Cannonball Read 10

Sticking it to Cancer One Book at a Time

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Take the World by Storm

Bloom: A Story of Fashion Designer Elsa Schiaparelli by Kyo Maclear

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This was such a “Wow!” book for me. I did not know the fashion designer Elsa Schiaparelli, though I am somewhat familiar with the style of her time. A style that she helped create. Again, in this day of looking for books to inspire girls to go out and try (especially when they are told they should not because of their economic status, it is “unlady like” or they are not “fill in the blank”) this is another to add to the list. However, some might think it not “girl power” enough as she is in a more (now) traditionally […]

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7/6/2018 | 's CBR10 Review No:250 |

“A man becomes the creature of his uniform.”

Men's Style: The Thinking Man's Guide to Dress by Russell Smith

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I’ll provide two quotations from this book. If you agree with them, you’ll enjoy this book and find it useful. If you don’t agree with them, skip this book! First:  Every grown-up man should own a dinner jacket, just as he should own a dark suit, and those who do not prize such old-fashioned values may sanctimoniously decline invitations to any fabulous party people by handsome men and dazzling women with bare shoulders and cleavage. Take your pick of value systems. And: Dress: It’s not all about you…Grown up men present themselves to the world in a way that shows […]

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2/10/2018 | 's CBR10 Review No:10 |

More name dropping and designer brands

China Rich Girlfriend by Kevin Kwan

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I read Crazy Rich Asians a few years ago while on a cruise because it seemed like the perfect book for that type of setting. Despite enjoying it, I was in no rush to read the sequel China Rich Girlfriend because it seemed like a good stand alone novel, and I wasn’t sure I saw the need to continue. While China Rich Girlfriend continues the story of Nick and Rachel, their story isn’t the main plot of this novel. Instead it introduces a few new characters, including Rachel’s long lost father from mainland China, his wife and his son, Carlton, […]

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1/7/2018 | 's CBR10 Review No:2 |

Pearls of wisdom

Mademoiselle Chanel by C.W. Gortner

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This is a fictionalized telling of the life of Coco Chanel, and it strives to give a complete picture of the legendary designer.  I admit to knowing next to nothing about her before I read the book, and it was quite fascinating to read how she managed to rise from poverty to become an icon in fashion.   Born Gabrielle Chanel, she and her siblings were split apart after the death of her mother and abandonment of her father.  During her schooling by nuns, she realized her talent for sewing and this led to her first designs of hats that […]

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10/12/2017 's CBR9 Review No:78 |

“Amory Lorch, Cersei Lannister, Chiswyck, Dunsen, Gregor Clegane, Ilyn Payne, Joffrey Baratheon, Meryn Trant, Forel Polliver, Raff the Sweetling, The Hound, The Tickler, Weese”…

The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas

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They broke the mold after Dumas wrote “The Count of Monte Cristo.” There will never be a revenge plot as ambitious, as smooth, as Rube Goldbergian, as violent, as tense, or as passionate as this. This is the Ur Revenge Plot. I devoured this book. Inhaled it. And it’s partly because my brain melted a bit after the election, and then I was doggedly rebuilding my spirits with Solnit’s “Hope in the Dark” (TBR) (GET OFF MY BACK), and then it was Thanksgiving, and I do a whole thing, because Thanksgiving is my Superbowl. Whatever. Anyway, I started on Saturday […]

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12/1/2016 's CBR8 Review No:44 |

Angry people making pretty dresses

The Battle of Versailles: The Night American Fashion Stumbled into the Spotlight and Made History by Robin Givhan

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It was a fashion battle of the bands. In November 1973, American and French designers went head to head in an ostentatious and outrageous fashion show in Paris. The competition, set up by American fashion publicist Eleanor Lambert with the assistance of French aristocrat Marie-Helene de Rothschild, was held in the Theatre Gabriel in the Chateau de Versailles. It was ostensibly a benefit for charity; the evening would be dinner and a fashion show between five French (Yves Saint Laurent, Hubert de Givenchy, Pierre Cardin, Emanuel Ungaro, and Marc Bohan) and American (Oscar de la Renta, Bill Blass, Anne Klein, […]

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4/25/2016 's CBR8 Review No:54 |

Memoir. Fashion. Not for me.

Grace: A Memoir by Grace Coddington

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This was the March pick of my book club and I went into it with much trepidation.  I don’t read a lot of memoirs, and I don’t care about fashion sooo take what I say with those grains of salt.  I did NOT like this book.  Here is the paragraph that I have selected to illustrate the reasons I didn’t like it. “Despite all the drama, the photograph he took of Tina lounging on the sofa surrounded by parasols was not modern at all. He had created theatrical pools of lights, which gave the portrait an incredibly sad and haunting […]

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3/4/2016 's CBR8 Review No:5 |

“To Be a Godey’s Lady….”

Mr. Godey's Ladies: Being a Mosaic of Fashions and Fancies by Robert Kunciov

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In my continual search for quantitative research on Godey’s Lady’s Book, I came across “Mr. Godey’s Ladies: Being a Mosaic of Fashions and Fancies” by Robert Kunciov, which after the disappointment of the “Sarah Josepha Hale” book, I was leery. I was pleasantly surprised however, by the wonderful reproductions and a few color plates of the original etchings, as well as the author’s selections of excerpts from the original text. He begins with a chronology of the types of fashions, detailing the trends, colors, and accessories of each decade followed by a fairly scholarly introduction on his reason for compiling […]

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4/2/2015 's CBR7 Review No:14 |


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