September Stories and Garden Galas

Over the summer I like to take a break from serious reading.
What about you?

Here are some of the books that I've read in the last month.

The George R.R. Martin series starting with the Game of Thrones.
If you like an epic story with political intrigue among competing clans, characters with unbridled ambition who are willing to destroy all in their paths in their lust for power, kind of like Washington D.C., these books are for you.
Consider them to be a sort of a Lord of the Rings type fantasy, except darker, much darker.
Jill, has read these books too and she's as anxious as I am for the final book to be released.

The 19th Wife, is the story of Eliza Young, the apostate renegade wife of Brigham Young who publicly denounces polygamy, cleverly interwoven with a murder mystery involving a contemporary 19th wife of Fundamentalist LDS cult member.  Ebershoff combines the development of Mormonism in 19th Century with the cult's bizarre behavior in the 21st Century. Of particular interest to me was the history of "hand cart" migration of European immigrants.  Their treatment was deplorable.

If you enjoy well written historical fiction you will like Cleopatra's Daughter.  Did you know that Roman women worried about stretch marks from pregnancy?  I didn't either.

I'm a huge fan of the New York Times bestselling author Daniel Silva.  He writes amazing international thrillers centered on a main character who is an artist and art restorer.  I recently finished The Rembrandt Affair and Portrait of a Spy. If you like thrillers, I highly recommend these books, but start from the beginning of the series because the story and the characters evolve with each new book.

When not reading it's been all fancy pants parties and soirees for me.

Well not really but I was happy to attend the 100 anniversary gala for the Friends of Virginia Robinson Gardens.  It was a beautiful event held in the gardens of Viginia Robinson's home, the first estate built in Beverly Hills in 1911.

Look how pretty the tables were under the lights suspended above the lawn.  And I loved the way that pink shawls were provided for all the ladies because it was a little chilly after the sun went down.

The guests were treated to a water ballet as pre-dinner entertainment which I thought was charming until the silk chiffon of  the hem of my dress sopped up water left by the swimmers on the brick path next to the pool. Luckily, no permanent damage was done, because I really loved my dress.

You might think that my gown was a little too 'mother of the bride-ish', but I thought that it was rather Edith Wharton-ish.

My peeps from Patrick McMullin liked it too...and why will they only sell hard copy prints instead of digital jpegs?

I thought that the french blue color of my dress was perfect for this suite of moonstone and diamond jewelry as you can see from the before photo.

And here is the after photo...specifically after a couple of glasses of wine photo. 

The jewelry looks good but what's up with my shiny forehead?

We've been busy buying at Beladora and hopefully I will be able to show you some awesome Art Deco pieces soon.

Books - Love and Louis XIV

I don't know what happened to Spring.
It was here, now it's gone
Temperatures have been well below normal
and Saturday night I woke up to the sound of rain...of all things
It was a good weekend to stay inside with a good book
But no, there were places to go and things to do
reverting to the norm, if you will.
Sunday morning at the gym and Sunday afternoon on a hike
both made palatable by this audio book on my ipod

Love and Louis XIV by Antonia Fraser

So far I've listened to the tale of interconnected relationships between Anne of Austria, Richelieu, Mazarin, The thiry Years War, Condé, Conti, Henriette-Anne Stuart, Marie-Louise d’Orléans, les Mazarinettes and La Fronde
and I'm still in the Regency Period.
It's a very interesting book and I recommend it.

Last night, a quiet dinner at home

I made an asparagus, roasted red pepper, spinach and feta frittata
and served it with Fino
it was delicious and healthy...well except for Fino

The week ahead will be busy
with beginning preparations for the upcoming Antique and Estate Jewelry Show
and watching the ongoing saga of DSK
could he really have been that stupid or was it all a set up by Sarkozy?

BHB Recommends - William Boyd's Any Human Heart and Brazzaville Beach

If you haven't already watched this Masterpiece Theater program I recommend that you do.
It is an excellent adaption of William Boyd's novel which tracks the life of a failed author, Logan Mountstuart, from his youth at Oxford through his old age in the south of France. 
Along the way the character has first hand experience with 1920s Paris, the Spanish Civil War, WW2 and Mid-Century Manhattan and 1960s-1970s London.
He also interacts with Ernest Hemmingway, Ian Flemming and the Duke and Duchess of Windsor who are absolutely vile. The Duchess was very well played by Gillian Anderson.

I am a big fan of William Boyd and I particularly liked his novel Brazzaville Beach.

