometimes you have to fake it to make it.

Raw, hilarious, shocking, but always the honest truth, If You Have to Cry, Go Outside calls upon you to gather up your courage like an armful of clothes at a McQueen sample sale and follow your soul wherever it takes you. Whether you're just starting out in the world or looking to reinvent yourself, If You Have to Cry, Go Outside will be the spark you need to figure out what you have to say to the world—and how you're going to say it.

*I just started this book - so far, so good. I will update with my rating when I'm finished!*

Lunch in Paris: A Love Story, with Recipes

2010-02-10T07:40:00.000-05:00

Lunch in Paris: A Love Story, with Recipes -- In this pleasant memoir about learning to live and eat à la française, an American journalist married to a Frenchman inspires lessons in culinary détente. Bard was working as a journalist in London and possessed of the wonderful puppy-dog enthusiasm of young Americans when she first met her husband-to-be, Gwendal, a computer engineer from Brittany. Soon he had the foresight to put her name on the gas bill of his Parisian apartment in the 10th arrondissement, and they were destined to marry—and cook together. Her memoir is really a celebration of the culinary season as it unfolded in their young lives together: recipes for seduction (onion and bacon); getting serious over andouillette; learning to buy what's fresh at the Parisian markets (four and a half pounds of figs); surviving a long, cold winter in an unheated apartment; and warming up their visiting parents over profiteroles. Bard throws in some American recipes that feel like home, such as noodle pudding, and comforting soups for a winter's grieving over the death of the father-in-law. Bard carefully observes the eating habits of her impossibly slender mother-in-law for tips to staying slim (lots of water and no snacking). Bard keeps an eye to healthful ingredients (Three Fabulous Solo Lunches), and, as a Jewish New Yorker, even prepares a Passover seder in Paris, in this work that manages to be both sensuous and informative.

More Than A Housewife

2010-02-09T16:15:00.002-05:00

Vicki has always been my favorite housewife AND she's the only one that has been on since the original season! And after reading the book I can see why. Although you may find Vicki loud and annoying at times she is obviously the most real out of any of the cast members. As I believe she pointed out this season, she's the only one who isn't hurting financially. She has a job. Her home isn't in foreclosure. She works hard and her family seems to appreciate her. Her kids don't walk all over her like Lynne's! This season we saw Vicki and Donn rekindle their relationship. And if you read the book you will have a new appreciation for not only Vicki but Donn as well.

The book is divided into 4 basic parts: her life growing up, starting her business, advice on starting a business, and her role on RHOC. She also has a Q&A section near the end which was taken from her Facebook page but is redundant since she's already answered all the questions by that point. It's all very interesting. She talks a lot about how she got into the insurance business after getting a divorce from her first husband then moving to California with Donn. She's an inspiration and you can see how driven she is on the show but she says you get 10 mins of her per episode so you're not really getting the full Vicki. She doesn't talk extensively about the show but says she's learned a lot (like how she treated Donn) and explains how and why. Again, it's reality tv and creative editing accounts for much of what we see. I don't want to give too much away...you can skip or skim over her parts on the insurance business unless you are looking to start a business of any kind. The advice seemed good and she obviously knows what she's doing or wouldn't be so successful.

You can visit the website for the book here.

Out of 5 stars I'd give it 4 stars!

Brava, Valentine

2010-02-09T07:37:00.000-05:00

Brava, Valentine: Trigiani's sequel to Very Valentine is a sweet second act for shoemaker and designer Valentine Roncalli. Val takes over the New York family-run shoe business with feet-of-clay older brother, Alfred; falls for the dashing, older Gianluca in Italy; and takes a business risk in South America, where she unearths a dusty chapter of family history. There are plenty of picturesque globe-trotting adventures in Tuscany, Manhattan, and Buenos Aires, and, for artistic and independent Val, a grown-up commitment evolves. There is no art without love. Only love can open someone up to the possibilities of living and creating art, Val writes to the wary Gianluca. And the startling twist of family history finally challenges an old-fashioned, insular clan to join the modern world. But it's always the endearing, unnerving and rowdy Roncallis who steal the show. Look for a heartbreaking exit of one beloved character, and a cliffhanger breakup in this charming valentine to love, forgiveness, and family.

Model Home

2010-02-08T09:00:00.000-05:00

Model Home -- Warren Ziller moved his family to California in search of a charmed life, and to all appearances, he found it: a gated community not far from the beach, amid the affluent splendor of Southern California in the 1980s. But his American dream has been rudely interrupted. Despite their affection for one another — the "slow, jokey, unrehearsed vaudeville" they share at home — Warren; his wife, Camille; and their three children have veered into separate lives, as distant as satellites. Worst of all, Warren has squandered the family's money on a failing real estate venture.

As Warren desperately tries to conceal his mistake, his family begins to sow deceptions of their own. Camille attributes Warren's erratic behavior to an affair and plots her secret revenge; seventeen-year-old Dustin falls for his girlfriend's troubled younger sister; teen misanthrope Lyle begins sleeping with a security guard who works at the gatehouse; and eleven-year-old Jonas becomes strangely obsessed with a kidnapped girl.

