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from now until December 24 (so a month) I am going to add a book to this thread every day that you can buy for anyone in your life (or yourself) who is interested in glamorous women who lived spiritually and creatively and sometimes dangerously beyond their means
Interested in the nature of fame and celebrity? WELL, you might want to read Julie Kavanagh's The Girl Who Loved Camelias about the life of Marie Duplessis, a courtesan who died of consumption in 1847 at only 23 as one of Paris' most famous women https://www.indiebound.org/book/9780307270795
Her real name was Rose-Alphonsine Plessis, and she was born in Normandy in terrible poverty and then her alcoholic father left her on the streets of Paris when she was just a child, but she rose to be dripping in jewels. At the end, "she drank nothing but champagne"
Give this book to: the person in your life who uses the verb "hustle" to describe their work ethic, anyone who owns a fur coat, Francophiles, your friend who still listens to the Moulin Rouge soundtrack
Perfume pairing: http://luckyscent.com/product/11147/camellia-perfume-oil-by-aroma-m
Perfume pairing: http://luckyscent.com/product/11147/camellia-perfume-oil-by-aroma-m
(I'll be adding perfume pairings in case you want to do a book/scent gift combo, to my mind one of the best presents one can give)
Ok doves here’s your next book on this (very ad hoc) glamorama advent calendar: Elaine M. Hayes’ The Musical Lives of Sarah Vaughan https://www.indiebound.org/book/9780062364685
Sarah Vaughan's voice is one of the best jazz instruments that ever was:
But beyond that, she had a wild life: traveling the world, men who stole from her to pay gambling debts, falling in love with a trumpeter 16 years her junior, late nights in big cities
Give this to: Your friend who stays up past 2am, born romantics, someone who wears satin
Give this to: Your friend who stays up past 2am, born romantics, someone who wears satin
And of course the perfume pairing smells like jasmine and cigarettes -- a jazz club after last call
https://www.luckyscent.com/product/47710/jasmin-et-cigarette-by-etat-libre-dorange
https://www.luckyscent.com/product/47710/jasmin-et-cigarette-by-etat-libre-dorange
It's time for.....TODAY'S PICK of a glamorous woman's biography that you can give away (or BUY FOR YOU). Today it is The Talented Miss Highsmith by Joan Schenkar https://www.indiebound.org/book/9780312363819
Obviously bundle this with a Patricia Highsmith starter pack: Ripley, Strangers on a Train, The Price of Salt
Give this to: your friend who can't wait to see Knives Out, a person who appreciates great sweaters and the occasional bummed cigarette, cat lovers, Carol obsessives
Give this to: your friend who can't wait to see Knives Out, a person who appreciates great sweaters and the occasional bummed cigarette, cat lovers, Carol obsessives
And should you want to pair it with a perfume, then why not go with a classic from the 1950s, one that maybe Carol Aird herself might have worn: https://www.fragrantica.com/perfume/Caron/Bellodgia-2817.html
Caron in the 1950s was the Parisian brand all the women were rushing to get at the store; perhaps while there they met their own Therese Belivets
TIME FOR THIS AGAIN: Today's book about a woman living well beyond her means is John Burke's Duet in Diamonds: The Flamboyant Saga of Lillian Russell and DiamondJim Brady
This one is out of print but you can find copies here: https://www.abebooks.com/book-search/title/duet-diamonds-flamboyant-saga-lillian/author/burke-john/
This one is out of print but you can find copies here: https://www.abebooks.com/book-search/title/duet-diamonds-flamboyant-saga-lillian/author/burke-john/
I did a thread on Lillian a while back (after half a bottle of wine lol), which you can read here: https://twitter.com/rachsyme/status/955224244870361088
But long story short she was NYC's leading comic actress during the Gilded Age and lived a life of utmost decadence intermingled with terrible tragedies
But long story short she was NYC's leading comic actress during the Gilded Age and lived a life of utmost decadence intermingled with terrible tragedies
She had a long affair with "Diamond Jim" Brady, a financier whose main claim to fame was his love of eating rich meals: he would eat 10 lobsters and 10 steaks at Delmonico's in a single sitting; he was REALLY into gift kink (he bought Lillian jillions of dollars worth of jewels)
Their life together was like "how many things can we buy and how many things can we eat???????????" which, you know, seems exhausting and also a little bit like Instagram. In any case, this book is soapy and gossipy and very 70s and it rules + I hope to live to see the TV series
Buy it for: shopaholics, that person you know who makes a very cheesy cacio e pepe, someone who stops in store windows to stare at shiny baubles, the friend you consider to be a "ham"
Perfume to go with: Lillian loved ROSES. So of course: https://www.luckyscent.com/product/69200/rose-flash-by-tauerville
Perfume to go with: Lillian loved ROSES. So of course: https://www.luckyscent.com/product/69200/rose-flash-by-tauerville
Happy Thanksgiving; here’s another book for the list. One of my favorites of the last few years: Imani Perry’s Looking for Lorraine https://www.indiebound.org/book/9780807064498
Lorraine Hansberry had a short life (she died at 34)but made a big and lasting impact on the world of theater; and she was so very ambitious
Buy it for: Chicagoans living in New York, aspiring playwrights, people who love nothing more than hot coffee in a 24 hour diner
Buy it for: Chicagoans living in New York, aspiring playwrights, people who love nothing more than hot coffee in a 24 hour diner
A perfume for Lorraine: a smoky jasmine with a kick of hot pepper https://www.luckyscent.com/product/751001/jasmin-kama-by-rania-j
Back again with another rec for this advent calendar full of adventuresses: Louise Hall Tharp’s classic biography of Isabella Stewart Gardner It’s equal parts trashy and sumptuous and delicious!!!!!
