I didn't think that I would like this book but I enjoyed it. Alexandra Lebenthal, ex-bond babe (and I don't mean the films, I mean muni bonds), socialite and New York Social Diary editor, weaves a clever story about trials and tribulations of Wall Street wives as they deal with private school admissions, cheating hedge fund husbands and the collapse of Lehman Brothers. The tidy ending is certainly contrived but the book is worth reading for the description of the characters alone.
Last week I thought that I was going to spend this weekend doing the domestic thing, like finishing my closet de-clutter project and cooking FF's lemon, chicken, potato dish that she kindly wrote the recipe for, thank you FF. Well, I was right about being domestic, but wrong about getting anything actually done this weekend as I got whacked with a nasty head cold with fever and have barely been able to extricate myself from my bed. Thankfully I don't get sick often which I credit to clean living having limited interaction with other people, therefore cutting down my risk of being exposed to something contagious. Apparently my non interaction strategy hasn't been fool proof.
So what can I do besides spend the weekend in bed with these things. I don't know about the Chai Spice Tea, the Evian or the Emergen-C But I can vouch for the fact that the books do make me feel better.
Drink Play etc...by Andrew Gottlieb is a cute parody of 'Eat Pray Love' from the male point of view. Here's the description from Publishers Weekly As an impudent retort to Elizabeth Gilbert's best-selling Eat Pray Love, the book that swept book clubs and bestseller charts throughout 2006, this comic travelogue is nothing if not a conversation starter. Fortunately, it's also a dizzyingly fun parody that apes Gilbert in its premise (Ireland, Las Vegas and Thailand replace Gilbert's post-divorce destinations, Italy, India and Indonesia) and its particulars, mirroring plot developments and platitudes line by line (where Eat Pray Love opens with its protagonist contemplating a kiss with an Italian named Giovanni, Gottlieb starts moments from a liplock between his narrator, divorcee Bob Sullivan, and Giovanna. That kind of parody can wear over pages, but Gottlieb's protagonist is a likable and entertaining enough rascal to carry the story and, with the help of a happy-go-lucky personal trainer named Rick, do some good-humored philosophizing on the gender-trumping predicament of heart-break. Still, anyone who has suspected that boys have a bit more fun than girls will find their theories confirmed, as Gottlieb packs in just as much adventure as Gilbert, with a quarter of the self-seriousness. Not serious reading but a cute book and
Heresy by S.J. Parrish, is a 'Name of the Rose' type murder mystery thriller set in Elizabethan Oxford with an Italian ex priest/philosopher/astrologer/scholar, Giordano Bruno, tasked by Elizabeth to search for Catholic conspiracy amid the newly formed Protestants at Oxford. The book isn't as linguistically or semiotically as exciting as a book by Eco...and who can write like Eco but Eco? But is is a very clever story and I look forward to reading her next Giordano Bruno historical mystery Prophesy.
Next week when I feel better it will back to blogging. Until then I leave you with Colonel Qaddafi - A Life In Fashion and Qaddafi Kid Style While these articles make fun of Qaddafi and his brood, Libya is no laughing matter. I'm guessing that there's going to be a lot more bloodshed before all of this is over and it's probably going to end up with that megalomaniac Qaddafi and his utterly insane Little Green Book still in power.
Even though I wasn't raised by a superior Chinese mother, I still make an effort at self improvement, especially at the start of a new year.
So high on my list is reading this book....although probably the only progress that I can make in 4 hours is to get the book read. And if I am sedentary for the 4 hours that it will take for me to read this book, I'm not sure exactly what kind of self improvement I will actually be making.
But any book that tempts me with rapid fat loss, incredible sex and becoming superhuman is worth reading when self improvement is the goal.
The 4 Hour Body
A more realistic goal in my quest for self improvement than becoming superhuman is taking better care of my skin. While not a product person per se, I do see the need to do something besides injections and laser to cope with ageing.
A very nice person sent me an article about the Lifeline products and their near miraculous results. All kinds of stem cell biotechnology has gone into creating these serums and they affect the skin by using messaging molecules or proteins.
Basically a bunch of smarty pants research scientists came up with this.
Another long story short, they came up with two solutions. One, they started using a technique from a Japanese nanotechnology firm that enabled them to encapsulate the proteins from stem cell extract inside a nanovessicle in order to keep them stable and give them the ability to penetrate the upper layer of the skin, and then they figured out how to "blow up" the cells in order to harvest the other 90% of the messaging proteins. That is very important, because cultivating stem cells is not easy-it takes time, some very expensive equipment, and cleanrooms. The cells are cultured in numerous batches, because if a batch goes bad it must be thrown out.