When tragedy strikes, the Zillers are forced to move into one of the houses in Warren's abandoned development in the middle of the desert. Marooned in a less-than-model home, each must reckon with what's led them there and who's to blame — and whether they can summon the forgiveness needed to hold the family together. Subtly ambitious, brimming with the humor and unpredictability of life, Model Home delivers penetrating insights into the American family and into the imperfect ways we try to connect, from a writer "uncannily in tune with the heartbreak and absurdity of domestic life" (via the Los Angeles Times).

Very Valentine

2010-02-03T07:33:00.000-05:00

Very Valentine -- Meet the Roncalli and Angelini families, a vibrant cast of colorful characters who navigate tricky family dynamics with hilarity and brio, from magical Manhattan to the picturesque hills of bella Italia. Very Valentine is the first novel in a trilogy and is sure to be the new favorite of Trigiani's millions of fans around the world.

In this luscious, contemporary family saga, the Angelini Shoe Company, makers of exquisite wedding shoes since 1903, is one of the last family-owned businesses in Greenwich Village. The company is on the verge of financial collapse. It falls to thirty-three-year-old Valentine Roncalli, the talented and determined apprentice to her grandmother, the master artisan Teodora Angelini, to bring the family's old-world craftsmanship into the twenty-first century and save the company from ruin.

While juggling a budding romance with dashing chef Roman Falconi, her duty to her family, and a design challenge presented by a prestigious department store, Valentine returns to Italy with her grandmother to learn new techniques and seek one-of-a-kind materials for building a pair of glorious shoes to beat their rivals. There, in Tuscany, Naples, and on the Isle of Capri, a family secret is revealed as Valentine discovers her artistic voice and much more, turning her life and the family business upside down in ways she never expected. Very Valentine is a sumptuous treat, a journey of dreams fulfilled, a celebration of love and loss filled with Trigiani's trademark heart and humor.

Snapped

2010-02-02T08:30:00.000-05:00

Snapped

Sara B. is losing her cool.

Not just in the momentary-meltdown kind of way—though there's that, too. At the helm of must-read Snap magazine, veteran style guru Sara B. has had the job—and joy—for the past fifteen years of eviscerating the city's fashion victims in her legendary DOs and DON'Ts photo spread.

But now on the unhip edge of forty, with ambitious hipster kids reinventing the style world, Sara's being spit out like an old Polaroid picture: blurry, undeveloped and obsolete.

Fueled by alcohol, nicotine and self-loathing, Sara launches into a cringeworthy but often comic series of blowups—personal, professional and private—that culminate in an epiphany. That she, the arbiter of taste, has made her living by cutting people down…and somehow she's got to make amends.

Notorious Royal Marriages

2010-02-01T08:30:00.002-05:00

Notorious Royal Marriages: A Juicy Journey Through Nine Centuries of Dynasty, Destiny, and Desire-- A funny, raucous, and delightfully dirty 900-year history of the royal marriages of Europe's most famous-and infamous-monarchs.

Since time immemorial, royal marriages have had little to do with love- and almost everything to do with diplomacy and dynasty. Clashing personalities have joined in unholy matrimony to form such infamous couples as Russia's Peter II and Catherine the Great, and France's Henri II and Catherine de Medici-all with the purpose of begetting a male heir. But with tensions high and silverware flying, kings like England's Henry II have fled to the beds of their nubile mistresses, while queens such as Eleanor of Aquitaine have plotted their revenge...

Full of the juicy gossip and bad behavior that characterized Royal Affairs, this book chronicles the love-hate marriages of the crowned heads of Europe and ponders how dynasties ever survived at all.

Sweet Little Lies

2010-01-30T09:15:00.003-05:00

Sweet Little Lies

How Sweet it is?

Jane Roberts was the average girl next door until she and her best friend, Scarlett Harp, landed their own reality show, L.A. Candy. Now the girls have an all-access pass to Hollywood's hottest everything. But there's more to life on camera than just parties and shopping. . . .

When racy photos of Jane are leaked to the press, she finds herself at the center of a tabloid scandal. She turns to her co-star Madison Parker for help, unaware that Madison is scheming behind the scenes. She might be Jane's shoulder to cry on, but does Madison really have Jane's back?

Scarlett's working on a scandal of her own. She's fallen for someone who's strictly off-limits—which means Scarlett has a big secret to keep . . . from the L.A. Candy cameras, the paparazzi staking out her apartment, even from her best friend.

Of course, nothing stays secret for long for the stars of the newest hit TV series, and all this drama couldn't be better for ratings. But can Jane survive another season in the spotlight?

In television star Lauren Conrad's dishy, entertaining novel about young Hollywood, the lies are only as sweet as the people telling them.

I read the first book L.A. Candy and will probably read this one too! It was a fluffy and fast read.

‘Auntie Mame’ Prevails as Improbable Best Seller in Italian Market

2010-01-29T11:14:00.001-05:00

From the NYTimes:

It’s been an unlikely best seller. First published 55 years ago in the United States, where it spawned a hit Broadway show and two movie adaptations, Patrick Dennis’s “Auntie Mame” has recently gained footing in the Italian literary firmament, becoming last year’s surprise hit.

