Hummingbirds
- A wonderfully compelling debut novel about the intertwining—and darkly surprising—relationships between the teachers and students at an all-girls prep school Spend a year at the Carmine-Casey School for Girls, an elite prep school on Manhattan's Upper East Side: the year when the intimate private school community becomes tempestuous and dangerously incestuous as the rivalries and secrets of teachers and students intersect and eventually collide.
- A wonderfully compelling debut novel about the intertwining—and darkly surprising—relationships between the teachers and students at an all-girls prep school Spend a year at the Carmine-Casey School for Girls, an elite prep school on Manhattan's Upper East Side: the year when the intimate private school community becomes tempestuous and dangerously incestuous as the rivalries and secrets of teachers and students intersect and eventually collide.In the world of students, popular and coquettish Dixie Doyle, with her ironic pigtails, battles to wrest attention away from the smart and disdainful Liz Warren, who spends her time writing and directing plays based on the Oresteia. In the world of teachers, the adored Leo Binhammer struggles to share his territory with Ted Hughes, the charming new English teacher who threatens to usurp Binhammer's status as the department's only male teacher and owner of the girls' hearts. When a secret is revealed between them, Binhammer grows increasingly fascinated by the man he has determined is out to get him.
As seasons change and tensions mount, the girls long for entry into the adult world, toying with their premature powers of flirtation. Meanwhile, the deceptive innocence of the adolescent world—complete with plaid skirts and scented highlighters—becomes a trap into which the flailing teachers fall. By the end of the year the line between maturity and youth begins to blur, and the question on the final exam is: Who are the adults and who are the children?
--Benefiting America’s leading center for the research and treatment of cancer, this is an invitation to a year’s worth of fabulous fetes hosted by New York’s most celebrated party-givers and fund-raisers. Taking the reader to some of the most glamorous private homes in Manhattan (and in the country), Park Avenue Potluck Celebrations showcases the unique élan and elegance these ladies bring to entertaining— be it a glittering New Year’s Eve or an alfresco lunch on the terrace. From the mint juleps kicking off Derby Day to the Spanish Christmas cookies by the fireplace, these hostesses offer easy ideas that anyone can achieve at home.These ladies show that taste is all about how you put things together—on a tabletop, in a vase of flowers, with handmade invites. It’s these small touches, and the generous spirit behind them, that will inspire readers everywhere. The recipes they’ve chosen are tried and true crowd-pleasers that are guaranteed to be down-to-earth dishes you’d be proud to present at any occasion.
more than just one of the world's most successful fashion labels, also the name of a woman who led a fascinating life. This Paris designer banished the corset from women's fashion, created the bouclé suit and the famous little black dress, and made costume jewellery socially acceptable. Her elegant but comfortable clothing stressed the new-won freedoms of 1920's women; her perfume made ladies irresistible. Chanel's head designer Karl Lagerfeld explains why her simple style is still today an inspiration. Unique shots and designs from the archives reveal Coco Chanel's passion both for fashion and for life.
- Elegant and enigmatic, the silhouette is the simplest of art forms—but that simplicity belies a rich and varied past. In this first major work on the art of the silhouette, art historian Emma Rutherford draws from dozens of American and European sources to create a fascinating history of the art form—and to illuminate the compelling social history hidden behind its shadows.
- Like an around-the-world vacation through resort locations and timeless fashions, the history of resort clothing is fashion at its most fun. Crossing continents, styles, and generations, the book travels through the tradition of vacation style, taking a visually stunning trip from early beach pajamas by Chanel and Schiaparelli to sailor stripes, to Pucci and Pulitzer prints, and, of course, to the bikini. Resort Fashion features rare photographs and never-before-published images by photographer legends, including Louise Dahl-Wolfe, Toni Frissell, Norman Parkinson, Jacques-Henri Lartigue, Helmut Newton, and Scavullo. The fashions showcase renowned designers from the past and present who have contributed their unique touch to resort wear, including Claire McCardell, Michael Kors, Rodarte, and many more. From Palm Beach to Montego Bay to St. Tropez, this book celebrates resort wear’s vibrant history with an allure that extends beyond runways to the most exotic, far-flung destinations.
-- Six years after the phenomenal success of The Time Traveler's Wife, Audrey Niffenegger has returned with a spectacularly compelling and haunting second novel set in and around Highgate Cemetery in London.
