Beauty Books

Dear Amazon,

I purchased this book from Amazon as a birthday gift for my daughter, who loves 1920s fashions.

I was delighted when the book arrived in plenty of time for her birthday on 14 May, and much earlier than Amazon's estimated delivery time.

My daughter LOVES this book and I do too! It is filled with beautiful colour illustrations of the fashions of the time, including underwear, children's and men's fashions too. It also has a considerable amount of historical information regarding what was happening in the world during the 1920s.

I would recommend this book to anyone who is interested in the 1920s and what women were wearing during that decade.

Maria Faen

I referred to this book extensively while writing my historical novel, SLAPSTICK (LTDBooks). Since I also collect vintage clothing from the Edwardian era through the '30s, it also came in handy for dating and authenticating my own collection. This book has it all, from underwear to children's clothing.

Tina Chow was not only a celebrity of her time, but a wise investor in vintage Haute Couture. Before her untimely death, she amassed a collection of some of the finest clothes ever made. Tina was a model and great beauty, but she was also a person with a family and friends and her legacy as a socialite and fashion maven should not die with her. I hope that her family someday writes the biography of Tina.

I'm not a fashion fanatic but I do wish I could own this book! After borrowing this book twice (and maybe more in the future), I've come to the conclusion that I'm drawn more to the photography of the clothes in this book, rather than the clothe itself:| Anyways, the book is first presented with an innocent Preface by Tina Chow, then a seemingly detailed Introduction with unique photos of Ms. Chow at work or wearing her collection. I like how this book is easily divided by designers of the clothes Tina Chow has collected. Each part has a detailed and sometimes historic description of the dresses. Some have patterns and sketches drawn out. The combination of intricate lighting, angles, and closeups on the fashion makes the photos stunning. But one must marvel at Ms. Chow's beauty when posing in some of her collections. She adds much sparkle and longetivity to these rather out of date and sometimes "tacky" dresses that I can never find myself in. Well, except in the "cheongsam" that Ms. Chow is seen posing in with parasols seemingly floating around her.. Since Ms. Chow's passing, I can see this book as a reference for admirers of her collection. Or rather, as a surprise since there are cameos by those closest to her. Sorry, no Warhol..but you'll see. :-)

The photos in this book are stunning, to say the least. For anyone interested in fashion, photography, art and/or flowers, this title is a must for your library. This cutting-edge book melds all of these worlds gracefully. The photographer Busse has created a new world that you will want to be a part of. You should definitely pick this one up for yourself or for a gift.

A good friend gave me this book for my birthday. It is absolutely unique--I have not seen another book like it. From the vibrantly colored flowers to Dietmar's truly one-of-a-kind artistic vision, Flower Album has found a very happy home on my bookshelf (plus, it makes for a great conversation starter when sitting on the coffeetable). Both thought-provoking and original, I highly recommend this to anyone who loves flora, fauna, and/or photography!

Words don't do the artist justice here, though the lovely sacred verses and captions by Swami Tripurari frame the art work in its proper religious context. Simply stated, it must be seen. It's rare indeed to discover an artist or writer who helps you understand the glory of God and his miraculous gifts. This is one such example. A consummate masterpiece.

I have recently purchased this book and I continue to carefully turn its pages and soak in the vivid and detailed work of B.G. Sharma's depiction of the story of Krishna. This is a book for anyone who loves the stories of Krishna whether the reasons are devotional or mythological. It is also for anyone who appreciates the traditional Hindu paintings that have long illustrated the ancient sacred Hindu writings. However, besides the life, color, and detail Sharma's brush gives these stories and characters, there is quality in the work that enlivens these intriguing and ancient episodes in the life of the blue god and draws me even deeper into them. No one captures the boyish charm of young Krishna or the love between Krishna and Radha like Sharma. For those who are not familiar with the stories, there is enough text to give meaning but the heart of this book is in the paintings.

