According to these books, the mark of a strong woman requires some sort of controversy, the sort that will either make you laugh, cry or, in the case of Su Aziz, both. Luckily there's a 30 per cent discount on them to stop the flowing tears
On the cover it admits to being a story of loss and gain. I’ve no idea just how apt that admittance is, until its 30th page. Here’s where Portia de Rossi — who plays the ice queen, Nell Porter, in hit TV show, Ally McBeal, and was part of the cast for Arrested Development — bares her soul, finds her voice and speaks of her hard, decades-long battle to overcome anorexia and bulimia.
And most of all her terror of being discovered as being gay by the media and peers.
Now, comfortably married to Ellen DeGeneres, de Rossi describes re-inventing herself as she grows into her chosen stage name, Portia de Rossi and of feeling fat at 38.10kg. Never really been comfortable in her own skin, she struggles to anchor her security but as she discovers, Hollywood is hardly a secure, safe harbour. And neither is the plethora of food choices available in the land of plenty.
De Rossi’s written voice is both remarkably crisp and sharp, but softly edged with self-effacing humour. At times, she’s her 12-year-old self which whispers of how failing (in anything) is not an option.
Still, she manages to rise from the ashes and dust herself, to speak and advocate for gay rights and women's health issues. Undoubtedly an engaging read. And very real, too.
Keep this one for a bright, sunny day and when you’re emotionally at your strongest because this book will call for strength and positivity to endure its 500 pages. Known as Hoffman’s most mesmerising novel — she's rather prolific, having produced more than 20 bestselling novels — this one’s been acknowledged as “a tour de force of imagination and research”
Backdropped by Israel in 70 AD (during the fall of Jerusalem) where 900 Jews struggled against armies of Romans at a mountain in the Judean desert for months, “a spellbinding tale of four extraordinarily bold, resourceful, and sensuous women” unfolds.
So, within its pages, one woman carried horrid memories of her daughter’s murder, another carried her father’s resentment, the other was raised as a boy only to become a fearless rider while the fourth one dabbles in magic, medicine and possesses an “uncanny insight”.
Their lives intertwine while keeping secrets of who they used to be, their pasts and their loves from each other. There's a rich, silky texture to Hoffman’s prose in this one, not all that different from a very rich, very dark chocolate lava cake that garners guilt but soothes like a balm, at the same time.
McLain‘s storytelling style in this one is enveloping and consistently comfortable. Here‘s Hadley Richardson‘s viewpoint as Ernest Hemingway's first wife, “telling” of her whirlwind courtship with Ernest in the 1920s Chicago, their life in Paris which was peppered with a lively but volatile group consisting of the Lost Generation — including Gertrude Stein, Ezra Pound, along with F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald.
Richardson herself though, if she hadn‘t married Hemingway, was easily forgettable. She came alive the day she met Hemingway at a house party. Difficult, mercurial but handsome and charming, living with Hemingway, as Richardson‘s voice (given by McLain) admits, “was giving me more tolerance for the real than ever before...”.
Hardly passing his mid-20s at the time, Hemingway wasn‘t prepared for “hard-drinking and fast-living life of Jazz Age Paris” and in a city inundated by beautiful women and competing egos, he fought to “find the voice that will earn him a place in history”. He then channelled all the intensity exuding from lives around him into a piece of work which would become The Sun Also Rises (published in 1926).
Despite Hemingway‘s admittance that he would rather have died than fallen in love with anyone but Richardson, “they eventually find themselves facing the ultimate crisis of their marriage — a deception that will lead to the unraveling of everything they‘ve fought so hard for”.
Heartbreaking, poignant and disillusioning, this one is, ironically, a book to re-visit time and time again.
The cover itself will give you an inkling of its humour level. An entertaining autobiography, here’s Fey’s youth spent as “a vicious nerd", her “half-hearted pursuit of beauty”, fame in television, getting married, their near fatal honeymoon and her great effortless timing as a comedian.
You’ll laugh out loud from the very beginning of her introduction where she writes, “If you are a woman and bought this book for practical tips on how to make it in a male-dominated workplace, here they are. No pigtails, no tube tops. Cry sparingly”, to her final punctuation mark at the end of her last sentence on the last page.
The best part is, as the back of the book advises, “Tina Fey reveals all, and proves what we've all suspected: you’re no one until someone calls you bossy”. I wholeheartedly concede! And if you don’t, obviously, you're not there yet.
So, here it is. The book explains it all — the much speculated whisper of her possible collaboration with Hitler’s high-ranking officials, the vague explanations of her lost years between 1941 and 1954, and her decades-long fight with Wertheimer brothers on No.5 perfume ownership.
Vaughan’s meticulous research reveals one of Coco’s lovers who was a Nazi master spy and German military intelligence agent who ran a spy ring in the Mediterranean and in Paris, and reported directly to Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels who was Hitler’s right hand man.
Halfway in the book, Vaughan pieces together how and why she became a German intelligence operative involved in spy missions, “escaped arrest in France after the war, despite her activities being known to the Gaullist intelligence network, fled to Switzerland for a nine-year exile with her Nazi spy lover. And how, despite the French court's opening a case concerning
Chanel’s espionage activities during the war, she was able to return to Paris at age 70, and triumphantly resurrect and reinvent herself — and the iconic House of Chanel”.
The book, unlike any other biographies on Coco, seems to paint a realistic picture and affirm what some may already think of her — that she’s clever, a lithe social climber, a charming exploiter and a fierce survivor. Not all that pretty a picture but definitely powerful. And like her Chanel label, ever enduring.
Get 30 per cent discount on the five titles featured by presenting this coupon upon payment at any Borders stores in Malaysia. This offer is valid until Dec 2. Coupon is valid for one-time use and only original coupons will be accepted. Not valid with other promotions.
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