Influence [Mary-Kate Olsen and Ashley Olsen]

What did I love most about this? Everything.

This isn’t a biography about their lives, it’s interviews with some of the most prestigious people in fashion, art and photography.

I found it to be a brilliant insight into the lives of hose interviewed. While it was an interview, the chatty feel to it made it much easier and more enjoyable to read. It made you feel as though you were there, as the scene would be set and photos are included.

There’s a big variety of people in here, from Lauren Hutton to Terry Richardson, from Christian Louboutin to Peter Beard. Whilst it’s hard to choose a favourite, one of them would be the interview with Karl Lagerfeld. As director of the fashion houses Chanel and Fendi, he also has his own brand and prepares collections for them all. The interview with him was such a great insight into what it’s like preparing around 10 collections a year. Every interview in the book is one you could re-read again and again.

I also loved the interviews with Christian Louboutin, Diana von Furstenburg and Bob Colacello. If you can read them online, I’d recommend that you do!

You see designs of theirs [the designers in the book] everywhere- shop windows, catwalks, red carpet events, in magazines, so reading an interview which gives you so much insight into their lives is quite fascinating. The photos are also great [especially those of the photographers], some are included with each interview. For example, if it’s with an artist- photos of their artwork are included.

Overall, I found it to be an amazing book with interviews with some of the most celebrated designers, artists and photographers of all time. I will [and have!] re-read this multiple times, I love it!

In My Mailbox #49

In My Mailbox is hosted by Kristi at The Story Siren.

Won:

  



 Thanks to Beth for sending me this! I've decided what book to buy, I'll post it next week.(:
I also borrowed 2 books from the library, but I can't remember the names of them and I've left them at school [clever], so I'll add them to next weeks post.


What did you get in your mailbox?

The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight [

Hadley lives in New York with her mother and she’s due to board a flight to London to attend her fathers wedding. To a woman she’s never met. It’s somewhere she doesn’t want to be, and she finds herself about to miss the flight…

Oliver is a Londoner living in New York, who holds many secrets. When the two cross paths, a lot is to be revealed…

The name of this intrigued me, as I love a good romantic book. While it’s a mouthful, it does make the book sound a lot more scientific, while still sounds sweet and romantic. I also loved the cover. I’ve got the proof copy, which has a different cover to the hardback- and I love it! I think the hardback cover is also lovely, but I do prefer the proof. Simple, and effective. Everything down to the font is perfect for the book.

The prologue to the book is great, it really sets the tone and scene, making you want to read on and find out what’s going on. The book starts with Hadley at the airport, waiting to board her flight. Until she misses it. This means she has to wait and get the next available flight, enabling her to meet Oliver. We don’t find out much about Oliver until mid way through the story and then at the end, which is a good motivation to read on.

I liked Hadley, but I found it strange how she accepted her step mother when she’d only met her once. It was a touching part to the story, but it seemed strange that she didn’t have much hate towards her. Oliver was a great character, too. Sarcastic, smart, secretive and charming. I thought he was more interesting than Hadley, despite Hadley being more of a main character. When we find out more about him, I feel so bad for him and it’s so easy to empathize. As both Oliver and Hadley were so realistic, it was easy to put yourself in their shoes and imagine what it’s like for them, which is brilliant.

The one thing I didn’t like was the mid-ending. When Hadley goes to look for Oliver, it’s unrealistic. She’s not been to London before, she has no idea where she’s going, but she manages to find him! That being said, it was a really sweet moment in the story.

I think this book could easily be made into a movie and I would definitely watch it. While cliché, it’s got it’s own twist, I could re-read it and I really enjoyed reading it. I would recommend you read this [ages 12+]. Thanks to Headline for sending me The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight!

In My Mailbox #48

My internet switched off for 6 days and didn't go back on until yesterday, annoying. So that means I've got double amounts of posts to post this week. But anyway, In My Mailbox this week [and last]...