I say that because in reading and understanding the husband/wife authors, you will become humble and start looking for opportunities to become more of a soulmate to your lover or friend. I agree that a person can indeed become jaded or exasperated with the "games" that men and women play on each other! Sometimes a person wonders how did their parents or grandparents ever get together! This book was one of the FIRST of the truly HELPFUL books in the Iyanla Vanzant, Maya Angelou, Dr. Ron Elmore tradition! This one has the benefit of a very intuitive and intelligent husband and wife team aiding you in the process ! A very good investment. May the reading and applying of the information bring about a healing and lifetime love for you! Peace -ed-

This book is one that "ALL" African American couples should own. My professor used it as the main text in his class and it not only helps you understand yourself but your mate as well. It also gives you insight on why we behave in the manner in which we do, and provides exercises to help you sustain your relationships. The authors are African American Husband and Wife Psychologist who also practice what they've written.

An outstanding piece of work! It surprised me when I first read the contents...a Navajo? Yes, a Native woman writing about her city life and at times, focusing on her roots....the traditional way of life. Yet her words are dramatic and powerful. A great accomplishment!

Browsing the Native American Literature section of my school's bookstore (NAU-Flagstaff), I came upon Esther's book and almost jumped outta my pants! Esther and I are alumni of the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, and I am familiar with her FABULOUS way of "painting with words," and I have always thought highly of her work. Over the years I've always looked for her name among the circle of Native writers because she writes with such passion and human truth as experienced first hand by natives at the dawn of a new millennium. It is easy for me, as an acquiantance of Esther's, to view her work and relate the themes and subjects of her poems directly to her personality. It is so wonderful to read what she has produced in "FROM THE BELLY OF MY BEAUTY." Any avid reader of Native/Indigenous literature is definitely in for a treat, so sit back and get ready to laugh, cry and understand.

Hey for all you girls who love to do your nails.If you like to do your nail girls out there. You'd like this book. I tells about all kinds of things to do with your nails. sometimes it's impossible to do some of them but, still you can try. They have a Nail Art Fun kit. I have one they are awsome. It comes with paint, brushes, and jewels. If you are looking for ideas for your nails this is the book you want to get. But if you no t don't get it.
from Bebe

This books is really fun! My mom helped me with some of the ideas in this book and made my fingernails look really cool. I got a lot of compliments from friends, teachers and grandma! This book would be a lot of fun for any girl around 12 years old, like me. One thing, though, use a fine paintbrush instead of toothpicks. It's a lot easier.

This book offered numerous teachable moments for my family. We were able to talk about peer pressure and body image in a nonthreatening way. We have enjoyed all the girl reporter books. They explore real issues in a funny yet indepth way.

This is really the best book out of all 8 - it really attacks real problems on body images. It shows waht can REALLY happen in the real word. This book will teach you a very valuable lesson - self-confidence! Enjoy!

This book is a collection of cross-stitch samplers in unique and beautiful designs. Since I love anything with a celeistial theme, I was attracted to the full chapter devoted to several attractive and varied designs incoporating sun, moon, stars, and planets. More common categories such as garden and nature include more original work than you will find anywhere else. Many of the samplers have a wonderfully old-fashioned look to them, and the completed projects are finished and photographed beautifully. The book also contains a wide variety of cross-stitch alphabets to assist you with customizing your projects. A wonderful book for serious cross-stitchers who are addicted to samplers!

This book has some wonderful celestial themes, some beautiful samplers and some lovely designs inspired by the natural world.

The presentation is great: tips and techniques for those new to cross-stitch are included as well.

There is something here for the accomplished stitcher as well as for someone who is just starting with this craft.

Highly recommended.

Jennifer Cameron-Smith

Pravina Shukla's The Grace of Four Moons: Dress, Adornment and the Art of the Body in Modern India is an elegantly written, yet accessible text that documents everyday art of and on the body of her collaborators in Banaras, India. This book not only documents and elaborates about individual case studies, but envelopes them all together in a larger meta-study of the way in which scholars have (and have not) approached the study of body art as a simultaneous reflection of self and community.

