Author: Jeanne Mackin
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 1101635622
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 385
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Book Description
From Paris in the 1920s to London after the Blitz, two women find that a secret from their past reverberates through years of joy and sorrow.... As recovery from World War II begins, expat American Nora Tours travels from her home in southern France to London in search of her missing sixteen-year-old daughter. There, she unexpectedly meets up with an old acquaintance, famous model-turned-photographer Lee Miller. Neither has emerged from the war unscathed. Nora is racked with the fear that her efforts to survive under the Vichy regime may have cost her daughter’s life. Lee suffers from what she witnessed as a war correspondent photographing the liberation of the Nazi concentration camps. Nora and Lee knew each other in the heady days of late 1920s Paris, when Nora was giddy with love for her childhood sweetheart, Lee became the celebrated mistress of the artist Man Ray, and Lee’s magnetic beauty drew them all into the glamorous lives of famous artists and their wealthy patrons. But Lee fails to realize that her friendship with Nora is even older, that it goes back to their days as children in Poughkeepsie, New York, when a devastating trauma marked Lee forever. Will Nora’s reunion with Lee give them a chance to forgive past betrayals…and break years of silence to forge a meaningful connection as women who have shared the best and the worst that life can offer? A novel of freedom and frailty, desire and daring, The Beautiful American portrays the extraordinary relationship between two passionate, unconventional women. Readers Guide Included
Author: Deborah Rodriguez
Publisher: Random House
ISBN: 1588366073
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 290
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Book Description
Soon after the fall of the Taliban, in 2001, Deborah Rodriguez went to Afghanistan as part of a group offering humanitarian aid to this war-torn nation. Surrounded by men and women whose skills–as doctors, nurses, and therapists–seemed eminently more practical than her own, Rodriguez, a hairdresser and mother of two from Michigan, despaired of being of any real use. Yet she soon found she had a gift for befriending Afghans, and once her profession became known she was eagerly sought out by Westerners desperate for a good haircut and by Afghan women, who have a long and proud tradition of running their own beauty salons. Thus an idea was born. With the help of corporate and international sponsors, the Kabul Beauty School welcomed its first class in 2003. Well meaning but sometimes brazen, Rodriguez stumbled through language barriers, overstepped cultural customs, and constantly juggled the challenges of a postwar nation even as she learned how to empower her students to become their families’ breadwinners by learning the fundamentals of coloring techniques, haircutting, and makeup. Yet within the small haven of the beauty school, the line between teacher and student quickly blurred as these vibrant women shared with Rodriguez their stories and their hearts: the newlywed who faked her virginity on her wedding night, the twelve-year-old bride sold into marriage to pay her family’s debts, the Taliban member’s wife who pursued her training despite her husband’s constant beatings. Through these and other stories, Rodriguez found the strength to leave her own unhealthy marriage and allow herself to love again, Afghan style. With warmth and humor, Rodriguez details the lushness of a seemingly desolate region and reveals the magnificence behind the burqa. Kabul Beauty School is a remarkable tale of an extraordinary community of women who come together and learn the arts of perms, friendship, and freedom.
Author: Patrick Lichfield
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 160
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Book Description
Author: Tiffany M. Gill
Publisher: University of Illinois Press
ISBN: 0252095545
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 209
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Book Description
Looking through the lens of black business history, Beauty Shop Politics shows how black beauticians in the Jim Crow era parlayed their economic independence and access to a public community space into platforms for activism. Tiffany M. Gill argues that the beauty industry played a crucial role in the creation of the modern black female identity and that the seemingly frivolous space of a beauty salon actually has stimulated social, political, and economic change. From the founding of the National Negro Business League in 1900 and onward, African Americans have embraced the entrepreneurial spirit by starting their own businesses, but black women's forays into the business world were overshadowed by those of black men. With a broad scope that encompasses the role of gossip in salons, ethnic beauty products, and the social meanings of African American hair textures, Gill shows how African American beauty entrepreneurs built and sustained a vibrant culture of activism in beauty salons and schools. Enhanced by lucid portrayals of black beauticians and drawing on archival research and oral histories, Beauty Shop Politics conveys the everyday operations and rich culture of black beauty salons as well as their role in building community.