Even after 15 reprints and sales of 280,000 copies since May (30,000 during the pre-Christmas rush), publishing pundits are still puzzling over the book’s popularity.

Perhaps no one is more surprised here than the book’s Italian publisher, Adelphi.

“We’re completely mystified,” said Matteo Codignola, the Adelphi editor who translated the novel. “We thought it would appeal to a certain kind of public, but we didn’t expect this.” On Sunday the novel ranked at 12 on the foreign fiction list of the Milan daily Corriere della Sera. For many weeks last year it topped the general fiction list.

But in Italy, in fact, humorous books rarely make it onto the best-seller list.

“Being funny is not a compliment in Italy,” said Mr. Codignola. “Humor is seen as having little to do with life or death or astrophysics.”

Why a witty Depression era novel about a glamorous, free-spirited Manhattan socialite who teaches her orphaned nephew to live life to the fullest would touch a chord with Italians has been the matter of some debate in the national press.

“We ask ourselves why did this book have success in Italy, in 2009, when Auntie Mames have become nightmarish showgirls and female escorts, or business women without any sort of humor, charm or grace,” the literary critic Goffredo Fofi wrote in the Catholic daily L’Avvenire, in a bleak assessment of the female condition in Italy today. “Is it because we all sense this great need for likeable and non-conformist aunts and uncles in the face of the current conformism of vulgarity?” Or is the opposite true, “that the success of Auntie Mame is part of the great collective lie of national likeableness that Italians recite every day,” Mr. Fofi asked.

Others posited that in the midst of an economic crisis that has prompted comparisons with the Great Depression, a comic novel about a woman who triumphs over a financially adverse situation was sure to draw readers.

A headline about the book in Corriere della Sera read: “Laughter will save us from the crisis.”

The editorial alchemy that produces a best seller out of the thousands published each year has no real explanation. “Auntie Mame” had two previous Italian editions — in 1956 and in 1965 — that sold well enough but were not best sellers, Mr. Codignola said.

What may have helped bolster the book’s fortunes this time around is the fact that Adelphi has a highbrow — even snobby — cachet.

“It became a question of fashion and status symbol, granting readers of this undemanding book access to what is considered the stronghold of the Italian intelligentsia,” said Stefano Salis, who covers publishing for the economic daily Il Sole 24 Ore.

“It became very cool to have the book in your hands,” Mr. Salis said, adding that Adelphi cleverly upped the chic factor by choosing a stylish pink cover. Once the novel became fashionable — especially among women — he said, “You felt obliged to buy it.”

Mr. Salis said he doubted the novel would have been as popular had it been in the catalogue of a more mainstream publisher.

In one of the few critiques of the book, the editorialist Gad Lerner chastised Adelphi for affixing its “undisputable seal of approval” on the novel. Conscious that the Adelphi brand “ennobles everything it publishes,” Mr. Lerner accused Roberto Calasso, the director of Adelphi Edizioni, of taking advantage of this position to “propose a piece of nonsense like ‘Auntie Mame.’ ”

It is not a good sign of the times that Auntie Mame, “a feel-good farce that sold two million copies to traditionalist Americans of a long-ago conformist era has become the fashionable book of Italy in 2009, ” Mr. Lerner wrote. “I hope that if nothing else, the chic editor reinvests profits in more daring publications.”

Indeed when it first hit bookstores in 1955, Auntie Mame stayed on the best-seller list for more than 100 weeks. Though the author is listed as Patrick Dennis, who happens to be the protagonist, it was actually penned by Edward Everett Tanner III, an idiosyncratic social observer and satirist who wrote under several pseudonyms.

Mr. Tanner lived large. Born in Chicago in 1921, he served in World War II, married and had children but eventually left his wife after acknowledging his bisexuality. He wrote novels, traveled, moved to Mexico City, and spent the final period of his out-of-the-ordinary life in Palm Beach, where he worked as a butler. He died in 1976.

In the intervening decades, Mr. Tanner was “unjustly forgotten,” said Mr. Codignola. “He was courageous and authentic, and tried to do different things from the usual minestrone.”

Auntie Mame was his most successful book, and it translated well to the stage and screen too. Celebrated Hollywood Mames of the past include Rosalind Russell, Angela Lansbury, Ethel Merman and Christine Baraski.

Now an Italian version may be in the making.

After reading the book, “because it was the summer phenomenon,” the Italian director Luca Guadagnino, best known for his 2005 film “Melissa P,” set his heart on a film remake that would star the British actress Tilda Swinton in the title role.

“Our idea is not to do a period drama but to shift it from the 1929 crisis to the fall of the Berlin Wall and Obama, it would still be very funny but also hip,” said Mr. Guadagnino, who directed Ms. Swinton in last year’s “I Am Love,” which will open in the United States in June. His agent has contacted Warner Brothers to discuss the film rights, he said.

Larger-than-life figures will always have their appeal, said Mr. Codignola in his office at Adelphi’s Milan headquarters. When Adelphi published Mordechai Richler’s “Barney’s Version” — the rollicking autobiography of the fictional Barney Panofsky — in 2000, it sold 400,000 copies.

