Category: books

Alek: My Life from Sudanese Refugee to International Supermodel

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Alek: My Life from Sudanese Refuge to International Supermodel


I had some time to spend before a meeting in DC, and decided to take a walk. It was then that I happened upon the clearance rack that was outside the World Bank bookstore. In the clearance rank, I found the book Alek: My Life from Sudanese Refugee to International Supermodel. At $3.00, the book was a steal.

The fashion angle is what drew me to Alek: My Life from Sudanese Refugee to International Supermodel initially. Alek Wek is a trailblazing model. Before her, there had been many models of color, but most of them had “acceptable” features, that is, European-like features, but with darker skin. Alek Wek is said to have an “African” look; however, she rightly notes that there is no typical African look. Appallingly, as you key in “Alek Wek” in Google, one of the top results is “Alek Wek is ugly.”

My fascination and curiosity about world cultures are what drew me into the book. Alek Wek is from southern Sudan, and is an ethnic Dinka. She relates many customs of her Dinka culture. The cow is central to Dinka culture: in this way, I was reminded how central the cow is to villagers in India. As an aside, she talks about what happens to the clothes that we dump into collection boxes.

The civil war between Arabs in northern Sudan and blacks in southern Sudan goes back decades, but never had the high visibility of the human rights catastrophe in Darfur. Alek Wek and her family fled their town to find shelter in a village where distant relatives lived, but had to trek to another village after learning through bush telegraph that fighting had spread to their original destination. She later bluffed her way to Khartoum, and from Khartoum, she went to London, where she was discovered in a London park.


In the second half of the book, Alek Wek discusses her career as a model. Her big breakthrough was making the cover of Elle, and she talks about the fight to put her on the cover. In the last quarter of the book, she talks about using her fame to bring awareness to the humanitarian crisis in southern Sudan. The book concludes with an emotional homecoming to Sudan.

Alek Wek comes across as a well-grounded person, and this can be attributed to the influence of her father and her resourceful mother.

I hope that I haven’t shared too much of Alek: My Life from Sudanese Refugee to International Supermodel to dissuade you from reading the book. On the other hand, I hope that I’ve whetted your interest in reading the book.

The fine print: this article contains links for the Amazon.com affiliate program.

Twi-hard with a vengeance

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I started reading Harry Potter to understand what the phenomenon was all about. I also had the incentive that my nephew was reading the books, which would give me something to talk about with him on our overseas calls. After reading Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone, however, I decided that I had enough and didn’t follow up on reading the other six books in the series.

Similarly, I began reading Twilight to understand what the phenomenon was all about. This time, however, I got sucked in (ouch!), and while I didn’t become a vampire, I certainly became a Twi-hard. Perhaps the appeal of Twilight was romance and courtliness. I took every coupon I had through Borders Rewards to buy the next installment.

What if you’ve read the entire Twilight Saga and want more?

Twilight: The Graphic Novel, Volume 1 (The Twilight Saga)

Stephenie Meyer has collaborated with Korean illustrator Young Kim on Twilight The Graphic Novel. Twilight The Graphic Novel presents some of the highlights of Twilight in Manga style. As you can see, Bella has been portrayed as a waif, in true Manga style. I was enchanted by the interplay between pen and ink, airbrush-like shading, color (particularly when Edward shows Bella how walking in the sunlight affects him), and even photography for surreal effect.

By now, people know that Stephenie Meyer will release The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner: An Eclipse Novella, a spinoff about one of Victoria’s newborns, on June 5. If Stephenie Meyer were to write another book, I would have thought that it would have been about a new love triangle between Reneesme, Jacob, and Nahuel or the budding relationship (or so it’s hinted) between Sue Clearwater and Charlie.

An interview with makeup artist Robert Jones

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Lately, I’ve been taking advice from Robert Jones’s book Makeup Makeovers, after purchasing lip glosses from the Robert Jones Signature Collection from 3 Custom Color Specialists.

Makeup Makeovers

In Makeup Makeovers, you won’t find jaw-dropping makeovers of celebrities and famous models that show off the talent, or in the case of the late Kevyn Aucoin, genius, of the makeup artist. What you’ll find is great advice about selecting shades and applying makeup. You’ll find out why Jones recommends that women with dark skin tones swatch foundation shades on their cheek, as opposed to their jawline. You’ll see his carefully edited collection of 13 eye shadows, from which you can select shades suitable for any skin tone.

