Beauty Books

What can I say but this is a GREAT book.

This book is an easy read on the most important subject in the Universe, Your Soul. This book has changed my life by making aware the imbalance in it. By discovering this book and following its' steps I have discovered myself. The Millers truly are human potential experts, who show us ourselves. A Great Book.

Elizabeth George always produces an excellent study. This one about Esther is no exception. This one is handy because the verses from the book of Esther are right there in text. There are other Bible verses that one needs to look up, but all of it helps bring the reader to the heart of Esther and reveals her dependence on God and her bravery. I am using this study in our girls' high school home school because it is so good.

This Bible study is such a blessing. I have read the book of Esther many times, but this is the first time that I have taken such a simple but powerful look at the real Esther and just what she was all about. She was a faithful servant and followed every instruction to the letter, but she had back bone like no other. To sit across a feast table and accuse Haman of his wrong doing showed so much strength. This book is truly a book of Strength and Beauty. So simply put and easy to apply to our own lives. Elizabeth George is a wonderful writer for today's women.

This book gave me lots of ideas for natural pregnany remedies and healthy lifestyles cahnges. Especially helpful was the transition diet. If you're looking for a roadmap to being a vegetarian or changing to a more organic diet, this is very helpful.

I admit that I am bias. Beverly is a beautiful black woman and serious business woman. It is her older work but very much worth locating. It has excellent health tips as well as guide to utilizing herbs to gain a healthy life style. It is not an autobiography yet she shares many of her memories as a model and adds personal touches of her life. It is well worth the time. It is one of my health bibles.

A look into the lives and hearts of real women around the world. Jean demonstrates that the strength and beauty of women transcends any challange that life may presents. She created a sisterhood of women across all walks of life and around the world.

Ms. Karotkin's powerful photographs truly capture the spirit of her subjects, whose stories of coping with breast cancer are told through brief vignettes. This is an inspiring, provocative book that challenges American ideals of physical perfection and redefines what it means to be beautiful. I imagine "Body & Soul" will resonate with anyone who has either experienced breast-cancer first-hand or known someone who has; but I hope that all those teenage girls who aren't happy with their bodies will also read this book and take its message to heart.

I loved this book because Bodycraft is not just another diet book. Ms.Zelandais hit home with her recount of why diets don't work, but she has found something that does. The book was geared not only to losing weight, but to becoming a whole person in the way we love our bodies and nourish the soul. Unlike most diet books that hammer home "don'ts", the book was written with positive "dos". There is a 5-level program, (each level being 3 weeks...the amount of time it takes to change a bad habit to a good one), each level covers the emotional, spiritual, mental and physical balancing of the body.

This book is an easy read that makes you know: "I can do this".

Whether one does the whole 5-level program or not, the book has lots of tips to help have the body we want and love.

This is not just another diet book. It's a whole new way to live life. What makes this book different from other diet books is that it's FUN! Zelandais introduces the reader to 20 techniques called "Bodycraft Tools" in an entertaining, informative and often humorous format. The tools are easy to implement. They range from designing a personalized exercise plan that is enjoyable and easy to fit into your schedule to dealing with emotions, changing beliefs, and making a treasure map! The tools do not take a lot of time -- some as little as five minutes a day. I lost seven pounds without effort on this plan without ever feeling deprived! This book is not only about losing weight, it's about becoming more alive! I loved it!

Tons of different looks and costumes, including accessories. Great fashion illustrations, including makeup, for art students, too!

Every look is named and described in detail, including face, hair, and everything you need to make "the look." For all fashionistas.

This is a fun book from the 1980s that lists a lot of different looks - from 1920s flapper to gypsy to catwoman - and then gives you detailed advice about clothing and makeup to achieve those looks. It's illustrated with fashion drawings rather than photos and it has a very 1980s feel. It's a fun book for young women who like experimenting with their look and have a taste for retro styles. (It might also be a good halloween costume resource.)

Mr. Oakes must be one interesting guy to meet. His wonderfully detailed descriptions of the essences and their wearers made my mouth water even as it made me laugh. Even if you never buy any of these perfumes, just reading about them makes you want to cover yourself in the fragrances! And ahh, if you are into chypres as he is... The man gives whole little scenarios for each perfume so that you can picture yourself in the deep, dank woods (one of his favorites)covered with Chanel No. 19, or in the sweetly smelling open meadows next to a babbling brook along with Kenzo's Parfum d'ete, or in the middle of a pungent rose garden...This is fun, informative, and highly recommended. I've been reading and re-reading this for over a year now, just for the sheer fun of it.

