5 comments about Julie and Julia: 365 Days, 524 Recipes, 1 Tiny Apartment Kitchen.

1. Too bad I cannot give negative stars!! Read the only the first chapter and was completely turned off by the vulgarity and whiney tone. Even though I am a college graduate I had to have a dictionary handy to interpret the obscure vocabulary that was completely unnecessary. I agree with all of the bad reviews this book is getting and am vehement about how much I hated it!



2. I loved this book. It is funny, easy to read, well written, and entertaining. No, I did no "learn" anything about cooking but it was engaging, laugh-out-loud funny in spots, and just a good summer read. I recommend this book for someone looking for a light, easy, book for reading at the beach, or on a plane.
   
   Enjoy!



3. The author has a good sense of humor so there are many funny moments, but in general, there isn't a lot of substance here. Definitely don't pay full price for this one!



4. Because this project has what I consider to be an irresistible premise and because a friend described the book as "funny," I was excited to read it. On the surface, I have a good deal in common with Julie Powell. We are close in age and background, similar in work history, and both enjoy good food, good drinks, cursing and leaving the cleaning to someone else.
   
   After reading this book, if someone were to tell me I reminded them of Julie Powell, I would commit hari-kari. She is terribly unpleasant, self-absorbed and repellant. All of the characteristics with which I could identify are completely reduced to rubble in her hands. I find myself never wanting to hear or use the F-word ever again, and even I was repulsed by her disgusting apartment. I had to skip most of the passage involving maggots lest I lose my lunch. All the tales of sticky cat hair, brackish flooded fixtures and rotting floors didn't help either. I read most of the book with that look on my face people have when something nearby stinks.
   
   I assume she was attempting humor and exaggerating many of her misadventures and personality flaws, but the end result is that I loathe her as a fellow human being and wish ill upon her. Her heartless exposure of her friends' and family's personal lives is inexcusable (and dull) and her husband appears to be a combination saint/fool for putting up with her. Powell hates the project, hates her job, dislikes her husband (she mentions her frequent desire to beat his head with sharp rocks. I mean really! Eric! Run for your life!), disdains her friends, scorns her mother, disrespects Julia Child and admires only her cats and her brother.
   
   In its relentlessly bleak tone and insistence on examining the lives of detestable characters, this book reminds me of A Confederacy of Dunces. Another supreme waste of time and positive energy.
   
   I think the lesson to be learned here is that a blogger does not an author make. The publishing industry needs to be really careful about offering book deals to just any successful blog author. Any fool with an internet connection can create a blog, after all. That doesn't mean they are worthy of anyone else's time or attention.



5. I liked this little venture into one woman's obsession. She wasn't trying to write Larousse's Gastronomique, for heaven's sake. It's just a fun little chicklit type of memoir. Quirky and cute. Just don't look for big a big emotional work of art or for a cooking how-to. Go aloong for the ride and enjoy it.

3 comments about Autobiography of a Wardrobe.

1. If your wardrobe could talk, what would it say about you? Author Elizabeth Kendall tells the story of B., her evolving self, by creating a delightful narrator--Wardrobe.
   
   In the first chapter, "How I Was Born," Wardrobe says: "I came into being in the last moments of that two-centuries-old institution called Childhood, in which everything was ironed: collars, sashes, sailor suits. Nowadays it's different."
   
   Elizabeth Kendall rebelled against the Country Club look her parents loved. At twelve, she saw in a store window a new kind of dress. It was sleeveless red coral with a dropped waist and white piping, just like the dress she'd seen in Mouseketeer Magazine!
   
   Wardrobe's report of the incident: "The only problem: the mother recoiled from the red coral dress. 'It's brassy,' she said. 'It's not,' said B. 'It's...modern. And if I don't get it, I can't be myself.'"
   
   And so the story goes. Kendall gives us vivid descriptions of her various careers--fashion designer, dancer, writer, Parisian bohemian--and the way they were reflected in her clothing, all through the voice of Wardrobe. It is clever writing, and for someone like me who spends far too much time searching for "the right look" for every occasion, it was a delightful read that made me laugh at myself.
   
   I also enjoyed the book as a study of a unique way to write about one's life. My own writing may have improved a notch or two from having observed Kendall's skillful style.
   
   by Donna Van Straten Remmert
   for Story Circle Book Reviews
   reviewing books by, for, and about women



2. Autobiography of a Wardrobe is just that-"a tale told from the point of view of one woman's Wardrobe, as if it were a person (hence the logic of capitalizing the word Wardrobe through out this review). Wardrobe imparts to the reader the story B, of her owner, with all of her hand-me-down and retail mishaps, as well as successes, recorded for posterity.
   
   Most women will easily relate to the confusion in our early fashion lives as we were dressed by those who nurtured and cared for us. From Wardrobe's descriptions, you sense that B was at the hands of well-meaning relatives who wanted to imprint their style onto a young B, without consideration for her desires.
   
   Wardrobe describes B's teen years as a hit-and-miss proposition, although she purchases her first true classic, a raw silk dress and tiny gold earrings. It is a hint of the woman emerging from the cocoon of childhood.
   
