The Tuesday Book Club: The Goddess Experience

With December being around the corner and the weather being typical nasty winter cold, I thought I'd share this magnificent book with you:

Gisèle Scanlon - THE GODDESS EXPERIENCE

This is the ultimate bible on how to be happy, feel like a goddess and appreciate life. At least from my point of view. This book features hundreds of tips on how to enjoy the small things in life, how to enjoy life in general and how make yourself feel that little more extra special. The book covers cooking tips, fashion tips, travel guides, inspirational ideas, home ideas and tips, beauty insiders...EVERYTHING...just like the back of the book suggests: "..any goddess would be mad not to keep a copy by her bed." I think this book also makes for an excellent present which is why I also once gave this as a present to my bestie Nina. Plus the book looks just sooo pretty in the bookshelf..too bad though I spilled water all over it when I once carried it along in my bag together with a bottle of water...dammit!!

xx, V

The Tuesday Book Club: The Russian Phoenix

Today I most definitely present the nerdiest book in my series so far:

GERHARD MANGOTT - The Russian Phoenix

This book was written by one of my former professors from Bachelor's degree who happens to be the smartest and wittiest person I ever gotten to know...at least in my book haha We had to read this book in class as preparation for the exam in Political Systems of the East, where we focused on Russia in particular. Now what you guys probably don't know about me is that aside from fashion I am also hugely interested in political science and political systems, which is also why I majored in this area in my Economics Bachelor and wrote my second thesis within the field of political science. This book is so interesting that I actually read it twice which rarely ever happens to me regarding a university book and it was actually the first time every in my studying career that I got an effortless 100 out of 100 points at the exam as I just soaked up the book's content like a sponge. Basically this book focuses on Russia's post Soviet Union evolution and political but also social dynamics and how Russia came to be the Russia it is today. It gives a lot of insight into how politics work over there but also into the Russian mindset and I just think it's a brilliant book. I absolutely enjoyed Mr. Mangott's class and he definitely made me want to learn more about this fascinating country. I can definitely say there it more to this country than just it's presidents and I really want to visit this country one day...for the fact alone that one of the most amazing people I ever gotten to know (during my time in Sweden), the lovely Natalia, live there :-)

xx, V

The Tuesday Book Club: TASCHEN "Style" Books

You guys might have noticed by now that I am not only into fashion but that my heart also belongs to interior design. I always think that if I hadn't tried to get into fashion I would probably have ended up in interior design or decoration of some sorts. Today I present an entire line of interior books:

TASCHEN Icons - Style Books

This is a series of small books featuring typical interior style of different cities or countries. Whether it's Sweden, Parisian, Moroccan, Greek, Berlin...Taschen features them all. I always screen through Amazon as these books are very hard to come by and it is my dream that one day I own them all. So far only 2 have made it into my collection, those being Sweden Style and Buenos Aires Style. I just love to look at different ways of making your home and I find myself to be rather eclectic when it comes to styling my own home, I definitely do not have a distinct style and I like the messiness of my apartment, hence I soak up everything I can find on different national takes on home furnishing and decoration. Since these books are rather small they also come in very handy on travels or train rides. I just love them! And if anyone happens to know where I can get the entire collection of these, let me know :-)

What particular style of furnishing do you guys like?

xx, V

The Tuesday Book Club: Memoirs of a Geisha

 Today I present the book that goes along with my ALL-TIME favourite movie:

ARTHUR GOLDEN - Memoirs of a Geisha

I saw the movie about a 100 times and I am still in awe everytime I watch it. It is without a doubt the most visually appealing movie I have ever seen, blowing my mind every single time and it so deserved the Academy Award for best costume design! I saw the movie first but since most of the time I find the books to go along better I purchased this book and it totally did not disappoint. I also can say that this is one of the few times where the movie adaption does not disappoint either, though I do have to admit that the suffering of the main protagonist is more noticeable and evident in the book. Nonetheless, this is one that I've also read multiple times and I just love the story so so much! My favourite.

Have you guys seen the movie?

xx, V

The Tuesday Book Club: IN Fashion

Today's book was one of the first fashion books I ever bought, back when I was still in high school:

ANNEMARIE IVERSON - IN Fashion

This book is like the how-to bible for everyone that wants to break into the fashion industry. It not only features essentially important information for basically everything you need to know about this industry but also helps you finding YOUR part of the industry as it covers several areas such as Retailing, Writing, Designing, Runway, Marketing, etc. The book also features surveys to show you where you best fit in, has tips and stories from fashion insiders, lists of schools that feature the best education regarding whatever interests you in fashion but also adresses for finding jobs etc. To keep it short: If you want to be in this industry, get this book! And again, this one has a foreword written by the infamous Diane von Furstenberg.

xx, V

The Tuesday Book Club: I love your Style

Today's book is all about fashion and finding or improving your own style:

AMANDA BROOKS - I love your Style

This is also one of the books I purchased during my stay in Sweden and it is just amazeballs. This book not inly features some of the most iconic style icons of the past decades, it also has amazing tips on how to make the most out of YOUR individual style and features historic information to it but also shows iconic fashionistas that share your sense of style whether you're grunge, preppy or french classic. Also, as he title page reveals, this book contains a foreword written by Diane von Furstenberg, one of my favourite designers but also multiple pictures for those who do not like tons of reading ;-) Plus, it makes an excellent coffetable book as well!

