Etiquette Books

Very text-heavy (you can almost hear his soothing accent as you read); not many visuals to inspire you; helpful advice on topics ranging from engagement and reception to honeymoon destinations

I own so many wedding books that I often get overwhelmed when contemplating my wedding plans, but this book has such wonderful concrete ideas that I have used it from day one. It is very text rich, so you should give yourself at least one hour to sift through it, but it is well worth your time.
Colin Cowie is a wedding planning genius and his ideas have helped me compromise on a few things, especially since our wedding is not a big budget ball.

I purchased this book for myself, and know that I will be buying it again to give as a gift. This book is my reminder to enjoy being engaged and gives great tips to make the most of your engagement time. "For the Bride" contains invaluable information for the engaged woman that I haven't seen anywhere else. Cowie's writing is thoughtful, refined and relaxing. It can be read as a whole, in chapters, or in the small "question & answer" sections. For those of you who think that this book is for people with lots of money... this is meant to be a jumping off point. Cowie gives many suggestions of how things can be done, and stresses that anything can be done differently and altered to your own personal style. (Not everything has to be expensive!) This book is THE tool to develop the style for your wedding and your marriage. I plan on purchasing "For the Groom" for my fiance as soon as possible.

I cannot express how much I enjoyed reading this book. It was instructional and had some very clever ideas I had not seen in the other fifty wedding books I've read in the last few months, however the photographs were even more impressive. I highly recommend this to any bride, although especially to those attempting to plan a semi-formal-formal elegant wedding.

This book is as much guidance on how tobe an elegant lady as it is a wedding planner. His advice ranges from subtle to downright blatant, so there's very little the open-minded bride will miss. Even if you already have every wedding book in the entire world, I feel this one is necessary.

Regarding the etiquette advice, I like Cowie's book the best. Many books for "fabulous girls" and "what no one tells you" etc tend to deal with things the bride has already left behind her: dating, shacking-up (how else to put that?), and how to manage breakups easily. The Cowie book has much more class, and is really about how to personify graciousness and elegance. It's an important lesson to learn as you are getting married, for as Cowie says, you are showing the world who you are now, in these all-important moments.

I would not recommend getting the companion to this "For the Groom" unless you are sure he will want to read it. I bought the two books together and my fiance has yet to do anything but sneer at it. However, I am reading the groom book as well, and find it amusing, as different topics are covered in each book, and it wouldn't hurt to have the bride read the groom book and vice versa.

This would make a wonderful engagement gift, and though Cowie is text-heavy in the book and does not show picture after picture, I appreciated that, as I did want to read a book about planning and etiquette, rather than look at yet another picture book. One tiny annoying thing, there's a lot of name-dropped from celebs, but sometimes it's warranted. He tells you great ideas from celeb weddings, which do serve to make you think creatively.

This book stands out from the crowd in great ways.

Loved it! I wish it could have been shipped a little sooner, but it was worth the wait.

If you want a book to look at wedding-related pictures, this is a pretty good one. It has a little bit of planning information, but it really isn't that helpful. It has several pages on some celebrity weddings and it may give you some good ideas. It just isn't something that you need when you're planning your wedding because it isn't loaded with that much information. For example, it has several pages just talking about the engagement ring, which you don't need information on because you probably already have the ring if you're planning your wedding. It's a great visual book, but not a great resource.

Although I do not regret buying this book, it is more of an idea and reference book than anything else. But what else should one expect in a wedding book?

I really appreciated the section on invitations. It explains alot of vocabulary used in the printing industry. You think you know something about planning and events, and then you get engaged and realize that the smallest decision can be painstaking.

It could use an update as well. Most of the "celebrity" pairs included are no longer together.

I love this book! If you're planning your wedding and your vision is both tasteful, stylish, & classy - I highly recommend this book! I've had it for a few months now and my wedding is still 6 months away - I refer back to the book for additional ideas! Additionally, the photos are beautiful!

If you are planning a wedding, this is a great resource. It is full of ideas covering off so many different areas, including rings, ceremonies, cakes, flowers etc. The gorgeous presentation makes it an item to keep forever.

This is a fantastic resource for kids who really need clear cut, structured visual lessons on manners. I feel like i have verbally corrected my kids about their manners for ages. After reading this book, my kids are now correcting me (in a respectful way....of course :) )on my own manners! This has been a great resource for my 7 and 10 year olds. Finally, something that is helping it all sink in!