Robert Jones

I do my homework before I interview makeup artists and entrepreneurs. After reading Makeup Makeovers, I worked with Tess of 3CC to arrange an interview with Robert Jones, and here are his replies to questions I posed to him.

1. Let’s review your biography. You’re from Texas. You demonstrated talent for art, and then moved on to theater. It was a logical move to get involved in makeup. Growing up in a family of women also fostered your interest in makeup. I find it interesting that two other makeup artists [Sam Fine and Matin Maulawizada] whom I’ve interviewed also said that growing up in a family of women fostered their interest in makeup. What more would you like to share with our readers about your background and career as a makeup artist?

I have worked with so many beautiful women in my career (celebrities, model, the girl next door) and am always inspired by how makeup can boost their confidence and bring out their true beauty. Let’s face it, it is a lot of fun!!!!!
2. How did you enter into partnership with Three Custom Color Specialists (3CC) to create the Robert Jones Signature Collection of blushers and lip glosses? Trae said that either people approach them with an idea, or that 3CC might approach someone with an idea that they’d like to work on.

I felt there was a lack in what I was wanting in glosses and blushes, having heard of 3CC and what they can do, I went to them for help in realizing my vision. Trae liked what we created and asked if they could launch a small collection.
3. Your book Makeup Makeovers presents a well-edited collection of 13 eye shadows that serves the gamut of skin tones. You already have a line of makeup brushes sold through robert jones beauty. Would you launch this eye shadow collection, perhaps in partnership with 3CC?

Yes would love to!

4. Makeup Makeovers states that you split your time between Dallas (The Big D) and New York City (The Big Apple). Are you still commuting between the two cities?

Yes I am still commuting, trying to travel less and less, but it is just part of my job!
5. Texas, and The Big D in particular, had been known for beauty queens and big hair. Are Texan ideals of fashion and beauty becoming more like those in New York?

No Dallas is definitely [its] own world! If I were to compare it style wise I would compare it to LA more than NY! But Dallas (Texas) definitely has some of the most beautiful women because they definitely love glamour!
[I asked this question as many Texan retailers have been absorbed into larger companies or have gone out of business altogether. Dillard’s acquired Joske’s over 20 years ago. Macy’s ultimately absorbed Foley’s. Frost Bros. has gone out of business, as has Sakowitz.]

6. What differences in fashion and beauty ideals might still remain between Texas and New York?

The biggest difference is in Texas women glam up to go to the grocery store and in NY they are not as concerned about it daily. But I can tell you from living in NY city it is hard to get from one place to the next looking good, where in Texas you just get in a car and go!
7. In Makeup Makeovers, the oval face is the aesthetic ideal. Creating the semblance of an oval face is the objective in the makeovers in the book. Some might object to singling out one face shape as the aesthetic ideal. To them, all face shapes are fine. How do you respond to these objections?

I am not trying to say every face shape is not beautiful! My favorite face shape is square! BUT the human eye is drawn to certain proportions (oval) so every face shape can look its most beautiful by softening certain areas.

8. While highlighting and contouring are great for the photographs in your books, is the sculpted look viable for daytime?

Definitely it looks completely natural and works for daytime when done correctly.
9. Your process for contouring is involved. It involves a true shade foundation, a foundation one shade lighter, and a foundation one shade deeper. For a woman heading out the door to work in the morning, this is too much effort. Later in the book, you state that bronzer can be used for contouring. What should a woman look for in a bronzer so that it doesn’t look muddy or orangey?

It should be matte, absolutely no shimmer! If you are ivory look for one more flesh toned, beige should be more brown tanned toned.
10. What are your upcoming projects?

Possibly a new book and some exciting new collaborations.

11. Are there any parting thoughts about makeup and beauty that you would like to share with our readers?

Just remember all women are beautiful, the right makeup shades and techniques just bring out that beauty!!!! Love who you are today and every day!!!!

A Handful of Dust

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A Handful of Dust
A Handful of Dust
by Evelyn Waugh

My review

rating: 3 of 5 stars
(This review is also posted at Amazon.com)

For the uninitiated, Evelyn Waugh (1903-1966) was a man. Today, he is probably best known for his novel Brideshead Revisited, due to the popularity of a 1981 TV mini series adaptation.


Evelyn Waugh (from Evelyn Waugh Newsletter)

His novel A Handful of Dust is a comedy of manners, even a farce, for the first four chapters. Tony Last is devoted to his estate Hetton, with its Victorian Gothic monstrosity of a mansion. His shallow wife Brenda has an affair with John Beaver, a cash-strapped momma’s boy. The cuckolded Tony becomes aware of the affair only after the death of their son in a riding accident, when he receives a message from Brenda that she’s going to marry Beaver.