-- When Mireille Guiliano became a senior executive and spokesperson for Veuve Clicquot, she took the Champagne to the top of the luxury market, using her distinctive French woman's philosophy and style. Now she uses those same talents and savoir faire to help readers pop their own corks and get the mostout of life. Drawing on her experiences at the front lines and highest echelons of the business world, she gives women (and a few men, peut-être) the practical advice they need to make the most of work without skimping on all the other good things in life.
isn't coming to a theater near you, you can now pre-order it on Amazon! I saw it, loved it and am definitely pre-ordering mine today.
-- “Damian Baxter was a friend of mine at Cambridge. We met around the time when I was doing the Season at the end of the Sixties. I introduced him to some of the girls. They took him up, and we ran about together in London for a while….”
-- This one-of-a-kind book of 300 photographs of some of the most celebrated actors, artists, models, First Ladies, and social figures draws on stories that have appeared in the pages of Vogue over the past four decades, as well as photographs from those stories that have never been published. These trendsetters and newsmakers are captured by such famous photographers as Cecil Beaton, Jonathan Becker, Eric Boman, Horst P. Horst, Edward Steichen, Irving Penn, Richard Avedon, François Halard, Helmut Newton, Stephen Meisel, Snowdon, Toni Frissell, Bruce Weber, Herb Ritts, and Annie Leibovitz. Not only did these photographers take dazzling portraits—in studios or on location—that caught these iconic figures in classic, playful, or dramatic moments but they also documented their parties, weddings, houses, and gardens. Writers like Hamish Bowles, Paul Rudnick, Truman Capote, Francis Wyndham, Jeffrey Steingarten, Joan Juliet Buck, William Norwich, Gloria Steinem, Georgina Howell, Vicki Woods, Marina Rust, Michael Specter, and Jonathan Van Meter tell you the stories behind these figures and events.
tells the story of a woman born into the proprieties of an East Coast dynasty who nevertheless leaves her world of privilege for a career as an investigative reporter. Recounting her upbringing, Eve Pell offers an inside look at the bizarre values and customs of the American aristocracy, from debutante balls and the belowstairs hierarchy of the servant class to the fanatical pursuit of blood sports and private men's clubs whose members were cared for like sultans. In the patriarchal world of the upper crust, girls were expected to flatter and defer to boys and men: her scholar-athlete sister was offered a racehorse if she would refuse to attend college. A parade of eccentrics populates the book, from the cockfighting stepfather who ran away from boarding school with a false beard and a stolen motorcycle to the Brahmin great-uncle who secretly organized the servants in Tuxedo Park to vote for Teddy Roosevelt.
-- From Publishers Weekly: At once an engrossing historical, a love story about an unlikely passion and a novel of ideas that lucidly presents philosophical speculation about natural science, Stott's second novel (after Ghostwalk) is a powerful offering from an immensely talented writer. Narrated by young Englishman Daniel Connor, fresh out of medical school and traveling to a coveted research position in post-Napoleonic Paris in 1815, the novel begins with his realization that his scientific credentials, including a priceless coral specimen, have been stolen by the beautiful woman who sat next to him in the coach. She turns out to be Lucienne Bernard, a notorious thief being pursued by the chief of the Bureau de la Sûreté, Henri Jagot (based on a real figure and bound to make readers think of Javert). A cat and mouse game ensues, as Jagot tries to enlist Connor to trap Lucienne, but Connor falls deeply in love with the philosopher-thief and eventually makes a decision that might cost him his career, his freedom and his spiritual beliefs. Vividly atmospheric, propulsive and intricately plotted, this is a surefire page turner with literary heft and wide appeal. 
-- Charlotte Sanders a precocious American girl growing up in Paris in the late 1970s, leads a charmed life. As students at an elite international school, she and her peers study in Paris's cafés and tabacs, see movies at the Cinémathèque, and experience the thrills and agonies of first love to the sounds of Serge Gainsbourg and Pink Floyd. Charlotte's father, a lawyer and quiet intellectual, devotes his spare time to Balzac and opera. Her sister, Lea, is a star equestrian. And her mother Astrid's passion for left-wing causes is equaled only by her fashion sense.
-- Magpie's Tearoom is a cozy haven in bustling L.A. — a place for luncheons, baby showers, or simply hanging out. Its owner, British expat Margaret Moore, relishes tradition...but between a frustrated chef preoccupied with her neglectful producer girlfriend and the tearoom's waitstaff — a talented but desperate TV star who hasn't acted since Detective Buck Love went off the air, and a twenty-something ingénue who'll do anything to get the part — her grandmother's scones begin to feel irrelevant.
