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Friday, May 29, 2009

Kids Books: Catie Copley

I found out about these books via Melissa's blog - she recently stayed in Boston at the Copley and blogged about Catie. So cute!
Catie Copley has a very special job - she is canine ambassador at a big, beautiful hotel in Boston. She lives with Jim, who also works at the hotel, and spends her days in the lobby sleeping, eating, greeting people, chasing balls, and sleeping some more.

People are always coming and going and sometimes they need her special skills - such as a really great sense of smell and a dog's-eye view of the hotel - to help them out. When Tess, a guest at the hotel, loses her favorite bear, Catie knows that her moment of canine glory has come. Not only must she cheer up Tess, but she also has to sneak away to find the bear, lost somewhere in the maze of back rooms, before Tess has to go home.

The adventures of Catie Copley are based on the real-life experiences of a small black labrador, originally trained as a guide dog. She had a career change and is now a member of the guest services team at the storied Fairmont Copley Plaza, where she shares her unique brand of hospitality daily. A portion of the proceeds from this book benefits the Guide Dog Foundation for the Blind.

Catie Copley's Great Escape

Catie Copley is a black Labrador retriever who lives an unusual life as Canine Ambassador at the Fairmont Copley Plaza Hotel in Boston. Her job includes welcoming guests, taking them for walks, and helping Jim at his job as the hotel's Chief Concierge. Santol, who trained as a guide dog, just like Catie, is her canine counterpart at the Fairmont Le Chateau Frontenac in Quebec City, Canada.

Catie, a very lady-like dog, is surprised when, one day, a large, furry, black-and-white intruder snatches her toy lobster and runs away with it. She is taken aback, but once she gets to know the rambunctious Santol they become firm friends. When Jim drives Santol back to Canada, Catie is very excited to go too.

This is Catie's first vacation and her first time in a strange city where they speak a different language. Santol introduces her to a famous goat, a friendly horse, a clumsy juggler, and intriguing new foods and smells. Catie finds that there is a lot of opportunity for adventure... maybe a little too much adventure.

A portion of the proceeds from the sale of this book in America will be donated to NEADS / Dogs for Deaf and Disabled Americans, based in Princeton, Massachusetts. Since 1976, NEADS has trained more than 1,000 service dogs to assist deaf or physically disabled individuals. For more information, please visit the NEADs website. A portion of the Canadian proceeds will be donated to mira, based near Montreal, Canada. The mira Foundation trains more than 150 guide dogs each year to help people with visual, auditory, and physical disabilities.

Book: The Sequel

I love the idea of this - see LA Times Blog for more info!

You can pre-order Book: The Sequel: First lines from the classics of the future by Inventive Imposters @Amazon.com.

Monday, May 25, 2009

Don't Tell Alfred

I think this book is only available in the UK/Europe but I just love the cover image!

Coco Chanel/Summer 62


Mademoiselle: Coco Chanel/Summer 62 --"Images left behind are in the end stronger than truth and facts. Through Douglas Kirkland's images we can imagine what the famous Coco had been all about before she became the formidable Chanel," muses Karl Lagerfeld in Mademoiselle, a selection of photographs of Chanel taken by Douglas Kirkland in 1962 on assignment in Paris for the American magazine Look. Lagerfeld is the designer currently at the helm of the Parisian fashion house, made iconic by designer Coco Chanel during her long reign, from 1909-1971--and the designer of this handsome edition as well. Through his introduction and captions to these photographs, we understand how important Chanel's image has been to the success of the century-old French couture line. Kirkland, a Los Angeles-based photographer famous for his portrayals of Chanel and Marilyn Monroe, gives us a glimpse of the sympathetic character beneath the hard-working fashion doyenne's ever-impeccable exterior, with his elegant shots of Mademoiselle leaving her suite at the Ritz Hotel, in her apartment and studio at 31 rue Cambon and watching a runway show from the apartment's famous mirrored staircase.

Thursday, May 21, 2009

The Late, Lamented Molly Marx

The Late, Lamented Molly Marx: A Novel -- The circumstances of Molly Marx’s death may be suspicious, but she hasn’t lost her joie de vivre. Newly arrived in the hereafter, aka the Duration, Molly, thirty-five years old, is delighted to discover that she can still keep tabs on those she left behind: Annabel, her beloved four-year-old daughter; Lucy, her combustible twin sister; Kitty, her piece-of-work mother-in-law; Brie, her beautiful and steadfast best friend; and, of course, her husband, Barry, a plastic surgeon with more than a professional interest in many of his female patients. As a bonus, Molly quickly realizes that the afterlife comes with a finely tuned bullshit detector.

