Beauty Books

Information correction. The 20 cards are not only from Fendi, they also contain Dior, Chanel, GUCCI, Prada...etc. You will like it very much.

I started collecting visionaire two years ago, I think #33, Touch, is the best issue throughout these two years. (It is even better than LV #30). The brushed golden metal box is shiny and grand. There are 20 Fendi 2000/2001 fashion desigen collection image cards, every card is produced by different printing techniques, for instance, foil-stamping, sculpt-embossing, 3D...etc, It is creative and beautiful. A wearable pony skin scarf is used for packing the 20 cards in order to put them inside the golden metal box. This scarf is definitely the image of Fendi fashion style. Both scarf, golden box and image card are very match in colour and style. It is a perfect art design except it is a little bit expensive. (Actually, I really hope to cancel half star of the 5 I rated above because of the higher price) However, I still don't know how to wear the scarf. Anyway, if you like collecting beautiful creative design product and you can afford, buy it. I think you will like it because it is a full marks-5 star product.

The book is organized into two parts: by decade, and by designer. In the decades section, 6-8 pages of text and picture describe the main trends of the time, naming some popular designers, showing great examples of fashion photography, illustration, and art. Things discussed: historical influences, textiles, hemlines, changes from the previous decade, colors, trends, etc.

The section in alphabetical order, by designer, features a wealth of designers from the turn of the century to the late 90's and has pictures from some of the more famous ones. It briefly describes their careers, which house they worked for, when applicable, the gist of their style, any innovations or contributions they made to the world of fashion, and more. This is a good reference book to have if your passion is design or fashion, and the colorful, clear layout makes it fun to browse through.

"Vogue Fashion" is a survey of pictures seen on the pages of Vogue magazine from the early 1900s to 2000. The first part of the book is fashion divided by decade. It is fascinating to see the 20th century fashion evolution through the decades. The last part of the book is divided by designer, with a brief text detailing their design contribution to fashion. The book is richly illustrated and fascinating as well as fun to flip through.

To obtain the full transltaion one has to order both the volumes.
ISBN 0-913546-86-0 paperback volume 1
ISBN 0-913546-87-9 paperback volume 2
The translation has been made from French into English and then checked with the orignal in Tibetan and Sanskrit.

This is based on the Lalitavistara Sutra, which is a traditional telliing of the Buddha Shakyamuni's lifestory written around 2,000 years ago. It starts with his two previous lifetimes, and ends at the time he delivers his first teachings after attaining enlightenment.

The translation is beautifully done, with some very lyrical passages. Those of you who have read other original Buddhist sutras and scriptures may be surprised to find how 'flowery' this is, but it's a delightful change of pace from some of the more repetitive traditional scriptures.

The book also has some gorgeous full-page full-color images (with tissue paper covers to protect them) between some sections that make it worth the unusually high price.

One caveat: if you don't know anything about Buddhism, you might find the more accessible style of Thich Nhat Hahn's "Old Path White Clouds" a little more comprehensible, but if you already have a basic idea of what Buddhism's all about, then the Lalitavistara would be a great addition to your library.

We received Don't Wake the Baby when my daughter was 2 and we immediately bought Wake Up Sleeping Beauty as well. My daughter still loves these books -- she is now 5 -- and my now 2 year old daughter asks to read them over and over again. The books are so charming, that my husband and I don't mind!

This is a book with tabs on each page which causes the characters to move and accompanying sounds to occur. The storylines are funny, the movements are imaginative, and the sounds are terrific. The only problem is that it's easy for little fingers to tear the tabs and pages with their enthusiasm or, in our case, sheer repetition, even though the pages are heavy stock.

I have a nursery school with children ages 18 months to 5 years. "Wake Up Sleeping Beauty" catches the attention of all of them and they listen motionless as each teacher tells her version of the story.

