Beauty is as Beauty Doesn't
590350
Things I like: the hair, the colors, the removable wings
Things not to like: hard plastic, unbend-able arms and legs, painted hard plastic mid-section, flimsy and loose fitting skirt.
4465695
This book offers many beautiful looks for a glowing bride. The section for the bridal party was HALF a page and was completely pointless. If you want to look classically beautiful then this is the book for you. I am a makeup artist and have done many many weddings for many different types of people, and while this book has nice pictures, it doesn't offer anything different than the standard shimmery eyes and nude lips.
What about the alternative bride, who wants to wear blue eyeshadow? This book basically says thats not what you're supposed to do. I just did a wedding where the bride wore a beehive and had thick cat lined eyes, and she looked AMAZING- to say that you have to wear your makeup only 1 way is bad advice.
There is NOTHING wrong with wanting to step outside the bridal box and have fun on your day- this books makes it seem like thats wrong. There is more than 1 type of person in the world :) Other than that the looks were pretty standard, but nice.
4173608
The human body is beautiful and these splendid photographs of handsome models are as good as it gets.  Too bad we all don't look that good.
1325139
Jaime is an artist obsessed with creating the perfect face.  To this end, he has developed synthetic skin which he can mold to his liking.  To fund his quest for beauty, he uses his invention to perform illegal cosmetic surgery on aging starlets, models and other celebrities.

His life is changed when he meets a young woman and realizes that she can become the basis for his masterwork.  Manipulating her into agreeing to the necessary surgery, he begins to work on her, ultimately creating a look so stunning that it creates an instant media sensation.  Her celebrity is a personal triumph for Jaime, a confirmation of his artistic genius.  The only problem is that he hasn't been as careful as he should have been, and his work is starting to come undone...

D'Amato's novel is a stunning indictment of modern society's obsession with beauty,  a horror novel that confronts readers with their own prejudices and forces them to question what Naomi Wolfe has labled "The Beauty Myth."  The commentary on our culture that American Psycho could only pretend to be, Beauty points out how impossible society's standards of beauty are to meet and reveals how hollow these standards are when examined closely.  Upon finishing, you'll wonder how we ever let it get so far out of hand.
3268944
While this interpretation loses some of the polyphonic clarity, it is still beautiful.
3830549
A Great and Terrible Beauty is one of those books you pick up and you feel like you've been there before but can't quite place it.  The story is reminiscent of A Little Princess.  After the death of her mother, Gemma is sent by her family to a private girls' school, Spence, where she will learn to be a lady so that she can eventually be a suitable wife and mother.  The school is full of cliques, and eventually Gemma is accepted by the most elite of them all--headed by the cunning and charming Felicity.  Gemma struggles with what happened to her mother, who was murdered, what's become of her father, a drug addict, and the strange occurrences that have followed her since coming to Spence.  The tale is full of the supernatural, tenuous relationships between teenagers, and a vague love story that promises to achieve fruition if you continue to read Bray's books.

Overall, I felt there were too many different elements going on with this book for any of them to have been completely successful.  The catty relationships that exist between girls of a certain age are at the forefront of the novel when Gemma first reaches Spence, but eventually she forgets how she was mocked and mistreated by the same girls she now calls friends.  A lovely lesson for today's youth, to be sure.  The underlying supernatural elements never fully connect and it's quite obvious that the readers are being set up for a sequel.  There's no real resolution, and no sense of accomplishment at completion because things are still up in the air.  This book was enjoyable and has quite few good intentions, but that's really not enough for this reader.
364746
I really wanted to like&nbsp;<a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/An-Object-of-Beauty-A-Novel/dp/0446573647/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">An Object of Beauty: A Novel</a>.  The book itself is lovely to look at.  It has a wonderful cover, art reproductions inside, and even the quality of the paper is great.  I enjoyed&nbsp;<a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Shopgirl-A-Novella/dp/0786891076/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">Shopgirl: A Novella</a>&nbsp;and it was with great anticipation that I started this book.  It was downhill from page one.

The book is a first person narrative told by Daniel about his friend Lacey Yaeger.  Lacey is in her early 20's when the book begins and is close to 40 when it ends.  She starts off her art career in the basement of Sotheby's and tries to gain attention by her beauty and impeccable dressing, right for every occasion.  This is a woman who turns heads but is as fickle as the weather.  She gets fired from Sotheby's and it is not until the end of the book that the reader knows why.  We learn that Lacey is a woman without scruples - with art, with men, with friends, and even with her family.  She is the type of person who, if it was not such a fashion insult, would wear a t-shirt that says 'It's All About Me'.

Steve Martin writes with a dry style, similar to his humor, but the book just doesn't get off the ground floor.  I understand the points he is making about art and about the art scene.  He has a witty tongue describing collectors, artists, gallery owners and the surrounding crowds.  He is trying to put into novel form much of what has been said in&nbsp;<a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Seven-Days-in-the-Art-World/dp/039333712X/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">Seven Days in the Art World</a>&nbsp;by Thornton.  The reader is genuinely surprised, and at times disgusted about those 'objects' that are traded like commodities rather than as works of art.  Artists are fodder for the galleries and, in flush economic times, art is flipped over much like real estate.  In bad times, when the market is down, art follows.  I get that.  I get that good artists are often overlooked for artists of the same caliber or even worse.  What I just could not get is the story itself.  Lacey is a bore.  She has no depth and nothing I could get my teeth into.  I get that too.  She's not supposed to be a person of depth, but this is a novel.  I wanted to know something about her and the other characters, to FEEL them.  The only one that had any gravitas was Patrice and he was put through Lacey's life grinder early on.