Here's what Charles Michaud had to say about the book in the Library Journal
In a book packed with scientific and mathematical metaphors, Boyd explores how people create, defend, ignore, or subvert the belief systems that govern their lives. If on one level this is an intellectual thriller, on another it is very much an exciting and riveting adventure story, and on yet another a subtle examination of the power grid of personal relationships. Highly recommended.

So, if you haven't already read William Boyd's novels I suggest that you add them to your reading list.

The 4 Hour Body and The 4 Month Face

Even though I wasn't raised by a superior Chinese mother, I still make an effort at self improvement, especially at the start of a new year.

So high on my list is reading this book....although probably the only progress that I can make in 4 hours is to get the book read.  And if I am sedentary for the 4 hours that it will take for me to read this book, I'm not sure exactly what kind of self improvement I will actually be making.

But any book that tempts me with rapid fat loss, incredible sex and becoming superhuman is worth reading when self improvement is the goal.

The 4 Hour Body

A more realistic goal in my quest for self improvement than becoming superhuman is taking better care of my skin.  While not a product person per se, I do see the need to do something besides injections and laser to cope with ageing.

A very nice person sent me an article about the Lifeline products and their near miraculous results. 
All kinds of stem cell biotechnology has gone into creating these serums and they affect the skin by using messaging molecules or proteins.

Basically a bunch of smarty pants research scientists came up with this.

Another long story short, they came up with two solutions. One, they started using a technique from a Japanese nanotechnology firm that enabled them to encapsulate the proteins from stem cell extract inside a nanovessicle in order to keep them stable and give them the ability to penetrate the upper layer of the skin, and then they figured out how to "blow up" the cells in order to harvest the other 90% of the messaging proteins. That is very important, because cultivating stem cells is not easy-it takes time, some very expensive equipment, and cleanrooms. The cells are cultured in numerous batches, because if a batch goes bad it must be thrown out.

Then

And then they started rigorously, indefatigably testing it to get the right mix that produced just the effect they wanted. They conducted all official safety and efficacy tests according to the highest FDA standards, with independent laboratories and physicians. They confirmed the following anti-aging claims: moisture effect, increased skin elasticity, sun protection, decreased fine lines and wrinkles, improved skin tone.

This product doesn't claim to give you great skin overnight, but with consistent usage for at least 4 months one should be able to see positive results.

Maybe it works, maybe it doesn't, but I'm committed to giving it at least 6 months, alternating usage with Atralin, which is the latest and greatest of the new Retin A products. 

Very cleverly the makers of Lifeline, the International Stem Cell Corporation, have stated that the production is limited so only a very fortunate 4000 people will be able to try the product until manufacturing gets ramped up. 
Smart marketing...there's nothing like claiming scarcity to promote demand and justify higher prices. 

But it if works, I'm certainly willing to pay the price...god knows it's cheaper than the laser.

Winter Reading

I didn't think that I would like this book but I enjoyed it.  Alexandra Lebenthal, ex-bond babe (and I don't mean the films, I mean muni bonds), socialite and New York Social Diary editor, weaves a clever story about trials and tribulations of Wall Street wives as they deal with private school admissions, cheating hedge fund husbands and the collapse of Lehman Brothers.  The tidy ending is certainly contrived but the book is worth reading for the description of the characters alone.

Next on my list of books...

What are you reading this winter?

On Austria, Assimilation and Art - The Hare With The Amber Eyes

The Hare With The Amber Eyes: A Family's Century Of Art And Loss

I have been super busy these last few days, as I'm sure that you gathered from my lack of posting and commenting on all of your blogs. 
It is the season, after all, and the Christmas crunch is on.

Marie Antoinette - The Journey

Do you read only one book at a time or do you have several books going simultaneously?
I generally have 3 entirely different types of books going at the same time; a downloaded audio book on my iPod, a downloaded book on my nook (like a kindle) and an actual physical book.

Last week while finishing 'The Hare with the Amber Eyes' on my nook and 'Marie Antoinette' on my iPod, I was struck with the similar theme that runs through both books, the concept of being 'The Other'. 

No matter how Francais the Austrian born Marie Antoinette became, including bearing the dauphin, she was never truly accepted as the Queen of France.  She was libeled and maligned in print in Paris.  She was accused of cuckolding the King and of having numerous lovers.  She was blamed for adding to the national debt, for hoarding wheat during the low harvest and for virtually everything else that was wrong in France.  No matter what she did  for France, she remained 'The Other', an easy target and scapegoat for all that was wrong.

Stepping into the next century we have the flourishing of the Ephrussi family, a highly successful Russian Jewish Family that expanded their grain trading business in Odessa into a European banking powerhouse that rivaled the Rothchilde's. With branches of the family in London, Paris, Lucerne and Vienna, the great wealth enabled the family to become patrons of the arts and of the cultures of their respective cities.

