In my neck of the woods, April is the true start of spring as the weather is finally hitting over 50 degrees as the high on a regular basis, the trees are greening, and the scent of freshness fills the air. The world around me is waking like Sleeping Beauty after the dark dormancy of winter. This month’s challenge is to read about beauty. Maybe you read a book of poetry you find evokes beauty. What about reimaginations of the tale of Sleeping Beauty? Music and art are routinely noted as beautiful expressions of the soul. Do you find a certain public person beautiful either in face and form or soul? Maybe the beauty industry and what constitutes “beauty” fascinates you. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder and so is the meaning in the books you read.
- Poetry
- The Beauty of the Beast by Jack Prelutsky and Meilo So (YA)
- When I Am an Old Woman I Shall Wear Purple by Sandra Martz
- The Collected Poems of W.B. Yeats by W.B. Yeats
- The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran
- Ontarian Beauty by Christopher W. Herbert
- Biography
- Savage Beauty: the Life of Edna St. Vincent Millay by Nancy Milford
- Cybill Disobedience by Cybill Shepherd
- Greta Garbo: a Life Apart by Karen Swenson
- Dark Lover: the Life and Death of Rudolph Valentino by Emily Wortis Leider
- Dalai Lama: Man, Monk, Mystic by Mayank Chhaya
- Sleeping Beauty
- Sleeping Beauty trilogy by A.N. Roquelaure (Anne Rice) **Mature situations/themes
- The Sleeping Beauty Proposal by Sarah Strohmeyer
- Sleeping With Beauty by Donna Kauffman
- Sleeping Beauty by Phillip Margolin
- Briar Rose by Jane Yolen and Terri Windling (YA)
- Art
- Art in the Modern Era by Amy Dempsey
- Art 21: Art in the21st Century by Thelma Golden
- Museum of the Missing: a History of Art Theft by Simon Houpt
- Exploring the Invisible by Lynn Gamwell
- Art: a New History by Paul Johnson
- Beauty industry
- The Beauty Myth by Naomi Wolf
- Beauty Junkies by Alex Kuczynski
- Bellisima: Feminine Beauty and the Idea of Italy by Stephen Gundle
- Imagining American Women by Martha Banta
- The Power of Beauty by Nancy Friday
- Beautiful titles
- Black Beauty by Anna Sewell (YA)
- On Beauty by Zadie Smith
- In the Beauty of the Lilies by John Updike
- Miss Julia’s School of Beauty by Ann B. Ross
- Kabul Beauty School by Deborah Rodriguez
Book A Month Challenge 
I’m predicting I will read either The Beauty Myth or Model: The Ugly Business of Beautiful Women.
Mr. Jefferson’s Women by Jon Kukla
(Adult nonfiction; history/biography).
Started Beauty Shop–fully equipped, inquire within by Laura Bowers.
This is a YA book – it came up when I searched our catalog for the word beauty. It certainly seems good so far.
I’ve ordered ‘Beautiful TV’ by Greg Smith & hope I can read it by the end of the month.
Read two books for the month; you can see my reviews here:
http://weavinglibrarian.blogspot.com/
I read Briar Rose by Jane Yolen. Expecting this to be a re-telling of Sleeping Beauty, similar to others that are out there, I was shocked and mesmerized by the direction this story went. It is definitely not a conventional “beautiful” story but was an absolute page turner. I believe it is every bit as much for adults as young people. It is an untold holocaust story; told under the Sleeping Beauty umbrella. I will post a review on my blog later. I just wanted to say it was an amazing book in case someone is still looking.
See this week’s blog for a review of Elizabeth Goudge’s _Linnets and Valerians_, a YA book that evokes the beauty of a specific place and time.
http://www.bmorrison.com/blog/101/linnets-and-valerians-by-elizabeth-goudge
Also, I blogged about _On Beauty_ by Zadie Smith last year:
http://bmorrison.com/blog/25/on-beauty-by-zadie-smith
Peace,
Barbara
HERE AT LEAST: Poems by B. Morrison
http://www.bmorrison.com
Monday Morning Book Blog: http://www.bmorrison.com/blog/
Mary Oliver’s poems in Why I Wake Early celebrate the wonders of the natural world. Her eye for detail and her conversational tone go hand in hand to create a sense of simplicity. Yet return again and again to her poems and draw deeper meanings each time.
Mary Oliver’s poems in Why I Wake Early celebrate the wonders of the natural world. Her eye for detail and her conversational tone go hand in hand to create a sense of simplicity. Yet return again and again to her poems and draw deeper meanings each time.
I see from the above listing is the book of poetry entitled ‘Ontarian Beauty by Christopher W. Herbert’
If any one would like to know more about this publication. I am the author and poet from New Zealand who wrote and published the book.
Christopher W Herbert
New Zealand.
http://www.myspace.com/christopherwherbert
Beautiful Joe
A children’s book
This was an easy read and a revisit to my childhood. It reminded me that beauty is soul deep not skin.
http://skyork.blogspot.com/
I decided to read Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister by Gregory Maguire. You can read my review here:
http://rdaisygal.livejournal.com/204540.html
Title: Extras
Author: Scott Westerfeld
Genre: Science fiction
Audience: Teen
See my review here: http://libraryliz.blogspot.com/2008/04/on-beauty.html
I started out with intentions of reading other titles for Beauty only to discover two others that fit the theme perfectly.