And that may provide another explanation for the book’s success.

“People read the book and say ‘Auntie Mame’ is me,” said Mr. Codignola. “You’d be surprised how often I hear this from women who are not particularly sparkling or elegant. They say: I can’t understand how this man who lived 50 years ago was able to write about me.”

The Street Knitting Society and Yarn Club

2010-01-29T08:30:00.000-05:00

The Beach Street Knitting Society and Yarn Club-- For every woman who has ever dreamed of starting over, or being a better mother, or just knitting a really nice scarf . . .

When her husband dies in a car crash-not long after announcing he wants a divorce-Jo Mackenzie packs up her two rowdy boys and moves from London to a dilapidated villa in her seaside hometown. There, she takes over her beloved Gran's knitting shop-a quaint but out-of-date store in desperate need of a facelift. After a rough beginning, Jo soon finds comfort in a "Stitch and Bitch" group; a collection of quirky, lively women who share their stories, and their addiction to cake, with warmth and humor.

As Jo starts to get the hang of single-parent life in a small town, she relies on her knitting group for support. The women meet every week at the shop on Beach Street and trade gossip and advice as freely as they do a new stitch. But when a new man enters Jo's life, and an A-list actress moves into the local mansion, the knitting club has even more trouble confining the conversation to knit one, purl two.

The Beach Street Knitting Society and Yarn Club is an uplifting, winning tale about the healing power of friendship and new beginnings. It's a charming novel that will delight all passionate knitters-and win over befuddled, would-be knitters, too.

Rich Again

2010-01-28T08:30:00.000-05:00

Rich Again -- Walk-in closet full of designer everything? Check. Private Caribbean island? Check. Connection to the aristocracy? Working on it. Cunning, malicious stalker? Double check.

Welcome to the world of the Kents, a charismatic, ambitious, and fabulously wealthy English family with two sisters – one as strong and sparkling as the other is delicate and wounded – who must somehow put their differences aside to keep an unknown enemy from bringing them down. Wild and beautiful Emily Kent has had the world laid at her feet by her ruthless mother and billionaire father – but it's not enough. Gifted with her mother's to-die-for looks, her father's hard-scrabble business sense, and both of her parents' lust for control, Emily is determined to make her own luck by seducing the only man she’s ever wanted, a man who can make her dreams of attaining the heights of old-money English society come true. By contrast, Emily's step-sister, Claudia, is a fragile soul—her mother died when she was five, leaving her to the unkind reign of step-mother Innocence. In an uncharacteristic burst of rebellion, Claudia trades her gilded lifestyle for an ordinary flat and daytime job where she meets the man of her dreams… or so she imagines.

But, Emily and Claudia are caught up in a desperate situation that may be beyond their control. As for their father, disgraced tycoon Jack Kent, and his wife Innocence, they are too obsessed with the fight for supremacy over their vast empire to see that a mighty and sinister opponent is plotting to ruin them all.

Prada

2010-01-27T08:30:00.000-05:00

Prada is the first book that documents three decades of ground-breaking fashion, architecture, film and art by the Prada company, including the work of the design studio and the workshop; extensive creative partnerships with photographers, designers, architects and film directors; and large scale architectural commissions, the Fondazione Prada, and the development of a new museum.

Among the many features of this rich innovative book with its thousands of images are a photo-essay by renowned photographer Brigitte Lacombe, stills taken from short films documenting the craftsmanship of the factory, images of the unique fashion show environments, an overview of all Miuccia Prada's collections with thumbnail pictures of 3,885 different “looks,” collages of the most influential shoe and bags, photographs of the final product on the runway, celebrated store designs in New York and Los Angeles by Rem Koolhaas/OMAand in Tokyo by Swiss architects Herzog & de Meuron, a film collaboration with director Ridley Scott, Koolhaas’s radical “Prada Transformer” pavilion in Seoul, costume designs for a Japanese manga heroine, Prada found on the street and celebrities photographed on the red carpet, and blogs expressing the almost fanatical devotion of lovers of the brand.

Prada both chronicles and epitomizes the achievements of one of the world's most influential and enlightened fashion and design companies.

Mr. Darcy Broke My Heart

2010-01-26T08:30:00.000-05:00

Mr. Darcy Broke My Heart -- Claire Prescott is a sensible woman who believes in facts and figures, not fairy tales. But when she agrees to present a paper to a summer symposium at Oxford on her ailing sister's behalf, Claire finds herself thrown into an adventure with a gaggle of Jane Austen-loving women all on the lookout for their Mr. Darcy. Claire isn't looking for Mr. Anyone. She's been dating Neil -- a nice if a bit negligent -- sports fanatic. But when a tall, dark and dashing stranger crosses her path, will the staid Claire suddenly discover her inner romantic heroine? Her chance meeting with a mysterious woman who claims to have an early version of Austen's Pride and Prejudice -- in which Lizzie ends up with someone other than Fitzwilliam Darcy -- leads to an astounding discovery about the venerated author's own struggle to find the right hero for Lizzie Bennett. Neil's unexpected arrival in Oxford complicates Claire's journey to finding her own romantic lead. Mr. Darcy Broke My Heart is the story of a woman who finds that love isn't logical and that a true hero can appear in the most unexpected of places.

