Beauty Books

If you're looking for an easy home handbook of natural remedies simpler than most yet filled with the essentials, here's a handbook of nearly two hundred illnesses, injuries, and physical conditions ranging from flu and headache to food poisoning remedies and tick bites. Symptoms outlines are followed by prevention tips, then natural remedies in a book very simple to follow and perfect for newcomers to the subject.

Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch

I was totally blown away with all of the material that this book offers. After reading the whole book, I was amazed with all of the information that I had attained; moreover, followed that knowledge and healed myself and a few people! I take my hat off to the author! Thanks Mr. Alan Schmukler, for a remarkable job well done!!!

L. P., LMT

I have purchased many herbal and homeopathic books, but this one is my new favorite. It's very easy to understand. The author explains how to choose the right remedy and gives real-life situations which is great for moms like me who's kids are constantly bumping or scraping themselves! Thank you Mr. Schmukler! You've made my job as a mom a lot easier! Arnica is a wonderful thing to know about with little ones!

Finally. An uncomplicated yet comprehensive tool for us lay folks.This book is easy to negotiate and so chock-full of simple to obtain and use remedies that it will no doubt find its way to most everyone's home library. The author's clarity of vision and empathetic approach to the reader is welcome and most refreshing.

This is a good book for any adult going through a transition. The personal stories and savvy sisters advice make the book an enjoyable quick read. The content makes the book a great resource of information for all of life's many transitions. It was especially helpful to me with the chapter for spouses. My husband and I used the checklists for the beginning of some very important conversations and we've been married for lots of years. The last chapter, "My mom lives in the basement" was helpful in checking myself on how I support aging relatives.
I'm over 50 and already retired, but the book is a great resource for me and I'm recommending it to friends.

If you're looking for great personal stories and outstanding illustrations and model forms to prepare you for your retirement, then this book is a must read. It is an informative book that invites the read to complete some of the forms to see how they compare in terms of their retirement preparations. This is a book that will be referred to often.

This is a wonderful book that belongs on the nightstand of every person approaching or encountering life after 50. The authors, who practice what they preach, successfully weave current research with fascinating real-life stories of people who (generally) have gotten the years after 50 right. My favorite chapter, "What Will I Do With My Time?", illustrates the way the authors craft their message.

Readers are first invited to take a Midlife Transitions Inventory, prompting us to think about our work history, community commitments, and learning activities. Then we share the stories of a wide variety of people - a man who decides to keep working for financial reasons, a woman who knows she needs the intellectual challenge and social drive that work provides; a couple who have dedicated themselves to community service; a woman who finds her creative voice only after 50; a co-author's story about the meaning of travel. After each life story, the authors draw out lessons for the rest of us and provide information about using our time in ways we find fulfilling. The chapter ends with a brief, select list of books and websites that can help us weight our options.

If we life long enough, the years after 50 come for us all. This book is a great way to get started.

This book made me examine my values and how I was living them. (Something I haven't done for awhile.) My husband & I are in our forties, successful, but looking for more rewarding careers. The book took us beyond our current success, into planning the next path we want to take. We especially liked the chapter on working through transitions with your spouse. HOW TO CREATE THE LIFE YOU WANT AFTER 50 gives you a step-by-step process to examine your life and find the next step on your path. Don't let the title fool you! This is a great book for anyone who wants to change careers, relationships, hobbies, etc.

What's on one's head seems to matter a lot to a lot of people in the world. "If Your Hair Falls Out, Keep Dancing" is a guide for sufferers of AA, also known as Alopecia Aretea, to cope with their disorder. The disorder, not well known to the public, causes hair loss all over one's body - most importantly, the head. With a focus on women sufferers, although men can have it as well and could benefit from the advice within, she tells her story about dealing with it all, including the annoyances of wigs, covering it up, and how to deal with people finding out that you're a bald woman, a look that hasn't been accepted in modern society. "If Your Hair Falls Out, Keep Dancing" is a fresh and inspiring look at dealing with a disorder that shouldn't be anymore than what it is - a mild annoyance.