This ethnographic text rooted in Folkloristics, illuminates how choices of individual "adornment" in Banaras become integrated into the different layers of individual life processes and culturally rooted aesthetic-frames from which generalizable principles for the study of body art across disciplines and the globe become abundantly clear. Readers will see that the individuals involved are not those who choose to adorn themselves. The research frames comes to include, the families of the women being featured, the makers of jewelry, the salesmen, as well other social and consumer networks that all relate back to the object and radiate outward to include national and global markets, which implicitly integrate notions of the interconnected "local and global" into the study of individual creativity. The integrated focus of this book brings together the dynamics of individuals-as-artists (of varying sorts whether physical craftsmanship or the art of assemblage) with the objects that they "speak" through, as well as the lenses through which beholders "see" through and read out culturally, regionally, gendered, aged, and class based messages.

This text highlights the hallmarks of folkloristic scholarship that is the focus on individuals as artists, and ability to document tradition and variations within parallel systems of production. This study does not focus on a single women, but multiple women, enacting their realities through material culture in different creative ways--India is by no means demographically homogenous, and we can implicitly read this discourse of regional and cultural diversity out of this text. One of the key elements in this text is the notion of choice. While privilege and caste might bring certain option to the table, the participants here shape their lives of their own volition, choosing each day how to represent themselves, on their own terms to the worlds in which they live. However, choice is also modified by implications of the larger social and cultural systems in which these women live, such as the influence of Hindu religious beliefs and the popularity of contemporary Bollywood films. Reader are able to see the ways in which these larger social phenomena become part of the discourses of the self in India, as they would in any modern, media saturated society.


More explicitly, Dr. Shukla creates explicit dialectics between contexts of production and display through use, which are brought together in a unique social and cultural contexts. Readers can see the way in which personal aesthetics are both individual and cultural, as part of intertwined discourses of the self as produced by a series of participants--jewelry and sari makers, knowledgeable vendors, experienced customers as well as the ultimate factor, personal preference. Where women appear to be the focus, we see the interchange between men who make saris, jewelry and assemble bangle sets, and women who create personal assemblages to adorn their bodies are active, mutually constitutive participants in this larger process of self-adornment in India. This perspective is clearly articulated by the way in which the chapters flow, as displaying and wearing body art in this context is prefaced first by the processes of making and buying it.

This is the perspective that has ultimately been missing from previous studies of dress and adornment. It is at the intersection between contexts where function and meaning gain powered as they are obscured, contested, and ultimately realized. It is the art-object's movement through these places and spaces that facilitates its meaning, which culminates on the wearers body in an intimate microanalysis arising from the interactions that negotiate social and personal aesthetics and expectations--display is however, but one stage in the life of these objects. Through the explication of similar objects in multiple contexts ranging from stages of production, consumption, and display, one sees the convergence of forms in the special context of the wedding. Readers get the range of everyday choices, and the specialized context of wedding attire, which includes the rearticulating of everyday types of art-objects (saris, bangles, and other jewelry) in a ritual context, heightening their relative meanings.

In these spaces between contexts, which are linked through art-objects, interactions between the images of real people become qualified by a person's interactions with the ideal images of gods that pervade Hindu culture, adding yet another qualifying layer from which to modify the meanings of what outsiders might consider simple artifacts.

The author makes nuanced distinctions between what people bring to and take away from their "home" locations, who they are, and what sorts of resources (for instance, financial and cultural capital) they have at their disposal to adorn their bodies to illustrate the utter complexity of often disregarded everyday adornment. She chooses to focus on individual case studies of women in Banaras with comparable resources in order to highlight diversity among rather than between social groups. A focus across between casts would only reaffirm social disunity without illuminating the nuances of personal expression, which allow the reader to experiences these women as agents of their own identity making, rather than solely products of their castes. This is not a study of India, this is the story of multiple Indian women as individual artists living within differentially connected or disconnected social networks that in-turn influence their personal aesthetic choices.