Also by this author: Jane Austen Ruined My Life

Shoo, Jimmy Choo!

2010-01-25T08:30:00.000-05:00

Shoo, Jimmy Choo!: The Modern Girl's Guide to Spending Less and Saving More-- You're a latte-in-the-morning, closet-stuffed-with-shoes, can't-resist-a-sale kind of girl. What's the big deal? If you ever want to buy a house, stop paying astronomical interest on your credit card, and have a retire-in-style fund, you need to set out on the path to financial security. And who better to lead you down that path than Catey Hill?

Catey Hill, the money editor for the New York Daily News web site and a recovering shoe addict, will help you:

* Evaluate why you spend
* Tweak your spending habits
* Get out of debt
* Create a savings and retirement plan that even lets you splurge sometimes

Plus, included in these pages are real-life success and horror stories from women who have tamed their financial demons. So shoo, designer shoes: you're taking control of your spending today.

The Three Weissmanns of Westport

2010-01-19T10:00:00.000-05:00

The Three Weissmanns of Westport -- In Schine’s story, sisters Miranda, an impulsive but successful literary agent, and Annie, a pragmatic library director, quite unexpectedly find themselves the middle-aged products of a broken home. Dumped by her husband of nearly fifty years and then exiled from their elegant New York apartment by his mistress, Betty is forced to move to a small, run-down Westport, Connecticut, beach cottage. Joining her are Miranda and Annie, who dutifully comes along to keep an eye on her capricious mother and sister. As the sisters mingle with the suburban aristocracy, love starts to blossom for both of them, and they find themselves struggling with the dueling demands of reason and romance.

The Privileges

2010-01-15T13:50:00.002-05:00

The Privileges -- Smart, socially gifted, and chronically impatient, Adam and Cynthia Morey are so perfect for each other that united they become a kind of fortress against the world. In their hurry to start a new life, they marry young and have two children before Cynthia reaches the age of twenty-five. Adam is a rising star in the world of private equity and becomes his boss's protégé. With a beautiful home in the upper-class precincts of Manhattan, gorgeous children, and plenty of money, they are, by any reasonable standard, successful.

But the Moreys' standards are not the same as other people's. The future in which they have always believed for themselves and their children—a life of almost boundless privilege, in which any desire can be acted upon and any ambition made real—is still out there, but it is not arriving fast enough to suit them. As Cynthia, at home with the kids day after identical day, begins to drift, Adam is confronted with a choice that will test how much he is willing to risk to ensure his family's happiness and to recapture the sense that the only acceptable life is one of infinite possibility.

The Privileges is an odyssey of a couple touched by fortune, changed by time, and guided above all else by their epic love for each other. Lyrical, provocative, and brilliantly imagined, this is a timely meditation on wealth, family, and what it means to leave the world richer than you found it.

NY Times book review can be found here.

Note: As of today it is unavailable via Kindle but you can get it digitally if you have a Nook which is really annoying me!

2009-12-24T09:06:00.001-05:00

Wishing you a belated-Happy Chanukah, a Merry Christmas or whatever holiday you may or may not be celebrating! I'll see you in 2010!

Image Source: Blueprint Magazine

Four Christmases

2009-12-15T07:00:00.004-05:00

Four Christmases
I really really enjoyed this movie. It's short and funny. Definitely see it!

Too Much Money

2009-12-14T07:30:00.004-05:00

Too Much Money: A Novel - the last novel of the much loved wasp Dominick Dunne.

"My name is Gus Bailey...It should be pointed out that it is a regular feature of my life that people whisper things in my ear, very private things, about themselves or others. I have always understood the art of listening."

The last two years have been monstrously unpleasant for high-society journalist Gus Bailey. His propensity for gossip has finally gotten him into trouble -- $11 million worth. His problems begin when he falls hook, line, and sinker for a fake story from an unreliable source and repeats it on a radio program. As a result of his flip comments, Gus becomes embroiled in a nasty slander suit brought by Kyle Cramden, the powerful congressman he accuses of murder, and he fears it could mean the end of him.

The stress of the lawsuit makes it difficult for Gus to focus on the novel he has been contracted to write, which is based on the suspicious death of billionaire Konstantin Zacharias. It is a story that has dominated the party conversations of Manhattan's chattering classes for more than two years. The accused murderer is behind bars, but Gus is not convinced that justice was served. There are too many unanswered questions, such as why a paranoid man who did not go anywhere without bodyguards was suddenly left without protection the very night he perished in a tragic fire. Gus believes the answers lie with Konstantin's hot-tempered and vengeful wife, Perla. He intends to uncover the truth, even though doing so will gain him another dangerous enemy.

In true Dominick Dunne fashion, Too Much Money is peppered with thinly veiled fictions, keeping readers guessing about the real-world villains and intrigues that lie beneath its chapters. Dunne revives the world he first introduced in his mega-bestselling novel People like Us, and he brings readers up-to-date on favorite characters such as Ruby and Elias Renthal, Lil Altemus, and, of course, the beloved Gus Bailey. Once again, he invites us to pull up a seat at the most important tables at Swifty's, get past the doormen at esteemed social clubs like The Butterfield, and venture into the innermost chambers of the Upper East Side's most sumptuous mansions.