If ever I become bald, I would make tracks to the book store to purchase Leslie Ann Butler's book on alopecia. It is funny, smart, instructive and entertaining. Any woman who is hair-challenged, in any way, should read this book as the words Leslie Ann writes will inspire and you might even want to run out and purchase a fabulous hair piece, wig or any other hair enhancer. I am not hair-challenged but I thought her words could apply to many other medical challenges - deal with the cards you are dealt and discover a way not to feel like a victim. Leslie Ann is a living example of what she writes: Love your life and it will love you back.

The book is wonderful!! It explains things so well yet is not doom and gloom. Emily especially enjoyed the "Don't you just hate it when..." section. Never before has she laughed so much about alopecia. What a wonderful gift you have given my daughter, helping her see a lighter side to alopecia. I cannot thank you enough for that.

Reviewed by Olivera Baumgartner-Jackson for Reader Views (6/08)

Losing one's hair is probably high on the "disaster" list for most people, and I would imagine even higher for women than for men. That is why I found it so surprising - in the best possible way - that the cover of Leslie Ann Butler's " If Your Hair Falls Out, Keep Dancing!" is so cheerful looking and so attractive. Looking at the cover illustration one cannot help but feel joyful and uplifted; having said that, I need to add that the author's artwork, included throughout the book, lends a similar upbeat, positive tone to the entire book and makes it visually extremely appealing.

Leslie Ann Butler wrote a tremendously important and impactful book for people suffering from the auto-immune disorder called alopecia areata, which affects nearly five million people in USA. Having been affected herself - and with the most severe form of it, leading her to lose all of her hair everywhere - she is in the position to be not only highly informative, but also highly personal and compassionate in her writing. The book stays upbeat, giving hope - but not false hope! She offers advice for just about any "sticky" situation a person with alopecia areata might find her- or himself in.

The opening chapters deal with the facts about this immune disorder - what it is, what could possibly cause it (nobody really knows...) and what could help alleviate it. Later chapters deal with the day-to-day living with alopecia areata - when and whom to tell about it, how to deal with your hair loss in different "extreme" situations (think sports and sex...), how to travel with wigs, how to choose the right wig and how to deal with loss of eyebrows and eyelashes as well as what your options are in such situations.

The last few chapters, while still practical, really deal with this condition from the psychological perspective, helping one accept the hair loss and coping with it in a positive fashion, as well as even finding some positive aspects in it. No more bad hair days, anybody? How about not having to pluck those pesky stray facial hairs ever again?

The Resources section at the very end of the book should prove to be an invaluable selection of contact information for both the general information about the disorder and sources for wigs and other items the alopecia areata sufferers might need or want.

Warm, upbeat, but first and foremost realistic and informative, "If Your Hair Falls Out, Keep Dancing!" by Leslie Ann Butler, would benefit anybody with alopecia areata or anybody who in any way cares for or about somebody with it. Gorgeous illustrations turn it into a work of art and the written part turns it into a very valuable resource and a deeply wise work.

Over the recent years, I have become a fan of "old-time" comic strips, those that were published in the first half of the 1900s. In that era, the newspaper comics were a far different medium than nowadays. While I am sure there are plenty of forgotten, forgettable strips from that era, on the whole, the comics were treated as a respectable part of the newspaper and in an age when cities often had several competing periodicals, a good comic strip could be a major selling point. Nowadays, the comics are almost an afterthought, scrunched up on some back page.

Among the material I have been reading has been Popeye, Flash Gordon, Dick Tracy, Gasoline Alley and Peanuts (this last, admittedly, a product of the 1950s and not the first half of the century). The one that kicked off my renewed interest in these oldie, however, was Krazy Kat. Krazy & Ignatz: Shifting Sands Dusts Its Cheeks in Powdered Beauty is the poetic title for the seventh volume of republished Sunday strips (all in kaptivating kolor!), this one covering 1937-1938.

