Stay home and jump
For those of us who take the meaning of sexy seriously, sometimes curling up with a good book is by far more seductive than wearing limited edition python skin pants and prancing around at a party in the hope of a lusty night. A well-oiled mind will always pip a well-oiled body to the post, and even in this tediously tiresome holiday season, a great read could be the most coveted, the most stimulating invitation of them all. So, put the party in your body, read all the books below, and stay home and jump.
The Millennium Trilogy by Steig Larsson- a fascinating bisexual punk rocker heroine, a rip-roaring serial killer adventure, diabolic sex crimes, sickeningly venal and corrupt minds, and plots so intricate and gripping that the atmosphere the three books create is at once absorbing and idiosyncratic, clutching you in their tight grasp of awe and fear, as you travel the labyrinthine underbelly of Sweden. Crime fiction at it’s absolute best.
Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese- Set in the mysterious world of medicine, Cutting for Stone is a sweeping, vast, dramatic and completely heartbreaking story about a pregnant Indian nun, a demon-ridden British surgeon, Siamese twins orphaned and severed at birth, and their wild and perilously interloping livesthat stretch from the politically ravaged Ethiopia of Halle Salaisse, to the modern super organism that is New York. It is a story about the human body and about reckless love and about staggering loss. Sheer beauty.
Moviemakers’ Master Class by Laurent Tirard- A must read for any and every aspiring and/or established filmmaker. Each of the twenty-one chapters is a conversation with a legendarydirector. From Godard to Scorsese to the Coen Brothers to Woody Allen to Almodovar and Lynch, the book reveals the secret method to each filmmakers approach to making films, and that the set of questions and dilemma’s that confront each filmmaker are always the same.It’s how they find their answers and solutions to these that not only make all the difference but also add to the evolutionary process of their respective and very original body of work.
Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout- Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, 2009, Olive Kitteridge is a novel that explores the human soul to all its ends. From heartwarming compassion to cutting humor, to desperate sadness, Olive Kitteridge is a loving and unpredictable retired schoolteacher in a small coastal town in Maine, who struggles to make the changes in her life, and the losses that accompany old age. It is a book about triumphs and tragedies and the integrity of the human spirit that must remain resolute in its endeavor to be pure, no matter what.
Ask and It is Given by Esther and Jerry Hicks- Easily one of the most valuable self help books amongst the deluge of self help books out there, Ask and It is Given proposes 22 different powerful processes to achieving your goals, each goal having the same underlying message- it is our birthright and therefore our own choice to lead a good, healthy, happy and successful life. Making it really simple, this bookeffectively shows us how this is possible and how we can implement and master our own destiny at every given moment.
Tony Duquette by Wendy Goodman and Hutton Wilkinson- A seriously spellbinding coffee table book about the legendary American artist and design legend, Tony Duquette who was celebrated for his over the top style in interiors, jewelry, costumes and set design. Showcasing Duquette’s dazzling set designs for MGM musicals or the interiors of the spectacular Pallazo Brandolini in Venice or the magnificently baroque jewelry for the Duchess of Windsor or the mad hatter costumes for Elizabeth Arden, one is left turning each page with open-mouthed awe. A tour de force.