Note the man in the top hat in Renoir's The Boating Party.  That was Charles Ephrussi, art historian, owner of the Parisian art journal La Gazette and patron of the Impressionists. 
He was also the model of Proust's character Charles Swann of 'Rememberance of Things Past'.

Amongst his vast art collection was a group of 264 netsuke which he purchased at the onset of the French fascination with all things Japonnais in 19th Century Paris.
'The Hare With The Amber Eyes' traces the journey of these netsuke from Charles'  elegantly art filled Palais Ephrussi to his nephew and niece at the Ephrussi Palais on the Ringstrasse in Vienna, to post WW2 Japan and finally to the author, British artist and Eprhussi descendant, Edmund de Waal.


As with the great nouveau riche families of 19th Century Europe, the Viennese branch of the Ephrussi were highly educated. Vicktor read history as he reluctantly took over as the head of the bank.  His daughter Elisabeth Ephrussi was the first woman to graduate with a degree in Law from the University of Vienna. All members of the family spoke Russian, French, English and German fluently.  They were full citizens of the Hapsburg Empire and loyal supporters of the Emperor.  They were titled. 
They were completely assimilated.
Or so they though.


All this of course changed with Kristallnacht.
They were 'The Other'.
But unlike Marie Antoinette, they were able to leave everything behind and survive.

This week I've been thinking about Thanksgiving, and about all of the things that I am thankful for...and there many. On this most American of holidays, I am indeed thankful that America is perhaps the only country where immigrants can indeed assimilate and become truly American. 

'The Hare With The Amber Eyes' is the best book that I have read all year and if you like History and Art History I encourage you to read it.

Kenya - From Happy Valley Hijinks to Laid Back Lamu

I was chatting with a European client this week about alternative locations to raise a family, away from the high costs and social nonsense that permeates Los Angeles.  He suggested Kenya.

And I can understand why. 
White sand beaches, laid back lifestyle, and it's got to be cheaper than the Hollywood Hills. 
But as for social nonsense.  Kenya has had it's share of it with the Happy Valley Set.

The Bolter: The Story of Idina Sackville

and

The Temptress: The Scandalous Life of Alice de Janze

And I'm guessing that even laid back, low key, Lamu Island has a certain amount of celebrity silliness.

I probably wouldn't want to live an expat life there, but it would be nice for a holiday.

If you were going to escape from your current life, where would you go?

Not Such Easy Reading

If you start reading a book, do you feel compelled to finish it?
Once I start reading a book, especially if it qualifies as literature, I feel totally compelled to read it all the way to the end. 
Sometime about a year ago I decided to attempt to read the works of English female authors from the 18th and 19th Centuries. I did this because I knew that there were outstanding female authors that I missed.
But I'm having some trouble with this.

 

Do you ever read books where the main character is so obnoxious and so unsympathetic that you just can't turn another page?  Well that's how I feel about Margaret Oliphant's 'Miss Marjoribanks'.  I was actually hoping that the main character would catch consumption and die so that we all could be put out of our misery.

And then there is 'The Female Quixote or The Adventures of Arabella', by the prolific Charlotte Lennox. In many ways it is a brilliant satire but the main character Arabella is so annoying.  Even by three quarters of the book, Arabella is as puerile and foolish as she was in the first chapter. And I'm sorry but, no feminist literature professor is going to convince me that the wealthy and well bred Arabella, with access to an extensive library  yet who floats in a fantasy world ruled by French Romance novels, is some kind of 18th Century feminist heroine.

So, I've done something that I rarely do. I've tossed these books aside and just given up on them.

Still, I feel kind of guilty.

If This Box Could Talk - The Stories It Could Tell

Have I mentioned that I love all kinds of history including military history.
And, I consider myself extraordinarily lucky to work in a business where everything that I touch, wear, appraise and sell, has a history.  Of course I don't always know the provenance of a piece of estate jewelry or object d'art, but I appreciate the fact that every piece has a story behind it.
Take this sterling silver cigarette case for example.

I am rarely enamored with inanimate objects but there is something about this specific item that moves me.
Let's start with the top.  You can see from the photo that the case is engraved with a map of Burma with the names of the major cities. Ten of those cities, including Rangoon and Mandalay, are emphasized by flush set Burma rubies. 

The back of the case is engraved
India 1945
Burma 43-44-45
China 45
Obviously, we all know what was going on in these countries during these years.