Out of print so you’ll have to hunt: https://www.abebooks.com/book-search/title/mrs-jack-biography-isabella-stewart/author/louise-hall-tharp/
Out of print so you’ll have to hunt: https://www.abebooks.com/book-search/title/mrs-jack-biography-isabella-stewart/author/louise-hall-tharp/
Gardner was an heiress who used her father’s linen fortune to go to Europe and befriend artists and cause society scandals and bed men and establish a museum where she lived on the top floor. Her life probably smelled like chypre perfume and the opera https://orchidscents.com/?product=ballets-rouges
Buy this one for: your friend who drags you to exhibitions at the Frick, Italophiles, people prone to grand dramatic gestures, a woman with champagne taste and a taste for champagne
GLAMOUR BOOK HIVE WE'RE BACK AGAIN
Today's book about women who truly lived to the hilt is this rollicking romp about Sarah Bernhardt and Eleanora Duse's longtime rivalry
Two actresses...both alike in dignity...and PETTINESS https://www.indiebound.org/book/9781476738383
Today's book about women who truly lived to the hilt is this rollicking romp about Sarah Bernhardt and Eleanora Duse's longtime rivalry
Two actresses...both alike in dignity...and PETTINESS https://www.indiebound.org/book/9781476738383
Get it for: someone who knows how to make a grand entrance, your friend with a flair for the dramatic, velvet wearers, your closest frenemy
And then pair it with a sample of a melodramatic saffron perfume made in the style of the great divas https://twistedlily.com/shop/country-of-origin/france/baccarat-rouge-540-extrait/
And then pair it with a sample of a melodramatic saffron perfume made in the style of the great divas https://twistedlily.com/shop/country-of-origin/france/baccarat-rouge-540-extrait/
Back again with another pick! Today's book is the gorgeous Wayward Lives, Beautiful Experiments by Saidiya Hartman. One of the most inventive and special nonfiction works I've read in YEARS, about the black women of the 1920s overlooked by most jazz age histories; it is STUNNING
Snag it here: https://www.indiebound.org/book/9780393285673
Buy it for: Diehard New Yorkers, anyone who has worn ornamental feathers, lovers of hidden histories, people who are looking to understand the roaring twenties beyond what Gatsby teaches, party girls, dreamers
Buy it for: Diehard New Yorkers, anyone who has worn ornamental feathers, lovers of hidden histories, people who are looking to understand the roaring twenties beyond what Gatsby teaches, party girls, dreamers
And pair it with a scent redolent of 1920s Manhattan: https://www.luckyscent.com/product/27101/fleur-nocturne-by-isabey
OK HERE WE GO AGAIN: today's rec is Hermione Lee's epic biography of Edith Wharton https://www.indiebound.org/book/9780375702877
It's a big book but what's nice about the length is you can really make friends with it, really curl up by the fire with it like a bosom companion. Plus it flies by!
It's a big book but what's nice about the length is you can really make friends with it, really curl up by the fire with it like a bosom companion. Plus it flies by!
I've always said that Edith Wharton is a WINTER writer because she sets so many of her books in the snow, because she was writing about the kind of rich people for whom winter was not a misery but involved a lot of fur and hearths; so this is the time for her, tbh
Get this for: Your friend who gossips the most, someone you text asking "can i be a huge bitch for a second?" before relaying information, aesthetes, a person who would appreciate that Edith's childhood nickname was "Pussy Jones"
And the perfume: https://www.luckyscent.com/product/31221/grisette-by-lubin
And the perfume: https://www.luckyscent.com/product/31221/grisette-by-lubin
Today's book rec is in honor of the late Robert Massie, who passed away recently at 90 years old. His Catherine The Great is superlative and as thick and luscious as a flourless chocolate cake https://www.indiebound.org/book/9780345408778
You will ABSOLUTELY want to read this before the new Catherine series from the creators of The Favourite (and starring Elle Fanning) comes to Hulu (I've read the script, you're in for a TREAT); it's palace intrigue x infinity
Buy it for: the power hungry, someone you know who can pull off capes, a person who takes her tea black and strong, Vodka drinkers, a friend with regal bearing
A perfume to go with -- a spicy Russian tea with mint, birch, and leather https://luckyscent.com/product/64004/russian-tea-by-masque-milano
A perfume to go with -- a spicy Russian tea with mint, birch, and leather https://luckyscent.com/product/64004/russian-tea-by-masque-milano