-- From Publishers Weekly: In her follow-up to How to Sleep with a Movie Star, Harmel, a chick lit reviewer for morning television show The Daily Buzz, nails the formula: girl can't get guy, girl employs zany tactics, girl gets string of lame guys, girl learns about herself. Harper Roberts is a brilliant 35-year-old New York patent attorney who hasn't had a satisfying relationship in three years. So when her girlfriends dare her to test the "Blonde Theory" as fodder for a magazine article, Harper takes the bait and agrees to spend two weeks as not just a blonde (which she is), but as a ditsy blonde, complete with skimpy clothes and a stunted vocabulary. She quickly rounds up dates with men who think she is either a cheerleader or a bartender, and she also connects with Matt, a dreamy soap opera actor who knows the real Harper. Assuming he is as superficial as the men ditsy Harper is dating, smart Harper doesn't believe his attentions are genuine. In the meantime, she receives sage advice from her (cute) plumber. This book isn't a life-changer, but it is a nice time killer. 
-- Tad Friend's family is nothing if not illustrious: his father was president of SwarthmoreCollege, and at Smith his mother came in second in a poetry contest judged by W.H. Auden--to Sylvia Plath. For centuries, Wasps like his ancestors dominated American life. But then, in the '60s, their fortunes began to fall. As a young man, Tad noticed that his family tree, for all its glories, was full of alcoholics, depressives, and reckless eccentrics. Yet his identity had already been shaped by the family's age-old traditions and expectations. Part memoir, part family history, and part cultural study of the long swoon of the American Wasp, Cheerful Money is a captivating examination of a cultural crack-up and a man trying to escape its wreckage.
- This one sounds so bad it looks good - pathetic city "sanctimommies."
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-- One of the great pioneers of fashion photography, Norman Parkinson is famous for his sense of style and glamour. Heralded as one of the true innovators in his field, he pushed the boundaries of the day by bringing the model out of the studio and onto the street. He set the model against unusual and daring backdrops, such as the gritty working-class districts of London, and was a seminal influence on subsequent generations of fashion photogaphers. Norman Parkinson: A Very British Glamour is a lavish portrait of Parkinson’s long career from the 1930s through the 1980s. In a unique collaboration with the Norman Parkinson archives in London, his iconic photographs for Vogue, Queen, and Harper’s Bazaar are reproduced alongside a trove of previously unpublished fashion work. The classics of Parkinson’s career are also shown here, providing the full breadth of his career. This exciting and definitive look into Parkinson’s illustrious legacy is sure to rank among the most important publications on fashion and photography. 
- The Marquise de Maintenon, mistress of Louis XIV, was born in a bleak French prison in 1635. Her father was a condemned traitor and murderer who seduced the warden’s daughter. Yet in her lifetime, Françoise d’Aubigné—armed with beauty, intellect, and shrewd judgment—managed to make her way from grimmest poverty to the center of power at Versailles, the most opulent and cutthroat court in all Europe.
-- A collection of fascinating black-andwhite images created by some of the world’s leading modern artists. Each one has been specially selected to help babies begin to recognize pictures and connect with the world around them. 
-- In a society driven by celebutante news and myspace profiles, women of class, style and charm are hard to come by. The Audrey and Katharines of the world continue to lose their lustre as thongs, rehab and outrageous behaviour burn up the daily headlines. But, despite appearances, guys still want a girl they can take home to their mother, employers still like to see a tailored suit and peers still respect classy conduct. So is it possible to maintain old fashioned virtues in a modern world without looking like a starchy Amish grandma? Christy shows women how in this guide to glamorous style, professional success and true love...the classy way. Full of fun assignments, notable names and real-life examples, Christy offers a new look at seemingly 'old fashioned' advice. She covers diet, speech, work ethic, friends, relationships, manners, makeup and fashionable yet modest clothing, showing modern ladies how they can be beautiful, intelligent and fun while retaining values and morals.
- received a lukewarm review from Publishers Weekly but sounds like some mindless end of the summer beach reading!
is a captivating, offbeat look at style, celebrity, and self-invention—all held together with droll Chanel-style commentary and culled from an examination of Chanel’s difficult childhood and triumphant adulthood, passionate love affairs, and eccentricities.
