Lovehampton

LoveHampton

From Publishers Weekly:
In Rifkin's dazzling debut, Manhattanite media pro Tori Miller shares a posh Hamptons summerhouse with five upwardly mobile 30-somethings. Wanting out of the depressing slide her life takes after being dumped by her first love and losing her dream job, Tori starts MillerWorks, her own TV production company. Still, Tori's depressed, bringing about an intervention staged by her loyal employees, Jerry and Jimmy, her best friend Alice and the Transformation Trio—three make-over experts who use Tori as the pilot subject for their new reality TV show. Tori flirts with a glamming lifestyle, and her fling with George, a rich playboy with a publicist, while she's also secretly canoodling with a housemate, banker Andrew Kane, is a recipe for disaster. Tori must think fast on her borrowed Manolos, especially when Cassie Dearborn, her new friend and housemate, needs help with her own disastrous Hampton hijinxs. Hotter than a sand dune in August, cooler than a mojito in South Beach (or Southhampton), this book will appeal to Sex and the City fans and summer beach readers alike.

More on Bringing Home the Birkin

{ The author Michael Tonello & Peggy Siegal}

The St. Regis Birkin Brigade

How does one avoid the notorious Birkin waitlist? With their requisite status bags in tow, a slew of socials gathered Monday afternoon at the St. Regis to find out just that. Hosts Jill Fairchild and Melissa Biggs Bradley invited their friends in the Astor Court to celebrate Michael Tonello's new book Bringing Home The Birkin: My Life in Hot Pursuit of The World's Most Coveted Handbag, which hit shelves April 22. It is certainly a theme that the crowd, which included Jennifer Creel, Gillian Miniter, and Susan Gutfreund, could relate to. "I was offered Ferraris for the day and New York City penthouse apartments for the month," said Tonello of the outrageous gifts he was given for his Birkin finding services. "I accumulated over 100 stamps on my passport and spent $1.6 million at Hermès in a three month period."

After explaining the origins of the iconic bag, his global Birkin buying tour, and the ways in which one can attempt to "cut the line," Tonello took questions. "What are your thoughts on the Ralph Lauren Ricky bag that Whitney [Fairchild] is carrying?" Peggy Siegal asked. "Don't you think it's awfully similar to the Birkin?" Fairchild took the surprise outburst in stride. "Remember, I work for Ralph Lauren," she retorted. Marina Rust Connor was quick to come to her defense. "The hardware is completely different," she observed.

From FWD

The Trench Book

The Trench Book

The English American

The English American: A Novel

From Publishers Weekly:
Based on her semi-autobiographical one-woman show of the same title, Larkin's debut novel takes a comedic but heartfelt look at issues of identity, heredity and self-acceptance. Pippa Dunn—British, 28 and living with her sister in West London—loves her adoptive parents dearly, but has rarely felt at home with the primness and very British emotional restraint with which she was raised, as her funny, anxious narration demonstrates. When Pippa discovers that her birth mother, Billie, is an American (from Georgia, no less) she feels compelled to travel to the U.S. to meet the the sweet, understanding, empathetic ethereal mother she's always imagined. Not surprisingly, both Billie and Pippa's birth father, Walt, fail to live up to her imagined ideals. Although Larkin's premise leads to worthy reflections in Pippa's winning voice, awkward attempts to marry the birth-mother search to a conventional romantic comedy plot are less successful. Through a midbook e-mail exchange, we learn that Pippa met her soul mate, Nick (now a banker in Singapore), in a London park seven years before, but wasn't ready to feel love. Nick the banker-cum-painter is far too tortured and emotive to be believable, and the ensuing romantic revelations are predictable. Pippa, however, is a complex, compelling character—truly an amalgam of her heredity and her environment—and readers will root for her as she uncovers her roots and finds herself.

Michael Tonello's Event Schedule for Bringing Home the Birkin

Friday, April 25
07:00 AM - 09:00 AM
Michael Tonello will be promoting Bringing Home the Birkin
CBS-TV/Early Show


Wednesday, April 30
06:00 PM
Michael Tonello will be promoting Bringing Home the Birkin
Fashion Institute of Technology
28th St @ 7th Ave FIT/Reeves Great Hall New York, NY 10001


Friday, May 02
08:00 PM
Michael Tonello will be promoting Bringing Home the Birkin
BOOKS & BOOKS
265 Aragon AVE Coral Gables, FL 33134