   As B matures, Wardrobe describes her life as continuing to be a haphazard fashion free-for-all, but a chance purchase of a sweater-jacket gives B a polished look that gets her a job with Conde Nast. It is the beginning of B's career as a writer, which will take her around the world in both words and fashion. A love of dance brings B to her true passion as a writer, and Wardrobe is soon filled with pieces that reflect a tribute to dancers both past and present.
   
   The book goes quickly but feels a bit rushed at the end, as if Wardrobe suddenly missed the peace and quiet of a dark calm space in which to "hang" out.
   
   For fashionistas, or anyone whose ever searched through the racks at Bloomingdales for the perfect little black dress, this is a must read.
   
   Armchair Interviews says: Fun chick lit all will enjoy.



3. Autobiography of a Wardrobe is one of the most creative and original memoirs I have ever read! The reader follows B. (and her wardrobe) through her successes, failures, tragedies, triumphs, loves and life. I laughed, cried, cringed and smiled as B. evolves into her adult self and finds her true calling as a writer. I think Autobiography of a Wardrobe will be a great book for book groups, who will find endless topics for discussion in its pages. Don't miss this wonderful book!!

5 comments about Making a Literary Life.

1. Plain and simple; the first half of the book is a wee bit corny for my taste, and really leans toward the female point of view. I am not a wine drinker, a dancer in the living room, a lover of Paris, just a blue-collar family man wanna-be writer. But as I rolled my eyes a few times, and enjoyed the conversational writing of Miss See, I made it to the nugget of the book, the 2nd half. Great practical advice on revision, promoting, etc..
   So this book does have style, advice, offers something new, and worth the quick read.



2. Here it is -- the book you enjoy that you can't recommend highly. I thoroughly enjoyed "Making A Literary Life" when it was called "Bird by Bird" and "The Artist's Way." If it has never occured to you to give yourself short assignments and see the world through an artistic lens, then this book will be groundbreaking. If you're already familiar with these concepts (and those espoused by EM Forester in "Aspects of the Novel") you might wonder why this book was necessary.
   
   Don't get me wrong, I did enjoy it. It's just not very original. Some of the fresher suggestions are downright corny. See advises that all readers of this book write five fan letters a week to their favorite authors. Honestly? That didn't work for me when it was the "chain letter" concept in sixth grade. Another chapter encourages readers to behave in petty and pretentious ways (such as requesting Tab while on book tours) all under the guise of "thinking like a writer." How silly. The world doesn't need that.
   
   I'm sorry to say that the most I got out of this book was insight into the woman who raised Lisa See, author of "Snow Flower and the Secret Fan." And, no, that's not why I read it... it was just one interesting tidbit I got from putting together the pieces.



3. What a wonderful book! Carolyn See spells everything out for the writer and the dreamer. Whether you are a beginning or advanced writer, anyone can learn from this one. The best thing though is Ms. See's humor. She keeps you turning the pages with her dry sense of humor and honesty. Never have I enjoyed a how to book as this one. I recommend it to anyone who wants a literary life.



4. "Think about the things that put you on the moral high ground. If your dead set against fast food or red meat or oral sex or shaving your legs or hard liquor or bad language, you might just want to go ahead and give some of that a shot. Just to see what it feels like." -from the book.
   
   Filled with some of the best writing advice I've ever read, this book will inspire you, and besides that, its so insanely funny! I just love this woman! I have had this book for several years, and recently took it off the shelf to read again, and once again, I just couldn't put it down.
   I just don't know how anyone could write more real than this. Not only does she offer superb writing advice, but some darned good advice about other areas of life as well.



5. I read many books on writing, and most of them I can at LEAST get some good information from. I take notes, underline key points in them etc., then I leave the book feeling mildly informed, but never really feel totally ready to face the publishers, editors, critics and/or, my readers. Then I read Ms. See's book, and ummmm......POW!!!! I learned more than I did from any and every other writing book out there. Ms. See has so many wonderful idea's for aspiring and already published writer's, it mad me dizzy with excitement! I just LOVE her idea's on the fancy thank you note's, making a list of all the people you know in life (and using them to your advantage later), her useful idea's on ways to make money WHILE your writing your great novel (writing for magazines or writing for grants)....the list goes on.
   She is smart, silly, cranky, strong, amazing and most of all, human! She tells the truth, so all of us can go through the writing and publishing process a little easier.
   Please buy her book. It will help you, truly it will. This will go back up on my shelf, for reference, for reassurance, for enlightenment...it will be a forever cherished book, in my writing reference library.
   Now, I just have to find her darn address, so I can get that 'ever so sweet' thank you note out to her........
   Ms. See, if your reading this...THANK YOU!!!

5 comments about Life of the Party: The Biography of Pamela Digby Churchill Hayward Harriman.