Bought:

 

I went halves with my mum on this, yay! It's so beautiful and something to cross of my wishlist.

For Review:

Gifted:

Thanks Dad!

Kindle:

An 'I Am Number 4' novel (:

I've also been reading a lot of books online recently. While I usually hate reading online, I've been using an iPad and it's so much easier to read on them! It's like reading off a Kindle [apart from I'm reading unpublished books, so they're no available on Kindle].

What did you get in your mailbox?

Knowing Me, Knowing You [Helen Bailey]

Chantelle 'Channy' Allen is just about enduring her slightly bored teenage existence - trying not to die of embarrassment every time her parents' Abba tribute band perform a cringing medley of hits in front of all her friends...

But then Channy finds out something that turns her world upside down; something that makes perfect sense, but at the same time seems utterly ridiculous. Something that Channy is intent on investigating - despite the distraction of gorgeous French exchange student Antoine.

Channy's about to learn a valuable life lesson: sometimes curiosity is a dangerous thing...- taken from Amazon.co.uk


This book isn't what I thought it would be. Not in a bad way, I just wasn't expecting it. When I read the blurb, I thought it would be about a girl who's school has a French exchange program and that she would go and stay in France, then the exchange student in England. But I found the exchange student was a boy [ooops!] and that Channy meets him whilst bunking school.

I liked Channy as a character, but she was quite rude. She had an emotional journey, but it was hard to empathize with her as she covered it up and acted like she was okay. She's a strong person who doesn't like to show her feelings and she doesn't appreciate the people around her. However, she coped extremely well with the fact her parents were in an Abba tribute band and performing in front of her friends!

The characters were brilliant. I thought the twins were a bit dramatized, but still believable and an asset to the story. It's really interesting to see what older people think of younger people and how they behave and Helen's got it almost perfectly. I don't know anybody that obsessed with having the most friends on Facebook, but I'm pretty sure some people are like that!

The middle to end part of the book was my favourite. This is when the surprise of the story takes place, something which I really didn't expect. It's natural that Channy wants to get in touch with her father [was that a spoiler...?], but I didn't see it coming [though maybe I should have!]. If you've read the book, you'll know that the situation Channy gets herself into is madness. The character of her 'father' is so weird. The fact that he's no the obvious kind of... okay, this is really hard to explain without putting a spoiler in, but the fact that his personality and actions aren't those which you would expect.

Knowing Me, Knowing You has a really sweet ending and could easily have a sequel. I also love the name. Whilst being an Abba song, it shows the characters don't always know the people they think they know, so it was an interesting play on words.

I read Running In Heels, which is also by Bailey, and I did prefer it to Knowing Me, Knowing You- but I would still re-read both books.

Overall it was a fun read with an unexpected twist and I really enjoyed it.

In My Mailbox #47

In My Mailbox is hosted by Kristi over at The Story Siren.

For Review:

Hardback copy

Bought:

I was tempted to buy so much in Waterstones this week. At the front of the shop they had the classics with such beautiful covers. I wanted to buy Emma and one book of 7 Jane Austen novels. Not only do they look gorgeous, but they all sound so interesting. Then there were all the photography books, which looked great. I decided on Andy Warhol, America- only because I didn't have enough for a big scrapbook kind of book on his work. But it still looks really interesting.

Wanting all these book has inspired me to create a tab at the top of the blog with 'Wishlist'. That way I can decide beforehand which books I want to buy and when I go into a book shop, I won't need to feel sad when I have to decide between 293847564987 books and which one I want most.

I was really excited to get a hardback of Advent. I've also been sent postcards and bookmarks which are designed so nicely and really do add to the whole build up of the release. I was also excited to get Style, so thank you to Hodder and Harper Collins for sending me these!

I've wanted Influence for ages and it's amazing. It's not a story on Mary-Kate and Ashley's life, it's interviews with some of the most well known names in fashion, photography and art.


What did you get in your mailbox this week?