I love Mr. Martin's movies.&nbsp;<a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Parenthood-Special-Edition/dp/B000MRNWK6/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">Parenthood (Special Edition)</a>&nbsp;is one of my favorites and I've seen it at least three times.  He is amazing.  His droll wit and sense of timing is impeccable.  He's in a movie with Lili Tomlin,&nbsp;<a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/ALL-OF-ME/dp/B002T51X4Q/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">ALL OF ME</a>, that I also love.  They switch bodies by accident and try to get back to their own bodies.  It's so laugh-out-loud funny that your tummy hurts after watching it.  However, Mr. Martin's talents don't show up in this novel.  Perhaps if he'd written a non-fiction book about the art world, it would have spoken to me.

I can tell that Mr. Martin knows art and loves it, thus his writing this novel.  The best parts of the book were the non-fiction parts when he discussed art, objects of beauty and what they mean to different people at different times.  There is a really funny and telling scene about Joseph Beuy's 'Felt Suit'.  It made me laugh and it made me sad.  Mr. Martin KNOWS art and those that surround it.  I wish the novel could have succeeded.  I'm sorry to have written this negative review as I respect the author so much.
973882
The proportions aren't what is represented in the picture, so it isn't as aesthetic as I would I like. But that is just me I suppose.

Otherwise I like it.

I don't know if the advertising copy is true but I would like to think it is.

All in all it grows on you. So it's all good.
2112447
(The four-out-of-five stars rating has to do with the book, not the subject I will be discussing.)

First of all, this is not a full review. I'd have to REread this book to write a full review, and I don't think I liked it enough to do that. Instead of writing a full review, I just want to discuss a scene from this book that bothered me. (Slight spoilers will follow. Also, I read this more than six months ago, so forgive me if all of the details are not correct.)

There is this one part, possibly near the middle of the book, where Tris and Four are sitting near the waterfall. I forget why they're there, or what they were talking about, but then I think Tris might be asking Four why he cares for her, and she says something like "you can't deny that I'm NOT pretty". And Four says "no, you're not pretty". That bothers me. I don't remember if it bothered me when I first read it, but it sure does now. If Four cares for Tris so much, wouldn't he be attracted to her? Wouldn't he think she was beautiful, in her own way? "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder" and all that? Like, he would recognize that she has flaws, or isn't the popular definition of beauty, but wouldn't he personally think she's pretty, just because he cares for her? For example, even if you're a truly unattractive girl, your mother will still say that you're beautiful, and mean it. Her LOVE makes you beautiful, in her eyes. It's all personal opinion. People have different ideals of beauty, and so the people you love are the most beautiful people, aren't they? It's like with food. I HATE mushrooms, but to other people they are, like, the best food ever. My favorite food is chicken noodle soup, but my best friend dislikes it. So, in conclusion, what I think Four should have said would be something similar to this: "I'll agree that you're not the ideal beautiful person, but I personally find you more beautiful than any other girl."

Am I wrong in thinking this?
4633564
I liked this book because it runs true in some cases. An older, overweight woman who is in her 30's and is a virgin doesn't think she is pretty. The book shows that beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
4326961
*It's clean!*

Two ugly, magical princesses. One gives up beautiful magic for physical beauty, while our heroine rejects physical beauty in order to discover herself through her beautiful magic!

An inspiring story of acceptance of self, finding confidence despite shortcomings, and recognizing the beauty within that will outshine the outward appearance! This is a beautifully written tale of a truly beautiful princess who learns that true love is possible for anyone- warts, lumps and all!- and that the ultimate prize of self sacrifice far outweighs the cost.

Stuck with an ugly face that gains a new wart or lump every time she uses the magic she loves, Princess Olive seeks only to gain the love and approval of her family. As she struggles to learn to love herself for the beauty that lives within her, the lives of everyone Princess Olive loves is threatened when an old enemy revisits their land in hopes of total domination. Being the last of the Winnowwood, as she is unwilling to give up her magic to gain physical beauty, Olive is the only one with the power to defend her people, the very people who despise her because of her outward appearance. Finding courage and strength in the face of rejection as well as danger is a lot to ask of an eighteen year old girl, but if she's successful she just might find true love along the way!
3310935
This was a sweet novella.  It was fairly predictable, but pretty-well written.  I didn't like the emphasis on beauty.  As soon as anybody saw Kilmeny, they fell in love with her because she was so beautiful.  Of course, she was also loving, kind, sweet, innocent, caring, etc.,  but the main point was that she was beautiful.  So, it was kind of like a fairy tale with a beautiful heroine, a handsome hero, and a perfect ending.  It didn't have any sex or swearing in it.
4903572
The film quality doesn't quite showcase the beauty of Uschi, Gerri Reeves fairs a little better with less grainy film. There isn't much here but this is the way it was once. A time when we were less concerned about cosmetic enhancements and women simply had a different quality of beauty.
3210760
Not as deep a color as depicted, but truly beautiful.
2093933
Whomever said the pics look like a copy of a copy is right. Not lush like they should be to appreciate the amazing artistry and detail.
300173
It is huge and doesn't appear classy and bit too cheap looking. It will get attention not because of its beauty but its size.
4870319
It's a beautiful, meditative film with an excellent cast. As far as films go, it's more of a poem than a novel.

Be warned: it's not about people fighting (although there is some of that) and it's not like the typical "rollercoaster ride" you can expect from Hollywood bland action films. It is not a string of action set pieces strung together as a predictable plot, actually plot is irrelevant here (which, judging by the couple of one-star reviews, clearly discomforts those who seek the predictable. If you don't understand style-as-substance, and have no appreciation for film beyond its shallow entertainment value, this is not for you. This one is pure art-house.