Mini Review: The Little Book of Perfumes

The Little Book of Perfumes by Luca Turin and Tania Sanchez is a subset of their opus PERFUMES The A–Z Guide, and a very entertaining book that will make you want to go out and sniff all of the perfumes they talk about.

Dangerous, dangerous book.  A handy size, easily digestible; it would make a nice gift for the budding perfume fan.

thinking about the beach

Love this Tommy Bahama jute beach bag!  I'm all about jute stuff, but I've found it hard to find nice stuff made in it.

After months of slogging, I finally finished "Hope in a Jar" - a far more academic, historical look at the culture of beauty than I anticipated.  I am now working through Dale Carnegie's "How to Stop Worrying and Start Living" - quite practical and moderately interesting.  I hope to get through it this week.

Next on my get-rid-of-books-taking-up-space list: I'm going to try to get through "Tai Chi Chuan - 24 & 48 Postures with Martial Applications".  Tai Chi is pretty boring when trying to learn through a book.

Banned books

From Two Women Blogging, the Top 20 banned or challenged books in the US during the 20th century. The ones I've read are in bold.

I don't understand understand the concept of banning books, but in particular I don't understand why you'd ban the following books.

1. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
2. The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
3. The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck -read outside of school
4. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
5. The Color Purple by Alice Walker
6. Ulysses by James Joyce
7. Beloved by Toni Morrison
8. The Lord of the Flies by William Golding
9. 1984 by George Orwell
10. The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner
11. Lolita by Vladmir Nabokov
12. Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
13. Charlotte’s Web by E. B. White
14. A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce
15. Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
16. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
17. Animal Farm by George Orwell
18. The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway - tried to read
19. As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner
20. A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway

kenji yoshino

Read an excerpt from his book here; articulate and perceptive. I want this book!

BAPE kids mook is out

The BAPE kids by A Bathing Ape magazine book (mook) is out now. A bit pricy at 1800 yen, it comes with a square boston bag in a colorful nylon material. Quite a nice large size, with long handles and a zipper on top, I am rather happy with it. If the nylon holds up to regular usage, it's quite a reasonable price, considering that a tshirt from BAPE kids cost 4000+ yen.

The fabric is a bit rough, but seems sturdy. The mook is quite nice; they've packaged it so that the gift bag is separate from the mook (rather a catalog really) so you can keep the mook itself around and throw away the cardboard packaging that protects the gift. I actually plan on giving the mook to some friends as I think they'll be amused by the pictures of the fashionable families pictured. The kids are absolutely adorable too.

Miranda July's website is cool

And funny. Check out noonebelongsheremorethanyou.com, a site for her new book. Her actual site is mirandajuly.com.