1. "Pam," as she was known by her friends, trading on her beauty, inquisitiveness and instincts, more than on her morals: again and again parlayed her feminine wiles into higher and higher orbits of class, wealth, international intrigue and a seat at the very table where high stakes policy was being shaped and made. Even one of her many lives would have been enough for an ordinary person to kill for, but being able to do it over and over again points to her very own special gift: being perfectly situated to marry older men of influence and then making them like it, as she "traded up " the ladder to better and better situations.
   
   Just her wartime activities alone, is worth the price of the book.
   
   Here, behind the scenes where the post-WWII world order was being shaped and fashioned, she played an important if unsung role as one of the king pin (or is it queen pin?) deal makers, that helped solidify the ties between the U.S. and UK, ties that eventually were responsible for bringing the U.S. into the war. She did this all the while being married to the notorious "bad boy" and son of Sir Winston Churchill, Randolph, and while "bedding down" one of her "husbands-to be," Averill Harriman. And she did this, all the while, if not with the full knowledge, certainly with the tacit knowledge of her father in law, the British Prime Minister.
   
   Just this part of the book alone is worth its price, but there is much more: all with the ring of truth, not with the ring of mere salacious gossip, which I admit, is all that I was really looking for. In the book "Nemesis," it had been reported as fact that Joseph P. Kennedy had raped Pam while she was an overnight guest of her friend the then Ambassador to the UK's daughter, Kathleen. I was unable to confirm this fact in this "unauthorized" version of her life. This omission, however, certainly does not mean that it did not happen, just that it could not be confirmed in this version of her life story. And even though I did not find what I was looking for, this is still easily five stars.



2. Reading this, more than decade after its publication when Pamela's primary skills were already passé, it was clear how much things have changed.
   
   Pamela came out of the 19th century British aristocracy where only the first born male was entitled to inherit the family's property and power and to call it what it is/was - human rights within a family. Pamela could not expect familial affection or support. Her family turned her over to nannies and decreed that education, no matter how great her ability or curiosity, would hinder her marriage options.
   
   Pamela made her own match (did not wait for family negotiations) and married what history made the ultimate commodity, a link through a male namesake, to Winston Churchill. She used this "child" and followed the cultural and psychological patterns of aristocratic women by supporting and living through her man with a modern twist--- he did not have to be her husband.
   
   WWII put a chink in the armor of the British class system and affirmed the American ideal of social equality. The super wealthy European men paid in cash and friendship for all she willingly gave. She wanted commitment, which due to European social codes, would not be forthcoming. No wonder Pamela was seduced (in the pure sense of the word) by America. In America she was able to achieve far beyond what her family or country c/would ever provide for her.
   
   She was Darwinistic about men/marriage. If a man's wife was not as fit as her, Pamela had no qualms about the wife, Pamela should have the "position". Her sympathy for her second husband's mother (over that of his children) who had abandoned her family may be testament to an understanding of her emotional situation.
   
   One can salute Pamela's achievements, but her treatment of others is too cold for sympathy. As presented here, her mothering of "The Child" and her stepchildren replicates that toward her in her own nuclear family. Her treatment of staff and other women is pure 1950's sexism and a workaholic's view of the world. She rose above the rigid role of her family and society had given her. Unfortunately, within her intimate family (birth and blended) she could not break the chain of creating emotional liabilities.



3. I had known one women who said: "Its better you ask for what you want,then to except what others offering to you."

   This can be related to biography of Pamela Harriman. SHe lived in extraordinary circumstances but what I find most compelling is the fact that she succeed to manage her life. Although, it was not always easy for her. She left and she was left. The biography is most interesting written and I read it very quickly.
   She maybe was in some way courtisan, but I think she wanted to enjoy in life nad she was led by it. SHe knew what she want and she was persistant. However, I did not manage to figure out was she open hearted as she was presented in some moments or little bit cold caculated as in the part regarding children of her husband Hayworth. But, for sure she was woman in complete sense of that word.




4. One can tell just from the photograph chosen for the cover of LIFE OF THE PARTY that author Christopher Ogden has constructed a fun read. Though his research is thorough and scholarly, LIFE OF THE PARTY flies by easily. (The title itself is a pun, alluding both to its literal meaning and to the fact that Harriman's generous donations gave new life to America's Democratic Party.)

   In crafting the biography of America's late Ambassador to France, Pamela Harriman, Ogden also provides a social history of the international "Jet Set" of the 1940's, 1950's and 1960's. Pamela's journey through the decades was complete with English aristocracy, French nobility, Italian racing car drivers, South American polo players, Arab sheiks, Greek shipping magnates and members of America's monied elite. The link among them is that Pamela Harriman slept with members of each of these groups!

   In her own, less liberated day, born to obscure English nobility c. 1920, there is no question but that then-Pamela Digby would have been considered a--ahem--loose woman (to use a mild phrase) by those who knew her. Not only did she sleep around, apparently with blatant calculation of how her liasons would benefit her financially and socially, but she also conspicuously went after married men. With the exception of her first husband, the single thread connecting the men she chose was that they were not merely rich, they were filthy rich. And her first husband was the son of Winston Churchill, Prime Minister of England at the time of their marriage. Thus, that match was socially advantageous to Pamela, and she would use the connection as her entry into highest levels of the world's interconnected rich. Nonetheless, despite her apparent rapacity, it is obvious that her men found her... appealing, to say the least.