If you have not read Krazy Kat, this book is as a good a place to start as any, as continuity is no issue. The three principals are the classic dog-cat-mouse triad, but don't expect Tom-and-Jerry-like antics. Ignatz Mouse loves to bean Krazy Kat in the head with a thrown brick. For Krazy, this brick-beaning is actually a sign of affection. Yes, Krazy loves Ignatz (his "l'il anjil"), and Officer Bull Pupp loves Krazy and hates Ignatz. The typical strip has Ignatz beaning Krazy and then getting run off to jail by Pupp.

Is Krazy male or female? Creator George Herriman tends to keep things ambiguous, but I've always viewed Krazy as the former, a feeling that is justified in the February 14, 1937 strip which Officer Pupp clearly refers to Krazy as male.

For those used to today's gag strips with a punch line in the final panel, Krazy Kat is a change-of-pace that may not appeal to everyone. While humorous, this comic strip relies more on the absurd, the surreal and the poetic. Even the constantly changing landscape of the Southwestern county of Coconino is almost as much of a character as Krazy, Ignatz and Pupp are.

If you think that comic strips like Marmaduke, Heathcliff and Family Circus are the pinnacle of the comics medium, then Krazy Kat is probably not going to be your cup of tea. On the other hand, if you look at today's comics page with a certain lamentation of its fading overall quality, you may enjoy Krazy Kat which shows how wonderful the comics could truly be.

This project of gathering, binding and offering the Sunday Krazy Kat comic strips is such a boon. It is a treat to be able to enjoy a strip that was gone before I was born. The art work, the humor, the perspective on life all go together so perfectly in Herriman's work that it would be a great loss to this generation not to have these books available. I look forward to the next volume when it arrives!

Has the Krazy Kat curse finally lifted? More than a few brave companies have tried to reprint entire runs of this highly acclaimed but very underprinted comic only to end up self destructing. Way back in the hoary old days of the 1990s a company called Eclipse printed all of the Sunday pages from 1916 to 1924. Then something happened. No 1925 volume ever appeared. The curse begins. Not long after, another company, Stinging Monkey, printed volume one of "the complete Krazy Kat Dailies". That bold venture only lasted one mere volume. The curse returns. The small Pacific Comics Company has actually released three entire volumes of Krazy Kat dailies with no sign of stopping, but their market reach remains quite diminutive. Enter Fantagraphics, a company that may finally lift this ignoble curse from one of the best comics ever produced. They exhumed the smoldering Eclipse series and began anew with the year 1925. So far seven volumes have appeared covering the years 1925 - 1938. The last two issues appearing in full color (just as the strip did in 1935). Only three potential volumes remain for the years 1939 - 1944. Fantagraphics now stands well poised to obliterate this vile printing curse forever.

This volume, like its predecessor, displays the Sunday pages in full color throughout. During these two years the strip began to take on an even more surrealistic and esoteric edge. The addition of color heightened the abstraction of Herriman's brilliant backgrounds. Folded moons, impossibly high cacti, and chunky mountains fill in nearly every gap (see the particularly stunning strip from September 12th, 1937). The adobe colored jail becomes a permanent home for Ignatz as it now appears on almost every page. And the incessant love triangle between a Kop, a Kat, and a Mouse kontinues unabated. Signs of the strip's maturity peek out from behind every frame. The humor becomes more subtle, relying less on wordplay and slapstick than earlier strips. The jokes don't reach out and grab like a cattle prod (unlike many of today's strips that thoroughly rub the joke in your face); some require re-reading or reflection. Or a large vocabulary. Regardless, many remain laugh out loud funny despite their age. The March 27, 1938 strip depicts Offica Pupp trying to arrest Ignatz because he misunderstood his verbal fulmination "DUCK!" Pupp examines a book entitled "Law" while murmuring "Maybe - MA-A-AYBE I can arrest him fot it - Let's-s-s-see." Also, Herriman's little cartoon asides begin to appear at the very end of this volume (starting with December 11th, 1938). These small frames appear incongruous but they actually complement the strip as a whole and alter the mood. They harken back to his early "Family Upstairs" strips. Unfortunatley, the strip paid dearly for its waxing maturity and subtlety with plummetting popularity. The 1930s and 1940s saw the inexorable commercial decline of Krazy Kat. It appeared in increasingly fewer papers as irritated editors tried to slash "old man Hearst's" favorite strip. This volume helps preserve Herriman's legacy to the comic form, and it proves once again that commerciality does not always equate with high quality.