As Molly looks on, her loved ones try to discern whether her death was an accident, suicide, or murder. She was last seen alive leaving for a bike ride through New York City’s Riverside Park; her body was found lying on the bank of the Hudson River. Did a stranger lure Molly to danger? Did she plan to meet someone she thought she could trust? Could she have ended her own life for mysterious reasons, or did she simply lose control of her bike? As the police question her circle of intimates, Molly relives the years and days that led up to her sudden end: her marriage, troubled yet tender; her charmed work life as a magazine decorating editor; and the irresistible colleague to whom she was drawn.

More than anything, Molly finds herself watching over Annabel–and realizing how motherhood helped to bring out her very best self. As the investigation into her death proceeds, Molly will relive her most precious moments–and take responsibility for the choices in her life.

Exploring the bonds of fidelity, family, and friendship, and narrated by a memorable and endearing character, The Late, Lamented Molly Marx is a hilarious, deeply moving, and thought-provoking novel that is part mystery, part love story, and all heart.
Sally Koslow is also the author of Little Pink Slips which is a great beach read!

Wednesday, May 20, 2009

Tony Duquette: More is More!

Good news for Tony D.'s design fans!
Coming October 1st - pre-order your More Is More: Tony Duquette
now because I think the last one sold out pretty quick!

Source: Abrams

Monday, May 18, 2009

The Model as Muse: Embodying Fashion

The Model as Muse: Embodying Fashion explores fashion’s reciprocal relationship to iconic beauties that represent the evolution and changing face of the feminine ideal. Featuring a brief historical overview of the phenomenon of the supermodel, the book begins in the early 20th century and continues to the present day. Dorian Leigh and Lisa Fonssagrives in the 1940s are joined in the 1950s by Dovima, Sunny Harnett, and Suzy Parker. They are followed by Jean “The Shrimp” Shrimpton and Twiggy in the 1960s and Lauren Hutton in the 1970s. The 1980s witnessed such enduring personalities as Cindy Crawford, Christy Turlington, Naomi Campbell, and Linda Evangelista, while the 1990s brought on Kate Moss, whose edgy, street-inflected style has inspired not only fashion designers, editors, stylists, and photographers, but artists such as Chuck Close and Lucien Freud.

With an emphasis on styles from the 1950s onward, the book features designs from the great ready-to-wear and couture houses—Madame Grès, Christian Dior, and Balenciaga in the 1950s; Rudi Gernreich, Yves Saint Laurent, and Cardin in the 1960s; Giorgio di Sant’Angelo and Halston in the 1970s; Christian Lacroix, Versace, Comme des Garcons, and Calvin Klein in the 1980s; and Marc Jacobs, John Galliano, and Alexander McQueen in the 1990s.

Metropolitan Museum's Costume Institute Explores Role of Fashion Models as Muses of Recent Eras
Exhibition dates: May 6–August 9, 2009




Saturday, May 16, 2009

Eiffel’s Tower


NY Times Review of Eiffel's Tower: And the World's Fair Where Buffalo Bill Beguiled Paris, the Artists Quarreled, and Thomas Edison Became a Count
By Jill Jonnes
Viking, 354 pages. $27.95 hardcover.

In 1940, when Hitler wanted to announce that his armies had crushed the French, his handlers posed him against the backdrop of the Eiffel Tower. The Nazis intuited that even in a nation crowded with landmarks, no other photo op would as effectively convey their duplicitous message. Yes, the Führer was now Europe’s unopposable conqueror, but he was also like everyone else, just another tourist enchanted by the sights of Paris.

Jill Jonnes’s popular history of this monument dwells on the hoopla surrounding its design and erection as centerpiece for the vast 1889 Exposition Universelle. During an era of imperial wealth and technological marvels, building an expensive four-legged iron sculpture on the banks of the Seine struck only a few as a waste. Grumbling from the spoilsports soon gave way to raptures about the “the visible logic” and the “abstract and algebraic beauty” of the useless structure. Well, not entirely useless. Images of the tower helped to sell souvenirs from handkerchiefs to snuff boxes to umbrellas to chocolate.

Ms. Jonnes does a fine job of walking us through the fair, where visitors were immersed in a typical late-19th-century stew of high-minded educational exhibits and cheap thrills. Arab orchestras and engine manufacturers vied for visitors’ attention with performances by singers and Buffalo Bill’s Wild West show, featuring Annie Oakley. You could tour the grounds by rickshaw or railroad.

Above it all, literally, was Gustave Eiffel, who entertained a cast of royals and business celebrities in his apartment at the top of the tower. One begrudging admirer was Thomas Edison, there to make sure his phonograph received constant notice.