Saturday, May 03
04:00 PM
Michael Tonello will be promoting Bringing Home the Birkin
BOOKS & BOOKS/at Bal Harbour
9700 Collins AVE Bal Harbour, FL 33154


Sunday, May 04
02:00 PM
Michael Tonello will be promoting Bringing Home the Birkin
BORDERS BOOKS & MUSIC
3066 NW Federal Hwy Jensen Beach, FL 34957


Monday, May 05
06:00 PM
Michael Tonello will be promoting Bringing Home the Birkin
BORDERS, BACK BAY
511 Boylston ST Boston, MA 02116


Wednesday, May 07
05:30 PM - 07:30 PM
Michael Tonello will be promoting Bringing Home the Birkin
THE CORNER GENERAL STORE
154 Middle Street Portland, ME 04101


Saturday, May 10
01:30 PM
Michael Tonello will be promoting Bringing Home the Birkin
Mellenia Mall/Atria Area, Center of Mall
Walden Books 4200 Conroy Road SPC 203 Orlando, FL 32839


Friday, June 06
11:00 AM
Michael Tonello will be promoting Bringing Home the Birkin
Island Outfitters presents/Michael Tonello
Island Outfitters 473 Thames Street Newport, RI 02840

Bringing Home the Birkin

Just wanted to remind anyone who's interested that Bringing Home the Birkin: My Life in Hot Pursuit of the World's Most Coveted Handbag is now available! A must read for fashionistas and Hermes lovers. See my previous review here.

Russian Tycoon to Launch Magazine for Snobs

Saw this on Luxist...funny because the author of the entry is Jared Paul Stern (formerly of the NY Post). The picture on the blog is from the Smirnoff's Tea Partay video.

Russian precious metals mogul Mikhail Prokhorov, ranked as the 24th richest man in the world with a $22 billion fortune, is set to launch a magazine called Snob for his fellow plutocrats. Prokhorov plans to invest $150 million in the venture, which will eventually include a website and TV station as well, Reuters reports. Andrei Shmarov, who's helming the project, says the magazine will be for "people who are successful and those who want to be successful."

Shmarov is at pains to point out that in Russia, "snob" isn't a pejorative term. "Snob to us means a person who is a 'self-made man', a person who has gained a right to snobbishness," he explains. "It's not pleasant to boast about your wealth when you have inherited it but when you have made it yourself, well it is still not very nice, but it is justified." At least in a country where a measly billion dollars won't even land you a spot on the rich list. Check out the other magazines for snobs here.

For the record, I only receive Quest. It was free when I lived in NYC but when I moved I subscribed. However, my subscription ran out awhile ago but I keep getting it.

Wharton's House Wins a Reprieve

In case you've been following the story (from the NYTimes):

The Mount, Edith Wharton’s house in Lenox, Mass., which has been in financial trouble for months, has been given another reprieve. In February a local bank that had been lending money to the Edith Wharton Restoration, the organization that owns and maintains the house, to cover operating expenses, threatened to begin foreclosure unless the Mount raised $3 million by March 24. The deadline was later extended to April 24, and Hannah Burns, one of the trustees, said on Wednesday that it had been pushed back yet another month, to May 24, which means that the house will now be able to open for visitors as scheduled on May 9. So far more than $800,000 of the needed sum has been raised.

Girls in Trucks

Girls in Trucks: Sarah Walters is a less-than-perfect debutante. She tries hard to follow the time-honored customs of the Charleston Camellia Society, as her mother and grandmother did, standing up straight in Cotillion class and attending lectures about all the things that Camellias don't do (like ride with boys in pickup trucks).

But Sarah can't quite ignore the barbarism just beneath all that propriety, and as soon as she can she leaves South Carolina for a life in New York City. Th ere, she and her fellow displaced Southern friends try to make sense of city sophistication, to understand how much of their training applies to real life and how much to the strange and rarefied world they've left behind.

When life's complications become overwhelming, Sarah returns home to confront with matured eyes the motto "Once a Camellia, always a Camellia"—and to see how much fuller life can be, for good and for ill, among those who know you best.

{Book Description from author's publisher.}

If you want to know what I've read...

...or am reading make sure to click on My Amazon Store on the right ----->. Feel free to ask me what I've read and if I loved it or hated it. I often forget to come back and review them!

The Red Leather Diary

The Red Leather Diary: Reclaiming a Life through the Pages of a Lost Journal

Playing with the Grown-ups

Playing With the Grown-ups: A Novel

Eccentric Glamour Book Signing

{Click to enlarge}

Chasing Harry Winston

Pre-order now! Chasing Harry Winston: A Novel: The bestselling author of The Devil Wears Prada and Everyone Worth Knowing returns with the story of three best friends who vow to change their entire lives...and change them fast.