Unlike all other Fantagraphics volumes so far, this one does not contain an introductory essay. Nonetheless, some amazing watercolors and photos bookend the strips, including a rare one of Herriman without a hat. And the tradition of the "Ignatz Mouse Debaffler Page" gets upheld.

With each successive volume it appears that Fantagraphics may be well on its way to completing this series. The quality has not waned an iota from the first issue. Impressive. Carry on, please.

We are now, depending on method, between 1/3 & 1/2 way through the republication of Herriman's full-page comic spreads. There is plenty of good discussion of the artistic & literary value of this eccentric comic elsewhere, though perhaps not enough on the underlying philosophical issues it seems to raise, both in the push-&-pull of Kokonino Kounty's animal society, & in the recurrent surreal transformation of landscapes, an endless perceptual pun. But there is also immense & gentle, grace-filled hilarity of a sort we need no less now, than when Herriman was alive. Blessings on Fantagraphics for committing itself to this republication. Advice? Read it. Read them all - good food for the mind & the funnybone, not too common a combination...

Novelist Lurie here turns her attention to the history and social interpretation of clothing, linking politics, sexuality and social issues such as class to the evolution of clothing design and style. From Victorian to modern times, The Language of Clothes takes a sweeping look at the history of clothing's evolution and trends, making for an excellent guide.

Well written, well argued history, not text book like at all, but like a long New Yorker article. A pleasure to read. It's not about silly petty fads but great social movements that underlie trends and revolutions. I think more photo illustrations would help.

I can't wait to go out and buy this book, which I read in hardcover from the library. It is very well researched and illustrated and discusses clothes and fashions from long ago up till today. And not just fashions and how they change, but what they MEAN. For example, did you know....in olden times, not just elegant clothing, but cloth itself was and admired and expensive commodity. The more cloth making up one's clothing meant that person was wealthy. Paintings of the period featured draperies in the background to indicate a person's wealth, and even today designer clothing uses more cloth and is cut fuller, carrying on the tradition. Anyone interested in not only fashion and clothing but symbols and history should read this book, it is just fascinating and delicious.

The best pick-up line is to tell a woman how her clothes communicate aspects of her personality. Women love to talk about what the colors, patterns, and styles of their clothes mean. "The Language of Clothes" is all you need to do this -- although I also recommend "Big Hair: A Journey into the Transformation of Self," by Grant McCracken, to discuss what women's hair means. "The Language of Clothes" consists of chapters about how clothes express youth or age, a time or era, certain places, social status, etc. The best chapters are about how clothes communicate gender and sexual messages. This book is also one of the best birthday presents to give to a woman. (I shouldn't be sexist -- the book also discusses men's clothes.) The book has *lots* of clothes, and lots of photos. It's long and carefully researched. It makes you think. Women happily spend hours paging through it.
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Review by Thomas David Kehoe...

Pollan and Levine have done an outstanding job assembling a wide variety of human relations challenges and dilemmas. My first action in assessing the book was to go directly to those scenarios in which I have had considerable training and experience. I was pleasantly surprised to see that the verbiage and the decision charts were spot on. One of the book's strengths is that each scenario is properly framed. The reader is fully educated on strategy and key concerns for handling the situation. The accompanying decision chart then becomes the road map for the situation. The ideal reader of this book is the new college graduate entering into his or her first professional position. There is simply a tremendous quantity of practical wisdom on human relations and office politics that I wish I had at that stage in my career. Additionally, the book is an excellent resource for the seasoned professional. It will reinforce and fine-tune many approaches already in use. Because it is relatively thorough, it will provide juicy tidbits and insights on some situations that perhaps the reader simply never identified. I highly recommend this excellent book for anyone concerned with ongoing professional and personal success.