I have used this book as a kindergarten teacher everyday for the past 4 years. I read one page to the class a day and we act out the comic book strips. The students in my class are always remarkably well-behaved and their parents often thank me for transforming their little monsters into polite little children.

We got this book for our son when he was three and a half years old. The visual style is crisp and well done. The writing is spare and superb. There is an easy realism and friendly humour to the vignette-style story lessons. This is one of his favorite books and it is clever enough that even I, as an adult, find it charming, after many, many re-readings.

Whether or not it improved his manners, it is a pleasure of a book to read. The moral lessons of the book are certainly well-presented and unobjectionable.

Although this is a very nice book, it was too abstract for my 2 and a half year old. The illustrations are very complex and busy and too much for a toddler to comprehend. I think a late three year olds and four year olds would be better suited for this book.

I think it is an excellent book. One thing it needs is to show how illmannered bossiness is. There is nothing in there that I read about bosiness.

I've been looking for a book on easy (but fun and hip) party planning. The other books out there are either too simplistic, too specialized (who needs another book on throwing a baby shower?!), or too complicated. I don't have a lot of time, and I'm no Martha Stewart. After seeing all these positive reviews, I decided to give this book a chance, and let me tell you: It is EVERYTHING everybody said it would be. This book covers everything you could possibly dream of regarding party planning, and the writing style is so fun (and warm and witty!) that I couldn't put it down. I literally read it in one sitting. Finally, a book on the subject that I will actually use (again and again!).

Man, this book is great! It is ultra-informative and incredibly detailed, covering everything from music suggestions and to-do lists to etiquette and budget. It answers every question one might have about how to throw a party - what to buy, who to invite, how to decorate - even how to clean up afterwards. The author's smart sense of humor and straight-forward advice makes the book really fun to read. The theme parties, games and recipe suggestions are varied enough to appeal to just about anyone. No matter who you are, there are great ideas in this book for you.

This book offered no original or useful suggestions for throwing a party. The menu items included unusual foods that your typical party-goer has never even heard of (Iptacita's guacamole, zuchinni-walnut bread, bean dip, Liver cake). The games were equally unoriginal (Trivial Pursuit, Pictionary). Duh!

Important, very common parties such as Baby Showers and Bridal showers were brushed over, and were given the same attention as New Pet Shower.

I'm ticked because I purchased this book based on the glowing reviews here at Amazon which I now realize must be the author's friends and family since all live in Cali where the author resides, none has more than 1 review to her credit (although I'm sure additonal reviews will magically appear now that I've blown their cover).

Tamar Love's "Plan a Fabulous Party in No Time" is as fun as it is informative. This book takes you from deciding where and when to have the party, to how to plan for the party, to party manners to calling it a night. Don't know what to do for a wedding shower, costume party, or Labor Day picnic? Her creative party ideas will inspire you to put together something fabulous. There are also suggested recipes - the Pecan Pumpkin Pie was fantastic! I love the idea of having a pet-together with both dogs and people as guests. I know my dog would love the liver cake. And I know that I'd love some of the music suggested for some of the theme parties.
Overall, "Plan a Party in No Time" was a very good buy and will be put to good use

Being out of college, I didn't think I would ever hold a party. When I got this book as a gift, it made me WANT to throw one! It was fun to read and very easy to thumb through for fast ideas. This would make a great gift for a newbie like me, as I highly appreciated it!

The book looks like fun and I will probably get it for a gift for someone else, as well as one for myself. It was a gift.

Great folds for all occasions. We used this over the holidays and it had great ideas to make every meal extra special.

I got this book as a Christmas gift last year and I love it. I've made many of the folds in the book, the directions are easy to follow and each fold includes some information about the history of napkin folding that is actually fun to read.

Helpful book has many ideas for those who still like to set a nice table and actually use cloth napkins.

I like this book. It has a lot of cute folds, it is easy to follow and the book is laid out well. It even has a section on some folds for children. The only thing that could possibly make this book better would be if it was in color.

I really enjoyed this book, but it was definitely more of a pleasure read than anything instructional. I was looking for some advice directed specifically toward second marriages, and eventhough I did pick up some good ideas, this book was geared more toward the older first time bride. The author stresses the premise that an older bride should do whatever makes her happy (wear a white dress, have a zillion attendants, register for gifts) without regard for what others may think. Don't each of us in the over 40 crowd do that anyway?