Too Much Money is a satisfying, mischievous, and compulsively readable tale by the most brilliant society chronicler of our time -- the man who knows all the secrets and isn't afraid to share them.

Knit the Season

2009-12-11T07:30:00.005-05:00

Knit the Season: A Friday Night Knitting Club Novel is a loving, moving, laugh-out-loud celebration of special times with friends and family. The story begins a year after the end of Knit Two, with Dakota Walker's trip to spend the Christmas holidays with her Gran in Scotland-accompanied by her father, her grandparents, and her mother's best friend, Catherine. Together, they share a trove of happy memories about Christmases past with Dakota's mom, Georgia Walker-from Georgia's childhood to her blissful time as a doting new mom. From Thanksgiving through Hanukkah and Christmas to New Year's, Knit the Season is a novel about the richness of family bonds and the joys of friendship.

The Christmas Cookie Club

2009-12-10T07:30:00.004-05:00

The Christmas Cookie Club -- Mark your calendar. It's the Christmas Cookie Club! Every year on the first Monday of December, Marnie and her twelve closest girlfriends gather in the evening with batches of beautifully wrapped homemade cookies. Everyone has to bring a dish, a bottle of wine, and their stories. This year, the stories are especially important. Marnie's oldest daughter has a risky pregnancy. Will she find out tonight how that story might end? Jeannie's father is having an affair with her best friend. Who else knew about the betrayal, and how can that be forgiven or forgotten, even among old friends such as these? Rosie's husband doesn't want children, and she has to decide, very soon, whether or not that's a deal breaker for the marriage. Taylor's life is in financial freefall. Each woman, each friend has a story to tell, and they are all interwoven, just as their lives are.

On this evening, at least, they can feel as a group the impulses of sisterly love and conflict, the passion and hopefulness of a new romance, the betrayal and disillusionment some relationships bring, the joys and fears of motherhood, the agony of losing a child, and above all, the love they have for one another. As Marnie says, the Christmas Cookie Club, if it's anything, is a reminder of delight.

The Christmas Cookie Club is about the paths Marnie and her friends have traveled, the absolute joy they take in life and love despite the decisions they've regretted, the hard choices and amends they've had to make, and the sacrifices along the way. Ultimately, The Christmas Cookie Club is every woman's story. As you read about Marnie and her friends, their struggles and triumphs, what makes them laugh and what has made them cry, you'll see yourself and some of the ingredients of your own story. Celebrating courage and joy in spite of hard times and honoring the importance of women's friendships as well as the embracing bonds of community, Ann Pearlman has written a novel that speaks to us all.

Kids Books: The Little Prince Pop-Up

2009-12-09T08:00:00.000-05:00

The Little Prince Pop-Up-- After being stranded in a desert after a crash, a pilot comes in contact with a captivating little prince who recounts his journey from planet to planet and his search for what is most important in life. For over sixty-five years Antoine de Saint-Exupery's classic, The Little Prince, has captured readers' hearts. The whimsical story with a fairy tale feel has sold over 3 million copies in all formats. This exciting pop-up edition includes the complete original text accompanied by Saint-Exupery's beautiful illustrations brought to life through paper engineering. Perfect for longtime fans and those meeting the little prince for the first time!

Dancing to the Precipice: The Life of Lucie de la Tour du Pin

2009-12-08T09:00:00.000-05:00

Dancing to the Precipice: The Life of Lucie de la Tour du Pin- From Publishers Weekly: Educated to wait on Marie Antoinette, the marquise Lucie de la Tour du Pin (1770-1853) instead precariously survived a devastating revolution, an emperor, two restorations and a republic. Drawing on Lucie's memoirs and those of her contemporaries, Moorehead uses Lucie's descriptions of both personal events and the ever-changing French political atmosphere to portray the nobility's awkward shifts with each new event and the impact they have on Lucie and her diplomat husband, Fréédric. A woman with both court-honed aristocratic manners and rough farm skills (earned in the Revolution's wake during her rural New York exile), Lucie benefited from passing platonic relationships with Napoleon and Wellington, Talleyrand, and countless salon personalities. Lucie's terror during the anarchy of the Revolution remains palpable in her memoirs centuries later. Moorehead obviously admires Lucie, but she gives a convincing and entertaining portrait of an intelligent, shrewd, unpretentious woman and the turbulent times she lived through and testified to in her memoirs.

Nanny Returns

2009-12-07T00:30:00.003-05:00

More than four million readers fell
in love with Nan, the smart, spirited,
and sympathetic heroine of the
#1 New York Times bestseller
The Nanny Diaries

Nanny Returns -- Now she's back. After living abroad for twelve years, she and her husband, Ryan, aka H.H., have returned to New York to make a life for themselves. In the midst of getting her new business off the ground and fixing up their fixer-upper, Ryan announces his sudden desire to start a family. His timing simply couldn't be worse.