Then we have the interior which is engraved
Helen From Jim
Who was Helen? And more importantly, who was Jim?  Was he an Aussi, an American or a Brit?  Was he an officer, a diplomat, a businessman, a reporter or a spy?  Who did he know? What did he witness during the war years?
When I hold this case in my hand I have the inexplicable feeling that there is a Somerset Maugham quality story of love and loss connected with it.
So much happened in Burma during 1943,1944 and 1945
and of course so much has happened since.

And on the topic, last weekend's Wall Street Journal listed five of the best books with first hand accounts of WW2 and Quartered Safe Out There: A Harrowing Tale Of World War II by George Macdonald Fraser was on their list.
Here's what WSJ reviewer Andrew Roberts had to say about the book.
George MacDonald Fraser, British author of the Flashman series of novels, fought in the 17th (Black Cat) Indian Division of the 14th Army during the siege of Meiktila and the battle of Pyawbwe in Burma. He believed, probably correctly, that soldiering in Burma rivaled flying in the RAF's Bomber Command as "the worst ticket you could draw in the lottery of active service." This was so not just because of the Japanese enemy; there were also 15-inch poisonous centipedes, malaria, "spiders the size of plates," typhus, jungle sores on the wrists and ankles, dysentery, and leeches. In terse, unsentimental language, Fraser's superb war memoir, "Quartered Safe Out Here," relates how the soldiers in his close-knit company fought their battles, mourned their friends and simply tried to survive from day to day.

Perhaps Jim fought with 17th Black Cat Indian Division.
I wish that I knew.

Delivering Happiness or How To Succeed In Business

Yes, we all know about Zappos, that "little online company that could".
Really, how else do you describe a start-up business that went from zero to 1 billion dollars in merchandise sales in less than 10 years.
Delivering Happiness , by Zappos CEO and biggest investor Tony Hsieh, is a great business book. 
Tony takes us through his upper middle class upbringing to his Harvard graduation in 1995, to his co-founding of Link Exchange in 1996 and its subsequent sale to Mircrosoft for $265 billion in 1998, to his joining Zappos in 1999 and selling Zappos in a stock deal to Amazon in 2009.
Talk about a career on steroids.
But more than a book about Tony's personal success, this book is a guide to building a better business by having a succinct corporate culture and committed core values.
Here are the Zappos core values:

1.  Deliver WOW Through Service

2.  Embrace and Drive Change

3.  Create Fun and a Little Weirdness

4.  Be Adventurous, Creative and Open Minded

5.  Pursue Growth and Learning

6.  Build Open and Honest Relationships with Communication

7.  Build a Positive Team and Family Spirit

8.  Do More with Less

9.  Be Passionate and Determined

10.  Be Humble
At Beladora.com we know all about doing more with less, being humble, being passionate and determined  and most importantly delivering WOW service. Maybe we need to create some fun and a little weirdness too.

Even if you don't have any specific interest in business, I recommend that you read this book.  It is a great American story of how ideas, capital, expertise, hard work and a sense of humor come together to make something great.

Vacation's All I Ever Wanted

Lots of stuff to do this week because next week I'm off to this place

where I plan to do some of this

and some of this

and spend some downtime away from the computer...although I'm taking my laptop of course.

But even away from the keyboard I will be reevaluating business, blogging and all things Beladora, like adding new features, redecorating the site, and starting a corporate blog like the competition, who shall not be named.
I will also be considering a road trip to New York and maybe one to London/Paris sometime in the Fall.  (And jesus Jill, if you'd ever invite me to El Paso, I'd plan a trip there too)
Books to read on the beach are on my mind too, but it is too late for me to order from Amazon, biographies from Antonia Fraiser (thank you tabitha) and novels from Anthony Powell (thank you LBT).  I shall be reduced to finding an actual bookstore or worse, buying cheesy paperbacks at the airport. 
This is what happens when I wait until the last minute...

Summer Reading - So Many Books, So Little Time

Well not really reading, I should say listening to because these are a couple of books that are on my ipod. 

The Quants was a little long and complicated and required concentration....not an easy book to listen to when treading on the treadmill at the gym.

On the other hand, Malcolm Gladwell's Outliers was an easy audio book and so very interesting.  If you haven't read it you should.

And on the topic of reading....you know that you are getting old when you get more excited about reading the Williams-Sonoma catalog than you do about reading the latest fashion magazine. 

Next on my list of fiction books are Terry Pratchett novels and I am determined to finally get through Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash.

What are all of you reading this summer.  Do you have any recommendations?

