Beauty is to the eye of the beholder
591479
A beautiful description of a gorgeous hotel on a romantic island that is full of fabulous flora and fauna . It is easy to pretend that you are a guest and to participate  in all the fun. A great story and I am looking to the last one.
1867580
THE PHOTOGRAPHY HERE IS BEAUTIFUL...THE FACES OF EACH PERSON ARE PHOTOGRAPHED UP CLOSE AND THE EMOTION OF THE PEOPLE COMES ALIVE IN THE EYES, THE TRIBAL COLORS ON THE FACES, AND THE WRITTEN EXPLINATION OF EACH PHOTO.  THE BOOK WITH THE PEOPLE IN IT ARE LOOKING BACK AT YOU AS IF YOU ARE BEING OBSERVED AND NOT THEM....................EXCELLENT IN ALL WAYS.
3321333
Artwork offers impressive, unusual perspectives which surprise the eye.
555433
The Bluest Eye, Toni Morrison?s first novel, is a spectacular rendition of what our world truly thinks about appearance.  With very vivid detail and meaningful language, Morrison puts her soul out there for everyone to see.  Morrison opened up my eyes to the painful outcomes our society can create.  This book kept me turning the pages so I could see what happened next.  Morrision?s use of language made me feel like I was right there beside each character listening to all their stories.  Morrision?s organization of the book sets you up to the ultimate understanding at the end of the book.  As a lover of fiction this is a novel that I will never forget.  It offers us poetic language and striking detail that takes us on a journey through life.
 This novel tells us the story of young Pecola Breedlove who desperately yearns for blue eyes to gain acceptance and love.  Everyone torments this young, African American girl, in her hometown of Lorain, Ohio because she is unsightly and does not look like the symbol of beauty, which is blond hair and blue eyes.  Pecola lives in an abandoned store and has a very disturbed home life.  Her drunken father is very abusive, her mother is a strong woman, but is in love with the symbol of beauty and her brother always seems to run away.  Each of these characters has a devastating effect on Pecola?s destruction on her quest for blue eyes.  Pecola?s life changes profoundly for the worse.  She is inevitably shattered by the negative thoughts of people all around her and destroyed by the emotional and sexual abuse from her family.
 This novel expresses some serious themes that are present in our society today.  Morrision presents to us the notion of black self-hatred and what society does to people who want to be beautiful.  It hurts me to know that the only thing Pecola prayed for was blue eyes. Pecola just wanted to be loved and capture the attention her family was not providing her with.  This is a very good book to read if you are feeling down about your appearance because it makes you realize that you cannot go by what society thinks is beautiful, you have to go by what is on the inside.  Pecola was a beautiful girl on the inside but nobody realized that because everyone was too caught up with what beauty is on the outside.  Pecola hated herself because she wanted to be just like Shirley Temple and all the grown-ups emphasized this too.  The lesson in this story is people need to be true to themselves and know who they really are and not be caught in the deadly trap of the media or society.
If you like serious, touching, make you want to cry, fiction novels, then this is the book for you.  I think anyone can learn something from its deep and somewhat hidden themes.  This novel touched me and made me want to go find Pecola and give her a big hug and say to her ?I will be your friend.?  This novel threw me into a whirlwind of different emotions.  At times I just wanted to cry and at other times I was completely raging.  There were times when I wanted to scream at the characters and there were times where I just wanted to put myself in Pecola?s head and defend her and make things right.  This book should reveal to you how bad things can get in our society and that we need to stop them from happening.  I think that this is what Morrison was trying to get across.  Everyone needs to realize these things and then we can work on changing them for the better.
1556560
What can I say? This is a photobook, a memoir, a work of pure heart and soul. Applying the photojournalist eye to candid moments of extreme beauty and glamorized provocation the reader is pulled through sweaty soundstage memories through Barbara Nitke's words, then transported to fleeting moments of humanity found among these young and beautiful people. Then you turn the page, and the photographer's eye shifts to pure beauty shot, transforming the verite into the centerfold. Some of these images feel like high fashion, and often are indeed pure documentation of the styles of the era as much as they are portraits of giants of a niche genre. If people weren't still so bristled by the concept of Adult Films, I'd be inclined to show it to everyone I knew for the delicacy of the craft on display within. As it stands, it's my favorite photobook in my small but curated collection.
1564397
"American Beauty" is being interpreted as a film about appearances but I believe it is more than that.  Suburbia has been satirized for decades but this film has captured America's attention more  than those other films.  The people who have found it shallow have offered  shallow interpretations--"the perfect family from the outside is  dysfunctional when subjected to scrutiny."  Also, reviewers proffer  that the film is a morality lesson telling us that pursuit of material  possessions is empty and cannot provide happiness.  Yes, yes, but these are  truisms and there has to be more to "American Beauty" than  this.
I think "American Beauty" is a filmic version of U2's  album "Achtung Baby."  To me it says this:  People who are  obsessed with the way things look rather than what they are fail to  perceive truth and beauty.  The boy next door epitomizes the search for  reality, and the film is about Lester's evolution in that direction.  The  less effort he expends in creating an illusion, the more acute his  discernment of reality--and with that growing discernment comes the  revelation that reality is far more emotional than the illusions we  construct to represent reality.  Thus, the object of his desires, when  viewed through Lester's evolved eyes, ceases to be a symbol of seduction  and becomes what she is, a frightened child.
"American Beauty"  is a wonderful film.  Best of the year?  I don't know.  I preferred  "Eyes Wide Shut," which deals with the exact same themes.
3512610
Steve McCurry, though highly regarded for his photojournalism and compassionate, realistic views of nature's tragedies and human errors, has turned his camera lens toward the people of the world and the effect is one of the most piercing, poignant, exquisitely beautiful collections of street portraiture ever assembled.  One is reminded of Dorothea Lange and Diane Arbus and others who have pried open the beings of their simple subjects in luminous black and white images.