The book tries to make the meeting of these personalities at the fair into a drama of “passions, ambitions, rivalries, gaiety and pleasures.” Even the van Gogh brothers are enlisted for this dubious purpose. Eiffel’s life was colorful enough — he was the greatest railroad bridge designer of the age and central to the botched French effort to build the Panama Canal — there seems little need to turn the events of 1889 into “Grand Hotel.”

The tallest artificial structure until it was dethroned about 40 years later by the Chrysler Building, Eiffel’s tower in retrospect appears to have been less a daring feat of structural engineering like the Brooklyn Bridge and more like a fabulously vulgar work of art. It is still one of a kind, aloof from surviving architecture of the time, which may be one reason it remains the defining symbol of Paris.

Friday, May 15, 2009

Avedon Fashion 1944-2000 ICP Exhibition Catalogue

Avedon Fashion 1944-2000 encompasses seven decades of extraordinary images by Richard Avedon, the most influential fashion photographer of the 20th century. This comprehensive volume offers a definitive survey, from Avedon's groundbreaking early photographs for Harper's Bazaar through his constantly inventive contributions to Vogue, Egoïste, and The New Yorker. Each carefully selected image represents an artistic collaboration with significant models, stylists, and designers. Avedon Fashion accompanies the first major exhibition to survey this body of work, at the International Center of Photography in May 2009. With critical essays by Carol Squiers, curator at the ICP, and photography critic Vince Aletti, as well as an appreciation by photo-historian Philippe Garner, Avedon Fashion chronicles an astonishing record of photographic achievement.

I have most of Avedon's books because I worked on a few in my publishing career. Woman in the Mirror: 1945-2004 is really fabulous but so are most of the Avedon books. They are beautifully produced and definitely worth the money.

For exhibition information click here. It runs from May 15–September 6, 2009. I am definitely going to NYC soon to catch this one since I missed the David Seidner exhibit (didn't even know about it!) and "The Model as Muse" at the MET.

For recent articles and reviews in the NY Times click here, here, and here!

Wednesday, May 13, 2009

Shoes!

Beth Levine Shoes -- If you love shoes—and who doesn't?—you know that nothing says as much about a woman’s style as her taste in footwear. Long before Jimmy Choo and Christian Louboutin, Beth Levine was designing shoes that were objects of desire and even lust.
Levine, who introduced mules, stilettos, and fashion boots to the American market, was a visionary. Born a farmgirl, she took her design inspiration from nature—and everything else: auto racing, patchwork quilts, even the 1969 moon landing. Fashion-forward and exquisitely constructed, Levine’s shoes were worn by stars like Marilyn Monroe and Barbra Streisand, favored by designers like Halston, Oscar de la Renta, and Geoffrey Beene, and collected by Azzedine Alaïa and Manolo Blahnik.
This book’s full-color photos of Levine’s creations—from vinyl cowboy boots to sublime black silk pumps—display her shoes as touchstones of glamour and, ultimately, works of art.

About the author: Helene Verin is a designer of shoes, wallpaper, rugs, pillows, and tiles, and her work has appeared in countless books and publications. Verin is an adjunct professor at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York City, where she lives, and is a recognized expert on Beth Levine.

Monday, May 11, 2009

Hedge Fund Wives

Hedge Fund Wives -- In this amazingly timely story about what the wealthy do when Wall Street lays an egg, the author of Gilding Lily once again delivers a witty and insightful treatment of today's woman, as she explores the sacrifices they make, the bargains they strike, the rules they follow, and what happens when it all starts to fall apart.

Who could have guessed that Wall Street would go south just as Marcy Emerson and her husband moved east? Down to earth Marcy relocated from Chicago to New York when her husband was offered a big time job as a hedge fund manager.

She gives up her own job—after all, hedge fund wives don't work! And while at first it's fun to shop all day and party all night, Marcy quickly learns that life among the rich can be anything but easy and that behind every smile can be a stab in the back.

Still, it's not until her husband leaves her for his thinner, blonder mistress—a woman who is higher up the social ladder than the original Mrs. Emerson will ever be—that Marcy decides to stand on her own two feet once again, and fight for the things that are far more important than money.

You can pre-order now - this title will be released on May 5, 2009.

Sunday, May 10, 2009

Hot Gossip

"GOSSIP Girl" fans are about to get a treat. The author of the best-selling novels, Cecily von Ziegesar, has an "epic" "Gossip Girl" novel out this fall called "Gossip Girl: I Will Always Love You." In it, Serena, Blair, Nate, Chuck, Dan, Vanessa and Jenny return from college to their Upper East Side haunts to wreak havoc on each other. Publisher Cindy Eagan says, "The characters are tracked as they . . . figure out what it means to grow up -- or not. A lot can change over four years, but in the end some things never do."