Weekend Reading - The Complete Claudine

For some reason, I'm not sure why, I've never seemed to get around to reading anything by Colette.
So, I recently started reading Claudine at School, the first book in The Complete Claudine.
Unfortunately I find every character in the book, and most importantly the main character Claudine,  totally unsympathetic.  In spite of the fact that I'm not enjoying the read, I will slog through the book because I find 19th Century and Belle Epoque history interesting.
As for Colette herself, I would like to read a well written biography. Can anyone suggest one?  Ms. Cavendish perhaps? Forget the lesbian affairs, what I would really like to know is why she seduced her 16 year old step son when she was 40 and continued the affair for 5 years.  Yes I know, how very French.

Readers by Author

I'm not a huge fan of modern fiction so I can't actually vouch for this Readers by Author list from Lauren Leto via Instapundit.
But I do think that the list is amusing, here's an example:

Jeffrey Eugenides
Girls who didn’t get enough drama when they were younger.
Lauren Weisberger
Girls who can’t read. Or think.
Charles Dickens
Ninth graders who think they’re going to be authors someday but end up in marketing.
William Shakespeare
People who like bondage.
Mark Twain
Liars.
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
People who drink scotch.
Joseph Conrad
People who drink old fashioneds.
Michael Crichton
Doctors who went to third-tier medical schools.
John Grisham
Doctors who went to medical schools in the Dominican Republic.
Dan Brown
People who used to get lost in supermarkets when they were kids.

Happy Friday everyone and I hope that all of you get a chance to relax with a book or two this 4th of July weekend.

Summer Reading - Music, History and Joy

On my summer reading list...if I can ever find the time to just relax and read.

From the review in the WSJ by Norman Lebrecht

Destiny in D Minor - The origins and influence of Beethoven's last symphony

Of all Beethoven's works, the Ninth Symphony is the least explicable. What on Earth was he doing decorating its finale with a chorus and soloists singing an ode of Schiller's, ostensibly about joy but in reality about brotherhood and liberation? What is the Ninth about? Is it a charter for social reform or for individual rights? A religious ecstasy? Does the symphony mean to us what it meant to Beethoven? Does it mean anything useful at all?

These are some of the questions that set Harvey Sachs off on a painstaking search to discover the roots of Beethoven's last symphony in the time of its creation. The year was 1824, and the Congress of Vienna had turned Europe back to a network of despotic monarchies, as if the Enlightenment and French Revolution had never happened.

Perhaps the Ninth was all some sort of musical Masonic code.

I shall have to read the book and find out. 

Sunday Hike With Snakes and Shorts

Just another non-eventful Sunday on the hiking trail.

Except for the 3 foot long rattle snake that crossed the trail right in front of me.

Luckily, when I walk alone I tend to keep my head down, concentrating on the trail and whatever I'm listening to on my ipod. If I hadn't been focusing on looking down, I could have easily stepped on the snake.

And speaking of snakes

This is what I was listening to on my ipod.

If you have not read The Big Short you need to do so right away.

No one tells a true financial tale like Michael Lewis.

Hiking With My Hero

Perfect weather seems to have finally arrived.
Yesterday it was about 85 degrees with a cloudless sky, perfect for a hike in the hills.
Since my hiking partner was busy I was happy go alone with my ipod and finish listening to the last chapter and epilogue of "Churchill" by Paul Johnson.
I am fascinated by Winston Churchill and all that he accomplished. Fifty-five years in the House of Commons, 9 years as Prime Minister, Chancellor of the Exchequer, soldier, war correspondent, polo player, orator, painter, historian, whiskey drinker, savior of the Western World.
Seriously, is there anything this man couldn't do?

I stopped a few times to look at the wild flowers in bloom

Strangely, I only saw one California poppy plant, the flower that California is famous for.

Because it was so clear, the view was outstanding, from Catalina island, to Palos Verdes, to Long Beach, to Saddleback Mountain, to downtown LA. I could even see the snow capped mountains.

Yesterday was literally one of those days where you could have surfed in the morning in Malibu and skied in the afternoon at Mountain High.
Yeah, LA is a pretty amazing place.

This is the nicest time to hike in the hills because soon it will be too hot and dry

and fire weather will be upon us.

Paul Johnson's Churchill, like all of Johnson's books, was excellent and I recommend it to you. Also, if you haven't already read it, I suggest that you read the two volume "The Last Lion" by William Manchester.

Visions of Glory by William Manchester
and

Alone by William Manchester

And, if you don't have the time or inclination to read the Manchester oeuvre, at least read these famous Churchill quotes because he said so many brilliant things.

"Lady Astor: Winston, if you were my husband I would poison your tea

Churchill: Nancy, if I were your husband I'd drink it."

I have more to write about Churchill, but I'll save that for a future post.