   Some of the affairs that Ogden documents were with the fabulously wealthy Frenchman, Elie de Rothschild, with the fabulously wealthy oil sheik, Aly Khan, with the fabulously wealthy Italian auto manufacturer, Gianni Agnelli, with a fabulously wealthy American, Averell Harriman and another fabulously wealthy American, William Paley. Yet she married the merely wealthy theatrical producer, American Leland Hayward, whose daughter openly despises Pamela to this day. (It seems clear that Pamela settled on Leland due to an urgent need to wed quickly as a matter of financial salvation.)

   Of course, Pamela was a serial bride. Decades after she first began her affair with him, Averell Harriman finally tied the knot with Pamela. He had been middle-aged when they first had met, and she had been a very young woman. By the time she captured him, she was middle-aged and he was old. Conveniently, he died soon after their marriage and, even more conveniently, he left her his huge fortune.

   She immediately put that fortune to use in inserting herself as a valuable player in the United States Democratic Party and as an early and generous supporter of then-candidate Bill Clinton. After he became President, Clinton rewarded Pamela by making her his Ambassador to France.

   Truly, if this book were a romance novel, it would be dismissed out-of-hand as being too implausible. As it stands, it is an examination of an exploitative and greedy woman, yet a woman whose lifestory makes for entertaining reading. For the major events of the mid-20th century, when Pamela Digby Churchill Hayward Harriman was not present, she probably was waiting in the bedroom.




5. What an interesting woman. Okay so she may have slept her way to the top and made a few bad personal decisions. A saint she was not. For all that she was determined to enjoy life and make the best out of what talents she had. She used her friends as we all do to better her causes and even berated her children when she disagreed withj them. As if she was the first mother to do that. She gave her total devotion to the men she married, apart from Winston, and expected the same.The irony is that had Pamela harriman been a man all her negative aspects would have been overlooked and she would have been remembered more for her her political and social acumen rather than the men she had slept with. A very interesting read about one of the more interesting characters of the 20th century. It will be a while before her like is seen again. She will be missed.

5 comments about Pretty Things: The Last Generation of American Burlesque Queens.

1. I just received this book in the mail, and i have only one word for it - Stunning.
   
   This book is full of beautiful photos and sketches of original costumes, and there's a wealth of written information to go with the pretty pictures!
   Even the presentation is lovely, i'm really impressed with the matte pink binding - it'll look great in my book case ;)
   
   Go ahead and order this book, you won't be disappointed.



2. the book is very dazzling ,and it would be my ture love for the passed Age.



3. An artistic design layout provides the reader with lots of photos and scrapbook pages of original costume sketches, fabric swatches, letters, postcards, and lots more. This visual collage is a wonderful piece of film toward understanding the life these women lived. Their attitude and sex appeal as we know it only disguised the reality of their life, tough working conditions and a career contingent of youth and beauty eventually leading these women to fall on hard times and in the end forgotten.



4. If the book title sounds familiar, it's because Liz Goldwyn's HBO documentary of the same name aired in July 2005 to much acclaim, covering the history of American burlesque. If you think you've seen it all in the show, think again: the book holds much more! Here are personal stories, career overviews, and biographies of some of the most talented genre stars. Burlesque history comes alive here as in no other collection, making PRETTY THINGS a 'must' for any holding strong in American arts history, from general-interest to college-level libraries.



5. An enlightening look at a largely misunderstood/misinterpreted art form, this book combines rigorous scholarship, engaging narrative, rare photos, and well-executed design. Liz Goldwyn's love of the subject matter is clear and infectious. Highly recommended, as is the author's HBO special of the same name.

5 comments about Chrysalis: Maria Sibylla Merian and the Secrets of Metamorphosis.

1. What possesses a European woman to pack up her life and move across the ocean to study the natural world? Did I mention that it was 1699?
   
   Chrysalis tells the story of Maria Sibylla Merian, a woman living in the late 1600s and early 1700s, who is fascinated by the process in which a caterpillar becomes a butterfly. She cultivates them as one might cultivate roses. More, she studies them in their own habitat. But how did she do it in a time when women were subject to their men, when witch trials were the norm, and dabbling in insect life was more than suspect?
   
   But Chrysalis is more than a biography. It is a study in entomology. What is the process from caterpillar to butterfly? And why do the chrysalises sometimes produce flies rather than butterflies? Remember this is the time of "spontaneous generation" when scientists thought frogs came from rain and meat produced flies.
   
   Chrysalis is more than entomology. It is religious history. What made the Pietist sects split off from the Lutheran church? What was the call of the Labidists for Merian? And how did she slide by the rules of stripping off worldly trappings in order to continue to paint and study?
   
   And still that is not all. There is her study across the ocean in Surinam. Her return. Her art. The study of microbiology with the invention of the microscope. This book is a comprehensive study of much that was going on in the world. It is fascinating and the art is beautiful. If I have any complaint, it is that the author references pieces that aren't pictured in the book and when the pieces are pictured, there is nothing to note that. I spent a lot of time flipping to the grouped photos in an often fruitless search.
   
