BOOK OF THE WEEK with Linda Jennings. The Glam Guide, Fleur De Force, ISBN 9781472228406 (Headline) BD8.400 for Gulf Weekly Book Club members
I have decided that this week’s column will be all for the ladies and this is without doubt the most attractive and best beauty book to have come out on the market for a very long time.
It isn’t a traditional ‘must-do’ book with a list of rules but is about developing your own personal sense of style – discovering what suits you and learning to be fabulous in your own individual way.
Fleur De Force started making YouTube videos in 2009 to share her thoughts and recommendations and what began as a fun hobby quickly turned into something much bigger. She’s spent the past five years seeking out the best products, top tips and easiest ways for us all to look and feel more fabulous.
Now one of the world’s top beauty and fashion bloggers, Fleur shares all of her secrets and discoveries in The Glam Guide. More than just a beauty manual, this book is also about embracing a chic and fulfilling lifestyle and touches on a wide range of subjects including: makeup, fashion, hair, health and fitness, body image and relationships.
Fleur also wants to stress that teenage girls and young women need to treat themselves well – being active and eating a balanced diet. She states that: “The great thing about YouTube is that you have the ability to ask your audience what they want to learn from you and what matters to them.”
And their response is what she put in this book; so whether you’re looking for makeup tips, wardrobe cheats, first-date pointers or healthy lifestyle motivation, this is the book for you or to buy for your daughter.
* Read it now in paperback
The Perfect Match, Katie Fforde, ISBN 9780099539247 (Arrow) BD3.900 for Gulf Weekly Book Club members
This is the wonderfully romantic new novel from the No. 1 Sunday Times bestselling chic-lit author, Katie Fforde. A perfect pick-up/put-down novel for all us busy ladies wanting a little romance in our lives.
Three years ago Bella Castle left her home town nursing a broken heart over Dominic Thane, the man she fell in love with but couldn’t have. Now she’s made a new life for herself in the country, working as an estate agent. Bella loves her job and she loves her boyfriend Nevil.
But recently he’s been preoccupied, and she’s starting to question if his future hopes and dreams are a perfect match for hers. And when Dominic turns up unexpectedly in search of his dream house, she begins to wonder if home is really where the heart is.
But she’s over him, isn’t she? Do you ever get over your first love? I suspect not … (but I am not going to spoil the ending of the book).
* My favourite read-of-the-week
The Blazing World, Siri Hustvedt, ISBN 9781444779660 (Sceptre) BD5 for Gulf Weekly Book Club members
“All intellectual and artistic endeavours, even jokes, ironies, and parodies, fare better in the mind of the crowd when the crowd knows that somewhere behind the great work or the great spoof it can locate a (man)”.
The artist Harriet Burden, furious at the lack of attention paid her by the New York art world, conducts an experiment: she hides her identity behind three male fronts in a series of exhibitions.
Their success seems to prove her point, but there’s a sting in the tail – when she unmasks herself, not everyone believes her. Then her last collaborator meets a bizarre end.
In this mesmerising tour de force, Burden’s story emerges after her death through a variety of sources, including her (not entirely reliable) journals and the testimonies of her children, lover and a dear friend. Each account is different, however, and the mysteries multiply.
This is not a book to suit everyone and takes some concentration to read but all the feminists and female artists out there will enjoy this very witty, literary take on gender politics, which was long-listed for the Man Booker Prize. It’s an interesting and thought-provoking read.