Yet what McCurry has accomplished is not only magnificent color photography of the highest order of the people of the world in their ethnic regalia, he has managed to capture that elusive moment of vulnerability when the subjects eyes probe the photographer's lens as deeply as the photographer seeks entry into the secrets of his subject's existence.  The result is complete magic.  At times the subjects reflect terror, arrogance, at times pleas for compassion, and at times human inquisitiveness.  McCurry has time and again found that moment of total attention that beams from the eyes of the encountered novice to the outside world.

This is a book of beautiful portraits, but more important it is a series of views into attitudes, fears and longings that make us reevaluate our own stance and vantage point on the planet.  Highly Recommended. Grady Harp, July 05
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?
1798978
What a remarkable and visually captivating collections of black and white photography! The technical quality and personal esthetic are bold and conscious.  The result is a quiet, breathtaking social commentary; light and shadow insist that we look...and then we look again.  In her other work, Lange demonstrateas her ability to carry, simultaneously, more than one emotion at a time. 50 Photograpghs left me longing to bare more. One comes face to face with the convolution of our humanity as it lies just beyond the vigilant gargoylian bulldog's underbite.  Ultimately, it is the resolute dignity and love of subject that pulls one inside the pages.
918634
Peter Webber's "Girl with a Pearl Earring" is a visual treat, using golden hues to create a soft, vintage look in both the interiors and the exteriors, the city of Delft.  The cast, led by Colin Firth as the Dutch painter Vermeer, is superb.  A great deal of feelings and depth is conveyed without dialogue.
The viewer will be swept up by the painter so devoted to his art;  his jealous, pretty wife who is burdened by many pregnancies; the innocent young girl who knows she must tread carefully in this turbulent household; the wife's mother who must shrewdly manage the business of selling the paintings.
Although reviewers might use the word "subtle" to describe this visually grand film, it is also curiously overwrought and heavy, like the tantrums of the wife, and somewhat exhausting to watch.  A minor criticism:  the actress playing the young girl, although fresh and dewey, doesn't much resemble the girl in the real painting, whose more finely wrought features might reflect more intelligence and depth.
2484577
A good photographic portrait amuses and delights the viewer. A great one stabs you through the eye, twists the cortex, and bleeds out a richer red of humanity than you imagined possible. Faces of Harley by Richard Ressman, M.D. is such a book. Funny, ironic, beautiful, menacing, and always real, the riders depicted in this series demand attention. Demand and deserve respect. With braided beards, leather scull caps, ink, and imperfect orthodontia the Harley characters become animated before your eyes by the mastery of the photographers skill. This is a celebration of the beauty of human diversity. Quality paper and printing make for an enjoyable compliment to anyones art book collection.
693702
This film is about the pervasive attention given to a man's looks in the current gay scene. I identify the scene as the bars, circuit parties, street fairs, weekend parties, and gay-ghetto gyms of Los Angeles, Palm Springs, San Francisco and Atlanta as shown in this film. By focusing on about a dozen men who have found life pretty good by having "Adonis" credentials (or inventing them with extensive workouts, correct diet, supplementation including anabolic steroids, and plastic surgery), the film's surface message that such looks are superficial is countered by a subtext that these men are worth paying attention to only because of their physical appearance. In other words, the film buys into the stereotype it's trying to fight. Yes, a handful of men who resist the Adonis syndrome get profiled, but let's face it: the Adonises get the first and last look. Most of the Adonises here don't seem very pleasant or self-aware; it's hard to take someone seriously when he says the most important things in life have nothing to do with his looks after he's described the Botox injections and plastic surgery he's had done. Many explanations are offered for why gay culture idolizes men for their looks, but nothing sticks. The bottom line is this: when a man buffs up, other men pay him attention. I found the bonus feature interviews with the men profiled in the film (and the interview with director Christopher Hines) to be more interesting, relaxed, and insightful than the film itself. It is most suitable for mature audiences because of explicit content.
4430085
This is a beautiful story that's as beautiful to look at as it is to read. The story is full of charm and I can certainly identify with a heroine that isn't your usual perfect princess. Well done for both the author and the illustrator - this book is a work of art on so many levels.
1763126
I consider this novel a cross between literary and suspense/mystery. Normally, "literary" is not my thing because the words and phrasing tend to get caught up in their own beauty, like vanity in a mirror, at the cost of story. This book is not that.

The writing is beautiful, but it presents as a natural, unadorned beauty, not something wrapped up in precise makeup and designer clothes and jewels. It's somewhat plain and breathtaking. My only complaint (quite minor) is the pacing gets bogged down a time or two. When I skim and don't lose the thread of story, the pieces of star ratings start to fall.

High kudos to this author for writing the place and descriptions as a character unto itself, causing moi to down untold 32-ounce containers of water and resultant trips to the bathroom.
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.
1717701
"THE SECRET", "THE LAW OF ATTRACTION"....through how you present yourself to the world by clothing.  You are your own vision board and how you dress has an impact on your future as well as how others perceive you.  There is helpful advice on must-have items that the author feels are universally flattering.  Other than that, the book is beautifully illustrated, glossy finished pages, and beautifully bounded; a nice addition to your coffee table collection.
2809080
Rather fun to see friends look and see something different, but not know why, but claim you look so fresh and good.