   Armchair Interviews says: This is an overall fascinating book that could be improved by better referencing and picturing of the art.



2. [...]
   
   Chrysalis: Maria Sibylla Merian and the Secrets of Metamorphosis, a nonfiction book by Missoula writer Kim Todd, sounds like a Victorian adventure novel: a fifty-two-year-old woman abandons her husband and European continent to study the metamorphosis of caterpillars in Surinam. But this was before the Victorians. In 1699, more than a century before Darwin, sixty-five years after Galileo's prosecution, and a time when witch hunts were part of the recent past, Maria Sibylla Merian embarked on a journey of scientific discovery in the dangerous New World with only her daughter for company. While the male colonists grew sugar cane on their plantations, Merian's slaves and servants helped her locate insects, reptiles, and plants for her to study and depict in her captivating watercolors. She trusted the natives' knowledge to assist her research, something that would be used against her reputation in the decades after her death.
   
   By the time Merian stepped on that boat to Surinam, she was a mother of two, had published two books about the metamorphosis of caterpillars in her native Germany, and spent five years living with a Pietist religious sect in a castle in Amsterdam, where she argued successfully for a separation from her husband using the sect's beliefs. At the time, a woman's husband was her legal representative and the court ordered numerous women to return to their abusive husbands. But after Merian's successful separation, she lived in Amsterdam and financially supported herself and her youngest daughter. Watercolors were her tool because "guild rules banned women from painting with oils." To get on that boat and to fund her scientific and artistic expedition, Merian sold her paintings and any unnecessary belongings.
   
   Kim Todd who received the PEN/Jerard Fund Award and the Sigurd F. Olson Nature Writing for her previous book, Tinkering with Eden, vividly describes the cultural, religious, and political time Merian lived in, as well as her artwork and scientific contributions, without overwhelming the reader. Todd also introduces other fascinating, accomplished women of the seventeenth century, and the new, exciting time of natural philosophers (the term scientist hadn't been created yet, neither had biology, ecology, or any of the other -ologies). Spontaneous generation, the idea that creatures could be born from non-living sources, was a common belief during Merian's time. Todd includes some of the recipes. My favorite is:
   
   To get a bee -
   Find a sunny space roofed with tile
   Beat a three year old bull to death
   Put poplar and willow branches under the body
   Cover it with thyme and serpellium
   The bees will emerge
   
   In language as colorful as Merian's paintings, Todd also describes the intricacies of metamorphosis and some of the insects that befuddled Merian and other natural philosophers. Through Todd's gripping prose, I became excited about the tricky metamorphosis of the large blue butterfly (Maculinea arion). Trust me, that's an accomplishment. If you don't believe insects and metamorphosis are interesting, you will feel differently after this book. To experience Merian's life and what happened to her work and reputation after her death, you will need, and want, to read Chrysalis. One hint: Peter the Great is involved.



3. You may have seen the artwork of Maria Sibylla Merian, as it is a staple for pretty but accurate pictures of butterflies, caterpillars, moths, and flowers, and can be found on china or stationery. She was more than a painter or engraver, though. Her life was unique. She had artistic talent, but she was also a keen scientific observer, who advanced the study of insects immeasurably. She was a teenaged bride who left her husband who divorced her, and she had to care for their two children. She was so enthralled with the study of moths and butterflies that at age 52 she traveled to a mysterious and largely unknown land to see more of them, and to bring back pictures and scientific descriptions of their behavior. And she did this more than three centuries ago. _Chrysalis: Maria Sibylla Merian and the Secrets of Metamorphosis_ (Harcourt) by Kim Todd is a thoughtful examination of what we can know about Merian's life from the few personal documents that remain about her, and a proper reevaluation of her place in the world's scientific effort. It also is a fine resource about the biological controversies that were brewing in the seventeenth century, controversies that had to be settled in order for a basic understanding of insect life to take hold.
   
   Merian was born in Frankfurt, Germany, in 1647. She could not have a formal apprenticeship like a male artist in training, and she could not even paint in oils, because the rules of the guild forbade women from doing so. She was, however, able to use watercolors and engraving with beauty and utility to bring her objects of study almost to life upon the page. When Merian studied or painted insects, she included what foods they ate, and how they proceeded from egg to larva to pupa and to the adult, and it was all part of her contribution to science and to the branch that later was to be known as ecology. In doing so, she was working against scientific currents of the time, since it was held that insects could spontaneously generate from rotting meat, dew, or wool. She also was taking a risk in showing interest in possibly satanic insects, especially since she kept them alive, fed them, and kept their cocoons in her kitchen. Women were accused of witchcraft for less. Dutch curiosity cabinets did contain spectacular specimens from the colony of Surinam, but Merian wanted to see the insects as they lived, and used the money she made from her books and her paintings to finance her two-year trip there. She relied on the natives to tell her about the plants and their uses, and she got the first rudimentary understandings of the rainforest as a complex ecosystem; she observed, for instance, that butterflies at the tops of the trees were different from the ones nearer the ground.
   