The main conflict is between Tony and his devotion to Hetton (three of the chapters are titled English Gothic) on one hand and Brenda on the other. Aside from being Brenda’s paramour, Beaver’s role is incidental.

Brenda makes demands in their divorce case that would compel Tony to sell Hetton. Tony will not acquiesce to her demands, and goes on an expedition to Brazil. He tells Brenda’s brother that, upon his return to England, he will divorce Brenda without settlements.

A Handful of Dust takes a dramatic turn beginning with Chapter 5, In Search of a City, when Tony leaves England for Brazil. The pace picks up rapidly, and there is menace and doom as Tony makes his way through the jungles of Brazil with his traveling companion Dr. Messinger. The novel ends with startling turns in the fates of Brenda, Tony, and his beloved Hetton.

A Handful of Dust was slow going and didn’t engage me until Chapter 5. There were times I put it aside. I’m glad that I held on to read the surprising ending.

View my book reviews at Goodreads

Which books should all men read?

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That was the question that two guys asked me after I published my article Which books should all women read?


The Dangerous Book for Boys

I’m not able to make a list of books that men should read, but here are the first items from the list of books that all men should have read as boys, from The Dangerous Book for Boys:

* Books by Roald Dahl
* Winnie-the-Pooh books by A.A. Milne
* The Willard Price series
* Famous Five series and Secret Seven series by Enid Blyton
* Fungus the Bogeyman by Raymond Briggs

Do you have others to recommend?

Book review: A Town Like Alice

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L to R: the novel; the 1981 TV series; the 1956 movie

Jean Paget is among a group of English ladies on a forced march through Malaysia in WWII. While on the march, she meets Joe Harman, an Australian POW who is driving trucks for the Japanese. He speaks fondly of the town of Alice Springs, which he frequented. Joe helps the ladies, and steals black chickens from the Japanese commander’s flock for food and is punished by crucifixion. Jean assumed that he died. After the war, she relocates to England.

Several years later, after she comes into a fortune, Jean returns to Malaysia to build a well and wash house for the village that sheltered her and her companions for three years. There she discovers that Joe didn’t die and sets out to Australia to find him. Joe, in the meantime, has gone to London using earnings from a lottery to find Jean, after he discovers that she was not a married woman. They do find each other, and Jean relocates to Australia to recreate A Town Like Alice in dusty Willstown, the nearest town to Midhurst, where Joe ranches.

Jean is a clerk/typist from England working for a leather goods company in Malaya when the story begins. Jean demonstrates resourcefulness and fortitude when a POW and later in the outback. When building a Town Like Alice in Willstown, she demonstrates a flair for entrenpreneurship. Joe, despite his machismo, encourages Jean in her entrepreneurial ventures.

The story is narrated by Noel Strachan, who is trustee for Jean’s fortune. He is forty years older than Jean and became very fond of her, actually an unrequited love.

I love a great romance, where the man and woman meet, are separated, and reunite despite overwhelming odds. I first loved the Masterpiece Theater TV series with Helen Morse and Bryan Brown. Then I happened upon the 1956 movie with Virginia McKenna and Peter Finch when it was shown on TCM recently. I knew it was time for me to read the book.

Which books should all women read?

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From Jezebel via Shine on Yahoo! a list of the 20 books every woman should read.

  1. The Lottery, Shirley Jackson
  2. To the Lighthouse, Virginia Woolf
  3. The House of Mirth, Edith Wharton
  4. White Teeth, Zadie Smith
  5. The House of the Spirits, Isabel Allende
  6. Slouching Towards Bethlehem, Joan Didion
  7. Excellent Women, Barbara Pym
  8. The Bell Jar, Sylvia Plath
  9. Wide Sargasso Sea, Jean Rhys
  10. The Namesake, Jhumpa Lahiri
  11. Beloved, Toni Morrison
  12. Madame Bovary, Gustave Flaubert
  13. Like Life, Lorrie Moore
  14. Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen
  15. Jane Eyre, Charlotte Brontë
  16. The Delta of Venus, Anais Nin
  17. A Thousand Acres, Jane Smiley
  18. A Good Man Is Hard To Find, Flannery O’Connor
  19. The Shipping News, E. Annie Proulx
  20. You Can’t Keep a Good Woman Down, Alice Walker

My recommendations?

I’ve already raved about Wuthering Heights. Barbara Pym might be described as Jane Austen for the mid-20th century. I also recommend Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray (OK, so he’s a man) about duplicitous social climber Becky Sharp.