Then
And then they started rigorously, indefatigably testing it to get the right mix that produced just the effect they wanted. They conducted all official safety and efficacy tests according to the highest FDA standards, with independent laboratories and physicians. They confirmed the following anti-aging claims: moisture effect, increased skin elasticity, sun protection, decreased fine lines and wrinkles, improved skin tone.
This product doesn't claim to give you great skin overnight, but with consistent usage for at least 4 months one should be able to see positive results.
Maybe it works, maybe it doesn't, but I'm committed to giving it at least 6 months, alternating usage with Atralin, which is the latest and greatest of the new Retin A products.
Very cleverly the makers of Lifeline, the International Stem Cell Corporation, have stated that the production is limited so only a very fortunate 4000 people will be able to try the product until manufacturing gets ramped up. Smart marketing...there's nothing like claiming scarcity to promote demand and justify higher prices.
But it if works, I'm certainly willing to pay the price...god knows it's cheaper than the laser.
If you start reading a book, do you feel compelled to finish it? Once I start reading a book, especially if it qualifies as literature, I feel totally compelled to read it all the way to the end. Sometime about a year ago I decided to attempt to read the works of English female authors from the 18th and 19th Centuries. I did this because I knew that there were outstanding female authors that I missed. But I'm having some trouble with this.
Do you ever read books where the main character is so obnoxious and so unsympathetic that you just can't turn another page? Well that's how I feel about Margaret Oliphant's 'Miss Marjoribanks'. I was actually hoping that the main character would catch consumption and die so that we all could be put out of our misery.
And then there is 'The Female Quixote or The Adventures of Arabella', by the prolific Charlotte Lennox. In many ways it is a brilliant satire but the main character Arabella is so annoying. Even by three quarters of the book, Arabella is as puerile and foolish as she was in the first chapter. And I'm sorry but, no feminist literature professor is going to convince me that the wealthy and well bred Arabella, with access to an extensive library yet who floats in a fantasy world ruled by French Romance novels, is some kind of 18th Century feminist heroine.
So, I've done something that I rarely do. I've tossed these books aside and just given up on them.
Have I mentioned that I love all kinds of history including military history. And, I consider myself extraordinarily lucky to work in a business where everything that I touch, wear, appraise and sell, has a history. Of course I don't always know the provenance of a piece of estate jewelry or object d'art, but I appreciate the fact that every piece has a story behind it. Take this sterling silver cigarette case for example.
I am rarely enamored with inanimate objects but there is something about this specific item that moves me. Let's start with the top. You can see from the photo that the case is engraved with a map of Burma with the names of the major cities. Ten of those cities, including Rangoon and Mandalay, are emphasized by flush set Burma rubies.
The back of the case is engraved India 1945 Burma 43-44-45 China 45 Obviously, we all know what was going on in these countries during these years.
Then we have the interior which is engraved Helen From Jim Who was Helen? And more importantly, who was Jim? Was he an Aussi, an American or a Brit? Was he an officer, a diplomat, a businessman, a reporter or a spy? Who did he know? What did he witness during the war years? When I hold this case in my hand I have the inexplicable feeling that there is a Somerset Maugham quality story of love and loss connected with it. So much happened in Burma during 1943,1944 and 1945 and of course so much has happened since.
And on the topic, last weekend's Wall Street Journal listed five of the best books with first hand accounts of WW2 and Quartered Safe Out There: A Harrowing Tale Of World War II by George Macdonald Fraser was on their list. Here's what WSJ reviewer Andrew Roberts had to say about the book. George MacDonald Fraser, British author of the Flashman series of novels, fought in the 17th (Black Cat) Indian Division of the 14th Army during the siege of Meiktila and the battle of Pyawbwe in Burma. He believed, probably correctly, that soldiering in Burma rivaled flying in the RAF's Bomber Command as "the worst ticket you could draw in the lottery of active service." This was so not just because of the Japanese enemy; there were also 15-inch poisonous centipedes, malaria, "spiders the size of plates," typhus, jungle sores on the wrists and ankles, dysentery, and leeches. In terse, unsentimental language, Fraser's superb war memoir, "Quartered Safe Out Here," relates how the soldiers in his close-knit company fought their battles, mourned their friends and simply tried to survive from day to day.