This book is a treasure in the midst of the piles of repetitive ... about getting married. If you don't fit into the average profile of Girl Getting Married, this book will have something for you. I think the way they're marketing this book is a bit off -- it's not only age that makes you different. I'm getting married for the first time now at 33, and I found SO much to identify with in this book. Besides, it's hilarious, and was such fun to read in between issues of Martha Stewart. I'm recommending it to all my friends.

This is an amazing book for any one who is not a young bride. She has done an excellent job explaining wedding requirements, others expectations and all with a great deal of humor. The author provides great ideas for the "mid-life" bride and also permission to do the wedding your way. I have never enjoyed a book more...forget Martha and the bridal magazines if you are over 35 you need this book.

As a first time mid-life bride marrying a man who's been there, done that, 3 times prior in fact, I've met with my share of shock, disbelief and advice. None of it worthwhile until a close friend, herself a mid-life first time wife, recommended this jewel of a book. Shelley Christainsen tells it like it is, as opposed to the typical starry eyed bride guides who tell it like Cinderella imagined it to be. This book is a must read for every mid-life bride (and wanna be) and will be the first gift I give newly engaged friends from now on.

As the prospective husband-to-be, it is wonderful to hear excerpts that my intended reads to me when she comes across something that really hits home (which happens constantly). We fit the profile presented in the book to a tee and I find myself identifying closely with many, many things in the book. Preperations for Long Island style wedding celebrations can be lenghtly and exhausting, and the day can wind up being quite expensive. They are generally geared to those that we have amost 20 years on, and some of the pagentry borders on the uncomfortable. Instead, the book is written from the perspective of us "40-somethings". I have actually had the feeling of relief descend upon me after hearing the common sense ideas and flexible approach that is typical of the book. So, I say "Way to Go" Shelly Christiansen, and "Thank you" too !

From the review I thought this would be a great book to have, but I find it lacking and thin. Many of the suggestion were repeated [...]. I thought this book is more about ideas of words to write, and indeed it has some, but not a lot to choose from.

I bought this book thinking it would help with my holiday letter writing and a letter I wished to write for a friend who recently married. I was very disappointed in the sparse selection of sample letters and the overabundance of poems and gift ideas. It's not something I'll reach for often.

thank you, robyn spizman for a book i can turn to for any occasion. it has been so helpful to me, that i even gave it to my dearest friend as a gift. giving this book has now snowballed, because she and i have given it to all of our other friends and family, too. do yourself a favor and add it to your book collection.

Spizman's book of useful tips, hints and resources for anyone who aspires to BE the kind of person who cares and does something about it is really wonderful. I already think I do a pretty good job saying kind and encouraging things to others. This book really gives me ideas and encouragement for doing it. I plan to give copies of this book to many friends. A great and useful resource. Also, her daughter's book, The Thank You Book for Kids is a terrific how to book for young people.
Highly recommended!
Patricia Ryan
Stanford University

I saw this author on The Today Show last year and knew I had to buy this book. The thoughtful words and deeds in this book just add to the perfect present ideas Robyn recommended on Today. After reading this book, I feel assured that my gifts and words will matter most to those who matter most to me.

It's hard to imagine that spending any length of time in the kitchen would be enjoyable. But then we purchased Ellen Wright's Around the Table: Easy Menus for Cozy Entertaing at Home. Not only do we have wonderful meals ready with not a lot of fuss, we've actually returned to having friends over for dinner because we can entertain and cook at the same time. Cooking used to be a thankless job and we could never leave the kitchen to enjoy the company of friends. And now people are calling us to see what we are planning for dinner! Bring back some fun into your home. Ellen Wright has done a marvelous job at making us look like we know what we are doing! We can't wait for her next book to broaden our menus!

Ellen Wright brings good cooking and entertaining together in this wonderful addition to my kitchen. I never knew it was be so easier to make such wonderful dishes. Each recipe is not only easy to understand, but if you follow all the steps, your end result will be perfect. Ellen Wright found the secret to publishing a great cook book -- everyone who doesn't like to cook will end up being a gourmet chef. And even the best the kitchen will learn from this wonderful volume.

Having just started a cookbook collection, I was thrilled to add "Around the Table" to my set. It is a wonderful compilation of family comfort food, with easy to follow recipes and simple instructions for the beginner cook/entertainer. Its recipes have been a tremendous hit with family and friends and unlike cookbooks that focus on the "cuisine of the moment", "Around the Table" highlights the wonderful family fare that never goes out of style. Highly recommended - I can't wait to pick up her next book!