Source: NY Post - Page Six

Saturday, May 9, 2009

Madness Under the Royal Palms: Love and Death Behind the Gates of Palm Beach

I've been hearing about this book for months and it's going to be good!!!
Madness Under the Royal Palms: Love and Death Behind the Gates of Palm Beach -- Leamer (The Kennedy Women) reveals the secrets of the Palm Beach elite who reside behind the high walls and manicured hedges of this exclusive enclave. A winter resident since 1994, the author gains the trust of his subjects, playing tennis with them and attending their parties. Such firsthand experience is supplemented by newspaper articles and interviews with scores of men and women who, although usually guarded, are unusually open to Leamer (the informant for the chapter Palm Beach Millionaire Seeks Playmate gave the author access to his personal papers, including unpublished memoirs). The book's highly visual vignettes—dominated by divorce, infidelity, excessive drinking and violence—produce a depressing picture of sad, angry, insecure and frequently nasty people hiding behind empty smiles, luxury cars and socially invisible servants. Leamer reflects: Like [Henry] James, I found that few of the lives have the beauty of the surroundings, or the depths of the artistic vision that inspired this island. Some readers may find this book a penetrating portrayal of a privileged segment of the American population; others might regard it as a book-length gossip column.

Friday, May 8, 2009

Cartier, I Love You


Cartier I Love You -- This book is a must for all jewelry lovers and fans of Bruce Weber's photography - I fall under both categories!
As the name implies, this book is a heartfelt love letter to a jewelry house without equal. Epitomizing luxury for over a century, Cartier’s devotees have included the global elite, as well as sirens of stage and screen. Originally a jeweler of kings, Cartier is often dubbed “the king of jewelers.” Renowned for its craftsmanship and exquisite materials, the marque is a byword for opulent innovation. Art directed and edited by Bruce Weber, this dazzling homage combines photographs created by Weber just for the book, original texts by Weber and Ingrid Sischy, along with a fascinating cornucopia of archival images and passages. The gold-bordered, distinctively red cover and case are designed to look like a Cartier jewelry box—-right down to the authentic Cartier ribbon sewn into each binding!

The book is available for pre-order and will be released at the beginning of June - don't miss out on this one :-)

Thursday, May 7, 2009

The Private World of Yves Saint Laurent & Pierre Bergé

The Private World of Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Berge
I saw this book in Paris (the one above is the European (UK/French) version and the one below is the jacket image for the forthcoming US version - it's amazing! Of course, it's not available here yet but it will be Sept. 2009. You can pre-order as always through Amazon.com.

Here is a short description: One of the most talented and influential couturiers of his time, Yves Saint Laurent began his career as Christian Dior’s protégé and went on to become a legendary arbiter of twentieth-century style. Saint Laurent’s extraordinary taste went well beyond the world of fashion, and in this lavish volume, the eight splendid homes he shared with friend and lifelong business partner Pierre Bergé are presented in immaculate detail. Notoriously shy, the designer and Bergé lived in luxury, surrounded by incomparable collections of furniture and art. From the serene interiors of their apartment on the Rue Babylone to the incandescent beauty of the Villa Majorelle in Marrakech, Bergé and Saint Laurent’s sensibilities come alive. Taken after Saint Laurent’s death in 2008, Ivan Terestchenko’s photographs capture these exquisite surroundings in full, showcasing nineteenth-century French décor, important paintings by modern and Romantic artists, and masterpieces of furniture, sculpture, and silver ranging from the Renaissance to the Art Deco era. Though the homes presented here are now empty, The Private World of Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Bergé is a testament to a rare union of passion, elegance, and supreme connoisseurship.

Monday, May 4, 2009

Love or Something Like It



From Publishers Weekly -- In Shaw's bright and promising first novel, love lures Lacey Brennan from New York to Hollywood, where she and Toby, a TV writer, shack up in a Laurel Canyon cottage. When he proposes, 30-year-old Lacey sees the happily-ever-after she's sought since her parents' divorce, but she's vexed at every turn: the absence of her brother casts a pall over the wedding; the honeymoon is marred by arguments and stomach ailments. Professional life is no rosier: after her editor spikes her tax-evasion exposé, Lacey quits her newspaper job and takes an assistant gig at a lame sitcom. Toby loses his job and wonders aloud, Maybe I was too young to get married. First comes marriage counseling, then divorce, after which Lacey coasts into an affair with her egomaniac boss, takes a stab at screenplay writing and tries to unite her family. Only after deciding to move back to Manhattan and adopting a spring break attitude toward L.A. does she feel something like satisfaction. Shaw's first novel unfolds easily, with well-crafted prose and vivid detail, and even if some of the interpersonal drama can feel TV-thin, this is a great young-in-L.A. novel.

Friday, May 1, 2009