Beauty Books

"I recently received this book and I read it to a group of students. We had a talk about pursuing your dreams and loving the person who you are. They "loved" the book!"
Shamia Smith
Special Education Teacher
Plano, TX

Kayla Adams is a young talented writer, who is dedicated to sharing the beauty of color with the world. This is a book you, your children, and your children's children can read for years to come and look in the mirror and be proud of your reflection no matter what color of the rainbow you represent.

Christia Benward
Parent
Atlanta, Georgia

I found a copy of The Tie: trends & traditions in a second-hand bookshop and read it in one sitting. It contains about 50,000 words and every one of them is gripping. It's Longditude for neckwear. Why on earth isn't it reissued? It is a classic.

This costume history book is unlikely to be equalled. Sarah Gibbings has done an outstanding job of recording the history of a small but often vital part of a man's attire.

If you can beg, borrow or steal a copy, do so. If potential publishers read this, buy the rights immediately. They will have a best-seller on their hands.

Like the previous reviewer, I've had this book for at least 20 years. This is a wonderful book with fabulous simple home-made formulas for hair and skin care. She does not advocate using soap on your complexion and provides reasoning. She gives formulas for skin cleansing. The formulas for vitamin skin oil are unique. The advice on health and cooking was years ahead of its time. I wish I had followed the advice. I will now!

I checked this book out decades ago from our local library and wrote down a few recipes (plus the bibliography info in case I ever wanted to look it up again), did a half-hearted try at it and put it aside. Twenty years later I was interested in finding a good natural beauty book and looked it up on Amazon.

I started the skin and hair care for my skin/hair type three weeks ago and not only are my pores noticably smaller, but my skin is much smoother. Any surface wrinkles are gone or almost gone. My hair (naturally oily) is getting more normal as I use the rinses she suggests. I'm not even through reading the book so I can't critique all of it, but I wonder what my skin/hair would have been like if I'd made a concerted effort twenty years ago.

Her system is based on returning skin/hair to its natural ph, around 5.5 (acidic). Where I went wrong in the past is that I only copied down a few recipes based on my skin type and hair type at the time, whereas she makes a point (which is turning out to be true for me now) that as you follow the treatment for one type of skin, it may change over time due to many factors, including changing intentionally from dry or oily to normal using her formulas, dry skin from indoor heating systems, etc.

Her mayonnaise moisturizer works great but I couldn't stand the smell (unlike the lemon/water and vinegar/water rinses, the mayo smell still stays on the skin). Instead I checked and found out the cocoa butter stick I'd been using previously is a 5.5 acidic moisturizer (same ph as the skin) and am continuing to use that instead. I'm wearing a lot less makeup because my skin looks so much better already.

Looking forward to what I look like after 8 months of use, when my skin has a chance to renew all current 8 layers.

Two very good friends of mine bought me this book last November and I can't get tired of it at all!

The book is systematically grouped into categories such as Desert landscapes, ancient landscapes etc which necessarily makes it an easy read for a light reader or those who love pictures.

Most of the pictures depict natural features in the U.S.A. and some from Canada and islands in the Indian Ocean. Even though many, such as the Delicate Arch, are very well-photographed, the lively colors seem to want you to pay attention to the pictures again. For example, Delicate Arch was taken with a backdrop of a brewing thunderstorm. Due to the presence of other comparable features behind or near the main focus, one will be kept intrigued, truly appreciating the sheer size of each of the features and marveling at the wonderful hand of God.

The captions are informative, and I would say, rather detailed - so much so they can pass for simple Geographic text. Some even add a sense of humor, describing huge corestones on the Bowling Balls Beach to have "roll[ed] over to join its companion".

My only complaint is that there are too few photos. There should be more on Grand Canyon, and other beautiful features not covered such as Big Horn Canyon, Gates of the Mountains, Yosemite Falls, Crater Lake, Shoshone in Wyoming and Niagara Falls, whose histories can be equally alluring.

The Earth has many lessons to teach us. These lessons are written on the ground at your feet, on the mountains across the river from my house, in the rocks of a riverbed, in the trees all around us. Once you learn to read them, you'll see them everywhere.

This inspired collaboration between Photographer William Neill and the Staff of San Francisco's acclaimed science museum, the Exploratorium, Traces of Time, beautifully illustrates the effects of time on our natural surroundings.

The Exploratorium was the one place in the Bay Area where I could take my chickadees for an entire day & know we would all be learning things that were both strange & curious about everyday objects & events. It is the only hands-on museum where you never hear a discouraging word & are invited to play. There are now over 650 exhibits which people can investigate with impunity.

This is a gloriously illustrated, thoughtfully written introduction to how the passing of time can be seen in the moment - rushing rivers captured in the camera's lens & over the eons - geology explained.

Traces of Time will make an excellent gift that will keep on giving. For my full review do check out: [my website].

There are many authors who discuss their theories on what makes a strong, healthy marriage. What I especially like about "The Triumphant Marriage" is that Neil Clark Warren went directly to the "real" experts -- 100 very successful couples -- and asked them what made their marriage triumphant. The top 10 secrets each have their own chapter with practical suggestions of how to improve your marriage in that particular area. As a Christian Counselor, I am always searching for books to refer to my couples -- I have made "The Triumphant Marriage" required reading!