This book is good to have and has a lot of great references to go by especially if you are in a supervisor or managers position..highly recommended.

After taking a seminar recently, I decided to order
this book. The instructor had the book at the seminar
for a much higher price so I wrote down the name of
the book and the publisher so I could see if Amazon's
price was better. Naturally, it was so I bought it.
There is really good information in here for dealing
with all types of business world situations. A very helpful
aid to have in the office.

Everyone is faced with tough conversations at work and this book provides practical guides for dealing with bosses, peers, and subordinates. I see where these scripts can easily be adapted to personal conversations as well. The book is organized in a very readable format. Not only are the topics easy to find, but the twists and turns of a specific dialog are diagramed so you can follow the path to the desired outcome. It even gives tips on timing. I especially liked that several strategies were described to combat different types of emotional responses that may be encountered. Most books I've read give general advice on handling difficult verbal situations, but this book gives word for word scripts that can actually be used in the real world. It's like gaining the insight of someone else's experience.

I really like this book. I read it when I was 12, and I just HAD to show it to my friends at school. They're more confident in their looks because of this book. They know now not to be a slave to the stereotype depiction of beauty (this one girl actually tried to pop her zits to get rid of them, even when she knew it was a bad idea!!)

I just bought this book for my almost-13-year-old niece. I spent the entire evening poring over the chapters myself! I hope it will help her maintain a positive self-image throughout the devastating teen years. The thing I liked best about it is that it explains how fashions and make-up styles follow cycles, and the kinds of things these industries do to create demand for their products. And talk about diversity! It celebrates the beauty of all body types and sizes, deals honestly with burgeoning sexuality and sexuality identity, and also emphasizes a very important point: things like wearing make-up, shaving your legs or following fashions are really a "choice" rather than an obligation for teen girls. You don't see information like this in most of the magazines aimed at girls in this age group, since they're part of the "machine" that creates and drives demand for cosmetics and fashions. It was nice to see a different viewpoint presented. Nice also to see the quotes included from teen girls who frequent the authors' website. Wish there had been something like this when I was a teenage girl!

I felt so much better about myself reading this book. It has girl's comments on their bodies and how they feel about them, and it shows how fashions change and how media images aren't real. There's a lot of stuff that helps you appreciate your body, plus a chapter on different looks you can try, to express yourself. Plus, the illustrations and chatty, fun writing style make it fun to read.

This book covers just about ALL QUESTIONS! It has info about beauty and style as far as the egyptian and greek times! It shows how certain styles and body types have gone "in" and "out" of fashion. It also has info about different body parts. There's even letters and emails from girls who talk, comment and ask about the body part. The looks part of the book is excellent too! From Diva to Vamp, Bombshell to Femme Fatele, you will find a look that suits you! In fact, for me and many others, you will find you like a combanation of two or more styles! I hope you really like the book! I do!

When a life partner dies, the widow or widower is faced with a multitude of decisions at once, at a time of emotional depletion when even one decision is experienced as overwhelming. This book is a handy and well-thought-out compendium of ideas and insights and suggestions that can make the early months of loss more manageable.

The first chapter tackles the psychological: several compassionate stories are offered that make the complexities of mourning seem more "normal." These men and women got through it, and thus, so can you. The rest of the chapters cover financial issues, taxes, social security, and so on, including some thoughts about funeral arrangements.

Written by experts in their fields, these chapters offer up-to-date information and provide an excellent starting point for getting back on one's feet. An extensive Directory of Resources is valuable in itself.

This book helped guide me through a difficult time. It reads easy and follows like a recipe book. I would recommend it to any friend who has experience the loss of a spouse. The Author takes a very difficult subject and makes it understandable. Furthermore, I was able to get back to the business of taking care of business.

I loved the book. I got it for my mother after my father died. It helped her with the tough decisons she was faced with. Its worth the money

I loved the clear concise coverage of a difficult topic. I found this book well written and easy to follow. After the loss of my husband, I didn't know where to turn. Fortunately, a friend recommended reading this book. It saved me. Thank you

Was a good book..That's why I was motivated to get this for my recently graduated niece. John Maxwell has written countless books about leadership..and this audio CD didn't fall short of my expectations...