Emmy is newly single, and not by choice. She was this close to the ring and the baby she's wanted her whole life when her boyfriend left her for his twenty-three-year-old personal trainer -- whose fees are paid by Emmy. With her plans for the perfect white wedding in the trash, Emmy is now ordering takeout for one. Her friends insist an around-the-world sex-fueled adventure will solve all her problems -- could they be right?

Leigh, a young star in the publishing business, is within striking distance of landing her dream job as senior editor and marrying her dream guy. And to top it all off, she has just purchased her dream apartment. Only when Leigh begins to edit the enfant terrible of the literary world, the brilliant and brooding Jesse Chapman, does she start to notice some cracks in her perfect life...

Adriana is the drop-dead-gorgeous daughter of a famous supermodel. She possesses the kind of feminine wiles made only in Brazil, and she never hesitates to use them. But she's about to turn thirty and -- as her mother keeps reminding her -- she won't have her pick of the men forever. Everyone knows beauty is ephemeral and there's always someone younger and prettier right around the corner. Suddenly she's wondering...does Mother know best?

These three very different girls have been best friends for a decade in the greatest city on earth. As they near thirty, they're looking toward their future...but despite all they've earned -- first-class travel, career promotions, invites to all the right parties, and luxuries small and large -- they're not quite sure they like what they see...

One Saturday night at the Waverly Inn, Adriana and Emmy make a pact: within a single year, each will drastically change her life. Leigh watches from the sidelines, not making any promises, but she'll soon discover she has the most to lose. Their friendship is forever, but everything else is on the table. Three best friends. Two resolutions. One year to pull it off.

Three Girls and Their Brother

Three Girls and Their Brother: A Novel: Here's a synopsis from Publisher's Weekly: Rebeck has won an Edgar and a Peabody for her TV work and numerous awards for her plays. Her hilarious first novel begins when the New Yorker profiles the three beautiful granddaughters and grandson of a famed late literary critic, Leo Heller. As a perennially aspiring model, Daria, 18, is ecstatic. Her younger sister, Polly, 17, is thrilled, too, but 14-year-old Amelia could care less. Philip, 15, who is the smartest of the group, is the first of the four to assume the first-person narrative; he's wary of all the attention, but the siblings' former beauty queen mom can't wait to take advantage of the publicity and push her daughters into show biz, even if it means sacrificing their schooling. Rebeck shines when Amelia gets cast in a ridiculous off-Broadway play: her insider's look at the theater world is spot on and uproarious, particularly her contrast of poor starving actors with rich starving models and of theater types with Hollywood types. The siblings' voices are not consistently strong, and an over-the-top revenge plot drains some power from the plot, but the crackling satire and scene-stealing secondaries carry the book.

Coterie Bookstore on Amazon.com

I have compiled most of the books I have posted and added a few more to the mix. It's categorized and a little easier to find what you're looking for - so visit my store!

Autobiography of a Wardrobe

Autobiography of a Wardrobe:

The wholly original story of a woman's life told from her wardrobe's point of view, in the wardrobe's own savvy, vibrant voice--a feat of the imagination as emotionally subtle and stirring as it is dazzlingly particular.

We first meet B., the wardrobe's owner, as a child in the buttoned-up Midwest of the 1950s, when "a vision of a saddle shoe" comes into her head and she discovers the urgency of all clothing dreams. We follow B. through her awkward, pudgy stage ("Here I must write about the stomach"); the indignity of camp shorts; her "adult figure arriv[ing] suddenly in 1963." The 1960s bring even bigger changes when B. goes off to Harvard, discards her girdle, and discovers... Marimekko! Miniskirts! Bell-bottoms!

Elizabeth Kendall's native intelligence and gift for storytelling entrance the reader, as the wardrobe charts the most important events in B.'s life and the outfits she assembles for each. We watch as B. copes with the untimely death of her mother; makes a go of magazine work--and glamour--in New York; and, after the inevitable false starts and wrong moves (including, of course, in her choice of clothing), finally comes into her own.

Part memoir, part fashion and cultural history of the last five decades, Autobiography of a Wardrobe is an exploration of the clothes each generation has embraced, the smallest details in which we are able to seek comfort and meaning, and the places and things--sometimes odd or unexpected--in which we store our memories.