   Merian left Surinam after only two years because of illness, probably malaria. After she returned to the Netherlands, she published _Metamorphosis Insectorum Surinamensium_ in 1705, full of pictures and descriptions of the colorful insects she had seen on her travel. The beauty of the pictures was praised, but only succeeding generations could appreciate the ecological innovations of her insect portraits. Her reputation suffered after her death; if she were discussed at all, it was to ridicule her picture of a spider capturing a hummingbird. After all, she had no formal education, she accepted the reports of natives who lived among the insects she depicted, and she was a woman. It was only in the twentieth century that her reputation was restored, not just as an artist but as a scientist who insisted on direct observation of the insects she described, and who realized how their cycles linked within a larger natural system. Todd's book has to have a great deal of speculation in it; she includes many sentences beginning with "perhaps" or "probably". This is because the sources are scant. There are Merian's books and paintings, of course, but beyond that are a couple of her legal documents and less than twenty letters she wrote. Nonetheless, Merian's contributions to biology were considerable, and Todd's well-illustrated and thoughtful book helps in the restoration of her reputation.



4. Today Maria Merian is mostly known for her lovely butterfly prints, but back in 1699 she sailed from Amsterdam to South America on an expedition to study metamorphosis - a rare journey for any naturalist of the times, much less a woman over fifty - and spent two years in the tropical jungle seeking out caterpillars and studying butterflies. Her accomplishments were largely dismissed and forgotten but come to life here in a gorgeous biography surveying her life and achievements.
   
   Diane C. Donovan
   California Bookwatch



5. Ever since "Tinkering with Eden," I have been eagerly awaiting Kim Todd's next book, and, with "Chrysalis," she does not disappoint. Anyone who enjoys a good biography should read this book - and for that reason, it's a great book to give as a gift. The topic sounds obscure, but Todd's vivid prose brings her remarkable subject to life. Highly recommended!

3 comments about Irina: Ballet, Life and Love.

1. Even for those with little knowledge of ballet this is a sparkling book. It tells a fascinating story of an extraordinary life.



2. I'd be tempted to write this off as endless gossip if it weren't for the fascinating cast of characters involved. A good look at history, too: the golden years of the Ballets Russes in its many incarnations. A delightful memoir from an enchanting lady.



3. Several years ago, I had occasion to visit the village on Long Island where I grew up. I visited its small museum and viewed an exhibition - " Russians in Sea Cliff" - chronicling a history of families of Russian descent who settled in the 1930s, built two Churches and accounted for about 10% of its population of 5,000. (My mother was born in Moscow and spoke mainly Russian with her neighbors.) I noticed that there was no mention of Sea Cliff's most notable Russian, Irina Baronova, and pointed this out to the curator who never had heard of her. This inspired me to try and contact my beautiful neighbor.I had a good idea that she was still living and after a few phone calls, I was able to get her address in Australia and wrote her. She is in her late 80's and is 17 years older than myself, so my memory of her was very hazy as I was between 5 and 10 years old when I met her and her gentle parents. At the time, Irina was a prima ballerina at the American Ballet Theatre and spent most of her time in New York City. In my letter, I asked her to join a charity as an Honorary Director. I quote part of her replies, which clearly show her vivid memory and keen intellect.
   
   Received Feb. 10, 2004
   "Dear Volodia,
   What an unexpected, happy surprise receiving your letter! So many memories sprang back in my mind, Sea Cliff, a truly Russian village, your parents across the street, your brother, and you, funny, at times solemn little boy! And now, you are in charge of a great, humanitarian organization helping all these poor children. My hat is off to you all.
   I am touched that you thought of me, and gladly say "yes" to your request. I embrace "little" Volodia of my memories, and send a big hug to you, "big" Volodia, with much affection.
   Irina"
   "Dear Volodya,
   Thank you for your letter and may I say again what a wonderful organization you are heading and what a brilliant job it keeps doing around the world. I feel honoured to join it, if only in name.
   In great haste, I found your photo in the newsletter and must agree with you that you have not changed much except for your spectacles which I do not remember you wearing when you were a child... but the same cozy rotundness. We were friends then, although you were a bit shy of me as I was much older and I know now we would be friends without shyness! - Big hug, dear Volodya.,Much love,Irina
   
   These letters are to me a great delight and her memoir is filled with the same charm, goodness and intellect of her most exceptional life. Born in St. Petersburg in 1919, leaving as a little girl and settling in Paris after going from elegance to poverty as a result of the civil war, it is a fairy tale that she debuted at the age of 12 for the Ballet Russes de Monte Carlo. Known as one of the "baby ballerinas", her life was totally devoted to ballet until she retired at the young age of 30 after marrying Cecil Tennant, the agent for Lawrence Olivier. She had two children of which the more well known is the actress Victoria Tennant. After reading this thoroughly enchanting book, one should see "Ballet Russes" a wonderful film with interviews of Madame Baronova and others about those incredible times which is thankfully out on DVD.