I'm a working mom with very little time. The topic of this book appealed to me - how to be successful and reach goals by doing a little bit each day. Maxwell's twelve suggestions for daily goals make you definitely think hard about how to focus your energy. I found I could focus on a lot of change using his program and suggestions. You can incorporate these goals into a busy life.

The audiobook format was key for me. Audiobooks help me read when busy. The narrator had a nice voice, and the sound quality was very good. I highly recommend this to busy moms everywhere!

You won't be disappointed by John C. Maxwell's helpful guide to time management. Maxwell's strategies will work for even the most time crunched people. Maxwell's program teaches people how to prioritize 12 things that truly matter and how to follow through daily in these areas. It is easy to feel as though you lack the free time to affect any change in your life, but Maxwell shows how devoting small amounts of time in the proper way can make all the difference. The audiobook version seems especially helpful for the book's audience - people with little free time. You can listen while stuck in traffic or cleaning the house, and figure out how to reorganize your life at the same time. Narrator Lew Grenville is an experienced performer and you might recognize his voice from National Geographic or the Discovery Channel. His voice is authoritative, clear, and pleasant to listen to, and meshes well with the subject matter. At a playing time of 3.5 hours, busy people should find this audiobook well worth their (multi-tasking) time.

The basic premise of this book is that the secret to your success is determined by your daily agenda.

The author has a list of 12 areas to focus on daily that he believes are critical to success. He calles them the "Daily Dozen." They are:

1. Attitude
2. Priorities
3. Health
4. Family
5. Thinking
6. Commitment
7. Finances
8. Faith
9. Relationships
10. Generosity
11. Values
12. Growth

He spends a chapter on each of the Daily Dozen. For each, he notes what decision he has made in each area. As an example, for "attitude," his decision is "I am going to keep a positive attitude and use it to influence others." Then he provides suggestions on how to incorporate the items critical to success into your daily life.

He makes the great point that what you become is the result of what you do today. The only way to change your life is to change what you do daily.

This is a great little book that packs a powerful punch!

Patty Smith was an intelligent, witty teenager who left behind a very insightful journal. If she were still here and writing I would buy all of her books. The one thing that disappointed me about this novel was the amount of forewards and introductions and everything else thought of to make the book thicker. It was pointless information by people with less talent than Patty. I almost didn't read the book after reading the introduction because I thought Patty's writing was going to be as longwinded and boring. It wasn't. This is officially one of the best books I have ever read and it has helped motivate me to try to overcome my illness. Wherever Patty is now I would like to thank and congratulate her on such a wonderful accomplishment.

I had the honor of meeting Patty's parents Kit and Margie Smith while living in Hawaii. Kit was my running mentor for the Honolulu Marathon through The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society Team in Training. They provided me a copy of the book and it so inspired me, that I organized the MANGO DAYS 5K to honor Patty, her writing and to elevate awareness of the need for a cure for cancer. The race is now in it's fifth year under new leadership and Patty will live on through her continued inspiration of others. Buy the book, read it and pass it on to others.
-Neil Voje

I met Patty and Mango Days through her father, Kit, a fellow Scot and runner for the Leukemia Foundation during the l997 Alaskan Marathon. Mango Days was a most welcome gift received in Hawaii after a visit with Kit and Margie in August of that same year. I enjoyed Patty's message so much that I have obtained several copies on two occasions for gifts to friends and their relatives who faced similar battles with cancer. A remarkable well written message. Thanks for listening.

This series of journal entries spans the last 16 months of Patty's life and introduces us to the interior world of a girl realizing that being young does not mean she's immortal. I'm overwhelmed by how strong Patty was during this time. The writing also reveals her fears, sibling rivalry, desire to follow in her father's footsteps, spiritual convictions, craving for father figures, and the need to leave something meaningful behind. MANGO DAYS is Patty's gift to us and I thank her for it.