I have nearly 100 rare and not-so-rare fragrances in my collection. Having this book helps me enjoy them even more. Even collectors who think they know fragrances can learn something from this book. It tells you which season and personal image the scent portrays, so when you wear a certain scent you can select the right clothing, jewelry, makeup and hairstyle to achieve a total look. It can also help you figure out if a scent is right for you, or why it is not. You can take John Oakes' suggestions seriously or not, but he is fun and entertaining. I have most of the fragrances in his book, but you'll enjoy reading it even if you have only 1 or 2 fragrances.

I realize that beginners have to start somewhere, but 99% of the bead books available seem to cater to the newest of the new: people who can't thread a beading needle, or need to be told what a seed bead is. And frankly, as I read the first chapter of Bracelets, Buttons and Brooches, I thought it was another one of the same. That is, until I got to the projects:

Yay! These projects are NOT for beginners, except for one or two at the beginning that appear to be put there so that an adavanced beginner who bought the wrong book won't take it back to the store. The rest of the instructions, while complete and thorough, don't assume that you can't tell a Delica from a Treasure or a Charlotte. And this book makes liberal use of all three, along with 11/0 beads, 15/0 seeds and 8/0 Delicas and seed beads.

I love the new (to me) methods of surrounding a cabochon with beading on both sides at the same time. The method is ingenious, and I gave myself one of those "why didn't I think of that" smacks in the head when I saw Ms. Davis' clear and easy to understand diagram. I was also thrilled when I looked at the twenty projects and realized that they were merely the springboard for many, many more projects simply by adding some of the steps in other projects or subtracting an edging or a bit of netting that is too fancy for the cabochon or button that you're using for that particular project. You can also fancy up a project to your heart's content with netting, edging and pretty links to the other focal beads in your project.

Ms. Davis assumes that the reader can follow a flat peyote pattern, knows netting, brick, ladder and peyote stitches (both flat and round), although she does give one of those one paragraph once overs at the beginning of the book. If you aren't familiar with all of these stitches, plus probably going from one stitch to another, you might want to wait before buying this book. But if you are an intermediate to "almost advanced" beader, you are going to leap for joy because there is finally a book with some new projects for the rest of us!

(I say "almost advanced" because there are advanced beaders who do loomwork in 24/0 beads in twenty shades of yellow, or think nothing of encasing a kitchen chair in Aiko beads. Those people don't need books. They write them, unless they are busy making beaded clothing from handmade beads they got on their last bead-gathering trip to the Yucatan. I'm exaggerating slightly, but people who are that advanced know who they are)

Most of all, the finished projects are pretty and can be finished in a weekend or less. Those are two big deal selling points to me, because I don't want to spend three months working on something that isn't mind-numbingly easy only to find out that using ten shades of taupe doesn't look so good. It also gives you a chance to use those cabochons that you bought because they were so beautiful then stored somewhere because beads without holes present challenges all their own. Or if you have a drawerful of beautiful buttons from your grandmother, and you'd like to make something beautiful that would remind you of her. If those things apply to you, then you will be very happy you spent the money on this book and will shriek at the spouse who says, "Another one of those freakin' books? I'm throwin' this out!" (Or maybe that's just me. I don't think a bookcase dedicated to beading books is too many, do you?) Just sayin'

To sum it up, if you're sick of the average "here's how to make an odd numbered peyote watchband" project, then this book is for you. It's a happy medium between so simple you can bead in your sleep and so tough that you're scared to buy the beads. Best of all, it teaches some very clever techniques that can be adapted to even more projects and you'll refer to the book again and again.

P.S.: The author mounts a lot of her cabochons on a backing, i.e., Lacy's Stiff Stuff/heavy interfacing/bonded felt. It would be a good idea to purchase a little bit of your favorite backing so you have it on hand when the book arrives. That way, you can jump right into beading your next masterpiece. You will also need a good quality white craft glue and a very good quality glue that dries clear and bonds anything to anything else.

A beautiful book of creative designs. Directions are detailed w/clear, colorful photos. Can't wait to start my own creation.

One can only concur with Jane Goodall when she says that this book is "both beautiful and profoundly disturbing"--partly, because it is, and partly because animals, in themselves, are "both beautiful and profoundly disturbing." Not only are we not altogether certain what it means to be human, but also we are not altogether certain what it means to be animal.