xx, V

The Tuesday Book Club: The Swarm

Today I confront you with my all-time favourite science fiction book:

FRANK SCHÄTZING - The Swarm: A novel of the deep

This is one of the books in my collection i re-read the most. I think in total I read it four times and still everytime it totally blows my mind. The book takes place mainly in Europe but also North and South America and talks about how nature and it's animals mutate and basically strike back agains mankind that has kept on abusing mother nature for centuries. I don't want to give away too much of the content as I really think this is a book that one needs to read without a doubt...all I can say is, no matter how "science fiction" the book at times seems, in the back of my mind I always kept wondering "Wouldn't that be possible for real? Can this happen?" and it really makes you reflect on how much we abuse nature, especially with things such as a waste island as big as the state of Texas floating aroung the sea and it shows how much we actually depends of the sea and water in general. Now enough of my blabbing about the awesomeness of this book...now go out and get yourself a copy! 

xx, V

The Tuesday Book Club: Classy

Today's book is a rather fun read and contains some very cool tips on how to free the inner lady in us and say good-bye to the outer tramp haha...or something like that:

DEREK BLASBERG - Classy

Derek Blasberg is a fashion writer and Blogger (follow him on twitter!) and this book is probably his attempt to free the world of tramps once and for all. I bought this book ages ago and instantly read through it once I got it...now I did not remember everything that's in the book which is why from time to time I just love to pick it up again and screen through it. The book cover's fashion but also behavioural and lifestyle aspects of the ladylike life and everything Derek writes feels a bit tongue in cheek to me (whether it was his intention or not) but also convey's a good portion of sense of humour and that's why I like the book so much. This is not some old-school 50's wome's guide on how to behave in a men's society, it's just a fun read about how to make the best out of yourself whether it be at the airport or at a social gathering but also features some cool day to day tips for the extremely modern lady ;-)

xx, V

The Tuesday Book Club: Cheap - The High Cost of Discount Culture

In this week's book club I present a pretty critical book about today's high consumption - low cost culture:

ELLEN RUPPEL SHELL - Cheap: The High Cost of Discount Culture

This book was featured in one of my courses for my Fashion Master's degree at the Swedish School of Textiles and boy was I happy that it was. This book is such an eye opener. It basically talks about today's ways of consumption of massively cheap products and how this negatively affects not only the environment but basically every aspect of life and that buying cheap comes at a very high ultimate price. The book covers all kinds of industries from food, to fashion all the way to furniture. It talks about sustainability and the quintessence of the book is that we as consumers need to drastically change if we want to keep on living on this planet earth. I highly recommend reading this book as it really subconsciously does affect shopping behaviour or at least the next time you find yourself in a store makes you question yourself if you actually need this and if it's really worth the money. I know this book is written in English but the language is very simple and easy to understand so I am convinced even people who aren't pro's at the english language can grasp the message of this book. An absolute must-read!!!

xx, V

The Tuesday Book Club: Bobby Brown Beauty

Another Tuesday, another book presentation. This time I talk about:

BOBBY BROWN - Beauty

I absolutely love Bobby Brown products (I have a couple of brushes which are totally worth the money and the infamous BB Shimmer Bricks) and when I stumbled across this book on Amazon it was a no brainer to purchase it. It is not only a book that gives great Beauty advice and how-to's but also features different Beauty Icons from the past to present and general insight on Bobby Brown's opinion on Beauty and also inner beauty, aka health and positive attitude. I can totally recommend this book to any Make-up lover but also beginner's in terms of using and applying make-up as it really has insightful, good tips on how to make the most out of your features but also on how to stay true to yourself. And absolute beauty read my fellow addicts :-)

What Beauty books do you guys recommend?

xx, V

The Tuesday Bookclub: Design Sponge at Home

Since my Blog is supposed to be not only about fashion I thought I start a new section, called the Tuesday Book Club. This decision came after a period of major lack of inspiration and unwillingness to take care of my Blog and post anything for that matter (you might have noticed haha!) and when I thought my Blog was losing quality in content and basically got really boring...just to be clear, the books I will introduce each Tuesday are not all about fashion, some of the are about design, some of them are super NERDY, high in content, bed time reads...and so on...just books I love and thought I should share with the world. So without further ado, here's the first one to start this column:

GRACE BONNEY -  Design Sponge at Home

I bought this book during my stay in Sweden and I absolutely love it!! It's an interior design book featuring all kinds of insights into different homes all over the world and how the home owners styled it. It further features lots of tips for your own home and in the back of the book there is a major DIY section which basically made the decision for me to actually purchase this book. It really gives me so much inspiration as to how to decorate my own apartment or what my future apartment will look like should I ever win the lottery...you know! Plus, the book actually looks super fancy, hence it makes an awesome coffee table book...WIN WIN if you ask me.

What Interior/Home Design Books do you love?

xx, V