While these might not be considered as books for women, I like the Emily series (Emily of New Moon, Emily Climbs, and Emily’s Quest) from Lucy Maud Montgomery, who is best known for Anne of Green Gables. The Emily series is more mature than the Anne series and Emily was closer to Lucy Maud Montgomery’s heart. There is also a touch of mysticism, in which Emily is able to see beyond the mere appearances of the world.

Reading inspiration

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I had been pondering why I hadn’t experienced the pleasure of reading in a long time. I have a day job totally unrelated to this blog and in the evenings I’m busy doing paperwork and chores, blogging, or watching TV (I am hooked on the O’Reilly Factor and reruns of The Simpsons, which I think is genius for its references to both high culture and pop culture).

I found that I didn’t even have a list of books that I wanted to read. Then, my first inspiration was my niece, who said that her favorite books were Angela’s Ashes and Wuthering Heights. I then decided to pick up Angela’s Ashes.

I knew about her fondness for Angela’s Ashes and the other books by Frank McCourt (‘Tis, Teacher Man), but I was surprised and embarrassed to learn that she was fond of Wuthering Heights through the web site of a magazine! As I wrote before, I’m in awe of Wuthering Heights – it’s hard to believe that someone with such an erratic education as Emily Bronte could conceive the structure of the novel.

More recently, Style.com, the online home of Vogue and W, had a slideshow of books, the selection of which was inspired by recent designer collections. If you’re registered on Style.com, you can create your own “lookbooks” – to see which books I selected from that slideshow, visit my public lookbook.

And of course, there’s always my wishlist on Amazon.com.

If you had to choose, what three books would you recommend?

Pocket reads

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Every now and then, I like to get away from the topic of beauty and write about something else. Here, I’d like to share three series of books that don’t require major commitments of time to reading and that you can readily fit into your purse.

Very Short Introductions

Very Short Introudctions from Oxford University is a series featuring 160 titles that cover topics in history, philosophy, religion, science, and the humanities. These books feature covers with ombre watercolor illustrations and measure 6.8 x 4.2 x 0.5 inches (about 160 pages).

Discoveries

Discoveries is a series of books from publisher Harry N. Abrams, Inc. These books measure 7 x 5 x 0.5 inches and also run about 160 pages. Unlike VSI, however, Discoveries contains many color photographs and other images. A book on Gandhi has other features, such as appendices with his speeches, writings, and commentaries by others.

I found separate kiosks for VSI and Discoveries at a Borders store in St. Louis. You may shop VSI and Discoveries at Amazon.com.

BüK is probably the most unusual series of the three. This series consists of pamphlets that measure 5 x 7 inches and run only about 16-32 pages – according to the web site, reading that can be done in the time it takes to drink a cup of coffee. You have to visit the web site to see the odd selection of titles. BüK even offers its pamphlets as hotel room amenities: imagine! Something other to read than the Gideons Bible!

I found a BüK kiosk at a Whole Paycheck, er, Whole Foods Market in St. Louis, but the kiosk would be ideal for point of purchase at a coffeehouse. And how’s this gift set for Valentine’s Day:

BüK Collector’s Kit I

It features a slipcase featuring six BüKs, a package of Hawaiian-grown and roasted coffee beans, and a bright red mug with the BüK logo.

Desert of the Heart

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As I was browsing my feeds, I discovered this item from the New York Times: Jane Rule, Canadian Novelist, Dies at 76. Who was Jane Rule, you might ask? Jane Rule was a pioneer of lesbian fiction. Her best known work, Desert of the Heart, was published in 1964, long before there was a visible gay rights movement. Desert of the Heart is about Vivian Bell, a professor who goes to Las Vegas for a quickie divorce and bonds with with a younger woman who works in a casino. The book is really about human relationships, so it’s accessible to all except those who consider same-sex relationships a sin or morally reprehensible.

The novel was made into a movie Desert Hearts over 20 years later. The movie starred Helen Shaver as Vivian, Patricia Charbonneau as Vivian’s young lover, and Audra Lindley, as the owner of the ranch where Vivian stays – the last best known for playing Mrs. Roper on Three’s Company! Likewise, the movie is about human relationships, but it also features an explicit lesbian scene. Madonna was so smitten with Alex McArthur, who played Walter, that she cast him as her boyfriend in her Papa Don’t Preach video.

I saw the movie, then read the book. Both are worthwhile. Jane Rule’s obit made me recall both.