Author: Sarah Banet-Weiser
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 0520922603
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 302
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Book Description
Sarah Banet-Weiser complicates the standard feminist take on beauty pageants in this intriguing look at a hotly contested but enduringly popular American ritual. She focuses on the Miss America pageant in particular, considering its claim to be an accurate representation of the diversity of contemporary American women. Exploring the cultural constructions and legitimations that go on during the long process of the pageant, Banet-Weiser depicts the beauty pageant stage as a place where concerns about national identity, cultural hopes and desires, and anxieties about race and gender are crystallized and condensed. The beauty pageant, she convincingly demonstrates, is a profoundly political arena deserving of serious study. Drawing on cultural criticism, ethnographic research, and interviews with pageant participants and officials, The Most Beautiful Girl in the World illustrates how contestants invent and reinvent themselves while articulating the female body as a national body. Banet-Weiser finds that most pageants are characterized by the ambivalence of contemporary "liberal" feminism, which encourages individual achievement, self-determination, and civic responsibility, while simultaneously promoting very conventional notions of beauty. The book explores the many different aspects of the Miss America pageant, including the swimsuit, the interview, and the talent competitions. It also takes a closer look at some extraordinary Miss Americas, such as Bess Myerson, the first Jewish Miss America; Vanessa Williams, the first African American Miss America; and Heather Whitestone, the first Miss America with a disability.
Author: Lois W. Banner
Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf
ISBN:
Category : Health & Fitness
Languages : en
Pages : 406
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Book Description
"Drawing on memoirs, etiquette books, contemporary novels, and popular histories of the musical and theatrical stage, Lois W. Banner chronicles how women looked (and how they felt about how they looked) and how they wanted to look ... Here are the changing vogues ... American clothes as a revelation of sexual attitudes ... the shifting models of American beauty ... illustrated with 16 pages of photographs."--Jacket.
Author: Chelsea Clinton
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 0525516999
Category : Juvenile Nonfiction
Languages : en
Pages : 34
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Book Description
The companion to Chelsea Clinton & Alexandra Boiger's #1 New York Times bestseller, She Persisted. Perfect for tiny activists, mini feminists and little kids who are ready to take on the world. Women around the world have long dreamed big, even when they've been told their dreams didn't matter. They've spoken out, risen up and fought for what's right, even when they've been told to be quiet. Whether in science, the arts, sports or activism, women and girls throughout history have been determined to break barriers and change the status quo. They haven't let anyone get in their way and have helped us better understand our world and what's possible. In this companion book to She Persisted: 13 American Women Who Changed the World, Chelsea Clinton introduces readers to a group of thirteen incredible women who have shaped history all across the globe. She Persisted Around the World is a book for everyone who has ever aimed high and been told to step down, for everyone who has ever raised their voice and been told to quiet down, and for everyone who has ever felt small, unimportant or unworthy. Alexandra Boiger's vibrant artwork accompanies this inspiring text that shows readers of all ages that, no matter what obstacles come their way, they have the power to persist and succeed. This book features: Marie Curie, Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz, Viola Desmond, Sissi Lima do Amor, Leymah Gbowee, Caroline Herschel, Wangari Maathai, Aisha Rateb, J.K. Rowling, Kate Sheppard, Yuan Yuan Tan, Mary Verghese and Malala Yousafzai. Praise for She Persisted Around the World: "Clinton again writes in a measured tone that is at once celebratory and defiant. Boiger's watercolor and ink artwork exudes warmth and subtle power." --Publishers Weekly Praise for She Persisted: * "[A] lovely, moving work of children's literature [and a] polished introduction to a diverse and accomplished group of women." --Publishers Weekly, starred review "Exemplary . . . This well-curated list will show children that women's voices have made themselves emphatically heard." --Booklist "[She Persisted] will remind little girls that they can achieve their goals if they don't let obstacles get in the way." --Family Circle "We can't wait to grab a copy for some of the awesome kids in our lives . . . and maybe some of the grown-ups, too." --Bustle "A message we all need to hear." --Scary Mommy "This will be a great read for kids (especially young girls)." --Romper "We cannot wait for the launch of Smart Girl Chelsea Clinton's new book to help remind kids everywhere that the fearlessness that characterizes the thirteen women in the book is what has emboldened us to constantly strive for progress and justice." --Amy Poehler's Smart Girls