This book on entertaining menus and recipes by the interior designer Ellen Wright provides almost exactly what you would expect, but nothing more. It gives us thirteen (13) menus for cold weather situations and eleven (11) menus for warm weather situations.

Most of the menus are tailored to fit a particular situation. Cold weather menus fit situations like TV viewing, a small Thanksgiving gathering, Christmas, `home with a cold', New Years Eve, Super Bowl Sunday, Valentine's day, and a hearty breakfast. Warm weather menus fit a Bridge party, and engagement dinner, the Fourth of July, a teenage date dinner, a dinner outside on the grill, and a menu suitable for preparation by an inexperienced cook (the daughter?!).

Reflection on this lineup leads me to think that the book may not be as useful to the frequent entertainer as it may appear on first blush. Most of the menus are more appropriate to very specific functions and not to general entertaining. This book is much more specialized in it's audience than, for example, Martha Stewart's famous first book `Entertaining'. The audience most interested in this book may not be the frequent entertainer of friends and business colleagues as the person with an active family life around the home.

There are two sure signs that the best audience is the large home centered family. First, there are few alcoholic beverage recommendations. If this book were oriented toward adult guests, this is a serious oversight, especially in the matter of wine. I have no knowledge or serious interest in wine and food pairings, but I do know that this is an important dimension to dining and entertaining. The author doesn't even mention the subject of wine. The few mentions of alcoholic beverages I found were recipes for Pimm's Cup, Bloody Marys, and Margaritas. Second, most of the recipes are relatively simple with a generous use of prepared ingredients from the supermarket's freezer case and cake mix aisle. A much more valuable use of space in this book would have been to remove the mixed drinks recipes and add recommendations for wines and simple references to mixed drink names.

Since the book presents recipes in menus, where most menus have a salad and a dessert course, you are getting more salad and dessert recipes than you would in the more conventionally organized book. For this imbalance, you are getting important information on putting together interesting menus.

I am not overly impressed by the distribution of ingredients by warm weather and cold weather menu. It is more accurate to say that the recipies are selected to fit the occasion than the season. Otherwise, the selection of recipes is fairly broad, covering classic American fare such as franks and beans and chili, to imported classics such as pasta Puttanesca and Gaspacho. None of the recipes violate any major culinary practices and the sidebar tips help you to make the best of your ingredients, but there is little there which an experienced cook does not already know.

The photographs in the book are all very good. The irony is that the photographs do as good or better job of highlighting the author's day job of decorator than they do of featuring the food. Serving plates, table decorations, and tablecloths get as much attention as the food. A perfect example of this is one photo which features not one wit of edible material. In the place of the food is a recent `New Yorker' cartoon flanked by elegant serving ware, napkins, and tablecloth.

I am always interested in influences on the author and I am pleased to find this writer refer more than once to the solo work of Simone Beck rather than Ms. Beck's more famous colaborator, Julia Child. Ms. Wright also refers with reverence to an association with James Beard. All this indicates that Ms. Wright is a very talented person for which home entertaining (and this book) is a sidelight, for which she has taken one or more short classes with old school culinary celebrities such as Beard, Child, and Madhur Jaffrey.

If you do a lot of entertaining and are an only modestly skilled cook, this is a worthwhile book. It gives good ideas and it will not take you into deep culinary waters.

I was expecting a sophisticated collection of easy recipes, more in the vein of the Barefoot Contessa books, but this is merely a rehash of 70's suburban-housewife buffet food. Do we really need a recipe for franks and beans? And scrambled eggs with Velveeta? Also surprised that the apparently talented photographer took on this book...some of the food looks truly unappetizing, for instance the creamed spinach on page 121. Very disappointing book.

In her book, Jay not only explains why the business lunch is vital, she lends you her expertise for you to achieve greater success, both personally and professionally. Also included are the do's and don'ts, what to avoid, etiquette and how to balance selling and talking while eating. Her easy, personable mannerism shines through on paper and I found myself smiling throughout the book.

This is an excellent tool for people in business and sales.

This is a fabulous book for learning to entertain with sales in mind. It explains how to have a positive effect on others and sell yourself successfully during a meal or networking event. In today's world with the decline of social graces, this book is like a breath of fresh air. It gives practical and applicable tips and techniques to take relationships to a higher level. It teaches the importance of building solid relationships that will increase business. Great information...for anyone who needs to sell him/herself. I also had the opportunity to hear Robin Jay speak recently and the information she shared was solid gold.