5 comments about How to Hepburn: Lessons on Living from Kate the Great.

1. I looked forward to reading this book, largely because I am such a Hepburn fan. However, I was deeply disappointed. Ms. Karbo is a wonderful, breezy writer. However, the lessons in this book aren't much more than her personal opinions backed up by Hepburn anecdotes. While it's clear Ms. Karbo admires Kate Hepburn, I was not inspired nor enlightened by the material. If you are interested in learning about the actress, I suggest one of the other biographies. If you are interested in life lessons, I suggest a different book.



2. I'm a woman who loves movies, loves Katharine Hepburn, and loves self-help wisdom. So when I picked up How to Hepburn, all 3 of these antennae were waving. I was taken by the Dick Cavett epigram on the very first page hinting at "some secret" of Hepburn's that made her so successful and content, and found myself in that greedy, plundering mode of reading where you look for something that can benefit YOU. I kept finding absolute gems. The first chapter, for example, is called The Importance of Being Brash, and right away you get what Karbo's doing: entertaining us with inside stories about and insights into Hepburn but also genuinely extracting important ideas for all of us. Hepburn started wearing pants and outraging people in grade school when girls and women in pants were unheard-of, and never stopped; she was the first girl to wear pants to class at Bryn Mawr, and in fact "they became her trademark... her baggies were so raggedy she held them up with safety pins, a style that, when combined with Hepburn's devotion to the pursuit of fun (smoking; skinny-dipping in the library fountain; breaking and entering), could best be described as Hobo Flapper." This really makes me want to cut loose. Maybe I will get some black jeans and wear kohl on my eyes like that boy I saw the other day in the museum.
   
   One of my favorite chapters is Fear Management, the Hepburn Way, mainly because it reveals that Hepburn's seeming fearlessness masked horrible stage fright. This is great news. Katherine Hepburn had stage fright? And went and did all that theater acting anyway? What Karbo says is "The flinty truth is that mostly things get worse, including our fears. Solace is found in acclimation: we may not overcome our terror, but we get used to the sensation of being terrified." This is a wonderful nugget that is not unfamiliar to those of us familiar with cognitive-behavioral therapy.
   
   Like Hepburn herself, this book defies categorization. It is bracing and thoughtful and a lot of fun. It's... well, it's inspiring. It would make a great birthday present for a woman of any age.



3. Anyone knowing anything about Katherine Hepburn knows, despite film roles and a public persona, that she was in a groveling and servile relationship with Spencer Tracy, the love of her life. No feminist would want to copy her.



4. As I was looking at the biographies section of my local independent bookstore, I noticed this compact book snuggled between much larger books about two screen icons who share the same last name, Audrey and Katharine Hepburn. Given the provocative title, I wanted to venture a guess as to which Hepburn the author was talking about since both women have inspired various levels of imitation and adoration even after their respective deaths. As I suspected, the book turns out to be about Kate on the not-so-coincidental occasion of her centenary. However, author Karen Karbo is not really examining the legendary actress's life in detail but rather taking a more cursory look at the cues in her life and memorable quotes that helped shape her enduring persona. Hepburn obviously lived life on her own terms, and Karbo sets out to define what the guiding principles were behind the actress's 93-year-old life.
   
   Toward that end, the author does a reasonably entertaining job of presenting the Hepburn philosophy, steeped as it is in self-mythologizing, but there is nothing revelatory here that would surprise fans. It's common knowledge that the woman was a difficult personality with a wealth of idiosyncrasies. At the same time, she continues to be a beloved icon for her unmovable sense of self and her non-conformist mindset just as much for her enduring career. Karbo's treatment reads a bit like a manifesto, which I'm sure is intentional, but without the cumulative context of Hepburn's life events, there is a lack of resonance to the life lessons presented. Several comprehensive biographies on the market offer theories on her life, though none more accurately encapsulates her philosophy than the subject herself in Me : Stories of My Life. Even better is the two-part 1973 interview Dick Cavett conducted with a 66-year-old Hepburn (mentioned briefly in the book and available on the first disc of The Dick Cavett Show - Hollywood Greats). With her crackling persona in full bloom, the legend threatens to make Cavett into a whipping boy with her unapologetic honesty and lacerating wit. That will give you a more vivid impression of Hepburn's outlook on life than this book really can.



5. I must admit I'm still a few pages away from finishing the book, but I had to write to say that I'm loving every page of it. It seems to read part biography, part love letter from a devoted fan, and part amazing graduate thesis in the way each part of Kate's life is analyzed and seen from a feminist's point of view. I so thoroughly enjoyed Karbo's personal comments, and at times comedic footnotes, that I think the author should take the book on the road and do a one woman homage stand up performance of it. If she did, I would be the first in line to offer any help on it in any way. The only reason I couldn't give 5 stars is the lack of any photos that is a must have for Hepburn fans like me, and the fact that it was too short, as I trust I will be sad to come to the ending. Thank you Karen Karbo for a fascinating new look at our never-to-be forgotten Katherine, as well as ourselves.