PerhapsJim fought with 17th Black Cat Indian Division. I wish that I knew.
Yes, we all know about Zappos, that "little online company that could". Really, how else do you describe a start-up business that went from zero to 1 billion dollars in merchandise sales in less than 10 years. Delivering Happiness , by Zappos CEO and biggest investor Tony Hsieh, is a great business book. Tony takes us through his upper middle class upbringing to his Harvard graduation in 1995, to his co-founding of Link Exchange in 1996 and its subsequent sale to Mircrosoft for $265 billion in 1998, to his joining Zappos in 1999 and selling Zappos in a stock deal to Amazon in 2009. Talk about a career on steroids. But more than a book about Tony's personal success, this book is a guide to building a better business by having a succinct corporate culture and committed core values. Here are the Zappos core values:
1. Deliver WOW Through Service
2. Embrace and Drive Change
3. Create Fun and a Little Weirdness
4. Be Adventurous, Creative and Open Minded
5. Pursue Growth and Learning
6. Build Open and Honest Relationships with Communication
7. Build a Positive Team and Family Spirit
8. Do More with Less
9. Be Passionate and Determined
10. Be Humble At Beladora.com we know all about doing more with less, being humble, being passionate and determined and most importantly delivering WOW service. Maybe we need to create some fun and a little weirdness too.
Even if you don't have any specific interest in business, I recommend that you read this book. It is a great American story of how ideas, capital, expertise, hard work and a sense of humor come together to make something great.
Lots of stuff to do this week because next week I'm off to this place
where I plan to do some of this
and some of this
and spend some downtime away from the computer...although I'm taking my laptop of course.
But even away from the keyboard I will be reevaluating business, blogging and all things Beladora, like adding new features, redecorating the site, and starting a corporate blog like the competition, who shall not be named. I will also be considering a road trip to New York and maybe one to London/Paris sometime in the Fall. (And jesus Jill, if you'd ever invite me to El Paso, I'd plan a trip there too) Books to read on the beach are on my mind too, but it is too late for me to order from Amazon, biographies from Antonia Fraiser (thank you tabitha) and novels from Anthony Powell (thank you LBT). I shall be reduced to finding an actual bookstore or worse, buying cheesy paperbacks at the airport. This is what happens when I wait until the last minute...
Well not really reading, I should say listening to because these are a couple of books that are on my ipod.
The Quants was a little long and complicated and required concentration....not an easy book to listen to when treading on the treadmill at the gym.
On the other hand, Malcolm Gladwell's Outliers was an easy audio book and so very interesting. If you haven't read it you should.
And on the topic of reading....you know that you are getting old when you get more excited about reading the Williams-Sonoma catalog than you do about reading the latest fashion magazine.
Next on my list of fiction books are Terry Pratchett novels and I am determined to finally get through Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash.
What are all of you reading this summer. Do you have any recommendations?
For some reason, I'm not sure why, I've never seemed to get around to reading anything by Colette. So, I recently started reading Claudine at School, the first book in The Complete Claudine. Unfortunately I find every character in the book, and most importantly the main character Claudine, totally unsympathetic. In spite of the fact that I'm not enjoying the read, I will slog through the book because I find 19th Century and Belle Epoque history interesting. As for Colette herself, I would like to read a well written biography. Can anyone suggest one? Ms. Cavendish perhaps? Forget the lesbian affairs, what I would really like to know is why she seduced her 16 year old step son when she was 40 and continued the affair for 5 years. Yes I know, how very French.
So what do you get when you put a brilliant billionaire named Tom Barrack on a boat in Turkey with some free time on his hands and nothing to read except 'Twilight'. What you get is a thoughtful analysis of the book and a brilliant letter to the senior management at his firm Colony Capital. Here is a brief excerpt I boarded the gorgeous but stark Turkish Gulet right as the sun was setting. As I made my way into the main cabin I saw something so frightening it left me speechless. There, staring up at me from the ebony coffee table was a book. On the cover was a gorgeous red apple nestled between two soft and caring hands. Between the hands were written the words that strike terror in the hearts of every macho, red-blooded male…TWILIGHT. AAAARRRGGGGHHHH!! Alone, on a boat, with no wifi, no satellite, no magazines, no newspapers, just me and this book. This piece of chick lit, teeny bopper heartthrob stuff. Terror on the high seas! I wanted nothing to do with any of it. Not relevant, not interesting.