I bought this book 2 years before my marriage broke up. Had my wife been a willing partner, I am sure we could have enjoyed a triumphant marriage. It is one of the best practical books I have read on relationships. I gave this book to one of this areas recognized divoce counselors and she was so impressed with its content, she hopes to use the information in it as a resource for counseling groups on saving their marriages.

UNCONTROLLABLE BEAUTY: Toward a New Aesthetic is easily some of the most beautiful writing I've ever encountered. Editor Beckley ( who also writes well) has selected poets, critics, painters, sculptors, philosophers to write about where we place Beauty on the scale of art importance in the past thirty years. The very fact that this issue is being addressed bodes well for those of us who have been concerned about recent past trends in art of all forms. Being ugly, controversial, in your face, violent, frivolous, mocking, sadistic has been the criteria for what gets press and thus what the public is spoon-fed as what is "in". So many of us tire of these stale and selfish agendas which don't seem to have a life much past the opening of the show that features them. But why did we get that way? Is there a possibility that we have become so overinformed as to how to see that that most sacred aspect of creativity - beauty - has become a dinosaur? Accordingly to lyrically beautiful essays the answer is a decided "No!". Almost every way of describing beauty, feeling beauty, thinking beauty, seeking beauty is given in this eloquent book. This is not always easy reading.....but there is beauty in making the effort, too. Bravo and welcome back to the age of hope!

The role of beauty in contemporary art has become a hot topic and this compilation of writings and interviews presents a group of well written and well considered perspectives. I've just finished it and am re-reading many of the essays, as I consider them cogent and inspirational.

I was first shown Studdert-Kennedy's WWI poems in 1960, and bought my first copy that year. I have since owned several and given them away - a bit like Kennedy's own life, in which his wife would come home to the parsonage to discover that Studdert had given their bed to some poor family.
G A Studdert-Kennedy's poems (like his fiercely written devotional and exhortatory books) overflow with love and tenderness, passion and anger against injustice, hypocrisy and cant. He demolishes the sub-christian theology of triumphalism, and writes, "...and I hate the God of power on his hellish heavenly throne, looking down on rape and murder, hearing little children moan ... [a bit later:] God, the God I love and worship, reigns in sorrow on the tree; broken, bleeding, but unconquered, very God of God to me..." (from "High and Lifted Up".
The poems, "Rough Rhymes of a Padre" was his own title for the first edition, reflect the man. He is no polished poet, but a passionate Christian minister who got his Woodbine Willie nickname (also the title of his biography by William Purcell) because instead of staying in the officers' mess with the other chaplains, he was down in the trenches handing out Woodbine cigarettes. After the war he became a pacifist, and fought that battle just as fiercely as all others, until his untimely death in (I think) 1929.
I'm buying two copies of the book now, one to keep forever - it will be, as were others before it, one of my most treasured possessions - the other for the inevitable gift to someone who needs to hear the authentic voice of the God who suffers with us.

There is something for everyone here from the much-loved Woodbine puffing chaplain - something for poetry lovers, war or military historians and/or Christians - they will find all something of interest in these pages. I found his haunting 'lyrics' unforgetable.

A lesser know war poet, but well recommended, who understood too well his men's feeling of God having deserted them to their trench hell. Faith finds it hard to adjust to horrors of war like this, but the feeling of being abandoned and crying out to God from the mire is honestly explored in this hauntingly beautiful poetry.

Another war poet I liked is -
The Ghosts of No Man's Land - The Rhymes of a Red Cross Man

This is a beautifully illustrated and compelling conversation, that is both instructive and entertaining. Plumb challenges us to confront ourselves, our country, and our world through the lens of The Human Shadow. It's a great read.

Intelligent and engaging! Plumb's voice makes her subject both thought-provoking and down to earth. I would definitely recommend this for anyone from teenagers on up!

A must-have basic reference for women's fashions of the era. Lots of full color photos with detail shots, and all clothes are shown on real people. Good collecting and care tips, too

Clear, concise protrayl of beautiful and not-so-beautiful fashions of the 20s-40s. The pricing guide is helpful when buying or selling vintage clothing.

Virtual You! will take teen girls on a journey that will change them from the inside out. Within the pages is an inner "makeover" that will have outward results. Girls are encouraged to step out and trust God with every area of their lives. This fun, interactive book dicusses love, purity, relationships, personal make-up - everything girls need to grow into Godly women. Jimmie Davis' friendly and conversational tone gives girls the feel of receiving guidance from a long-time, trusted friend. The contemporary format and language makes it especially appealing to teens. This book is a must for teenage girls and would be a great small group study.

As a teacher and leader of teen girls, I'm excited to see an interactive study like Jimmie Davis'Virtual You! Often it is difficult to find a book that challenges teen girls to think on a deeper level without being so tedious that they lose interest. Virtual You! provides a great balance. The computer theme used in the book is perfect for today's youth, who spend untold hours online. This book does a wonderful job of encouraging girls to think beyond the immediate regarding matters of dating, sex, and marriage, among other things. Virtual You! is a great choice for a small group study for girls.