Implicitly readers are able to understand, that while adornment is part of the creative repertory of each of the women that are part of this larger story, it is not their only or preferred creative outlet. The text by no means claims that these women's worlds area defined by dress or confined by their bodies, rather Dr. Shukla points to accompanying examples such as outside professions and domestic food preparation as parts of a larger body of creative opportunities in which these women assert their own tastes and make beautiful things in their own lives.


Within this text readers begin to experience a vocabulary-of-dress as part of a communicative system, that much like verbal communication, both gives and receives messages, and in each interaction modifying the subsequent exchange. This discourse of body art is therefore active rather than stagnant, constantly being rethought and reevaluated through agents. This is not a book about how all Indian women dress and have always dressed (as essentializing discourse of static adherence to "traditional norms") but it is about current, living women expressing themselves through their body art now.


The author complicated the notions of display by highlighting culturally defined norm of both seeing and being seen in this area in India. Being seen and seeing become complimentary, reciprocal activities. The role of beholder is a culturally embedded phenomenon as well as an experience between individuals who share a sign system. Readers are also allowed to enter that relationship, although mediated by time and space, through beautiful photography we are allowed to make out own assessments--to create our own discourse about the art under discussion.

Throughout the text there is a wonderful sense of empowerment, where women are controlling their personal aesthetics and in essence expressing to the participants in their world. "This is how you may view me today." This implied through references the way in which gaze may be turned inward, as women's choices affect how they want to be seen and how they see themselves. At the same time, the reader may understand that not all choices are made to attract gaze, a women may want to distance herself from her husband or family and this chooses an aesthetic to detract gaze from her body (337).

Here we are looking at dress and the body as composite parts of a culturally and socially embedded semiotic system of understanding mobilized through tangible realities of color, texture, length, fabric, and pattern etc. We are shown the relationship of the individual simultaneously engaging with their own trade, aesthetics, and social role, with other individuals in roles of, producer, seller, and audience as a series of cultural mediators.

In The Grace of Four Moons, the author allows us to see that in terms of notions of beauty and art, objects are not where notions of aesthetics begin, but rather where they end. They reflect deeply held personal and cultural beliefs of life, beauty and the production of identity. Terms like "vanity" "modesty" "hygiene" "style" "creativity" "public" and "private" merge onto a continuum of the relative values of personal aesthetics. These elements, positioned relative to the body, then move with the body through geographic contexts, and in their movement, we may see how art becomes laminated on the body to express how an individual becomes situated in and between spaces potentially indicating both physical and social transitions. This perspective illuminates how one may study clothing and body art in diasporic contexts where concepts of home become by force or choice, relocated.

What is most important about this book is the way any reader or researcher working on body art can seamlessly integrate their work in the this multi-part model synthesized here. This is not a work about India, or how Indian women adorn their body, it is a comprehensive model for the study of body art across the world that emphasizes the complexity of self-adornments and how in temporary, transitory and permanent ways becomes simultaneously intertwined in multiple social, personal and economic contexts. By connecting discussions of micro contexts on the body and in the closet, and macro contexts of regional and national trade and commerce, this text shows readers how body art not only allows individuals to enact identities based on social expectations, but to simultaneously recalibrate those enactments in the face of personal desires and social change.
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Rachel Gonzalez
Doctoral Student
Department of Folklore & Ethnomusicology
Department of Anthropology
Indiana University-Bloomington

The Grace of Four Moons' subtitle promises (and delivers!) an exploration of dress and adornment in modern India. The author's discussion is engaging and well-written putting her into dialogue with dress scholars such as Valerie Steele and Joanne Eicher. The book is beautifully illustrated, scholarly, and written in accessible language making it a `must read' for anyone interested in how people everywhere communicate through their appearance. In writing this ethnography of dress, Shukla provides a model for those concerned with material culture in general and dress in particular. Designers, curators, folklorists, and anyone who enjoys learning about the rich possibilities of dress and adornment will find this book a fascinating read.