To compound the mounting construction and marital chaos, her former charge, Grayer X, now sixteen years old, makes a drunken, late-night visit, wanting to know why she abandoned him all those years ago. But how can she explain to Grayer what she still hasn't come to terms with herself? In an attempt to assuage her guilt, yet against every instinct, Nan tries to help Grayer and his younger brother, Stilton, through their parents' brutal divorce, drawing her back into the ever-bizarre life of Mrs. X and her Upper East Side enclave of power and privilege.

After putting miles and years between herself and this world, Nan finds she's once again on the front line of the battle with the couture-clad elite for their children's wellbeing.

With its whip-smart dialogue and keen observations of modern life, Nanny Returns gives a firsthand tour of what happens when a community that chose money over love finds itself with neither.

My Wonderful World of Fashion: A Book for Drawing, Creating and Dreaming

2009-12-04T12:50:00.003-05:00

My Wonderful World of Fashion: A Book for Drawing, Creating and Dreaming--An interactive coloring book for fashionistas of all ages, My Wonderful World of Fashion is packed with beautiful and sophisticated illustrations specially created by the leading fashion-illustrator Nina Chakrabarti.

The book encourages creativity, with illustrations to color in and designs to finish off, as well as simple ideas for making and doing (how to make a sari, turn a napkin into a headscarf, dye a T-shirt, and so on). Covering clothing, shoes, bags, jewelry, and other accessories, the illustrations span both vintage fashions—drawing on beautiful and interesting objects from past ages—and contemporary designs from the illustrator's own imagination.

'Did you know...?' features that give brief historical notes encourage children to be inspired by history and by other cultures. A wonderful celebration of fashion, the book will appeal to fashion addicts from 8 years plus.

Note: This book was originally a UK edition so the cover image may vary.

The Dreaded Feast: Writers on Enduring the Holidays

2009-12-04T09:00:00.000-05:00

The Dreaded Feast: Writers on Enduring the Holidays will act as a balm for the millions of people who face Christmastime with a mixture of dread and obligation. Whether it's the last-minute shopping, the unappealing office party, or the prospect of more than 24 hours with family, it's never easy. The anthology, which includes fiction, nonfiction, and poetry on these and many more related subjects, deflates the notion of the "perfect" holiday season, and allows the reader to commiserate and bask in the glow of a little dark, neurotic, and unflinchingly honest humor.

The star roster of contributors includes Jonathan Ames, Dave Barry, Robert Benchley, Charles Bukowski, Augusten Burroughs, Billy Collins, Greg Kotis, Lewis Lapham, Jay McInerney, Fiona Maazel, George Plimpton, David Rakoff, David Sedaris, Charles Simic, Hunter S. Thompson, James Thurber, Calvin Trillin, and John Waters.

Family Album

2009-12-03T08:00:00.003-05:00

Family Album -- All Alison ever wanted was a blissful childhood for her six children, with summers at the beach and birthday parties on the lawn at their family home. Together with Ingrid, the family au pair, she has worked hard to create a real "old-fashioned family life." But beneath its postcard sheen, the picture is clouded by a distant father, Alison's inexplicable emotional outbursts, and long-repressed secrets that no one dares mention. For years, Alison's adult children have protected her illusion of domestic perfection-but as each child confronts the effects of past choices on their current adult lives, it becomes evident that each must face the truth.

Penelope Lively's novels of history, memory, and character have earned her a loyal readership. Like Ian McEwan's Atonement, this novel is a measured, thoughtful look at how events of the past, both small and large, seen and unseen, deeply inform character and the present. Quietly provocative and disturbing, Family Album is a highly nuanced work that showcases a master of her craft.

The Overnight Socialite

2009-12-02T15:30:00.002-05:00

I can't wait for this one and have an advance reading copy coming my way. I loved "Because She Can" so I am pretty sure I will enjoy this one as much!

The Overnight Socialite Bridie Clark (Because She Can) moves the Pygmalion myth to Manhattan, adds a dash of Thelma and Louise and proves what goes around, comes around to those born to the manor or trailer park. Professor Higgins is recast as suave bachelor Wyatt Hayes IV, the sleekest lion in the pride, who picks down-on-her-luck fashion designer wannabe Lucy Jo Ellis to make over into the toast of the town. The deal is eventually struck—makeover and a shot at well-born fashion contacts for a gentleman's bet that masks a lucrative and career-saving book deal. Along the way, these perfectly matched antagonists battle mean-as-a-snake society snoots and their own misguided ambitions to find happiness and each other. (And, it should be said, the Rain in Spain remix is pretty great: The snow in Gstaad puts Aspen's to shame! the newly svelte and prepped Lucy proclaims.) Yes, of course the ending's no surprise, but the rollicking, smart-aleck fun along the way is worth the price of admission.

You can listen to a sample read by the author via Vanity Fair here.

Crossing Washington Square

2009-12-01T09:00:00.001-05:00

Crossing Washington Square - A story of two strong-willed and passionate women who are compelled to unite their senses and sensibilities, from the author of The Professors' Wives' Club.

