The Birth of Venus book review

Recently I took a trip to the goodwill nearby to donate some clothes with my husband. Since we were already there we decided to look around, and in the store there was a fairly large book area filled with pretty decent books. I picked this one up because (I know you aren't suppose to judge a book by it's cover) it caught my eye in the crammed bookshelf it occupied. After reading the synopsis of the book I decided to give it a try, and boy am I happy I did!

Sarah Dunant portrays the Italia Renaissance scene with vivid and great details (without being too wordy). When I closed my eyes I could imagine being the houses and streets that the main character was in. The language was neat and easily understood. All in all, I thought the author's writing style was great.

As for the story line itself, I thought it was pretty sweet. It follows the life of one Alessandra Cecchi as she grows into adulthood and describes the world of women during this awesome time in Europe. There was a lot of detail about the way females lived and what they did, where, and why packed in this book. And although the way they lived their lives and where they lived are very different from the world we live in today, I think many of the things Alessandra struggled with could be related to by young adults.

The main character wants nothing but to be able to paint, draw, and read books instead of doing "womanly" things. One night her father accompanied by a strange painter from a monastery comes into the picture and flips her world upside down. She is immediately fascinated by this painter and tries to learn and be friends with him even though he refuses to speak to her because of his vows of never speaking to women.

But to Alessandra's surprise and disappointment, she is soon married off to a much older person who is as intelligent and artistic as the bride herself. However, there is a secret he is hiding from the public eyes and begs his new wife to keep it a secret as well. Disaster could happen if anyone else finds out about it, and the burden is heavy.

Overall this book was quite enjoyable. It wasn't extremely long, but it had just enough details in it to be great. Would I recommend this to a friend? Yes I would, especially an artistic one :3

Bobbi Brown makeup manual review!

Hello world, no reviews the last month because I just got married! Now that things have settled down and I am moved into the apartment in Ca, I have time to to do whatever (at least until I start school next month). Recently I discovered a library that is located only two blocks away! Hello goldmine :3 I checked out a few books from there, and one of the books I picked up was the Bobbi Brown Makeup Manual by none other than Bobbi Brown herself.

I've read all kinds of reviews about it good and bad, but I haven't gotten a chance to physically look at it because I've been over seas. So when I saw this book on the shelf I was ecstatic. It only took me a day to read it because I zipped right through it.

For a book that is suppose to addresses basic info about makeup I thought that this is an excellent book! I'm pretty into makeup and I know the basics pretty well I think. That is probably why I went through the book so fast. I can tell you right now though that if I had this book years ago because it would have saved me a lot of time!

BBMM has a lot of info about everything from skin type, foundation, to eyebrow structure. I won't say that I learned nothing from this book because that would certainly be a lie. I think everyone can take a little something away from this. The book is filled to the top with pictures and step by step info that is very easy to follow :3

The instructions include things from how to pick foundation to applying the popular smoky eye technique! After studying this book and practicing you'll be able to apply makeup fast and easy!

Hmm... What else is good about this book? Well there is a section in the book on pointers to becoming a makeup artist, and advice on working on your career in the makeup art world! I thought that the chapter was just peachy!

Overall I enjoyed this book a lot. It gave me a lot of cool advice and techniques on makeup application that I was giddy with the thought of trying everything I'd found. I guess I'll need to buy more to get some practice!! :3