As I sat there with nothing to do the book kept taunting me. I began to think that there must be something I don’t understand. What could it be? What is it all about? Women don’t just read these books, they live them. They become each paragraph. I picked it up, but then immediately dropped it like a hot coal. What if someone saw me reading this? My macho reputation would be finished! I would be kicked out of the bench press section of the gym. My polo compadres would send me packing to the pony rides and my surfing buddies would exile me to the kiddie pool.
But it was a long night and there was absolutely nothing, and I mean NOTHING else to do. Long story short – not only did I read Twilight, I read the other two as well!! I was fascinated, captivated even. However, what intrigued me was not the same thing that hooked the millions of women whose lives and had been changed by this series, but something else entirely. I love the way that Barrack starts his aversion to the book, then goes on with what he finds from reading the Twilight books and extrapolates that into lessons for life. Also in the lessons for life category, Christina at Fashion's Most Wanted has posted the Dalai Lama's instructions for life. Yes, we've all read them before, but they are always worth re-reading.
Jeffrey Eugenides Girls who didn’t get enough drama when they were younger. Lauren Weisberger Girls who can’t read. Or think. Charles Dickens Ninth graders who think they’re going to be authors someday but end up in marketing. William Shakespeare People who like bondage. Mark Twain Liars. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle People who drink scotch. Joseph Conrad People who drink old fashioneds. Michael Crichton Doctors who went to third-tier medical schools. John Grisham Doctors who went to medical schools in the Dominican Republic. Dan Brown People who used to get lost in supermarkets when they were kids.
Happy Friday everyone and I hope that all of you get a chance to relax with a book or two this 4th of July weekend.
Of all Beethoven's works, the Ninth Symphony is the least explicable. What on Earth was he doing decorating its finale with a chorus and soloists singing an ode of Schiller's, ostensibly about joy but in reality about brotherhood and liberation? What is the Ninth about? Is it a charter for social reform or for individual rights? A religious ecstasy? Does the symphony mean to us what it meant to Beethoven? Does it mean anything useful at all?
These are some of the questions that set Harvey Sachs off on a painstaking search to discover the roots of Beethoven's last symphony in the time of its creation. The year was 1824, and the Congress of Vienna had turned Europe back to a network of despotic monarchies, as if the Enlightenment and French Revolution had never happened.
Perhaps the Ninth was all some sort of musical Masonic code.
Just another non-eventful Sunday on the hiking trail.
Except for the 3 foot long rattle snake that crossed the trail right in front of me.
Luckily, when I walk alone I tend to keep my head down, concentrating on the trail and whatever I'm listening to on my ipod. If I hadn't been focusing on looking down, I could have easily stepped on the snake.
And speaking of snakes
This is what I was listening to on my ipod.
If you have not read The Big Short you need to do so right away.
No one tells a true financial tale like Michael Lewis.
Perfect weather seems to have finally arrived. Yesterday it was about 85 degrees with a cloudless sky, perfect for a hike in the hills. Since my hiking partner was busy I was happy go alone with my ipod and finish listening to the last chapter and epilogue of "Churchill" by Paul Johnson. I am fascinated by Winston Churchill and all that he accomplished. Fifty-five years in the House of Commons, 9 years as Prime Minister, Chancellor of the Exchequer, soldier, war correspondent, polo player, orator, painter, historian, whiskey drinker, savior of the Western World. Seriously, is there anything this man couldn't do?
I stopped a few times to look at the wild flowers in bloom
Strangely, I only saw one California poppy plant, the flower that California is famous for.
Because it was so clear, the view was outstanding, from Catalina island, to Palos Verdes, to Long Beach, to Saddleback Mountain, to downtown LA. I could even see the snow capped mountains.
Yesterday was literally one of those days where you could have surfed in the morning in Malibu and skied in the afternoon at Mountain High. Yeah, LA is a pretty amazing place.
This is the nicest time to hike in the hills because soon it will be too hot and dry
and fire weather will be upon us.
Paul Johnson's Churchill, like all of Johnson's books, was excellent and I recommend it to you. Also, if you haven't already read it, I suggest that you read the two volume "The Last Lion" by William Manchester.
And, if you don't have the time or inclination to read the Manchester oeuvre, at least read these famous Churchill quotes because he said so many brilliant things.
"Lady Astor: Winston, if you were my husband I would poison your tea
Churchill: Nancy, if I were your husband I'd drink it."
I have more to write about Churchill, but I'll save that for a future post.