Professor Diana Monroe is a highly respected scholar of Sylvia Plath. Serious and aloof, she steadfastly keeps her mind on track. Professor Rachel Grey is young and impulsive, with a penchant for teaching relevant contemporary women's stories like Bridget Jones' Diary and The Devil Wears Prada, and for wearing her heart on her sleeve.

The two conflicting personalities meet head-to-heart when Carson McEvoy, a handsome and brilliant professor visiting from Harvard, sets his eyes on both women and creates even more tension between them. Now Diana and Rachel are slated to accompany an undergraduate trip to London, where an almost life-threatening experience with a student celebrity will force them to change their minds and heal their hearts...together.

Vive la Vie

2009-11-30T08:00:00.000-05:00

Vive la Vie -- With his unique talent for capturing emotions using lenses, colors and words, artist Francois-Marie Banier inspires both his subjects and viewers to conquerir le reve (conquer the dream). Vive la Vie is an intimate monograph resulting from a collaboration between Banier and fashion designer Diane von Furstenberg. Based on a series of sessions arranged by von Furstenberg with model Natalia Vodianova, the images are layered with visual and emotional complexity. By combining his various skills--photography, painting and writing--into individual artworks, Francois-Marie Banier creates narratives that compel both the eye and the mind. Vodianova exposes her true, unmasked self, creating a blank canvas on which raw womanhood is revealed, far from the stereotypes of fashion photography.

Madeleine Vionnet

2009-11-28T08:00:00.000-05:00

Madeleine Vionnet -- Famous for the "bias cut," Madeleine Vionnet’s sophisticated approach to couture remains a pervasive influence today. Eschewing artificial and restrictive padding and stiffening, she liberated the female form with designs that integrated movement and comfort into women’s fashion. She also championed unusual fabrics that were luxurious and sensual yet simple and modern—chiffon, silk, crêpe de chine, gabardine, and satin. Her most revolutionary creations—the handkerchief dress, cowl neck, and halter top—cling to and seamlessly move with the wearer. Vionnet’s principles of elegance, movement, architectural form, and timeless style continue to inform contemporary fashion. This lavishly illustrated book showcases Vionnet’s daringly original designs worn by 80 internationally famous models photographed especially for this book alongside original patterns and archival images by such icons as Horst and Steichen.

The Harry Benson Book

2009-11-26T08:00:00.000-05:00

Immortalizing the people and moments that have defined the past 60 years, world-renowned photojournalist Harry Benson has becomes as much a part of history as the photographs themselves. The scope of his accomplishments as a photojournalist is nothing short of remarkable: he has photographed every US president since Eisenhower, as well as Robert F. Kennedy on the night he was assassinated, and Martin Luther King Jr. at his funeral; he has shot stars such as Elizabeth Taylor, Mick Jagger, Dolly Parton, Michael Jackson, Greta Garbo, and Truman Capote; he covered both the rise and fall of the Berlin wall, the IRA hunger strikes, the Freedom March through Mississippi, the Watts riots, 9/11, and conflicts in Kuwait, Bosnia, Somalia, Afghanistan, Israel, and the West Bank; and, on the eve of his eightieth birthday, Benson is still at it, crisscrossing the globe on assignment for Condé Nast.

The Harry Benson Book is a visual celebration of Benson's incomparable career. Organized into chapters on celebrity, art, fashion, sports, politics, and photojournalism, Harry Benson features a distinctive mix of iconic images alongside never-before-published photographs of Sir Winston Churchill, Nelson Mandela, Queen Elizabeth, Princess Diana, Jackie Kennedy Onassis, Billy Graham, Bobby Fischer, Muhammad Ali, the Beatles, Sonny Liston, Chuck Berry, O.J. Simpson, Yogi Berra, Sophia Loren, Kate Moss, Gloria Swanson, James Brown, Fred Astaire, Johnny Carson, Jack Nicholson, Marlon Brando, Al Pacino, Clint Eastwood, Woody Allen, Spike Lee, Alfred Hitchcock, Federico Fellini, Joseph Papp, R. Crumb, Andy Warhol, Liza Minelli, Barbra Streisand, Halston, Giorgio Armani, Valentino, Diana Vreeland,and countless others. With incomparable access to the most elusive, alluring, and enduring legends of our time, Benson's magnum opus is unsurpassed masterpiece of contemporary photojournalism and portraiture.

Lists for Life

2009-11-25T08:00:00.001-05:00

Saw this in B&N a couple months ago and thumbed through it. You may think it is overly simplistic but it could be really useful especially if you get overwhelmed really easily!

Sometimes the toughest part of tackling life's to-dos is figuring out how to get started. In Lists for Life: The Essential Guide to Getting Organized and Tackling Tough To-Dos, Rory Tahari explains how to deal with each challenge one step at a time.

Filled with more than 100 manageable, easily customizable checklists, resources, and suggestions, Lists for Life offers must-have road maps for staying organized through life's biggest transitions and most stressful situations, including:

• Planning a wedding
• Buying a house
• Becoming a parent
• Raising children
• Traveling abroad
• Selling a car
• Preparing for a hospital stay
• Navigating through a divorce
• Planning a funeral
• Handling an emergency

An easy-to-use reference and handy companion, Lists for Life is the ultimate guide to breaking big moments into small, simple tasks.