ISBN 0394927982 (5 stars) - Keep in mind that Disney's Wonderful World of Reading books are intended to help youngsters start reading on their own, because this book isn't meant for the advanced reader. The story is shortened and altered somewhat and the text is simplified using easy vocabulary words. The graphics are part of the story in these books, as well, making it easy for young readers to see what's happening as they learn to read.

The entire set is standard Disney - bright, beautiful graphics to catch kids' eyes and pull them into the wonderful world of reading!

ISBN 0785300252 (3 stars) - Since this is the second version of Sleeping Beauty that I've read recently, I thought I'd merge the reviews for comparison. The one thing that makes Jane Jerrard's adaptation for the Fairy Tale Treasury series is the almost pocket-size, perfect for taking along when you're out of the house. The illustrations by Burgandy Nilles are nice and, considering how small they are, surprisingly detailed. They are generally much less vibrantly colored than the Disney illustrations. This version is all right, but just doesn't compare to the Disney edition.

The story is the same, essentially, in both books. After years of wishing for a child, the King and Queen finally have a girl who, other than Princess and later Sleeping Beauty, has no name. Fairies (the number varies) come to the celebration of her birth and bestow good things upon her, except for one fairy who wasn't invited (details vary). Her gift to the child is a promise that she will die when she is sixteen years old, after pricking her finger on a spindle. This terrible curse cannot be removed but one last fairy has a gift left to give and softens the curse so that the Princess will sleep until kissed by a Prince, rather than die. Her father's efforts to thwart the curse do no good and the curse comes true years later. The fairy who'd lightened the curse puts the rest of the castle's residents to sleep and grows a magical forest around it to protect them until the right Prince comes along. When he does, happiness and life are restored to the castle and the Prince and Princess marry.

- AnnaLovesBooks

This book, created by Disney, does not follow exactly the same plot line as Disney's movie does. In this version a princess is born, and the Queen decides to give a party. Many people are invited to the party, as well as three fairies. At the party, right after the first two fairies had given their gifts, an evil fairy that wasn't invited bursts in and says the princess will die in her 16th year. Then she disappears. The third fairy, the one who hasn't given her gift yet, changes it so that she will only sleep until a prince rescues her. Sure enough, she pricks her finger on a spindle, and falls asleep until a prince rescues her. No mention is made of her life between the day she was born and the day she pricks her finger, which annoys me, but is not necessary to the plot.

The illustrations are very like the animated movie, but slightly simpler. For the most part the illustrations are very expressive, and do a wonderful job of conveying the intended expression. There is one instance however, where it looks as if the prince's horse is trying to flirt with the dragon the prince in trying to slay, and I doubt that this was intentional.

The wording is simple, straightforward, and it flows well. The sentences tend to be short, but that doesn't impede the flow much, or at all detract from the book, which is very good.

I must give Disney credit for actually having a spindle to prick her finger on. All too often books have pictures of a small spinning wheel with a design that has no spindle. This wheel, while it is a small one, has a spindle on it to help with spinning flax, so it is actually possible for her to have pricked her finger on the wheel shown. Good job Disney!

Loggie-log-log-log

This was the first novel I have read by Eric Bogosian (I'm currently reading Mall), and I am hooked. His beautiful writing as the three main characters (Billy, Rick and Reba) and the ability to switch between all three to first person will keep you reading. As the reader, you develop sincere feeling for these characters, even though on the outside they look like a raging alcoholic, a drug addicted model and a cheating husband. Bogosian dives deeper into each of their brains, making it a must read!

If I were to compare Bogosian's first novel, Mall: A Novel, to his play subUrbia then I would also make a comparison between 'Wasted Beauty' and his recent play 'Red Angel'. The Jeff of both Mall and subUrbia were two closely related characters, much like the leading men in Wasted Beauty and Red Angel. In print, however, Bogosian is able to delve deeper into the characters' inner thoughts. When reading his work, one can just tell that Bogosian is an actor -- he often follows dialogue directly with subtext, which I liked. Rick, the main character in 'Beauty', actually has roots that go much further back in Bogosian's work than 'Angel'. He is reminiscent of the peeping-tom in Mall, who was a descendent of Bogosian's recovering-male-character from his solos. If you've been following his work, I would say you will definitely appreciate this book, and if you haven't, now's a good time to start.