Frank Noelker is an associate professor of art at the University of Connecticut. His photographs of animals in zoos have been widely exhibited in both group and solo exhibitions. The design of the book is simple and straightforward. It says nothing about cameras, lenses, photographic techniques or f-stops. As well, it says almost nothing about Frank. The Forward by Jane Goodall and the Introduction by Nigel Rothfels provide its only text. Each of the fifty photographs bears a simple caption like this one: "Leopard, Tulsa, 2002."

What is most striking, from cover to cover, is the atmosphere of isolation. Nearly every photo shows a single animal in the very center of the picture. One gets the unmistakable feeling that the artist is relentlessly transgressing a fundamental rule of photography. Of course, there are a few exceptions; "Hippopotamus, Washington D.C., 1997" is one.

In this photograph, we see a hippopotamus on the left side of the picture, moving toward the center. In the center, we see a small, narrow and empty rectangle. Despite its great size, the Hippo does not compete with this diminutive symbol of emptiness; rather, he seems to be descending into the depths it represents.

The penguin photograph is another exception. In this photo, we see a penguin slightly off center. In the center, a vertical line, a stain, extends from top to bottom, from heaven to earth (or vice versa). The crucified penguin stands close to this mark, this stain, this hieratic symbol of mystery and sacrifice.

Even the photographs that include more than one animal exude a sense of unalleviated isolation. The two antelopes (the epitome of dignity and resignation) look as if they are quietly waiting for Godot. The baboon mother with its two babies might as well be sitting on the moon. The young baboon walking off to the left already knows everything there is to know about its world.

If, as Ortega y Gasset said, living consists in "having always to do something in order to bear oneself up" in the midst of circumstance, these photos show us something else. Can this be called `living'-when circumstance has been virtually nullified? Where is the "dynamic intricacy binding all things together...the system of relations in which all things are implanted...the "unity by co-implication?" ('Jose Ortega y Gasset's Metaphysical Innovation,' by Antonio Rodriquez Huescar) These animals have no projects and precious little circumstance. Their system of relations is vestigial at best.

Nigel Rothfels writes an excellent introductory essay on the subject of "Animals and Zoos and History." Even though this essay is valuable and well written, one should study the photos first. One should read the text only after an extensive contemplation of these beautiful but unsettling images.

In his essay, Rothfells quotes from a poem by Rainer Maria Rilke: `The Panther: Jardin des Plantes, Paris': "The bars which pass and strike across his gaze/ have stunned his sight: the eyes have lost their hold./ To him it seems there are a thousand bars./ a thousand bars and nothing else. No world."

Well put, Mr. Rilke: "No world!"-and "no dynamic intricacy binding all things together."

The book is sub-titled, `Zoo Portraits.' Nevertheless, these photographs are more than that: they are also portraits of us; they are portraits of human values and human awareness--or the sad lack thereof. There is much to learn from these quiet and unassuming photographs; and much that will be missed-partly because our vision and perception are limited, and partly because life is forever inexhaustible.

And, this wonderful inexhaustibility is the very essence of art.

I was surprised at how captivated I was once I opened the book. in the past, I've don't remember many photographs touching me except for those of Ansel Adams and Gordon Parks, whose images from a half century ago touch me in the new millenium. However Frank Noelker's portraits of zoo animals generated great sadness in me for these animals while at the same time instilling a greater appreciation for the freedoms we humans have, and at this time of desperation both here and abroad, seem too willing to sacrifice. I envy Frank Noelker for his courage. I imagine that to have spent ten years photographing animals at 300 zoos across the world must wear on his soul as well as his soles.

I read this book because I was considering a career in the cosmetology field and wanted to know the basics. This book has it all, from descriptions of the day-to-day job, to education and certification information, interviews with people who actually do the job, tips for how to write a resume and interview, etc.

I think this book would be great not only for career-switchers like me, but also for parents of children who are thinking about getting into cosmetology, and guidance counselors. It does reinforce that above all, cosmetology is a BUSINESS. Even though everyone who was interviewed in the book loves their job, they said that if you want to be successful it's not all about being glamorous and gossiping all day playing with products.

There is plenty of information all in one place about how to get started, including Web sites and telephone numbers. After reading it, I was excited and went to visit a local beauty college, something I never would have done before.

Nobody thought I should go into cosmetology. They said I would never finish the classes. They thought I should work at the grocery store where I was a cashier and just keep on there until I got to be a manager or something. But that isn't what I wanted to do. A friend gave me this book and after I read it I knew for sure that was what I should do. So I am still working at the store but only at night. In the day time I go to beauty college. Pretty soon I can get out of this grocery store and do what I want!