5 comments about An Innocent, a Broad.

1. ...go along with all the other reader/reviewers who gave this memoir Five Stars. It's a quick, though thoughtful read.



2. Any Denis Leary fan who has ever bought the most recent DVD release of "No Cure For Cancer" or the book knows only briefly what he and his wife went through in London back in 1990. This is the whole story.
   
   When I learned of this book, it was truly a must-have. With the imagination I have, you can just hear Denis talking, and you can just picture the British accents of the people there. You also have the brief stories of how she and Denis met, a brief shot at, particularly, her upbringing, and a lot of family beliefs. Therefore, this also kinda works as a brief autobiography of her and Denis and their families.
   
   Whether you're a Denis Leary fan or an expectant mother, you'll find this story funny, triumphant, and wonderful.



3. Women love to share their birth stories, especially with good friends. Ann Leary's novel makes the reader feel like they are laughing and joking about the time of their children's births over coffee. By the end of her book, I felt like good friends with Leary. She is smart, funny, and not afraid to expose her insecurities in a way that we can all relate with. A fun, quick, satisfying read!



4. I really enjoyed this book. Ann Leary has an engaging and enjoyable writing style and a great sense of humor. Her story, about her premature son Jack, was touching and heartfelt without straying into maudlin. I read it in one sitting, in a few hours, and can honestly say it was worth staying up until 1:00 am to finish it, even though I'm now grouchy at work.



5. Ann Leary's autobiographical account of her sons birth abroad, amidst the rise of her husbands comedy career, is well-written, interesting, and very truthful. Unlike some autobiographical stories, Ann doesn't attempt to present herself as some sort of hero, and she doesn't portray anything that happened to her in a way that is self-serving. She tells it like it is. And it is a very interesting story. From her son's surprise appearance, to her unexpected life abroad, Anne's story is intriguing, sometimes sad, funny, and sometimes happy. I would expect that anyone who's ever had a premie, or anyone who's lived abroad, would especially enjoy her story, but to the rest of us, it's still a good read.

5 comments about Five Men Who Broke My Heart: A Memoir.

1. In Brazil, books are so expensive you'd think there was a ban on them, and few modern, non-Brazi authors get translated and brought over. So, when I saw the Portuguese version of Five Men Who Broke My Heart in a tropical small town nook, I had to grab it and run for my life from the Brasileiras circling around the last few candy-red jackets.
   Sue's story is universal. It serves to empower those of us who need righting through example; and sends us on a trip in a relationship-Delorian to the core of what went wrong, and what could've been avoided. Sue does her teaching through a hands-on vivisection of her most bumpy landings on love's concourse, and in the process, she opens not only her own black box but ours as well. That's because as soon as you delve into this book, you'll realize, "Hey, that's ME in the Wonder Bra!" You'll see your mistakes and the snaking paths you could've straightened, or at least know how they went into making who you are now.



2. For anyone who's ever Googled an old boyfriend or done a drive-by of his apartment, this book will make you laugh out loud, nod with recognition and maybe even cringe a little (but in a "good" way -- we've all been idiots for love). With fearless honesty and "Seinfeld"-ian wit, Shapiro autopsies her five most significant relationships, and in the process, gains fresh insights into her relationships with the "other" men in her life: her father, brothers and adoring husband. If you have a pulse, you will recognize yourself on every page and scribble down many of her priceless one-liners to e-mail your friends (sample: "Damn Brad. He knew how to push my buttons. He'd programmed my buttons" and "My cherry lip gloss left rings around the filters of my Pall Malls, a pre-teen middle-aged divorcee"). RUN to your wallet, remove your credit card & buy this book for anyone who's going through a break-up (even if that's you). Because despite Shapiro's semi-torturous road to True Love, she gets there, and it will give you hope that you will, too. (You'll also never forget the Aunt Shirley story and "The Marriage Fluffer"). Filled with humor and heart, this book rocks!



3. I could not stop reading this book, i did not want to put it down. The whole time it made me think about my own life and review my past and present relationships. She is a great writter who speaks about real life issues. I loved this book and it has inspired me to read more of her writtings.



4. An awesomely brave woman, this Susan Shapiro. And to write it all down and splay it all out for the public; bravery at its finest. This is the kind of book that I just did not want to end.



5. So much of what you find in a book is what you bring to it when you read it. I liked this book a whole lot--enough to recommend it to several friends because I thought it was a good example of looking honestly at your past to see how you got where you are now. Several times I wanted to shout at the young Susan, "Grow up and quit being so melodramatic!" But that's what I wish I could shout back through time at my own young self, as well. In the end, you are what you are, and what you've done has made you into the person you are today. I identified with Susan's propensity for choosing the wrong man and for shutting down good relationships for bad ones. She does grow up, though, and this walk through her youth was honest. She doesn't pull any punches, even for herself. It was very well written, if sometimes a little frustrating (it's really hard to watch people make mistakes in slow motion). If I had a daughter, I'd give her this and "He's Just Not That Into You" as good instruction manuals.