Dont know whether I had too high an expectation of it under the influence of its title "the ART of the ...." or the very favorable comment on the back cover and here on Amazon I had been a little bit disappointed. Perhaps I have been in the business for long so I truly believe that the ideas covered by the author should be readily practised by even the mildly successful sales or account executives. If you are a greenhand in the industry or you honestly consider yourself ignorant of business etiquette and networking, the book is still fine for you. However, if you want to read something of the advanced level, "Never Eat Alone: And Other Secrets to Success, One Relationship at a Time" by Keith Ferrazzi and Tahl Raz would be a much better but demanding choice.

If building more productive business relationships interests you, you'll want to read The Art of the Business Lunch: Building Relationships Between 12 and 2 by Robin Jay.

Ms. Jay, the "Queen of the Business Lunch," explains that successful business relationships are built and enhanced at lunch. Better than a stuffy board room or office cubicle, a restaurant setting brings elements of class, style and fun to just about any business meeting. This outside-the-office setting allows people to get to know each other on a more personal level and personal relationships make for better business dealings.

The book is filled with excellent advice and interesting anecdotes on how to make all your lunch meetings more productive and successful. You'll discover how to create lunch opportunities, how turn every business lunch into a relationship building experience, which fork to use when, and so much more.

Even if you don't think of yourself as a salesperson, you'll still benefit from The Art of the Business Lunch. We all need to network productively and conduct ourselves in professional settings with grace and style; this book details just how to do that and so much more.

From personal experience through years of owning a newspaper corporation, I learned that some of the biggest deals are closed during social situations, not always behind boardroom doors. I saw this first-hand with politicians in Silicon Valley, with Unions and other businesses. In fact, I had "Power Lunches" of my own where a hand-shake closed many lucrative deals. This outside-the-office setting allowed me to get to know clients and advertisers on a more personal level which led to better business dealings.

Even restaurants in Silicon Valley know the value of such social networking because they sell yearly two-for-one cards to their establishments. My newspaper bought these dining cards from Fairmont Hotel, Hyatt House, and LeBaron Hotel. This not only saved money but enabled us to entertain friends and potential clients in fine style in a relaxed atmosphere.

As Robin Jay, author of The Art of the Business Lunch: Building Relationships Between 12 And 2, explains, there is a fine protocol to building business relationships over a short time-span--lunch and on certain occasions a business dinner. She presents full details in this book, showing the readers how to conduct themselves in professional settings with grace and style, and she enlivens the excellent advice with humorous anecdotes that make for an easier reading/learning experience.

Since cell phones weren't in common use during my career, I was particularly interested in Robin Jay's advice on proper cell phone etiquette, which has an entire chapter dedicated to it.

The Art of the Business Lunch: Building Relationships Between 12 And 2 is well-written, with easy-to-follow formatting, and will be useful to those interested in building productive business relationships. The author's motto is: Share a Meal and Close the Deal, which is how she inscribed the copy I won in J. Kaye's Book Blog raffle. Incidentally, if you would like to try your luck on winning a book, go to: http://j-kay-book-blog.blogspot.com

Reviewed by: Betty Dravis, 2008
1106 Grand Boulevard
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David Horvath is brilliant. His book Bossy Bear has great art and the story is as good. It's a simple story, but funny and teaches a lesson at the same time. Children will love it and adults can appreciate it as well.

Everyone should own a copy of Bossy Bear.

The Bosy Bear helped my ASD child understands that being bossy it's not a good choice.

Bossy Bear is indeed very bossy. So bossy he yells "Faster!" to a struggling snail and "What do you mean, don't walk?!" to a traffic light. He has perfected the art of shouting "GIMME" and is not shy about ordering Santa around. But when he pushes his friends too far he finds himself all alone with only his cape and his crown for company. Could it be he's bossed one boss too many?

The short, simple text and whimsical illustrations are reminiscent of Mo Willems' Pigeon books. The author-illustrator, David Horvath, is the creator of the popular Uglydolls, and there is a slight hint of Uglidollness in Bear. His many fans won't be disappointed by his latest creation, which is sure to elicit giggles from both toddlers and their grown-ups. The ending suggests that there might be a sequel---we can only hope!

Beautiful art ! And a very cute story ! David Horvath is a genius.

I had hoped the story would teach my toddler not to be bossy, but it has a pretty lame resolution. It has provided the opportunity to talk about bossiness and not having friends, though.