Title: Wild Trees: a story of Passion and Daring
Author: Richard Preston
Genre: Non-Fiction
(about the search for the largest trees on Earth).
Title: The Last Lecture
Author: Randy Pausch
Genre: Non-Fiction
(about a University Professor with a terminal diagnosis giving his final lecture).
See review on my library blog : http://www.vclblog1.blogspot.com/ (April 14, 2008)
As soon as I saw the theme for the month I knew what I was going to read!
Title:To Bed a Beauty
Author: Nicole Jordan
Genre: Romance
Age Group: Adult
Title: Vermeer’s Hat: The Seventeenth Century and the Dawn of the Global World
Author: Timothy Brook
Genre: Art/History
Age Group: Adult
Review: A book that goes beyond simple art appreciation to use works of Vermeer and his contemporaries to see evidence of the emerging global world of his time. Full review on my blog.
Title: Briar Rose
Author- Jane Yolen
Genre- Historical Fiction
Age Group: YA, Adult
http://janeonbooks.edublogs.org/2008/04/23/briar-rose-jane-yolen/
Title: The Monsters of Templeton
Author: Lauren Groff
Genre: Fiction
Age Group: Adult
This may be stretching the theme a bit, but this book was about beauty to me. I grew up in the time in which Groff sets her novel. Therefore, I was seeing how beautifully she painted my home.
Read my review here.
Title: Beautiful TV: The Art and Argument of Ally McBeal
Author: Greg M. Smith
Genre: Nonfiction – TV criticism
Age group: Adult
aesthetics of a television series
review: http://mymindonbooks.com/?p=539
Title: On Beauty
Author: Zadie Smith
Genre: Fiction
Age Group: Adult
http://august2010.blogspot.com/2008/04/on-beauty.html
Title: Beauty
Author: Robin McKinley
Genre: Fairy Tales Retold
Age Group: Young Adult
http://ericalynnb.blogspot.com/2008/04/bam-challenge-april.html
Title: Legends
Author: LIFE Magazine
Genre: nonfiction, celebrity aka the beautiful people 🙂
Age group: any
http://otterevilreads.livejournal.com/12912.html
Title: The Brothers Grimm: From Enchanted Forests to the Modern World
Author: Jack Zipes
Genre: Nonfiction, fairytales, literary criticism
Age group: Adult
The German American Heritage Center Book Discussion group did this one this month and are also going to view the movie fantasy about the Grimm Brothers starring Matt Damon and Heath Ledger. Think Sleeping Beauty.
Title: The Sleeping Beauty Novels
Author: Anne Rice, writing as A. N. Roquelaure
Genre: Erotic fiction
Age Group: Adult
Review is here.
I read The Beautiful Things that Heaven Bears by Dinaw Mengestu. My review is here: http://blog.threegoodrats.com/2008/04/april-beauty.html
Barely got it in. Here was my choice:
Title: The Hulk: Beauty and the Behemoth.
Author: Stan Lee, et.al.
Genre: Graphic novels
Ages: YA, but adult too.
See my review:
http://danceswithbooks.livejournal.com/40896.html
Happy reading.
Looks like my comment didn’t go through so I’ll try again…
I read The Beautiful Things That Heaven Bears by Dinaw Mengestu (Adult Fiction). My review is here: http://blog.threegoodrats.com/2008/04/april-beauty.html
April:
Failure
Better late than never, but I do feel like a bit of a cheat, reviewing graphic novels. But there you go. This was a busy month.
Title(s): Fables: Legends in exile, and, Fables: Animal Farm.
Author: Bill Willingham, et al.
Genre: graphic novels
Ages: YA to adult.
Review
Title – Model: The Ugly Business of Beautiful Women
Author – Michael Gross
Genre: nonfiction
Ages: YA to adult
http://quietgrrrl.livejournal.com/328408.html
Better late than never, indeed!
Title: Beauty Junkies: Inside Our $15 Billion Obsession with Cosmetic Surgery
Author: Alex Kuczynski
Genre: Nonfiction
Ages: Adult
http://www.blog.kalda.ca/?p=324
[…] (https://bamchallenge.wordpress.com/2008/04/01/challenge-4-beauty/) […]
I’m a bit behind on writing the review, but the book was read in April!
Title: True Beauty
Author: Emme
Genre: Nonfiction
Ages: Adult
True Beauty + 2 more reviews
Ooo, I’m the latest, AGAIN. Next month I am SO on top of it.
I did read my book before the end of the month, though.
Title: Pretties
Author: Scott Westerfeld
Genre: Sci Fi
Ages: YA/teen
My review
[…] OK, I’m finally catching up on the April and May reviews. The April theme was Beauty for Challenge #4. I read The Ten Most Beautiful Experiments by George […]
OK, I’m finally catching up.
Title: The Ten Most Beautiful Experiments
Author: George Johnson
Genre: Nonfiction
Age Level: General audience
See my review.
“When I Am an Old Woman I Shall Wear Purple” the POEM was not written by Sandra Martz. It is by Jennifer Joseph. Sandra Martz is an editor of a book by the same title. Also, Briar Rose is by Jane Yolen only. Terri Windling was the person who got several authors together to re-write fairy tales. If you’re still doing this, I’d recommend Justina Chen Headley’s North of Beautiful. It is fabulous.