I've long been a fan of David Swanger's work. I love how the straightforward simplicity of his poems' language and structures releases nuanced emotion. His maturity, as a poet and as a person, results in poems that shimmer with the mysteries of "the big questions," while cloaked in the most ordinary and intimate of interactions.

While thinking about this review, it occurred to me that "Wayne's College of Beauty" can be viewed, in part, as a modern man's journey through the "Seven Stages of Life." Some of the poems reach back to when his children were young, such as "My Daughter's Morning," "her sparkle is as the edge of new/ice on leafed pools, while I/am soggy, tepid; old toast." (This poem, as well as "Patriarch of the Lake," has been featured by Garrison Keillor on "Writer's Almanac.") In "Longer," a teenage daughter struggles with her questions about death as she talks with her father in the middle of the night. "The girl/glistens, a rosy dolphin riding/swells of seamless youth and health,/yet she worries.../If sleep has an opposite, it is/not waking, but the imagination." At the other end of the scale are poems that capture, with equal honesty and perception, the confusion, loss, and tender sweetness of a parent aging. I think of my own mother as I read "The Lessons": "Fathers diminish like fallen snow."

And then there is the voice of "something else" (knowledge? experience? imagination?) present in the very last poem of the book, "What the Wing Says," perhaps Swanger's greatest, and most mysterious. How simply it appears to speak: "Dismiss the grocer of your soul./Nothing important can be weighed." But how far it wants to take us -- I almost said "unimaginably" far, but that's the opposite of what the poem is asking. "Does the future move in only one direction?/Think how roots find their way, how hair spreads/on the pillow, how watercolors give birth to light./Think how dangerous I am, because of what I offer you."

David Swanger may be formally retired from teaching, but his lessons keep coming every time we open his books.

Here is a poet who has not received the acclaim he so deserves. Yes he has some respectable awards... he is, afterall, a professor Emeritus at UCSC ...and a Harvard grad; but why hasnt the poetic community realized his genius and bestowed more honors upon this man; especially when reading this book... I suppose its true that many great poets arent discovered until they die... but if you want to catch him in life... I suggest you read this NOW. Swanger's poems are a gift to us; embrace that gift.

This is a wonderful little book; very readable and wise. It is a great gift for people in their early 20's who are secretly searching for that bit of advice or direction that could make a difference in how they decide to move forward in life. In fact, people in their 40's and 50's etc., are touched by its directness and compassion. "What Do You Know" contains 53 vignettes about all aspects of life, but this is more than a book of quotes. In "What Do You Know, " Jeanetts Spires creates a solid, accessible container for the insight it carries.

With its "bite-sized" essays and life-affirming themes, this book is an easy and enjoyable read. I especially loved the entry by the brilliant Amish entrepreneur. Although this book is anything but "preachy," it is nonetheless an encouragement to living life with the big picture in mind. A high school kid could breeze through this book and benefit from the reading before he or she knew it. An entirely friendly and fun exercise in learning from those who have looked back on their journey with understanding... and wish to share that understanding with those who will listen.

It's a thoughtful, honest, pleasant review of what every woman should have and what every woman should know. I've shared mine with close friends and family. It's unanimously appreciated.

My girlfriend gave me this book and I loved it. It's great for mothers, sisters, friends, etc.. any woman would love this. The how to's and what every woman should have are hilarious and very true to heart.

This is one of our families favorite books. My 16 month old son just loves it. In simple, flowing sentences and wonderfully painted portraits, the beauty in each and every person is made evident. And best of all is the mirror on the last page that asks, "what is beautiful about you?"

Finding the beauty in yourself is a gift that this book bestows...Maryjean and David Avery help all people celebrate...celebrate how beautiful each and every person is by giving this book...I give it to celebrate newborns, and those awfully hard 30, 40 & 50 milestones!!!!