Author: Smithsonian Institution
Publisher: Smithsonian Institution
ISBN: 1588346749
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 240
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Book Description
An inspiring and surprising celebration of U.S. women's history told through Smithsonian artifacts illustrating women's participation in science, art, music, sports, fashion, business, religion, entertainment, military, politics, activism, and more. This book offers a unique, panoramic look at women's history in the United States through the lens of ordinary objects from, by, and for extraordinary women. Featuring more than 280 artifacts from 16 Smithsonian museums and archives, and more than 135 essays from 95 Smithsonian authors, this book tells women's history as only the Smithsonian can. Featured objects range from fine art to computer code, from First Ladies memorabilia to Black Lives Matter placards, and from Hopi pottery to a couch from the Oprah Winfrey show. There are familiar objects--such as the suffrage wagon used to advocate passage of the 19th Amendment and the Pussy Hat from the 2016 Women's March in DC--as well as lesser known pieces revealing untold stories. Portraits, photographs, paintings, political materials, signs, musical instruments, sports equipment, clothes, letters, ads, personal posessions, and other objects reveal the incredible stories of such amazing women as Phillis Wheatley, Julia Child, Sojourner Truth, Mary Cassatt, Madam C. J. Walker, Amelia Earhart, Eleanor Roosevelt, Mamie Till Mobley, Dolores Clara Fernández Huerta, Phyllis Diller, Celia Cruz, Sandra Day O'Connor, Billie Jean King, Sylvia Rivera, and so many more. Together with illuminating text, these objects elevate the importance of American women in the home, workplace, government, and beyond. Published to commemorate the centennial of the 19th Amendment granting women the right to vote, Smithsonian American Women is a deeply satisfying read and a must-have reflection on how generations of women have defined what it means to be recognized in both the nation and the world.
Author: Megan A. Smetzer
Publisher: University of Washington Press
ISBN: 0295748958
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 238
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Book Description
For over 150 years, Tlingit women artists have beaded colorful, intricately beautiful designs on moccasins, dolls, octopus bags, tunics, and other garments. Painful Beauty suggests that at a time when Indigenous cultural practices were actively being repressed, beading supported cultural continuity, demonstrating Tlingit women’s resilience, strength, and power. Beadwork served many uses, from the ceremonial to the economic, as women created beaded pieces for community use and to sell to tourists. Like other Tlingit art, beadwork reflects rich artistic visions with deep connections to the environment, clan histories, and Tlingit worldviews. Contemporary Tlingit artists Alison Bremner, Chloe French, Shgen Doo Tan George, Lily Hudson Hope, Tanis S’eiltin, and Larry McNeil foreground the significance of historical beading practices in their diverse, boundary-pushing artworks. Working with museum collection materials, photographs, archives, and interviews with artists and elders, Megan Smetzer reframes this often overlooked artform as a site of historical negotiations and contemporary inspirations. She shows how beading gave Tlingit women the freedom to innovate aesthetically, assert their clan crests and identities, support tribal sovereignty, and pass on cultural knowledge. Painful Beauty is the first dedicated study of Tlingit beadwork and contributes to the expanding literature addressing women’s artistic expressions on the Northwest Coast.
Author: Andrew J. Boyd
Publisher: Createspace Independent Pub
ISBN: 9781482695755
Category : Photography
Languages : en
Pages : 154
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Book Description
What a delightful and fascinating book! Guiding the amateur and semi-professional photographer with a very useful day-to-day common sense approach to photographing women. Photographer/author Andrew J Boyd takes the reader by surprise by introducing each of the seven women, telling how they met and what his criteria was in choosing them as a model. But he goes much farther in some of their personal experiences, describing a little of their past, present and future lives. Showing respect and gaining their confidence is easy to see in the wonderful images of each of these very beautiful women. Technical advice of how and why with examples throughout the book will be of great value to most amateur and many semi-pros. Things like focus and exposure that have always been important whether working with capturing the digital or film image or for that matter the very beginnings of photography have not changed, they are still valuable and need to be emphasized today. What has changed and is noteworthy is the constantly evolving world of electronics, helping the photographer better manage lighting, equipment weight and even his time. The author delves into both of these subjects showing examples and explaining what equipment trends he uses while reminding the reader of the old tried and true basics of good photographic practice.
